ever since he learned that she had her doubts about him. Perhaps it explains that dramatic gift to “Hathor”. She’s got him worried. He won’t admit it, but he’s trying to bind her to him.’
‘But Mum didn’t marry him for his money and she isn’t a woman to be impressed by grand gestures. If he’s trying to win her heart again he’s going the wrong way about it.’
‘Yes, and he thinks he’s being so clever,’ Jackson mused. ‘That’s the trouble. It’s easy to think you’re being clever when you’re actually making a woman despise you.’
She regarded him with her head on one side and a teasing smile on her face.
‘Despise you? I shouldn’t think you have much to worry about in that direction. Your fan base doubles every day, so I hear. I expect Travis is getting quite jealous.’
‘Ha-ha!’ he said ironically. ‘Yes, I have my female fans—women who don’t know me, who wouldn’t give tuppence for me if they did know me. I’m talking about real relationships. I’ve never been brilliant at those.’ He hesitated before saying, ‘There was this girl—it took me too long to realise what we might be to each other, and by the time I did—well, I’d messed up.’
She too paused before speaking, wondering if she’d divined his true meaning.
‘So what happened? Has she married someone else?’
‘No, but I expect she will.’
‘Maybe not,’ she said carefully. ‘She might have gone off the whole idea.’
‘Blaming all men because of one useless dope? That’s a bit hard, isn’t it?’
‘Perhaps she thinks all men are useless dopes,’ Freya said, elaborately casual.
‘She might be right. But some are less dopey than others.’
‘And some are more dopey than others.’ She laughed softly. ‘And some are so hopelessly dopey that it’s a waste of time trying to improve them.’
He considered this. ‘She shouldn’t judge too soon. It might be time well spent.’
‘Maybe—maybe not. We might never know.’
‘Oh, yes,’ he said softly. ‘We’ll know. Perhaps we already know. But things get in the way. If we let them.’
‘If we let them it’s because there’s no choice,’ she said gently.
‘Then we’ll have to wait and find out.’
She nodded, meeting his eyes directly. It felt good to be here, talking in a mysterious way that might mean something or might not. That would be decided in another world.
Neither of them realised that they were being watched from a window on the second floor of the hotel. Absorbed in each other, they didn’t glance up, but began to walk along the river, hand in hand, until they were out of sight.
‘Oh, that’s lovely,’ Janine said, drawing back from the window. ‘They look so right together.’
‘Of course they’re right together,’ Amos said. ‘I’ve always said so, but nobody would listen to me.’ He gave a deep, self-satisfied sigh. ‘I knew it would work.’
‘Knew what would work?’
‘Getting Freya out here.’
‘She came out to look after you because you were unwell.’
‘That’s what I wanted everyone to think, but there was nothing really wrong with me. I was sure that once she was here they’d get together at last.’
‘Nothing wrong with you?’ Janine repeated slowly. ‘All those breathless attacks—’
‘They weren’t difficult to stage. I did it to make you both come out here. I knew they’d have to spend a lot of time together.’ He gave a rich chuckle. ‘And it worked. Oh, come on, don’t look at me like that. You know I occasionally bend the facts a little.’
‘A little?’ she breathed. ‘This wasn’t a little. It was a massive deceit.’
‘But it was for a good cause. Wouldn’t you like to see them married?’
‘Yes—if it’s what they both want. But not just because they were manipulated.’
‘All I did was give them the chance to be together. Was that wrong?’
‘No,’ Janine said. ‘But you could have confided in me. If you’d told me that your illness was only a pretence—let me be part of it—if only you’d trusted me enough to do that. But you shut me out. Do you know how I’ve felt since I thought you were ill again? I’ve lain awake at night, worrying about you. It never once crossed my mind that the whole thing was an act to get your own way.’
She seemed to pull herself up short, and a new, harder note came into her voice.
‘But perhaps it should have done. As you say, I know what you’re like. I know you don’t have a conscience about how you make everyone jump to do your bidding. I even know about how you tried to order Dan to stay away from Freya.’
Amos raised his head to gaze at her with a mixture of astonishment and dismay. For once in his life words did not come easily.
‘Yes,’ he mumbled. ‘Well—’
Janine regarded him curiously. ‘Is that all you’ve got to say? Did you hear what I just told you? I know about what you did with Dan—how you tried to break him up with Freya.’
‘Let’s leave that,’ he said hastily.
‘You don’t seem surprised. Don’t you wonder how I knew?’
‘I know Freya told you,’ he growled.
‘How?’
‘I—I happened to be passing the door when she was talking.’
‘I see. You “happened” to be passing the door, and then you “happened” to stay there and spy on us. And you heard—?’
‘Yes,’ he snapped. ‘I heard everything.’
Everything. The word seemed to echo in the air. ‘Everything’ meant he’d heard her remarks about him.
‘He likes to see himself as powerful. The trouble is, that’s the side of him I find hardest to live with.’
He knew she’d said that. And he’d heard Freya ask why she stayed with him, heard her reply.
‘He needs me. He’s vulnerable in ways he doesn’t realise.’
How he would resent her for daring to suggest that he was vulnerable!
‘I heard everything,’ Amos repeated now in a harsh voice. ‘So I’ve known all this time that you know about me and Dan. But you never said anything
