"Beware the beast" كيف احيا معك بالانكليزية Anne Mather

CHAPTER FOUR

CHARLOTTE had bathed, and was dressing in white cotton pants and a

sleeveless yellow shirt, when Tina brought her breakfast on a tray. The Greek

girl greeted her politely as she had the night before, but her prohing eyes sought

the scarcely-tumbled covers of the bed. Charlotte guessed that within a very

short time everyone at the villa would know that the master of the house had

not spent the night in his wife's bed.

She took the tray and dismissed the girl rather abruptly, irritated by her

knowing stare. After she had gone, Charlotte carried the tray to the bedside table,

and sitting down exam ined its contents. The meal provided was a mixture of

English and continental dishes, there being cereal, and bacon and eggs, as weir

as warm croissants with honey. She chose to sample the croissants, her stilluneasy stomach rejecting the grilled food, but she was hungry and she enjoyed

what she had.

Since awakening, she had firmly refused to consider why Alex had chosen to

stay away from her the night before, but now, with breakfast over and the day

stretching emptily ahead of her, her curiosity could no longer be denied. Getting

up from her bed, she walked across to the windows and thrusting them open

gazed out with troubled eyes.

It was a beautiful morning, the air still deliciously fresh and cool. Even so, the

distant headland was already shrouded in mist heralding another hot day. The

sky was the palest of blues, shading to turquoise as sea and sky melted into one

another. The water in the bay looked green and inviting, and even as she

watched a small craft with white sails drifted out from the shelter of the cliffs. It

was a narrow-hulled racing vessel, the kind of single-handed craft her father

had been sailing the day he met his death. A lump came into her throat. She

must never forget that tragedy, or her husband's part in it.

She straightened away from the windows. That was her husband out there,

she was sure of it, and if it was there was no reason why she should not do a little

exploring on her own. She hesitated a few moments over the tray, but then

decided to leave it where it was. She did not wish to alert Maria and the others

to her movements.

Leaving her bedroom, she walked along to the wide main hall. The double

doors at the front of the building stood open this morning, and beyond the

terrace, a path led towards the cliffs. Feeling rather like a convict who is

suddenly presented with a means of escape and doesn't quite know what to do

with it, she left the villa, and walked across the grassy cliff top to its edge.

Looking down, she realized it would be possible to climb down to the cove, but

not wanting to indulge in such childish antics, she looked round for the path.