Carole Mortimer - Fear Of Love

She was shown into the lounge where the Young family were just having their coffee. Her eyes went instantly to Roger, her heart pounding loudly just at the sight of him. He looked pleased to see her too and they smiled dreamily at each other.

‘Hello, my dear,’ Mrs Young greeted politely. ‘Would you like to join us in some coffee?’

The rumblings of her stomach told her that she should really have gone home and had her lunch before coming here, but as she hadn’t the coffee would have to sustain her until her evening meal. ‘Yes, please, Mrs Young.’

Roger made room for her on the sofa beside him, his arm about her shoulders pulling her close against his side. ‘You’re over early today,’ he murmured softly.

She snuggled against him. ‘Does that mean you aren’t pleased to see me?’

His hold tightened. ‘Don’t say that! I just wasn’t expecting you yet.’

Alexandra sat up as his mother handed her the cup of steaming coffee. ‘Thank you,’ she smiled.

Roger was frowning. ‘I don’t see how you can possibly have eaten lunch and got over here since we parted at the pool this morning.’

She squeezed his hand reassuringly. ‘I’ll explain later.’

‘Yes, but—–’

‘How is your sister keeping?’ Mrs Young asked her. ‘I should think she’s getting quite impatient now.’

‘A little,’ Alexandra agreed. ‘Only another four weeks to go.’

‘I suppose that brother-in-law of yours is kept busy at the hospital,’ put in Mr Young. ‘Although it must be quite convenient having a doctor in the house.’

‘Yes,’ she smiled. She liked Roger’s parents immensely, although they tended to be a little possessive about their only child. Both in their mid-fifties, they had had Roger after ten years of marriage, and he was destined to be the only child they would have. After his initial training he was expected to join his father’s law firm.

The Youngs were the nearest thing the village had to the local people of the manor, the large house they owned set in vast woodlands. With Mrs Young’s twin-sets and tweed skirts and Mr Young riding to hounds and arranging shooting parties, they were everything that could be expected of real gentry.

‘Would you like a game of tennis?’ Roger asked her softly, the gleam in his deep brown eyes showing that he had more than tennis in mind.

‘Let the girl finish her coffee,’ his father said sternly.

‘But I have.’ Alexandra put her empty cup down in the tray.

‘You can’t go running about a tennis court now, Roger,’ his mother reprimanded. ‘You’ve only just eaten.’

‘We’ll be fine,’ he pulled Alexandra to her feet. ‘See you later.’

Alexandra giggled once they were outside. ‘Don’t you ever listen to your parents?’

He grinned. ‘Not usually. They tend to fuss too much.’

‘They love you, that’s why.’

He took her hand in his own, leading her round to the garden at the back of the house, the green lawns stretching down to the tennis courts just out of sight of the house. ‘They still fuss too much.’ He pulled her close against him, his lips lingering on hers. ‘I’ve missed you,’ he said throatily.

She blushed. ‘We only parted two hours ago.’

‘Much too long.’ He kissed her again. ‘Now tell me why you haven’t eaten lunch?’

She stood back. ‘How did you know that?’

‘You haven’t had time. Did something happen?’

‘Let’s go down to the tennis court, we can talk better there.’

‘Something did happen,’ he said.

She laughed. ‘Come on, it’s nothing we can’t sort out.’

They walked down to the comparative privacy of the tennis courts, sitting down on the seats provided, tennis the last thing on their minds at the moment. Their kiss lasted for a long time, and both of them were breathless at the end of it.

‘Mm,’ Roger’s face was buried in her throat. ‘I wish we were married.’

It reminded her too much of her scene with Dominic Tempest earlier and she moved out of Roger’s arms, an angry glitter to her big blue eyes. ‘It’s funny you should mention that. I found out the reason for Gail and Trevor’s refusal today. Trevor’s bossy brother put his spoke in.’

Roger frowned. ‘Dominic Tempest did?’

She grimaced. ‘The same.’

‘But I don’t see what it has to do with him.’

‘Neither did I, and I told him so. I think he’s got the message now.’

‘Mm, well as long as he has.’

‘He has,’ she said with certainty.

‘And he’s the reason you haven’t eaten?’

‘I could hardly sit down to lunch with him after the things I’d just said,’ she smiled at the memory. ‘I wasn’t very polite.’

‘You never are when you speak to him. I’ve only ever met him twice, at your sister’s house, and each time you argued with him.’

‘Only because he has such strong views on everything. He always thinks he’s right.’

Roger chuckled. ‘So do you.’

‘Maybe, but I’m certainly not going to agree with everything he says like Gail and Trevor do. It makes me sick the way they always do what he says. Just because he appears on the television it doesn’t make him anything special.’

‘His programmes are very interesting,’ Roger pointed out.

‘So they ought to be, the risks he takes. I’m surprised he hasn’t killed himself by now.’

‘Someone has to take those risks or we would never know what was going on in the world,’ he pointed out reasonably.

‘I know that, but does he have to enjoy it so much?’

‘A man should enjoy his work, he’s going to be doing it for years.’

‘Not that sort of job he isn’t. He’ll be too old for it soon. He’s thirty-four, you know.’

Roger chuckled. ‘That isn’t old. Will you think me old and past it when I get to that age?’

‘Oh, he isn’t past it, far from it. He had some woman staying with him this weekend, and he openly admitted to sleeping with her.’

‘Goodness, your conversation did get personal, didn’t it?’ grinned Roger.

‘Very. Oh, let’s forget about him, he only angers me.’

‘I’m all for that,’ he said throatily. ‘Kiss me some more.’

She did, her arms about his neck, her body pressed against him. They were so engrossed in each other they didn’t hear the approaching footsteps on the gravel pathway.

‘I hate to interrupt the two of you,’ drawled a familiar taunting voice, ‘but I have to take you home, Alexandra.’

She looked up at Dominic Tempest, her hair wild, her eyes slightly glazed and her mouth bare of lipstick. She moved hurriedly out of Roger’s arms, smoothing her hair down self-consciously.

She licked her lips. ‘What did you say? And what are you doing here anyway?’ she asked resentfully, some of her composure returning. Why should she feel embarassed? He hadn’t this morning.

‘I’ve come to take you home,’ he repeated. ‘Roger’s parents told me you were down here.’

Alexandra stood up, challenge in every line of her body. ‘What do you mean, you’ve come to take me home? Just who do you think you are? I don’t have—–’

‘Gail’s been taken to hospital, Alex,’ Dominic told her quietly.

Her face paled. ‘To hospital? But why? I don’t understand.’

‘It’s quite simple. She collapsed shortly after you walked out of there this morning,’ he told her calmly.

‘Oh, darling!’ Roger held her in his arms, kissing her forehead gently. ‘She’ll be all right, Alexandra, I’m sure of it.’

‘Oh yes, she’ll be all right,’ Dominic Tempest agreed coldly. ‘Now that she’s safely in hospital away from Alexandra’s childish displays of temper.’