A Face To Die For (9 page)

Such memories made me ache for him all over again. Certainly last night's passion had been particularly blowing; climaxing simultaneously the way we had. Such times were sheer heaven. No, I mustn't let one tiny incident make all that difference.

Back to the job in hand; dinner. The meat was cooking slowly in a tasty tomato and onion sauce; just rice and corn on the cob to cook as soon as Alex appeared.

OK, I thought, as I reclined on the sofa, wineglass in hand, let's assess the situation. True, it's not exactly ideal in every sense, but is
any
relationship? At least it's still ongoing and a loving one of sorts ... plus we
are
always totally relaxed in our intimacy.

The only thing lacking was the reliable cosiness of connubial life with Alex; sharing and caring on a day to day basis, instead of a couple of days every two months -
if
I was lucky! That's what really grated on me more than anything, I decided. The more intense my longing was for such an existence, the more impossible it always seemed. Until today, when Vanessa had told me about the odd way Alex and Susannah apparently lived as man and wife. It certainly hadn't sounded much like marital bliss to me. Could there then be a smidgen of hope for me with Alex, after all.

*

Later on, after dinner, Alex refilled my wine glass. He lit a cigarette and sat forward gazing at me across the table with intensity in his deep, dark eyes.

'I've something good to tell you, honey. I think it's good news anyway, and of course I hope you will too.

'Try me,' I said, as I began sipping my wine.

'Well, firstly I've decided to buy the lease of this apartment; so when Vanessa marries Rowley, it'll be mine.
Ours
, if you like. You'll stay on, I hope.'

I gave a slight teasing smile. 'Depends if you put the rent up.’ Then looking squarely at him, I broke into a wide grin. 'Actually, Alex, I already know about the flat. Vanessa told me today that she'd offered it to you. Did you know they're planning on a September wedding?'

He drew on his cigarette. 'Are they? Good. Anyway, the next thing I have to tell you, honey, should give you much more of a surprise ... a pleasant one, I
hope
.

I took a massive gulp of wine and looking blankly at him. I wondered what was coming next. His eyes looked deeply into mine. I gazed back, adrenalin pumping through me.

'Well, today, I had a most successful meeting with the owners of Intersea Ferries.' He paused to flick the ash off his cigarette into the ashtray. 'Karos International Cruise Lines are merging with them to form Karos Intersea Ferries and Cruise Lines. Anyway, without going into too much detail, this will of course enable both companies to extend our interests into a more superior cross-channel ferry service to France and Spain. Karos Lines also intends to expand their holiday cruise business here. I know none of all this will interest you too much, honey, so I'll skip the rest, except to say this…

‘
Wait for it…' Another pause from him, and I could hear my heart thumping away. '
Because
of this massive merger I will be spending a lot more time in London in what will become a very busy office from now on. This means, honey, you and I can be together more.'

I gasped. 'I don't believe it!' Alex's business interests in England had always been so minimal up to now; with most of his London visits just brief stopovers; usually en-route to somewhere else.

'I couldn't mention it before because we hadn't sealed the deal. But today we did. So you see I've even more reason to want to take this place over. It can become
ours,
our
home together, Annabel, and of course you won't pay any more rent either, once it's in my name.'

'Oh, Alex, it’s ... it's fantastic news!'

To think only a matter of hours ago I'd doubted my relationship with him. Yet subconsciously, I think I must have known that now hadn't been the right moment for us to break up. I rose and rushed round the table to kiss him.

Arms around one another, we took our drinks through to the sitting room, where he continued telling me more about the business deal. All I was interested in was that Alex and I could be more like a real couple at last. Bliss.

'How much will you be in London from now on?'

'At least fifty per cent of the time, I should think, especially during the setting up period. Then, I guess, it depends on how well the new ferry and cruise business takes off. Karos Cruises have never been promoted properly here before, so it'll take some time to develop that side of things.'

I was ecstatic. At long last my dream was materialising. Just one thing still bothered me ... and I had to ask...

'Alex, I know we agreed not mention her… but what about Susannah? How will this affect her? Won't she expect to be with you a good bit, if you're to spend more of your time here? Surely she'll want to join you sometimes?'

'Don't worry about Susannah, honey... she's the least of our worries.'

Remembering what Vanessa had said about Alex's marriage I decided not to question him further. And when she called in later she was astounded to find us in such good spirits. Once we’d explained everything to her, not only was she pleased - for my sake - but she was also delighted that Alex had made up his mind about taking over the flat.

'That's fab! Save me having to put it in an agent's hands… avoid all that frightful hassle of showing people around! Of course the family lawyers now can simply sort out the sale, once we agree over a price. I promise I won't sting you,' laughed Vanessa, disappearing off to her bedroom.

'Ha! That's a joke! When have you and I ever agreed that easily over anything, Vanessa, honey?' Alex called back to her through the open door. 'I'll give you a fair market price, and not one cent more!'

Here I feared we might end up with a sibling row, but to my surprise, Vanessa returned with a wide smile on her face; a huge pile of clothes over her arm.

'No problem, brother darling. I wouldn't dream of making a big issue over it … as long as you agree to continue sharing the flat with Annabel. Remember she
is
a sitting tenant. I don't want her evicted.’ She grinned at me. ‘Of course if she chooses to go of her own accord, that's quite different.'

'Oh, I'm staying all right!' I chortled, kissing Alex.

We all laughed, although Vanessa raised a quizzical eyebrow at me; obviously recalling our lunchtime conversation.

That night I made things all right again on the bedroom front; I told him that, in the strange way a woman's body behaves from time to time, my period had quite suddenly stopped again. So for another blissful night we once more melted into each other's bodies, and even though I believe a certain word was uttered again, it didn't worry me any more.

*

A few reluctant compromises were finally reached between Edward and me over the next few months, while the Spring/Summer collection came together, but I still felt creatively impeded.

Alex bought the lease of the flat in Eaton Square and I continued living there with him in blissful, more semi-permanent contentment. Aware of my work frustrations he often hinted that I ought to think about setting up my own fashion business. Of course he was right, but I was not in a financial position to contemplate such a move yet.

Kate Marshall had sadly proved extremely difficult to make contact with. Since seeing her in the Harrods fashion show two and a half years earlier, she had become quite illusive. I tried to get in touch a couple of times about doing one of our collection shows but her agency explained...

'Sorry, she's still modelling abroad. She’s under contract to a French fashion house for the time being; so she's only considering photographic and show work in either Paris or Milan.'

'But I really would like her to model for
Miss Courtney
here,' I pleaded. 'How long do you think before I can use her?'

'Try again later in the year.'

I'd discovered that Norman Parker Brown was now mostly working exclusively in France for
Paris Vogue
and other French magazines. It was easy to guess therefore why Kate was so tied up over there.

In the end, many months elapsed before I finally met up with her. Meanwhile her face appeared on more and more glossy covers and inside all the big international magazines.
Paris Vogue
especially seemed to have a particular claim on her; but then Parker Brown
was
one of their chief photographers. He certainly managed to bring out the best in her photographically. Soon I'd begun to worry that she was becoming too big in the business to
ever
consider modelling for us.

Therefore, I was amazed when months later I'd received a call from her agent telling me Kate was back in London for a short while and was available to do a photographic shoot for
Miss Courtney
. Did I still want her? Of
course
I still did. The only problem … she was expensive.

I conferred with Edward, and to my delight he agreed for her to model several garments for a showroom catalogue and wall displays. 'A top modelling face, might just tip the scales in our favour again,’ he conceded. Hooray!

Sales had slowed down a bit since the huge success of the first two collections, in spite of my efforts to introduce a younger, snappier look to the range. New independent designers had taken off as I'd predicted, with their snazzy, shorter styles, and we were
still
dragging our heels.

'But which photographer shall we use? Norman Parker Brown will be rather costly I imagine,' I said.

'Too damned right he is! Kate Marshall will already cost us a bomb! Contact the photographic agency we've used before.'

*

Meeting up with her again at the photo session was interesting. She explained she was already aware that I was the designer she'd known at college from a photo of me in a magazine when we'd started up
Miss Courtney
.

'Of course, I'd have willingly come like a shot to model for you before now, Annabel. I’ve just been so tied up on the Continent.' She fixed her beautiful pale grey eyes on me. 'But Norm decided we should both work over there this year, and I've been kept so busy. Paris and Milan are still the biggest fashion Meccas of course; their fashion houses snapped me up for all their shows every season. I had to do heaps of photographic modelling work for them too. Anyway, I'm back here for a short while and the agency mentioned you wanted me. Since Norm's been commissioned to photograph some Royals this week, I agreed to set it up with you.'

I then admitted having seen her modelling one of my first
Miss Courtney
designs in the Harrods show.

She nodded, grinning widely. 'That's right, I remember! That was the last show I did before going to Paris. Someone said you'd been in the audience. Why the hell didn't you come behind to see me?

Fancy, I'd had no idea anyone had recognised me that day.

Even so, Kate was a busy girl and the first photo shoot had to be done in record time. We'd finally chosen to use a young, up-and-coming photographer called Jake Sinclair. He was already popular with many top models and designers. Luckily Kate and he had worked together before and she liked him.

The results of the afternoon's shoots in the V&A Museum and in Kensington Gardens turned out brilliantly. One of the photos even made it onto the cover of
Vogue
. Edward was especially overjoyed about that.

'Wonderful shots! Great idea of Sinclair's ... to use the historical costume rooms at the museum as a backcloth. Nice contrast... period and modern. Perfect!'

Using Kate had been a stroke of genius and I was already beginning to imagine what an asset knowing her personally might be to me in my quest for success.

Even so, after that first photo shoot I saw very little of her again on a personal level, despite the occasional modelling job she did for us from time to time.

There was one day though, when she was modelling in two of Edward's collection shows, held of course, in the more grandiose main House of Courtney salon. A small selection of my Ready-to- Wear garments was also included in the show. The shows had just happened to fit in neatly with a two day break in Kate’s extremely busy schedule; between the big collections in Paris and Milan and jetting off on exotic photo shoots with Parker Brown. He still monopolized her life.

On the day of the shows we managed a brief working lunch together of sandwiches and coffee in my studio. As we chatted, I carried on selecting fabrics for designs from some new colour swatches that had just arrived in, anxious to show her that I too had a busy working life. Anyway, I was jolly proud of my achievement so far.

As we chatted I couldn't help noticing a touch of sadness in her beautiful eyes. Perhaps her involvement with Parker Brown wasn't quite so rosy after all?