Only now, when she had reached the very bottom of her personal hell, could she truly admit to herself just how deeply she had fallen in love with Alex...how much she missed him...ached for him...
* * *
Alex found Beth’s shop without any difficulty. It was, after all, on the main
shopping street of the small town. He parked his car and got out, walking towards the elegant three-storey building and pausing to study the attractively set out window for a few seconds. There was no sign of anyone inside the shop, although the sign had been turned to ‘open’. He hesitated for a few seconds, and then pushed open the door.
Beth heard the shop doorbell ring and called through the half-open storeroom door, ‘I’ll be with you in a second.’
Beth—Beth was here. Alex closed the shop door and swiftly turned, striding towards the open stockroom door.
Beth was just getting to her feet as he walked in. The blood left her face as she saw him, and for a moment she actually thought that she was going to faint.
‘Alex...you...what...what are you doing here?’ she whispered painfully, her eyes huge with the intensity of her shock.
Alex hardly dared to look at her.
The moment he had heard her voice, never mind seen her, he had been filled with such a need, such a hunger that he’d had to clench his hands into fists and stuff them into his pockets to prevent himself from taking hold of her.
As she saw the way Alex was avoiding looking at her, focusing instead on the untidy disarray of the half-
unpacked packing cases in the storeroom, Beth knew immediately why he had come. The breathtaking cruelty of it stabbed right through her.
She saw him look at the crude unsaleable items of her order which she had already unpacked, and then, for the first time, he looked directly at her, with an expression in his eyes which she immediately interpreted as a mixture of distaste and pity.
Immediately her hackles rose defensively. Immediately she knew exactly what he was doing, that he had come to crow over her, to mock and taunt her, to tell her ‘I told you so’. The fact that her thought processes might be a little illogical didn’t occur to her; her emotions were far too aroused and overwrought for any kind of analytical thought.
‘You knew, didn’t you? Didn’t you?’ she challenged him bitterly. ‘You’ve come to laugh at me...to gloat...’
‘Beth, you’re wrong...’
‘Yes, I am,’ she agreed emotionally. ‘I’m always wrong. Always... I was wrong about Julian. I thought he loved me. I was wrong about you. I thought...I thought that at least you’d have the decency not to...’ She stopped and swallowed, and then added wretchedly, ‘And I was wrong about the glass as well.’ Her head lifted proudly.
‘Well, then, go ahead, say it... “I told you so...”’ Her mouth twisted in a pitiful facsimile of a smile. ‘At least I won’t be making the same mistake a second time...’
Somehow she managed to force back the tears she could feel threatening her composure.
One look at the semi-unpacked crates and what they contained had confirmed Alex’s very worst fears. The order she had received was wholly worthless, totally unsaleable. He ached for her as he compared what she had received to the glass produced by his cousins: fine, first-quality, beautiful stemware that richly echoed all the tradition and purity of the antique designs they still faithfully adhered to. Copies, yes, but beautiful ones, expensive ones, Alex acknowledged, as he remembered how awed his mother had been the first time she had visited Prague and the family business.
‘They sell their glassware all over the world. Japan, America, the Gulf States. It is beautiful, Alex, but, oh, it’s so expensive. Your cousins gave me these,’ she had added reverently, unpacking the set of a dozen wine glasses which had been the family’s gift to her.
‘Are you insured against...this kind of risk?’ Alex asked Beth gently, but he already knew the answer and didn’t need the brief shake of her head to tell him that she wasn’t. Compassion and love filled his eyes. He looked away from her.
‘The Czech authorities have tracked down the criminals who organised this. Ultimately there will be a court case...perhaps there may even be some form of compensation for...for you...’ he suggested.
Beth looked briefly at him.
‘Don’t treat me like a child, Alex. Of course there won’t be any compensation. Why should I be compensated for being a fool? And even if there was...it would be too little too late,’ she added hollowly.
‘What do you mean?’ Alex pounced.
‘I...I don’t mean anything,’ Beth denied quickly, but she could tell that he didn’t believe her.
‘Beth, are you there?’
Beth tensed as she heard Dee’s voice.
‘I thought I’d come down. You didn’t sound very happy when I spoke to you on the phone. If there’s a problem with this glass... Oh!’