Second Best Wife

by Isobel Chace

  that it was already discoloured and more than a little red.

  ‘I'm sorry, but you shouldn't have made me lose my temper. If we went inside I could bathe it for you.' The colour drained from her face. ‘It might look better then before your mother sees it.'

  He was startled. ‘Does her opinion matter to you?'

  Georgina nodded. ‘I like her,' she said simply. ‘I've always liked her. You're not at all like her.'

  ‘No,' he agreed with feeling. ‘I never allowed you to pull the wool over my eyes! Well, now she'll see you as you really are, won't she? As an intemperate, vicious little thug!'

  ‘Because I got the better of you? It was your own fault, only of course you won't admit it! You dared me to hit you, you know you did! I suppose you didn't think I would, that I would slap you or something silly like that, and now you don't like it because it was as good as anything you could do! A fine flush hit! It's made a pretty good mess of your face, let me tell you, and I'm completely unmarked!'

  He uttered an exasperated laugh. ‘Only because I didn't hit you back!'

  ‘You might not have succeeded,' she pointed out. ‘I would have dodged out of the way!'

  He turned to face her, reaching out for her and, with a gasp, she rushed out of arm's reach and ran down the garden path towards the gate and the comparative safety of the public highway. William caught her up halfway down the road to her parents' house.

  ‘Have you forgotten I'm coming to see Jennifer?' he asked her sweetly. ‘Or did you hope I'd give you time to tell her what to say? Not on your life, my girl! This time you won't shift the responsibility on to anyone else, least of all that long-suffering sister of yours. Jealousy is a very nasty thing and, if you allow it to, it will warp your whole nature. You ought to be grateful to me for making you face up to your motives for doing your best to ruin your sister's life. The only thing I want to know now is did you make Jennifer agree to marry me in the first place so that you could have your moment of triumph, or are you making her marry Duncan?'

  ‘I suppose you won't believe I've had nothing to do with anything Jennie chooses to do?'

  'That would be stretching my credulity too far,' he agreed.

  Georgina's eyes stung with tears. 'All right, ask Jennifer! I hope you'll feel as much a fool as you'll look when she's told you how wrong you are!'

  'If she tells me I'm wrong. I've known you both for years, remember, and you've always made Jennifer go your way. You won't do the same to me, so make up your mind to it, Georgina.'

  'I wouldn't want to try,' she countered dryly. 'I've never pretended to know everything as you do. I wonder you mix with us lesser beings at all!'

  William favoured her with a cold, blank look. 'Nor will that sharp tongue of yours help you. It doesn't cut any ice with me.'

  'No,' she said, not without bitterness, 'it takes a pair of bright blue eyes to do that!'

  His face flushed with anger. 'Georgina Perry, I'm warning you! Another crack like that and I'll put you across my knee in the middle of the road! It's more than time you learned to control that jealous temperament of yours! Is it Jennifer's fault that men find her more attractive than they do you?'

  Georgina formed her lips into a smile. 'Do they?' she tempted him. 'How can you possibly know that?'

  'Jennifer — ' He broke off, his eyes narrowing.

  'Jennifer told you!' Georgina finished for him. 'Such a reliable source of information, I'm told. Still, it's something that you don't pretend to be privy to my love life as well as everything else —it might surprise you, it might even shatter a few illusions, and that would never do, would it?' She was rather proud of the note of mockery she had achieved, knowing he found it as objectionable as he did everything else about her.

  'I have no illusions about either you or Jennifer,' he answered her. 'I've known you both far too long.'

  'So you have,' she agreed with a light laugh. 'There's none so blind as he who will not see, though. Even the mighty William Ayres isn't always right! And, before you decide it's my vindictive nature that makes me say such a thing, it was your mother who said it first. She said it to comfort me. She said when I grew up I wouldn't care what you thought about me —'

  'Why do you?' he interrupted her.

  She thought of denying that she did, but William was no fool and she knew he would recognise it for the lie it was.

  'I don't know,' she said at last. 'Because I'm a fool, I guess. Because you hurt me so badly and I wanted to change your mind about me. I don't know!'

  'Because you're jealous of Jennifer and you hated anyone to like her better than you. Isn't that the squalid little truth that's driven you on to seek your revenge on me all these years?'

  'No, it had nothing to do with Jennifer,' she claimed, but she knew he wasn't even listening. There was an eager look to his face as he marched up the path by her side towards the front door. He had probably forgotten all about her, so intent was he on getting to Jennifer. For the first time she wondered if he were really in love with her sister and she was a little shocked that the question should arise in her mind at all. Why else would he have asked Jennifer to marry him?

  Jennifer and Duncan were still sitting in the sitting-room where she had left them. They looked ill at ease when they saw her, glancing at her guiltily out of the corner of their eyes. Georgina felt the old, remembered irritation with her sister that she could never come out into the open and say what she meant. One always had to dig everything out of her bit by bit and, truth to tell, it was seldom worth the trouble when she did finally make her views known.

  'Didn't you tell him?' Jennifer asked Georgina now. 'You said you would, Georgie. You said you'd enjoy it!'

  'No, I didn't,' Georgina returned calmly.

  'It's what you meant, though, you know you did! Why bring him here? I can't possibly see him now. You'll have to get rid of him, darling. He frightens me.'

  Georgina turned her head to William who was still waiting in the hall. 'She says you frighten her,' she repeated. 'She'd prefer it if you went away.'

  'Or is that what you would prefer?' he demanded. He took a step forward into the doorway, reaching out a hand to Georgina and spinning her out of his way. Unfortunately she lost her balance and collided with the rising Duncan. 'That's right, knock him out too!'

  William jeered at her.

  Jennifer gazed at him with stricken eyes. 'William, your eye! Did Georgie do that?'

  'Who else?'

  'Oh, how awful of her! I only asked her to —'

  'Yes, what did you ask her to say to me?' he asked grimly.

  Jennifer fluttered her lashes, glancing briefly at her sister. 'Oh, William, you know I wouldn't have hurt you for anything in the world! I can't help it if I'm easily persuaded, can I? Georgie could always make me say and do anything she wanted me to. I know I ought to stand on my own feet more, but you don't know what it's like when you have a big, overbearing sister like mine! She doesn't mean any harm, only she can't understand that anyone should want to do something else but carry out her commands. You mustn't be angry with her, William dear, or with me either.'

  William's mouth set into a dangerous line. 'Meaning that you do want to break off our engagement?'

  Jennifer nodded. 'I never wanted to get engaged in the first place! I wouldn't have done if Georgie hadn't —'

  Georgina pulled herself up on to her feet, unable to believe her ears. She felt as though she were drowning and the harder she tried to breathe normally, the worse she felt. She felt dizzy and bells rang in her ears.

  'If I hadn't what?' she pressed Jennifer.

  'Oh, Georgie, I know you think I'm betraying you to the enemy, but you shouldn't have suggested I did it in the first place. It wasn't a worthy revenge for you to take. You knew I always wanted Duncan and you should never have persuaded me to lead William on. He has every right to be angry with both of us!'

  William's hand closed round the nape of Georgina's neck, holding her in a painful grasp. 'I've heard eno
ugh!' he declared with a suppressed violence that made Georgina shiver. 'Don't worry, Jennie, I don't blame you for anything. I hope you'll be very happy with your Duncan, though I doubt you will be unless you can find some way of getting Georgie out of your life. I may help you do it! I may very well help you do it!'

  Georgina tried to break away from his bruising fingers, but he shook her like a cat does her kitten, reducing her willpower to zero. 'William, please!' she begged him.

  'Oh no, you don't, my girl. You're coming with me! For once in your life you're going to pay in full! I'm going to render my account in person and you are going to pay it! Understand?'

  Georgina's senses swam. She had seen William in a rage before, but she had never seen him like this, and she was afraid. She was scared silly of what he might do to her and even more scared as to how she might react to whatever he was going to do.

  It was then that she knew that she didn't hate William Ayres at all.

  CHAPTER TWO

  Georgina could hear the laughter behind her as she struggled against the iron grasp of the man who held her, yanking her out of the room behind him and hauling her through the hall and out the still open front door.

  'Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie, Kissed the boys and made them cry!'

  'You see!' she ground out. 'They've never forgotten

  either!'

  'How childish can you get?' William asked of no one in particular. 'It must be true for you to mind so much. Is it?'

  'No!'

  'Then why all the fuss? Why try to ruin Jennifer's and my life for such a trivial reason?'

  Georgina slowed her pace in an attempt to retrieve some of her dignity which he was doing his best to destroy, jerking her after him as she vainly tried to keep up with his much longer legs.

  'I suppose it's useless to say that I didn't?'

  'Completely useless.'

  They went on in silence with her half-running to keep up with him. 'You're hurting me,' she complained.

  'No, I'm not. You're not going to wriggle out of it this time, Georgina, so don't go all soft and feminine on me. It won't work. And don't cry! I can't stand whining females!'

  Georgina had never whined in her life. 'I'm not crying!'

  'Good. Keep it that way. You can cry as much as you like when I've finished telling you what your meddling has got you into. Come to think of it, Meddlesome Matty would have suited you as well as Georgie Porgie. But this time you're going to pick up the pieces of your own demolition job! I don't see why anyone else should suffer, do you?'

  Georgina made another futile effort to ease her hand out of his. 'Just me?' she asked bitterly.

  His expression was as bitter as her voice. 'And me. I'll be there, right beside you, and it won't be much fun for me either. But if I can't have Jennifer I'll get what I can out of you —'

  'But you don't even like me!'

  'No, I don't like you at all, but I'll have the satisfaction of knowing you won't be hurting Jennifer all the time you're with me —and that you'll be hating every moment you find yourself stuck with my society.'

  Georgina's legs refused to carry her any further. She came to an abrupt halt, ignoring the searing pain in the muscles of her arm as William tried to force her onward.

  'William, don't be daft! I know you're angry at what's happened, but, truly, none of it was my fault. There's no need to behave like a bull chasing a red rag. Sooner or later you're bound to recover yourself and then you'll regret —'

  'The regrets will be yours!'

  She eyed him cautiously, remembering the results of earlier rages when, blind to everything but the impulse of the moment, William had had every child in the village trembling with fear at what he might do next. His tempers never lasted long, however, and she of all people should have been able to understand them, for she lost her own temper with all the frequency and heat of a redhead. William's rage was never a hot emotion, however, it was cold and deadly and all the worse because he looked so normal all the time he was in the grip of the need to savage anyone who came near him.

  'William,' she pleaded, 'remember what happened last time!'

  'Tell me about it,' he invited her.

  'I wasn't here,' she said uneasily. 'I was away at college. Jennifer told me about it. When I came back you'd moved out of your parents' house—for ever, I hoped! —and Jennifer was in a state that bordered on hysteria because of what you'd said to her. She swore she'd never forgive you!'

  ‘A nice story,' he commented. ‘And just what is it I'm supposed to have said to her?'

  Georgina pursed up her lips. ‘You cast aspersions on her virtue.'

  ‘On her virtue? Come off it, Georgie! I never said any such thing. We quarrelled about you as usual and if Jennifer was "in a state", as you put it, it was because she'd just received a letter from you telling her what you would do to her if she got engaged to me. I told her she could leave your reactions to me, but she could never escape from your influence, could she? She didn't believe me and she resented that I had to go away because of my job. How you do twist everything to your own ends!'

  Georgina could have cried then. She could feel the tears stinging at the back of her nose and eyes. ‘But Jennifer said —'

  ‘She was afraid of you —and she had good reason to be! If you can black my eye, what could you do to her?'

  ‘All right,' Georgina shouted at him. ‘I didn't like the idea of your marrying Jennifer. I hated the idea! But I wouldn't have done anything to stop it —my quarrel has always been with you, not Jennifer. Her I love, and nothing would induce me to do anything to hurt her!'

  ‘You're not going to get the opportunity,' he retorted.

  It was strange, but miserable as she was, Georgina could still feel the warmth of the red-brick house's welcome as she reluctantly followed William inside. There was a pleasant smell of furniture polish and pieces of well kept copper twinkled at her from their place on the wall. Unlike the Perry house, it was warm too, with a promise of comfortable chairs and hot crumpets for tea. She had once in her life been invited to tea with Mrs. Ayres and that was what she had been given to eat, with piles of home-made jam and a great deal of shared laughter. William hadn't been there. He had just started to travel extensively in his job and Mrs.. Ayres had been proud of his achievements at such a young age. He had been working on a Commonwealth health project, she remembered, and he seemed to have been doing that ever since. It was a pity he was home at the

  moment.

  'You can't make me do anything I don't want to,' she remarked as he pushed her ahead of him into the sitting- room. 'I'm not afraid of you!' There was a quiver in her voice that belied her words, but she held her head up high and gave him look for look. 'Just because you're as mad as hell—'

  'Children, children,' Mrs. Ayres rebuked them gently, coming in from the garden at the same moment. 'What are you bickering about now, you two?'

  'Do we have to be bickering?' William asked her, his lips quirking with what could have been amusement.

  'When have you ever done anything else?' his mother returned placidly. 'My dear boy, what have you done to your eye?'

  'Ask Georgina!'

  Mrs.. Ayres clicked her tongue, her eyes twinkling. 'Georgina, you didn't? It seems to have been remarkably effective.'

  'He dared me to do it,' Georgina defended herself, trying not to allow her embarrassment to show. 'I'm terribly sorry, Mrs. Ayres.'

  'My dear girl, I'm in your corner! William has done nothing but provoke you ever since we first came to live here.'

  Georgina cast a doubtful glance at William, but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. His expression was sober and completely calm, not at all as though he was still in the grip of one of his cold rages.

  'I've been provoking her to some effect this afternoon,' he told his mother, sounding almost amused. 'Didn't I tell you I hoped to marry the Perry girl?'

  It was hard to tell who was the more astonished, Georgina or Mrs. Ayres.

  'Ma
rry?' Georgina gasped, but the sound of her comment was completely lost in Mrs. Ayres' whoop of joy.

  'Darling William! I never thought you'd show so much sense! I'm ashamed to say that when you told me you were thinking about the Perry girl I jumped to the conclusion you meant Jennifer. I couldn't be more pleased!'

  'Thank you, Mother.' His tone was so dry that Georgina blushed for him. 'I'm glad it meets with your approval.' Georgina thought that Mrs. Ayres, who must have known her son better than anyone else alive, should have been warned, but she was far too relieved to attempt to hide her joy from him— or Georgina.

  'I know it's your life,' she rushed on, kissing her son warmly on the cheek, 'but Jennifer would never have been my choice for you. She would have bored you to death inside a fortnight of close proximity, whereas one never knows what to expect from Georgie, does one? So much more interesting! But I'm surprised you realised that for yourself, dear. I was so afraid you were blinded by Jennifer's fragile beauty—it won't last!—and would mistake one of her little girl's appeals for masculine sympathy as true love. The girl has never yet formed a stable relationship and, in my opinion, she never will.'

  Georgina watched William's nostrils flare with fascinated dismay. Indeed, so intent was she on his reactions that she missed her own cue to deny the quite preposterous suggestion that she would ever marry William while she was still in her right mind and had breath in her body.

  'We'll leave Jennifer out of this,' William said sternly to his mother. 'It's easy to see you don't know her at all—only what you've heard about her from Georgina, who has never made the faintest effort even to be kind to her! That's something I mean to put a stop to in the future.'

  The pleasure drained out of Mrs. Ayres' face. 'William, you're not doing something foolish, are you?'

  'Certainly not! It's all arranged, Mother. Jennifer is going to marry Duncan Radcliffe, and Georgie Porgie is going to marry me.'

  'Have you asked her?' Mrs. Ayres returned coldly.

  'Georgina will do as she's told!'

  'And put up with you calling her by that ridiculous name as well, I suppose? You should have grown out of teasing defenceless little girls by now, William. I'm disappointed in you.'