stood at the side of Keri’s cot, tears streaming down her cheeks. ‘Oh, darling,’ she breathed softly, ‘what shall I do? Oh, what shall I do?’
Templar looked around the shabby room she had moved into the day before. When the kindly landlady had told her that she could have the room and that she would look after Keri while Templar worked she couldn’t believe her luck. She had told no one she was moving, except of course Mrs Marks. Not even Mary and Ken knew. She daren’t risk being traced by them. Men like Leondro Marcose could wield a lot of power, and it wouldn’t take him long to trace one very frightened girl and her baby.
And she was frightened, terrified in fact. She couldn’t possibly spend the rest of her life married to that cold arrogant man. He had the look of a springing leopard about to leap on its prey. And Templar felt as if she was that prey.
Keri seemed little bothered by her change of scene, not that it was all that different. All these rooms were the same, although this one was shabbier than most. But then the landlady was kind, and that made all the difference.
Of Ken she had seen little; he had finally washed his hands of her. In fact, like Leondro Marcose, Ken had given her an ultimatum: marry him and give up Keri or else their relationship ended. He seemed to think he had waited long enough for her, and the argument that had followed had not been pleasant. Templar had told him so many times that she would never give up Keri that she had thought he would actually have realised by now that she meant what she said. But he hadn’t, accusing her of playing at mother, and Keri’s contented gurgles of ‘Mama’ had only incensed him more. Finally he had stormed out of the room with a vow to waste no more time on her.
In a way his departure had been a relief. His complaints about Keri had become more pronounced of late and Templar often had to bite her tongue from preventing herself from saying something she would regret. Like most red-haired people, she had a hot temper, although she usually managed to control it. As a child she had often been punished for losing her temper with another child, or even more disastrous, with an adult.
At every movement or knock on the door Templar physically jumped, dreading opening the door in case it should be Leondro Marcose, although Keri didn’t seem affected by the air of electricity that surrounded her.
Templar took Keri downstairs and left her with Mrs Street. She had to leave earlier in the mornings now, the journey to work taking twice as long from here. Her employer, Howard Hathaway, ran a small insurance agency, and Templar, besides being his secretary, was his assistant, the tea-girl, general telephonist and also the cleaning lady. Not that she minded. A huge impersonal complex wasn’t her idea of enjoying work, although occasionally Howard became just a little too familiar. Templar never ceased to be amazed by this. Howard had a beautiful and loving wife and two young children, and yet still he had to try and prove his irresistible manhood—another reason for her disillusionment of men’s fidelity.
‘Good morning, Howard,’ she said breathlessly, placing her bag full of groceries in the corner of the room with her coat. ‘Sorry I’m late, but I just had to get some food in.’
‘That’s all right,’ accepted Howard, a man in his mid-thirties beginning to go slightly bald on top. ‘Although you look worn out before you even start. What have you been up to?’
‘Why, nothing,’ she blushed. ‘But Keri did have rather a wakeful night last night.’
‘Teething,’ sympathised Howard. Having had to put up with it twice himself he knew how wearing it could be.
Templar shook her head, beginning to sort through the letters on her desk. ‘No, it wasn’t teething. She decided that two o’clock this morning was the time to play,’ she grimaced. ‘You try telling a determined ten-month-old that you’re too tired to play! It doesn’t work.’
‘I know,’ he laughed. ‘Look, leave those for a minute and make us both a cup of coffee.’
Templar went round to see Mary at lunch-time. She didn’t think she would be able to bring Keri over so often now that they were living further away, although there was a park near them now so she would be able to take her there. Fresh air was something neither of them had enough of.
‘Hello, love,’ Mary greeted her in surprise. ‘What brings you round? Not that it isn’t nice to see you, but you don’t usually call on a Friday.’
‘Well, I—’ Templar hesitated about revealing her change of address, not that she didn’t trust Mary, but from what she had seen of Leondro Marcose she thought he could be completely ruthless on occasion. And it wasn’t fair to involve Mary in her troubles, she had enough of her own. She smiled brightly at her friend. ‘I just felt like coming round. It’s a lovely day outside, why don’t we go out for a walk? We could do some window-shopping.’
‘Mm, lovely. Just wait a minute while I get my coat. Samantha’s at nursery school this morning,’ Mary sighed. ‘At least by the time this one’s born she’ll be old enough to join Melanie at school. Peter will insist on trying for a boy,’ she smiled slightly. ‘Men and their male ego!’
Templar couldn’t have agreed more, although she didn’t say so. It was relaxing to walk around the shops, even if neither of them could afford to buy anything. Occasionally Templar would see one of her old crowd when out on these walks, but besides a polite hello she didn’t attempt any conversation with them.
Howard was in one of his more boisterous moods when she got back to the office and she could only assume he had been on one of his selling lunches again. When this happened he and the client had usually drunk so much that neither of them could remember what policies had or had not been taken out. Without saying a word Templar prepared him some black coffee, placing it unquestionably before him.
‘What’s this for?’ He looked at her through bleary eyes.
‘Drink it, Howard,’ she said quietly. ‘It will do you good.’
‘Are you implying I’m drunk?’ he asked sneeringly.
Templar didn’t know what to say; as usual the drink had made Howard nasty and the best thing for her to do was keep out of his way. She moved quietly away from him and didn’t see his quick movement as he put out a hand and pulled her down on to his knees.
‘Howard!’ She was deeply shocked. No matter how much he had drunk he wasn’t usually like this. ‘Stop it!’
‘What’s the matter, girl?’ he snapped. ‘You weren’t always so fussy, were you? What about that little bast—–’
‘Don’t you dare say that, Howard! Don’t you dare! Keri was born out of love, not what you’re implying.’ She struggled to get out of his arms. ‘I think you’ve said quite enough for one day!’
‘I could not agree more.’
Templar stopped struggling at the sound of that cold clipped voice and looked up, straight into the contemptuous blue-grey eyes of Leondro Marcose. He was looking at the two of them as if they were something thing rather nasty that had wandered into his line of vision. She stood up, smoothing down her plain navy-coloured skirt and straightening her pure white blouse.
Howard struggled to his feet, shifting uncomfortably under the other man’s cold stare. ‘Who the hell are you?’ he blustered.
Leondro Marcose moved further into the tiny office that Howard rented, looking scathingly at the untidy clutter that was their work. ‘I
