Fragile Crystal: Rubies and Rivalries (The Crystal Fragments Trilogy) by Lawless M. J

Author:Lawless, M. J. [Lawless, M. J.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Black Orion Press
Published: 2012-09-11T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

The messages stopped for a little while, for which Kris was immensely glad. Whatever had happened between Daniel and Maria anything more than simple business was ancient history—at least as far as Daniel was concerned. She could never be sure what this meant for herself and him, but what he had told her that night, after he had returned from a meal with Maria Gosselin, she believed that he was telling her the truth.

And of the other five? Kris had no evidence that they existed, and while she knew that once there had been something between Daniel and Maria, she also had her suspicions that the French lawyer was something of a fantasist.

When Daniel said that he had to return to London, she gladly agreed to go with him. Something had soured even for her in Lisbon. This was meant to be her own personal paradise, but a serpent had stolen into the garden of Eden, a serpent with golden hair and green eyes.

Daniel at least was pleased that she was returning with him. “Well, there’s no point staying in Alfama at the moment,” she told him. “My ankle’s just about back to normal, and I don’t think I’m going to be doing much painting. Anyway, I want to spend more time with you.”

He had smiled at this. “I can see the appeal of Portugal—well, anywhere south really—at this time of year, but unfortunately…”

“Yes, I know,” she had told him, squeezing his hand and kissing him on the cheek. “The real world calls.” They had both laughed at this. Indeed, Daniel had looked more relaxed and happier than she had known for a long time. Recently, whenever they had parted he had always left her with a slightly troubled look in his eyes. Whenever she asked what was happening, he would simply shrug and mention business difficulties in a vague and dismissive manner. But this time when they flew to London she had the sense that he wanted her by his side—that he needed her. The Gosselin woman was just a fantasist, playing some game with her, she was sure.

When she returned to London, however, she was not so sure that what she felt about it. For twenty-eight years she had lived in the capital, and in terms of time spent it was still more her home than anywhere else. Time spent. She made it sound like a prison sentence, and with the grey, rainy weather that stayed with them from the time they landed at Heathrow till their arrival in Chelsea, England did feel like a return to prison.

At least, she could reassure herself, if this was a cage it was very much a gilded one. Daniel’s own apartment in Chelsea, a penthouse on top of a brick and stone block that had been built in the 1920s and was now a very desirable gated residence, was completely different to her own home in Alfama, though there was much (weather aside) it shared with his villa in Cascais. Clean, spotless, hygienic, it was, she now realised, even more without soul than the villa.

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