Bittersweet Love - Cathy Williams [46]
She pulled open the door and her face dropped. Not Kane, as she had dreaded, but not the Avon lady either. Anna. And, from the expression on her face, not in mood for light-hearted bantering either.
‘Yes?’ Natalie positioned herself in the middle of the doorway. ‘What do you want?’
‘To talk to you, of course. Why else do you imagine I would come here?’ She glanced around her as though to imply that she would never normally venture into such an unsavoury neighbourhood. ‘Can I come in?’
Natalie racked her brains for a suitable excuse for saying no, but couldn’t think of any, and finally stood aside, watching Anna walk into her flat with a sinking feeling.
‘Would you like some coffee?’ Natalie forced a polite smile to her lips and was relieved when Anna shook her head impatiently.
‘I don’t intend to stay very long.’
Oh, good, Natalie thought, the shorter the better. She sat on the sofa at opposite ends to Anna and observed the other woman. Dressed to kill and looking quite out of place. Had she been somewhere first or did some people really hang around in silk tops and matching silk culottes? And all that make-up, Natalie thought cattily, must weigh a ton. Not to mention the hair piled on top of the head.
She smiled and felt a little better. ‘So what can I do for you?’
‘You can tell me why Kane has suddenly dropped me.’
There was a silence and Natalie hoped that she was managing to maintain a poker-still face, but she had her doubts. Her cheeks were burning furiously.
‘He’s dropped you?’ she asked. ‘I’m so sorry.’
Anna’s full lips thinned. ‘I doubt that. You never did care for me, did you? I was right about you, wasn’t I? You wanted Kane for yourself and you intended to get him. I saw the way the two of you were on the weekend; I saw the way you were leading him on with those coy little looks, never mind your boyfriend in the background.’
‘I wasn’t leading anyone on!’ Natalie protested furiously. Coy looks? For heaven’s sake, she thought, that silly woman makes me sound like a Barbie doll.
‘What did your boyfriend have to say about all of that?’
‘Eric and I understand each other.’ That, she knew, sounded awful, but if she denied a relationship with him, then Anna would have yet more cause for suspicion.
That’s awful. He seemed such a nice chap. How could you?’
‘Excuse me?’ Natalie looked at the other woman in-credulously. ‘In case it’ s escaped you, you happen to be in my flat, sitting on my sofa. I don’t have to listen to you preaching on my morality. So if you don’t mind…’ She stood up, wondering why she hadn’t done this sooner.
Anna stood up as well and her eyes were hard like diamonds. ‘You stole my man,’ she said with bitter spite in her voice. ‘I know you did. Something happened between the two of you. He was mine and you took him from me. Well, I once warned you that revenge could be sweet. Now you’ll find that out for yourself.’
She walked quickly towards the front door, her stiletto heels leaving little indentations on the carpet which Natalie found herself staring at in fascination, only pulling herself back to the other woman when the front door was open and the cool evening air brought the reality of the situation back to her.
‘You don’t frighten me,’ Natalie said, meeting Anna’s cold green gaze unflinchingly. ‘You may think it acceptable to barge your way into my flat and threaten me with all sorts of vague things, but you’re way off target if you think that I’m quaking in my shoes.’
‘Oh, I don’t care whether you’re quaking in your shoes or not. All I intend to do is to teach you a lesson.’ The hard, experienced mask slipped a little to reveal the spoilt little girl who had been thwarted, and Natalie realised with a sense of shock that Anna could only have been in her early-to-mid-twenties.
‘Don’t you think that’ s a little childish? If I can’t persuade you that Kane Marshall means nothing to me, then don’t you think that no man is worth this sort of reaction?’
‘Don’t patronise me!’
‘I’m not.’ Natalie sighed. ‘If he’s really