PAGAN ADVERSARY by Sara Craven, Chieko Hara Read Free Book Online Page A

witness to her attempts to
    find some form of pacification. As she entered the room, Harriet's
    foot turned against something soft and she looked down to see
    Nicky's teddy bear. She bent and retrieved it. Hurling his beloved toy
    across the room was the ultimate in despairing gestures as far as
    Nicky was concerned.
    He was quiet as Harriet approached the cot, his whole being indrawn,
    intent on producing the next explosion of anguish at the maximum
    volume. And then he saw her. He screamed again, but on a different
    note, and his arms reached for her imperatively.
    As she lifted him, he clutched at her fiercely, clinging like a damp
    limpet.
    'Thespinis Masters, I am sorry, so sorry.' Yannina was almost
    weeping herself. 'He wanted nothing and no one only you.'
    Harriet gave her a reassuring smile and began walking up and down
    the room with Nicky, holding him tightly and crooning wordlessly to
    him, as Becca had done when he was teething. Slowly the convulsive
    sobs tearing at his body began to weaken until he was quiet, except
    for the occasional hiccup. Gradually one hand relinquished its painful
    hold on her neck, and she knew instinctively that his thumb had gone
    to his mouth. His weight had altered too. He seemed heavier because
    he had relaxed, and Harriet knew that he was probably more than half
    asleep.
    Confirming this, Yannina whispered 'His eyes are closing. Thespinis,
    may God be praised! Ah, the poor little one!' She moved to the cot
    and began straightening and smoothing the sheets and blankets and
    shaking up the single pillow.
    Harriet turned and began another length of the room, slowing her
    pace deliberately. As she did so, she saw Alex standing in the
    doorway watching her, his brows drawn together in a thunderous
    frown. She bit her lip. Clearly her methods with Nicky did not have
    his approval, so why then had he sent for her? She ventured another
    glance at the doorway and saw that he had gone.
    When she was sure that Nicky had slipped over the edge of
    drowsiness into actual slumber, she carried him to the cot and placed
    him gently in it, smoothing the covers with care over his small body.
    His face was still blotched with tears, she saw with a pang. She
    straightened with a sigh, and went to the door where Yannina was
    waiting for her, looking round first to make sure that Nicky hadn't
    stirred.
    She had been too eager to get to his side to take much notice of her
    surroundings previously, but now she realised that she was in a large
    sitting room, off which the other rooms presumably opened.
    A waiter had appeared with a trolley, and Harriet saw to her
    astonishment that covers were being whipped deftly off an
    assortment of delicious-looking sandwiches and other savouries, and
    that there was a bottle of champagne cooling on ice.
    Alex was lounging on one of the thickly cushioned sofas, but he rose
    as she came rather uncertainly into the room. He had stopped
    frowning, she saw, but the rather formal smile he gave her did not
    reach his eyes.
    'Champagne is the best pick-me-up in the world,' he said. 'I am sure
    you are as much in need of it as I am.'
    Harriet thought wryly of the other two occasions in her life when she
    had drunk champagne—at Becca's wedding, and Nicky's christening.
    She had always regarded it as a form of luxurious celebration rather
    than a tonic, but she was willing to be convinced.She chose a seat on
    the sofa facing the one which Alex was occupying, and pretended she
    did not see the expression of derision which flitted across his face.
    He tipped the waiter and dismissed him with a nod.
    'Please help yourself,' he told Harriet courteously. 'I hope you like
    smoked salmon.'
    Harriet murmured something evasive. She was damned if she was
    going to admit she hadn't the faintest idea whether she liked it or not.
    And that bowl full of something black and glistening—surely that
    couldn't be caviare? There were vol-au-vents too, filled with chicken
    and mushroom in a creamy