Free The Secrets Between Us by Louise Douglas Page B

glanced at Alexander but he was staring up at the ornate chimneypots on the roof of the house.
    ‘No.’
    ‘And you don’t have any children of your own?’
    The quiet, still face of my son came into my mind. His perfect little lips. His eyelids. His tiny fingers that closed around my little finger, not gripping like a normal baby, but touching; his fingernails delicate as cowslip petals; the unique design of his fingerprint that would always be a secret.
    ‘No,’ I said.
    ‘In other words, you have no valid professional reason to be here!’
    ‘Virginia, please …’ said Alexander.
    ‘What were you thinking?’ Virginia asked him calmly, but in a voice that was so cold it made me ache inside.
    ‘Sarah’s only looking after Jamie while I’m at work, a couple of hours a day at most. If there are any problems she’s perfectly capable of asking for help. When I come home, I’ll take over again.’
    ‘And what’s she going to do with herself while Jamie’s at school and you’re at work?’
    ‘She’ll be acting as housekeeper.’
    ‘Acting?’
    ‘You know what I mean.’
    Virginia put her cup delicately on her saucer and turned back to me.
    ‘Alexander told us he met you in Sicily,’ she said.
    ‘That’s right.’
    ‘And that your relationship is purely a business one.’
    ‘Yes.’
    ‘Sarah,’ she said, ‘can you look me in the eye and assure me there is nothing going on between you and Alexander?’
    I hesitated. Alexander stepped in. He did his best. He insisted to Virginia that there was nothing untoward between the two of us. He argued that, in Genevieve’s absence, he was best placed to decide what, and who, was best for Jamie and himself. Virginia said that, in Genevieve’s absence, his position was debatable. There was some undercurrent going on, something I didn’t understand. The two of them argued politely, bitterly and coldly, without once raising their voices, until Philip from beneath his hat and without opening his eyes growled: ‘That’s enough.’
    I apologized to Alexander for my lack of quick-wittedness as we drove back to Avalon. He had the window open, and rested one elbow on it. He drove with his left hand, and gnawed at the knuckle on the forefinger of his other one.
    ‘Don’t worry about it,’ he said. ‘Virginia can think what she wants.’
    I did not know how to respond to that.
    He turned his head slightly and smiled at me in a resigned fashion.
    ‘Let her do her worst,’ he said. ‘We’ll survive.’

CHAPTER THIRTEEN
    I DON’T RECALL dreaming that night. I don’t remember anything about it until something disturbed me in the early hours.
    I lay for a moment with my eyes closed. My heart was thumping, but I didn’t know what it was that had woken me. Gently I eased myself up on one elbow and with shaky fingers and my breath catching in my throat I drew back the edge of the curtain. A weak light was seeping into the field. There was nothing there. I tried to calm myself; it was just nerves. I exhaled and relaxed. I closed my eyes. And then I heard a distinct noise, and it wasn’t coming from the window, but from the wall, just behind my head.
    I sat up straight, clutching the eiderdown to my chest. My heart was beating so fast it hurt. I could hardly breathe. It was a scrabbling noise, loud and insistent, as if something bricked into the wall was trying to fight its way out. It was a desperate noise, like the clawing of fingernails. It went on for several seconds, there was a pause, and then it started again.
    ‘Alexander!’ I called, but no sound came from my mouth; I was gagged by my panic. I could not formulate the word; the only noise I could make was the catching of my breath. I slid my feet out of bed and crept from the room, toofrightened to look behind me. In the almost-light, with my fingers on the wall to my left, I crossed the black tunnel of the landing, round the corner to the door that opened into Alexander’s bedroom, and I knocked with my