The tension left her in a sigh. ‘Sorry, Maggie. That anger wasn’t meant for you.’
‘Jordan?’ Maggie guessed dryly.
‘Who else?’
‘Quite,’ Maggie agreed. ‘By that I take it he isn’t there?’
‘No.’
‘In that case, would you like to come over? I feel a bit guilty about leaving you so suddenly the other day, and I also have some new designs I’d like you to look at. You have excellent taste.’
‘Flatterer!’ Kelly laughed.
‘Well, you have.’
‘I d
on’t think I can come today.’ She explained about her father.
‘Then just pop over for an hour,’ Maggie suggested. ‘After all, your father is asleep, and Jordan is out.’
‘I suppose so,’ Kelly said slowly. ‘Okay,’ she came to a decision, ‘I’ll be there in fifteen minutes.’
She hurried upstairs to change out of her casual clothing into one of the stylish dresses hanging up in her wardrobe. Maggie always dressed well, at all times, and consequently Kelly always liked to dress well herself when in her company.
‘I’m just going out for an hour, Mrs McLeod,’ she popped into the kitchen to tell the housekeeper. ‘My father shouldn’t wake up before then, the doctor said the tablets should make him sleep for several hours.’
‘What do I tell Mr Lord if he should come back while you’re out?’
If he should come back! Mrs McLeod had also obviously been aware of Jordan’s anxiety when she had arrived late back two days ago. What the housekeeper couldn’t know was of Kelly’s own anxiety about Jordan’s delay today.
Kelly gave a casual shrug. ‘Tell him I’ll only be an hour.’ She refused to let the housekeeper tell him where she was going. Let him worry for a while!
Maggie’s flat was as dramatic as the rest of her, abstract pictures on the stark white-painted walls, the furniture very square in design, all sharp angles, scatter rugs on the black and white tiled floor. Maggie herself was a flame of colour against the black and white background, the red linen dress a series of panels ending in a ragged hem. She looked wild and gypsyish, her beautiful face glowing with pleasure as she greeted Kelly.
‘You look tired.’ She held Kelly at arm’s length.
Colour flooded her cheeks. She looked tired because she was tired; it had been the early hours of the morning before she and Jordan had fallen asleep.
‘I was hoping you would cheer me up,’ she derided, ‘not tell me how bad I look!’
‘I didn’t say bad,’ Maggie bustled her into the lounge and put a drink in her hand before Kelly even knew what was happening. ‘Just tired. Hey, you and Jordan haven’t—’
‘Maggie!’ Kelly stiffened. ‘If you’re going to ask what I think you are, then don’t. The subject is still personal.’
Maggie gave her a speculative look. ‘I don’t like the sound of that. Surely you haven’t let him seduce you again?’
‘No, I haven’t!’ She drank the fluid in her glass straight down, choking as the whisky burnt down into her stomach. ’God, you could have warned me!’ she coughed, standing up as Maggie thumped her on the back. ‘You know I don’t drink whisky.’ She put the glass down on the table, only half the whisky left.
‘I forgot,’ Maggie shrugged. ‘All right now?’ she asked as Kelly stopped choking.
Kelly blinked the tears away. ‘I think so,’ she grimaced.
‘Come and look at these designs, then.’ Maggie went over to her work-table, leafing through the sketches there. ‘Here, and this one too. And this.’ She collected quite a pile of the drawings and brought them over.
Kelly looked at them almost gratefully, picking out one or two that she might have liked for herself. At least this had taken Maggie’s mind off the relationship between Jordan and herself. Not that Jordan would approve of these designs. She had bought a couple of dresses from Maggie that she could use as maternity dresses, their floating style feminine and modern but still useful as maternity dresses. Jordan had taken one look at them and thrown them out.
‘They’re lovely,’ she told Maggie.