Charade of the Heart Read online

  ‘I really don’t know what you’re talking about.’

  ‘You mean you don’t want to know what I’m talking about. I—’

  She was cut off in mid-sentence as the telephone began to ring, and Beth picked up the receiver with gratitude.

  She didn’t want to argue with Jane, she didn’t want to be rude, but she knew that she would be if she remained a second more in the office.

  Right now, her nerves were near to breaking and an unprovoked argument would just be the final straw.

  ‘Good afternoon, Adrino corporation, how may I help you?’

  She had hoped that Jane would vanish but she remained where she was, tapping her fingers lightly on the desk and staring around her. Waiting to resume her attack, Beth thought wearily.

  There was a pause down the other end, then a man’s voice whispered huskily, ‘Darling.’

  ‘Hello?’ Beth asked, bewildered.

  ‘My darling, don’t you recognise me?’

  ‘I think you must have the wrong number,’ Beth said courteously.

  Jane was staring at her now, intrigued no doubt by the one-sided conversation she was hearing.

  ‘Laura, darling, it’s me.’

  At this Beth felt her body freeze. This was no wrong number. Whoever the caller was, he knew her sister, and the realisation of who it was struck her just as the man identified himself.

  ‘Laura, it’s me, David.’

  ‘Oh.’ Her voice had sunk to a whisper, and the colour had drained from her face.

  She needed to sit down. She looked across and saw Jane looking at her with undisguised interest now.

  Quite purposefully, she turned her back towards the girl, knowing that her action would probably only increase her curiosity, but determined that this conversation should not be overheard.

  ‘You,’ she said into the mouthpiece, ‘what do you want?’

  ‘Laura, darling…’

  ‘Don’t call me that,’ Beth said sharply.

  ‘Why?’ David demanded. ‘You still are. Despite everything. Look, we need to talk.’

  ‘No!’ There was definite panic in her voice now.

  ‘Yes!’ he spoke urgently. ‘We need to talk! I’m in England…’

  ‘Oh, God.’ Hysteria was grabbing her by the throat. She didn’t need this further complication in her life, not now. It was complicated enough already.

  ‘I want to see you, Laura. I need to. Tonight. I’ll come around to your place…’

  ‘No!’ She rested her forehead on the palm of her hand to stop it from trembling.

  ‘Please, Laura. I have a lot of explaining to do.’ Some of the urgency had left his voice now. He was pleading. She didn’t want him to plead with her. She wanted him to go away.

  But, she thought despairingly, it was not her place to send him away without a hearing. Laura would have to do that. Much as she hated it, she would have to agree to see him, and somehow get her sister down to London as quickly as she could.

  Out of the corner of her eye she could see Jane avidly listening to as much as she possibly could, and she groaned inwardly.

  There was a time when her life had been so simple, so uncomplicated. Now she felt as though she was walking a minefield.

  ‘All right,’ she agreed finally, ‘tonight. At eight o’clock.’

  Without giving him a chance to prolong the conversation, she hung up and swivelled around in the chair to see Jane smiling nastily at her.

  ‘Who was that?’ she asked casually, standing up.

  ‘A girlfriend,’ Beth lied coolly. ‘Now, if you don’t mind, I really would like to go to lunch. I’ll see that Marcos looks at the files as soon as he’s in.’

  ‘Sure.’ Jane smiled again, looking very much like a cat that had found some unexpected cream.

  Beth didn’t care any more. She just wanted to find some very dark, very private place, preferably on another planet, and leave all these problems behind her.

  She spent the remainder of the day attempting to plough through her work, but her concentration was weak. Several times she found herself staring vacantly at the computer, her mind absorbed in her own problems.

  Laura, as luck would have it, was uncontactable.

  ‘She’s gone to the doctor,’ one of her colleagues informed Beth in a voice that implied that she was the unfortunate one who had got lumbered with the extra workload.

  Beth knew what that meant. Trips to the doctor, as Laura had grumpily told her a few weeks ago, invariably meant a wait of anything between half an hour and two hours.

  And then, after that, there was no guarantee that her sister would immediately return to the flat.

  In fact, when she phoned at five-thirty, there was still no answer.

  Weren’t twins supposed to have some kind of uncanny telepathy? she wondered. If so, the invisible communication lines had definitely broken down in their case.

  At least Marcos had not been in. He had flown to Paris for a breakfast meeting, and without him around she had had the freedom to give full rein to her dreadful foreboding.

  She’d been a fool, she decided, as she travelled back to the flat that evening, for once oblivious to the chaotic crush of bodies against hers. She should have arranged to see him some other day, any other day. Jane, she thought miserably, hovering in the background, had not been conducive to rational thought at the time.

  Anyway, there was no point debating the issue now. She had no idea where David was staying, so she couldn’t cancel at the last minute.

  She had just enough time, when she got back to the flat, to half-heartedly eat a bowl of pasta and have a quick bath when there was a sharp ring on the doorbell.

  She jumped up from where she was sitting with a last, desperate wish that all this was some awful nightmare, and slowly opened the door.

  During all the conversations she had had with Laura, her sister had only sketchily described what David looked like.

  The man standing in front of her more or less fitted the description. Medium height, brown hair, blue eyes, and a face that looked as though it was on the point of smiling.

  A nice face. Nothing like what she had expected. Men with nice faces, she thought, shouldn’t behave like bastards. At least with Marcos you knew where you stood. One look at that cold, arrogant, sexy face left you in no doubt that he could be a bastard if crossed.

  Not so David. He was smiling now, extending a large bunch of flowers at her.

  ‘Thank you,’ Beth muttered uncomfortably, letting him into the flat with a sinking feeling of finality.

  He brushed past her and then turned around, his blue eyes crinkling at the corners.

  ‘You’ve had your hair cut,’ he said, and she got the impression that he was as temporarily lost for words as she was, though for completely different reasons.

  ‘I have a different hairstyle, yes,’ Beth answered carefully.

  She hoped that he would not do anything stupid, like try to kiss her, but, just in case, she walked away in search of a vase, dumping the flowers unceremoniously into it.

  When she returned, she saw that he had taken off his jacket, which was damp, and had slung it over one of the chairs.

  ‘You’re wet,’ she said bluntly.

  ‘It’s been raining. Hadn’t you noticed?’

  ‘No. It was fine when I left work earlier on.’

  There was an awkward silence and Beth looked away.

  ‘You don’t seem terribly pleased to see me,’ he said quietly, stepping towards her.

  Beth efficiently stepped backwards. ‘David, there’s something that I need to tell you,’ she blurted out in a rush, waiting for him to interrupt, but he didn’t. He waited patiently and she thought again what a nice face he had. The sort of face that had, she reminded herself, seduced her sister into thinking that it matched the rest of him.

  She took a deep breath, and began the tortuous explanation which she had always thought would have been directed at Marcos. The bizarreness of the whole situation
rang in her ears as she heard herself trying to rationalise it, and when she had finished she didn’t feel in the slightest cleansed by the confession. But then, she thought, she wasn’t confessing to a man who held her life in his hands.

  ‘But why?’ was his only response, bewilderment creasing his forehead.

  ‘That,’ Beth said, ‘has to come from Laura.’ She stood up and began restlessly pacing the room. ‘I’ll phone and see whether she’s in as yet, and get her to come down here as soon as she can.’

  There was, she was pleased and relieved to see, no outburst of fury. His astonishment had swiftly been followed by calm acceptance. He obviously knew that there was a hell of a lot of explaining to be done, but he was prepared to wait for it.

  She had no idea how she got through the next three hours. Laura, thank heaven, had been in at last, and had agreed to come down at once, her voice full of mingled anticipation and apprehension. Beth fixed David a light supper and stiltedly conversed with him from the opposite side of the room, unwilling to like him after what he had put Laura through, but finding it difficult to resist his easygoing good nature.

  All the time she kept one eye on the clock. When the doorbell finally went, she rushed to her feet, pulling open the door, a smile of relief on her face. The smile froze on her lips.

  Marcos was standing outside, still in his suit, although he had discarded the tie and undone the top button, and he wasn’t smiling.

  ‘Hello,’ Beth said uncertainly, not moving from her position by the door.

  ‘Surprised to see me?’ he asked tightly, and without waiting for an answer pushed her aside and strode into the room.

  Beth rushed behind him in dismay, standing still when she saw him stop in the middle of the room to stare at David.

  ‘Ryan,’ he said grimly.

  David stood up, his only sign of embarrassment the reddish flush on his face.

  ‘Marcos,’ he said, ‘I didn’t expect you…’

  ‘No, I’m sure you didn’t. I’m sure neither of you did.’

  He spun around to face Beth, his eyes narrowed with anger.

  ‘I can explain…’ Beth whispered miserably. But she couldn’t. Not yet.

  ‘Really,’ he said icily. ‘I’m sure you can think up something very interesting, but I’m not in the mood for fairy-tales right now.’

  David’s expression of bewilderment was growing by the minute.

  ‘Marcos…’ Beth began unsteadily, as he turned to leave.

  Before she could complete the sentence, she felt his iron grip on her arm and she raised her eyes to his, inwardly cringing at the frozen black depths.

  ‘You bitch,’ he bit out softly. ‘You bloody little bitch.’

  ‘You’re hurting me!’ She tried to wriggle free of his grip, but he tightened his hand on her arm and she winced in pain.

  ‘I could hurt you a whole lot more than this, the way I feel at the moment,’ he said through gritted teeth, ‘but you don’t even deserve my anger.’ With that he released her, and she staggered backwards.

  The front door slammed behind him and she shot David a panic-stricken look.

  ‘I’ll be back in a while,’ she whispered, grabbing her jacket and racing out of the flat before he could say a word. ‘Laura will be here soon,’ she threw over her shoulder.

  Marcos was walking quickly towards his car, and even from a distance Beth could feel the rage emanating from him like something tangible.

  She couldn’t allow him to leave like this, not without any word of explanation.

  She ran behind him, and he swung around to face her, the darkness of the night lending a frightening fury to his features.

  She had never seen him like this before. She had seen his cold anger on that first day, and she had seen contempt, but she had never witnessed this chilling anger.

  ‘Marcos,’ she pleaded, her hand instinctively reaching out to him.

  He thrust it aside, and stared down at her.

  ‘How could you?’ he asked, his face tight.

  ‘It’s not what you think,’ Beth said, her face red with the misery of being in an impossible situation.

  ‘No?’ he jeered. ‘You and he were just having a friendly chat, were you? Two ex-lovers discussing the weather and catching up on old news? Is that the line you’re going to feed me?’

  ‘Yes, as a matter of fact, we were just chatting, as it happens!’

  ‘How cosy.’

  ‘I had no idea that he was in England until today!’ Beth said in a high, desperate voice. ‘You have to believe me! He telephoned out of the blue and invited himself over!’

  ‘And of course the word “no” doesn’t exist in your vocabulary?’

  Tears were blurring her eyes, making it impossible for her to speak.

  ‘Lost for words, are you, darling?’

  ‘Why won’t you believe me? We haven’t slept together. This is all a huge mistake. Who told you that he was here, anyway?’

  ‘No, the only mistakes are the ones I’ve been blind enough to make.’ Now he sounded as furious with himself as he was with her. She knew what he must be thinking. That he had been made to look a fool. ‘And, if you must know, Jane told me what was going on.’

  ‘Jane, of course.’

  ‘I didn’t want to believe her, but I had to find out, and it’s just as well I came over, isn’t it? Found out for myself just what type of woman you were. Tell me, would you have…continued to entertain us both? Or would you just have satisfied Ryan while he was over here? For old times’ sake?’

  She slapped his face at that, hard, the ringing sound creating a dreadful silence.

  For a second, she thought that he was going to slap her back, but he didn’t. Hadn’t he said that she wasn’t worth his anger?

  His black eyes glittered.

  ‘You’re way off target!’ she whispered urgently. ‘You don’t understand.’

  ‘So where’s the explanation, sweetheart? Make me understand. Isn’t that why you rushed out here? To present me with some imaginative little story? Well, I’m listening: where is it?’

  Beth looked at him in silence. Behind her she heard a taxi pull up outside the flat, and knew instinctively that it was Laura.

  ‘You’ll have to see for yourself,’ she said. ‘Please, Marcos. Please come with me.’ Her voice broke, and, much as she hated it, she felt the tears streaming down her face, and she wiped them away with the back of her closed fist.

  He remained as rigid as a rock, and she held her breath, waiting for him to tell her to go to hell, but he finally said coolly, ‘Why not? Perhaps an amusing little story from you is just what I need. But it had better be amusing, sweetheart, or you’ll find out just what it means to cross me.’

  They walked back to the flat in silence and heard excited voices coming from within even before they had entered.

  Beth slowly opened the door, watching as Laura and David disengaged from each other’s arms, feeling Marcos’s breath warm on her neck behind her.

  ‘Here’s your explanation,’ she said with a sweeping gesture. Her eyes were still red from crying and she could hear her voice, laced with misery.

  Laura’s eyes widened as Marcos entered, but Beth hardly noticed. She was concentrating too intensely on Marcos’s reaction to notice much else.

  The shock registered on his face for what must only have been a matter of seconds, then it was replaced by cold inscrutability.

  ‘Meet my twin,’ Beth whispered. ‘Laura. Your ex- secretary. I’m Beth, her sister.’

  He caught on quickly, very quickly, but Beth was hardly surprised. His mental agility had amazed her in the past but she had slowly grown accustomed to it. He had a mind like a knife, able to cut through the unimportant to the heart of the problem.

  Now his brain clicked into gear, and threw up the correct conclusion with astonishing speed.

  He slowly turned to her, seeing her as though for the first time.

  ‘A game,’ he said with freezing stiffness, ‘
you two have been playing a little game at my expense. One pregnant sister decides to have her twin stand in so that she doesn’t lose her job, is that right? Am I heading in more or less the right direction?’

  Beth nodded mutely.

  ‘I didn’t want to—’ she began, but he cut her short.

  ‘Spare me your excuses,’ he said coldly. ‘Only a coward attempts to hide behind them.’

  ‘She means it, Marcos,’ Laura burst out. ‘She never wanted to do this at all. I persuaded her, I used everything, even emotional blackmail. If you want someone to blame, blame me!’

  One look from Marcos silenced her, then he returned his attention to Beth.

  ‘Enjoyed it, did you?’ he asked softly, with a twisted smile. ‘Enjoyed taking me for a ride? Did you see it as a perverse kind of challenge? How long you could carry on the charade?’

  ‘You’re so wrong,’ she murmured. Her misery had given way to a numbness, as though she had temporarily stepped outside her body, and was observing events from a distance. Even in her state she recognised the reaction as a king of self-defence mechanism.

  ‘A liar,’ he drawled, ‘a cheap little liar.’

  There was a hush. Laura and David had retired to some other part of the flat, obviously knowing that what was happening between Beth and Marcos was not for their ears.

  ‘I know what you must be thinking, and you’re right. I lied to you, but only about my identity.’

  She lifted her chin defiantly and he gave a short, cynical laugh.

  ‘Only. Lucky old me. Well, you had your fun, and now I think I can find better things to amuse me.’

  He turned to go and Beth caught hold of his arm, releasing it when he looked down at her hand distastefully.

  There was so much more to say, but she knew with despairing certainty that none of it would get said now. He had made his mind up and who could blame him? How could he know that she had fallen head over heels in love with him?

  ‘You don’t want to try and understand, do you?’ she asked. ‘It’s so much easier for you to believe the worst!’

  ‘The facts speak for themselves, darling.’

  ‘All right. I made a mistake. I should have told you, but I never found the opportunity.’