Authors: Yvonne Whittal
Everything went smoothly until Anton arrived home that
evening and altered the course of her plans, heading them towards an
inevitable disaster.
'I've invited Camilla to join us for dinner this evening,'
he announced as he passed Laura in the hall on his way upstairs to
shower and change. 'One extra wouldn't upset your arrangements too
much, would it?'
'Yes, yes, it
would
upset my
arrangements!' she felt like shouting at him, but instead she stood
there helplessly, feeling as though her world had suddenly collapsed
beneath her as she said stonily, 'No, of course it wouldn't.'
What else could she say without making him suspect how
vitally important this evening had been to her? She had never dreamed
that something like this could happen, and never,
never
would she have thought that Anton would invite that abominable woman to
his home. Was he actually such a fool as not to know that, having hurt
him once, she could hurt him again?
Laura closed her eyes and prayed silently for strength. He
had invited Camilla to dine with them, a woman he had once loved, and
probably still loved if he stopped long enough to take stock of his
feelings, and somehow Laura would have to bear it.
'That woman has come back here to make trouble, Miss
Laura,' Jemima prophesied when Laura went through to the kitchen to
inform her that there would be an extra guest. 'You mark my words,
she's here to make trouble. It's in the stars.'
'Don't say that, Jemima,' Laura reprimanded her anxiously.
'I'm never wrong, Miss Laura,' Jemima insisted. 'When I
saw you that very first time when you came here to Bellavista with
young Miss Sally's mother and father, God rest their souls, I told
Eddie you would one day be the mistress of Bellavista, and I was right.
Now I'm telling you —with respect, madam—that woman
is here to make trouble.
Big
trouble!'
Laura shivered as if a cold draught of wind had blown up
against her. 'I hope you're wrong, Jemima.'
'Stand firm, Miss Laura,' the Coloured woman advised
strongly. 'Don't let that woman drive away the happiness that belongs
to Mr Anton and Bellavista.'
'What do you mean?'
Jemima must have thought her singularly dense, for she
shook her head and smiled knowingly. 'When the fruit hangs heavy on the
vines, you will be heavy with child.'
Heavy
with child
. Those words returned to Laura repeatedly, and,
although she argued away the possibility, she could not deny that she
had already begun to suspect that a new life had started its growth
within her. It was an incredibly wonderful possibility, she realised,
but a car was coming up the drive just as Anton entered the
living-room, and she was forced to shelve her thoughts.
A strained silence hovered between Laura and Anton until a
few minutes later when a waft of cold air entered the house with
Camilla like the chilled hand of fate wrapping itself about Laura's
heart, and she just barely managed to conceal the fact that she was
shivering when the woman was shown into the living-room. Camilla was
dressed in black once again, but this time in something a little less
daring, and whether or not she happened to be in mourning, Laura had to
admit that the colour suited this woman's olive-skinned complexion to
perfection.
'I shall have to buy myself a car. Taxis are so
unreliable,' she complained, extending her hands towards Anton and
smiling up at him with an intimacy that lodged like a brick in Laura's
throat. 'Darling, it's absolutely wonderful to be here at Bellavista
again,' she purred. 'It's been such a long time, hasn't it?'
'More than eight years, if I remember correctly,' Anton
smiled, raising her hands to his lips while Laura stood less than a
yard away, ignored and feeling superfluous.
'We did have some wonderful times together, didn't we?'
Camilla continued to weave her little cocoon of intimacy.
'Memorable times,' Anton agreed, releasing her hands and
turning towards the cabinet where the drinks were kept. 'The usual,
Camilla?'
'Thank you, darling,' she smiled, white teeth flashing
against full, crimson lips as she draped her fur stole over the back of
a chair.
'Good evening, Countess von Dissel.' Laura spoke for the
first time, determined to make her presence known, and Camilla turned, the smile still evident on her lips, but
the dark eyes were calculatingly hard.
'Ah, the little wife. I never noticed you standing there.'
Her disdainful glance swept up and down the length of Laura's taut,
slender figure. 'You really shouldn't wear white, my dear, it makes you
look awfully pale.'
It was a stab Laura should not have ignored, but Anton was
pressing a glass of wine unceremoniously into her hand while extending
a more lethal-looking drink towards Camilla.
'I hope it's to your taste?' he remarked, and Laura
watched with infuriating helplessness while Camilla deliberately
allowed her fingers to caress his hand before she took the glass from
him.
'You're an angel,' she told him with that intimate,
faintly seductive smile which Laura was beginning to hate with an
intensity that threatened to choke her.
She clung to her control and remained silent, but she was
fuming inwardly with a fury which stemmed from helpless despair as she
observed them, and listened, like an unwanted third, to the undisguised
intimacy in the trend of their conversation. What hope had she against
a woman as beautiful as Camilla von Dissel, and what hope had Anton
against the alluring charm of a woman who reminded Laura of a deadly
black spider spinning her web with care in preparation for the kill?
Anton was not a fool, but he was, after all, only a man,
and men were often trapped solely by desire.
The
chiming of the doorbell some minutes later came almost as a relief, and
Laura excused herself, going into the hall seconds after Eddie had
admitted Graham and Gina Abbot.
'My dear, you look lovely!' Gina exclaimed after- Laura
had welcomed them with a warmth which stemmed from affection and a
liberal amount of desperation. 'Doesn't she look lovely, Graham?' Gina
added, nudging her husband.
'Yes, yes,' the tall, grey-haired man nodded, his shrewd
glance shifting from Laura's shadowed eyes to take in her slender
figure. 'Laura always looks lovely to me, no matter what she's wearing.'
'Thank you,' Laura laughed self-consciously. 'You've both
done a great deal to restore my confidence.'
From the inflection in her voice they must have guessed
that something was amiss, but an explanation was unnecessary when they
encountered Camilla in the living-room.
Anton was naturally pleased to see Graham and Gina, but
the conversation flowed like sticky toffee flavoured with bitter aloe.
Laura did her best to smooth over the uneven patches, while Camilla,
with clever subtlety, somehow managed to point out and criticise every
alteration Laura had made to add a little of her own personality to
Bella-vista's living-room. Anton, obviously, found it amusing, but
Graham puffed away furiously as his cigar, which was a sure sign that
he felt uncomfortable and agitated.
Laura could no longer ignore the frantic little signs Gina
was making in her direction when she thought no one was looking, and
she finally excused herself with, 'I must see if Sally's all right.'
'I'm coming with you,' Gina said at once. 'I haven't seen
the child in ages.'
They crossed the hall and climbed the stairs, but the
moment they were out of earshot, Gina remarked caustically, 'I didn't
know Camilla would be here this evening.'
'Neither did I until Anton arrived home and sprang it on
me,' Laura confessed with a hint of bitterness in her voice.
'Heavens, the woman is a pain in the neck!' Gina hissed
angrily. 'What on earth does Anton think he's doing, encouraging her in
this way?'
'I don't know what Anton has in mind, but I'm beginning to
see what
she's
aiming at.'
'So can I,' Gina remarked in a tight-lipped fashion.
'She's doing her level best to make you feel cheap and inferior, and
Anton just sits there calmly and lets her get away with it.' An
exclamation of disgust passed her lips. 'Really, the man must be
insane!'
'Oh, Gina, what am I going to do?' Laura asked when they
paused on the landing which led off to Sally's room.
'Fight back, my dear.'
'How? And with what?' Laura asked desperately.
Gina gestured angrily. 'For goodness' sake, Laura, you're
his
wife
!'
'His wife on sufferance, yes,' Laura said softly, a
faintly cynical smile twisting her lips as she absently fingered the
necklace at her throat which Anton had given her on her birthday.
'You're still his wife, and that gives you a considerable
advantage over her,' Gina insisted, gripping Laura's arms and shaking
her slightly. 'You can't just sit back and do nothing while that witch
claws her way back into his life.'
With Gina's words ringing in Laura's ears, they went to
Sally's room and found her poring over a new adventure novel which
Laura had bought for her.
'Who's that lady who came in the taxi?' she wanted to
know
eventually, and when they told her, she pulled a face and said: 'I
don't like her.'
'Neither do we,' Laura and Gina chorussed without
hesitation, then, glancing at each other, they laughed a little crazily.
'We'd better not leave Graham alone with them much
longer,' Laura said at length, and they left a puzzled-looking Sally
behind to return to the living-room.
Camilla's personality was overpowering. She dominated the
conversation at the dinner table much the same as a bullfighter
dominated the attention of the bloodthirsty spectators, but Graham was
a patient man, and when the opportunity arose, he leapt into the arena.
'I believe Avron Enterprises are selling out to the
highest bidder.'
Graham's remark seemed to cloy the air like an ignited
fuse, and Laura waited with bated breath for some sort of explosion
when she glanced at Anton's hard, expressionless face, but he merely
nodded briefly and said in his usual abrupt manner, 'That's right.'
'I've heard a rumour that you might be interested,' Graham
ventured a shot in the dark with a casualness Laura was beginning to
admire.
'I am,' Anton stunned them with his reply. 'I've entered
into negotiations on Camilla's behalf.'
Never in a thousand years could Laura have explained her
feelings at that moment as she stared down the length of the table at
the man who faced her with a cynical smile playing about his mouth.
'
You
want to buy Avron Enterprises?'
Graham demanded of Camilla when he had overcome his astonishment.
'Yes, I do,' she smiled, a gleam of satisfaction in those
hard eyes. 'Does that surprise you, Graham?'
'Do you intend to compete against Anton's firm?' Gina
questioned her directly when Graham seemed at a loss for words.
'Oh, goodness, no! I'm sure Anton and I could work in
close harmony together without becoming nasty competitors.' Camilla
placed a possessive, bejewelled hand on Anton's arm and smiled at him
in her most seductive manner. 'Couldn't we, darling?'
Anton placed his hand over hers and smiled back at her
with an undisguised intimacy that stabbed viciously at Laura's heart.
'I see no reason why our two firms couldn't combine in a united effort.'
'Depending, of course, on whether Camilla's bid is
successful or not,' Gina cut in, flashing Laura a glance which said:
'If
you
don't claw the bitch's eyes out, then
I'll
do it for you!'
Anton released Camilla's hand and placed his table napkin
beside his plate as he said calmly, 'Avron Enterprises won't receive a
better offer than the one Camilla has made.'
'So it's all settled, then?' Gina asked, her mouth set in
a thin line of disapproval.
'Not quite,' Anton smiled indulgently. 'These things take
time.'
'And I have all the time in the world, darling,' Camilla
added, a suggestive intonation in her low, musical voice which was
unmistakable.
Laura could suddenly take no more and, getting to her feet
abruptly, she said: 'Shall we have coffee in the living-room?'
'Good idea,' Graham agreed, a look of displeasure on his
lean face as he followed her example and pushed back his chair.
The others followed suit, and the agonising evening
progressed, punctuated with strained silences, until Graham and Gina
announced that it was time they went home. Anton accompanied Laura to
the door to see them off, and she was intensely relieved when Camilla
draped her fur stole about her shoulders a few minutes later and
prepared to leave.
'We'll see each other again, I'm sure, and do thank Jemima
for me,' she said, turning to Laura in the hall and delivering her
parting shot. 'How fortunate for you to have Jemima to depend on. She
knows Bellavista like the back of her hand, and when it comes to the
organisation of a home this size, not to mention the planning of the
dinners, you would do well to take a few hints from her, because this
evening's dinner was superb.'
Laura considered this a deliberate insult when she took
into consideration the hours she had spent planning the menu for which
Jemima was now receiving the praise. It was also a blatant insinuation
that she lacked the intelligence to cope, and Laura's anger flared like
a red-hot fire in her breast.
'My car's waiting, Camilla,' Anton forestalled Laura just
as she was about to explode, and Camilla turned towards him with a
triumphant smile to lay a caressing hand against his cheek.
'Darling, you're an absolute angel to drive me home,' she
purred and, nodding briefly in Laura's direction, she swept out of the
house.