‘Yeah, right,’ he agreed without enthusiasm.
‘Oh Jake,’ she sighed, ‘what am I going to do?’
‘Whatever you want. It’s your call.’
She gave a snort of indignation. ‘Oh,
‘No change there, then,’ he said, echoing her.
‘But it doesn’t work any more. Besides, you saw my spare room. It isn’t even furnished.’
‘I’ve thought of that.’ He reached into his bedside cabinet and pulled out a slip of paper, which he put into her hand. ‘This should cover furniture and paying workmen to install everything for you. You mustn’t try to do any of it yourself.’
The amount of the cheque shocked her. ‘But this is far more than it’ll take to-’
‘Put it to the first month’s rent, then.’ He made a sudden grimace, as if in pain. ‘Let me do something for you, Kelly. Let me give as well as take.’ When she was still silent he said huskily, ‘Please.’
It wasn’t Jake’s way to say please. Whatever he wanted he charmed people into offering. She told herself it was a trick to fool her. But, looking into his eyes, she saw an anxiety that she’d never seen before, and heard again Dr Ainsley saying, ‘For such a popular man, he’s very much alone.’
‘All right,’ she said slowly. ‘Just until you get back on your feet.’
‘You mean, get back on my feet without falling straight off them?’ he quipped.
‘Until you’re better, you can be my lodger.’
‘No, I’ll be your brother. Now, let’s be practical. Have you given in your notice at that cafe?’
‘No, but-’
He lifted the phone. ‘Do it now.’
It took precisely five minutes to free her from the cafe, partly because the boss was glad to be rid of her. She was a good employee, but his niece needed a job. He let this fact slip, making Kelly wonder just how long she would have been employed there anyway. It was almost enough to make a person believe in fate.
But she couldn’t see Jake as fate. Jake was Henry VIII.
On second thoughts, forget Henry VIII. He was the devil. But the devil with charm.
CHAPTER SIX
IT WAS another week before Jake had recovered from his escape sufficiently to be allowed out of the hospital. In that time Kelly had his room furnished and redecorated by experts. It made quite a hole in the cheque, but still left her enough to ease her money concerns. When she tried to thank him he changed the subject.
‘All right, let’s be practical,’ she said. ‘You’ll need some more clothes. If you’ll give me your key I’ll collect some for you.’
‘Thanks, but there’s no need,’ he said quickly.
‘I don’t mind.’ After their separation they had both vacated their old home, and secretly she was curious to see Jake’s new apartment. ‘Give me the key.’
‘You don’t have to bother,’ he said stiffly. ‘I’ve arranged all that.’
She suddenly felt very foolish. Of course Olympia would have done it for him. She probably had the key anyway. How could she have forgotten the real situation?
She made an excuse to leave, and bid him a bright, edgy goodbye.
The evening before he was due she concentrated hard on the chapter of a book she’d been set to read, knowing that her time would be much taken up next day. When her doorbell rang she didn’t hear it the first time. At last she answered it and found Olympia standing outside. As always she looked glorious, her mane of blonde hair tousled to perfection. Her gracious smile widened when she saw Kelly, and she enveloped her in a scented embrace that almost made her gag.
‘Kelly,
‘Not at all,’ Kelly lied.
‘I was so glad to hear that you’d been helping Jake. It’s so wonderful the way all his old friends have remembered him. I suppose we should call you an old friend now, shouldn’t we?’
‘Not as old as some,’ Kelly observed with a touch of pardonable malice. Olympia had a good five years over her.
She would have liked to throw this smiling woman out, but somehow Olympia was inside the apartment, looking it over as though she owned it, and throwing open the door to the room that was to be Jake’s.
‘Very nice,’ she said in a neutral voice. ‘Although I must say I’m a little surprised-well, no matter.’
‘You mean you’re surprised that Jake wanted to stay with me?’ Kelly asked coolly.
‘If you like to put it that way. I don’t think anything about the present position is exactly what Jake would have chosen, but let’s not split hairs. We know how he hates to hurt people’s feelings.’
‘He does if he thinks about it,’ Kelly observed with gentle irony. ‘Jake’s kind-hearted and he means well, but mostly people’s feelings are things he stubs his toe on, and says sorry without really understanding what the fuss was about. You’ll find that out eventually.’
Olympia gave a tolerant smile. ‘Perhaps he’s like that with some people, but I-well, you don’t want to hear about that.’
‘No, I don’t,’ Kelly retorted with spirit. ‘Because if you’re saying what I think you are, I wouldn’t believe it. You have to take him as he is. He doesn’t change.’
Olympia gave the hint of a simper. ‘But a man does change-when he’s in love.’
‘Oh, cut it out, Olympia,’ Kelly said, exasperated. ‘You’re not playing to camera now.’ She spoke sharply to cover the little pain this glamorous woman’s words gave her.
Olympia descended from her pedestal. ‘Then, in plain words, it’s no use clinging to the past. I’m sorry, Kelly, dear. But the truth is the truth, even when it hurts.’
‘You seem to forget that
‘But of course. Nothing else would have been dignified after he’d shown so clearly that he loved someone else.’
‘Which you denied.’
‘Certainly I denied it. Neither Jake nor I wanted my name bandied about. But the truth is the truth, whatever clever fictions he invented to protect me. Let him go, Kelly. We both know your marriage ended because he wanted to move on.’
Kelly drew a sharp breath. Out of the turmoil of bitter emotion only one thought was clear. Thank goodness she hadn’t told Jake her baby was his.
‘You won’t mind if I come to see him?’ Olympia continued sweetly. ‘Or, once you’ve got him here-’ her voice became teasingly theatrical ‘-are you going to bar the door and patrol the perimeter fence with dogs?’
‘The only dog in the building is my neighbour’s poodle, and he’s fifteen and spends most of his time asleep,’ Kelly said, refusing to be provoked. ‘Come any time you like, stay as long as you like, just try not to disturb me when I’m working.’
‘Ah, yes, you’ve gone back to school,’ Olympia said, wisely not rising to the bait.
‘College,’ Kelly said. ‘I’m taking a degree.’
‘Jake told me all about it. There are so many varied courses on offer these days, aren’t there? You can even get a degree in soap operas, I believe.’
‘I wouldn’t know. I’m studying archaeology, and just now I’m reading a particularly interesting book on ancient burial practices. There was this king who used to dispose of his surplus concubines by drugging their wine. They passed out, and when they awoke they were swathed in burial bandages and lying in a sarcophagus in a chamber deep underground. Apparently their cries used to echo for a week before they finally died into silence. I think it was a very ingenious way of getting rid of people. Can I offer you a glass of wine?’
Olympia declined, made her excuses and left.
