Love's Duel. Carole Mortimer

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СКАЧАТЬ pert, her mouth wide and generous, her neck long and slender, her figure petite in the brown silky dress, her legs long and shapely, shown to advantage in high-heeled sandals. And yet she wasn’t happy, the wide and generous mouth hardly ever smiled, and there was an unhappy droop to her slender shoulders.

      ‘What was your husband like?’ Phil asked at her continued silence.

      ‘Kind,’ she replied without hesitation.

      ‘And?’

      ‘And we were very happy together.’ She looked down at her empty coffee cup.

      ‘You didn’t answer my first question,’ Phil prompted softly. ‘What was he like?’

      ‘He was—older than me——’

      ‘How much older?’ her stepbrother cut in, his eyes narrowed.

      ‘Quite a bit,’ she evaded. ‘He was a widower, very lonely, and——’

      ‘You kept each other company,’ Phil derided.

      ‘He was kind,’ Leonie said firmly.

      ‘But he died.’

      ‘Yes. We—we had been married about a year and he—he had a terminal disease. But at least he was happy at the end, I made sure of that.’

      She hadn’t wanted to become involved with any man, she had shunned them all, but a year after the trial she had met Tom. He had seemed to need her, and in a way she had needed him. He had taught her to live again, had given her a reason for living, and he had loved her very much, despite knowing the truth about her past.

      Phil sat back. ‘I wonder what Noble would have made of your marrying a man so much older than you, especially as Tom died only a year later,’ he shook his head.

      It wasn’t hard to imagine John Noble’s reaction to that. A man like him would never understand the genuine affection that had prompted her to marry Tom. ‘I can imagine,’ she grimaced. ‘But I wasn’t left a rich woman, so at least he couldn’t throw that in my face.’

      ‘That man could make a nun look corrupt!’

      ‘Only because he has a mind like a sewer,’ Leonie snapped.

      ‘You really hate him, don’t you?’

      ‘Hate is too mild a word,’ she said vehemently. ‘What I feel for him can’t be put into mere words. And Jeremy was as bad, sitting there with that smug look on his face, letting that man say all those lies about me. And they were lies, Phil. I never——’

      ‘I know, love,’ he consoled gently. ‘I know you too well ever to believe such things of you. If only I’d known of Lindsay’s arrangement with his wife! I would never have approached him if I’d known. I’d been gambling heavily, I needed money, and a Harley Street doctor, a married one at that, seemed like a godsend to me.’

      ‘And instead you found he was quite proud of his sexual encounters,’ Leonie remembered bitterly. ‘It certainly hasn’t done his practice much harm. I’ve heard that he’s had to turn new patients away because his book are full—and all of these patients were female,’ she added dryly.

      ‘Some women!’ Phil scorned. ‘The only one who seems to have really suffered out of this is you, and you were completely innocent of the whole thing.’

      ‘I wouldn’t call your time in prison getting off lightly.’

      ‘I deserved it. But it’s taught me something.’

      ‘What’s that?’ she asked eagerly.

      ‘Never to get caught again.’ He laughed at her expression. ‘That was a joke, Leonie.’

      She gave a wan smile. ‘It’s never seemed particularly funny to me.’

      ‘Or me,’ he was serious now. ‘I really have learnt my lesson. I’d been playing on the edge of crime for some time before Lindsay stopped me. Going to prison was a very unpleasant experience, and I don’t intend ever going back again.’

      ‘What will you do about work?’ she asked worriedly. ‘You said you were unemployed.’

      ‘I’m starting a job on Monday. They got it for me through the prison, so my employers know my background.’ He shrugged. ‘If they’re willing to give me a try then I think I owe it to them to do my best. I’ll be a success, Leonie, you’ll see.’

      ‘If you need money——’

      ‘No! No, I have enough.’ He smiled. ‘Just because you’re rich now it doesn’t mean I’m willing to let you help me out. I have to stand on my own two feet, even if I fall over a couple of times.’

      ‘I’m not rich, Phil,’ she smiled at the description. ‘But if you need help——’

      ‘I don’t,’ he told her firmly. ‘I’m starting the way I mean to go on, with a clear conscience.’ He grinned suddenly. ‘But I’ll let you buy me lunch if you like.’

      ‘I like,’ she smiled back.

      They relaxed with each other much more over the meal, laughing together as they used to, and Phil made Leonie feel young again, taking her back to the happy childhood they had shared together.

      ‘When did you start drawing?’ Phil asked as they finished their meal. ‘I remember you were always good at art, but you never mentioned taking it up as a profession.’

      ‘That was Tom’s idea. He was an art teacher at one of the colleges, and he encouraged me to develop what talent I have.’

      ‘It seems to have paid off.’

      ‘Yes.’ Much more successfully than she had ever imagined.

      ‘What’s Emily Dryer like? God, do you know I can remember reading her books way back in my childhood,’ he said ruefully. ‘I used to like the way the kids in her stories could always get filthy dirty and get away with it. Mum and Dad used to give me a good hiding if I came home like that.’

      ‘Only because you used to do it all the time,’ Leonie smiled. ‘And Emily is the kindest woman I ever knew. Next to Mum she’s the woman I love the best.’

      ‘Then she must be nice.’

      ‘She is,’ she confirmed huskily. ‘A little on the forgetful side now, but absolutely full of energy. She leaves me standing when we go for a walk together, and at the end of the day when I’m ready to collapse she’s still going strong. The woman she used to work with died, and for a while Emily stopped working. But she has too much talent to stop for ever, and so six months ago she took up her pen again. She had two other girls helping her before me, and neither of them worked out, but when we met everything seemed to click into place.’ Leonie shrugged. ‘I’m happy there.’

      ‘And you’ve put the past behind you?’

      She repressed a shiver, the past had never seemed so painful as it had been today. First there had been the fact that Emily’s nephew was a lawyer, and СКАЧАТЬ