Lee Wilkinson - A Husband's Revenge

Bending his balding head deferentially, he said, ‘I’m delighted that madam is safely home.’

‘Thank you, er...’ She hesitated.

‘This is Roberts,’ Jos informed her. Then, to the manservant, he said, ‘I’m afraid Mrs Saunders still hasn’t recovered her memory.’

Roberts looked suitably grave. ‘Very upsetting for both of you, sir.’

After deftly removing the lid from a dish of poached salmon, he opened and shook out a white damask napkin. ‘Mr Saunders thought a light meal... If, however, madam would prefer chicken, or an omelette...?’

‘Oh, no... Thank you.’ Then, sensing a genuine wish to please, she remarked with a smile, ‘I’m sure this will be delicious.’

Roberts departed noiselessly.

‘A butler instead of a housekeeper?’ Sipping her tea, Clare spoke her thoughts aloud. ‘I get the feeling you don’t care much for women?’

‘In one area at least I find a woman is indispensable.’ His mocking glance left her in no doubt as to which area he referred to. ‘I also employ a couple of female cleaners. But I happen to prefer a male servant to run the household.’

Head bent, hoping to hide her blush, she asked, ‘Has Roberts been with you long?’

‘He came with the penthouse.’ Then, with no change of tone, he added, ‘Your salmon will get cold.’

Uncomfortably, she asked, ‘Aren’t you eating?’

‘I had a late lunch a couple of hours ago, when it appeared that you were still in shock and were going to sleep the clock round.’

She glanced at her bare left wrist before asking, ‘What time is it now?’

‘Nearly four-thirty.’ Lifting her hand, making the huge diamond solitaire flash in the light, he asked, ‘Do you remember what happened to your watch?’

‘Do I usually wear one?’

‘Yes. So far as I know, always.’ Letting go of her hand, he urged, ‘Do eat something or you’ll upset Roberts.’

Feeling suddenly ravenous, Clare began to tuck in with a will. Glancing up to find Jos’s eyes were watching her every move, she hesitated.

‘Don’t let me put you off,’ he said abruptly. ‘You must be starving. It’s over twenty-four hours since you were knocked down.’

Glancing once again at her empty wrist, she suggested, ‘Perhaps I left my watch behind when I... with my rings...’

He shook his head emphatically. ‘You wouldn’t have left it behind.’ Dark face thoughtful, he went on, ‘When you arrived at the hospital you had no handbag with you. Didn’t you think that was strange? Don’t most women carry a bag?’

Putting down her knife and fork, she agreed, ‘Yes, I suppose so.’

‘It’s my belief that when you were knocked down, by the time the cabby had pulled himself together and got out, your bag and watch had been stolen. It’s a pretty rough area... Have you any idea what you were doing there?’

‘No.’ Then, harking back, she asked curiously, ‘What makes you so sure I wouldn’t have left my watch behind?’

He rose to his feet and, lifting the tray from her knees, set it aside before answering, ‘Because it was a twenty-first birthday gift from your parents.’

‘My parents?’ Her heart suddenly lifted with hope. ‘Where do they—?’

‘They’re dead,’ he said harshly, resuming his seat. ‘They died in a plane crash in Panama a few months ago.’

‘Oh...’ She felt a curious hollowness, an emptiness that grief should have filled. ‘Did you know them?’

After an almost imperceptible hesitation, he said, ‘I knew of them.’

‘Can you tell me anything about them?’ she asked eagerly. ‘Anything that might help me to remember? Our family background... where they lived?’

This time he hesitated so long that she found herself wondering anew if he would prefer her not to remember.

Then, as though making up his mind, he said, ‘Yes, I can tell you about your family background.’ His face hard, his green eyes curiously angry, he went on, ‘Your father was Sir Roger Berkeley, your mother, Lady Isobel Berkeley. He was a diplomat and she was a well-known hostess, prominent in fashionable society.’

Clare could sense an underlying tension in his manner, a marked bitterness.

‘You were born and brought up in a house called Stratton Place, a mile or so from Meredith.’

‘Meredith?’

‘A pretty little village not too far from London. A lot of rich people live there—bankers, stockbrokers, politicians... You went to an expensive boarding-school until you were eighteen, then a Swiss finishing-school.’

He sounded as if he resented their wealth and position, and she wondered briefly if he’d come from a poorer environment. But that didn’t tally with his voice and his educated accent.

‘You were an only child—and a mistake, I fancy.’ Chilled both by the concept and Jos’s deliberate cruelty, she asked, ‘How could you know a thing like that?’

He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘I’m judging by the type of woman your mother was, and the fact that you were pushed off to boarding-school at a very early age...’

Clare felt impelled to defend the mother she couldn’t remember. ‘But are you in a position to judge? If you didn’t really know her...’

‘I know all I need to know. When your father was posted to the States she joined him in New York. The society gossip columns had a field-day. Men swarmed round her like flies, and she soon got quite a reputation as a goer...’ There was contempt in the deep voice. Softly, he added, ‘You’re very like her.’

Every trace of colour draining from her face, she sat quite still. Surely she couldn’t be the kind of woman he was describing?

Watching her expressive face mirror her consternation, he allowed a scornful little smile to play around his lips.

In response to that smile, she lifted her chin. No, she refused to believe it. Some fundamental self-knowledge told her he must be wrong.

‘I can’t answer for my mother,’ she said calmly, ‘but I’m sure I’m not like that.’

‘You’re the image of her in looks...’

‘That doesn’t necessarily make me like her.’

As though she hadn’t spoken, he went on, ‘You both have the kind of beauty that can drive any man wild.’

Clare shook her head. ‘When I woke in the hospital I had no idea what I looked like. The nurse gave me a mirror. I’m not even pretty.’

‘You’re far more than pretty. You’re fascinating. Wholly bewitching.’

But the way he spoke the words made them a damning indictment rather than a compliment.

A shiver ran through her. ‘I didn’t bewitch you,’ she said with certainty.

His voice brittle as ice crystals, he contradicted her. ‘Oh, but my darling, you did.’

She didn’t believe it for one moment. Almost in despair, she asked, ‘Why did you marry me?’

‘Why do you think?’

‘I don’t know. If I’m like my mother—’ She broke off in confusion.

‘You mean it wouldn’t have been necessary?’ He smiled like a tiger. ‘If I’d only wanted a casual affair, it wouldn’t have been.’

He spoke with such certainty that her blood turned to ice in her veins.

‘But I wanted a great deal more than that...’

Without knowing why, she shivered. ‘So what did you want?’ Perhaps she needed to hear him put it into words, like some coup de grâce.

His mouth smiled, but his eyes were cold as green glass. ‘I wanted to own you body and soul.’

She shivered again. Then slowly, almost as if in accusation, she said, ‘You didn’t love me.’

With no reason to dissemble, he told her matter-of-factly, ‘I never pretended to. On the contrary, I went to great lengths not to mention the word “love”, so there would be no possibility that you could have any illusions, be under any misapprehension...’