With that firm announcement of support, Julia began to relax and enjoy the evening.
Dinner was delicious, even if the servings were sparse, and Charlotte and Oliver were good company. She learned that Oliver and Douglas had gone to school together, played rugby and cricket together and raced cars, horses and anything else that was fast or dangerous while Charlotte, at a sister school for girls “across the lake”, tagged along after them, naughtily egging them on whenever she could.
Julia realised almost immediately that she liked Charlotte immensely. She was witty, obviously in love with her husband and not at all reverential of Douglas.
Julia’s enjoyment of the meal and the company was only marred when, after they were finished and enjoying coffee, Douglas leaned back and rested his arm across the back of her chair.
It was an entirely male gesture and incongruously familiar. And the way Douglas did it was somehow… predatory.
What was more, their table was the focus of a great deal of attention from the other diners and even the staff and Douglas’s behaviour was odd in the extreme.
True, she and Douglas had known each other for years, spent holidays together, ate many a meal in each other’s company and had even engaged in a variety of conversations both with others and alone.
And there had been three times, three very memorable times, when Douglas had shown her fleeting moments of tenderness.
The first was during one of her early visits, a summer holiday. They’d been outside Tamsin and Gavin’s house, Gavin at the barbeque with everyone else eating and drinking. Julia had turned her ankle walking back into the house. Douglas had just arrived and had been close enough to catch her before she fell. Unfortunately, she’d turned it quite badly and he assisted her to a chair, his strong arm supporting her. Once he had her seated, he bent to her foot, carefully, even fondly, lifting her ankle and inspecting it. Gavin had come forward to take over but Julia had never forgotten Douglas’s (strange, for him) thoughtful attention.
The second was during her first visit to Gavin and Tammy’s after her divorce was final. When they’d had a moment alone, Douglas had asked quietly if she was all right and she had the distinct impression that he genuinely cared about her answer. Douglas had been quite obvious about the fact that he never cared for Sean, unlike Monique who doted on her ex-husband. However, with no small surprise, Julia felt that it wasn’t the fact that Douglas disliked Sean and was making some point in asking, it was that he wanted to be certain she was, indeed, all right.
And last, after Tammy and Gavin’s funeral, Julia had found a quiet corner in the library at Sommersgate where she thought no one would find her. Douglas, to her stunned amazement, not only found her, she had the impression he’d come looking for her and, without a word, pulled her stiff body loosely into his arms. At this act of compassion, she’d clutched his shirt, buried her face in his chest and burst into tears, the grief shuddering through her body as the gravity of her loss settled on her soul. Through this, he silently absorbed it, the whole time stroking her back in a way that was both absent (for him) and comforting (for her). Then Patricia walked in and Douglas turned her into her mother’s arms, again without a word, and walked away.
Putting these things out of her mind, Julia also tried to shrug off her feelings at Douglas’s arm on her chair. Gavin would and did put his arm on the back of her chair and it was obviously never predatory or possessive (but maybe protective). Perhaps, Julia told herself, it was a brotherly gesture.
Once she had that comforting thought settled in her mind, she relaxed. Until she saw Charlotte, who Julia was realising didn’t miss a trick, had noted the action with raised brows and a feminine glance at Julia that spoke volumes. This was something else Julia decided to put out of her mind.
After their coffees, Charlotte and Oliver took their own car to the gallery while Carter drove Douglas and Julia
“I’m not good company this evening,” she told him and she watched as his head turned to her. “I still think I’m a little jetlagged and it’s been a long day. I’m sorry.”
He nodded but didn’t respond.
“Dinner was lovely and I like Charlotte very much,” she tried again, desperately wanting to dispel her awkward feelings.
No response for a moment, then he asked, his deep voice sounding strangely lower, more throaty, “Your perfume, what is it?”
She blinked in the darkness. “Wah… why?” she asked, thrown by his odd question.
“It’s extraordinary,” he said it in such a tone that she didn’t know if it was good-extraordinary or bad-extraordinary. “What is it?” he repeated.
“It isn’t from a shop. A friend of mine makes it for me. She’s a bit, er… unusual, my friend. She says it’s an aromatic manifestation of my ‘essence’.” He made no response to this so Julia inquired hesitantly, “Is it too strong?”
“No,” Douglas answered and said nothing more.
She sat there, bewildered, and thought it best to let it go. Then curiosity (as often was the case with Julia) overrode common sense.
“Why do you ask about my perfume?”
“It suits you,” was all he said in reply.
At that moment they slid to a halt in front of the gallery and Douglas threw open the door before Julia could form a thought. She was still reeling at the strange conversation. Julia thought he had just called her extraordinary, though she still didn’t know if that was good or bad but she had the feeling it was good.
Then she could think about it no more. The flashbulbs started popping and the shouts were frenzied while he alighted and she saw his hand offered through the door to help her. She put her own in his and exited the car to the blinding lights. She instantly became discombobulated and dropped his hand as the shouts became louder, more frenzied. She heard his name repeated again and again while the blinding flashes came with such swiftness there seemed no pause between.
She felt her hand taken again in a firm grasp as she was pulled forward, Douglas guiding her, or more to the point, dragging her towards the door.
They made it through the door and crush outside was nothing to the crush inside. It was wall-to-wall people.
Someone rushed forward to Douglas the minute they entered the gallery.