Second Best Wife

by Isobel Chace

  He sat down on the bed beside her. 'Will you always want to fight, my Georgie?'

  She hugged her knees tightly, considering whether she should turn on the bedside light or not. If she did, she would be able to see him the better, but that went both ways and he might discover the traces of tears on her cheeks and draw his own conclusions. He had been gone so long! But she would much rather he didn't know how his absence had affected her.

  'Georgina — '

  'If you come any closer, I'll—I'll black your other eye for you, William Ayres!' she threatened.

  She heard his breath catch. 'You can try!' he retorted. 'Because I'm coming a whole lot closer, Georgie Porgie. Move over!'

  She stared at him through the darkness, her heart taking up a new andyexotic rhythm within her. 'What happens if I don't?' she asked him.

  He scooped her up into his arms and deposited her on the far side of the bed, holding her hands in one of his behind her back. 'I've waited for this moment for a long time,' he said, and his voice made her tremble much as his kisses had earlier. 'You're not going to spoil it for me, are you?'

  She stopped struggling. 'William?' she said on a note of wonder. 'Is there anything to spoil?'

  She felt his laughter against her ribs and she gave way willingly before his questing hands. 'As if you didn't know,' he said softly. And he kissed her.

  CHAPTER TEN

  Georgina felt as contented as a well-fed cat. It was bliss. For a week she had done nothing but purr with pleasure at the new turn in her relationship with William. What did it matter if he didn't love her? It seemed no more than an abstruse philosophical point when she lay in his arms at night, or when he looked at her in that certain way of his in the daytime and she knew he was remembering, just as she was, the delights of the passion that flared so easily between them.

  Of course, it wouldn't always be like this. She knew that, but she wasn't going to think about it now. Soon William would be away all day working and she would have to pay more attention to Celine and her problems. And then there was Jennifer —

  'If you screw up your face like that you'll get terrible wrinkles,' Celine broke in on her thoughts. 'Think pleasant thoughts if you want to be beautiful! I remember my mother saying that.'

  'If she was anything like you she didn't have much to worry about!' Georgina remarked dryly.

  Celine laughed. 'Well, she wasn't. She wasn't at all like me —I mean, she wasn't beautiful in any way. Her face was a jumble of features and her teeth were all crooked. But she was never without a man at her side. They all loved her, even Father, though she made no effort to be faithful to him. Beauty hasn't anything to do with it.'

  To Georgina, this was heresy. 'Wait until you meet Jennifer,' she said on a sigh. 'She's not as lovely as you are, but she's well enough to have put me in the shade all my life.'

  'Perhaps she has something else as well. You have. You're nice.'

  Georgina was about to say that Jennifer was not nice, but she stopped herself in time. It wasn't fair to denigrate Jennifer behind her back, especially as she was going to stay with them for a visit. There was always the possibility that William would be right and she and Celine would take to one another and become friends. If that were true, it would be a pity if she were to spoil it.

  'Niceness is rather dull,' she said instead. 'It would be rather fun to be a femme fatale for a week, or a day, and see what it felt like!'

  Celine fluttered her lashes, a superior look on her face. 'You should know if anyone does! William doesn't hover round you because you're nice! I don't know how you did it, Georgie, but I'm awfully glad you did. He feels better about all women since you came along. He's much nicer to me even. I used to think he found me a drag all the time and, after a while, I couldn't say anything sensible to him at all.'

  'Miss Campbell didn't help — '

  'No,' Celine agreed, 'but someone like you would have coped with Miss Campbell long ago. You may wish you were beautiful, but you can't wish it half as much as I wish I were more forceful and determined. I admire you for that!'

  Georgina was astonished. 'Nobody else does! I've had to live with the fact that I'm a bully for years now!'

  'Since William labelled you as one?'

  Georgina nodded. 'He still thinks I need watching. I don't mind as much as I did, but when Jennifer comes— She never lays down the law! She suggests things to people and, of course, they do whatever she wants them to.'

  'Even William?'

  'Especially William!'

  William came out on to the verandah to join them, his chest bared to the sun. He was already the colour of mahogany, which made his eyes seem lighter and the golden lights in them more obvious.

  'There's a letter for you,' he said to Georgina, and dropped it casually into her lap. 'From Jennifer.' He watched her pick it up and examine the envelope for herself. 'You don't have to check, it's just as it left her fair hand. I haven't steamed it open to find out what secrets you and she are keeping from me!'

  'Good,' said Georgina. 'You're learning—though Jennifer never shares any of her secrets with me.' She waved the letter in the air, unread. 'Do you want to see for yourself?'

  'If I want to read it, you won't keep it from me,' he smiled at her. He sat down on a chair and waited. 'Tell me what she says,' he commanded.

  Georgina's eyes slid over her sister's large, spidery writing. Jennifer thought large writing denoted a generous nature and she made no effort to confine herself to more than a couple of words on every line. It meant that what Georgina could have written on a single page was spread over half a dozen, the lines tip-tilted and running into one another. It was large, but it was by no means easy to read.

  'She's coming up from Colombo in her own chauffeur-driven car, which

  Duncan has insisted on paying for. Naturally, he wants her to have the best because he's still very fond of her. She hopes she hasn't broken his heart as she knows what it's like to be parted from the one person in the world for her. Only Duncan is luckier than she, because she hasn't been stolen from him by another. It's doubly hard when someone one has loved and trusted all one's life stabs one in the back. Didn't Caesar say, "Et tu, Brute?" to his friend Brutus as he did the dirty deed? She knows just how he felt.'

  William didn't move a muscle. Georgina looked at him over the top of the letter, wondering what he was thinking.

  'She doesn't say exactly when she's arriving,' she went on, a nervous tremor in her voice that refused to be dismissed.

  'I've never had much time for Caesar myself,' William said suddenly.

  All Georgina's worst suspicions were aroused. He had to be trying to tell her something and she was too obtuse to know what it was! She thought hard about Julius Caesar, but all she knew about him didn't make him particularly lovable in her eyes either.

  'Why not?' she asked.

  'He played both ends against the middle. His wife had to be above suspicion to keep the Romans quiet at home while he went off and conquered Cleopatra to make himself master of Egypt.'

  'He was a great man!' Georgina protested. 'One can't judge them by ordinary everyday standards!'

  'What other standards would one use?' he asked reasonably. 'And, more to the point, when does the individual decide he's great enough to use these other standards?'

  Georgina gave him a helpless look. 'I suppose he just knows. Besides, I've always heard it that he couldn't resist Cleopatra's exquisite beauty.

  He probably couldn't help himself!'

  'How very convenient,' William drawled. 'Would you allow such an excuse from me, Georgie Porgie?'

  She might have to, she thought, when Jennifer arrived. 'I'd try to understand,' she said aloud.

  He opened his eyes and her own widened at the gold-flash she saw in their depths. 'Don't expect me to be so broad-minded if you take off! I've got used to having you at my beck and call and that's the way I like it.'

  Her heart jerked within her. 'But it might not always be enough,' she forced hers
elf to say. 'I wasn't your first choice —I may not be your last.

  She may be somebody else!'

  William smiled a self-satisfied grin. ‘If she is, don't expect to know anything about her. You won't get away from me as easily as that! You, I shall have and hold till death do us part, no matter what pleasant diversions crop up along the way!'

  But Jennifer would make sure she knew! Jennifer would enjoy telling her the details of her conquest and, whatever William might say now, Georgina was as sure as her sister was that it would be Jennifer who would win.

  William sat forward suddenly, making Georgina jump. ‘What mischief are you thinking up now, my sweet? I make my own decisions, Georgie Porgie, and I reserve the right to make most of yours for you too, so don't get carried away by your own sense of importance! I won't be bullied by you, and the only force of arms I recognise from you takes place in bed —and very nice too!' He stood up, pushing an errant lock of hair away from her face. ‘Won't you ever be content to allow that in me you've met your master?'

  If only it were as simple as that! ‘I may still escape you,' she warned him.

  The prospect didn't seem to worry him. ‘Do you want to?' he challenged her.

  Sometimes she did. Sometimes she wanted passionately to get away from him, but she hadn't wanted to in the last few days, and she was ashamed that he should know it too.

  ‘I'm an ordinary healthy female,' she began. ‘Most women like to be mastered in bed.'

  His smile looked to her eyes to be wolfish and not very kind. ‘We're not in bed now, Georgina, and I'm still your master!'

  Celine blinked at them both and eased herself out of her chair, mumbling something about taking a walk across the tea gardens towards the bungalow where Stuart lived. ‘Atta girl, Georgina!' she added over her shoulder, giving the clenched fist salute as she went. ‘Give him all you've got!'

  The colour swept up Georgina's face. 'Celine!' she pleaded. ‘Don't go!'

  ‘I've already gone,' Celine answered. ‘I may be a bit lacking, but at least I know when I'm not wanted. See you later!'

  Georgina retired into a sulky silence, but when she saw that it was going to take much more than that to remove William from the strategic position he had chosen, standing over her and, at the same time, preventing her from leaving her chair, she rushed into speech.

  'Now look what you've done!' she attacked him. 'If she's going to visit Stuart, I ought to go with her. She's quite capable of allowing him all sorts of liberties — in fact, she'll probably demand that he does — ' She broke off, not quite knowing how to finish the sentence.

  'Make love to her?' William ended it for her. 'Stuart will look after her better than you can, Georgie. Your place is here with me.'

  'Until Jennifer comes —'

  'If you feel like that, why didn't you write and tell her she couldn't come?' She shrugged her shoulders. 'She'd have come anyway. She wants you back!'

  'And are you going to give me back?'

  She shrugged again. 'Why not? You were never mine anyway.'

  'But you are mine, Georgie Porgie. What are you going to do about that?'

  Tears pricked at the back of her eyes. 'What would you have me do? Bully the life out of her until she turns round and goes away? Jennifer never goes away. She's always there. She always has been!'

  'I see. I hadn't you realised you felt like that about her —'

  'You've always told me I was jealous of her and, you see you're quite right! She even has Duncan paying for her car!'

  William's lips curved into a mocking smile. 'Do you want him to pay for one for you too?'

  Her indignation knew no bounds. 'Duncan? That creep? I wouldn't give him the time of day!'

  'Then why the jealousy?' he pressed her. 'Aren't you satisfied yet that I want you quite as much as you want me? Has our life together lacked anything for you these last few days?'

  She refused to answer directly. 'That isn't everything,' she said darkly. 'With Jennifer it wouldn't count at all!'

  A distinct twinkle stirred the depths of William's golden eyes. 'We're talking about you, little Georgie. I got the impression it counted with you quite a lot.'

  Incensed, she made a move to get past him, but he had her trapped. 'You didn't ask me, if you remember. I didn't have any choice in the matter. With you, I never do.'

  'Exactly!' he encouraged her, just as if he were talking to a recalcitrant child. 'Between us, I'll always call the tune — in or out of bed! If you want me to turn my back on Jennifer, you'll have to be specially nice to me, my love.' He took her hands in his, unclenching her fists with fingers of steel. 'You wouldn't really try and black my eye again, would you?'

  'Yes, I would!'

  'No wonder Jennifer always gets there before you. She would scorn to use such tactics! I doubt she's ever made a boy cry in her life!'

  Georgina's temper was stretched beyond endurance. 'What about Duncan?' she demanded crossly. 'Haven't you any sympathy for him?'

  'Should I have?'

  She sniffed. 'I'd have said you had a great deal in common! He's behaving better than you did, though. Next time Jennifer spurns you, William Ayres, don't expect me to mop your blood off the floor! I'll be busy elsewhere!'

  'Not you, Georgie Porgie — '

  'And don't call me that! When I'm free of you, I'll change my name to something different and forget all about your horrid nursery rhymes!'

  He pulled her up into the circle of his arms, amused. 'You won't forget. It used to be Rowley-Powley before it was Georgie Porgie, and that could apply to any name. Besides, I like your brand of kisses and I like your name, my dear, and I like having you by my side. You'll never be free of me, Mrs. Ayres!'

  He had some reason to be confident, she reflected dully, for she, too, doubted she would ever leave him until he decided to send her away. And Jennifer would see to that! She would never share any man she thought of as hers, not even with his wife!

  His arms closed round her in a most satisfactory way! 'Be as tough as you like with anyone else, Georgie, but I know you better than that! You were never reluctant for me to have my way with you, and you're not reluctant to have me make love to you now.'

  'You can't be sure of that!' she protested. She sounded breathless and pathetically eager. It was his fault! His hand searched out her curves and her heart turned over in anticipation of what would come next.

  'Can't I? Can't I, Georgina?'

  'It isn't love!' she burst out.

  'Isn't it?' He laughed out loud. 'What do you call it? I won't believe you're still pretending to hate me. Are you, my sweet?'

  'No.' She choked over the word, her hands covering his in a mute protest against their probing. 'William, we can't! Not here!'

  His lips met hers, exploring her mouth with a thoroughness that deprived her of all further speech. She uttered a sob of pleasure and abandoned the attempt of trying to reason him into being more sensible. She felt herself lifted high up against his chest and wondered at his strength of arm. How dreadful that she should like being coerced by him! She ought to be made of sterner stuff, but she wasn't. She felt very feminine and deliciously weak, and it was the most marvellous sensation in the world.

  He deposited her on the bed and stood back from her. 'What, no more arguments, Mrs. Ayres?'

  She spluttered with laughter, making no effort to move, not even when he knelt on the bed beside her and began to undress her. Only her eyes darkened with the strength of her emotions. 'I wish I were more beautiful for you,' she murmured against his hand, trying to impede its progress against her naked flesh. She shivered with pleasure as he defeated her ruse. 'Oh, William!' she breathed.

  'Oh, Georgina!' he mocked her, his lips returning to her mouth. 'Confess now, my sweet, that you like it when I have my way with you. You do, don't you?'

  'Yes!'

  He paused in what he was doing, his eyes narrowing as he surveyed her. Then his lips met hers again in a kiss as soft as a butterfly's wings and she could feel
his laughter against her breasts.

  'How are the mighty fallen!' he taunted her. 'But it's not enough. Before I'm through with you, my darling, you'll weep with love for me, and then I'll have you just where I want you!'

  William went to work the next day, and time hung heavy on Georgina's hands. She had wanted to go with him, to see how he went about the gigantic task of harnessing a whole river and deflecting its course away from the sea so that not a single drop of its precious fluid was lost-to the land.

  'Your job is to stay with Celine,' William had told her with a touch of severity. 'You can come to the site some other time.'

  'I've got used to having you about,' Georgina had tried to persuade him. 'What are Celine and I to do all day?'

  'You could get Stuart to show you over the tea factory,' he had suggested.

  'There'll still be tomorrow!'

  He had given her an odd look then. 'I'm flattered,' he had said. 'I never thought you'd admit you could miss my company for a few hours.'

  She had blushed scarlet, cross with herself for being so foolish as to betray her feelings to him. 'It's my pugnacious nature,' she had defended herself. 'I can't fight with Celine —it wouldn't do!'

  The glint in his tawny eyes had discomfited her still further. 'I'll be back tonight,' he had said, and he had kissed her hard on the mouth, scattering her wits to the four winds. 'I'll see you then,' he had added, and she had been sure that it hadn't been entirely her imagination that he had been as much moved by the embrace as she, and she had been fiercely glad that he found as much pleasure in her body as she did in his.

  Celine was in a bad mood too. She claimed she had a headache and retired to her bedroom, refusing to come out. At lunchtime, she looked tired and drawn, and Georgina began to worry in earnest about her.

  'What's the matter?' she asked her bluntly. 'Is it Stuart?'

  'I don't want to talk about it!' Celine retorted. For the first time since Miss Campbell's departure the blank look was back in her eyes and she made no effort to converse or eat, but sat in a withdrawn world of her own, refusing all Georgina's blandishments to make her pull out of it.

  'I wish you'd tell me about it,' Georgina pleaded with her. 'I'm not feeling on the top of the world myself.'