Loveknot

by Catherine George

  "Who is he?" Alexander rapped.

  Sophie glared at him.

  "Who's who?"

  He released one of her hands and brushed his fingers over her breasts with insulting familiarity. "You're all dressed up for someone."

  Utterly enraged, Sophie dodged away and picked up the poker.

  "Get out, Alexander Paget. Get out right now, before I do you an injury, you two- timing swine!"

  "Sophie!" Alexander threw his hands wide in despair.

  "What's got into you, for God's sake? OK, so Delphine turned up again. Is that the reason for all this?"

  "Ten out of ten for observation! Now get out!"

  "Look here, Sophie Gordon. I've been stuck in a car at the end of your lane for hours, just waiting to see you. I was getting bloody frantic by the time you turned up, and I'm not moving from here until you tell me what's eating you."

  Then you'll stay here all night! " Too late, Sophie realised what she'd said. She retreated in alarm as Alexander advanced on her, his eyes narrowed to gleaming slits.

  "With the greatest of pleasure. Give me that poker."

  "No!" Sophie swung it at him wildly, but _Alexander grabbed it in mid-flight, wrenching it out of her hand. He tossed it in the hearth and jerked her towards him.

  "All right," he said through gritted teeth.

  "We'll leave the talking until afterwards."

  Afterwards? Sophie's mouth opened in protest but he closed it summarily with his own. For a split-second she yielded and his hold tightened, then she began to fight in earnest, kicking at him with high, slender heels, wrenching a hand free to grab at his hair, but Alexander was oblivious to it all. The beads broke and rolled in all directions, but he never lifted his mouth from hers, suffocating her protests, impervious to her flailing hands as he lifted her off her feet.

  Sophie kicked and struggled like a wild thing, but Alexander merely man-handled her across the room and wrenched open the' door to the stairs.

  Their ascent to the bedroom was violent and undignified, both of them coming into painful contact with the walls as Alexander stumbled inexorably upward, determined to deposit his writhing burden where he intended, on her bed.

  The moment Sophie hit the quilt she scrambled up like an eel, but Alexander threw himself after her in a rugby tackle, catching her by the ankles and hauling her back along the bed. The clinging dress rode upward, displaying lace-topped holdup stockings, and more, at which point Alexander lost whatever shreds of civilisation he had left. He groaned like a man in anguish and pulled her beneath him, his mouth hot on hers as his hand sought the warmth of a satiny thigh above the _stocking. Sophie threshed her head back and forth, making choked sounds of protest, but Alexander's response was to straddle her with two muscular legs, one hand on her mouth as he struggled to rid himself of his jacket with the other. Neither of them heard the rising howl of the wind, both of them so locked in primitive sexual combat they were deaf and blind to anything but escape on one hand and mastery on the other.

  "Let me go!" screeched Sophie, her voice un recognisable as he took his hand from her mouth. Alexander's laugh was a deadly little sound, leaving Sophie in no doubt that, whatever he had in mind, freeing her was no part of it. At last he was out of the heavy leather jacket, and he leaned away a little to toss it on the floor. Instantly Sophie seized her chance, desperation lending her strength as she writhed free from his restraining legs and threw herself towards the foot of the bed just as the window blew in with an almighty crash and something hard and sharp connected with Sophie's head.

  "Sophie!" Alexander's cry was agonised as he leapt for the light, his feet crunching on broken glass as he turned to see her sitting, dazed, in a heap of broken glass, staring at a bloody tuft of hair and skin lying on the pale yellow quilt. Wind howled through the room from the shattered window, and she lifted blank eyes to Alexander as he carefully cleared the broken glass away from her so he could lift her off the bed.

  "Your face is cut," she remarked.

  "Never mind me." His eyes glittered darkly in his chalk-white face.

  "Are you all right, my darling?"

  _She nodded, then gasped as blood poured down her forehead and on to her hands and all over Alexander's white shirt, and suddenly there was a violent pain in her head and she began to scream as he lifted her in his arms and ran down the stairs at twice the speed of their recent ascent. Afterwards everything was a blur. Sophie was dimly aware through the pain and cold that she was in a car, then in a brightly lit room smelling of antiseptic, and there were nurses and young men in white coats, who took X-rays and gave her injections and did unspeakable things to her scalp with needles and thread and it all hurt unbearably, and then she was sick, and embarrassed and shivering when they cut the black dress off her and it stuck in places where bits of glass had speared her through the wool, leaving deep little cuts the nurses drew together with butterfly dressings, and finally, blessedly, she was tucked into bed and allowed to sleep.

  When Sophie woke it was. daylight and her father and Kate were standing beside her bed. She smiled gingerly, wincing as pain knifed through her head.

  "I'm not going to say " where am I", because I assume I'm in Arlesford

  General," she said hoarsely.

  "Yes, pet." Dr Gordon took her hand in his. "How do you feel?"

  "I've got a fair old headache, but I think I'm OK." Sophie smiled at Kate.

  "Sorry to give you a fright, Stepmama."

  Kate let out a deep breath.

  "I'll overlook it this time. Don't do it again, please, darling."

  _"How's Alexander? Is he all right?"

  "A few cuts, otherwise fine." Dr Gordon gave his daughter a wry look.

  "I'm not sure why he was in your bedroom when the window blew in, but thank

  God he was there. You'd have been in a sorrier state altogether if that gash in your scalp hadn't been attended to at once, I assure you."

  Sophie's face turned from white to crimson then white again, and Kate pulled at her husband's hand.

  "Go on, David. You'll be late for morning surgery. I'll stay with Sophie."

  "Kate's taking you home to the Chantry once you've been discharged," said Dr Gordon briskly.

  "Oh, lovely." Sophie tried to smile.

  "My own doctor in the house if I have a relapse."

  Later in the morning a very shaky Sophie stumbled into the Chantry with Kate, grateful for the latter's ministrations as she was installed on a comfortable couch, and fussed over a little. When Dr Gordon arrived at lunch time

  Alexander was with him, looking pale and exhausted, his cheek and temple decorated, like Sophie's, with butterfly plasters. After assuring himself his daughter was all right, Dr Gordon withdrew to the kitchen with Kate, leaving Alexander alone with the invalid.

  "Is the cottage in a bad way?" asked Sophie, avoiding Alexander's eyes.

  "Perry's checking the damage. I had to be in court again this morning.

  Another boundary dispute." He sat on the edge of the couch and took one of her scarred hands in his.

  "Are you really all right, Sophie? I thought they'd have kept you in

  hospital longer."

  Sophie smiled.

  "Not for a mere crack on the head. It must have been some gale Casualty had a very busy night."

  "So I gather."

  "How do you like my dressing? Rather chic like a Sikh topknot, don't you think?"

  Alexander leaned nearer.

  "Stop chattering and let me apologise. I'm so hellish sorry, Sophie. If I hadn't resorted to cave man tactics it would never have happened."

  Sophie flushed and looked down at her hands. "Rubbish. If you hadn't been there I'd have been in bed anyway, so I'd still have copped it when the window blew in."

  "The fact remains that if I hadn't hauled you upstairs at that particular juncture you wouldn't have been injured." His voice was so bitter with self-loathing, Sophie tried to raise his spirits with a mischievous little smile.

>   "Oh, come on, Alexander. It does have a funny side. I thought the earth was supposed to move, not the sky fall in!"

  Alexander's startled look warmed slowly to a smile.

  "Does this mean you're not angry with me any more? You were fighting mad last night, and I still don't know why."

  She looked at him hard, but it was quite plain he meant what he said.

  "Are you being entirely honest?"

  He shrugged.

  "It's obvious Delphine's at the bottom of it God knows, she could hardly have materialised at a less opportune moment." His eyes met hers very directly.

  "But why were you so furious with me, Sophie?

  I had no idea she was back, I promise. "

  "No," agreed Sophie drily.

  "I could see that." She contemplated him thoughtfully for a moment or two, then gave him the details of Delphine's warning-off visit, and watched, fascinated, as Alexander's face, normally so inscrutable, darkened from incredulity to murderous fury by the end of her little tale.

  "My God!" he said, seething.

  "And you believed her?"

  "She was flashing her engagement ring at me, Alexander. Why wouldn't I believe her?" Sophie looked down.

  "Besides, I'd forgotten how beautiful she is. So had you, by the look on your face when she turned up in the Unicorn bar."

  Alexander put a hand under her chin and turned her face up to his.

  "Sophie, I swear I made it crystal-clear to Delphine that everything was finished between us. My mistake was in telling her she could keep that confounded ring. She'd never given it back, of course, so I told her to sell it, do anything she liked with it. If I'd known what she had in mind, I'd have rammed the bloody thing down her throat."

  He stroked her cheek.

  "When she appeared out of the blue like that I could hardly believe her sheer brass-faced cheek."

  Sophie was beginning to feel better.

  "I thought you were struck dumb by that incredible face of hers."

  Alexander's eyes lit suddenly with laughter. "Turned to stone, you mean.

  Like one of those _Greeks faced with Medusa."

  Then why did she come to warn me off, Alexander? She must have known I'd find out she was lying. "

  He sighed heavily.

  "Delphine's been spoiled all her life, given everything she wants simply because of the way she looks. Then suddenly she loses face twice in the space of a very short time, first with the job in the States, then with me.

  So she needed a whipping-boy. Someone she could vent her spite on."

  "And once again I was the nearest," said Sophie wryly.

  Alexander raised an eyebrow.

  "Not at all. Delphine went berserk because I told her it was you I wanted to marry, not her."

  She stared at him in dismay.

  "But that isn't true!"

  "Oh, yes, it is." He leaned closer.

  "You know very well you're going to marry me, Sophie."

  She pushed him away, and shrank back against the sofa cushions: "I know nothing of the kind."

  "At the very moment Delphine interrupted us you were about to make me a very personal request. Am I right?" Alexander's eyes were steely with determination.

  "Do you deny it?"

  "No, I don't. But asking you to take me to bed doesn't mean I want to marry you, Alexander."

  He jumped to his feet, raking a hand through his hair as he glared down at her.

  "You mean I'm OK for a quick session in bed, but otherwise on my bike!"

  Sophie's head was beginning to throb.

  "I don't know why you're so angry. Isn't that precisely what you had in mind before the window fell in?"

  His face hardened.

  "It's true I wanted to make love to you. Enough to fight you tooth and nail to do so, for my sins. But only because I meant to show you it was you I wanted more than anything or anyone in the world, including Delphine. To make you see we belonged together, you and I, Sophie. For life."

  Sophie was quite unable to cope with this on top of the trauma of the night.

  "Can we drop the subject for now, Alexander? My head's thumping so much I can't think."

  Alexander's tension drained from him, leaving him very pale, with a look of weariness on his face to match Sophie's.

  "I'm sorry. I seem to keep on saying that, don't I?" He rubbed a hand over his face.

  "I just felt I couldn't go on any longer without clearing things up between us.

  "

  "Thank you for that." Sophie gave him a tired smile.

  "Come back when I've gathered my wandering wits together."

  Alexander looked morose.

  "Whatever you say, Sophie. But in the meantime try to give my proposal some thought. Please."

  "It won't make any difference, Alexander," she felt obliged to point out.

  "I told Delphine yesterday that marriage had no place on my programme. I meant it."

  Alexander's eyes glittered angrily in his ashen face.

  "I don't believe you."

  "That's your privilege, of course." Sophie shrugged.

  "Believe this, at least, Alexander. If I were marriage-inclined, you'd be the only husband _I'd want. But husbands rarely come as a single item.

  They're part of a package, along with children and cooking and laundry and housework.

  No novelty for me, any of it. "

  "You haven't mentioned love."

  "Neither have you."

  There was a short, tense pause, while green eyes bored into brown, then

  Alexander turned away blindly and made for the door.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Sophie was glad to spend the rest of the afternoon in bed, utterly worn out one way and another, but, deaf to Kate's entreaties, she insisted on getting up for dinner, and came downstairs to a house filled with flowers. There were carnations from Sam Jefford, a great glowing sheaf of chrysanthemums from Perry, and, last but by no means least, a very delicate arrangement of white violets and greenery from Julian Brett.

  "Nice to be popular," commented Dr Gordon. "Must be easier ways to merit bouquets. Dad!" Sophie smiled cheerfully, secretly disappointed because none of the flowers were from Alexander. Which, she told herself sternly, was silly. He'd looked a lot worse than she did by the time he left.

  Certainly in no condition to think about flowers or anything else but getting himself home to bed.

  Later in the evening there were several phone calls from friends who'd heard about the accident, including one from Sam Jefford, who was very sympathetic, but sensibly brief. She was touched by his concern, but a great deal less pleased when the doorbell rang and Julian Brett was ushered in. | He told

  Sophie she looked quite dreadful, and went on to hold forth interminably on the evils and risks of girls living alone and unprotected. When _Sophie informed him he was mistaken, that in fact Alexander had been with her at the time, he looked deeply affronted, and only Perry's timely arrival prevented a further lecture. Julian approved of Perry even less than Alexander, and quickly took himself off, to Sophie's guilty relief.

  "Right then, Perry," she said urgently.

  "How's the cottage?"

  He cheered her up considerably by telling her that apart from a new window, and probably a new bedroom ceiling as well. Ilex Cottage was in reasonably good shape.

  "Which is more than can be said for you, love," he added.

  "You look distinctly wan."

  "I feel wan!" Sophie grinned.

  "So would you if a window had fallen on your head."

  Perry's blue eyes' were quizzical.

  "Lucky thing Alexander was on hand."

  Sophie flushed.

  "Yes. Very."

  "Poor chap had a hell of a night. Once he knew you were all right he dashed back to Church Row to see if your neighbours were in need of help. "

  Sophie put a hand to her mouth.

  "My God, I never gave them a thought!

  Were they all right?
"

  "Startled by the commotion, and very worried about you, but otherwise unaffected." Perry got up to go.

  "Things better between you and Alexander now?"