Lee Wilkinson - From Mistresses To Wives?

Jessica wasn’t slow to note the slight emphasis on her use of Zac’s first name. Typical of him not to stand on ceremony, though she wouldn’t have thought the two of them met up very often if this was the hour Barbara usually arrived.

‘Well, just do what you normally do,’ she said lamely.

She took herself to task as the other went on through to the kitchen. So Barbara was an attractive woman, not all that much older than Zac himself. Was she going to suspect him of bedding every attractive female he came into contact with?

Somehow reluctant to leave her alone in the house, she rescheduled the shopping trip for the following day, and took it on herself to sort out laundry from the basket in the main bedroom, although there wasn’t a great deal. The small utility off the kitchen held a combined washer-dryer. Barbara came into the room as she loaded it.

‘I always do that on a Friday,’ she said. ‘The ironing too. Zac’s very particular about his shirts.’

Jessica said mildly, ‘I’ll leave you to it in future, then. I was going to make coffee. Would you like a cup?’

She made the coffee, and took it through on a tray to the sitting room where Barbara was running a quite unnecessary vacuum over the carpet.

‘Sit down for a few minutes,’ she invited.

The other woman perched on the arm of a chair, her gaze speculative as she took the cup Jessica handed her.

‘It’s a bit of a shock, I must say,’ she remarked. ‘I had Zac down as a sworn bachelor! Known him long, have you?’

Jessica kept her tone light. ‘Long enough.’

‘Well, I can’t blame you for snapping him up. Not that I envy you the job you’re going to have. I know what it’s like being married to a man used to variety. Vows don’t mean a great deal when the sap rises.’

‘There are exceptions to every rule,’ Jessica returned, determined not to let the cynicism get to her.

Barbara gave a short laugh. ‘So they say.’ She drained the cup, and got back to her feet. ‘Must get on. I’ve another job to go to after this.’

She left at three, having first stacked the dried laundry in a basket ready for Friday. Knowing it was sheer perversity on her part, Jessica set up the ironing board and spent the next half hour on a job that had never held any great appeal for her at the best of times. What she did like to do was cook on occasion, but the refrigerator held little to inspire her. Zac, she guessed, would more often than not eat out.

That particular problem was solved when Zac rang to say Leonie had contacted him to invite the two of them over for dinner that evening.

‘She’d have phoned you,’ he said, ‘only she didn’t have the number. I’m ex-directory,’ he added, anticipating the question that leapt to Jessica’s mind. ‘Anyway, I’ll make sure I’m home early enough to make it back across town for eight.’

She could hardly keep the two of them apart indefinitely, Jessica acknowledged, struggling to overcome her reluctance to see them together. She would just have to put a rein on her imagination.

Zac got in at six-thirty, surprised to see the freshly ironed shirts Jessica had hung to air on the wardrobe door before putting them away.

‘There was no need for this,’ he said mildly. ‘Barbara does the laundry on a Friday. I completely forgot to tell you about her. Must have had other things on my mind,’ he added with a smile that slowly changed character as he viewed her appearance in the silky black trousers and pale cream top. ‘Speaking of which—’

‘We don’t have time,’ Jessica interjected with reluctance. ‘You still have to shower and change.’

His shrug made light of the moment. ‘I guess it will keep.’

He exchanged the suit in which he’d spent the day for a pair of cord trousers and a designer T-shirt, shrugging on a beige suede jacket that sat on his frame the way only bespoke tailoring could. Looking at him, Jessica still found it difficult to consider it was only a matter of days since they’d first met. Most couples getting married had at least been together long enough to have some understanding. Apart from the obvious, they knew so little of one another.

With traffic at its heaviest, it was gone eight by the time they made it to St John’s Wood. Neither Leonie nor Zac showed any awkwardness in their greeting. Jessica did her best to act naturally herself. Leonie had invited a friend to make up a foursome. Around the same age as Zac, he proved to be very good company. He was something big in information technology from what Jessica could gather.

‘Any chance of a lasting relationship?’ she asked her cousin when they had a few minutes on their own in the kitchen.

‘With Greg?’ Leonie laughed, shaking her head. ‘He’d run a mile if I showed any sign of getting serious! Same here.’

‘Do you plan on staying single all your life?’ Jessica said curiously.

‘Depends on whether I ever meet a man I could contemplate spending my life with. You already cornered the best of the bunch.’ She turned a glance when Jessica failed to answer, her smile brief. ‘Just teasing again. You should know me by now. Anyway, how’s it going so far?’

Jessica made an effort to infuse enthusiasm. ‘Fine! He has a mews cottage in Chelsea. It’s absolutely gorgeous!’

‘Not quite what I’d have imagined him to choose,’ Leonie commented. ‘Though I can see the advantages. Getting the car off the road, for one.’ She paused, her regard too shrewd for comfort. ‘I don’t see you going in for domesticity wholesale.’

‘I’ve no intention,’ Jessica acknowledged. ‘I’ll be looking for a job.’

‘With Prescotts?’

‘Hopefully.’

‘You’ve discussed it with Zac?’

‘Not yet.’ Jessica slanted a glance. ‘You doubt he’ll agree?’

Leonie gave a brief shrug. ‘Who am I to say what he will or won’t do?’

‘You’ve known him longer than I have. And you’re very much alike in outlook.’

‘Depends on the direction. I certainly never saw him as a hook, line and sinker man. But then, who can ever know? You’ve proved a regular bundle of surprises yourself. After your experience with Paul, this is the last thing I’d have expected of you. Meeting to marriage in one short week! You have to admit, there’s a distinct ring of fairy tale in there.’

Jessica forced a smile, a lighter note. ‘With a happy ending!’

‘I hope so. For both your sakes.’

There was no more said on the subject, to Jessica’s relief. It was only too obvious that her cousin was far from convinced of the reasons for this marriage.

‘Leonie’s suspicious,’ she said on the way back to Chelsea.

‘Of what?’ Zac asked.

‘The time element, for one thing. She seems to find it difficult to believe that you of all people could fall that far that fast.’

‘So it’s just my feelings she doubts?’ he said after a moment.

‘Mine too, considering I was supposed to be still getting over Paul.’

‘She thinks you were caught on the rebound?’

‘Something like that.’

‘Then we’ll just have to convince her she’s wrong on both counts.’

Jessica gave him a swift glance, but there was no reading anything from the profile etched against the sodium street lighting. What was she looking for anyway? she asked herself. She already knew exactly where she stood in his estimation: the same place he stood in hers. Whether there would ever be more was a question only time could answer.

The drive down to Dorset on Friday was accomplished in sunshine, with a forecast for a fine weekend to come; a welcome change from the damp and dismal days just passed.

Jessica viewed the coming events with mixed feelings. While Henry Prescott’s condition appeared to have remained static over the past week, his impending death was bound to cast a shadow over the whole proceedings. It was only to be hoped he’d at least see the ceremony through.