The Baby Verdict by Cathy Williams Page A

rabbit...’
    â€˜Me? A terrified rabbit?’
    â€˜Oh, yes. Once you’re dragged away from your work—’
    â€˜I am perfectly controlled, inside and outside the working environment!’ she snapped, cursing the heat that had flooded through her.
    â€˜You mean, you’d dearly like to be. Your face lets you down, though,’ he murmured thoughtfully. ‘It’s too expressive.’
    â€˜That’s never been a problem before I met you!’ she blurted out truthfully, horrified into sudden silence by the admission. ‘You...you...’
    â€˜Yes? I’m all ears.’
    â€˜Are absolutely insufferable. And I’m going to swim.’
    She stood up and headed down towards the water, burning with embarrassment.
    She shouldn’t have worn the bikini, though she actually looked better with fewer clothes. She had the sort of long, slender body that was rendered shapeless by too many layers. She should, she thought, finally reaching the water’s edge with relief, have stuck to the one hideous one-piece she had brought with her, but then how on earth could she have known that he would turn up like a bad penny?
    She would simply remain in the water, splashing about in an aimless fashion, until he vacated her towel. Every so often she glanced in his direction, half expecting him to come in for a dip while she was there, but eventually he eased himself off her towel, gave her a brief wave and strolled down the beach, stopping to talk for quite some time to Mary and Elizabeth, then further along to the remainder of the crowd whose high-spirited activities had become progressively more sluggish in the heat.
    Jessica watched from the water, alternately floating on her back, then ducking and swimming under the cool, clear sea, then when the coast was clear she emerged with relief.
    Why had he decided to come? Was it because he knew that his presence would throw her into a state of turmoil, and he found the condition highly amusing? He had said as much. He saw her as an object of curiosity and that thought stung. It made her feel like a freak and perhaps to him she was.
    When she strolled back into the house an hour later it was to find an impromptu buffet laid out on the extensive back lawns, and Bruno holding court.
    Ronnie, clad only in her bikini top, which had clearly been designed as a cleavage enhancer, and a colourful sarong skirt, was flirting in a kittenish manner, which involved lots of giggling, and even Carla, who was engaged and rarely strayed from the topic of her fiancé, was laughing at something Bruno was saying, and looking rather coy.
    Jessica, having thrown some baggy shorts and an even baggier tee shirt over her bikini, helped herself to a plate of food and positioned herself on the sidelines, politely listening to Bruno’s amusing accounts of trips he had taken abroad and still burning from what he had said to her earlier on.
    â€˜Sheep’s eyes,’ he was saying now, to an audience that appeared to be hanging on to his every word, ‘I assure you, are most definitely one of life’s more acquired tastes.’
    He glanced in her direction, his eyes lingering momentarily on her outfit, which left everything to the imagination, and she feigned an interested look in what he had been saying.
    â€˜And have you any unpleasant experiences to recount from trips abroad, Jessica?’
    Of course, he would involve her in the conversation, wouldn’t he? Knowing that that would be the very last thing she wanted.
    â€˜Well...there was the time I very nearly had my leg chewed off by a school of barracuda while swimming in the Indian Ocean,’ she said to no one in particular. ‘Fortunately I was rescued in the nick of time by a passing helicopter, which airlifted me to safety. The perfect rescue if it weren’t for the fact that we immediately flew into a freak storm and very nearly crashed. As it was the pilot lost control and fainted