Lovers in the Afternoon

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘Hey, Gary,’ she called, at the same time launching the basket at him, knocking him momentarily off-balance, his language voluble as she climbed outside on to the ledge that Harvey used to get to the neighbouring buildings.

  Only it wasn’t as easy for her to balance there as it was for Harvey, the nine-inch-wide ledge that seemed more than adequate for his wiry frame suddenly seeming too narrow for her to negotiate with any degree of safety.

  ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ Gary’s furious face appeared at the open window, his hand reaching out to clasp her ankle.

  She had seen the move coming and scuttled a short distance along the ledge, sighing her relief as she realised she was out of his reach, leaning back against the rough brickwork of the wall behind her as she swayed giddily, the ground seeming a very long way down.

  ‘You stupid bitch,’ Gary’s face was contorted with fury. ‘Get back in here.’

  ‘Are you joking?’ she gave a shaky laugh, her eyes still closed as she fought back feelings of faintness. ‘You have to be joking, Gary!’

  ‘You’ll fall and break your damned neck!’

  She turned to look at him, breathing heavily in her anger. ‘Surprisingly enough,’ sarcasm sharpened her voice, ‘I would find that infinitely more preferable to being attacked by you. Isn’t that strange!’ she bit out contemptuously.

  Some of the bravado left him as he realised she was serious, taking on the look of a man who just didn’t know what to do next. ‘Leonie, please come back in here,’ he encouraged softly.

  ‘No!’

  ‘I promise not to touch you, damn it!’

  ‘You think I believe you?’ she derided harshly. ‘I wouldn’t trust you—Oh!’ she gasped as dizziness washed over her once again.

  ‘Are you all right?’ Gary sounded desperate. ‘Leonie, for God’s sake get back in here.’

  ‘I can’t,’ she shook her head, pushing into the wall behind her, biting her lip as she became afraid to look anywhere but straight ahead.

  ‘I won’t hurt you,’ he promised vehemently.

  ‘Don’t you understand,’ she grated between clenched teeth. ‘I can’t move!’

  ‘What is it? Is your foot stuck somewhere? Maybe if I—’

  ‘No!’ she cried her panic as she heard him attempting to climb out on to the ledge. ‘Don’t come near me,’ she warned desperately.

  ‘But if you’re stuck—’

  ‘I’m not,’ she shuddered. ‘I—I have vertigo!’ Two floors up, and she was terrified! Heights had never bothered her before, although she did have to concede that the circumstance of her being out here on a nine-inch ledge may have contributed to the fact that she now couldn’t move back into the window and couldn’t attempt to reach the neighbouring building either! The thought of moving at all terrified her, frozen to the spot.

  ‘The let me help you—’

  ‘Don’t come near me,’ she warned as Gary would have joined her out on the ledge. ‘If you come out here I—I swear I’ll jump!’

  ‘But you can’t stay there!’

  ‘Why can’t I?’ she was near to hysteria.

  ‘Leonie, you have to come in some time,’ he encouraged.

  ‘And face a raving sex-maniac?’ she shook her head vehemently. ‘No, thank you!’

  ‘It was only a game—’

  ‘Remember, Gary,’ she bit out grimly, ‘I watched the same bad films.’

  ‘You would rather stay out there, possibly fall, than come back in here with me?’ he sounded exasperated.

  ‘In one word, yes!’

  ‘You stupid—’

  ‘Bitch,’ she finished curtly. ‘I’ve noticed that seems to be your favourite word for a woman who won’t do things your way,’ she scorned. ‘No wonder Joan found herself another man!’

  ‘You know nothing of my marriage to Joan,’ he snarled.

  ‘I know that the failure of it has involved me,’ she bit out. ‘And I—’ she broke off as the telephone in her flat began to ring. ‘It’s Adam,’ she breathed. ‘It has to be Adam. If I don’t answer that Gary, he’ll know there’s something wrong.’

  ‘Why should he?’ he dismissed logically. ‘He’ll just think you’re still out.’

  He was right, of course, but she had to try. ‘No,’ she insisted. ‘He said he would call me. If I—if I don’t answer he’ll think something has happened to me.’

  ‘Then come in and answer it,’ Gary invited softly.

  God, the phone would stop ringing in a minute, with the caller—possibly Adam, thinking she just wasn’t at home!

  ‘I didn’t think you would,’ Gary said smugly.

  ‘You—you’re insane!’ She told him angrily as the telephone stopped ringing, the silence it left unnerving.

  ‘I thought you had already concluded that,’ he dismissed. ‘I’ll be waiting inside if you should change your mind about coming in,’ he told her conversationally.

  When she finally dared to turn her head it was to find him gone from the open window. ‘Gary,’ she called sharply. ‘Gary?’

  There was no answer. Was he playing a game with her, waiting for her in silence inside her flat? If he thought she was lying about the vertigo, that believing him gone, she would climb back inside, he was wrong. She really couldn’t move!

  ‘Gary,’ she called again. ‘Gary, please answer me.’

  He had gone, she was sure of it. God, what could the time be, about three o’clock? That meant she had another three hours before Adam was due to arrive. She wasn’t sure she could balance on this ledge for that amount of time. But if she couldn’t, that left only one way off it, and that was down!

  CHAPTER TEN

  IT was amazing how traffic could pass by and not even realise there was a young woman balancing precariously on a second-floor ledge above them! It was a street that had little or no pedestrians, and the people in their cars were too engrossed in their own lives to look up and see Leonie.

  One really bad moment came when Harvey decided to make his way back along the ledge, rubbing against her legs in greeting, not understanding when she wouldn’t move out of his way and allow him into his home. He became quite agitated by her refusal to move, and with his usual stubbornness refused to go back the way he had come. Leonie vehemently decided that his wandering days were over if she ever got off this ledge.

  And so were someone else’s if she survived this! Her fury turned to Adam. If they had been living together as husband and wife instead of conducting this ridiculous affair this wouldn’t have happened to her. And if an affair were all he wanted he could find some other woman to have it with, she would be his wife or nothing!

  What time was it now? She felt as if she had been in this ledge for hours. Surely it must be almost six by now? She was too afraid to even raise her arm and look at her wrist watch! But as if in answer to her question she could hear a clock striking the hour, one, two, three, four, five—she waited for the sixth bell—nothing happened. Five o’clock, it was only five o’clock! She wasn’t sure she could stay balanced here for another hour.

  Suddenly she heard a noise in the flat behind her, freezing, almost afraid to breathe. Gary had been playing a game with her all along, he was still in there waiting for her.

  ‘What the—! What the hell are you doing out there?’

  She turned sharply at the sound of that voice, regaining her balance with effort, feeling shaken as the world swayed up to meet her.

  ‘Be careful, damn it,’ Adam rasped. ‘You almost fell then.’

  ‘You don’t say,’ she scorned shakily. ‘You aren’t supposed to be here for another hour,’ she accused.

  ‘What?’ he frowned his disbelief, in the act of climbing out of the window.

  ‘It’s only five, you said you wouldn’t be here until six,’ she stupidly reminded. Had she lost her mind? What did it matter what the time was, he was here!

  ‘Well if that’s the way you feel about being rescued,’ he ground out, climbing back down.
‘I’ll come back in an hour!’

  ‘Adam!’ she screamed her fear that he would really leave her alone again out here. ‘Oh, Adam,’ her voice broke on a sob. ‘Don’t leave me. Please, don’t leave me!’

  ‘It’s all right, Leonie,’ he soothed, sounded closer now. ‘I’ll be with you in a second, and we’ll go in together.’

  ‘We might fall,’ she cried.

  ‘We won’t,’ he told her calmly.

  She felt his fingers on her arm, clasping her hand now as she clung to him, feeling his strength flow into her. ‘Adam,’ she sobbed, still not turning. ‘Oh, Adam!’ Sobs wracked her body.

  ‘That bastard!’ he grated feelingly. ‘He didn’t tell us he had left you out here.’

  ‘Gary? You mean Gary?’ she prompted. ‘Did you get him?’

  ‘We got him—’

  ‘How?’ she breathed raggedly. ‘I had no idea it was him, I even invited him in thinking he could help protect me after the man called again. Oh God, Adam, I’ve never been so scared in my life!’

  ‘I can imagine,’ he cut in harshly. ‘And once I have you safely inside you can tell me exactly what happened here this afternoon. But right now I have to get you inside.’

  ‘I can’t move,’ she shook her head.

  ‘Of course you can,’ he soothed.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Leonie, you will move,’ he instructed coldly. ‘Do you understand me?’

  Her bottom lip quivered emotionally. ‘There’s no need to shout at me.’

  ‘I’ll shout at you a lot more than this if you don’t soon get yourself moving,’ he rasped. ‘It’s damned windy out here.’

  She turned to glare at him. ‘Do you think I don’t know that?’ she snapped furiously. It may have been a warm day but the wind had started to blow about an hour ago, increasing in intensity the last ten minutes or so. ‘I’ve been stuck out here for hours,’ she told him angrily. ‘I’ve probably caught pneumonia.’

  ‘You probably deserve to,’ Adam said callously. ‘No one in their right mind balances on a ledge like this one for hours!’

  ‘That’s just the sort of remark I should have expected from you,’ Leonie eased along the ledge behind him, glaring at him as she allowed him to catch her under the arms and lift her inside. ‘You don’t—Oh!’ Her legs gave way as she realised where she was, Adam catching her deftly before she fell.

  ‘It’s all right now, Leonie,’ he soothed, smoothing her hair as he held her. ‘I have you safe.’

  She shuddered as she realised she was at last off the ledge. ‘You deliberately made me so angry that I didn’t know what I was doing,’ she accused between her tears.

  ‘As long as it worked I don’t care what I did,’ Adam was trembling. ‘I’ve never been so scared in my life as when I came in and saw your open window and realised you were out there.’

  ‘I tried to use psychology with Gary,’ she remembered with a quiver. ‘It didn’t work.’

  Adam’s arms tightened about her. ‘He’s safely in police custody now.’

  ‘When? How?’ she frowned.

  Adam led her over to the sofa, sitting her down before pouring her a drink, standing over her while she drank the brandy. He took the empty glass from her fingers, sitting down beside her to pull her into his arms. ‘Did he hurt you?’ he asked gruffly.

  She knew exactly what he was asking. ‘No,’ she assured him softly. ‘Now tell me how you knew it was Gary? Is he really in police custody?’

  ‘Yes,’ Adam sighed his relief. ‘The police arrested him when he arrived home two hours ago. I was with them, and when they knocked on the door he just crumpled. He told them everything when they took him to the police station. But he didn’t tell us he had left you perched out on a ledge,’ he frowned his anger.

  ‘It’s over now, Adam,’ she touched his thigh.

  ‘Thank God,’ he breathed. ‘Having you followed told us nothing—’

  ‘You’re still looking for the grounds to divorce me?’ she pulled away from him, her expression pained. ‘I hope your detective told you that you’re my only visitor! Can you be named in your own divorce?’ her voice rose shrilly.

  ‘Leonie—’

  ‘I don’t think you can, Adam.’ She stood up, moving away from him. ‘So we had better stop our affair so that I can find a lover you can name. Maybe I should have just let Gary do what he wanted to do after all,’ her voice broke. ‘Then you could have named him.’

  ‘Leonie—’

  ‘Silly me thought that climbing out on that ledge was better than being violated,’ she said self-derisively. ‘If I had just let him go ahead I could have saved us all a lot of trouble. You really should have told me—’

  ‘Leonie, if you say one more word, one more word,’ he repeated icily, ‘I’ll put you over my knee and beat the living daylights out of you.’

  ‘I wonder why I never realised how gallant you are.’ Her eyes flashed. ‘I’ve just escaped attack by a sex-maniac by balancing on a ledge for more than two hours and you intend to beat me!’ She gave a choked laugh. ‘And to think I’d decided, if I ever got off that ledge, that I was going to talk to you about what went wrong in our marriage. It looks as if I needn’t bother. Although you’ll have to provide the evidence for the divorce, the thought of taking a lover nauseates me!’

  ‘Leonie…?’

  ‘Although I know it won’t be Liz,’ she looked at him accusingly. ‘All this time you’ve let me believe the two of you were lovers, and you were lying! Liz told me the truth today.’

  ‘If she said we didn’t sleep together then she lied,’ he bit out.

  ‘I know you went to bed together, before we were married. I also know now that it only happened the once. And Liz told me it wasn’t done out of love on either of your parts.’

  ‘I still slept with your sister,’ Adam told her flatly.

  ‘You helped a friend when she needed it,’ Leonie amended abruptly.

  ‘By making love to her!’

  ‘Do you want a whip to beat yourself with?’ Leonie scorned. ‘What you did wasn’t wrong.’ She shook her head. ‘Misguided, perhaps, but not wrong. I’ve believed all this time that you were in love with Liz.’

  ‘I never was,’ he denied softly.

  ‘I know that now!’

  He sighed. ‘The night I made love to her should never have happened, I knew that. Never more so than when I met you,’ he rasped. ‘I think I fell in love with you on sight, and yet my guilt about Liz stood between us.’

  Leonie moistened suddenly dry lips. ‘You did love me?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘You never once told me that.’

  He frowned. ‘Didn’t I? But surely it must have been obvious,’ he dismissed impatiently.

  His emotionally repressed childhood again! ‘I ought to hit you over the head with something!’ she snapped.

  ‘Why?’ he looked dazed.

  ‘Because I loved you from the moment we met too,’ she glared at him. ‘But my inexperience, my clumsiness, my naiveté, seemed to be driving you away!’

  He shook his head. ‘Your inexperience enchanted me, your clumsiness amused me, and your naiveté enthralled me!’

  ‘Then why couldn’t you bear to be near me!’

  ‘Because of Liz,’ he admitted heavily. ‘I was terrified that one day you would find out about that night I spent with her, and that you would hate me for it.’

  ‘Why couldn’t you have just told me about it before we were married?’ she sighed.

  ‘I’d promised Liz. Although, believe me, if I had thought you could accept what happened I would have broken that promise,’ he added grimly.

  ‘You thought me too immature to understand,’ she nodded. ‘I believe I was,’ she acknowledged heavily. ‘But I understand now.’

  His eyes were narrowed. ‘You do?’

  She gave a ragged sigh. ‘Liz told me about Nick, his affair, how you tried to help her through it.’

  His mouth twisted. ‘I’d like
to say it was all a question of helping Liz, but it wasn’t. I couldn’t have made love to her if I hadn’t desired her.’

  ‘I understand that too,’ Leonie nodded. ‘But you didn’t love her, or want to marry her.’

  ‘God, no.’

  ‘I thought you did, you see. That day I saw you together at your office, I thought you had married me because Liz had decided on a reconciliation with Nick rather than marriage to you, that you both now realised your mistake, but that it was too late for you to be together, because Liz was expecting Nick’s child. I believed I was a very second, second-best,’ she admitted miserably.

  ‘You were never that.’ Adam shook his head. ‘The night I met you I was driving past Liz’s house and saw the lights on. My first thought was that it was burglars. Then you opened the door!’ He gave a tight smile. ‘I fell, God how I fell. And yet Liz stood between us. I rushed you into marriage before I could talk myself out of it, knew I had to have you even if I lost you later. But our problems began straight away.’

  ‘I was a failure in bed,’ she sighed.

  ‘You weren’t a failure,’ he rasped angrily. ‘You were a very young girl with a problem you were too embarrassed to even talk about. And by the time we had dispensed with that problem your barriers were well and truly up, you were self-conscious about lovemaking to the point where you didn’t even like me to touch you. You can’t know what that did to me! But my own guilt about Liz made it impossible for me to reach you. I knew I was driving you further and further away from me, but I didn’t know how to stop it. When you decided to end the marriage I knew I couldn’t stop you.’

  ‘And now?’

  ‘Now I’m giving you what you want,’ he shrugged. ‘An affair.’

  ‘While you divorce me,’ she said bitterly.

  ‘For God’s sake, I wasn’t having you followed so that I can divorce you!’ Adam grated. ‘I was protecting you, because of those telephone calls.’

  ‘A lot of good that did me,’ she scorned, not believing him.

  Adam flushed at the rebuke. ‘There was a flaw in the plan. On Saturdays I met with the detective to get his report. We met at twelve-thirty today for lunch.’