Levelling The Score. PENNY JORDAN

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СКАЧАТЬ have marriage on their minds.’

      Jenna had been hurt by the older girl’s cruel remark, but after all there had been nothing personal in it. Since her arrival they had hardly seen anything of her or Simon. They went out together every day in Simon’s small sports car, returning only briefly at supper time to eat and change to go out again.

      Her infatuation for Simon had died quite quickly, but it had left her with a curious antipathy towards him, an unease when in his company that made her restless and on edge.

      She heard him coming back, and heard him swear as he stumbled into something.

      ‘I’ve found the lamps, but there doesn’t seem to be any fuel for them.’

      ‘It’s in the garage,’ Jenna told him.

      He cursed again.

      ‘Only a woman could do something as idiotic as that! Why on earth isn’t it with the lamps?’

      ‘Because I believe your father considered that it was safer to fill and light the lamps outside than in the confined space of the cellar,’ Jenna told him coldly.

      ‘Ah, I see … Very well then, I consider myself well and truly put in my place, and take back everything I have said about your sex, Jenna. Will that do? Have I made amends?’

      ‘I’ll go upstairs and see if I can sort out some bedding,’ Jenna told him, ignoring his taunting remark. ‘I wonder if your mother still keeps those sleeping-bags down here?’

      ‘I don’t know. It must be a couple of years since anyone was last down. My father was talking about selling the place.’

      Jenna only just managed to suppress her instinctive protest, reminding herself that whatever Susie’s family might choose to do with their cottage was really no concern of hers. But so many of the happier memories of her childhood centred round this weathered, unprotected dwelling. She was being sentimental, she told herself as she went upstairs and made her way to the small walk-in airing cupboard.

      Without any proper light it was impossible to find what she was looking for, so she resigned herself to await Simon’s return.

      He wasn’t long. She heard the door bang as he came inside, and then saw the glow from the two lamps he was carrying.

      He brought one up to her, leaving the other at the foot of the stairs.

      ‘Here, this what you’re after?’ he asked, tugging on the neatly folded, familiar sleeping-bags.

      ‘Yes, I thought it would make more sense to use these than to bother making up the beds.’

      ‘I agree. I was having a root in the kitchen before you arrived. I think I’ve managed to locate a jar of instant coffee and some powdered milk. Mrs M must leave it here for when she comes to do her monthly check.’

      Mrs Magellan was the wife of the local garage proprietor. She had a key for the cottage and came up once a month to clean and check that all was in order.

      ‘I thought I’d use Susie’s and my room,’ Jenna suggested, handing Simon one of the sleeping-bags, and turning away from him.

      She and Susie had shared the smallest bedroom, tucked up under the eaves, and she headed for it instinctively.

      She only realised that Simon had followed her when she saw the golden glow of the lamp reflecting against the polished wood of the door.

      She turned the handle and the lamp illuminated the interior of the small room. The two single beds that once occupied it had been dismantled and an ominous dark stain covered part of the ceiling.

      ‘Damn! I forgot … Dad did say something about the roof losing some slates during a bad storm. Let’s hope that the damage is just restricted to this room.’

      It wasn’t … Out of the cottage’s four bedrooms, only one remained damp free.

      It would, of course, have to be Simon’s, although his single bed had gone and in its place was the double bed that had once been in his parents’ room.

      ‘Well, Jenna,’ Simon announced when they had both surveyed the room in silence, ‘it looks that at long last all your girlish dreams are going to come true and you get to spend the night with me … I take it that you will … er … behave like a lady?’

      Jenna could have hit him. All those years when she thought she had successfully hidden that embarrassing teenage crush from him, and now he casually let her know that she hadn’t! What was more, he actually dared to taunt her with the fact, and to add insult to injury.

      ‘Don’t worry, Simon,’ she told him with acid sweetness. ‘I’m rather fussy about whom I sleep with—one has to be these days. You’ll be quite safe … I’ll sleep downstairs.’

      ‘Oh, well, at least you won’t be alone,’ he responded comfortingly. ‘From the signs I saw in the kitchen, it looks like a whole colony of mice have taken up residence. I suppose they must have come in from the fields.’

      All her life Jenna had had an irrational fear of the small, furry creatures and now immediately she tensed, visions of an entire army of them frolicking over her recumbent form as she slept tormenting her. She shuddered.

      ‘You’re lying to me.’

      Simon’s eyebrows rose.

      ‘Why on earth should I? You don’t actually think I have evil designs upon you, do you?’

      Put like that it sounded ridiculous. Of course he didn’t want her, she knew that, but she also knew that for some reason he seemed to delight in tormenting her. Tormenting her? How could lying on the same mattress while securely wrapped up in her own sleeping-bag possibly torment her?

      ‘Look, I’m shattered. You make whatever arrangements you choose, Jenna, but if you’ll excuse me I want to get some sleep.’

      ‘Do you want to take the lamp or …’

      Reluctantly she picked up her sleeping-bag and walked over to the bed.

      Behind her she heard the bedroom door swing shut and for some ridiculous reason she felt as though she had walked into a well-sprung trap.

      ‘I’ll let you have first go at the bathroom,’ Simon offered magnanimously, ‘but I warn you, the water is like ice.’

      It came from an underground well and Jenna shivered in remembered dread of its icy sting.

      She went down to the car to fetch her overnight case, acknowledging the impossibility of using the two shaped seats as a makeshift bed. She was aching all over with tension and tiredness.

      She heard Simon moving about in the kitchen as she walked in.

      ‘Fancy a cup of cocoa? I’ve found some at the back of the cupboard, although heaven only knows what it will taste like with dried milk.’

      She was thirsty, and perhaps it would be as well if, for this one night at least, she put her resentment of him behind her.

      ‘Yes, please.’

      ‘OK. СКАЧАТЬ