1848453051 by Linda Kavanagh

love your ring,’ she said loudly, and was gratified to see Janette blush. She glanced quickly at Alan, but he was already deep in conversation with her father, and didn’t appear to have heard her comment.
    ‘Oh, thanks,’ Janette said off-handedly, then quickly changed the subject, seizing the nearest bottle of wine and topping up Sylvia’s glass. ‘Do you like this St-Emilion?’ she asked eagerly. ‘It’s a nice wine, isn’t it? Personally, I prefer a Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but Matthew always orders what he likes, regardless of what I want. Before we left home this evening, I made him promise to go with my choice this evening, but, oh no, he has to start showing off his knowledge of wines every time!’ She smiled at Sylvia as she took a gulp from her glass. ‘Although I can’t fault him on this one – although I’d never let him know that!’
    Sylvia was both embarrassed and relieved when the birthday cake finally arrived. She felt embarrassed because all eyes in the restaurant had turned towards her, and relieved because the candle-blowing episode signified that the evening was drawing to a close. Sportingly, she blew out all her candles in one go, and was rewarded by a round of applause from her own table, and catcalls from inebriated diners across the room.
    At the end of the night, as Alan helped her put on her coat, Sylvia watched carefully for any interaction between her husband and Janette. But other than a perfunctory kiss on the cheek, they had no further contact before Alan steered his wife outside to the waiting taxi.
    ‘I haven’t seen you drink so much in a long time,’ Alan said mildly as they settled into the back seat of the taxi.
    Sylvia arched her eyebrows. ‘So?’
    Alan laughed, holding up his hands in appeasement. ‘I didn’t mean anything by it – I’m just glad to see you enjoying yourself.’
    Sylvia said nothing. If Alan thought she’d enjoyed herself tonight, he was very much mistaken. But maybe, when a man had eyes for only his lover, he could hardly be expected to notice that his wife was suffering.
    The following morning, Sylvia was surprised to receive a phone call from Janette.
    ‘Hey, birthday girl, how are you feeling today?’
    ‘A little hung over,’ Sylvia admitted. In fact, she had a monumental hangover from all the wine she’d drunk. But it had helped her to get through the otherwise intolerable evening.
    ‘Look, about the ring –’
    ‘Sorry?’
    ‘You admired my ring last night –’
    ‘Did I?’
    ‘Yes, and I’m sorry I changed the subject so quickly. But Matthew doesn’t know I’ve bought it. I mean, he got me the new Merc convertible last month and I didn’t want him to think I was ungrateful. But when I saw the ring – well, I just couldn’t resist it. So I put it on my gold card –’
    ‘I’m sure you did,’ Sylvia said dryly, remembering the night before, when she’d watched Janette coquettishly whispering in Alan’s ear while Matthew swayed drunkenly in his seat, waffling incomprehensibly.
    ‘You won’t mention it to Matthew, will you?’
    ‘Of course not,’ Sylvia replied, unable to think of anything else to say. But now she no longer believed a word that Janette – or Alan – told her. And she surmised that the mistress was now cleverly asking the cuckolded wife to help keep knowledge of the affair from the mistress’s own husband!
    ‘Let’s do lunch some day soon –?’ Janette added brightly.
    ‘Of course, that would be lovely,’ Sylvia replied, thinking to herself: ‘Over my dead body.’
    ‘I’ll call you, okay?’
    ‘Okay.’

C HAPTER 15
    L aura looked pale as she lay in her hospital bed. She was just beginning to doze off when Kerry burst into her private room.
    ‘My God, Laura – are you all right? Is the baby okay?’
    Laura sat up. ‘I’m fine, and so is the baby. It was a false alarm – I had a show of blood last night, then another at work today, and my colleague, Maria, drove me to the hospital.