Second Best Wife (3 page)

William's mouth set into a dangerous line. 'Meaning that you do want to break off our engagement?'

Jennifer nodded. 'I never wanted to get engaged in the first place! I wouldn't have done if Georgie hadn't —'

Georgina pulled herself up on to her feet, unable to believe her ears. She felt as though she were drowning and the harder she tried to breathe normally, the worse she felt. She felt dizzy and bells rang in her ears.

'If I hadn't what?' she pressed Jennifer.

'Oh, Georgie, I know you think I'm betraying you to the enemy, but you shouldn't have suggested I did it in the first place. It wasn't a worthy revenge for you to take. You knew I always wanted Duncan and you should never have persuaded me to lead William on. He has every right to be angry with both of us!'

William's hand closed round the nape of Georgina's neck, holding her in a painful grasp. 'I've heard enough!' he declared with a suppressed violence that made Georgina shiver. 'Don't worry, Jennie, I don't blame you for anything. I hope you'll be very happy with your Duncan, though I doubt you will be unless you can find some way of getting Georgie out of your life. I may help you do it! I may very well help you do it!'

Georgina tried to break away from his bruising fingers, but he shook her like a cat does her kitten, reducing her willpower to zero. 'William, please!' she begged him.

'Oh no, you don't, my girl. You're coming with me! For once in your life you're going to pay in full! I'm going to render my account in person and you are going to pay it! Understand?'

Georgina's senses swam. She had seen William in a rage before, but she had never seen him like this, and she was afraid. She was scared silly of what he might do to her and even more scared as to how she might react to whatever he was going to do.

It was then that she knew that she didn't hate William Ayres at all.

CHAPTER TWO

Georgina could hear the laughter behind her as she struggled against the iron grasp of the man who held her, yanking her out of the room behind him and hauling her through the hall and out the still open front door.

'Georgie Porgie, pudding and pie, Kissed the
boys
and made them cry!'

'You see!' she ground out.
'They've
never forgotten

either!'

'How childish can you get?' William asked of no one in particular. 'It must be true for you to mind so much. Is it?'

'No!'

'Then why all the fuss? Why try to ruin Jennifer's and my life for such a trivial reason?'

Georgina slowed her pace in an attempt to retrieve some of her dignity which he was doing his best to destroy, jerking her after him as she vainly tried to keep up with his much longer legs.

'I suppose it's useless to say that I didn't?'

'Completely useless.'

They went on in silence with her half-running to keep up with him. 'You're hurting me,' she complained.

'No, I'm not. You're not going to wriggle out of it this time, Georgina, so don't go all soft and feminine on me. It won't work. And
don't
cry! I can't stand whining females!'

Georgina had never whined in her life. 'I'm not crying!'

'Good. Keep it that way. You can cry as much as you like when I've finished telling you what your meddling has got you into. Come to think of it, Meddlesome Matty would have suited you as well as Georgie Porgie. But
this
time
you're
going to pick up the pieces of your own demolition job! I don't see why anyone else should suffer, do you?'

Georgina made another futile effort to ease her hand out of his. 'Just me?' she asked bitterly.

His expression was as bitter as her voice. 'And me. I'll be there, right beside you, and it won't be much fun for me either. But if I can't have Jennifer I'll get what I can out of you —'

'But you don't even like me!'

'No, I don't like you at all, but I'll have the satisfaction of knowing you won't be hurting Jennifer all the time you're with me —and that you'll be hating every moment you find yourself stuck with my society.'

Georgina's legs refused to carry her any further. She came to an abrupt halt, ignoring the searing pain in the muscles of her arm as William tried to force her onward.

'William, don't be daft! I know you're angry at what's happened, but, truly, none of it was my fault. There's no need to behave like a bull chasing a red rag. Sooner or later you're bound to recover yourself and then you'll regret —'

'The regrets will be yours!'

She eyed him cautiously, remembering the results of earlier rages when, blind to everything but the impulse of the moment, William had had every child in the village trembling with fear at what he might do next. His tempers never lasted long, however, and she of all people should have been able to understand them, for she lost her own temper with all the frequency and heat of a redhead. William's rage was never a hot emotion, however, it was cold and deadly and all the worse because he looked so normal all the time he was in the grip of the need to savage anyone who came near him.

'William,' she pleaded, 'remember what happened last time!'

'Tell me about it,' he invited her.

'I wasn't here,' she said uneasily. 'I was away at college. Jennifer told me about it. When I came back you'd moved out of your parents' house—for ever, I hoped! —and Jennifer was in a state that bordered on hysteria because of what you'd said to her. She swore she'd never forgive you!'

‘A nice story,' he commented. ‘And just what is it I'm supposed to have said to her?'

Georgina pursed up her lips. ‘You cast aspersions on her virtue.'

‘On
her
virtue? Come off it, Georgie! I never said any such thing. We quarrelled about you as usual and if Jennifer was "in a state", as you put it, it was because she'd just received a letter from you telling her what you would do to her if she got engaged to me. I told her she could leave your reactions to me, but she could never escape from your influence, could she? She didn't believe me and she resented that I had to go away because of my job. How you do twist everything to your own ends!'

Georgina could have cried then. She could feel the tears stinging at the back of her nose and eyes. ‘But Jennifer said —'

‘She was afraid of you —and she had good reason to be! If you can black my eye, what could you do to her?'

‘All right,' Georgina shouted at him. ‘I didn't like the idea of your marrying Jennifer. I
hated
the idea! But I wouldn't have done anything to stop it —my quarrel has always been with you, not Jennifer.
Her
I love, and nothing would induce me to do anything to hurt her!'

‘You're not going to get the opportunity,' he retorted.

It was strange, but miserable as she was, Georgina could still feel the warmth of the red-brick house's welcome as she reluctantly followed William inside. There was a pleasant smell of furniture polish and pieces of well kept copper twinkled at her from their place on the wall. Unlike the Perry house, it was warm too, with a promise of comfortable chairs and hot crumpets for tea. She had once in her life been invited to tea with Mrs. Ayres and that was what she had been given to eat, with piles of home-made jam and a great deal of shared laughter. William hadn't been there. He had just started to travel extensively in his job and Mrs.. Ayres had been proud of his achievements at such a young age. He had been working on a Commonwealth health project, she remembered, and he seemed to have been doing that ever since. It was a pity he was home at the

moment.

'You can't make me do anything I don't want to,' she remarked as he pushed her ahead of him into the sitting- room. 'I'm not afraid of you!' There was a quiver in her voice that belied her words, but she held her head up high and gave him look for look. 'Just because you're as mad as hell—'

'Children, children,' Mrs. Ayres rebuked them gently, coming in from the garden at the same moment. 'What are you bickering about now, you two?'

'Do we have to be bickering?' William asked her, his lips quirking with what could have been amusement.

'When have you ever done anything else?' his mother returned placidly. 'My dear boy, what have you done to your eye?'

'Ask Georgina!'

Mrs.. Ayres clicked her tongue, her eyes twinkling. 'Georgina, you
didn't?
It seems to have been remarkably effective.'

'He dared me to do it,' Georgina defended herself, trying not to allow her embarrassment to show. 'I'm terribly sorry, Mrs. Ayres.'

'My dear girl, I'm in your corner! William has done nothing but provoke you ever since we first came to live here.'

Georgina cast a doubtful glance at William, but it was impossible to tell what he was thinking. His expression was sober and completely calm, not at all as though he was still in the grip of one of his cold rages.

'I've been provoking her to some effect this afternoon,' he told his mother, sounding almost amused. 'Didn't I tell you I hoped to marry the Perry girl?'

It was hard to tell who was the more astonished, Georgina or Mrs. Ayres.

'Marry?' Georgina gasped, but the sound of her comment was completely lost in Mrs. Ayres' whoop of joy.

'Darling William! I never thought you'd show so much sense! I'm ashamed to say that when you told me you were thinking about the Perry girl I jumped to the conclusion you meant Jennifer. I couldn't be more pleased!'

'Thank you, Mother.' His tone was so dry that Georgina blushed for him. 'I'm glad it meets with your approval.' Georgina thought that Mrs. Ayres, who must have known her son better than anyone else alive, should have been warned, but she was far too relieved to attempt to hide her joy from him— or Georgina.

'I know it's your life,' she rushed on, kissing her son warmly on the cheek, 'but Jennifer would never have been
my
choice for you. She would have bored you to death inside a fortnight of close proximity, whereas one never knows what to expect from Georgie, does one? So
much
more interesting! But I'm surprised you realised that for yourself, dear. I was so afraid you were blinded by Jennifer's fragile beauty—it won't last!—and would mistake one of her little girl's appeals for masculine sympathy as true love. The girl has never yet formed a stable relationship and, in my opinion, she never will.'

Georgina watched William's nostrils flare with fascinated dismay. Indeed, so intent was she on his reactions that she missed her own cue to deny the quite preposterous suggestion that she would ever marry William while she was still in her right mind and had breath in her body.

'We'll leave Jennifer out of this,' William said sternly to his mother. 'It's easy to see you don't know her at all—only what you've heard about her from Georgina, who has never made the faintest effort even to be kind to her! That's something I mean to put a stop to in the future.'

The pleasure drained out of Mrs. Ayres' face. 'William, you're not doing something foolish, are you?'

'Certainly not! It's all arranged, Mother. Jennifer is going to marry Duncan Radcliffe, and Georgie Porgie is going to marry me.'

'Have you asked her?' Mrs. Ayres returned coldly.

'Georgina will do as she's told!'

'And put up with you calling her by that ridiculous name as well, I suppose? You should have grown out of teasing defenceless little girls by now, William. I'm disappointed in you.'

Georgina groaned inwardly. This was making bad worse with a vengeance. 'Mrs. Ayres,' she began, 'I don't mind! I'm used to it! And — and William doesn't mean anything by it.' May God forgive me, she added to herself. 'Besides,' she went on, trying to sound lighthearted and able to take a joke against herself, 'the sting went out of that particular nursery rhyme a long time ago. Who wants to kiss the boys anyway? I'll settle for a grown man myself.'

'William?' his mother demanded caustically. 'You must be dotty, darling. If I were you I'd black his other eye for him and give him more of the same until he behaves himself.' A faint smile twisted her lips. 'I must say you did a good job. He's beginning to look like a prize-fighter— and not a very successful one at that! Does it hurt?' she asked, all concern, and then, when he nodded, briefly and without enthusiasm, 'Good!'

'I don't know about William,' Georgina said, intent on her own thoughts. 'He doesn't really mean to marry me, you know, and I certainly don't want to marry him!'

'Enlisting my mother's sympathy won't help you!' William shot at her. 'You'll marry me, Georgina — '

'You can't make me!'

'You think not?' Georgina's eyes fell before the dangerous glitter in his. 'I think I can. I can make things so hot for you you'll be glad to marry me!'

Mrs. Ayres looked so appalled by this claim that Georgina felt sorry for her. She put a comforting hand on the older woman's arm and said, 'You mustn't mind so much, Mrs. Ayres. William never means anything he says in a rage — you know that.'

'I mean it this time, Georgie Porgie. This time you're going to have a man to kiss and it won't be he who ends up in tears. You're going to marry me and come with me to Sri Lanka —'