by Isobel Chace
‘I’ll be waiting for you,’ she said. ‘I have some letters to write and I can start putting all these things away.’
The corner of his mouth twitched with amusement. ‘I’ll help you later on if you don’t want to do them all by yourself,’ he offered, knowing that she would have sorted out the muddle long before he got back to the flat.
‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll write to my mother first of all.’
A crack of laughter escaped his lips. ‘If you do, I’ll know you’re in love,’ he grinned at her, ‘and that you can’t bear to do anything without me!’
She laughed too, knowing as well as he did that she would have everything tidied away long before he would be free to help her. ‘My mother wouldn’t forgive me if I didn’t put her first,’ she insisted. ‘Though heaven knows what I’m going to say to her. She’d always planned to write a special piece of music for my wedding that would naturally receive a standing ovation from all present. It would be the perfect setting for a piece of really modern church music. I should probably have hated it.’
‘I can see that a certain amount of tact is called for,’ he agreed, ‘but I have no doubt that you’ll think of something to soothe her ruffled feathers.’
She would have liked to have talked the problem over with him further, but she could see that his mind was already working on what he would find at the office when he got there. She helped him carry the extra things out of the Range Rover and into their apartment, clucking angrily when he dropped his share on the floor where he stood. It wasn’t only his packing she would have to do for him, he obviously needed someone to run round after him all the time, putting his things away for him. ‘Cas, must you?’ she protested.
His face took on a stubborn twist to it. ‘I can’t stand being nagged, Stephanie. Especially not about something as trivial as the way I mess up the apartment.’
She bit her lip. It was very nearly the last straw when she wanted to go with him so badly and hated being left behind to twiddle her thumbs until he should care to come and tell her what Gloria and Ali had been up to. She turned her head away from his farewell kiss and refused to have anything to do with his departure. Why should he have all the fun, while she did all the chores?
She had only half finished putting the things away when a knock at the door interrupted, her Still feeling a little sulky, she opened the door with a frown and was astonished to see Amber on the other side—an Amber who could barely restrain herself from dancing up and down with excitement. She flung her arms round Stephanie and embraced her warmly.
‘I had to come, Stephanie, to thank the two of you! Gregor has passed his exams! Better than that, the order Cas gave him has given him the confidence to start straight away in his own business! I am going home as soon as I can get a flight on an aeroplane.’ She hugged Stephanie all over again. ‘I’m going home and I’ll never have to leave him again!’
‘How marvellous!’ Stephanie exclaimed, pleased for the other girl. ‘Oh, Amber, I am glad! I didn’t thank you either for all you did to help arrange my wedding, but—’
‘But you were afraid of Casimir’s dreamboat?’ Amber’s eyes twinkled naughtily. ‘But of course you were jealous. If I had known how it was, I would not have allowed Cas to take me out to dinner that evening—’
‘Nor telephoned to him on my wedding night?’ Stephanie said dryly.
‘Oh, that!’ Amber dismissed it as being of very little consequence. ‘That was for your own good! Cas told me to tell him as soon as the equipment arrived and it had to be installed at night, when there was nobody there to see us. Didn’t Cas tell you?’
‘No. I didn’t know anything about it.’
‘But, Stephanie, what did you think I wanted him for?’ Amber began to laugh. ‘Oh, poor Stephanie! He was so anxious that he should clear up the mystery all by himself and present you with the results as a wedding present, and then he has to hurt you like that! But then, what will you? The nicest men are frequently the most stupid! Like Cas! Like Gregor! The stories I could tell you about Gregor! But I have no time now, I must go. When we are better arranged in Beirut you must both come and stay with us.’ She smiled happily to herself, her eyes flashing with her newly restored pleasure in life. ‘Our children must play together! That would be nice, yes?’
Stephanie was thoughtful after she had shut the front door behind the Armenian girl. She went into her bedroom and searched amongst her things for a writing pad and some envelopes, settling down to write the long, detailed letter she felt she owed to her mother.
She was still writing busily when Cas came in, and she looked up and smiled at him. This was his great moment and she didn’t want to spoil it for him. ‘How did it go?’ she asked him, her voice not quite her own.
He smiled broadly. ‘Industrial espionage, just like the lady said,’ he told her. ‘We got the contract, but they thought they’d have a second bid for the work. Both Gloria and Ali are on our rival’s payroll and, from this evening, are no longer on ours. It went like a dream! I got my report off by telex tonight, and then I came straight home. Fatemeh sent you her congratulations—if such a mild word can cover her state of mind. I like your friend, little Stephanie.’
‘I like yours too,’ she said. ‘Amber is on her way to her husband. She came to thank us, though she has nothing to thank me for. She wants us to visit them some time in Beirut.’
‘And shall we?’
She stood up and nodded. ‘Cas, have I told you that I love you, and how grateful I am for clearing my father— and me too? You couldn’t have given me a nicer present!’
He took the writing block from her, his eyes falling to the page she had just written. His eyebrows rose. ‘A motet for our first child’s christening?’ He gave her an amused look. ‘I knew you’d think of something!’ He threw the pad down on the floor and held out his hands to her. ‘You’re slipping, honey. Aren’t you going to pick it up and tidy it away?’
She shook her head, making no effort to move at all. ‘It isn’t worth nagging you about. I’m sorry, Cas, that I ever thought it was.’
He pulled her closer into his arms. ‘If you leave it there, it’ll still be there in the morning. Speak now, or forever hold your peace!’
She looked down at the pad and then up at him, the smile growing in her eyes. She lifted her face for his kiss and her arms crept up round his neck in total abandonment to his caress.
‘Oh, phooey,’ she said. ‘Who cares about it anyway?’