‘What’s taking Byron so long?’ she said worriedly after the photographer had scuttled away. ‘I hope he’s not trying to play peace-maker between Nathan and me. I asked him not to meddle.’
‘Please give Byron more credit for intelligence than that, Gemma. He realises any influence he has over Nathan is at a low ebb at the moment. Nathan was far from impressed to find out Byron had slept with me while he was still a married man. Then when he added that we were going to get married...’ Celeste’s eyes rolled expressively. ‘He said Nathan stared at him as though he were mad.’
Gemma sighed. ‘Poor Byron. He deserves better than that from Nathan.’
‘Yes, he does. Frankly, Gemma, everyone deserves better than they’re getting from Nathan. Why you still love him after what he’s done amazes me. Keeping my identity from you was despicable enough, but when I think how he...he—’
‘You promised not to speak of that again,’ Gemma broke in sharply. ‘You know that Nathan was out of his head when he did that. If I can forgive and forget, why can’t you?’
Celeste pursed disapproving lips. ‘I’m sorry, but I can’t abide a man perpetrating any violence against a woman, no matter what the provocation. Still, I won’t mention it again. It’s your life and I can see you’re determined to try to save your marriage.’
‘And you promised to help me any way you could.’
‘God knows why,’ Celeste muttered.
Gemma reached out and gently touched her mother on the wrist. ‘Because you love me?’ she said softly.
Celeste was stunned by the rush of maternal love that flooded her heart, tears pricking her eyes. Blinking madly, she nodded acknowledgement of this, squeezing her daughter’s hands before finding her voice. ‘I suppose I’ll just have to take your word for it that Nathan is worth fighting for and not the coldest, most cynical bastard I’ve ever laid eyes on.’
‘Lenore thinks he’s worth it,’ Gemma argued with a quiet intensity. ‘And she was married to him for twelve years.’
Celeste sighed. ‘Whatever his faults, he certainly knows how to inspire loyalty in his wives.’
‘He’s only had two!’ Gemma protested.
‘So far. If he divorces you as he says he’s going to, that leaves the field clear for number three.’
‘Nathan and I won’t be getting a divorce,’ Gemma said with a stubborn set of her mouth. ‘And there won’t be any number three!’
‘Oh? And how do you intend to change his mind?’
‘By whatever means are at my disposal.’
‘Mmm...’ Celeste gave Gemma the once-over, a sardonic gleam coming into her eyes as they carefully assessed her appearance. ‘I was at a loss earlier on to understand what you hoped to achieve coming here tonight. Now I see it’s not your attending the play you had in mind but the party afterwards.’
Gemma felt a guilty heat seep into her cheeks but she refused to succumb to embarrassment over her appearance, or shame over her plan. Nathan was her husband, after all! Besides, she wasn’t nearly as provocatively dressed as she’d seen Celeste on occasions. OK, so her red crèpe dress was very form-fitting, the wide beaded belt emphasising her hour-glass figure. And yes, the deep V neckline showed clearly that she wasn’t wearing a bra. But that was hardly a crime these days, was it?
‘I only want to talk to him,’ she lied outrageously. ‘I can’t achieve anything unless I talk to him, can I?’
‘People who play with fire often get burnt,’ Celeste warned softly. ‘I should know. I’ve been there, done that.’
‘And you ended up with the man you love, I noticed,’ Gemma said. ‘I aim to do the same.’
Celeste blinked in surprise at the hard edge in her daughter’s voice, till it came to her that Gemma was a chip off the old block. Both her parents were pigheaded people who didn’t know when to quit. She almost felt sorry for Nathan.
‘Ah...here’s Byron now.’ Celeste smiled and linked arms with him. ‘We thought you’d got lost, darling. How are things backstage?’
‘Everyone’s a bundle of nerves. Except Nathan, of course. That man had nerves of steel.’
And a heart of steel, Celeste thought, but declined to say so.
‘What did he say about me?’ Gemma asked nervously.
‘Not a word.’
Gemma looked and felt crestfallen. ‘Does...does he know I’m here, and that I’m going to the party afterwards?’
‘I did mention it in passing, but he didn’t seem to care one way or the other. To be honest, I’m a little shocked at Nathan’s stand over this divorce business. I’ve never known him to be so inflexible, or so unfeeling. It’s as though he’s retreated behind some hard shell that nothing can penetrate.’
‘That’s just a faç ade he hides behind,’ Gemma stated, and did her best to believe it. Because if she didn’t, what then?
‘It’s time we went inside, isn’t it?’ Celeste jumped in, deciding a change of subject was called for when she saw a stricken look momentarily flash across her daughter’s eyes. God, if that bastard hurt her again, she was going to kill him with her bare hands, something she was capable of. All those years of martial arts training had to be good for something!
‘The bell hasn’t gone,’ Byron replied. ‘But yes,’ he added quickly on seeing Celeste’s withering glance, ‘I think we might go in.’
A photographer snapped the three of them as they walked into the theatre, Celeste and Byron flashing him a quick smile. Gemma’s face, however, reflected an inner misery that she could not hide. Her faith in her plan was already crumbling, as was her faith in Nathan’s love for her.
Their seats were in the middle of the fifth row from the front, the best seats in the house. As the play’s producer, Byron had access to this whole row if he wanted. He’d offered seats to both Jade and Ava, but they had declined to come in protest over Nathan’s unreasonable behaviour towards Gemma. Both women had declared they would never speak to him again till he came to his senses.
Gemma sat down and began flicking through the programme booklet Byron had bought her on arrival, anything to still the butterflies in her stomach. The sight of her husband’s face staring out at her jolted her for a second.
The black and white photograph brought a hardness to his looks that she had never noticed before. He’d always looked like a golden god to her, with hair the colour of wheat, skin like bronze satin, a classically handsome face, a highly sensual mouth and the most beautiful grey eyes. Now, those eyes stared out at her with all the warmth of a winter’s dawn, a slight arching of his left eyebrow adding a cynical edge to their cold expression, as did the twisted curve of his half-smile.
Oh, how she’d always hated it when he smiled at her like that, as though he knew things about the world that she was not yet privy to. Nathan had always declared the world a rotten place full of rotten people. He was cynical through and through about the human race, and the female sex in particular, probably because of the wicked, even depraved women who had played vital roles during his growing-up years.
First there had been his mother, a spoiled rich bitch who had left home as a teenager to live a life of debauchery, drugs and total self-indulgence. Nathan had been illegitimate, his father unknown to him and possibly to his mother, who had spent her entire life going from lover to lover, orgy to orgy, trip to trip.
Gemma had heard about Nathan’s mother from several sources—though not Nathan himself. He never talked about the past. Apparently, she had put him in his first boarding-school at the age of eight, dragging him out whenever