‘Don’t,’ Freya said with a shudder.
‘You’re right. Let’s put them behind us.’
When they had turned the corner out of sight the two men watching them stood for a moment without moving.
At last Amos spoke. ‘So that’s that.’
‘I wonder,’ Jackson mused, ‘just how often that really is that.’
‘I know this has got you down, but don’t give in to those feelings. Just because a woman goes away it doesn’t mean she’s abandoned you. Of course she’d like you to think so. It’s a power game. You’re supposed to go after her. And if you don’t, she’ll come back to you.’
Slowly Jackson turned his gaze on his father. ‘That’s what you really think, is it?’
‘Just remember, don’t be the one to give in. You’ve got to be strong. That’s the rule of life and the rule of love.’
‘Unless it backfires,’ Jackson murmured. ‘And what do you do then? Especially if she’s playing by different rules, and you don’t know what they are.’
Amos gave a snort of derisive laughter. ‘Women always play by different rules, and no man ever knows what they are. All you can be sure of is that they’ll trip you up if they can.’
‘Then I reckon we’ve both been tripped up,’ Jackson observed. ‘It’s time we were going.’
* * *
For much of the flight from Cairo to Nice Freya gazed out of the window at the clouds. By the time they got into the taxi from Nice to Monte Carlo she was ready to sleep. It was a relief to let her mind do nothing.
As the days passed she was glad she’d chosen to be with her mother. It was a long time since they had been alone together, able to talk freely and confide their troubles. It meant facing searching questions from Janine, but they forced her to confront herself and her own confusion.
‘You really came with me to get away from Jackson, didn’t you?’ Janine asked once.
‘Yes, I think I did.’
‘I thought you two had made up. Have you quarrelled again?’
‘No.’ She sighed. ‘It’s not a quarrel. It’s sadder than that.’
‘If it’s not a quarrel, what can it possibly be?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘But it worries you. Darling, if you’re falling in love with him don’t fight it just to teach Amos a lesson.’
‘I’m not falling in love with him.’
‘Are you sure?’
‘Quite sure,’ she said firmly.
‘It’s just that when it all happened I had the strangest feeling that quarrelling with Jackson hurt you more than losing Dan.’
‘Mum, will you let it go, please? I’m not falling in love with Jackson.’
If Janine thought her daughter was trying to convince herself she was too tactful to say so.
‘All right, darling,’ she murmured. ‘Whatever you say.’
‘I’m not ready to fall in love with anyone yet,’ Freya asserted. ‘Maybe never.’
Even to Janine she could not explain the storm of confusion that Jackson caused within her. Part of her yearned towards him, longed for his love. But part of her recoiled from the strength of her own feelings—especially for a man she did not completely trust.
He was too much like Amos—too likely to indulge in deception to achieve his ends. But his charm could make her forget the danger, and his kisses had a power that alarmed her. She missed him terribly, but she also felt safer at a distance.
On the day Amos announced that he would soon be home Freya received a call from Cassie in Paris.
‘She’s making another repayment to me,’ she told Janine, ‘and she says that since I’m getting so interested in finance I should visit them and learn some more about it. I’ve said yes. It’ll get me out of the way when Amos arrives. I think the two of you need to be alone.’
‘Good idea,’ Janine agreed. ‘Have a wonderful time in Paris.’
Two days later Freya was comfortably ensconced in a room at La Couronne, the luxurious Paris hotel that Cassie and Marcel jointly owned and where they lived. She plunged into the pleasures of this new life, learning about finance and being treated as an honoured guest.
Jackson called her every day. She talked to him cheerfully, but in a way that revealed no feelings.
‘I’m having a wonderful time,’ she declared. ‘Paris is lovely and I’m really enjoying my new life. Just you wait and see. I’m going to be the businesswoman of the year.’
‘I’m sure you can be anything you want. So that’s it? You’ve got the future all arranged?’
‘Maybe. I’ve discovered that you don’t arrange the future. It just happens and you try to turn it to your advantage.’
‘Very shrewd. Right, I’ve got to go now. Goodbye.’
‘Goodbye,’ she said, hanging up. ‘Goodbye...’
And it might be goodbye finally. Perhaps that was what the future held. If so, she would do her best to turn it to her advantage.
There was no lack of pleasures available to her. Marcel even had a handsome friend, Pierre, who paid her particular attention.
‘I must warn you about him,’ Marcel said one evening. ‘He needs money, and word’s got around that you could afford a few investments.’
‘That’s what I figured,’ she replied. ‘Don’t worry, I’m in no danger.’
The four of them would sometimes dine together downstairs in La Couronne’s restaurant, and Pierre would give a performance of devotion that might have convinced her if she’d wanted to be convinced. As it was, she merely laughed, heard his speeches with a pretence of attention and let him kiss her hand.
‘Hey, look who’s here.’ Cassie said suddenly one evening.
Turning, they saw a man standing nearby, watching them with hard eyes. His gaze was fixed on Pierre, holding Freya’s hand to his lips, and a fierce glow seemed to come from him.
It was Jackson.
Marcel rose, greeting his brother cheerfully, bringing him over to the table.
‘Great to see you. Why didn’t you say you were coming?’
‘It was a last-minute decision and I can’t stay long. Freya, can we go somewhere?’
‘But surely you can have something to eat first,’ Cassie protested.
‘Thank you, but I can’t. Freya?’
‘Yes,’ she said.
There was no way of refusing this man’s fierce intent. The moment had come. The moment that in her heart she had always known would come.
He didn’t speak as she led him into the elevator and up to her room. When the door was closed she spoke in a voice that sounded tremulous even to her own ears.
‘You gave me a shock, appearing out of the blue like that.’
‘Are you surprised that I came here? You shouldn’t be. You practically forced me.’
‘I didn’t force you.’
‘When we speak on the phone it’s like talking to a stranger. Is that what you want to be to me? A stranger?’
‘No, of course not. But—’
‘Whenever