Читать книгу Knight's Possession - Кэрол Мортимер, Кэрол Мортимер - Страница 6

SHE knew he had as people surged forward to offer their congratulations.

‘He’s beautiful, darling.’ Heather, one of her more outrageously outspoken friends, eyed Reece covetously as he left the microphone to cross the room to Laurel’s side. ‘I’d change my mind, too, if he asked me.’ She gave the man who had accompanied her to the party a disparaging look before walking off.

‘Gorgeous,’ Polly agreed as she bent to kiss her cheek. ‘And I fell for the “brother” routine this afternoon,’ she grimaced.

‘He’s a lucky man.’ David, Polly’s husband, hugged her warmly.

‘Behave yourself,’ Polly glared at him. ‘If I don’t hit you Reece might, and he looks a powerful man to me.’

‘Darling!’ her mother kissed her, smiling happily. ‘What a lovely surprise.’

It was a surprise, but she doubted she would ever think of it as lovely! Why on earth had Reece told these people such a lie and landed them in this mess?

He was in front of her now, his arm about her waist as he pulled her to her feet and held her at his side, the heat of his hand seeming to burn through the silky material. Laurel stood by him numbly as he charmingly accepted the congratulations still coming their way.

She felt devastated by Giles’s betrayal, knew he had to realise what an embarrassing position he would put her in by not turning up at the party they had been arranging for months. She felt alternately like sitting down and crying like a hurt child or punching him in the face! If she ever saw him again. Oh yes, she would see him again; he had said he would call around tomorrow once the shop had closed to collect the ring. If he thought she was handing that over to him as well he was in for a shock!

‘Darling?’

She looked up at Reece with blank eyes, too lost in thoughts of what a fool she had been to have kept up with the conversation.

He frowned as he saw the bewilderment in her eyes, his mouth firming before he bent his head to quickly claim her lips with his. Laurel gasped as she realised what he was about to do, her parted lips seeming like an invitation to the people watching them. It wasn’t an exploratory kiss like the one he had given her earlier at the shop; this time he demanded, and took when she didn’t freely give. His arrogant demand made her even more angry than she already was, kissing him back as roughly, her mouth swollen and bruised when he finally drew back, her eyes bright and feverish.

‘When two combustible substances meet…’ David murmured admiringly.

The indulgently amused laughter of their onlookers broke the tension, Laurel turning hastily away from the humour Reece tried to share with her. ‘Please, everyone, there’s plenty of food and drink,’ she invited. ‘We’re here to have a good time.’

‘We’ll start the dancing off.’ Reece pulled her back into his arms as the band began to play a slow haunting melody, moving gracefully to the music as he moulded Laurel to him from breast to thigh. His face nuzzled in her hair as he bent down to her. ‘Are you all right now?’ he finally asked softly.

‘You said you would handle it,’ she choked.

‘And you told me to do what I thought best,’ he reminded huskily, giving every impression of a newly engaged man, slowly caressing her as they danced. ‘If I had told them the truth you would now know the pity and embarrassment of having to return their gifts to them.’

‘And instead I’m now the envy of several of my friends,’ she said disgustedly, knowing that as far as Heather was concerned her boyfriend of the last few months came a very poor second to Reece.

He looked down at her with amused eyes. ‘Which ones?’ he teased.

Her nails dug into his neck where he had put her arms about him. ‘Behave yourself!’ she frowned.

‘I’d rather have you fighting me than see that defeated look in your eyes when you read Gilbraith’s letter,’ he said seriously.

‘I wasn’t defeated,’ she told him stiffly. ‘I was angry. I still am.’

‘Good,’ Reece nodded admiringly.

‘At you, too.’ She glared at him. ‘You——’ Reece stopped her tirade by once again putting his mouth on hers.

‘Will you stop doing that!’ She wrenched away from him.

‘Careful.’ The warmth of his smile didn’t waver for an instant. ‘We have an audience,’ he added pleasantly, once again holding her lightly against him.

Laurel turned sharply to look about them, feeling the colour darken her cheeks as she realised they were the only two people dancing, her friends standing around the dance floor watching them indulgently. She quickly turned back to Reece. ‘Oh God,’ she groaned. ‘This is awful!’

‘Smile when you say that.’ His lips moved lightly across her cheek to the edge of her mouth.

‘Reece, I feel as if I’m caught in a nightmare and can’t wake up!’ She trembled.

He laughed softly as he straightened. ‘That’s the first time any woman has described kissing me as a nightmare! I’m obviously not finding the experience of being your fiancé as unsettling as you are.’

‘Why did you do it?’ she groaned.

‘Cheer up,’ he told her lightly. ‘It will only be for a few weeks.’

‘A few weeks!’ she repeated aghast. ‘Reece, we can’t possibly——’

‘Of course we can,’ he dismissed her objections. ‘I’m quite enjoying myself, actually,’ he grinned.

Anger darkened her eyes, making them look bigger than ever. ‘I’m not!’ she snapped.

‘I can see that,’ he said amiably. ‘I don’t have to be the consolation prize, you know.’

She frowned. ‘What on earth do you mean?’

He shrugged broad shoulders. ‘Well, we are engaged. It seems a pity to waste the opportunity——’

‘The opportunity doesn’t arise,’ she told him firmly, abruptly ending the dance. ‘Ask my mother to dance, Polly is getting a little frantic,’ she added scornfully, several other couples dancing with them now, David and Amanda one of them, David obviously enthralled by her mother.

Reece frowned down at her. ‘Amanda can’t help her beauty and warmth.’

‘Can’t she?’ Laurel said brittlely. ‘Don’t tell me you are another one, Reece?’ she derided the fallibility of men falling for a beautiful face and sexy body, oblivious of the woman inside the body.

‘I like your mother very much,’ he told her firmly. ‘In fact, sometimes I wonder how she could be your mother!’ he reproved.

She drew in an angry breath. ‘Believe me, there’s no doubt about that, I checked it out myself years ago!’

‘Laurel——’

‘I have to go and powder my nose!’ She walked away from him, her head held high, looking at no one, although she knew people were watching her. My God, no one believed for a minute that this engagement to Reece was a real one!

That wasn’t so surprising. She had made no secret of the fact that she was marrying Giles for anything but love. She was fond of him, he was charming and pleasant to be around, made no demands on her that she wasn’t prepared to give.

None of the people that really knew her would ever believe she had chosen arrogant, sensually attractive Reece Harrington in his place!

Then she would just have to make them believe it, make them think she had been so overwhelmed with love for Reece that for once she had thrown caution to the wind and given in to an impulse, that of marrying Reece. When the engagement was broken that would only reaffirm the claim she had always made that a relationship should be founded on liking and respect rather than the painful emotion of love.

But that would never be with Giles now. Even if he should get over his attack of nerves and change his mind and ask to come back she would never let him. He had forfeited any right to her affection by the humiliating blow he had dealt her tonight. If it hadn’t been for Reece…

Reece. She had known from the moment he helped her from her wrecked car that he was a dangerous man to be around, that any woman that became involved with him would have to give her soul as well as her heart and body.

But she had no intention of becoming involved with him, merely of letting him continue to pretend to be her fiancé. And she was about to start pretending to be his fiancée.

He was standing near the bar talking to Amanda, Polly and David when she entered the room, setting her shoulders determinedly as she walked over to his side. ‘I hope I wasn’t gone too long, darling.’ She stretched up to kiss him, even the high heels on her shoes meaning she still had to go a long way to reach his lips. ‘I missed you,’ she told him throatily.

Humour glinted in his eyes as he quickly masked his surprise at this sudden change in her. ‘I missed you too, darling.’ He teased her lips with his own as he curved her body up into his. ‘Five minutes is too long to be apart,’ he murmured mockingly.

‘Wait until you’ve been married almost five years,’ David derided. ‘Then you would be glad of five minutes to yourself!’

‘That’s all the thanks I get after becoming his child-bride at only nineteen, giving him all of my youth!’ Polly gave him a playful punch on the arm, the couple more in love now than they had ever been, and looking it.

‘What about my youth?’ he teasingly complained. ‘Have you seen how many grey hairs I have on my chest now?’

‘Six,’ his wife taunted. ‘I counted them last night. Afterwards.’

David gave Laurel and Reece an abashed smile. ‘She only treats me this way because she knows I lust after her body!’

Reece laughed softly. ‘I know the feeling!’ He looked warmly down at Laurel.

And she had thought her acting was good! If only a ‘slightly slimmer’ version of the woman he had looked at in the book illustration earlier this evening was his taste for a bed-partner then she fell far short of the required inches. What she had was all in proportion, but those proportions were minimum. Nevertheless, Reece managed to look as if he really couldn’t wait to get her into bed with him later this evening.

And secure in the knowledge that it wasn’t going to happen Laurel played the part of besotted fiancée for the rest of the evening. She was so convincing that as she and Reece languorously danced the night away she could feel the hard desire of his taut thighs against her stomach!

But none of her friends looked at her curiously any more, and even Giles’s work-mates looked convinced by her act, Laurel having assured them they had no need to leave, most of them convinced that Giles had been working this evening as a way of compensation for his broken engagement. They had assured Laurel he didn’t look too broken-hearted, and that they were sure he would quickly recover from his disappointment. Somehow that didn’t make Laurel feel better at all!

But her friends seemed to accept that, like the rest of them, she had fallen into the love-trap, that all her avowals in the past that it would never happen to her had fallen by the wayside when confronted with Reece Harrington. She was content to let them think that, knew it would only make her opinion more right when her engagement to Reece floundered.

‘I can’t tell you how happy I am for you both,’ her mother told them warmly, Reece insisting on driving them both home after the party had broken up after one o’clock in the morning, driving Amanda home first, even though Laurel had argued that he would only have to drive back again after taking her home. Reece had been adamant. ‘Robert is going to be so surprised when he gets home tomorrow,’ she added lightly. ‘You could have let me in on the secret before the party, Reece,’ she chided her stepson indulgently.

‘Amanda——’

‘Laurel had to talk to Giles first.’ Reece’s warning look in the driving mirror as Laurel sat in the back of the car effectively silenced her, her mother sitting beside Reece in the sleek silver sports model Jaguar. ‘It wouldn’t have been fair for us to tell anyone else until she had had a chance to explain to him.’

‘No,’ her mother conceded, turning to smile at Laurel. ‘When is the wedding to be, darling?’

‘Give us time to catch our breaths, Amanda,’ Reece derided lightly. ‘We only realised this evening that we’re in love.’

Amanda’s eyes widened in the semi-light of the streetlamped streets. ‘When you went to the shop to see Laurel about my invitation?’

‘Yes,’ he nodded.

‘Goodness, Reece, you’re an even faster worker than your father,’ Amanda chuckled. ‘At least he waited a week after we met before proposing.’

‘But I’ve already known Laurel for a year,’ Reece reminded.

‘And suddenly realised you were in love with her when you knew she was going to marry another man! That’s so romantic,’ Amanda sighed happily. ‘Do you realise that once you and Reece are married, Laurel, that our last names will once again be the same?’

This time she ignored the warning look in the mirror, her mouth twisting derisively. ‘And it’s certainly been a long time since that happened,’ she rasped.

‘Has it?’ Amanda frowned. ‘Yes, I suppose it has,’ she nodded slowly. ‘You could have taken Frank’s name——’

‘I didn’t want it,’ she dismissed sharply, having disliked her mother’s second husband intensely.

‘No,’ Amanda grimaced. ‘You and Frank never did get on.’

She had never felt the need to tell her mother the reason she disliked Frank Shepherd so much, of the advances he always made to her whenever she came home from the expensive boarding-school they had sent her to after their marriage. She had been on the edge of sixteen at the time, just budding into womanhood, a late developer physically, and Frank had obviously found the way that she was developing extremely erotic.

‘Frank was a——’

‘We’ll get straight off if you don’t mind, Amanda,’ Reece cut in tightly as he stopped the Jaguar outside the impressive Harrington home, several lights glowing welcomingly inside the house. ‘Laurel has to open the shop in the morning.’

‘Of course, darling.’ Amanda got out of the car as Reece opened the door for her, turning to push the seat forward so that Laurel could get out. ‘I’m sure you want to sit next to Reece,’ she said knowingly.

As Laurel had been the one to insist her mother be the one to sit next to him on the drive here that assumption was completely erroneous. She reluctantly climbed out of the back of the car, receiving a hug from her mother before getting into the front passenger seat.

‘The two of you must come to dinner tomorrow evening,’ Amanda invited eagerly. ‘Robert will insist,’ she added firmly as Laurel seemed about to refuse.

‘And as Dad’s even more arrogant than I am we might as well give in gracefully,’ Reece accepted lightly. ‘About seven-thirty, okay, Laurel?’

‘Fine,’ she agreed drily, staring out the front window as Reece walked her mother into the house.

‘What did he do to you?’

Laurel turned to give Reece a startled look, the question coming out of the blue after they had driven in silence for the last ten minutes. ‘Giles?’ she frowned her puzzlement. ‘You read the letter——’

‘Not Gilbraith,’ Reece dismissed harshly. ‘Frank Shepherd!’

Her breathing suddenly became ragged. ‘I rarely saw him, I was away at school a lot.’

‘And when you weren’t?’ he persisted grimly.

She shrugged. ‘I don’t know——’

‘Laurel, don’t lie to me; I could clearly see your face in the driving-mirror.’ His hands tightly gripped the steering-wheel, his body rigid. ‘What did the bastard do to you?’ he asked again.

She swallowed hard, moistening stiff lips. ‘Amanda was only married to him for a year——’

‘Laurel,’ Reece cut in with controlled violence. ‘I could see the disgust in your face, a remembered fear in your eyes. Darling, tell me,’ he encouraged throatily. ‘It will be all right.’

She sighed. ‘He didn’t really do anything,’ she shook her head. ‘Not really.’

‘Then tell me!’

‘He… it was just talk, mainly! About my body.’ She looked down at her hands. ‘I was just developing breasts.’ She swallowed again. ‘And he—he was offensive, Reece, that’s all,’ she dismissed impatiently.

‘Did he touch you?’

She gasped at the bluntness of the query, glad of the semi-darkness to hide her flushed cheeks. ‘Only once or twice,’ she admitted in a pained voice. ‘Look, Reece, I don’t——’

‘Do you know why Amanda divorced him?’ Reece asked harshly.

Laurel shrugged uninterestedly. ‘She told me they had realised they weren’t suited to each other.’

He nodded. ‘That was part of it. She stayed with him to try and give you a stable life, the education you deserved. I’m sure that if she had any idea what he was doing to you——’

‘I didn’t tell her then, and I don’t want her to know now,’ Laurel gave him a warning glare. ‘I don’t blame her for it, Frank was careful always to be the loving stepfather whenever my mother was around.’

‘She had quite an unhappy time with him too, although it isn’t up to me to discuss that with you. What a damned mess!’ he ground out. ‘Has—did the experience put you off making love?’

‘No,’ she answered abruptly. How could she be put off something she had never been on! She had been prepared to be a wife to Giles, but he hadn’t been all that interested in the physical side of their relationship either, had never tried to make love to her fully. It had been something else about him that she liked and approved of.

‘Thank God,’ Reece sighed his relief at her answer.

‘Why didn’t you let me tell Amanda the engagement wasn’t a real one?’ she abruptly changed the subject.

‘I didn’t think you would want to be the object of her pity any more than you did anyone else’s,’ he rasped. ‘Less so than most!’

She blushed at the truth of that. ‘Thank you. I—I don’t think I said this earlier, but——’

‘You didn’t,’ he mocked.

Laurel glared at him. ‘You have no idea what I’m going to say!’

‘I don’t?’ He raised innocent brows. ‘I thought you were going to thank me for becoming your fiancé and so rescuing you from an awkward situation.’

‘I was,’ she snapped.

‘Well?’ he prompted as no gratitude was forthcoming.

‘I said I was; I changed my mind!’

Reece began to laugh softly. ‘Laurel, has anyone told you that you’re adorable?’

No one ever had. She hadn’t been a pretty child, a late developing adolescent, was now a capable lady rather than a sexy one. ‘Not lately,’ she drawled. ‘Although I’m glad you find me so amusing,’ she added with obvious sarcasm.

He sobered instantly. ‘I’m not laughing at you, Laurel, I’m laughing at your humour. I like it.’

‘It isn’t something I’m renowned for,’ she scorned drily.

‘That’s why it’s all the more refreshing when it does surface.’ He began to frown. ‘What are you going to do about Giles?’

She managed to keep up with his change of thought this time, glad the subject of her unhappy experience with Frank Shepherd had been forgotten. She had never forgotten it, was surprised she had told Reece about it. But then he seemed to bring out a lot of reactions from her that weren’t strictly normal for Laurel Matthews. ‘I don’t think I have to do anything about Giles; he seems to have already done it.’

‘So it’s over between the two of you, just like that?’ he said disbelievingly.

‘It would seem so,’ she nodded abruptly, still raw from the betrayal.

‘No loose ends to tie up? No broken heart to be mended?’

‘My heart is my affair,’ she snapped. ‘And there aren’t any loose ends that I can see,’ she frowned.

‘What about the ring he asked for?’

‘If he wants it he’ll have to come and get it,’ she bit out tightly, thinking of the unfinished business with Giles that she didn’t want to discuss with Reece.

‘Tomorrow evening,’ Reece nodded slowly. ‘I’ll make sure I’m there.’

‘Why?’ Her eyes widened indignantly.

‘Because I don’t think you should be alone with him!’

She gave a scornful laugh. ‘Reece, until a few hours ago I was going to marry the man; he won’t harm me,’ she dismissed assuredly.

‘That isn’t the reason I don’t want you to be alone with him.’ He shook his head, his mouth firm.

‘Then why——’ She paled at the look in his eyes as he parked the car outside her home before turning in his seat to look at her. ‘Reece, this engagement isn’t real! It’s just a face-saver for me until we can break off our engagement.’

‘I know that,’ he nodded. ‘And so will Gilbraith if I’m not with you tomorrow.’

‘He won’t know we’re even engaged,’ she protested.

‘Some of the people there tonight were his colleagues,’ Reece reminded tautly. ‘One of them is probably telephoning him right now with the news that you announced your engagement to me. The whole charade will have been a waste of time if he discovers it isn’t real. And then we’re both going to look twice as foolish.’

He was right, of course, it didn’t take a genius to work it out. And why not let Giles think his defection had affected her so little she had immediately become engaged to a man who was twice the man he would ever be? If Reece were agreeable, and he obviously was, why not?

‘He said he would be over once I’ve closed the shop for the night, that’s about six-thirty,’ she told Reece abruptly.

‘Fine,’ he nodded. ‘I’ll be there.’

And Laurel knew that Giles would be at the shop by six so that gave her half an hour to talk to him alone!

Reece got out of the car to open the door for her. ‘I’ll walk you inside.’

She didn’t argue, knowing that it would have no effect if she did; Reece would do exactly what he wanted to do. He held her elbow on the way up in the lift, taking the key from her hand to unlock the door to go in and switch on the lights before she entered.

‘How do you think I manage every other evening?’ she mocked his protective action, throwing her bag down into a chair.

‘Alone,’ he bit out grimly. ‘Why didn’t you accept the invitation to move in with us?’

Her mouth twisted. ‘Because I’m a grown woman, not a child. I run my own business and my own life. I have no intention of moving back in with my mother,’ she derided.

‘If that’s a dig at me I have my own wing of the house,’ he drawled.

‘You still live with your father and my mother, take your meals with them,’ she dismissed.

He looked at her unblinkingly. ‘I’m not about to justify myself to you,’ he told her coldly. ‘I live there because it’s my home. Now come here——’

‘What…’

‘You deliberately moved provocatively against me on the dance floor tonight.’ His arms moved about her tightly as he effortlessly moulded her body to his. ‘Now it’s time to pay up on those promises.’

‘Reece…’

‘I’ve discovered the fire in you, Laurel,’ he grated. ‘And I intend to burn in it!’

His words made her feel on fire, never having been the recipient of such earthy compliments before. He had kissed her this evening several times, with varying degrees of emotion, she couldn’t help but feel curious now about how it would be to be kissed by him with sensual intensity.

The kiss began as a slow exploration, but as the warmth spread through her body and she moved searchingly against him the kiss became subtly different, demanding, arousing; Laurel’s hands moving restlessly over the warmth of his back beneath the evening jacket.

She had never felt in the least curious about any man’s body, found Giles’s light lovemaking only mildly interesting. But she was more than just curious about Reece’s body, could imagine how magnificent he would look naked, her senses heightened because of her imaginings.

She gasped as the warmth of his hand closed over the material of her dress, on the mound of her breast. ‘No, I——’

‘Small, but perfect,’ he told her huskily.

‘Small is right,’ she agreed bitterly, pushing his hand away.

He looked down at her with honey-warm eyes. ‘But perfect,’ he insisted gruffly. ‘Don’t you have any idea how sexy you are?’

She avoided his eyes. ‘Frank said——’

‘Forget that bastard!’ he grated. ‘What did Gilbraith say?’ His eyes were narrowed.

Laurel shrugged evasively. ‘He isn’t—wasn’t, a very sensual man,’ she dismissed.

‘I am,’ Reece told her softly. ‘Very sensual. And I’ve wanted you from the moment I first saw you, in every way there is and ever has been.’

‘When you first saw me I was slumped over the steering-wheel of my car covered in blood,’ she scorned the claim.

His steady gaze held hers. ‘And I wanted you.’

‘That sort of want is just a bodily function. And I’m not into the Kama Sutra,’ she scorned.

‘I said in every way there is,’ he insisted intently. ‘Not every position. It isn’t just sex I want from you. Laurel, I——’

‘Would you please go now?’ She turned away, her hands clasped tightly together in front of her. ‘It’s been a traumatic evening; I’d like to be alone now.’

‘Laurel——’

‘Please go, Reece,’ she sighed wearily.

‘Okay,’ he rasped. ‘I will. It’s too soon for you, I realise that, but you didn’t love Gilbraith, Laurel. It’s only your pride that has been injured, and once you get over that I——’

‘Our engagement will be broken and we can get on with our respective lives,’ she interrupted curtly. ‘I’m grateful for your help, and a few moments ago I may even have felt a little sexual curiosity concerning you, but that’s all it was.’

‘Was it?’ His eyes were narrowed.

‘Yes, it was,’ she answered calmly.

He looked at her silently for several seconds, and then he slowly nodded. ‘I’ll be there about six-thirty tomorrow.’

‘Yes.’ She accompanied him towards the door.

‘I don’t… Good God, what do you have all these locks for?’ He eyed the four locks on the inside of her door disbelievingly. ‘This isn’t New York, you know!’

Laurel shrugged. ‘There have been several burglaries in the building the last few months; these locks are just a precaution.’

Reece frowned darkly. ‘Burglaries? I don’t like the sound——’

‘No one asked you to like or dislike it,’ she snapped irritably. ‘I’ve taken care of myself since I was sixteen years old, I certainly don’t need some strong arrogant man trying to throw his undoubtable weight about in my life now!’

‘I hope you weren’t implying that I’m fat,’ he said indignantly.

He was a big man, about two hundred pounds, possibly a little less, but he was in no way fat, just pure muscle and sinew and deep copper-tone flesh. ‘Maybe a little,’ she mocked. ‘Maybe you don’t get enough exercise.’

His eyes widened, gold flames in the dark brown depths. ‘I’m hoping to improve that in the near future.’

Laurel couldn’t prevent the blush coming to her cheeks at the intended innuendo. ‘Reece,’ she began warningly, disconcerted by the sudden grin he gave, deep grooves etched beside his mouth and eyes, an endearing dimple appearing in one cheek. ‘What is it?’ she demanded suspiciously.

‘Am I really strong and arrogant?’

She frowned. ‘It’s nothing to feel proud of, arrogance isn’t a virtue.’

‘It is when it’s combined with strength,’ he said with satisfaction.

Laurel was about to argue with him, and then thought better of it; she wanted him to leave tonight, not get into an argument about his virtues—or lack of them. ‘If you say so,’ she conceded abruptly.

He raised dark brows, grimacing. ‘You want me to leave, right?’

‘That is the general idea.’ She stood her ground firmly as she waited at the door.

‘Don’t forget to fasten the lock—all of them!—after I leave.’ His hand gently cupped one side of her face. ‘I don’t like to think of you alone here when someone is known to be burglarising the place.’

‘It’s a wicked world we live in,’ she taunted drily.

His mouth quirked. ‘Just tell me if I’m being too over-protective,’ he mocked.

She knew he was teasing, but she gave him a serious answer. ‘I don’t want, or need, anyone to protect me.’

‘You were going to marry Gilbraith,’ he pointed out reasoningly.

‘It would have been a partnership, not the usual male-dominated marriage,’ she dismissed.

It was to have been much more than just a marriage partnership, she and Giles had been going to be business partners, too; had already started to do so after Giles had questioned her trust in him to help her. A couple of months ago, since they had begun arranging their engagement party, she had agreed to let him handle some of the bills, had even made arrangements at the bank so that he could sign the cheques for those bills. Two days ago she had received another reminder for one of those bills. She hadn’t been concerned at the time, had put the confusion down to the Christmas post. Now she wasn’t so sure.