Authors: Sara Craven
the impression this was what this trip was all about—to get things
settled once and for all.'
'Oh, did you?' His smile became satirical. 'Well, you can hardly
blame me for your misconceptions, can you,
cariad?
But I'm not
going to be rushed into any snap decisions, not even to oblige' you.
I don't consider I have any obligations where you're concerned
anyway. I'll give your proposition due consideration—in my own
time.'
Davina compressed her lips in ill-concealed irritation. 'Which
proposition?' she challenged him. 'The American trip—or the other
thing?'
'What a well-turned phrase to describe the demise of our
relationship,' he said mockingly. 'Either, lovely, and I don't think it
will do you any harm to be kept guessing as to which one it
happens to be.'
'I have not come here in order to play childish games,' she said
tightly. 'Last night, you seemed to be in favour of the divorce—and
you've had a chance to sleep on it. I don't see what ...'
'The only thing I slept on last night was the sofa.' The green eyes
were like ice as he shot a glance at her. 'It seemed just like old
times—you in my bed, alone, and myself kept firmly at an
uncomfortable distance.'
'Not always,' she said involuntarily, stung, and could have bitten her
tongue out. She felt the mortified colour rise in her cheeks and
gazed down at her clasped hands in her lap.
The silence seemed endless. Eventually he said very levelly, 'Very
true. I was forgetting. It's good that I'm not a conceited man or I
might fall into the trap of reading some significance into the fact
that you remembered. So it really happened, did it, that night before
I left for the States? I've often thought since that I dreamed it.'
'More like a nightmare,' she flashed, too shaken to consider her
words.
Another silence. Then he said evenly, 'One more crack like
that—just one, sweet wife, and I'll put you out of this car and let
you walk—to the devil, if you want.' He paused, as if waiting for
her to say something, and when she remained silent, he went on,
'You don't have to tell me that you hated yourself in the morning,
Davina. That was one reason why I didn't wake you to say
goodbye. I didn't want to take your recriminations on the plane with
me—like so much excess baggage. Just for one night in your neat,
tidy little life, you came down off your virginal pedestal and
behaved like a real woman, and I knew you'd never forgive either of
us for that. I hoped, of course. I even think I might have prayed at
one point, but I knew all along how it would turn out.' He gave a
sardonic laugh. 'I actually rang you from the airport before I left, but
there was no answer. Where had you gone? Haring round to
Mummy to show her the bruises?'
Her hands clenched together until she thought the knuckles would
crack. 'Yes,' she said at last, 'I did—go round to my mother's house.'
To pack, she thought. To pack a lightweight suitcase with the sort
of clothes that would see her through early fall in the States before
she raced to the airport to seize the first cancellation, if not on his
plane then on the one that followed it. Only when she had arrived at
Creswell Mews, it was to find the doctor's car outside and the
tearful housekeeper vainly trying to telephone her to tell her that her
mother was asking for her. And all her lovely, shining plans had
fallen in fragments about her feet because she knew that she had to
stay, and as the days passed without a phone call or a letter from
him, she began to tell herself that her mother's illness had been
providential because it had. stopped her sacrificing her pride for
nothing. She had been trying to convince herself about this still
when she had fallen downstairs. And after that she had needed
convincing no longer.
The only way she could stop this tide of hurt and remembered pain
was by anger. She clutched at it gratefully.
'What did you expect me to do?' she demanded. 'Sit alone like
faithful Penelope until you deigned to return?'
'Hardly.' Gethyn pulled out to overtake a small truck, his lips tautly
compressed. 'From what I remember, the faithful Penelope actually
wanted her husband back.'
She began to tremble violently. 'Probably because she had
something more than—brutality to look forward to.'
Gethyn gave a harsh laugh. 'Brutality?
Duw,
girl, you don't even
know the meaning of the word! Just be thankful that I have an
appointment in Dolgellau this morning or I might be tempted to stop
this car and give you a practical demonstration of what it really
means.'
She believed him. Her anger had lit the spark of his own and in this
mood he would be capable of anything, she thought fearfully. And
rejected with self-loathing the flicker of excitement that lurked
there, suddenly, under the fear.
'I'm sorry,' she said in a subdued tone. 'I shouldn't have said what I
did. It just proves that there's no point in trying to discuss things
calmly. I—I was a fool to think there ever could be. I should have
obeyed my own instincts and kept away.'
He shrugged, his face cynical. 'I didn't think you would have come
of your own accord. Who persuaded you? Your uncle, or that smart
solicitor you put on my track?'
'Oh.' She sent him a kindling look. 'So you did receive those letters?'
'Indeed I did. They went on the back of the fire,' he said coolly. 'His
instinct seems to have been surer than yours, Davina. When I
deal—if I deal, it won't be through a third party.'
Her heart gave a sudden painful thump. 'If?' she repeated
bewilderedly. 'But last night you said you were planning to
remarry.'
'So I am. But my—future wife is still rather young, so I'm not going
to repeat past mistakes by rushing into marriage before she's ready,'
he said dryly.
She would have liked to have raked her nails down that dark
enigmatic face until she drew blood, but she controlled herself.
'Very wise, I'm sure,' she returned with deliberate insouciance. 'But
are you sure she'll be willing to wait the further three years it will
take for me to divorce you without your consent?'
He shrugged. 'That,
cariad,
is in the lap of the gods. It's a risk I'm
prepared to take, so I advise you not to count any chickens for a
while. As soon as I've reached a decision one way or the other, I
promise you'll be the first to know. But for now, you'll just have to
be patient—that is if you want the right answer.'
'Thank you,' she said between her teeth. 'Has it occurred to you that
I might not have come equipped for a prolonged stay in this
godforsaken place?'
His lip curled. 'You can hardly expect me in the circumstances to be
acquainted with the intimate details of your wardrobe,' he drawled.
'However, it isn't an insurmountable problem. Godforsaken we may
be, although I think our minister at Llanmoel would argue the point
with you, but we haven't been totally deserted by retailers selling
clothes. Naturally, they won't be the sort of thing you're used to, but
none of your friends are likely to see you, and you can always send
them to Oxfam before you go back to London.'
'Thank you again,' she said, quivering with temper. 'But I didn't
come here expecting to have to go on a shopping spree either.'
He raised his eyebrows. 'Short of cash? That's no problem either.
I'm far from penniless and I do still have the legal right to buy your
clothes.'
'I'll see you in hell first!' she burst out passionately.
He smiled. 'Don't panic, Davina,' he advised with infuriating
coolness. 'Just because I'm prepared to buy you a few clothes it
doesn't necessarily mean that I intend to exercise any other
rights—such as removing them at a later stage.' He pointed ahead
down the road. 'We're nearly there, by the way. That great bank of
cloud over there is Cader Idris. You can walk up there from the
town, though I don't recommend it today.'
In a shaking voice she told him what he and the rest of the Welsh
nation could do with Cader Idris. He tutted reprovingly.
'I hope you never use language like that in front of Mummy,' he
observed. 'Shall I teach you to swear in Welsh while you're here?'
She didn't reply, but sat staring rigidly through the windscreen while
he guided the car skilfully through the narrow, teeming streets. The
traffic itself was heavy and there was the additional hazard of
groups of people wandering along the pavements, stepping off into
the road without looking when they found their way blocked.
Gethyn seemed to accept the conditions without comment, so she
guessed they must be typical.
He parked the car near to Eldon Square where the main shops were
situated and gave her a sardonic look as he prepared to get out.
'I advise you to go to Griselda's for your clothes. She's an old
friend, so you can quite safely tell her to send the bills to me. She
can advise you where to go for shoes as well.'
'Thank you.' Davina gave a quick tight smile. 'Have you any other
good advice for me before we part?'
'I have, but I doubt whether you'd take it,' he returned. He looked
her over for a moment in unsmiling silence and then before she
could move his hand had reached out and whipped away the ribbon
that was confining her hair in one swift hard gesture.
'Oh—you -!' She put up a restraining hand as the wind took the hair
which was now tumbling around her shoulders.
'That's more like it,' he said calmly. 'Or more like the picture of you
that I used to carry in my mind—a long time ago. It's a crime to tie
back hair like yours—like defacing some national treasure.'
'Very flattering,' she said curtly. 'But I don't propose to walk round
looking a windblown mess merely to indulge one of your private
fantasies. May I have my ribbon, please?'
'No,' he said pleasantly, 'you may not. And be thankful that I keep
my fantasies private. The last time I saw your hair loose like that, it
was lying across my pillow—and that was for real. So I should
guard your tongue,
cariad
, or you might just provoke me
to—realise my fantasies once again one night.'
He thrust the ribbon into his pocket, then turned on his heel and
walked away, leaving her alone by the car with paling cheeks and
parted lips as the full implication in his words came relentlessly
home to her.
Davina sat gazing at herself bleakly in the mirror. Now that it was
too late, she fully realised the recklessness of the impulse which
had prompted her action, but there could be no going back, she told
herself ruefully, her glance going involuntarily to the floor beside
her chair where the remains of her long hair was being swept up by
a junior assistant.
But she could not complain that the new short style was
unbecoming. The cutting had been skilful, and the feathery tendrils
which had been coaxed across her forehead and cheeks seemed to
accentuate the size of her eyes and the delicacy of her cheekbones.
But there was no gainsaying that she suddenly looked younger, and
that was something she had not intended, she thought unhappily.
She had simply been determined to underline to Gethyn that any
lingering proprietorial interest he might have in her personal
appearance was totally misplaced. Now, it might seem just like a
rather childish act of defiance, and, what was worse, she was
already regretting the loss of her hair. She had acted on impulse,
and the fact that the hairdresser could fit her in at once because of a
cancellation had seemed at the time to confirm the Tightness of her
action. Now she wished she could have been given a breathing
space to think again.
She paid her bill, tipped the assistant who had attended to her with
a forced word of thanks and left the shop. She was glad to discover
that the rain had almost stopped, although a light misty drizzle
seemed still to hang in the air. She took a firmer grip of the parcels
she carried and set out along the pavement.
She had found Griselda's without any difficulty, and had
deliberately passed the shop by, although the cut and quality of the
few items temptingly displayed in the window had almost drawn