‘Be damned to you and your “rest home”. I know what that means.’
‘It’s all right,’ Olympia soothed. ‘The company will pay the bills.’
With a tremendous effort he pulled himself together. The next words came out sounding strange to his own ears, harsh and dead, like a robot. But they made a sort of sense.
‘I’m going home with my wife. She’ll be here in a moment.’
The two men looked at Olympia, who gave an awkward laugh.
‘Darling, you don’t have a wife. You’re divorced.’ An ominous concern shaded her voice. ‘Surely you remember? Of course I know you’ve been a bit forgetful recently-’
‘I haven’t forgotten the important things,’ he said, still in the same harsh voice. ‘Divorce or no divorce, Kelly is still my wife, and she always will be.’
‘Jake, really-’
‘And if you want proof of that, she’s having my baby.’
The paramedics looked at him, then at Olympia. Jake was alive to the nuances but he was beyond caring. Every fibre of his being was concentrated on seeming normal until Kelly arrived. He could feel his control slipping, but if he could just hang on a little longer…she could handle everything…she was strong…she had always been strong…
‘Excuse me,’ came a voice from the doorway. The paramedics had left it open and Kelly was standing there, smiling and apparently at ease.
‘Jake, dear,’ she said, coming forward to him, ‘I got here as soon as I could. Are you ready to come home now?’
‘Yes,’ he said hoarsely.
‘Excuse me, miss-ma’am-’ it was one of the paramedics ‘-can you confirm that you’re his wife?’
Eyes wide with apparent naivety, Kelly declared, ‘Of course I am. But you already knew that. He told you.’
So she’d heard, Jake thought. Everything was reaching him from a distance, but he registered that Kelly was totally in control.
The other paramedic was a puritanical young man. Eyeing Kelly’s very obvious pregnancy with outrage he said stiffly, ‘I’m sorry to tell you, ma’am, but we found your husband with this-lady.’
Her disconcerting response was a ripple of laughter. ‘Haven’t you given up yet, Olympia? I suppose you thought your best chance was to pounce now, while I’m pregnant. It doesn’t seem to have worked, does it? Never mind, better luck next time.’
‘You mean you don’t mind?’ the young man asked, gaping.
‘Mind about her? What for? She’s no threat to my marriage. Sorry, Olympia, but the truth is the truth, even when it hurts.’
‘I think you’d better leave,’ Olympia said through clenched teeth.
‘Glad to,’ Kelly said promptly, slipping her hand through Jake’s arm. ‘I’m sorry you two gentlemen were called out for no reason. Ready, darling?’
‘One moment before you go,’ Olympia said acidly, vanishing into the bedroom. She returned a moment later and held out her hand, bearing Jake’s cufflinks. ‘Don’t forget these.’
‘Thank you,’ Kelly said, taking them. She met her gaze. ‘Poor Olympia,’ she said softly.
The murderous look in the other woman’s eyes provided one of the great moments of her life.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
AFTERWARDS Jake had very little memory of leaving Olympia’s apartment, or of getting home. The ride down in the lift blended into the cab Kelly had left waiting outside the building, getting into the back, taking refuge in Kelly’s arms. She held him close, rocking him gently, murmuring words of comfort to ease an agony that she didn’t understand. When they reached the flat she thrust money at the driver, still holding Jake’s hand in her own, and drew him quickly into the building. When they were safely home she enfolded him again in a passion of protectiveness.
‘You’re shivering,’ she said.
‘I can’t stop,’ he said through chattering teeth.
‘I’ll put the heating on.’
‘No, it’s not that kind of shivering.’
‘Jake, can you tell me what happened?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said hoarsely. ‘I don’t know. Suddenly everything was dark and there was nothing in the world but fear and despair. But then I remembered there was you, and I knew if I reached you I’d be safe. Hold me.
‘Yes, darling, yes-’ The word slipped out without her knowing. ‘I’m here. Hold onto me.’
She too was in a kind of shock, stunned by the suddenness with which the world had turned on its head. She’d sent him off to Olympia, telling herself that she was doing the best thing for both of them. In her mind she’d followed every step of his evening: the romantic candlelit dinner, the journey back to Olympia’s apartment, the soft music as they undressed and went to bed.
She’d tried to shut her thoughts off at this stage but it had been impossible. She knew Jake’s body as nobody else would ever know it. She knew how he made love, the little caresses that excited him. She’d known him both as a tender, considerate lover, and a fiercely thrilling one. Which would he be with Olympia?
And then, when her torment was at its height, he’d called her, imploring her help.
Now she sat beside him on the sofa, feeling his trembling abate, wondering what terrors had invaded him, and why suddenly at this moment? She didn’t press him to talk; he wasn’t ready. It was enough that he was in her arms, needing her as never before.
He had said she was his wife, as though their marriage was an unbroken continuum. And he had claimed her child as his, as though in his heart he had always guessed. But he had not said these things to her, only to others, and perhaps they’d been only the desperate words of a desperate man. She would know nothing until he repeated them to her.
She, in her turn, had called him her darling, and she knew that it had always been true. Her love had never died. She’d merely buried it, hoping to forget how to find it again. Now she knew that had been a vain hope. While Jake retained even a shadow of his old cocky self she could fence with him, bicker with him, defend herself from him. But his vulnerability broke her heart. As long as he needed her, she was his.
‘You’re cold,’ she said at last. ‘You should be in bed.’
He seemed unable to move, as though he was drained of will, but he let her urge him to his feet and into the bedroom. She was shocked at the sight of him. His face had the muddy pallor of an old man’s and there were black smudges beneath his eyes.
‘Stay with me,’ he whispered. ‘I don’t want to be alone.
‘Of course I will, my dear. I’ll do whatever you want. Just let me get my things.’
She slipped away. She was gone just a couple of minutes, but when she returned, dressed for bed, Jake was standing at his door, watching for her with something in his eyes that it hurt her to see.
‘I’m coming,’ she said quickly, taking his hand.
As they lay together in bed he told her about the evening, keeping back nothing.
‘I was going to take her to bed,’ he said bluntly, ‘but I couldn’t. There was nothing there for her. Nothing. Just like last time.’
‘Last time?’
‘In Paris. I always told you the truth about that. I backed off at the last minute. You seemed to be there, and you wouldn’t let me do anything that would destroy our love. So I made excuses and got drunk. And then the joke was that you wouldn’t believe me. But it was true all the time.’
‘I believe you now,’ she whispered. ‘I wish I’d believed you then, but I didn’t know you in those days as I do now.’
He fell silent and she just held him, knowing that he must take his own time. Inwardly she was weeping for him.
‘It was like sliding down into the pit of hell,’ he said at last. ‘As though my mind has been holding all the bad
