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than.'
'She lies a lot,' said Sancha, and Mark gave her a quick, sharp look.
'What does that mean?'
'She rang me, not long after you had gone...'
'Rang you?' He looked disturbed, as well he might.
'She tried to disguise her voice, but it was her, all right. I'm certain of
it.' Sancha watched him, trying to read his expression, wishing she
knew if he had been lying to her all along. 'She told me you were at
her flat in bed with her.'
Mark's face tightened as if she had hit him, his skin flushing an angry
red. Slowly he said, 'You're sure it was her? You recognised her
voice?'
'I thought I did at the time and then Zoe rang some number which
tells you where your last call came from, and it was Jacqui Farrar's
number. So then I knew for sure.'
His frown deepened, etching lines across his forehead. 'Zoe? What
was Zoe doing here?'
'She and her producer dropped in to offer to take the kids out for the
day. She was still here, talking to me, when the call came.'
'And you told her all about it!' Mark's voice was hard with fury;
Sancha felt as if he had slapped her.
'I was upset; she could see that. She's my sister and she cares about
me why shouldn't I confide in her? I had to talk to someone.' She
was fighting with tears now, and Mark might have been able to hear
that in her voice.
He looked at her uncertainly, sighing. 'All the same, I wish you
hadn't. I don't want the world and his wife knowing all about our
private life.'
'Zoe isn't the world and his wife; she's my sister! She knows me, and
she could see how much the phone call upset me!'
His voice gender, Mark said, 'I'm sorry if you were upset,
Sancha but for God's Sake, you must have known what Jacqui said
on the phone was a lie. I wouldn't have gone to bed with her. You
knew I had gone there to tell her it was all over.'
Her lower lip trembled; she bit down on the inside of it to stop the
trembling and whispered, 'How was I to be sure? I didn't know what
to think. You might have lied to me. You might have changed your
mind once you saw her. I didn't know if I could trust you. I'd had the
ground cut from under my feet by that letter and I didn't have the
self-confidence to be sure what to believe any more.'
'Is that really how you feel?' Mark said slowly, frowning. 'I'm sorry,
Sancha, I know what you must have been through I've been through
it myself, all these months, when I thought you no longer loved me.
We're going to have to start trusting each other again. It won't be easy,
I know that but you can believe this, I swear. I've fired her.'
Sancha inhaled sharply, searching his face for signs of how he felt.
There was darkness in the grey eyes, a hard compression at his
mouth; she knew the signs. Mark was angry but with whom? With
herself for demanding that he sack Jacqui Farrar? With himself for
giving in? Had it been a hard decision to make? Had he been in love
with the blonde girl after all?
Jealousy bit into her. 'What happened when you told her?'
His mouth twisted with distaste. 'There was a very unpleasant scene.
Look, I don't want to talk about it, Sancha. Can we forget her now?
She is out of my life.'
Sancha looked down at the kitchen table, struggling with pain and
uncertainty. Seeing the food she had been preparing, she
automatically turned to the practical routines of her married life for
comfort and reassurance.
What else did she have to hold on to while everything in her life kept
dissolving underneath her? At the moment she felt as if she had no
solid ground to stand on, as if the earth kept quaking under her feet.
'I've made a salad what would you like with it? Shall I grill this
goat's cheese, or would you just like some of the cold chicken left
over from the other day?'He made a tired gesture. 'Whatever you like.
I'm not hungry.'
At once she was concerned, studying the tense, weary outline of his
face and seeing the lines of strain in it. Mark didn't look well, and that
was unusual- he was normally a powerful, active, healthy man.
'You ought to eat,' she murmured anxiously. 'It will make you feel
better; it always does. You need the blood sugar.'
'I need a drink,' Mark said, walking away into the sitting-room. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]