by Susan Lewis
‘Yes, you’re right,’ Corrie said, uncertainly.
‘You’re not involved, are you?’
‘No, of course I’m not.’
‘Mmm,’ Paula grunted. ‘Have you got any idea who this Siobhan might be?’
‘No,’ Corrie answered. ‘It could be just a fling, though I doubt it. Annalise certainly doesn’t seem to think so. My guess is, if he’s keeping her under wraps like this, she must be married.’
‘Could be,’ Paula said. ‘Oh no!’ she groaned, ‘can you hear that?’
Corrie could. The baby was crying, so their conversation, as it so often was these days, was brought to an abrupt end.
The following day the crew moved on to Coventry to shoot an interview with Jack Watkins, a Labour MP, who was violently opposed not only to the idea of brothels, but to prostitution altogether. As far as he was concerned prostitutes actively encouraged unstable men to indulge their fantasies, unhinging them further and making them a danger to society. They were nothing short of vermin and should be swept from the streets, horsewhipped, jailed or, as Felicity suggested through gritted teeth, burned at the stake. Corrie had known from her telephone conversations with him that he wasn’t going to be an easy man to deal with, and was now having to exercise every ounce of her diplomatic skills to prevent him and Felicity from coming to blows. But when he started to give the camera crew directions as to when they should turn over and cut, and then to tell Corrie which bits of what he was saying he wanted edited out, Corrie informed him politely but firmly, that if there was anything he didn’t want broadcast then he should not say it. As it was, TW held the rights to the interview, he had even signed a form agreeing that they did, and therefore they would transmit the way they saw fit.
‘Then you leave me no alternative but to call this interview to an end,’ Watkins declared, getting up from his desk.
‘As you like,’ Corrie answered calmly, knowing that they already had what they’d come for. Watkins knew it too, and his long, pasty face began to twitch with anger. Corrie busied herself with her notes before he could see her smile; he was absolutely correct in thinking that he had not done himself any favours.
As the crew started to pack up Corrie watched the MP lumber about the room deliberately getting in their way. He was the oddest shape for a man, she was thinking, with his narrow, slightly stooped shoulders and bulging hips. His trousers were shiny, his sandals scuffed at the toe, and his hands, she had noticed earlier, were repulsively feminine. Then, to her horror, she found herself fantasizing about him sexually. She turned away quickly. This whole thing really was beginning to get to her and she wondered if she was ever going to be able to look at a man again without imagining him molesting her.
As they travelled back to the Holiday Inn, Corrie was surprised by how quiet Felicity was. But half an hour after they’d arrived back at the hotel she came banging on Corrie’s door.
‘I’ve just spoken to Carol,’ she declared, with a triumphant grin, ‘and it’s just as I suspected. That fucking hypocrite Watkins is not only a bigot, he is a regular client of none other than Carol herself.’
‘No!’ Corrie gasped. ‘You’re kidding me.’
‘Speak to Carol yourself if you like,’ Felicity answered, waving a hand towards the telephone. ‘It was why Carol gave us his name,’ she added, laughing. ‘She knew he’d end up fucking himself. She told me to tell you that in his case she’s prepared to make an exception and reveal on camera that he’s a client. So, what do you reckon?’
‘I reckon we’ve got quite a scoop, is what I reckon,’ Corrie grinned. ‘This’ll do more for their cause than anything else we’ve done so far. God, I can’t believe it. To think that he had the nerve to sit there beating his puritanical drum when all the time he’s getting his rocks off with Carol. What a fraud, and him a member of our estimable parliament! I’ll have to get some advice though. I mean, I really don’t know how to handle anything like this, and I’ll have to make sure there aren’t any legal problems. It could be that we should invite him to answer Carol’s accusation. Let’s hope he declines, that’ll sink him even further. Anyway, whatever, this is a decision for the producer.’
‘You’re going to ask Annalise?’ Felicity said incredulously.
‘I’ll have to. She’s the producer.’
‘And what the fuck does she know? She wasn’t even there this afternoon.’
‘Nevertheless …’
‘Nevertheless shit!’ Felicity cried. ‘Get on the phone to London. It’s Bob Churchill or Luke Fitzpatrick you should be asking, not little dolly day-dream.’
‘It’s Annalise who should be doing the asking,’ Corrie reminded her, firmly, ‘and I’m not about to drop her in it. Just give me a while to think about it though, I’ll have to work out how to put it to her so she doesn’t feel we’re attacking her for not being there.’
Felicity shook her head. ‘She doesn’t deserve you, Corrie.’
‘I know. I’m such a saint!’ Corrie grinned.
‘Yes, well just you look out that no one tries to use that halo to hang you with,’ Felicity remarked seriously.
An hour later, having showered and dressed for dinner, Corrie was on the point of going to find Annalise when Annalise came barging into her room.
‘I don’t believe you could do this to me,’ Annalise declared, as Corrie closed the door behind her.
‘Do what?’ Corrie asked in amazement.
Annalise sat down on the bed, wringing her hands, then turned her immense blue eyes to Corrie. Corrie didn’t remember ever seeing her look so young, or so bewildered. Her wild blonde curls were tumbling about her face, her make-up was smudged and her lips were bitten and trembling. Worse, was the haunted expression in her eyes that Corrie couldn’t yet fathom.
‘Luke told me,’ Annalise said shakily. ‘He told me himself that you slept with him.’
Corrie closed her eyes as her heart froze. ‘Oh my God,’ she breathed.
‘How could you?’ Annalise cried. ‘How could you have done that to me?’
All Corrie could do was look at her. Then Annalise started to cry.
‘So it’s true, you did sleep with him. I thought he was lying … I trusted you, Corrie,’ she sobbed. ‘I really trusted you. You were the only one who seemed to care, when all the time … Oh, Corrie, why? Why did you do it?’
‘I don’t know,’ Corrie answered, dashing a hand through her hair. ‘It just happened. But it didn’t mean anything. Annalise, please believe that, it …’
‘No, it didn’t mean anything to Luke either,’ Annalise interrupted. ‘He told me that, you know, that he spent the night with you, but it didn’t mean anything. I was just afraid it had meant something to you.’
‘Well it didn’t,’ Corrie assured her.
‘Oh, I’m so glad. You see, basically, Luke is a really kind man. He took pity on you when everyone else was giving you such a hard time. He wanted to comfort you.’ She said through her tears. ‘Isn’t he a chauvinist!’
Corrie had several far more choice names she would like to call him right now, but managed to refrain.
‘He’s coming here, tonight,’ Annalise said. ‘I’ve just spoken to him in the car, he’s on his way.’
‘What for?’
‘He said he was missing me. But I had to be sure that it wasn’t you he was coming to see.’ She reached out her hand to Corrie and pulled Corrie down beside her. ‘I don’t want you to think I blame you for sleeping with him,’ she said, searching Corrie’s eyes with her own. ‘I mean, I know only too well how irresistible he is when he turns on the charm. Even when he doesn’t,’ she added with a sad smile. ‘But … I don’t suppose I’ve got any right to ask this, but you won’t do it again, will you?’
Corrie shook her head. ‘No, I won’t,’ she assured her. She wished there was a way she could persuade Annalise to stop seeing him too, but she knew she would be wasting her time. What she couldn’t work out though was why Annalise had forgiven her so easily, b
ut Felicity supplied the answer to that when Corrie met her in the bar later and told her what had happened.
‘She has to forgive you,’ Felicity said, ‘for the same reason she feels she has to forgive him. If she didn’t she’d lose you. And I’ve told you before, she can’t survive without you – OK, either of you.’
Corrie stared down into her gin and tonic. ‘She must be so lonely, so frightened,’ she said.
‘Yeah, poor kid.’
Corrie looked up in surprise and Felicity smiled.
‘I know you think I’m an ogre with no heart,’ Felicity said, ‘but I’m not. And that girl is suffering. I don’t admire her lack of professionalism, it’s true, but I feel as sorry for her as you do. The point is though, that she’s leaning very heavily on you and you are taking on the responsibility. I like you, Corrie, a lot, and I don’t want to see you getting in so deep that it’s you who ends up drowning in their problems.’
Corrie knew that what Felicity was saying made sense, she could already feel herself becoming submerged in something she had hardly begun to understand, but the idea of cutting herself loose from Annalise when Annalise so badly needed a friend and a shoulder, felt so disloyal, so selfish even, that she knew she’d never do it.
‘So,’ Felicity said suddenly. Corrie looked up and found that Felicity was laughing. ‘You did sleep with him then. I guessed as much.’
‘I thought you had,’ Corrie answered with a wry smile. ‘But as I said, it only happened the once.’
‘And the bastard had to go and tell Annalise. Now why do you suppose he did that?’
Corrie shrugged. ‘Your guess is as good as mine.’
‘I have to confess I wouldn’t mind a roll in the hay with him myself,’ Felicity grinned. ‘He’s a damned attractive man. I wonder if Annalise would be so quick to forgive me?’
‘I don’t know about that,’ Corrie answered, ‘but she’d forgive Luke, that’s for sure. Anyway, the important thing now is that he’s on his way here, and I was thinking that perhaps it would be better if you asked him what we should do about Jack Watkins. That way it won’t look as though I’ve gone behind Annalise’s back.’
‘So we’ll make me the villain of the piece, is that it?’
‘Yep.’
Laughing Felicity got up from the bar. ‘All right, I’ll talk to him. What are you doing now?’
‘I’m off for a Chinese with the crew, so I’ll call in on you when I get back, find out how you got on.’
Later in the evening, when Corrie returned from the restaurant, she made a stop at reception to see if Luke had checked in yet. He had. They gave her his room number, but she went to Felicity’s room first. It was empty. So too was Annalise’s. Getting back into the lift she rode up another floor to Luke’s room. She found the door slightly ajar, and hearing muffled voices she blithely walked in.
What confronted her stopped her dead in her tracks. Luke, Felicity and Annalise were all writhing naked about the bed.
Shocked, Corrie beat a hasty retreat and went back to her room. She couldn’t even begin to imagine how the unlikely threesome had come about, but somehow it had, and already it was giving her an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach.
She hadn’t had time to take in much more than their nudity, so she wasn’t sure if she was imagining the fact that one of them, Annalise she thought, had been tied to the bed. The idea that Annalise had been put into such a vulnerable position didn’t sit too well with her either, somehow it smacked of exploitation, and Corrie was more than a little tempted to go back and insist she was released. But she couldn’t be sure about what she had seen, and besides, if Annalise had been tied up she certainly hadn’t been screaming for help. Corrie smiled then, as she imagined their reaction to her descending upon them like some avenging angel, but the smile quickly faded. It was starting to seem to her that the whole world was obsessed with sex. Sex, lust and perverted fantasy. She was beginning to hate what it did to people, the way it made them behave. She already knew more than she wanted to about what lengths some men would go to in order to achieve the ultimate orgasm, and the knowledge alone felt like a violation. Her sympathy with the prostitutes was not in any way dented, she knew that, but her attitude towards sex was causing her a great deal of concern. She could no longer equate it with an act of love, instead she was seeing it as an act of violence, debauchery and depravity.
‘Well that’s hardly surprising,’ Paula told her, when Corrie called her in the middle of the night. ‘It’s a horrible world out there, and right now you’re staring it straight in the face.’
‘Yes, but what about Luke, Felicity and Annalise? I have to tell you Paula, it’s left me with a really bad taste.’
‘Probably because you feel so protective about Annalise. But she’s a grown woman, Corrie. And you said yourself, she wasn’t objecting.’
‘She wouldn’t object to anything Luke wanted her to do.’
‘Maybe not, but it’s her life. And your trouble is, you’re an incurable romantic. Sex for sex’s sake can be every bit as erotic as sex with love, you know? Dave and I are always pretending we don’t know one another, or acting out little roles that turn us both on. We call it dirty sex, and we love it!’
Corrie laughed. ‘What would I do without you, Paula Jeffries? You make everything sound so uncomplicated, so normal.’
‘Well you can’t tell me that you haven’t had little fantasies of your own,’ Paula remarked.
‘Sure I have,’ Corrie confessed, ‘but don’t you dare ask me what they are, because I’m not telling you.’
‘That’s all right. Just be sure to tell the right man when he comes along. It’ll blow his mind – and yours.’
‘And try to be a little more tolerant of what others are doing?’
‘Yeah, I guess so. And ask yourself if you weren’t just the tiniest bit jealous that you weren’t on that bed with them.’
‘I wasn’t,’ Corrie assured her. ‘The idea of another woman being in the room does nothing for me. Now, if it were two men and me …’
Paula laughed. ‘You see, you’re a raver at heart, and don’t know it. Anyway, I must go, it’s getting cold standing here in this hall. Call me again soon and let me know all developments. I live my life vicariously through you, you understand?’
The following morning Luke was the only one of the three to show for breakfast. With momentary surprise Corrie noticed everyone look up as he walked into the restaurant, then remembered that of course they all knew who he was. She watched him weave a path through the tables towards her, and her heart very nearly turned over as he started to smile. There was no denying how incredibly handsome he was, nor how pleased she felt that his smile was directed at her. Nevertheless she was disappointed in herself for responding the way she was.
He joined her at her table, where she sat alone, and after they had exchanged good mornings Corrie casually asked if Felicity had spoken to him the night before.
Immediately Luke grinned and after ordering himself some coffee from the hovering waiter, he turned and looked Corrie straight in the eye. ‘I saw you come into the room last night,’ he said.
Corrie blushed, and started to apologize for barging in like that.
‘Why worry?’ he shrugged. ‘Unless of course it upset you.’
‘Why would it upset me?’ Corrie said, a little too defensively.
He treated her to a long, appraising look, then said, ‘It’s Annalise, you know. She really gets a kick out of bondage and troilism. And Felicity, we discover, gets her kicks out of swinging both ways.’
‘And you? No, don’t tell me, you were nothing more than the helpless victim of a female web of lust?’ Immediately the words were out Corrie regretted them; they held the unmistakable ring of jealousy.
Luke was laughing. ‘You should have stayed,’ he said, ‘we could have made quite a night of it, and helped you shed some of those inhibitions into the bargain.’
Corrie passed no comment as she looked down
at the mug of tea cupped between her hands. What she was thinking was that it was more likely him who got a kick out of bondage and troilism, since it simply didn’t add up where Annalise was concerned. As for Felicity swinging both ways … Well, what Felicity did was her own business.
‘Anyway, what you really want to know,’ Luke said, ‘is did Felicity tell me about Watkins? And the answer is yes, she did.’
Corrie looked up, then started as Luke suddenly burst out laughing.
‘What’s so funny?’ she asked uncertainly.
‘You.’ He put a hand over hers and squeezed it. ‘I’m sorry if last night shocked you,’ he said gently. ‘And I’m sorry if I’ve upset you by talking about it this morning.’
‘You haven’t upset me,’ Corrie protested.
He shrugged. ‘OK, have it your way. But if you had seen your look of relief just then when I changed the subject …’
Corrie lowered her eyes, but Luke put his fingers under her chin and brought her face back up to look at him. ‘Last night meant nothing to me,’ he said softly. ‘I want you to know that.’
It was on the tip of Corrie’s tongue to remind him that he had said exactly that when he’d told Annalise about the night he had spent with her, but she bit it back. It wasn’t something she wanted to discuss.
‘It’s you, Corrie,’ he said, slipping his hand into her hair, ‘you know that don’t you? You’re the one I want. And if you’re afraid I’ll ever ask you to do that sort of thing …’
‘Please, let’s change the subject again,’ Corrie interrupted, her eyes darting towards the door for any sign of Annalise.
‘No. Let’s not. It’s important to me that you understand that I’ll never make you do anything you don’t want to do. That I’ll do all I can to make you care for me the way I care for you. I’ll even give up Annalise if that’s what you want.’
‘No, no. That’s not what I want at all. Apart from anything else it would break her heart …’
‘And what about my heart? Or doesn’t that matter?’