must be rather more to it than that.’
‘Well, maybe,’ Beth had agreed. ‘But I wouldn’t like to be the one to pry into her past, would you?’
‘No,’ Kelly had agreed immediately.
Friendly though the four of them had become, and well though they all got on, there was a certain reserve about Dee, a certain sense of distance, an invisible line over which one knew instinctively one would not be encouraged to cross.
‘You seem to know a lot more about Julian’s background than the rest of us,’ Kelly told Dee now.
Dee gave a dismissive shrug.
‘He’s … he grew up locally, and in my position one … learns things.’
Kelly’s frown deepened.
‘But surely if you knew his reputation was unsavoury you could have warned Beth?’
‘I was away when she originally met him,’ Dee reminded her, adding dryly, ‘And anyway, I doubt she would have listened …’
‘No, you’re probably right,’ Kelly agreed. ‘I never liked him, but Beth was so loyal to him she wouldn’t hear a word against him. It’s all very well saying that we ought to do something to show him up for the rat he really is, but how can we? He’s dumped poor Beth, humiliated her, and he’s got clean away with it.
‘I’d like to tell this new girlfriend of his just what he’s like …’ she continued darkly.
‘It wouldn’t work,’ Dee warned her. ‘She’s as besotted with him as Beth was. No, if we’re going to have any chance of getting any kind of restitution for Beth, any kind of public recognition of the way Julian lied about her as well as to her, we’re going to have to use his own weakness, his own greed against him.’
‘We are? But how …?’ Kelly asked her curiously. Beth was such a loving, gentle, kind person, the last thing she had needed was the kind of pain and humiliation Julian had handed out to her, never mind the potential damage it could do to their own just burgeoning business. The whispering campaign Julian had so carefully and cleverly instigated when he had dropped Beth, insinuating that she had been the one pursuing him, obsessed by him, was bound to have its repercussions.
‘I do hope that Beth will be all right on her own in Prague,’ Anna put in anxiously, joining the conversation. Fine-boned and very youthful-looking, Anna was, in many ways, so far as Kelly was concerned, the epitome of a slightly old-fashioned type of femininity and womanhood.
Married young and then tragically widowed, in a medieval century she would have been the type of woman who would no doubt have withdrawn to the protective security of a small convent, or perhaps in the Georgian or Victorian age she would have been the doting aunt to her siblings’ large broods of noisy children.
As it was, she was apparently content with her single life, her pretty little house and her pets—a large fluffy cat and a smaller but just as fluffy dog. Her home had become for both Kelly and Beth a surrogate home from home since they had moved into the area and, whilst Kelly could never for a minute imagine Anna ever stepping into the role so vigorously occupied by her own energetic and feisty mother, there was still something very comforting and special about the gentle concern Anna showered on them both.
It was a pity she had never remarried, in Kelly’s opinion, and she knew that Beth agreed with her.
‘She adored Uncle Ralph; they were childhood sweethearts and they had only been married a few months when he died,’ Beth had told her.
‘Beth will have a wonderful time,’ Dee responded robustly now. ‘Prague is the most beautiful city.’
‘I’ve heard that it’s a very romantic city,’ Anna agreed a little wistfully, or so it seemed to Kelly. ‘I just hope it doesn’t make her feel even worse. She’s lost so much weight and looks so unhappy.’
‘She’ll be far too busy going round glass factories to think about anything other than business,’ Dee predicted firmly.
‘Mmm … It’s a godsend that this trip came up when it did,’ Kelly agreed. ‘And that’s all thanks to you, Dee. That was a brilliant idea of yours to suggest to her that we should think about buying some crystal from the Czech Republic. It’s been so awful for her.
‘You’d think that after what he’s done to her and the way he’s let her down Julian would at least have the decency to keep a low profile with his new girlfriend, but he actually seems to enjoy flaunting their relationship.’
‘Like I said, the man needs teaching a lesson and being given a taste of his own medicine,’ Dee reiterated. ‘And if you want my opinion we’re just the ones to do it.’
‘Us …? But …’ Anna started to protest uneasily.
‘Why not?’ Dee overruled her. ‘After all, you are Beth’s godmother, Kelly here is her best friend … If the three of us can’t be relied upon to do the right thing by her … if she can’t depend on us … then who can she depend on?’ Dee said firmly.
‘It sounds a good idea in theory,’ Kelly allowed, moved by Dee’s obvious emotion. ‘But—’
‘Have some more wine,’ Dee interrupted her. ‘There’s still over half a bottle left.’
Deftly she refilled both Kelly’s glass and Anna’s.
‘I—’ Kelly started to protest but Dee cut her off.
‘It’s got to be finished and I can’t have any more; I’m driving.’
It was true. It had been Dee who had taken charge when Beth had virtually collapsed after Julian had callously told her that he no longer wanted her, just as it had been Dee who had come up with the suggestion that Beth travel to Prague on a buying trip that would also hopefully take her mind off Julian and her unhappiness. And it was Dee who had driven them all to the airport so that they could see Beth off on her journey, and now it seemed that Dee was still taking charge and making plans for them.
‘So, now that we’ve agreed that Julian has to be punished and exposed for what he is, what we need to decide is how we’re going to put our plans into action.’
She paused and then looked at Kelly before saying slowly, ‘What I think would be best would be for us to punish him through his greed. You mentioned the other week, Kelly, that almost right from the first time you met him Julian was coming on to you, making overtures to you, trying to encourage you to date him behind Beth’s back …’
‘Yes. It’s true, he was,’ Kelly agreed. ‘I didn’t tell Beth at the time because I didn’t want to hurt her and then, when it was too late, I wished I had …’ She paused and then added uncertainly, ‘Dee, it’s all very well to talk about us punishing Julian for the way he’s hurt her so badly, but realistically what can we do?’
Dee smiled grimly at her before turning to Anna.
‘Anna, you’ve told us how Julian approached you for a loan, claiming that he wanted the money to use as a deposit on a house he was planning to buy for Beth and himself …’
‘Yes …’
