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‘I think the only repercussion that is likely to occur as a result of tonight’s one-off performance,’ Mark cut in dismissively, ‘is that the general public will see that Maggi Fennell and Adam Carmichael are—publicly, at least—friends again, despite all the media speculation.’ His mouth twisted. ‘Privately, of course, it’s a completely different story!’ He turned to comfort Maggi. ‘I don’t think too much harm will come out of this evening, love,’ he assured her gently.
‘You’re a fool, Mark,’ the older man told him coldly. ‘But then, you always were. Magdalena—’
‘Get out of here, Adam,’ Mark bit out shortly.
‘I—’
‘Can’t you see Maggi has had enough?’ the younger man interjected forcefully.
She could feel Adam’s gaze on her now, didn’t need to look at him to know he was looking at her. And she knew what he would see, knew that her face was pale, ethereally so, her eyes made to look even darker because of the shadows beneath them. She had never been particularly robust before her illness, but now her health was delicate to say the least. Tonight had been a strain she could well have done without.
‘You’re right,’ Adam finally, grudgingly conceded. ‘I’ll come back in the morning, for breakfast, and we can talk about this then—’
‘No!’ Mark was right; she had had enough. By rights Adam shouldn’t even be here, let alone be dictating what they would and wouldn’t do. Her eyes flashed. ‘I’ve told you, Adam.’ She looked at him unblinkingly. ‘We have nothing left to say to each other. About anything,’ she added to save his protests. ‘I don’t want you to come back here, tomorrow or any other time. Now, if you’ll both excuse me, I’m tired and I’m going to bed.’ She didn’t wait for a response from either man, turning sharply on her heel and going back to her bedroom.
It was only as she closed the door thankfully behind her that she realised she must have stopped breathing during that short walk to the bedroom; she gasped air into her starved lungs as she leant back against the door.
Seeing Adam up on the stage had been one thing but having him here in her hotel suite was something else entirely, his proximity bringing back memories she had deliberately buried in the back of her mind. She’d had to. For her own sanity. To think of the better times, the happier times with Adam, when she’d been so ill and desperate for him, would have driven her completely insane!
She sat on the bed as she heard the murmur of male voices again outside, then the firm closing of the suite door seconds later. Adam had gone...!
‘Come in,’ she called as a soft knock on her bedroom door followed his exit from the suite. She smiled wanly at Mark as he came concernedly into the room. ‘He’s gone?’
‘Yes,’ Mark rasped.
She nodded. ‘Let’s not have an inquest about it, hmm, and just hope we’ve seen the last of him?’ That would perhaps be too much to hope for; Adam no doubt had other ideas on the subject. But there was always the possibility that he would one day do something completely unselfish and surprise her!
‘I don’t understand what he’s doing here; my mother said he was in America,’ Mark muttered irritatedly.
Maggi raised startled brows. ‘Your mother keeps you informed of Adam’s movements?’ She had never realised that, had simply believed Mark showed no interest in Adam, as she didn’t.
Mark was still scowling. ‘As you know, we’re the only family he has, and with someone like Adam it’s best to know exactly what he’s up to!’ He gave a rueful smile. ‘A lot of good it did me this time,’ he acknowledged in self-disgust. ‘Look, like you’ve already said, it’s been a long evening for you,’ he said, before coming over and kissing her lightly on the cheek. ‘The best thing is probably for us both to get that good night’s sleep, and think about this again in the morning.’
Maggi didn’t want to think about Adam at all; if she did she would never get to sleep! But she knew what Mark meant. Emotions were just running too high at the moment for any logic to be applied to the situation.
She smiled up at Mark gratefully. ‘Don’t forget to call Andrea,’ she reminded him indulgently as he went to leave the room.
He paused to grin at her. ‘Not unless I’ve ceased to value certain parts of my anatomy!’ he conceded lightly, chuckling softly to himself as he left the bedroom.
Adam was so wrong about her own relationship with Mark; far from the two of them being lovers, Mark had developed a deep relationship with the woman who had been her physiotherapist for three years. Maggi was so pleased for them both; she liked Andrea enormously, and Mark more than deserved to find happiness.
Andrea was working in France at the moment, with a young child who had been involved in an accident, but she would be back in a few weeks, and in the meantime Mark was helping Maggi, taking care of all the details which she still found it something of a strain to deal with.
Three years... That was how long it had taken her to learn to walk again after the accident...
She and Adam had been coming back from a gig one night, both of them tired. Adam had been driving the powerful white Mercedes with his usual skill, but had been given no chance to avoid the other vehicle that had suddenly veered across the motorway onto their side of the road and hit them almost head-on. What had been so miraculous about it was that Adam had escaped almost unhurt, with just a few cuts and bruises, whereas Maggi had had a serious pelvic injury and had broken both her legs, giving the doctors serious doubts about her ability to ever walk again.
She had been in hospital for weeks, barely aware of her surroundings, let alone what was going on in the outside world. When she had left the hospital almost three months after the accident, it had been in a wheelchair.
But if she had thought there had been pain while she was in hospital it was as nothing compared to the misery she had suffered once she was at home. Life, as they said, had to go on, and what no one had told her, during those months when she was in hospital, was that Adam’s life had certainly gone on—without her!
Such had been their popularity in those days that the two of them had been engaged to sing for months in advance, having bookings as far as eighteen months away. The performances they were to have fulfilled directly after the accident had been cancelled, but the ones following that hadn’t been—and Adam had gone on to make them with someone else!
Maggi had met Sue Castle in the past, she and Adam having appeared together on the same bill as Sue a couple of times, but it had come as a complete shock to her to find that Adam was singing with the other woman, and very successfully too.
Of course, Adam had explained that it was only a temporary arrangement, that once Maggi was back on her feet the present arrangement would be terminated. In the meantime Maggi had been left at home, battling to recover from the injuries that still made it impossible for her to walk, while Adam had disappeared night after night with the other woman. Until the night he hadn’t come home...
Maggi gave a shudder of revulsion at the memory, standing up abruptly. Even now she didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to remember that final humiliation. Adam hadn’t replaced her in just the musical side of his life but in every way, leaving Maggi feeling totally superfluous, a useless waste of space and time as far as he was concerned.
But she wasn’t superfluous now—not to herself, at least. She had spent her time building her life back up, putting the pieces back together. And she had succeeded; she had finally managed to walk again, to sing again, to resume her career. And if she knew part of her would never recover from Adam’s betrayal perhaps that was a good thing too: she would never be so stupid about emotions and love ever again...
‘I’ve ordered breakfast to be served in here,’ Mark told her when she emerged from her bedroom into the lounge the next morning. ‘I thought you would prefer it,’ he added with a grimace.
As Mark had probably guessed, it hadn’t been a good night. Her sleep, when she’d finally managed to drift off, had been filled with the nightmares that had once occurred with sickening regularity but which were now a rarity. At first, when she’d still been in hospital, the dreams had been about the accident, but later, once she was home again, those dreams had been about Adam—an Adam who seemed never to be at home, who always seemed distant and preoccupied when he was.
She smiled at Mark gratefully as she sat down to pour them both a cup of coffee. ‘Good idea,’ she said brightly, not wanting him to see just how disturbed a night she had really had. ‘What are the plans for today?’ She helped herself to some toast she didn’t really want, lightly buttering it as she looked at Mark questioningly.
‘I thought perhaps you should rest today—’
‘But I rested yesterday, Mark. And the day before that,’ she recalled ruefully. ‘We haven’t seen anything of the area yet,’ she reminded him.
‘The forecast is for rain today.’ He frowned, drinking his own coffee.
‘That shouldn’t bother us too much in the car.’ Maggi smiled. They had driven up several days ago in Maggi’s BMW, deciding they would prefer the freedom of having their own transport during their stay; she was surprised Mark now seemed reluctant to take advantage of it. She looked at him closely. ‘Has something happened, Mark?’ He hadn’t actually looked at her since she’d come into the room, and he seemed to be having trouble meeting her gaze now.
He looked startled. ‘What do you mean?’ he said sharply. ‘What could have possibly happened? I told you, I just thought you might like breakfast in here.’
Maggi was more convinced than ever that there was something wrong; Mark was one of the most amiable, even-tempered people she knew, and yet at the moment he was definitely agitated about something. There was only one person who was guaranteed to make him feel that way!
‘Have you heard something else from Adam? Is that it?’ she prompted ruefully. ‘You really shouldn’t let him get to you, Mark,’ she dismissed, with more self-confidence than she actually felt; Adam had always been a force to be reckoned with. ‘We—’
‘I don’t give a damn about Adam,’ Mark told her as he stood up abruptly. ‘Except that his mere presence here seems to create the usual problems.’ He scowled darkly.
She shrugged. ‘Maybe he’s gone now; we certainly made ourselves more than clear last night!’
‘I doubt it!’ Mark grimaced. ‘But it’s really irrelevant now whether he’s gone or not.’ He gave an impatient shake of his head.
Maggi frowned up at him. ‘Why now? Mark, what’s happened?’ She demanded to know this time, knowing that something certainly had.
He gave a heavy sigh. ‘I was hoping you wouldn’t have to know about this. I was going to shield you from it as best I could, but the situation seems to be spiralling out of control, and—’
‘Mark, you still aren’t making much sense.’ Her frown deepened to one of puzzlement. ‘If it isn’t Adam, what situation are you talking about?’
‘It isn’t Adam himself, but of course he’s involved in it. Up to his neck—as usual!’ Mark’s expression blackened. ‘I’ve had to stop all telephone calls coming into the suite, and the hotel management delivered a message a short time ago to inform us that members of the Press are starting to arrive here at the hotel. They have managed to put the reporters off so far by claiming you aren’t registered—which is basically true, because the suite is booked in my name.’ He was talking almost to himself now. ‘But I somehow doubt that’s going to stop them for long—’
‘Mark, what is this all about?’ Maggi stood up too now, her agitation evident. He gave another heavy sigh, reaching down behind the sofa. ‘A newspaper was delivered with breakfast. I took one look at it and sent down to Reception for the rest of this morning’s publications. I wish to God I hadn’t, because they just got progressively worse!’ he groaned.
Maggi’s hand shook slightly as she reached for the newspapers, the colour leaving her face as she saw the first headline. FENNELL AND CARMICHAEL RECONCILED IN MORE THAN MUSIC? She picked up another newspaper, swallowing hard at the more personal leader of this one. MAGGI AND ADAM BACK TOGETHER? And the last one she looked at had her swaying on her feet. HAVE MAGGI AND ADAM SECRETLY RECONCILED?
Reconciled... Yes, she and Adam were still married, had made vows to each other in church—vows Adam had broken all too easily when it had suited him to do so.
There had been speculation about them in the Press for months after their separation three years ago, but it had eventually died down, leaving Maggi to apply quietly to Adam for a divorce. It was an application he’d chosen to ignore; the papers had never been returned to her, signed or otherwise.
Maggi had believed it best that they quietly break their ties with each other, but obviously this hadn’t suited Adam at all. Perhaps his marriage to her had become a good safeguard against any other woman expecting a commitment from him! Whatever his reasons, she was still married to him.
Now the speculation about the two of them had begun all over again... Although she didn’t think even Adam himself could have realised those repercussions that he had discussed would involve such personal speculation about the two of them. Or perhaps he had...? No, she was being ridiculous now. God, surely some part of her didn’t still hope those nightmarish three years without Adam had all been just that—a nightmare? That would be madness itself!
CHAPTER FIVE
‘WE HAVE to get out of here, Maggi,’ Mark told her distractedly. “The management aren’t going to be able to hold them off for ever. I—’ He broke off as a sharp knock sounded on the door. ‘Oh, damn!’ He suddenly looked as hunted as Maggi felt.
Understandably so. There was no back way out of this suite, and if the Press had—
‘Open the damned door!’ rasped an all too recognisable voice from the other side. ‘Before someone sees me out here, puts two and two together—and comes up with five!’
‘Adam!’ Mark muttered. ‘I should have known he wouldn’t stay away.’
‘I think we should open the door, Mark.’ Maggi stood up. ‘Adam’s right. If he’s seen—!’ She moved swiftly to the door, unlocking it, moving sharply back as Adam instantly pushed his way into the room, closing the door firmly behind him.
He looked somehow older in the harsh light of day, flecks of grey more visible in the darkness of his hair, those lines Maggi had noticed the night before, beside his nose and mouth, more deeply grooved. He was thinner than he used to be as well, his denims resting low down on his hips, his pale blue shirt tucked in at the waistband. But his eyes were still the same, she noticed with shocked reaction, stepping back—cold and grey, like an arctic sea...
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