Beware of the Beast Read Free Page B

slowly.
    "Going away?" Laura looked astounded. "Where would you be going?"
    "I - don't know. Greece, maybe."    
    "Greece. And who do you know in Greece?" Laura looked sceptical .
    "I don't know where I'm going yet," retorted Charlotte sharply. Then: "I'm sorry, Laura, but I just may have to."
    Laura frowned over her task. "There's more to this than you're telling me. Are you sure you're telling me the truth? About last night, I mean. You've not gone and got yourself mixed up with some man, have you?"
    Charlotte stifled an hysterical giggle. If Laura only knew I Shaking her head, she walked to the kitchen door. "Don't do much lunch for me, Laura," she said, opening it. "I'm not really very hungry."
    Leaving the older woman to her speculations, Charlotte walked across the hall and into the comfortable lounge which overlooked the garden at the back of the house. It was unusual to have a large garden in London, but it had been one of the things her mother had most loved about the house. She had been a keen gardener, most content tending her plants and weeding the flower beds. Some of Charlotte's clearest memories were of her mother teaching her small daughter the names of some of the plants and how to look after them. Then Charlotte had gone away to school and soon afterwards her mother had died. Her father had told her that her mother's heart had never been strong, and a severe attack of bronchitis had proved fatal.
    Now Charlotte opened the french doors and stepped out on to the paved patio. They had a man who tended the garden these days, and it was pleasant to come out here on a hot day and sit in the shade of the fruit trees. Not that she would be able to do this much longer, she thought with sudden depression'. Whatever happened, the house would have to be sold. Besides, it was getting quite chilly out here. September was bringing mists and cool breezes, and the smouldering scent of burning leaves drifted from the garden next door.
    Charlotte had bent down to examine a particularly large beetle which had somehow wedged itself between two of the paving stones when the doorbell rang. Expecting it to be a tradesman, Charlotte made no move to answer it, but then she heard footsteps behind her, and glancing over her shoulder she found a rather agitated Laura stepping out of the french doors.
    "It's a man," she told the girl in a low voice, and Char lotte got jerkily to her feet.
    "A man?"
    "Yes. I've never seen him before, but he insists you'll know who he is. I didn't know what to do, so I've left him waiting in the hall. He says his name's Faulk - Faulkner? Is that right?"
     
    CHAPTER TWO
     
    A wave of blind panic swept over Charlotte at these words. "Faulkner? Are you sure?"
    "As sure as I can be." Laura looked at her curiously. "Why? Who is he? He came in a big black limousine. Seems like he's not short of money." She paused. "Don't you want to see him?"
    Charlotte passed a dazed hand over her forehead. Did sht want to see him? Yes. But not like this. Not so - precipitately. Was that why he had come? The element of surprise to add to his attack?
    "I - yes, I want to see him, Laura." Charlotte glanced down frustratedly at her jeans and tee-shirt. If he was standing in the hall, she could not pass him to get changed. " Mmm - show him into Daddy's study - well, the study, anyway. I must get changed. I can't see anyone like this!"
    "Why not?"
    The deep male voice so unexpectedly behind them startled both women, and Laura's huge brown eyes widened in dis may. For Charlotte, it was a moment of complete imbalance, and she stared at the man confronting her with almost childish indignation. The words "How dare you? formed and disintegrated without being spoken as her astonishment at his audacity gave way to a sense of shock. If this was Alex Faulkner, he bore no slight resemblance to the man whose image she had created.
    Her imagination had conceived an obese, repugnant individual, his body bearing witness to the excesses in