Читать книгу Greek Affairs - Кейт Хьюит - Страница 33

‘WOULD you print out two copies of that document and send one up to Alexi’s office so he can look at it later, please?’ Katie asked her secretary as she tidied away some files that were cluttering up her desk.

‘Is he in today?’ Petra asked.

‘Yes, his plane gets in at about two-thirty and he’s going to come straight here.’ As she said the words Katie felt a little thrill of anticipation. She hadn’t seen Alexi for nearly four days; he’d been in New York on business, and she had missed him so much.

She glanced at her watch. It was twelve-thirty. She’d always sworn that she would never get hooked on a man to the point where she counted the hours and the minutes when they were apart, but that was exactly what she was doing.

Part of her was even tempted to head down to the airport to meet him. Now that really would be crazy! She was supposed to be playing it cool, she reminded herself—keeping an emotional distance. Throwing her arms around him at the airport was not recommended. He’d be running in the opposite direction in no time.

She pushed her chair back from the desk as Petra left the room, and then went to stand by the window.

The last few weeks since their wedding had passed in a bit of a blur. It had been decided that she would work from the Athens office and reside at Alexi’s house in the countryside. And she liked the arrangement. It was better than being in Alexi’s flat in London. She had lived there for a week when they had returned from honeymoon, and she hadn’t enjoyed it. That flat belonged to Alexi’s bachelor lifestyle. It was in every sense a single guy’s domain. The modern, austere furnishings—the black satin sheets—all belonged to a time that Katie didn’t want to even think about never mind be faced with on a daily basis.

Sometimes when she’d come in from work in the evenings there had been messages on the answer machine from old girlfriends, asking him if he was free for dinner or the theatre.

At first she had erased them in a fit of pique, but then later she had left them for when Alexi got home—usually a couple of hours later than her—just to see what he would say about them.

She needn’t have worried. He’d deleted them without even listening to the complete message, and that had made her feel better—but it was disconcerting to know that women were still chasing after him even though it had been well-publicised that he was now married.

Working from the Athens office had been her idea. She needed to travel to London every few weeks, but the majority of her work could be done from here. And Alexi seemed happy to be based back in Greece. He’d already made it clear that when the baby was born he wanted Greece to be their home anyway. So he was pleased to start the arrangement immediately.

She loved being at the house on the coast. Despite its associations with his past marriage, she found she liked its tranquillity, liked the fact that Alexi wanted her to put her own stamp on it. It was the family home she’d never had, and she was enjoying buying things for it, planning a nursery. And when Alexi was away sometimes she saw his sisters or his parents and she felt that she was somewhere safe—somewhere she was loved. Even if that love didn’t come from her husband.

She frowned now as that thought returned like a black cloud on her sunny horizon. She wasn’t going to dwell on that, she told herself fiercely.

Instead she glanced again at her watch and wondered what Alexi would say when she told him that she had bought herself a car.

He’d left a limousine at her disposal, but she’d found it strange, having someone waiting for her all the time. It wasn’t her—she liked doing her own thing, driving herself. So yesterday she’d gone out and bought herself a secondhand car. And this morning she had driven herself along the scenic coast road to work and she’d enjoyed the experience.

The phone rang on her desk and she walked over to snatch it up. ‘Hi, it’s me.’ Alexi’s velvet tones sent an immediate shiver of excitement down her spine.

‘Where are you ringing from? I thought you’d still be in the air.’

‘There’s been a technical hitch. I’m in Paris.’

‘Paris?’ She frowned.

‘Afraid so. There’s a problem at the office here, so I’ve had to stop off and sort it out.’

‘I see.’ Katie tried to swallow down her disappointment. ‘So when do you think you’ll get back?’

‘I’m not sure. It might be tomorrow now.’

‘I suppose it can’t be helped.’ Katie tried to sound upbeat and wondered if she had overdone it, because her voice sounded far too bright—he was going to guess that she was upset if she wasn’t careful. ‘Hey, guess what?’ She changed the subject abruptly.

‘What?’

‘I’ve bought a car.’

‘You have?’ He sounded surprised. ‘If you wanted a car you should have said. I’d have come with you and bought you one.’

‘Thanks, Alexi, but I can buy my own. And it was a spur of the moment thing, anyway—I was passing a garage forecourt in that little village—you know the one down the road from your parents’ house?—and I saw it, and thought it was just what I needed.’

‘Well, I hope it’s OK. The roads are dodgy around there. I really would have preferred it if you’d waited a while until you knew them better—’

‘Alexi, it’s fine. Really.’ She cut across him briskly.

‘I’ll check it out when I get home.’ He sounded resigned. ‘How’s Junior?’

It was the question he asked every day when he rang. It was all he was really bothered about, and it was probably the real reason behind his concern for her on the roads—but that was fine. Because at least he cared about their child, and when he or she was born there would be an even stronger bond between them.

‘Everything is fine,’ she told him. ‘I’m booked to have a scan next week.’

‘Good. I’ll come with you to that.’ Alexi sounded distracted now. Someone else was talking to him. Katie thought it sounded like a female voice. ‘I’ve got to go, Katie. I’ll see you soon. Take care of yourself and that baby.’

Then he was gone.

She put the phone down. He was working and it couldn’t be helped, she told herself calmly as she tried to dismiss disappointment and unease. And the woman was probably a secretary, or a driver, or his accountant. She could be any number of employees.

Katie turned her attention back to work. She had never been a jealous, suspicious person and she wasn’t going to turn into one either!

Somehow Katie put all thoughts of Alexi out of her mind for the rest of the afternoon, and she managed to get a lot of work done. It wasn’t until she was home in the solitude of the house that the whispers of doubt started again.

Paris was a strange place to be detained. It really wasn’t one of their busiest offices—it ran on a skeleton staff and there were hardly ever any problems there. Why had he been detained in Paris?

She had a shower and took herself off to bed with a cup of tea to try and relax herself—but still the thoughts went round and round in her head until she had to get up again.

Andrea was in Paris.

The thought came into her head from nowhere. The woman at the party had told her that Andrea was off on a modelling assignment in Paris.

It was a coincidence, she told herself. Alexi and Andrea had been divorced for a long time. If they’d wanted to get back together they would have done it by now.

But maybe they didn’t want to get back together; maybe they just wanted to meet up every now and then for sex. That was the kind of arrangement Alexi liked.

Katie felt sick suddenly. She went into the kitchen and got herself a glass of water and then padded out to the terrace.

The night was so hot it was sticky. She sat on the swing chair and looked out at the sea. The roll of the surf was soothing.

She was being fanciful. Alexi was on business and he would be home soon.

Flashes of lightning lit up the sky suddenly as if someone was switching a light bulb on and off, and there was a low growl of thunder. Katie watched the dramatic play of light across the sky, watched the way it lit up the sea in a surreal moment of silver. It scared her and fascinated her at the same time. Then there was an almighty roar that was almost deafening, it was so loud.

She got up to go back inside, and that was when the first twinges of pain hit her stomach. As she went upstairs it was just a niggling discomfort, but by the time she had reached the bedroom it was steadily getting worse.

She sat down on the edge of the bed and took deep breaths. What was the matter with her? Was she losing the baby?

The thought tore through her almost as violently as the storm raging outside.

Desperately she tried to calm herself, but tears sprung to her eyes as another pain tore through her and she doubled up into a protective ball. She couldn’t lose her baby—she just couldn’t. It would be the end of everything!

For a few minutes she didn’t think she could bear it. She listened to the sound of the thunder resounding through the mountains like cannonfire and breathed deeply. Breathing seemed to help. The pain started to recede. Her mobile was sitting next to the bed, and she reached for it to try and ring Alexi. She needed to hear his voice—she needed him.

A voice message said his number was unavailable.

She tried to ring his parents’ house but there was no reply, just an answer machine. She started to leave a message saying she wasn’t feeling well—then changed her mind and hung up. What could they do? They weren’t even home! And she knew his sister Julia and her husband were away on holiday for a couple of days.

She tried to think rationally. The pain was easing even more now and there was no blood.

Was she well enough to drive? Perhaps she could get herself to the hospital. She knew where it was; she’d been for routine blood tests a couple of days ago.

Katie tried to stand up. Surprisingly she felt all right. Maybe the pain had been nothing to worry about. She put her hand protectively on her stomach. But to be on the safe side it might be best to get to a doctor. Quickly she reached for a pair of linen trousers that she had left on the chair and replaced her nightdress with a T-shirt, gathered her bag, phone and car keys and headed for the door.

For a while she felt OK. She got into her car and started the engine. Everything was going to be fine, she told herself over and over as she headed out along the winding coast road.

Fork lightning was gashing across the sky in front of her, illuminating the darkness. She drove a few miles, following the twisty road slowly and carefully. And then the rain started.

One moment she could see clearly, the next it was like someone had placed her inside a carwash where the outside world ceased to exist, and she was enveloped in a watery world all of her own. She put the windscreen wipers on at full speed but still they wouldn’t clear it. All she could do was pull the car over to the side of the road and stop.

It was probably a cloudburst that would last for a minute and then pass, she reassured herself, trying to fight down the feelings of unease. But the minutes ticked away, and there was no respite.

The storm sounded as if it was directly overhead now. The thunder was so violent she imagined it shook her car.

Katie was aware that her situation was not a safe one. Although there was very little traffic on this road, if something was still moving along the highway it might not see her and hit her. She tried to reassure herself that other drivers would be in the same predicament, and would have pulled over to stop, but even so she didn’t like it.

She put on the light inside the car—every little thing helped, she thought. Then she just waited and waited for the storm to pass.

The rain was easing a little when the pain started again. It just gnawed at first—but it was there.

Katie put her hand on her stomach. She was into the second trimester of her pregnancy now and they said that the risk of miscarriage was lower once you passed that point. She and Alexi had planned to tell his parents this weekend.

She felt her eyes blur with tears as the pain started to increase again. She wanted her child so much, wanted to hold her and love her. Wanted to be a mother.

If she lost her baby it would be the end of her dreams and hopes for the future—her family life—her marriage!

She reached for her mobile phone and dialled Alexi’s number again. She didn’t know what he could do—he was probably still in Paris—but just hearing his voice and talking to him would be something. But his phone didn’t even ring now. She glanced at the dial and noticed with horror that she didn’t have a signal. She was obviously at a point in the road where the mountains blocked out the transmitters.

She hung up and started to cry in earnest—she couldn’t help it. She was tired of being strong, of trying to pretend that everything was going to be all right. Maybe it wasn’t.

The house was ablaze with lights when Alexi got home. He stood in the hallway and called up the stairs. ‘Katie, honey, where are you?’

There was no answer. ‘Katie?’ He looked through the doorway into the kitchen. It was deserted.

Thinking that she might be in bed asleep, he put the kettle on and looked out of the window. The storm had been fierce; it had delayed him landing in Athens, and he’d been forced to wait a while before being able to drive back along the coast. The road had been completely impassable in parts due to flooding, forcing him to make a long detour.

At least the storm had been late at night and not earlier, otherwise he’d have worried about Katie driving back in it. He hoped the car she’d bought was OK. Come to think about it, where was the car? He hadn’t seen a vehicle when he’d driven up.

Alexi glanced further along the driveway but he couldn’t see another car. He headed out of the kitchen and up the stairs. The lights in the bedroom were on, and it looked as if Katie had been in bed, because the bedclothes were thrown back and there was a full cup of tea on the bedside table. He put his hand against the side of it but it was cold.

‘Katie?’ He wandered through to the en suite bathroom, but no sign of her there either. ‘Katie?’ He went back to the doorway into the corridor and called her. Then he noticed her nightshirt on the floor.

He frowned, quickly took out his mobile phone and dialled her. There was no reply and no sound of a phone ringing in the house.

He’d just hung up when his phone rang, and hurriedly he answered it, hoping it was Katie. But it was his mother.

‘Alexi, we’ve just got in and there is a message on our answer machine from Katie telling us she is not feeling well. Is she OK? We’ve been trying to ring her but there is no reply.’

Fear wasn’t an emotion Alexi was familiar with but he felt it now—twisting through him like a serpent. ‘I’ve just got in and she’s not here.’

There was silence as they both thought about the storm that had raged a short while ago and the conditions of the roads.

If she’d driven somewhere in that weather she could be at the bottom of a gully somewhere. The thought pounded through Alexi’s consciousness, and he raked his hand through his hair, trying desperately to rid himself of it.

‘What sort of car did she buy, do you know?’ he grated suddenly.

‘No, she didn’t say, and I didn’t see it. I think she said it was red—yes, she definitely said it was red, I remember now.’

‘I’ll go find her.’

‘Ring me as soon as you know anything.’

Alexi headed out of the house at a sprint. The rain had stopped now, but the thunder was still growling, and lightning was still flicking through the darkness of the night.

If she hadn’t been feeling well she probably would have headed back to Athens towards a hospital. With grim determination Alexi turned his car along the road in that direction.

If anything had happened to her he didn’t know what he would do! He’d never forgive himself. He shouldn’t have left her.

His hands gripped the steering wheel as memories flicked through him of how she’d looked when they’d said goodbye four days ago. She’d been almost radiantly beautiful, the sun shimmering over the chestnut lights in her hair, her skin glowing with health.

They’d laughed about her sudden craving for ice cream. ‘At least I’m not eating it with pickled onions,’ she’d said with a smile.

He remembered taking her into his arms and kissing her. He remembered the way she had looked up at him.

Something twisted and knotted in his gut.

There was an emergency-services truck ahead towing a vehicle out of a ditch. He slowed the car and scanned the small group of people standing by the roadside, but Katie wasn’t amongst them.

A police officer waved him over and he stopped and wound down his window to speak to him.

‘The road is pretty bad ahead, sir, I wouldn’t advise going any further.’

‘I’m going to have to, officer,’ Alexi told him bluntly. ‘My wife could be along there somewhere—she’s pregnant and alone—I need to get to her.’

He didn’t wait for a reply, just put up the window and continued.

There had been a landslide a little further along, and he had to transverse around it. That was when he saw the red car wedged in between the landfall on the road. The car itself looked undamaged. It still had its headlights on and a light on inside.

He left his car with the engine still running and darted across towards it, wrenching the door open.

‘Katie? Katie, honey, are you OK?’ She was sitting sideways in the passenger seat—her feet up on the seat, hugging her knees against her chest, her head buried down onto them, so that all he could see was the glossy fall of her hair.

She looked up and he could see that she had been crying, and his heart turned over.

‘Katie. Are you OK?’ he asked again. His voice sounded raw even to his own ears.

Her face crumpled. ‘I think I’m losing the baby, Alexi,’ she whispered.

‘Come on, honey, don’t cry.’ He kneeled in on the driver’s seat. ‘Can you move?’

She shook her head and then watched as he tried to use his phone to call an ambulance. ‘There’s no signal,’ she told him roughly. ‘None! It’s no good …’

She was right. He snapped the phone closed and then reached for her. Putting one hand under her knees and one around her back he gently slid her towards him and then lifted her out.

‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered as she curled her arms up and around his neck. ‘I’m so sorry, Alexi. I didn’t know what to do … and I know how much you want this baby. I do, too.’

‘It’ll be OK.’ He smoothed her hair back from her face and kissed her cheek. He didn’t know what to say to her; he had never felt more inadequate in all of his life. ‘I’m here now—I’ll take care of you.’ His voice grated unevenly on a hard lump of emotion in his throat.

‘I’ve been having pains like contractions for the last couple of hours,’ she told him. ‘I don’t think it will be OK.’

She sounded exhausted. ‘Try and relax—are you still in pain?’ He carried her over towards his car.

‘No, not now, but it keeps coming in waves.’ She put her arms more tightly around his neck, breathing him in. It was so good to be held by him, to feel his strength. She wanted never to let him go.

Alexi tried to think practically—and not to dwell on the emotions raging inside him. He managed to open the passenger door and bent down to put her into the seat.

For a moment she didn’t let go of him.

‘Katie.’ He crouched down beside her and gently untwisted her arms from round his neck.

‘We’ll get you to hospital and get you the best medical attention we can find, OK?’ He smiled slightly.

For a moment their eyes held. ‘Money doesn’t fix every problem, Alexi,’ she whispered. ‘But we already know that … don’t we?’

His eyes darkened. ‘Come on, baby …’ He stroked a hand down over her cheek and she closed her eyes weakly as a flood of tears sparkled afresh, blurring her vision. ‘You need to keep strong,’ he said softly.

‘Yes, I know. I keep telling myself that.’ Her eyes flicked open and met with his. ‘But if I lose the baby then our marriage is over, isn’t it, Alexi?’ She whispered the words. ‘We both know that, so there is no point in pretending anything else, is there?’

For a second she saw a muscle pulsing in the side of his jawline. ‘You can’t talk like that, Katie,’ he said quietly. ‘You just can’t!’

He closed the door and walked round to the driver’s side.

He was right, she shouldn’t have said that! Because voicing it made it all the more real. And the thought of losing their child was too much to bear for Alexi. She’d seen it in his eyes.

She bit down on her lip and tried to concentrate on her breathing as the pain inside her started again.