Hold Back the Night Read Free

of her clients would give her an advance on next year's work? Or perhaps the bank manager could be cajoled this time...
    'Now about the balance,' the woman said.
    'You can send it C.O.D.,' suggested Domini.
    'I'm afraid not. You see, we don't have that kind of arrangement with the delivery service we use. They won't handle cash. But you can give me a cheque.'
    When Domini remained still a little too long, not reaching into her purse for a chequebook, the woman finally looked up anxiously. 'You can postdate it to Christmas Eve if you wish, Mrs Greey. Normally I wouldn't allow that, but . . . well, I can see you want that unicorn very badly. I think you can be trusted.'
    'Miss Greey,' Domini corrected in a low, level voice. 'I'm not married. And no, you shouldn't trust me. If I write you a cheque it might bounce.'
    'But if you could promise to pay on a C.O.D., surely you must have ... '
    'If I hadn't managed to find the money by then, the delivery man simply wouldn't have left the parcel,' Domini pointed out, her face set and pale. 'It wasn't dishonest. Yes, you might have missed an opportunity to sell the unicorn to some other customer, but surely the hundred dollars I just gave you would have paid the artist for his disappointment. It was quite a gamble for me. I can't afford to lose a hundred dollars.'
    The woman's face changed from accusatory to sympathetic. 'I'm sorry,' she said quietly.
    Domini laughed ruefully. 'No, I am,' she said. 'I shouldn't have tried it. It was an impulse. Would it be too much if I asked for my hundred dollars back?'
    'You really want that unicorn badly,' observed the woman softly.
    Domini nodded, not trusting her tongue. How could she explain to anyone that the unicorn in the window had become not just a desire but a compulsion? That she had to have it for Tasey? To understand, a person would have to know all the joy and pain of Domini's personal history ... the warmth and love of her cosseted and unorthodox childhood, the agony caused by her father's rejection, the terrible circumstances that had attended Tasey's conception by a man Domini had once been infatuated with but had grown to hate.
    The woman started to insert a key in the cash drawer and then paused. 'I have an admission to make, now that we're being honest,' she said. 'I put the paint on that unicorn myself. The man who did the carving is blind, you see. I didn't tell you before because I didn't want to influence your thinking.'
    Domini closed her eyes as another wave of memory washed over her, the force of it this time like a tidal bore.
    But therein lay too much pain to contemplate, and she willed the memory back into the recesses of her mind. This was no time to think of the man who had fathered Tasey.
    'By the way,' the woman went on, 'my name is Miranda, Miranda Evans, and I'm a sucker for a trustworthy face. Would it help if I allowed you to pay the balance in January? Mind you, I'd have to have it by the end of the month for sure. The cost of credit nowadays, you know.'
    Domini shook her head, a small shivering shake because she wanted so much to say yes and in all honesty couldn't. Finances weren't likely to be easier for some time to come. And once Tasey had the unicorn there would be no going back. The gift once given could not be snatched away, to be returned to the gallery in lieu of payment.
    As the cash drawer came open Domini made one last desperate bid. 'I could work it off,' she suggested. 'I do window displays. I'm freelance, and I'm good, really I am. Perhaps you've seen some of my work?' She mentioned several shops in the neighbourhood, earning an admiring nod from the other woman. 'I'll do all your displays for a year, props and everything, and you'll be getting a terrific bargain.'
    'I don't need a display person.' Miranda's words sounded like an apology. T hang pictures in the window.'
    'Part-time sales help, then.'
    'No, I'm sorry. I live directly upstairs, and if I need to go out I simply close up the gallery