Lady of the Shades by Darren Shan Page A

murmurs, warm as sunlight. ‘Hi.’
    ‘Hi,’ I reply softly.
    And we take it from there.

 
     
     
     
    SEVEN
     
     
     
     
    We meet in a beer garden, find a table and sit down with two glasses of their finest brew. Andeanna is dressed in green, another of her high-collar, high-hem numbers. She sips
from her glass. Her fingers are damp when she lets go. She runs them over the back of her neck and smiles. ‘Hot,’ she says.
    ‘Yes.’ I smile self-consciously and murmur, ‘I’ve sold my book.’
    She frowns. ‘What book?’
    ‘
Spirit of the Fire
. My agent –’
    ‘Ed!’ she squeals, and lunges across the table to hug me. ‘That’s wonderful! Who bought it? How much did you make? Have you started writing it? How can they buy a book
that isn’t written? What if you change your mind or get stuck?’
    I take her questions one at a time, loosening up while I answer, and by the end of the explanations we’re almost back to where we were before Andeanna dropped her bombshell. She touches my
hands with her fingertips when she wants to make a point, stroking my knuckles unconsciously. For a while we chat about work, my trip to Devon, what she’s been up to. I’d like to go on
like this for ever but I can’t. The elephant in the room has to be addressed.
    ‘We need to talk about Mikis Menderes.’
    Andeanna sighs but doesn’t drop her gaze. ‘I know.’
    ‘I’ve been thinking about him constantly since we had our little disagreement.’ She smiles at the understatement. ‘It wasn’t the lie that maddened me so much.
It’s what could have happened if he’d found out. I don’t know Menderes –’
    ‘Call him the Turk,’ she interrupts. ‘Everyone else does.’
    ‘– but I know his reputation. He wouldn’t have shrugged and made light of it if Bond Gardiner had seen us together, would he?’
    ‘No,’ she says. ‘He’d have torn into me, then gone after you.’
    ‘And if he caught up with me?’
    She shrugs. ‘A beating. Maybe worse. Mikis is a dangerous man.’
    ‘That’s what infuriated me. It looked to me like you were playing games, toying with me, setting me up for –’
    ‘No,’ she begs. ‘Don’t think that. Please, Ed.’
    ‘I don’t,’ I sigh. Then, leaning across the table, ‘I love you, Andeanna.’
    Her eyes widen. ‘No,’ she whispers.
    ‘I love you,’ I repeat, louder this time. A couple at a nearby table glance at us and smile. ‘I love you –’ I lower my voice – ‘and I don’t care
who you’re married to. I’ll take my chances with the Turk if you love me too.’
    ‘It’s not that simple,’ she says miserably. ‘You’re a writer. Before that you sold computers. You can’t defend yourself against Mikis or Bond.’
    ‘I can deal with the Turk,’ I grunt.
    ‘How?’ she asks sceptically.
    ‘I’m a black belt in karate,’ I joke.
    She raises an eyebrow, but I don’t blink. Finally she grimaces. ‘Where does this leave us, Ed?’
    ‘That’s down to you. Do you love me?’
    On the wings of a long, trembling breath, she says, ‘Yes.’
    I take her hands and squeeze. ‘Tell me about your marriage.’
    Her story unfolds over the course of the night. She keeps jumping between the present and the past, so I have to concentrate to piece it together. She was young when she married Mikis Menderes.
It was a shotgun wedding — she was pregnant with their son, Gregory, now a grown man in his twenties. (That caught me off guard. It means she’s quite a lot older than I originally
guessed. But that’s OK, I like older women.)
    It was an unhappy union from the start. She knew going in that it would be. Mikis was unpleasant even when they were dating. She endured the mild abuse in the beginning because he was older than
her, he was a gangster, it was a thrill to be with him. Later, when he learnt of the pregnancy, she had no choice. He insisted she keep the baby and marry him. If she’d had her parents to
turn to, she might have defied him,