‘Oh well, I’ve got work to do,’ said Felicity. ‘Can’t stand here gossiping.’ She went back to her desk. Robert was right – it made no difference to her who was head of chambers, though she thought Leo should be, if anyone. Not that bastard Maurice Faber. He seemed to find something new to complain about every day, whether it was getting his post late because he was in the annexe, or that the lighting in his room was making a funny buzzing.
She sat down. Peter sauntered over. ‘You and Henry had a nice long lunch, I notice.’
‘Yeah, well, he’s a real friend, is Henry. He actually cares about my problems. Not like you.’
‘Fliss, the one problem you have at the moment is your brother. The biggest favour you could do him would be to kick him out.’
‘You really don’t get it, do you? How’s that going to help Sandy? What’s he going to do on the streets? It’s just back to square one.’
Peter shrugged. ‘People have to take responsibility for themselves. You’re letting him mess up your life, your relationships.’
‘You mean, he’s cramping your style.’
‘You could put it like that, yes. I like to think I come first with you, and that’s not the way it feels right now. To be honest, Fliss, I don’t really think there’s much of a future for you and me until you can sort this out.’
‘Don’t try your emotional blackmail on me,’ said Felicity. But panic rose in her. He didn’t mean that, did he? It wasn’t fair, it just wasn’t fair. ‘At least Henry’s a bit more sympathetic.’
‘Really? And what wonderful practical suggestions did he come up with?’ Felicity didn’t like to admit Henry had been unable to think of a solution. She said nothing. ‘I thought not. You’ve only got one option, Fliss. I mean it.’ He walked off, leaving Felicity to reflect miserably on her dilemma.
At the end of the afternoon, Adriana spoke to Leo. ‘So, are you free this evening?’ She smiled. ‘We have a lot to talk about. At least, I hope we do.’
Leo nodded, conscious that Rachel, standing some distance away, was paying close attention. ‘I’ll come to your hotel around nine.’
She reflected for a moment. ‘No, don’t do that. This time, I shall come to you. I’ve never seen where you live. I would like to.’
Leo hesitated. Was there much evidence of Camilla’s presence in the flat? Well, it didn’t matter. Not now. ‘Fine. I’ll make us dinner.’ A farewell supper, though she didn’t know it.
‘You cook as well? You really are a man of parts. Give me your address, and I’ll come over in a few hours.’
When Adriana had left the courtroom, Rachel came across, as he had known she would. He gave an inward sigh.
‘You’re going to miss her when this case is over,’ said Rachel. ‘Then again,’ she added coolly, ‘perhaps she’ll find other work for you to do.’
‘I doubt it,’ replied Leo. ‘I don’t expect to be seeing much of Miss Papaposilakis after this week.’
‘Her behaviour a few moments ago doesn’t exactly suggest that.’
‘Kind of you to take an interest in my private life,’ said Leo, heading for the courtroom door. ‘How’s yours? Charles been put in the picture yet about you and Anthony?’
‘Don’t be catty, Leo. It doesn’t become you.’ They walked up the empty corridor in silence, then Rachel gave a sigh. ‘As a matter of fact, he does know. I had to say something when he came back at the weekend.’
‘Spare me the details. I’m only interested insofar as it concerns Oliver.’
Rachel stopped, and turned to regard Leo. ‘That doesn’t explain why you’re so angry. Because you are – you really are. The truth is, you hate the fact that I’m seeing Anthony. You want to be able to regard him as your property. You’ve been that way about him since he first came to Caper Court. You’d have seduced him years ago, if you could. I’ve been married to you, remember, and I know. People come and go in your life. Me, Adriana – Camilla, eventually, poor girl. But it’s Anthony you want. You resent my intimacy with him, because it’s one thing you’ll never have.’
Leo smiled. ‘Is that what you think? I’m afraid you’re somewhat behind the times. I’d have a word with Anthony, if I were you. Best to be under no illusions. No, if I appear
to have misgivings about all this, it’s purely out of concern for Anthony, believe me.’ Leo crossed the corridor and went into the robing room.
He closed the door behind him and put his papers on the table, leaning against it for a long moment. Perhaps he shouldn’t have done that. There was no need for her ever to know about himself and Anthony. It had been vindictive. He straightened up and took off his wig and gown. But she had touched on a truth which he had hardly dared to acknowledge. She had spoken as much out of malice as he had, smug in her possession of Anthony. He pulled off his bands and flung them on the table. What a bloody game this all was. Yes, she was right. He wanted to be the most important person in Anthony’s life, the one he was closest to. How realistic was that, given the way he’d behaved towards him? Still, it was the truth, and he detested the fact that Rachel knew it. A few years ago, he might have gone to some lengths to destroy this relationship, if he could. Now … Now he no longer had the emotional energy. He sighed, picked up his tie and slipped it under his collar. If only dear Adriana wasn’t such a greedy, wily little girl. How differently things might have turned out. He paused before the long mirror, remembering the room in Marbella, the white gauze of the curtains lifting in the breeze from the sea below the cliffs. How sweet life could have been.
Adriana arrived at Leo’s flat a little after nine. She was wearing a thin silk dress, cut tight across her breasts, with a significant number of very beautiful diamonds at her
throat and her ears. As Leo bent to kiss her, every part of her seemed to exude her special fragrance. It was one of the things he was going to miss most about her.
‘You look extremely opulent, even by Belgravia’s standards,’ said Leo.
Adriana touched the diamonds at her neck. ‘You like these? They were my mother’s. I had them reset.’
Leo showed her into the drawing room. He had decided they should eat dinner in here, rather than in the somewhat formal and large space of the dining room. A table in the corner of the room was laid for two, with candles burning, and an arrangement of freesias in the centre.
She strolled to the table, smiling. ‘How charming this all looks. I believe you are going to be quite a domestic asset, darling Leo.’ She bent to inhale the scent of the freesias. ‘These flowers smell heavenly.’
‘Not as heavenly as you.’ Leo took her in his arms and kissed her hair and her face. She was so happy in her presumption; he was very glad he wasn’t going to have to bring her face to face with reality. Not tonight. ‘Let me give you a glass of champagne, and I’ll put the finishing touches to dinner.’
As they talked over the meal, Adriana touched lightly on the subject of their future together. Leo noted the delicacy with which she treated the subject, and realised, despite her earlier remark, that she was less sure of him than she pretended. He kept his response tentative. There was no point in destroying whatever illusions she had. Besides, it might preclude the possibility of sex later, if he were to
indicate that he had no intention of becoming part of her entourage. And he did so want to say goodbye properly.
‘I am so used to planning ahead, to knowing how things will unfold, that it’s a little strange to find everything—’ her small fingers plucked at the air as she sought the word
‘—suspended. Waiting for you. Waiting to know what will happen with us.’ She gazed at him with searching dark eyes.
‘That remains to be discovered,’ replied Leo. ‘Let’s get to the end of this hearing before we start worrying about the future.’
She decided to push him no further for the moment. ‘I suppose it will be finished by the end of the week?’
‘Mmm. I imagine another day or two will do it.’
‘I just want it to be over.’ She sighed. ‘Poor Captain Kollias. His death was a terrible shock. He was a very good friend to me, and such a good master. I sent some money to his family, of course.’ She put a small, soft hand over Leo’s. ‘Thank you for being so supportive over these months. It has been so important to know you’ve always had belief in me. Belief in my case.’
Leo gazed at her with frank admiration. He longed to know whether it afforded her secret amusement to think she had entirely deluded him, and everyone else, or whether, as happened with so many liars, she had actually convinced herself she was telling the truth. It could hardly be the latter – could it? He would never know. Nor would he ever discover, to his entire satisfaction, why she had perpetrated such a petty and thoroughly unnecessary criminal act, one which had
brought about a boy’s death. Though he partly understood. She had done it for the simple reason that she could.
‘I have always had an unshakeable belief in justice,’ replied Leo with a smile.
Adriana, resting her chin on her hand, returned his smile. ‘I’m looking forward to showing you the
Persephone’s
successor. I like to think we shall enjoy many happy hours there together.’
‘I can think of few things I would enjoy more,’ replied Leo. And he meant it. He raised her hand to his lips. ‘One of them, however, possesses more immediate attractions.’ He stood up, still holding her hand.
She went with him to the bedroom. She sat on the edge of the bed and slipped off her shoes, gazing at him with wide and expectant eyes. Leo had come to find her expression of undisguised longing somewhat touching. He pushed her gently back upon the bed and lay next to her, and began to kiss and undress her with practiced and tantalising deliberation. When she was utterly aroused, entirely his for the taking, he drew back and gazed at her for a long and wistful moment. She lay in his arms, soft with desire, no longer worldly and sophisticated, merely a passionate and vulnerable woman, and he felt a surge of genuine affection and regret. Still, no point in all that. He ran his hand gently down across her stomach, and she gave a little whimper and arched herself against him. If this was to be the last time he made love to her, he might as well make it a memorable occasion.
Camilla got off the Heathrow Express at Paddington, feeling light-headed with weariness. She wheeled her case to the taxi rank, where the queue was mercifully short. At last she got into a cab, gave the Belgravia address to the driver, and sank back against the seat. Throughout the train journey she’d been hoping that Leo would be in. Now it occurred to her that if he was out, it would give her an hour or two to have a bath and wash her hair, to be entirely and beautifully ready for him when he returned. If she could stay awake that long. She yawned and gazed out at the streets and the traffic, and let her mind go blank.
Fifteen minutes later the cab drew up outside Leo’s flat. Camilla got out, paid the driver, and went up the steps. With the key Leo had given her a few months ago, she unlocked the front door and crossed the carpeted hallway to the lift. She took the lift up to the third floor, got out, trundling her case, and unlocked the door of the flat. The light in the hallway was on, but that didn’t necessarily mean Leo was in. He often left lights on when he went out. She could hear no sounds, no television or music. She closed the door, set her case down, and slipped off her jacket and hung it up.
‘Leo?’ She walked down the hallway towards the lights of the drawing room.
Leo, at a truly precipitous moment in his lovemaking, heard the sound of his name, and froze. In the space of several drawn out seconds, he realised exactly whose voice it was and what was about to happen. Even if there had been some evasive course of action available to him, he could not have taken it. He turned his gaze to the door
and waited, with painful fascination, for what seemed like a strangely long time.
‘Leo?’ Having scanned the empty drawing room from the doorway, barely taking in the table for two in the corner, Camilla walked the few yards to Leo’s study, which was in darkness, and passed on to the bedroom. A low light shone from within, and the door was slightly ajar. Camilla wondered later if she’d had some sixth sense as she pushed it open, but came to the eventual conclusion that until that moment, she remained entirely trusting and unsuspicious. Never would she be so again, not where any man was concerned. The blonde woman lying on the bed next to Leo was entirely naked, except for the diamonds shimmering at her neck. Those, together with her candid sexual languor – for she seemed in too intense a state of arousal immediately to appreciate the situation – gave her the appearance of some extravagant courtesan. Camilla met Leo’s appalled gaze. As he rose from the bed, the blonde woman seemed to regain her focus. She too stared at Camilla, who after standing transfixed for a moment, turned blindly back into the hallway.
Leo had her by the wrist. ‘Camilla—’
She shook herself free and he grabbed her again. ‘Get your bloody hands off me!’ Tearfully she fought against his grip.
Leo, who would have dearly liked to be able to pull on his boxer shorts and conduct this scene with some semblance of dignity, tried wildly to think of something to say to redeem the situation, knowing it was beyond hope.
Camilla shook him off again. ‘Get – off – me! Bastard!’
‘I am so sorry,’ Leo said in tones of desperation. He couldn’t stay naked in the hallway. ‘Wait a minute, please …’ He went quickly back to the bedroom, glanced at Adriana, who was lying against the pillows with her hand over her mouth, and picked up his boxers. He hopped about for a difficult moment, trying to get them on, and by the time he was back in the hallway, Camilla had grabbed her jacket and opened the front door.
‘No, look – hold on. Please.’ He didn’t think he’d ever spoken with such futility in his life. What in God’s name was he meant to say next? This isn’t the way it looks? I can explain everything?
Camilla picked up her case and turned to him with a savage, tearful gaze.
‘You are the most – despicable – man – I have ever – met!’ The words came out jerkily, caught between sobbing breaths.
‘I know,’ said Leo. ‘But—’
She yanked her suitcase over the threshold. He watched as she stumbled towards the lift and stabbed at the button. The lift doors opened, and she got in, bumping and jamming her case against the doors, swearing pitifully.