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Chapter 09
The open cupboard door revealed some glasses and a collection of wines and spirits. When Amelia-Rose had purchased them in the local market town, she'd wondered why because there was nobody to drink them at the time - nevertheless she had always prided herself on being ready to entertain.
John poured some gin into a mixing container, threw in a splash of red martini and crushed some ice on top.
"You remembered my favorite drink," Amelia-Rose observed. She was watching his strong clean hands moving deftly to mix the ingredients far more closely than she would have liked.
"Your favorite drink should be well known to me! I've seen you prepare it often enough. In fact, I bet I know a lot more about you than you realize."
He stood back, quizzically examining her from head to toe. She was starting to feel that her blue dress with its buttons down the front and sleeveless arms was cut too low. Trying to appear casual, she crossed her arms to defend herself from his probing eyes.
"All right, Mr Clever, if you know so much about me, you'll be able to guess which is my favorite spot to sit and relax in this cottage."
"I would need to see all the rooms," he parried, with a challenging gleam in his eye.
"You can confine yourself to the ground floor and the garden...," she said firmly.
He held his glass to his chest, a red jewel against the executive white of his perfect shirt, and wandered from room to room like a fox seeking its lair. The dining room was first but he shook his head. "To practical," was his verdict. "You've done the posh dinners bit and my guess is you are now ready to move on!"
He explored the adjoining greenhouse that doubled as a sort of conservatory.
"This is more like it," he mused. There was a profusion of plants amongst comfortable cane chairs with green linen shawls thrown over to add color. It was not a large room and it had no views but it was warm and sunny - a place where somebody could hide away.
He lifted his glass, toasted her and drained it in triumph at the surprised look on her face.
She leaned against the plant-strewn bench that ran around the edge of the conservatory.
"Not bad! Perhaps you're not really a brash, successful, unfeeling, executive-type after all ..."
"Whose face you slapped so hard ... " He finished the sentence for her. "You know, I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't known for certain that Gerard was already involved in another relationship."
"But why didn't you tell me? You said nothing, even after I'd slapped you."
She crossed and fidgeted with a fern that cascaded from a high shelf down the side of the conservatory. She continued.
"It was quite a slap. It must have made you angry - although you never showed it."
He grimaced at the memory.
"I was so positive that by then you'd have known that Gerard was having an affair. When I realized that you knew nothing about it, I couldn't bring myself to add insult to injury."
He looked embarrassed. His voice had softened and he was gazing at a point on the floor between them.
"Yet it would have justified the way you came on to me?" There was a catch in Amelia-Rose 's voice.
He ran his hand through his hair. It was a gesture Amelia-Rose knew well.
"To be honest, I fancied you from the first time I saw you," he said. "But you were married to a friend so I held off. I've always liked and respected both of you. I didn't like at all the way he betrayed you."
His voice was liquid smooth but it rang with a quiet sincerity that made Amelia-Rose's stomach involuntarily contract with guilt. She was now beginning to feel she had treated this decent man badly ...
Without any particular plan, Amelia-Rose found herself elegantly crossing the small distance between them, sipping martini as she walked. She parked her empty glass on the ledge behind him amongst the profusion of plant pots. She was very close but not touching him. She could see him reacting to her perfume - as she'd known he would.
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