Scandal and Secrets

by Miranda Lee

  Celeste felt a little badly about this-and so did Gemma-but at least it stopped any awkward questions over why Gemma had to take two suitcases with her just to see Lenore. The conditional plan was for her to go on to the airport Hilton after Celeste had been dropped home.

  'Did Byron give you any idea what Lenore's supposed explanation is?' Gemma asked as the taxi slowed to turn into Belleview.

  Celeste opened her eyes and straightened. 'No. Sorry.'

  She was surprised at how agitated just seeing the house was making her. There were too many bad memories here. And yet it was a beautiful home. Elegant and graceful. Like one of those great Southern mansions.

  Maybe it wasn't the house that was agitating her. Maybe it was the way she was dressed.

  Celeste cringed a little when she imagined the expression on Byron's face when he saw her. But damn it all, she had to get something out of this meeting other than high blood-pressure and a sleepless night.

  'That's Lenore's car,' Gemma informed her as the taxi pulled in behind a small sedan.

  Celeste brushed aside Gemma's offer to pay for the taxi, relieved to be out of the potential coffin, even if she was no longer looking forward to the coming encounter with Byron.

  'Put the luggage up there beside the door,' she ordered the driver, after which she gave him a generous note and happily dismissed him.

  The thought that she would have to take a taxi all that way home again in the rain did not sit well with her, but she decided to worry about that later. Her immediate concern was keeping her cool and her wits about her. Suddenly, she wasn't so sure what Byron's reaction to her appearance would be and she wanted to be ready for any outcome.

  Both women mounted the steps that led up to the white-columned portico and the massive front doors.

  Celeste leant against the doorbell, throwing Gemma a reassuring look as they waited to be let in.

  'You look fine; she said when Gemma started nervously brushing down her clothes.

  The combination of a cream woolen trouser suit with a caramel silk shirt underneath was both sophisticated and flattering on her tall shapely figure, yet Celeste gained the impression that the girl did not feel confident in her clothes. Why was that? She wondered.

  The reflection Gemma saw when she looked in the mirror had to please her.

  Her own reflection was something else. Celeste had poured herself into some scandalously tight jeans for the occasion. Add to these a black lace bodysuit, black ankle-height boots with stiletto heels, and a black leather battle jacket, and you had a dangerously provocative image. With her hair piled haphazardly on top of her head, gold gypsy hoops dangling from her lobes, she looked like a refugee from a bikers' meeting.

  Byron answered the door, and his face betrayed not a single darned thing when those piercing blue eyes of his briefly raked over her. Gemma, however, received a warm greeting and a solicitous hand, while Celeste was totally ignored. When Byron drew Gemma inside she had no option but to trail after them or stay standing where was like shag on a rock. She stood standing where she was like a shag on a rock.

  'Aren't you coming in?' Byron was forced to ask when he went to shut the door.

  'Not till you've said hello and invited me in.'

  His smile sent a prickle running down her spine. My God, he hates me, she realized. Hates whatever power I have over him. Hates what I can make him feel. Good, she thought savagely, and waited.

  'Hello, Celeste; he said with icy politeness. 'Do come in.'

  By this time Gemma was looking perturbed behind Byron. Celeste decided not to make a scene, brushing past Byron to walk into the spider's parlor. But she would remain the spider, she decided fiercely. And he would stay the fly.

  'Can I take your coat?' he asked with false gallantry.

  'I'll keep it on, thanks’ she countered. 'It's chilly in here. Must be all the marble. Is Ava home? I'd like to see this miraculous transformation you told me about.'

  'What transformation?' Gemma asked, frowning.

  'Ava's lost a lot of weight lately; Byron explained. 'Smartened herself up no end. Sorry, Celeste, but she's not home. She's out with her fiancé.'

  'Fiancé!' Gemma gasped. 'Ava's engaged?'

  'She is indeed. To a charming Italian man by the name of Vince Morelli.'

  'Good heavens, when did all this happen?'

  'Just this past weekend.'

  Gemma's smile faded suddenly. 'A lot of things happened this past weekend ... '

  'Apparently’ Byron muttered. 'Which is why I asked Celeste to bring you here. We're about to sort one of them out. Lenore's waiting for us in the family-room. Shall we?'

  He waved the two women on ahead. When Gemma looked reluctant to move, Celeste took her elbow and guided her down the corridor past the grandfather clock.

  Lenore was sitting on one of the huge leather sofas that dominated the large casually furnished room, looking so intimidating chic in black silk culottes and a crisp white blouse, her glorious red hair twisted into an elegant French roll, that Celeste had a sudden insight into Gemma's unexpected attack of insecurity outside the front door.

  Nathan's first wife made her feel inadequate and inferior. It was the old Rebecca syndrome, understandable given the gap in their ages, not to mention the enormous gap in their relative life experiences. What a pity Gemma didn't understand that it was these very differences that had probably attracted Nathan to her in the first place.

  'Hello, Lenore,' Gemma said stiffly.

  Celeste watched Lenore like a hawk. There was no doubting she was giving a marvelous performance as the halting and embarrassed 'other woman' as she stood up, went to come forward, then stayed where she was.

  'This is even worse than I thought it would be,' she said with just the right amount of dismay. 'I mean ... I do see that I might have been insensitive to your feelings, Gemma, taking far too much of Nathan's time. But you have to believe me when I say there has been nothing of a sexual nature between us since our divorce.'

  'That's a lie,' Gemma said in a low, shaking voice. 'Even if I somehow made a mistake on Sunday though I don't see how-I saw you and Nathan kissing one night in this very house!'

  Was that sincere astonishment on the woman's face? Celeste wondered. Or more brilliant acting!

  'It was in the billiard-room,' Gemma added bitingly. 'The very first night I came to stay.'

  Lenore seemed to recall something but her glance Gemma's way was full of pity. 'Dear girl, that was nothing.'

  'Don't patronize me,' Gemma lashed out. 'The kiss I saw was not nothing!'

  Lenore had the good grace to blush. 'Maybe not nothing,' she admitted unhappily, 'but it was nothing for you to worry about.'

  'I hate to interrupt,' Byron said carefully. 'But a kiss all those months ago is not what Lenore has graciously come here to explain. Please, Gemma, let's try to keep some perspective in all this. At that time, you hardly knew Nathan. Or am I wrong about that?' he queried softly.

  Celeste blinked when Gemma sliced an icy look Byron's way. This girl could really take care of herself! For some unaccountable reason, she felt a fierce pride. It must be sisterhood empathy, she reasoned after a momentary confusion. But truly, this girl kept evoking feelings in her that she'd never felt before.

  'There was nothing between Nathan and myself when I came to live here,' she returned firmly.

  'And there was nothing between Nathan and myself last weekend,' Lenore insisted.

  'How can you possibly say that?' Gemma attacked, her face flushing with anger and outrage. 'I heard you myself and I could not misinterpret what I heard.'

  'What exactly did you hear?' Lenore asked, looking not at all like a guilty party, merely a concerned one.

  Celeste was totally perplexed.

  Gemma was staring at Lenore as well. 'You want me to repeat it in front of others?'

  'Word for word.'

  'Word for word!'

  'Yes.'

  'Oh ... I. . .I'm not sure I can remember it all word for
word.'

  'Try. What was the first thing you heard? Who was speaking?'

  'It. . .it was Nathan. He said ... he said ... "So what if it was just sex between us last night? When has it ever been anything else?" And you said ... "When has it ever been anything else but sex for you with any woman?" And then Nathan laughed.'

  'What a bastard,' Celeste muttered.

  'Shut up,' Byron hissed from where he'd moved to be standing right behind her shoulder.

  'What next?' Lenore probed mercilessly and Gemma winced.

  Celeste couldn't stand the pain in those lovely brown eyes any longer. 'For pity's sake,

  Byron,' she whispered, throwing him a desperate look.

  'Patience,' he exhorted under his breath.

  Gemma was clearly struggling to remember the exact words. 'I think you then said something about having been in love with him when you got pregnant with Kirsty .. .'

  'Would the words have been ... "You think I didn't love you that night all those years ago, when we made a baby together? You think that was only sex for me?'"

  Gemma was taken aback. 'Yes, that's it. That's it exactly! Nathan replied he knew it was only sex and you called him a bastard.'

  With a shuddering sigh, Lenore bent and picked up a large plastic folder from the coffee-table in front of her. Opening it, she flipped over some of the printed pages within, then brought it over to show Gemma, pointing to a spot at the beginning of one of the pages.

  'Read from here,' she instructed.

  Celeste watched as all the blood drained from Gemma's face. When she finally did look up, her cheeks were ashen and there were tears in her eyes. 'It's all from Nathan's play,'

  she choked out. 'Everything I heard was words from Nathan's play .. .'

  'It's a scene I've been having trouble with," Lenore explained. 'Nathan kept saying I wasn't putting enough emotion into it. He ... he was helping me with it on Sunday, playing the part of my leading man.'

  'Oh, God,' Gemma groaned, swaying on her feet. Celeste rushed forward and grabbed her, making her sit down. 'Some brandy, Byron,' she ordered. 'Or some whisky. Quickly!'

  'Won't be a see,' he bit out, and hurried from the room.

  'Oh, Celeste,' Gemma cried brokenly. 'What have I done?'

  'Surely things can be fixed up between you and Nathan now that you know the truth,'

  Lenore suggested, in total ignorance of what had transpired that afternoon.

  Celeste shook her head. 'You don't understand.' 'I'll speak to Nathan myself,' Lenore offered.

  Byron returned to give Celeste a glass with a hefty slug of brandy in it which she proceeded to force a distraught Gemma to drink.

  'I think, Lenore,' Byron said, 'that it's best if I speak to Nathan. Do you know where he is tonight?'

  'Not really. We were to have a full dress rehearsal for the play today but he didn't turn up. We went ahead anyway and he did make an appearance towards the end of it in the most deplorable condition. I managed to get out of him that Gemma had left him and she thought we'd been having an affair. He mumbled something about her coming home and finding us together last Sunday and jumping to the wrong conclusion. He said he was going to get blind drunk and left. It was only then that it suddenly hit me what might have happened and I rang you. I suppose he might be home by now at a pinch. You could try there.'

  'I'll ring straight away. God, what a mess! You might as well go home, Lenore. There's nothing more you can do here.'

  'But I feel so awful!' she wailed.

  'Just go home,' Celeste bit out, thinking Gemma could only improve with her absence, no matter how innocent she was.

  'Wait!' Gemma said and got shakily to her feet. She walked up to Lenore and embraced her. 'I'm sorry I thought all those dreadful things about you,' she cried. 'You've always been sweet to me and I've returned your kindnesses with jealousy and suspicion. I'm so sorry. None of this is your fault. I've been a fool.'

  'Oh, Gemma, love,' Lenore said with a sad sigh. 'You've never been a fool. And what happened was not your fault. Any woman would have thought the same thing. And I haven't helped, running to Nathan with my problems all the time. But he loves you, Gemma. For all his faults, he really loves you. Don't throw him away. If you do, you'll destroy him.'

  'I don't want to throw him away,' she said with a strangled sob. 'But I don't think he wants me back.'

  'Then fight for him,' Lenore urged. 'You love him, don't you?'

  'Yes.'

  'It's a precious thing, love. It doesn't come your way too often.'

  Celeste found her eyes drifting to Byron's but the gaze he returned was so hard that she flinched. He'll never believe how much I love him, she realized wretchedly. He'll never believe how much he's lost ...

  'I'll go now,' Lenore said, turning to Byron. 'Maybe if you talk to him, Byron. He obviously needs someone to talk to him. To be honest, I'm frightened what he might do.'

  He's already done it, Celeste thought bitterly.

  'I will, Lenore,' Byron reassured her. 'Don't worry. Nathan's a reasonable man.'

  Celeste only just stopped herself from laughing. 'Here,' Byron said, picking up the script from where it had fallen from Gemma's limp fingers to the floor. 'Take this with you. I think we've seen enough.'

  'I don't know how I'm ever going to do that scene now,' Lenore said with a shudder.

  'You're an actress, Lenore,' Byron told her with his usual lack of sensitivity. 'Act!'

  Celeste returned Gemma to the sofa while Byron shepherded Lenore from Belleview. By the time he returned, Gemma had, been persuaded to drink all the brandy and she was sitting there like a zombie.

  'I didn't get any answer from Nathan's number,' Byron told them both. 'If he's been drinking he might be out to it. Or maybe he's not at home at all.' He threw Gemma a worried look. 'I think she'd better stay here for the night, Celeste. I'm sure I could find her something to sleep in. '

  'She has her luggage with her,' Celeste told him, aware that Gemma seemed incapable of talking. She was almost catatonic, sitting there. 'She was going to go to the airport Hilton tonight and catch a flight back to Lightning Ridge tomorrow.'

  'But why? I didn't think she liked it there.'

  'She didn't. It was something about unfinished business. Anyway, you go and get the suitcases. They're on the front porch. And then we'll take her upstairs and put her to bed.'

  Amazingly, Gemma seemed to go to sleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Celeste still sat with her for a while, then tucked her in, turned off the bedside lamp and was creeping out when she saw Byron still standing in the doorway, watching her. There was the most peculiar expression on his face which was something akin to pain.

  'What?' she whispered. 'What is it?'

  He shook his head, abruptly ushering her from the room and closing the door.

  'Did you get on to Nathan?' she asked.

  'No. He doesn't seem to be home. But I contacted the Hilton and cancelled Gemma's room as well as her flight to Lightning Ridge. She's not going anywhere tomorrow and that's final. She has things to patch up here first.'

  'Mmm,' was all Celeste said.

  'You don't think she can patch it up with Nathan?'

  'We'll see,' she said non-committally.

  Byron gave her a narrow-eyed look. 'What do you know that I don't know?'

  'Have you got all night?'

  'Very funny.'

  'I'm tired, Byron,' she said and began striding away from him down the hall. 'I'm going to call a taxi and go home.'

  'You don't look tired,' he called after her. 'You look fantastic. '

  Celeste ground to a halt, whirling to stare at him standing there, his handsome face unbelievably arrogant as he began blatantly to look her over. Not a second look all night and now this ... this blisteringly sexual appraisal.

  'You're sex on two legs, Celeste,' he said in a desire thickened voice, 'and you know it.'

  She folded her arms and lifted her chin, but behind her outward cool was a madly beating
heart and pounding blood vessels. 'Do you honestly think you can treat me as you treated me when I arrived, then think a couple of tossed-off compliments will get you back in my good books?'

  'I'm not interested in being in your good books,' he said with chilling honesty. 'My interests lie elsewhere ... '

  'No kidding. But if our interests aren't mutual, Byron, then I'm afraid it's a no go.'

  'But our interests are mutual, Celeste,' he drawled, and started walking slowly towards her. 'Why else would you have come here tonight dressed as you are if you didn't want me to look at you, if you didn't want me to want you, if you didn't want me to do this?'