Jill Mansell - Mixed doubles

Eddie, still trapped by his seatbelt, fumbled to release it. He threw his arms around her and kissed her until they were both panting and out of breath.

‘Oh, Pru, I’ve dreamed of this happening.’ There was a catch in his voice. ‘I’ve wanted to do this for so long ...’

And then, incredibly, she was climbing across the gap between the seats. As he helped her, Eddie wondered if she could hear his heart pounding against his ribs. He kissed her neck and her chin, shifting slightly to accommodate her as she sat astride him.

‘I knew I’d find a use for this one day,’ said Pru, pressing the switch to recline the seat.

Eddie’s hands stroked her bare brown legs and gasped as she wriggled herself into a more comfortable position.

Then he gasped again as he realised that beneath the short black skirt she was naked.

If this is a hallucination, thought Eddie wonderingly, I don’t care. Just don’t let it stop; whatever’s happening here, don ‘t let it stop.

Much later, when the first car drove past and gave them a jaunty toot, Pru buried her smile in the front of his shirt and said, ‘I hope that wasn’t someone who recognised your Jag.’

‘I don’t care.’ Eddie couldn’t stop grinning. ‘I hope it was. I want everyone to know I’ve just been seduced in my car.’

‘By a shameless hussy,’ Pru said happily. ‘I’m sorry if I frightened you half to death. I just had to do it.’

‘Thank God you did. Oh, Pm, I do love you.’ Eddie gave her a hug. ‘I’ve never felt this way about anyone before. I just never dreamt you’d be interested in me. I still can’t believe this is really happening.’ He shook his head, marvelling at the fact that it had. Then, gently pinching one of Pru’s thighs, he said, ‘And speaking of hussies, when on earth did you stop wearing knickers?’

She went pink.

‘In Oxford. I took them off in the car outside the Randolph.’

‘Good grief.’

‘I got the idea from that paperback of Dulcie’s,’ Pru confessed. ‘The one that bossy old woman nicked from me outside Elmlea nursing home.’

‘Let’s hope she doesn’t try it out too. She could give the male residents heart failure.’

Eddie stroked Pru’s ears, smoothing back her glossy dark hair.

‘What?’ The urge to flinch was strong, but she resisted it. Why was he looking at them in that way?

‘Nothing. I like your hair like that. You’ve got beautiful ears.’

Pru smiled. She knew she could tell him about the surgery; he wouldn’t laugh. But there was no need now. Another day. Reluctantly she looked at her watch.

‘I could stay here for ever, but we really should get back.’ Eddie didn’t want to.

‘Why?’

‘Houses to clean,’ she reminded him lightly. ‘Sinks to scour, floors to scrub.’

He didn’t want Pru doing that either. She shouldn’t have to. She deserved so much better.

‘Give it up,’ he said flatly.

‘Oh right, great idea, why didn’t I think of that?’ Pru laughed at the expression on his face. ‘Why pay rént when you can live in a cardboard box?’

‘Come and live with me.’

‘Eddie!’

‘I mean it. Please, don’t laugh, I’m serious. I want you to live with me.’ The words came tumbling out. He had been so unhappy for so long and Pru was everything he’d ever dreamed of.

‘I want you to marry me. Oh, Pm, you’d make me the happiest man on earth. Of course, I know I’m not much of a catch ...’

He really did mean it. Pru’s eyes filled with tears. Frantically Eddie kissed them away. ‘God, don’t cry! I don’t want to make you cry. I love you—’

Pru wiped her wet cheeks on his shirt. How on earth could this kind, wonderful, adorable man think he wasn’t much of a catch?

‘—and if you really couldn’t bear to 1-live with Arthur,’ this time Eddie stumbled on the words; this was the ultimate sacrifice, ‘well, I understand. I’m sure we could find him a good home.’

She stared at him, astounded.

‘Why couldn’t I bear to live with Arthur?’

‘You know ... the allergy thing ...’

Pru struggled to keep a straight face.

‘I’m not allergic to Arthur. I just didn’t want him leering at us from the back seat while we were ... well, otherwise engaged. I thought we could do without an audience.’

It took a while to get themselves respectable again. Finally they were ready to leave.

‘I’ll drive,’ said Eddie.

‘That’s silly. What if you get stopped?’

He flicked open his wallet and showed her his licence. ‘You had it all this time.’ Pru’s eyes widened. ‘You cheat!’ Eddie kissed her as he reached for the car keys. ‘I know. But it did the trick.’

Chapter 46

As she plunged her reddened hands into the washing-up water, fishing for the last elusive teaspoon, Dulcie marvelled at the idea that only a month ago she had actually possessed nails capable of wearing polish. Twelve hours a day in Rufus’s kitchen had changed her hands beyond all recognition and the rest of her had taken a bit of a battering too.

With no time for any more sunbeds, facials or mud treatments, Dulcie was feeling pale and decidedly uninteresting. Her hair, badly in need of a cut, flopped into her eyes. Finding the teaspoon at last, she held it up and studied her reflection in it.

I look like Liam Gallagher, she thought miserably, on a bad day.

Not that this seemed to bother Rufus.

It hadn’t taken Dulcie long to realise that Liza had been right. Thankfully though, Rufus’s crush on her was a discreet one. He was clearly the bashful type. He hadn’t tried to push his luck and Dulcie, not wanting to hurt his feelings, simply pretended she hadn’t noticed. When he asked her out — in extremely casual, just-good-friends fashion — she invented plausible excuses. When she mentioned in passing one day that her favourite aftershave was Eau Savage and Rufus came into the café the next morning reeking of it — rather than his usual Old Spice — she didn’t say a word. And when he confided in her that he was lonely, Dulcie sympathised and pretended she wasn’t.

‘Finished? Great.’ Rufus came charging through the swingdoors with a pile of dirty plates.

Dumping them on the drainer, he turned his attention to the oven packed with trays of whole-wheat samosas and foil-wrapped garlic baguettes. ‘It’s getting busy out there. Could you take the order from table three?’

Dulcie ached all over; she actually felt as awful as she knew she looked. Praying she wasn’t going down with flu, she dried her hands on a towel and reached for the order pad.

‘If they’re undecided,’ said Rufus over his shoulder, ‘push the samosas. We’ve got enough here to feed India.’

Wholefood cafés tend to attract a particular breed of customer, the kind that favour natural dyes and fabrics. There were usually plenty of long, droopy cotton dresses and even droopier hand-knitted sweaters in every shade of brown. The choice of perfume ranged between anything from the Body Shop, the musty tang of patchouli oil, and dope.

It wasn’t difficult to spot Liam in his dazzling Persil-white tracksuit, and Imelda in a shocking-pink Lycra dress. Even if she’d been blind, Dulcie would still have been able to find her way to table three. Nobody else on the planet doused themselves in Obsession like Imelda.

‘My God, it’s true!’ Imelda squealed when she saw Dulcie watching them from the doorway.

Giggling, she nudged Liam. ‘She’s really here. Dulcie, it’s been ages! And you look .. . you look ...’

Lank-haired, knackered and altogether skivvyish, thought Dulcie, who was under no illusions. At this rate she could end up giving Ruby, the maid from Upstairs Downstairs, a run for her money.