A Daughter's Dilemma. Miranda Lee

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      CHAPTER FOUR

      ‘MADDIE, sweetheart,’ he called out once they were in the conspicuously empty reception area, ‘in which one of your rooms are you hiding?’

      A door on the left opened and the most strikinglooking woman Carolyn had ever seen appeared. She was very tall—almost as tall as Vaughan—and very slim, with the whitest of white skin. Yet everything else about her was black. Black hair, long and curly, bundled up in a most irregular pony-tail. Black eyes, flashing at the moment with apparent exasperation. Black eyebrows, thick and sardonically arched. Skin-tight black mini dress, black lacy stockings and black high heels. Only her ear-rings were coloured, huge discs in red, pink and orange hanging in interlocking circles from her lobes to her shoulders.

      ‘You’re late again!’ she accused, giving Vaughan a black look from those striking black eyes.

      Carolyn tensed.

      ‘Only by a few minutes,’ Vaughan said, and smiled wryly. ‘Something not going right for you, sweetheart?’ He strode forward and gave the woman a bear-hug. ‘You always get testy like this when your colours aren’t blending properly.’

      ‘Don’t think you can get around me that easily, you bad man,’ the interior decorator scorned, but didn’t retreat from the hug. ‘Save it all for your lady-loves.’ And suddenly she winked at Carolyn over his shoulder.

      Her heart gave a little jump. Did that mean Vaughan wasn’t sleeping with this woman?

      Dismay was hot on the heels of her avid curiosity. What did it matter who he was sleeping with these days? It should mean nothing to her. Nothing!

      Self-disgust must have sent a hard look into her face, for those black eyes—which a second before had winked at her—abruptly changed from an expression of amusement to a surprised thoughtfulness. Their owner drew back from Vaughan’s embrace to cast a sharp look his way.

      ‘You haven’t been bullying this sweet girl, have you?’ she asked.

      ‘No. Only Nora.’

      ‘Oh, Vaughan. Truly? The poor woman...’

      ‘Poor, my foot. I pay her damn well to sit there and answer the telephone. Anyway it’s all smoothed over now. Carolyn glared at me reproachfully and made me feel guilty, didn’t you?’ He threw an ironic look her way. ‘And it’s not Carolyn Thornton, by the way. Her surname is McKensie. She hasn’t taken Julian’s name.’

      ‘Really? But I thought...’

      ‘So did I. Seems Nora just jumped to that conclusion. Anyway, it’s Carolyn McKensie. Carolyn... come over here and meet Maddie.’

      Carolyn walked forward and extended her hand. ‘How do you do?’

      Maddie smiled and took her hand, all the while those penetrating black eyes surveying her closely, seemingly stripping her of her disguising clothes and making Carolyn feel most peculiarly naked. She had never had a woman look at her like that before and a most uncomfortable suspicion sprang into her mind.

      ‘My, you’re a very sensual-looking girl, aren’t you?’ the other woman said. ‘I’d love to paint you. In the nude, preferably.’

      Carolyn tried not to choke on the spot.

      ‘For God’s sake, Maddie!’ Vaughan exploded with ill-concealed exasperation. ‘What will she start thinking if you say things like that without explaining yourself? Maddie’s a well-known portrait artist, Carolyn,’ he elaborated wearily, ‘specialising in nudes and semi-nudes. She’s been commissioned to do some quite famous women. And men. Believe me when I say she prefers painting the men to the women,’ he finished in a dry tone.

      ‘Now you make me sound promiscuous!’ Maddie wailed, but without seeming at all put out.

      ‘If the cap fits...’

      ‘Well, if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black,’ she countered with a pretend pout.

      Carolyn stared from one to the other. This was not the camaraderie of lovers but of old friends. Friends who knew and liked each other, warts and all.