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.‘And now she’s on her way back to London.’Elizabeth was further enraged to notice just how cool and composed he was, whilst she was seething with anger and finding it hard to control her shaking.‘Surely that’s a bit rough? I’m sure there’ll be enough supper to go round…’‘You’re overstepping your brief,’ Andreas said in a clipped voice.‘When I want your thoughts on possible dinner-guests, I’ll ask for them.And I’ve spent long enough discussing Amanda with my godfather, so why don’t you tell me where you’ve been all day?’‘Relaxing.’‘Do I pay you to relax?’‘My workload was up to date.I felt like I needed a break.’ She received a morale-boosting squeeze of the hands from James, which didn’t go unnoticed by Andreas.Foul mood that he was in, he glared at her.What, she wondered, did he have to glare about?‘Now, children! I’m too old to endure bickering, and I’m certainly too old to endure your totties racing down here, Andreas.’‘She’s not my totty,’ Andreas said through gritted teeth.‘Amanda and I were a done deal.’Would that have been just about the time you decided you needed a change of scenery? Elizabeth wondered as jealousy bit through her.If James hadn’t been there, she would have done more than just ask him that, because in the mood she was in she wanted to do more than just ask a bunch of questions to which she already knew the answers.She wanted to fling something hard and heavy at him.Never had she felt so shaken in her life before, and she knew why.Andreas had changed her and she didn’t appreciate the change.She had morphed from an easy going, amiable person—a person who avoided mood swings and tried very hard to hang on to her composure; a person who had learnt great reserves of patience, having taken care of her mother for so long—into a firebrand.She found that she was clinging like a limpet to James’s shoulder and she took a few deep breaths and moved around to sit down.Would the conversation struggle towards normality? she wondered.While Amanda packed her case upstairs and vanished back towards London.Elizabeth would never know the answer to that one because no sooner had she sat down—blessed relief for her legs which felt like jelly—than the door was pushed open and there was Amanda, framed in the doorway like an avenging angel.The trouser suit was gone, replaced by a red dress that hugged her body like cling film.Elizabeth realised that, while Andreas had doubtless been in the sitting room trying to placate James, Amanda had taken the opportunity to have a bath and freshen up.For a few seconds both James and Andreas seemed to be frozen to the spot.James disapproving and working himself up to one of his famous rants, and Andreas’s hard features stamped with icy disdain.Elizabeth almost felt sorry for the woman because there was nothing Andreas loathed more than a scene, as he had once told her in passing.And Amanda certainly looked like a woman on the verge of causing a very big scene.She stepped into the room and waved a bundle of papers at them, at which point Elizabeth felt the room begin to spin around her.She made to get up and then immediately collapsed back onto the sofa.‘Just thought you’d like to have a look at these!’ She smiled triumphantly at Elizabeth.Between her grasping fingers, the faded blue envelopes were instantly recognisable.‘You have no right…’‘Oh, I think everyone in here will agree that I had every right to tell them exactly what you are! And I can’t imagine what took you so long.Did you think that you needed to spend some time buttering the old man up before you staked your claim?’ Amanda’s china-blue eyes were cool, amused and smugly satisfied that pay-back time had arrived.‘Well, good luck.’ She spun round without glancing inAndreas’s direction.It was a magnificent spin, a neatly executed twirl which ensured that every aspect of her fabulous body was revealed, a timely reminder to her ex of what he would be missing.Elizabeth had no time to feel jealous because she was way too busy feeling terrified.Her eyes were glued to the bundle of envelopes which had been casually dropped on the old, mahogany table in the middle of the room.On the one hand, she wanted nothing more than to dash to the table, snatch up the envelopes and run away as fast as she could.On the other hand, she was overcome by a sense of fatalism.What would be, would be.She gradually became aware of both Andreas and James staring at her.Amanda had left with a flourish, although Elizabeth couldn’t have said exactly when.Andreas was the first to break the silence.‘Are you going to explain what the hell that was all about?’ He glanced at the envelopes burning a hole on the table, and knew that all the vague suspicions he had entertained about her were now going to be proved.Little Miss Innocent looked as guilty as sin with her colour up and her fingers twisting restively on her lap.‘May I have a word with James privately?’ Elizabeth ventured and Andreas shot her a look of rampant incredulity.‘Well, in that case…’ She took the bundle of letters and handed them to James, along with his reading glasses, which were in the top pocket of his shirt and which he constantly forgot.‘Do you remember a woman called Phyllis? You met her, well, over twenty-five years ago.She was thirty-two at the time and you were in your late forties.She was crazy about you, except she didn’t know at the time that you were already married…’James looked at her on a sharply indrawn breath as his quick mind connected the dots, and he reached for the bundle of envelopes.His hand was shaking.‘I remember her,’ he said quietly
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