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.‘For you,’ he said, pointing to it as she sat down.‘A belated Merry Christmas.’She glanced at him, then picked the packet up tentatively and unwrapped the layers of tissue paper, unrolling the cotton wool.She held the necklace up to the light and gazed at it, entranced.‘Leo, it’s beautiful,’ she said.‘You shouldn’t have,’ she added, as she fastened it around her neck, then drew her hand across the tiny leaves glinting at her throat.No, thought Leo, perhaps I shouldn’t.Another one of the indissoluble little ties, an added weight in the chain.But in spite of his thoughts he suddenly fished in his jacket pocket for the photographs he had brought from his mother’s house.‘I thought these might amuse you,’ he said, and tossed the envelope into her lap.She drew the pictures out and studied them one by one, laughing occasionally.‘Oh, I wish I had known you then,’ she murmured, gazing at a young, dark-haired Leo smiling crookedly into the sun.He watched the childlike pleasure on her face, and wondered for the hundredth time how he was to bring this to an end in a few months’ time.‘Just think,’ she said, looking up at him, ‘when you were seventeen, I’d only just been born.’It would be an utter relief, he told himself.He had never lived so constantly in the company of any woman before, and it astonished him that anyone managed to endure marriage.She is like a long, cool glass of some health-giving drink, he thought.And oh, how he longed for a draught of some swift, brutal and intoxicating passion.The way it had been before.When this was over, it could all go back to the way it had been before.But as she looked up, laughing, holding up a picture of Leo in baggy bermudas and a straw hat, standing next to a punt with Christopher, he realised that the prospect of destroying her trust and affection was appalling.He had not bargained for so much love.Just an affair, an easy affair, something which could be lightly discarded in due course.That was all he had intended.And now he had this.‘Can I keep one?’ she asked, pulling out one of the photographs.‘Of course,’ he replied.I must do it gradually, he thought.I must devise ways of slipping out of her life, letting the thing go.Perhaps that way she wouldn’t be so badly hurt.But it must start soon.Perhaps the affair had already served its purpose, anyway.Rachel examined the photo she had chosen.‘Who’s that next to you?’ she asked.‘The blonde boy? He’s very good-looking.’‘Just a friend from university,’ said Leo.Her eyes met his, and he knew what she was wondering.That must always be at the back of her mind, he thought.Did you sleep with him? Why did you do it? How could you want any man the way you want me? ‘He was my lover,’ he added suddenly, and plucked the photograph gently from her fingers.‘Choose another one.’But Rachel merely set the photographs down on the table and slipped her arms around his neck.She didn’t care about any of them.That was his past, and it didn’t matter to her.What mattered was now, and tomorrow.‘I missed you,’ she said, and drew her mouth towards his.‘Aren’t you hungry?’ he asked between kisses.‘I was going to take you to dinner.’ He did not feel like making love.He felt like sex, or food.No emotion, just appetite.‘Later,’ she said.‘Come to bed.’He pulled back gently and studied her face.If he was going to have to go on fucking her for the next few weeks, he might as well make it interesting.‘All right,’ he said.‘And this time,’ he added thoughtfully, clasping her neck and pressing his thumbs gently against the base of her throat, ‘I’ll teach you something new.’‘You see, Lord Chancellor, the matter is one of some delicacy – not something which anyone in the Judicial Appointments Group would wish to air openly – but it is clearly one which requires – well, your consideration.’Colin Crane, a man naturally tentative in manner, spoke with greater emphasis than was customary with him.He had not been looking forward to this confidential interview with the new Lord Chancellor; the subject was a difficult one, and it irked him that he, of all the civil servants within the group, had been elected to broach it with Lord Steele.‘But surely we have seen Mr Davies’ personal file?’ replied the Lord Chancellor.‘I saw no mention of this there.And his name is already on the final list of suitable appointees.’ Lord Steele moved some papers round on his desk in a vexed and aimless manner.He disliked this business of prying into a man’s personal life, passing judgments upon his fitness for professional appointments.It was an aspect of his job which he did not relish.Colin Crane sighed [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]