Pacific Heat. Anne Mather

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СКАЧАТЬ one arm spread expansively along the back of the seat. ‘It affects different people in different ways,’ he said carelessly. ‘Myself, it’s no problem. But then, I’m used to travelling a lot.’

      Olivia wound the strap of her bag round her fingers. ‘With Diane?’ she asked, and he gave her a jaded look.

      ‘I used to,’ he said. ‘I used to think she wanted me with her. But these days I usually stay at home.’

      Olivia pressed her lips together. ‘Well, you certainly have a beautiful place to live in,’ she murmured, gazing out of the car window. She didn’t know what to say, what to think, and it was easier to talk about impersonal things. ‘Is this Beverly Hills?’ she asked as the limousine wound its way up quiet streets flanked by high hedges and stone walls. There was little to see of the estates that sprawled behind the wrought-iron security gates.

      ‘You’ve been in Beverly Hills since you left the hotel,’ replied Richard indifferently. ‘This whole area is known as the City of Beverly Hills. What a laugh! It’s really just the west side of Los Angeles. But people like my wife think it’s paradise on earth.’

      ‘Oh, I’m sure—’

      ‘She does. I’m telling you. Diane’s really into this West Coast lifestyle. My God, I don’t think a scrap of meat has passed her lips in the last four years! It’s all fruit and cereal and therapy and body massage. God, you don’t know how sick of it all I am, Liv. That’s why I’m so glad to have you here.’

      ‘Richard—’

      ‘It’s not real, Liv. The people who live here don’t live in the real world any more.’ He cast a disparaging glance out of the window at the walled estates. ‘Fortress America! Can you honestly say you know what all the excitement is about?’

      Olivia’s lower lip curled between her teeth and she bit on it, hard. It seemed obvious that whatever comment she made Richard was going to put it down. When had he got so cynical? she wondered unhappily. She didn’t know what to say so she decided to hold her tongue.

      ‘I suppose I should congratulate you on your success,’ he remarked, after a moment, and once again she heard the bitterness in his voice. ‘My Liv, an author! Who’d have thought it? I told you you were wasted at that rag you used to work for.’

      He hadn’t, actually. Quite the reverse, but she didn’t contradict him. She had no desire to arrive at Diane’s estate while he was in this mood. If she wasn’t careful he’d be crying on her shoulder. God knew what Diane would say if she found out

      She wished he’d pull himself together and stop treating her like an accomplice. As if the only reason she’d come here was to be with him. She drew an uneven breath. She was beginning to wonder what she’d ever seen in him. Had he always blamed other people when things went wrong?

      The memory of what he’d said when they’d been trying to have a family returned to haunt her. Although they’d both had tests and there’d seemed no reason why they shouldn’t have a baby, she knew he’d blamed her. And perhaps it was her fault, she reflected. They’d probably never know. And at that time she’d been far more willing to blame herself.

      ‘I meant what I said, you know, Liv,’ he muttered, attracting her attention. ‘I have missed you more than you’ll ever know. Leaving you was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made in my life. I wanted to tell you that right from the start.’

      ‘Then you shouldn’t have!’ exclaimed Olivia hotly, convinced that Manuel could hear what he was saying. He had no right to involve her in his marital problems, whatever excuse he thought he had. She chewed her lip. She suspected his confession was a deliberate attempt to gain her sympathy, and also make her a party to his resentment whether she liked it or not.

      ‘I can’t help myself.’ he told her now, and once again she had to suffer his efforts to touch her. His arm along the back of the seat descended onto her shoulders and she felt his fingers stroking her neck. ‘I know I hurt you, Liv, but I’m hoping you’ll find it in your heart to forgive me. The love we shared—I can’t believe we let it go.’

      ‘You let it go, Richard,’ said Olivia flatly, removing his arm from her shoulder and shifting onto the opposite seat. She glanced about her. ‘Is it much further?’

      Richard heaved a heavy sigh. ‘No,’ he said, and although his tone was sulky Olivia was relieved. Sulky was acceptable; tearful wasn’t. She gave a slight shake of her head. She couldn’t believe this was happening to her.

      The limousine began to slow a few minutes later, and as Olivia glanced round to see where they were Manuel turned between wrought-iron gates that had opened at their approach. A long curving drive confronted them, hedged with laurel and acacia, and she felt her nerves tighten as they drove up to the house.

      A pillared façade of cream sandstone confronted them. Within its shadows, a shaded loggia stretched along the front of the house. Built on two floors, its many windows protected by terracotta-painted shutters, it was large and impressive, with a wealth of flowering shrubs and trees surrounding its manicured lawns.

      ‘Well, this is it,’ said Richard sardonically as Manuel got out of his seat to open the rear doors. The Villa Mariposa. Are you ready to meet your employer?’

      ‘She’s not my employer,’ said Olivia, rather too vehemently, and was annoyed when Richard’s lips curved in a knowing smile.

      ‘No, she’s not,’ he applauded, ‘and don’t you let her forget it.’ He clutched her arm, and she was forced to follow him out of the car. ‘Go for it, Liv,’ he added softly. ‘I knew you weren’t as indifferent to me as you pretended.’

      Olivia dragged her arm away as soon as she was able, aware that once again Manuel was watching their exchange with curious eyes. And who could blame him? she thought, regarding Richard with some frustration. This was hard enough without Richard making it worse.

      The doors at the top of the shallow flight of steps had opened, and Olivia glanced somewhat apprehensively in that direction. But she saw to her relief that it was just a maid who stood there, dressed in a navy uniform and a white apron.

      She gestured for Olivia to come up the steps and offered a polite smile as they entered a cool marble-floored reception hall with an arched ceiling stretching up two floors. At its peak, a circular stained-glass window cast a rainbow shaft of sunlight down into the hall, while the gentle hum of air-conditioning prevented any surge of heat.

      ‘Mees Haran is waiting by the pool, Mees Pyatt,’ she said, inviting Olivia to follow her. And her announcement solved Olivia’s other problem of what to call Richard’s wife.

      ‘Thank you.’

      Olivia shouldered her tote bag, and, not caring whether Richard was following them or not, she accompanied the maid across the hall. An arched doorway exposed several steps down into a sunlit garden room, where a pair of glass doors stood wide to a flagged terrace. Rattan tables and chairs stood in the shade of the upstairs balcony, and a pair of inquisitive sparrows picked crumbs from between the stones.

      There were flowers everywhere, Olivia noticed. In pots and planters in the garden room, in tubs and hanging baskets on the terrace, and climbing over the columns that supported the balcony above. The scent was glorious, but perhaps a little overpowering, and she was glad when they descended more steps and she glimpsed the aquamarine waters of the pool glinting below them.

      She СКАЧАТЬ