Lady of Hay by Barbara Erskine (reading an ebook TXT) 📕

"William may have ordered you in your dream, Jo. Not Sam, surely. Sam wouldn't do such a thing. " Nick swallowed uncomfortably.

"Why did I take my clothes off then?" she cried. "Why? If it was just for William I would have described it, not actually done it!"

He frowned. "You're making a terrible accusation, Jo. "

"There was no tape of what happened, " she whispered. "No one else there. Just Sam and me. And a pile of crumpled clothes. " She shivered again, looking down at the shadow of the castle wall on the grass. "People can't be forced to do anything against their will while under hypnosis, I know that. But I was Matilda, and I thought he was my husband—"

"No, that's crap! You're talking complete, unmitigated crap. " Nick turned away sharply. "I can quite believe that you might do anything. I've seen you, remember? But Sam?

He'd be crazy to try something like that. Besides, nothing happened, did it? Your husband didn't rape you?" His voice was harsh.

Jo colored. "No, he didn't rape me, because someone— presumably you—came. But not before he had humiliated me and mocked me and set out to browbeat me like the sexist pig he was. He threatened to whip me, naked, before everyone in the castle, and no doubt if there had been time he would have had me on my knees before he put me on my back. "

She began to walk swiftly down the way they had come. Nick followed her. "Well, that proves it wasn't Sam at any rate, " he said grimly. "I don't see him as kinky. "

"Don't you?" Jo flashed back. "You surprise me. "

Nick glanced at Jo from the phone. She was sitting in the corner of the pub nursing a Scotch and ginger. The noise level in the bar was fairly high. After taking out his diary, he found the number he was looking for and dialed it, leaning against the wall so that he could watch her while he waited, change in hand, for the call to connect. He was thinking about Sam.

Carl Bennet had come in from Gatwick Airport only three-quarters of an hour before. He cursed quietly as his wife came to get him out of the bath.

"Nick Franklyn? What the hell does Nick Franklyn want?" he muttered, wrapping a towel around his middle.

"I don't know, dear, but he's in a pay phone. " Melissa Bennet smiled fondly at her husband as he tried to clean the steam off his glasses. "Get rid of him, darling, then come down and eat. "

"Eat, she says. " Bennet snorted as his wife ran down the stairs. "What the hell else does she think I did on that plane?" He picked up the receiver. "Yes?" he barked. His glasses had steamed over again.

Within seconds he was reaching for his notepad. "You are right. I should see her as soon as possible. I could fit her in tomorrow here. " He listened again for a few minutes, frowning with irritation as Nick paused to slot more money into the phone.

"Very well, Mr. Franklyn. Monday at ten. I agree a break would do her good. But should this happen again—anything that worries you—I want you to promise to call me, here, at once. "

He hung up at last and sat still, chewing the inside of his cheek. He sighed. Posthypnotic suggestion was always a dangerous field. To do as Nick Franklyn asked and wipe out the girl's memory of Matilda forever—that was a sad request. But the man was right. The past had to be controlled. It had to be relegated to where it belonged, otherwise it threatened to take Jo Clifford over and, in so doing, destroy her.

Chapter 17

Sam opened the front door of the apartment to Judy that evening with a scowl. "I'm packing to go to Edinburgh, " he said curtly. "I'm afraid I can't spare you much time. "

"You can't?" Judy threw herself down on a chair. "That's good, because I don't require much time. You know of course that by now Nick and Jo are back together. "

"I know they've gone down to the boat. " He was watching her closely as he sat down opposite her.

"She doesn't want him. She is using him. You know that as well as I do, I expect. "

Judy was wearing a pink flying suit that clashed violently with the bitter orange of the upholstery in Nick's apartment. She threw herself back in the chair, pushing her hands deep into her pockets. "I want Nick back and you want Jo. "

She studied his face under her eyelashes, but his expression gave nothing away. "I think we should pool our resources, don't you?" she went on after a moment.

Sam got up and went to the drinks tray. "Assuming you are even remotely right, " he said slowly, "exactly what resources, as you call them, do you have?" He poured out a stiff gin for each of them and began carefully to slice up a lemon.

Judy smiled. "Information. And a suggestion. You have a clinic or something in Edinburgh, don't you?"

Sam handed her a glass. "You mean I should whisk Jo off and hospitalize her somewhere, preferably behind locked doors, no doubt, thus leaving the field free for you?"

"Something like that, yes. "

"I'm afraid I don't have a clinic, Judy. Nor am I attached to one. " He took a sip from his glass reflectively and went to stand in his favorite position by the window. "Besides, Jo doesn't need hospitalizing. "

"Yet. "

He turned. "What does that mean exactly?"

"She's going crazy. "

Laughing, he turned away again. "No, not crazy. A little confused, perhaps. A little frightened. But that is all. " He picked the lemon out of his glass and sucked it. "There is no need for Jo to leave London to aid your plans. " He paused. "I can drive a wedge between her and Nick that will put them