daring to breathe, Lisa very quietly put the mug down on the table, her back stiffening with tension. Someone had let himself into the apartment. She heard footsteps on the polished wood of the entrance foyer floor. It had to be a burglar! She thought of screaming for Alex, but he was sound asleep at the other end of the apartment.
Glancing frantically around the kitchen, Lisa looked for something with which to defend herself from the intruder. A shelf of bright orange pans caught her eye. They were a well-known French make, and heavy. Silently she got to her feet and, picking up the largest saucepan from the shelf with the utmost stealth crossed to the slightly open kitchen door.
A very feminine giggle stopped Lisa in her tracks. Her blue eyes widened in amazement. A red-headed woman was bent over, and rather unsteadily removing a pair of high-heeled shoes at the entrance to the living room. As Lisa watched the woman straightened, her red lace stole falling to the floor behind her to reveal a strapless, backless, red sheath dress. Then she spoke, before walking into the living room. ‘Alex, darling. Sorry I’m late, and you’re all on your ownsome.’
This was no burglar, Lisa thought bitterly, and for a long moment shock held her rigid. The woman had a key for the apartment; the woman knew Alex was alone tonight, or was supposed to be. No! her heart screamed. The colour drained from her face. Was it only a few hours ago when she had thought Alex’s betrayal with her stepbrother was the worst that could happen to her? Her soft mouth twisted with savage irony. She had even thought then that it would be less painful if Alex had been overcome with passion for another woman. She had been wrong…
She dared not move, convinced she would splinter like glass into a million pieces, feeling as if each shard would pierce straight in her heart. How long she stood there she had no idea.
Finally Lisa became aware of the saucepan in her hand, and automatically crossed the floor to put it back where she had found it. Then, zombie-like, she left the kitchen and followed the woman as she saw her disappearing into the corridor that housed the four bedrooms.
She was in time to see the woman enter the bedroom Lisa herself had only recently vacated. The door was wide open and bright moonlight flooded the scene. The other woman was totally unaware of Lisa, all her attention fixed on Alex, lying sprawled across the bed, the sheet covering the essentials and nothing much else of him. As Lisa watched in horrified fascination, the woman stepped out of her dress. She was not wearing a bra, only a pair of thong briefs, and as one small hand reached out to lift the sheet, at the same time one elegant leg was raised.
Lisa could take no more. The frozen horror that had held her immobile snapped, and she was toweringly, furiously mad. She switched on the central light.
Three things happened at once. The woman in the act of climbing into bed fell back, as Alex opened his eyes and shot bolt upright in bed. ‘Margot? What the hell—’
Lisa’s face was white, a frozen mask of rage, and the glance she threw at Alex should have burned him to a crisp. But with a glance at the woman leaning against the bed, he returned her look with one of puzzled fury.
‘How did she get in here?’ he demanded of Lisa.
They said attack was the best line of defence, and obviously that was Alex’s strategy, Lisa thought contemptuously. ‘The lady has a key. You appear to hand them out like candy bars at Hallowe’en. But don’t let me interrupt. I’ll just get my things and go.’
Marching into the room, she headed for the dressing room, but Alex stopped her. He had leapt out of bed stark naked, and now grabbed her by the shoulders.
‘Don’t be ridiculous, Lisa, this is all a terrible mistake. Surely you can see that?’
‘I can see everything,’ she snorted with a derisive scan of his body, ‘and so can your lady-friend. But then there’s nothing she hasn’t seen before.’
Suddenly made aware of his naked state, between the avid eyes of the woman standing by the bed and the icy cold eyes of his wife, Alex let fly with a string of what could only be curses in Greek, while grabbing the sheet from the bed and wrapping it around himself. Free of his hold, Lisa headed for the door.
‘Not so fast,’ he growled, and caught her arm. ‘You must have seen Margot come in here. Why didn’t you stop her? You’re my wife for heaven’s sake.’
Lisa could not believe the audacity of the man. His girlfriend had walked into his apartment, stripped almost naked and had been about to slip into his bed. Yet somehow Alex was making it her fault! Not one word of censure to the girlfriend!
‘Was,’ she said trenchantly, and tried to shrug off his restraining hand. When pulling free didn’t work Lisa changed tactics and elbowed him violently in his stomach. It had the desired result as the air whooshed out of him and he let go of her arm. But only for a second. She had barely time to turn round before he had caught her by the wrist again.
‘Enough, Lisa,’ he growled, spinning her around to face him. Lisa stared at him. He was seethingly angry; she could sense it in the tautness of his features and the cold black depths of his eyes. ‘Where the hell do you think you’re going?’
‘You know the saying—two’s company, three’s a crowd,’ she shot back furiously. ‘I’m leaving.’
He shook her arm, his mouth a tight, menacing line. ‘You are not going anywhere.’ His black eyes held Lisa’s in a fierce challenge, daring her to disagree.
‘Oops, I seem to have made a mistake.’ Margot’s voice cut through the electric tension in the air.
Both Lisa and Alex turned to look at the woman with equal degrees of anger.
‘Sorry, I must have got the day wrong. I could have sworn it was tonight.’
Lisa took a really good look at the other woman. She had small breasts and a tiny waist, but she was not a natural redhead. On seeing the woman’s face for the first time, Lisa’s eyes widened in stunned recognition. Her picture had been on posters around Stratford-upon-Avon a couple of months ago. It was Margot Delfont, an up-and-coming Shakespearean actress.
‘Margot, get dressed and get out,’ Alex commanded. ‘I’ve told you it’s over.’
‘But after two years I didn’t think you meant it, Alex, darling.’ Margot replied lightly, though Lisa saw the naked pleading in the other woman’s eyes and had to look away. ‘I mean, that was weeks ago, and we’ve had tiffs before, and got over them.’
‘How many weeks ago? Seven?’ Lisa asked, but she already knew the answer.
‘Not now, Lisa,’ Alex snapped at her. Then, picking the red dress off the floor, he walked across to Margot and threw it at her. ‘Out.’
But Lisa saw it all now. The first time she had met Alex he had said he was in Stratford for the theatre, but had left early. He hadn’t been there for the play but obviously to see his girlfriend. Lisa’s lips twisted in the travesty of a smile. Alex had had a drink with Harold, Nigel and herself, before pleading a late dinner engagement and leaving, but only after having made quite sure he could see Lisa the next day. The phrase ‘killing two birds with one stone’ sprang to mind…
A night with his lover and a bid for the property Lisa owned. What a naive fool she had been! Lisa clenched her teeth to stop herself crying out in pain.
‘Look, I’m awfully sorry, darling, but really it is no big deal. In fact, it might be rather
