“A boytoy.”
“A boy, yes. A toy, rather. But that makes it sound cold and calculating and believe me it was neither. We enjoyed each other and that’s what it was between us, only. Enjoyment. Excitement. On both parts, not just on mine. Oh, you know all this, Daidre. You cannot plead ignorance. And you quite understand. You would not have lent your cottage had you not.”
“You feel no guilt.”
Aldara waved her hand towards the door, to indicate they were to leave the room and go below once more. As they descended the stairs, she said, “Guilt implies I am somehow involved in this situation, which I am not. We were lovers, full stop. We were bodies meeting in a bed for a few hours. That’s what it was, and if you really think that the mere act of intercourse led to?”
A knock came on the door. Aldara glanced at her watch. Then she looked at Daidre. Her expression was resigned, which told Daidre later that she should have anticipated what would come next. But, rather stupidly, she had not.
Aldara opened the door. A man stepped into the room. His eyes only for Aldara, he didn’t see Daidre. He kissed Aldara with the familiarity of a lover: a greeting kiss that became a coaxing kiss, which Aldara did nothing to terminate prematurely. When it did end, she said against his mouth, “You smell all of the sea.”
“I’ve been for a surf.” Then he saw Daidre. His hands dropped from Aldara’s shoulders to his sides. “I’d no idea you had company.”
“Daidre’s just on her way,” Aldara said. “D’you know Dr. Trahair, my dear? Daidre, this is Lewis.”
He looked vaguely familiar to Daidre, but she couldn’t place him. She nodded hello. She’d left her bag on the edge of the sofa, and she went to fetch it. As she did so, Aldara added, “Angarrack. Lewis Angarrack.”
Which caused Daidre to pause. She saw the resemblance, then, for of course she’d seen Madlyn more than once in the times she herself had been to Cornish Gold cider farm. She looked at Aldara, whose face was placid but whose eyes shone and whose heart was no doubt beating strongly now as anticipation sent her blood hither and yon, to all the proper places.
Daidre nodded and stepped past Lewis Angarrack, outside onto the narrow porch. Aldara murmured something to the man and followed Daidre out. She said, “You see our little problem, I think.”
Daidre glanced at her. “Actually, I don’t.”
“Her boyfriend first and now her father? It’s critical, naturally, that she never know. So as not to upset her further. It’s as Lewis wants it. What a shame, don’t you think?”
“Hardly. It’s the way you want it as well, after all. Secret. Exciting. Pleasurable.”
Aldara smiled, that slow, knowing smile that Daidre knew was part of her appeal to men. “Well, if it must be that way, it must be that way.”
“You’ve no morals, have you?” Daidre asked her friend.
“My darling. Have you?”
Chapter Twenty-seven