it sounded. She was just glad he had finally left. She could breathe again now, felt as if she had been hyperventilating since the moment the man had revealed his identity as Maximilian Grant. ‘Of all the cars in all the world’; not quite the original quote, but it was apt. So very apt!
‘Sophie, could we get moving now?’ Brian had wound his car window down to prompt impatiently. ‘I know it’s the weekend tomorrow, but I still have to go to work, and it’s late——’
‘Well, lucky old you!’ she ground out furiously as she marched across the road to wrench open the passenger door–such a gentleman to get out and open the door for her, she didn’t think!—and got in beside him. ‘Thanks to you I–oh, never mind.’ She glared across the width of the car at him. ‘Just drive, will you?’ She hunched down in her seat. ‘I’m no more anxious to spend any more time in your company than you are in mine!’ She scowled unseeingly ahead of her.
‘I didn’t say—— Oh, all right,’ Brian sighed wearily as the fierceness of her glowering glare was turned on him. ‘But it seems to me you’re making an awful fuss about this whole business,’ he muttered to himself as he accelerated the car forward. ‘I made a mistake. I’ve apologised. I don’t know why we can’t just forget the whole incident,’ he added in a disgruntled voice.
That was the whole point; he had no idea that she would probably not be allowed to forget it! Aunt Millie, waiting up for her at home, wasn’t likely to let her forget it in a hurry. And to her mind, much more significantly, there was Maximilian Grant…
‘Ally is going to kill me,’ Brian sighed wearily as Sophie didn’t confirm or deny his previous suggestion.
Remembering the fiery temper of her friend from childhood, Sophie wouldn’t be in the least surprised! ‘It’s no more than you deserve,’ she told Brian now, although her tension had already started to diminish. ‘I should just let Ally have you,’ she added teasingly. ‘But I won’t!’ She gave a rueful smile now at the thought of it. ‘It would be a little like throwing you to the lions!’ She shook her head. ‘I can’t actually see any reason why Ally has to know about this at all.’ The fewer people who knew anything about tonight, the better; too many people knew about it already as far as she was concerned.
‘Thanks!’ Brian said with obvious relief for the reprieve–his gratitude having the effect of making Sophie feel somewhat guilty now, when she was just as anxious that the incident should be kept between the two of them. ‘My sister can be a real nag when she wants to be.’ He frowned at the thought.
Talking of nags …she had better start thinking of what she was going to say to Aunt Millie when she got back!
Sophie fell silent again just at the thought of it, her return of good humour fading too. By the time Aunt Millie had finished with her, she doubted she would have much to smile about!
And so it was no surprise at all, as they approached the house, to see it ablaze with lights. ‘Just drop me off here,’ Sophie told Brian as they turned in the driveway, the house still some distance away. ‘Ally has nothing on my aunt Millie when it comes to the “outraged dragon",’ she explained with a grimace at his questioning look. ‘And as you can see by the lights, she’s still up!’
Sophie could envisage her aunt right now, seated at the wooden table in the centre of the kitchen, the belt to her pink towelling bathrobe neatly tied at her ample waist, her rosy face bare of make-up, even the powder and lipstick she usually wore during the day, and there would possibly be rollers in her hair, depending on whether or not tonight was a hair-wash night; Sophie wasn’t sure about the latter, had left too early in the evening to know one way or the other. But she did know her aunt wouldn’t be reading or writing, or doing anything else for that matter, as she waited. She would just be waiting.
Brian didn’t need any further discouragement, stopping the car while they were still well away from the house, turning in his seat to look at her. ‘If you’d like me to come in with you, I will,’ he offered bravely.
Sophie laughed softly. ‘Now I know why I had a crush on you when I was younger! It’s a nice offer, Brian, and I do appreciate it.’ She squeezed his arm gratefully. ‘But I believe Aunt Millie is best faced alone.’ Mainly because, in this instance, Brian was more likely to drop her further into trouble than she already was if he should say the wrong thing at the wrong time!
As it was, Sophie was still trying to work out what she could say to her aunt–if she had a chance to say anything!
‘If you’re sure that’s what you’d prefer…’ Brian accepted with some relief. ‘I’ll call you in a few days, shall I, and–no?’ He winced as he saw she was already shaking her head at the suggestion.
‘We’re friends again, Brian; let’s just leave it at that,’ Sophie dismissed evenly. ‘And don’t try this on anyone else, hmm?’ she advised as she pushed the car door open in preparation of getting out onto the gravelled driveway. ‘You aren’t very good at it!’
‘Thanks!’ he returned drily. ‘A man’s ego certainly couldn’t become inflated with you around, could it!’
She chuckled softly before shutting the door and setting off down the driveway, grateful to Brian as she did so as he deliberately kept the car headlights brightly shining in that direction until she reached the door; it was a black, moonless night, and shadowy bushes edged the driveway in eerie silence.
She turned and waved once she reached the door, vaguely registering that Brian was turning the car around and leaving now even as she saw, from the light streaming from the kitchen window, that sleek car of bottle-green parked outside. Sophie’s nervousness returned anew at the sight of that car, and she entered the house on leaden feet.
As soon as she entered the kitchen she could see she was wrong on all four counts concerning her aunt; she wasn’t seated at the table but stood beside it putting a cup and saucer on a tray, she wasn’t dressed for bed but wore one of her usual blue dresses with the pristine white collar, and her powder and lipstick looked newly applied, and, although Sophie could see her aunt had washed her hair, it certainly wasn’t in rollers but neatly brushed into style.
Oh, well, here goes, Sophie groaned inwardly. ‘Aunt Millie?’
Her aunt was so startled, obviously not having heard Sophie’s entrance, that she almost dropped the sugar bowl she had been about to put on the tray with the cup and saucer. She glared across at Sophie impatiently at the same time she slammed the sugar bowl down. ‘I didn’t hear you get back,’ she accused unnecessarily, her attention almost immediately returning to the tray, adding a coffee-pot and a jug of cream before nodding her satisfaction that everything seemed to be in place.
‘Just now,’ Sophie nodded warily. ‘Brian brought me back.’ And this time she wasn’t lying! ‘Aunt Millie, I want to explain about——’
‘Not now, Sophie,’ her aunt dismissed irritably, picking up the tray. ‘Can’t you see I’m busy?’
Of course she could see her aunt was busy, but it was imperative she explain to her about——
Her aunt frowned. ‘If you want to do something useful, Sophie, then open the door for me so that I can——’
‘Mrs Craine, I’ve decided I will have that sandwich you offered, after all.’ The door to the main part of the house had been thrust open from the other side before Sophie could reach it, a man now standing in the doorway.
A man
