Imogen by Cooper Jilly

Author:Cooper, Jilly [Cooper, Jilly]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: Random House UK
Published: 2010-12-23T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

Sulky faces greeted them as they drove up to the hotel.

‘Where the hell have you been?’ snapped Cable.

‘Exciting each other on the beach at St Trop,’ said Matt.

Nicky and James were gaping at Imogen, who had got out of the car and was standing in the street in her bikini, her hair streaming down her back.

‘Gosh,’ said James in awe. ‘You look like one of the girls at the Motor Show.’

‘Matt seems to have been playing Pygmalion,’ said Cable frostily.

‘Rather successfully, don’t you think?’ said Matt, looking at Imogen.

‘She looks tremendous,’ said James. ‘Have a drink?’

‘We bumped into Antoine de la Tour, mad as ever. He’s coming over this evening. How was the water skiing, darling?’ said Matt to Cable. He bent over to give her a peck on the cheek, but she jerked her head away and spat a remark at him which only he heard.

He straightened up and looked at her.

‘It’s those loving things you do that make me grow so close to you,’ he said in an undertone.

‘Yvonne’s ill,’ said Nicky, who was still staring at Imogen. ‘She’s been stung by a jellyfish.’

‘Oh dear,’ said Matt in concern. ‘Is the poor jellyfish expected to live?’

James tried, but failed, to look affronted.

‘She wants me to sit by her bedside all night,’ he said plaintively. ‘I’d get her some pills to ease the pain, but I can’t make the beastly chemist understand.’

‘I’ll get her something,’ said Matt. ‘Order us a drink. I’ll be right back.’

‘First she says I stink of garlic, and then I mustn’t touch her because of her sunburn, and now this. What a holiday.’ James looked as though he was going to cry.

Nicky turned to Imogen. ‘You look sensational,’ he said, and began to tell her about the water skiing, his eyes wandering over her body as of old. Cable looked so thunderous, Imogen was glad when Matt came back.

‘Here you are,’ he said, handing James a phial of green pills. ‘But tell Yvonne not to take too many. They’re absolute knockouts.’

‘Thanks awfully,’ said James, bolting into the hotel. He came back five minutes later, his face wreathed in smiles.

‘What on earth were they?’ he asked. ‘She went out like a light.’

‘Smarties,’ said Matt. ‘I got them from the sweet shop round the corner. We extracted the green ones.’

Cable was the only person not to join in the shouts of laughter.

‘I’m going to change,’ she said.

‘So am I,’ said Matt grimly.

Imogen, at a discreet distance behind them, saw Matt follow Cable into their room.

‘When are you going to stop buggering up every one else’s holiday?’ she heard him say.

‘Male chauvinist Pygmalion,’ thought Imogen.

Dinner was decidedly stormy. The collision of wills in the bedroom had obviously escalated into a major row. Cable was in a murderous mood, her jaw set, her green eyes glittering. She kept ordering the most expensive things on the menu, and then sending them back untouched.

She was drinking heavily. And although Nicky was listening to her feverish chatter, every so often he cast discreet glances in Imogen’s direction.

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