ground. Literally.
The vision vanished at once, not in a puff of smoke but in a hasty movement to make herself decent by pulling on a robe as soon as she saw Roscoe. Only the fury on her face remained.
With the robe safely concealing her, she came to the door and addressed the young man. ‘I’m sorry, Jimmy, but I warned you. Don’t come back here, ever.’
Jimmy’s face was sullen as he hauled himself to his feet, all good nature gone. ‘You haven’t heard the last of this,’ he spat. ‘Jezebel!’
Incredibly, a smile flickered over her beautiful features. ‘Oh, come on, you can do better than that. Who was Jezebel, after all? Now, if you’d said Mata Hari I’d have been insulted—or maybe flattered, one of the two.’
‘Mata who?’
‘Oh, go and look it up!’ she said with the exasperation of a schoolmistress. ‘But go!’
Scowling, he dragged himself to his feet and began to limp away, but not before turning to Roscoe. ‘You’ve been warned,’ he spat. ‘She won’t treat you any better.’
Roscoe held up the envelope. ‘I’m just the delivery man,’ he said mildly.
Jimmy flung him a speaking look and limped away. Roscoe waited until he was out of sight before saying, ‘I’m sorry to arrive unexpectedly, but you left this in my car.’
She made as if to take the envelope that he held out, but snatched her hand back as the robe fell open.
‘I’ll take it inside,’ he said, moving past her.
She followed him, slamming the front door, hurrying into the bedroom and slamming that door too. Roscoe wondered at her agitation. After all, she’d been the victor, conquering and subduing her foe. He would have given a good deal to know the history behind that scene.
The apartment was what he would have expected, lush and decorative in a way he thought of as ultra-feminine. The furniture was expensive and tastefully chosen and the shelves bore ornaments that suggested a knowledge of antiques.
In one corner of the room was a desk with a computer and various accessories, all of which were the very latest, he noted with approval. It seemed to tell a different story to the rest of her. Ditzy dolly-bird on the one hand, technology expert on the other.
But probably the computer had been installed by her employers. That explained it.
She came whizzing back into the room, dressed in sweater and jeans. They were sturdy and workaday, unglamorous except that they answered all questions about her figure.
‘Are you all right?’ he asked.
‘Certainly I’m all right. Why shouldn’t I be?’ She sounded a tad defiant.
‘Just that he seemed rather overwrought—’
‘And he called me Jezebel, implying that I’m a floozie, that’s what you meant.’
‘That’s not what I meant at all.’
Even to herself, Pippa couldn’t have explained why she was on edge, except that she liked to stay in control, and being discovered as she had been was definitely not being in control.
‘Look, I just came back to return your papers,’ he said hastily. ‘Don’t blame me for finding…well…what I found.’ Too late, he saw the quagmire stretching before him.
‘And just what do you think you found? ‘ she demanded, folding her arms and looking up into his face. It was hard because he had a good six inches over her but what she lacked in height she made up in fury.
His own temper rose. After all, he’d done her a favour.
‘Well, I found a girl who’d been a bit careless, didn’t I?’
‘Careless?’
‘Careless with her own safety. What on earth possessed you to get undressed if you were going to knock him back?’
‘Oh, I see. You think I’m a vulgar tease?’
‘No, just that you weren’t thinking straight—’
‘Or maybe you’re the one not thinking straight,’ she snapped. ‘You jump to the conclusion that I stripped off to allure him, and the true explanation never occurs to you. Too simple, I suppose. He arrived after I had come out of the shower.’
‘Oh, heavens, I should have thought of that. I’m sorry, I—’
‘I didn’t get undressed for him,’ she raged on, barely hearing him. ‘I’m not interested in him and so I’ve told him again and again, but he wouldn’t take no for an answer. Just like a man. You’re all the same. You all think you’re so madly attractive that a woman’s no never really means no.’
‘I didn’t—’
‘Conceited, arrogant, bullying, faithless, treacherous—’
‘If you’d only—’
‘Leave, now!’
‘If I could just—’
‘No, you can’t “just” Leave!’
‘I understand that—’
‘Listen, the last man who came in here wouldn’t go when I told him to, and you saw what happened to him.’
‘All right,’ Roscoe said hastily. ‘I really only came to return your property.’
‘Thank you, sir, for your consideration,’ Pippa responded in a formal voice that was like ice, ‘but if you don’t leave of your free will you’ll do so at my will and that—’
‘I’m going, I’m going.’
He departed quickly. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the situation, this was no time to argue. For some reason, she was ready to do murder. It was unfair, but there was no understanding women.
From Pippa’s window, a curve in the building made the front door visible. She stood there watching until she saw him get into his car. Then she turned and glared at the photograph of her grandparents on the sideboard.
‘All right, all right. I behaved terribly. He came to return my things and I was rude to him. I didn’t even thank him. Why? Why? I don’t know why, but I was suddenly furious with him. How dare he see me naked! Yes, I know it wasn’t his fault; you don’t have to say it. But you should have seen the look on his face when he saw me on display. He didn’t know whether to fancy me or despise me, and I could strangle him for it. Grandpa, stop laughing! It’s not funny. Well, all right. Maybe just a bit. Oh, to blazes with him!’
Down below, Roscoe took a quick glance up, just in time to see her at the window before she backed off. He sat in his car for a moment, pondering.
He’d gained only a brief glimpse inside her bedroom, just enough to see a double bed and observe that it was neatly
