Final Witness Read Free Page B

undressed. It was the third time that she had done this, and each time it gave her greater pleasure. Now she carefully opened the top drawer of an antique chest and took out three or four pairs of Lady Anne’s silk underwear, setting to one side a lavender sachet embroidered by the lady of the house. One by one she tried them on, pressing the white material against her body until at last she settled on the sheerest, thinnest pair of all and turned her attention to the closets containing Lady Anne’s dresses.
        Her green eyes sparkled as she passed the material between her fingers and raised it to her nose. As she breathed in deeply, it was almost as if she was holding Lady Anne close to herself. Turning, she laid out five of the dresses across the wide bed and slowly tried each one on. Her erect nipples visible through the fabric of each dress and the faraway look in her half-closed eyes told their own story. She was too absorbed to notice the sound of the front door opening down below, and she didn’t hear the footsteps on the stairs as she pulled a lemon silk brocade dress over her head. She only knew that she was not alone when she looked in the mirror to admire herself and saw Thomas standing in the open doorway behind her.
        
        One of Greta’s greatest qualities as a personal assistant was her calmness under pressure.
        “It’s almost unnatural,” Sir Peter had told his wife only the previous weekend when they were lying in the bed across which Lady Anne’s evening dresses were now draped. “It’s like there are all these boats being tossed about in some terrible tempest out there in the bay and she’s in her own boat in the center and the storm’s having no effect on her at all. She’s one in a million, Annie. I bet that some of the other M.P.s would pay a king’s ransom to get hold of her, but then, she’s completely loyal. That’s another of her qualities.”
        “Yes, I see what you mean,” Lady Anne had replied. “It is unnatural. She must have worked very hard to become what she is.”
        Now, at this moment of crisis, Greta remained just as calm as her employer would have expected. Only a slight shudder indicated her awareness of the boy’s presence. Thomas, however, stood rooted to the spot and his cheeks flushed crimson. His eyes were fixed on the reflection of Greta’s full breasts in the mirror, with the rose-red nipples clearly visible as the buttons on the front of the yellow dress remained undone right down to the waist.
        Greta looked evenly at the boy’s reflection in the mirror but did nothing to hide herself.
        “You’re looking at my breasts, Thomas.” There was a purring note in Greta’s voice that the boy had not heard before.
        “No, no. I’m not.”
        “All right. You’re not.” Greta laughed, pulling the front of the dress together. “My mistake.”
        “You’re wearing my mother’s dress. The one she said was like spring daffodils. And you’re in her room. Why are you in her room?”
        “Well, Thomas. If you sit down a moment, I’ll try to explain it to you.”
        Greta picked up two of the dresses from the bed, and gestured for the boy to sit in the space that she had cleared, but he didn’t move from the doorway.
        “You shouldn’t be in here. You don’t belong in here.”
        “No, I don’t. You’re quite right. But Thomas, try to understand. I don’t have beautiful clothes like your mother does. I can’t afford them like she can. And I didn’t think it would do any harm if I tried them on just to see what I looked like. It doesn’t hurt anyone, does it?”
        “It’s not right. They belong to my mother.”
        “Yes, they do. But I wasn’t going to steal them. I wouldn’t be trying them on in here if I was going to do that, now, would I?”
        “She wouldn’t want you to have them on. She wouldn’t want you in here. I know