The pretty witch

by Lucy Gillen

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  ISOBEL had an uneasy, fluttery feeling in her tummy when she thought about reporting for work next morning. She had even, during the early hours of the morning, wondered if Lucifer would send her packing altogether, playing safe in case anything similar happened again. She was not really surprised, however, when he greeted her in exactly the same way as he always did. He seemed to have forgotten their abrupt parting last night, a fact about which she was unsure whether to be relieved or disappointed. He looked up with a wide grin when she walked, rather hesitantly, into the room. She could not have explained why she had dressed with such extra care that morning, only that she had felt some inexplicable urge to look a little different. Her hair was not simply drawn back and tied as it usually was, but lifted from her neck and falling into wisping softness that framed her face. The sleeveless white dress was one she had never worn before too, and it nattered the pale gold tan she had acquired during the past few weeks, making her corn-gold hair look even lighter. The grin, she noticed, was dismissed in favour of an appreciative smile when he saw her, and she wondered how she would cope with comments on her appearance if he made any. 'Good morning,' she ventured warily, and he laughed softly, almost as if he knew exactly how she felt and was prepared to make the most of it. 'Good morning, piccolo, it's a lovely day again.' ^Lovely,' Isobel echoed, and sat down at her desk, "5 giving all her attention to uncovering her typewriter and folding the cover carefully. He looked at her for a minute in silence. 'Are you in a working mood today?' he asked, and she looked up, frowning curiously. 'As much as I usually am,' she agreed. 'Why?' He smiled. 'You look far too beautiful to sit behind a desk all day,' he told her. The black eyes flicked upwards. 'And I like your hair like that.' She fought against the wild hammering of her heart, to make her voice sound matter-of-fact. Thank you.' She thought he was surprised at her apparent unconcern and got on with getting out the manuscript she was working on. 'Why did you change it?' The shrug she gave was careless and she only wished that her fingers would feel less trembly as they clumsily sorted the sheets of manuscript. 'I like a change sometimes, and it's much cooler like this.' She looked across at him, as blandly unconcerned as she could appear. 'Are we going to be very busy today?' He leaned his chin on one hand, the elbow resting on his desk, the black eyes watching her with a disconcerting steadiness. That's entirely up to you,' he informed her. Me? But-' 'Whether you're busy or not,' he explained. 'I had an idea in the early hours,' he went on, 'but I'm not sure if you'll agree to it - not after last night.' It was most unfair of him to have brought that up without warning, for she knew she was blushing like a schoolgirl. 'Last night,' she declared, with deceptive airiness, 'was a a mere incident that meant nothing to anybody, and I refuse to let you embarrass me with it, Lucifer, so please don't try.' 'You're blushing!' he told her, laughter in his eyes. 'Stop it, Lucifer!' 116 He tried to look suitably solemn. 'But I like teasing you.' 'I know you do,' Isobel retorted. 'It's a way of showing your masculine superiority or so you think.' He laughed then, and Isobel restrained the impulse to throw something at him. 'I don't think I'd better mention my idea after all,' he told her. 'Not in the circs. I don't suppose you'd come anyway.' 'Gome?' He had captured her interest as he knew he inevitably would. 'Gome where?' 'Out,' he said. 'I thought we could work until about ten o'clock and then sneak off.' He laughed at her startled expression. 'Strictly on business,' he explained. 'I have to see someone in Edgemorton about eleven and my bit of business won't take very long, then I thought we could have an early lunch.' 'Oh.' The invitation was so unexpected that it left her at a loss and very unsure what she should do. Certainly Nigel would not view the outing with much favour, but it would be nice to have lunch out for a change and if it was business then he could surely not say too much against it. 'Do - do you need me?' she asked, and he smiled. 'Of course I do.' 'In my capacity as secretary, I mean,' she explained, and he shook his head. 'N0, but it doesn't make any difference, surely, does it?' He knew quite well it did, Isobel thought, but he was not going to admit it. 'I like travelling inpretty company,' he told her, 'and I certainly don't like lunching alone, especially in a restaurant. Will you come with me?' Thank you, I'd like to.' 'I thought you might,' he said. 'YOU don't go out very often, do you?' It sounded very much like criticism of Nigel, the way he said it, Isobel thought, and frowned. "7 'I don't really mind,' she told him. 'I'm quite happy going on as I am.' She looked at him curiously. 'Are you sure I shan't be in the way while you're talking to your your business friend?' 'No, of course you won't. I shall send you off to do some shopping or something equally extravagant, and pick you up when it's all over. O.K.?' His eyes teased her. 'You're not scared of walking around a strange town on your own, are you?' 'No, of course not!' She raised bright indignant eyes to glare at him. 'I've told you before, Lucifer, I'm not a baby, although you will insist on treating me like one. I'm a grown woman and perfectly capable of taking care of myself.' 'Except in thunderstorms,' he said softly, and Isobel looked at him reproachfully. That,' she declared, 'was a low blow.' 'It was,' he admitted. 'Scusa, signorina, I should have known better.' 'YOU should,' she retorted. She remembered suddenly that considering she was being taken out for lunch, she was perhaps being rather ungracious and she smiled across at him. 'I'm looking forward to my lunch out,' she told him, placatingly, 'thank you for thinking of me, Lucifer.' She eyed him for a moment, musingly. 'You're very nice sometimes,' she told him, and he looked doubtful. 'Nice?' he queried. 'I'm not sure I can live that one down.' Then don't try,' Isobel told him, laughing at his expression. It was a little after ten o'clock when he told her to finish the page she was doing and then pack up and, by a quarter past, they were ready to go. She glanced along the drive briefly at Kanderby House as they went out to the car, wondering what Nigel was doing with himself. 118 He chafed more and more lately at his enforced inactivity and she thought, yet again, how he would hate the idea of her going off with Lucifer, especially as it meant he would not see her at lunch time as he usually did. As usual Lucifer correctly interpreted her hasty glance and shook his head as he saw her into the car. 'No, you don't have to let Nige! know you're going out with me,9 he told her, and grinned at her inevitable look of surprise. 'You're reading my mind again,8 she accused. 'I wish you wouldn't, it's most discomfiting.* 'Only if you have a guilty conscience, surely,' he said. "And you haven't, have you?' 'No more than anyone else,' Isobel allowed. 'But you're much too good at it, Lucifer, sometimes you ~ you bother me.' He stood looking down at her, his hands on the car door, leaning just above her and much too close for comfort when she remembered his similar stance last night. 'Why does it bother you, bella 'mia? I only guessed that you were thinking of Nigel because you looked up at the house. I've told you there's nothing magic or difficult gbout it. And let's face it,' he added with a smile, 'you're not very hard to read.* 'Oh!' She shrugged herself straight in her seat and turned a reproachful profile to him. 'Just the same I should let Nigel know I'm going out, he might wonder what's happened to me if he doesn't see me at lunchtime.9 'He already knows,' he informed her, walking round the car and tucking his long legs under the steering wheel, smiling at her as he slammed the door shut. 'I told him while you were out powdering your nose ready to leave.2 "9 'Oh. Oh well, I suppose it's all right, then.' 'Quite all right,' he told her. 'He wasn't very pleased of course, being Nigel, but he raised no worthwhile arguments, so I took it that we had his permission to go.' 'You shouldn't tease him so,' Isobel reproached him. 'Especially when he's so unwell. Those legs of his worry him an awful lot in this hot weather.' I know they do,' he agreed, 'but at least he knows it isn't permanent, and self-pity isn't going to help him or anyone else, is it?' She looked at him reprovingly as they drove out through the gates and on to the road. 'Sometimes,' she told him, 'I think Nigel's right about you - you are as hard as iron.' He laughed, completely undismayed by the criticism as usual. 'Is that what he says?' 'He - he did once,' she admitted, wondering if she had been too frank. Knowing him, it was possible th
at he would mention the fact to Nigel, even if it was only to laugh about it. 'YOU - you won't tell him I told you, will you?' she asked. 'Don't worry,' he told her cheerfully. 'I hardly think that's the worst thing Nigel's ever said about me, anyway, and I won't tell him - unless I'm pressed, of course,' he added, and she looked at him anxiously. 'Lucifer ' 'Relax, piccolo.' He spared a hand from the steering wheel and patted hers lying in her lap. 'We're going to enjoy ourselves.' Edgemorton was bigger than Isobel remembered it from the one and only time she had been there before, and she had no difficulty in occupying her time in the variety of shops while Lucifer was busy. She was, as he had suggested, rather extravagant, but since she had been living in the little cottage at Kanderby House, her ex120 penses had been negligible and she had never been on a real shopping spree, so she delighted in spending some of her accumulated wealth on two new dresses and some shoes. She kept a careful eye on the time and managed to find her way back to their appointed meeting place almost exactly on time, blinking her surprise when she found Lucifer already there. Either his business must have taken less time than he had anticipated or else her watch was slow. He appeared not to mind the wait, however, for he smiled as he glanced at his watch when she joined him. 'I'm not late, am I?' she asked anxiously, and he shook his head. 'Spot on time as usual,' he told her. 'It's all those years working for Nigel, I suppose, you're an inadvertent clockwatcher.' 'If I'm punctual you have no cause for complaint,' she declared, and he smiled, taking her arm as they started walking. 'I've no complaints at all,' he told her. 'Far from it.' He glanced down at her packages and relieved her of the two larger ones. 'I see you took me at my word,' he said, 'and were madly extravagant.' 'I thought I might as well while I had the opportunity.' She flicked him a brief look from under her lashes. 'I was only following orders,' she added. 'Does that mean I'm expected to foot the bill?' 'No, certainly not!' She looked quite scandalized at the idea. 'I buy my own clothes, then there are no strings attached.' He regarded her curiously for a second or two while they made their way back to the car-park. 'You're an independent little devil, aren't you?' he said at last. Isobel stuck out her chin, suspecting criticism. 'I prefer it that way.' 121 Surprisingly he said nothing for a minute or two, but the hand that held her arm hugged it dose to him for a moment and he smiled. 'We'll park your shopping in the car,' he told her, 'and then go in search of lunch.' The smells that permeated the restaurant they went into were delicious and Isobel was reminded how hungry she was. It was a big, luxuriously modern place and looked as if the clientele might be expected to pay for the expensive decor as well as their lunches. The waitresses, too, had that suitably reserved look that would never be guilty of actually showing expression or addressing their customers as 'love'. It was, Isobel thought, quite the most grand place she'd ever been taken to and she could not help but smile over the difference in taste between the two brothers. Nigel usually took her somewhere small and discreet, but quite cosy and with an excellent cuisine. 'I suppose,' Lucifer said as they studied the menu, 'being such a little 'un, you have an enormous appetite?' 'I can do my share,' Isobel informed him, 'and I warn you I'm hungry. Do little girls always have big appetites?' she asked curiously a few minutes later, and he laughed. 'I don't really know,' he confessed. 'I've never lunched with such a diddy one before.' 'You're being patronizing again,9 she warned him. 'I'm not that small. Anyway, good things come in small packages, so they say.' 'Do they now?' His eyes danced wickedly as he leaned toward her across the table. 'Are you good, Isobel?' he added softly and in such a way that she felt the colour flood into her cheeks, laying such emphasis on the word that there was no doubt as to his meaning. 'I -1 try to be.' She wondered suddenly if he found her amusingly different from his more usual type of com122 panion. The sophisticated thirties, as Nigel had called them. He nodded slowly, sweeping her with one expressive glance that made her feel even more gauche. 'Yes,' he said softly. 'Nigel wouldn't want to know you if you weren't.' 'You make virtue sound like a vice,' she told him, her hands clasped tightly together, -lying on the table before her. 'I wasn't trying to,' he denied quietly. 'It's - just what it sounds - a virtue and it's part of you, bella mia, as much as your youth and beauty.' His eyes swept over her again, this time with a more gentle look in them and he smiled. 'You look very, very lovely in that white dress, it's most appropriate.' She thought he was serious, but she could never be quite sure with Lucifer and she looked at him uncertainly for a moment before shaking her head slowly, her eyes lowered while she spoke. T - I wish I knew you better,' she said, almost without realizing what she said, and his hands reached out for hers and covered them tightly, the - strong fingers curling round hers like a vice. 'YOU wouldn't like what you found, carissima,' he told her softly, while Isobel's heart beat a rapid and uneasy tattoo under her ribs. He made no effort to explain this rather enigmatic remark, but dismissed the moment of solemnity with a determination that allowed no argument. It would be useless, she thought, to ever try to understand him. They took their time over the meal because, as Lucifer said, they had no one to please but themselves, and Isobel enjoyed herself, chattering gaily, despite Lucifer's teasing that would, at any other time, have made her silent. It was while they sat over their coffee at the end of the meal that she noticed a swift flick of surprise on Lucifer's 123 face and a moment later he got to his feet, smiling broadly, while Isobel looked round to see who it was behind her. Her gaze clashed with the malevolent amber eyes of Vanessa Law and for one wild, unreasoning instant she felt fear. A sickening cold fear that clutched at her stomach like a tangible thing, so that she instinctively put a hand to cover it. The thin gauntly striking face had little or no colour even on such a warm day, and there was not a black hair out of place on the high-piled coiffure. Her dress, too, as it had been the first time Isobel saw her, was of some dark material that clung to her thin figure and looked most unsuitable for a hot summer's day, but at the same time made it impossible to overlook her, even in a crowd. And that, Isobel thought a little uncharitably, was probably part of the exhibitionism that made up a good deal of Vanessa Law's character. 'Lucifer rfarling! I didn't expect to see you here.' The rather harsh voice drew several curious eyes and Isobel felt a curl of embarrassment which Lucifer apparently did not share. He smiled at the woman and raised a brow. 'Hello, Vanessa, lunching alone?' He looked behind her, seeking a companion, and Vanessa pursed her lips, inclining her head carelessly at a table some distance away where a short, stout man sat alone and looking rather sheepish. 'I'm with Freddy Gains,' she said, 'but I told him to wait for me at the table when I spotted you. He bores me silly,' she confided, 'but I thought you were busy, my darling.9 Lucifer ignored the jibe and smiled at Isobel. 'You've met Isobel, haven't you?' he asked politely, and Vanessa Law nodded shortly, no doubt reading her own interpretation into the question. *I didn't realize you were coming into Edgemorton to124 day,' she told him, 'and I certainly didn't know you'd be lunching here. Why didn't you let me know?' 'I never thought about it,' Lucifer informed her blandly, and even Isobel felt a swift pang of pity for the look of hurt that showed briefly in the other woman's eyes. Lucifer could be horribly cruel when he felt like it. Either that or he was unaware of how Vanessa felt about him, and she could not believe that. 'Well, you should have,' Vanessa scolded him. 'YOU know I love this place and you haven't taken me to lunch for ages.' He shrugged. 'As you said,' he told her, 'I've been busy. Haven't I, Isobel?' 'Oh - oh yes, you have,' Isobel agreed, not daring to add his first name in front of Vanessa Law. 'Busy with your wretched book, I suppose,' Vanessa jeered, though she smiled when she said it. 'You never let up, do you, darling?' 'Why should I?' Lucifer asked. 'I enjoy work.' The black eyes turned to Isobel and he smiled. 'I enjoy my work very much, in fact.' To Isobel the meeting had gone on far too long and she could almost feel the malice that emanated from Vanessa Law, as she watched every move and word Lucifer made. ^ Isobel shivered involuntarily, her lightheartedness quite gone, the clawing coldness in the pit of her stomach again when the amber eyes
turned on her. 'I see you still employ Miss Hendrix,' she said quietly, and Lucifer smiled. 'Of course,' he agreed. 'She's the best secretary I've ever had, and she's decorative too, what more can any man ask?' 'I wouldn't know, darling.' The cat-like eyes looked up at him possessively. 'When are you coming to see me again?' she asked. 'It's weeks now since I saw anything of you.' 125 The statement so surprised Isobel that she looked at the thin, dark face curiously. Surely Lucifer would not absent himself for so long from his usual haunts unless - unless he was seeing another woman. Having yet another affair. She bit her lip and was surprised to find herself unwilling to accept the idea. 'I've been very busy,' Lucifer repeated. 'YOU know mine isn't a nine-to-five job. Van.' Don't call me Van!' Her vehemence crackled sharply on Isobel's nerves, but the moment was short-lived and a second later she smiled reproachfully, a hand on his arm. 'YOU know I don't like it,' she told him. Lucifer grinned unconcernedly. 'I forgot,' he said, obviously untruthful. He looked across at the man seated at the other table waiting for Vanessa and raised an expressive brow. 'Hadn't you better go and join Freddy?' he asked. 'He looks as if he's about to die of the miseries.' 'Lucifer ' "You don't want him to get up and leave you on your own do you?' he asked, and Vanessa was silent for a moment, seeing herself beaten, Isobel thought, but reluctant to recognize it. 'I'd better go,' she said at last The amber eyes turned on Isobel again and she held her gaze until Isobel shivered at the malice she saw there. 'How's Nigel?' she asked meaningly. 'He's very much better, Mrs. Law.' She knew she sounded stiffly formal, but her dusoat felt tight and dry and she only wished for that malicious gaze to be withdrawn. 'Shall we be hearing wedding bells soon?" The question was so unexpected that Isobel could only stare at her for a moment or two and it was Lucifer who answered for her. 'It's much too soon for wedding bells yet,' he informed Vanessa with an air of certainty that surprised Isobel as much as it did Vanessa. 'Isobel's far too much of a baby to be tied down to domesticity.' 'Oh,' Vanessa looked from one to the other, her eyes looking genuinely puzzled, while Isobel, for some inexplicable reason, was obliged to smother an insane desire to laugh. 'I rather thought it was more or less settled,' Vanessa said. Lucifer shook his head, his eyes blackly wicked. 'Nothing's settled,' he informed her profoundly, 'until it happens.' The following silence could have been cut with a knife and Isobel wondered, somewhat dizzily, what would happen next. It was Vanessa who spoke, seeing the futility of further questioning. 'I'd better be going,' she said again, and Lucifer, taking her at her word, sat down to resume his leisurely lunch. Goodbye, Van.' He poured himself more coffee and Isobel watched the tall, thin gauntness of Vanessa Law move smoothly across the restaurant towards her neglected partner, unable to do anything about the unbidden sense of pity she felt for her. She lowered her gaze when she turned and met Lucifer's black eyes watching her curiously. 'You don't have to, you know,' he told her, and she shook her head slowly, knowing he had seen and recognized the momentary pity she felt for Vanessa. You're cruel and - and unfeeling,' she told him in a voice that sounded a little breathless, 'and I'd hate to be in love with you p 127