Second Best Wife by Isobel Chace Page A

looked at her more closely. ‘What's the matter?'
    ‘I'm frightened,' she said. ‘I wish I hadn't come! And, more than anything, I wish I wasn't here with you!'
    ‘It looks pretty good to me,' he said.
    It looked better than that to her. That was the trouble, though she could hardly tell him that. She was afraid of losing her heart to both the island and to him. If she hadn't done so already.
    ‘I want to go home,' she said.
    CHAPTER FOUR
    The hotel was, frankly, a disappointment to Georgina. She had expected something more in keeping with the way of life she had glimpsed from the minibus that had taken them from the airport into Colombo, but once within the air-conditioned portals of the hotel they could have been anywhere in the world.
    'You'll feel better when you've had some sleep,' William told her with such confidence that a little of her own fright ebbed away. 'Sit down over there while I check in and cash some money and then we'll go upstairs to bed.'
    But even that promise seemed to hold overtones of other, less desirable, possibilities, and she was a little afraid she would lose sight of him altogether in the comings and goings of parties of French and German tourists who seemed to be constantly on the move in the gigantic foyer of the hotel. She wished she had asked William if she could have had a cup of tea while she waited, for despite the many meals of the night, she was thirsty, but she didn't like to join him in the queue where he was standing.
    When he had finally finished his business and came over to her waving the key, she was obsessed by the idea of having something to drink.
    'William, do let's have tea out on the terrace,' she suggested.
    'We will this evening,' he promised her. 'Right now I want to get upstairs before the luggage arrives. You'll have to make do with water.'
    'From the tap?'
    He shook his head. 'Maybe, here, but don't even drink from the tap outside of Colombo. You can tell, more or less, if the water is potable or not by whether the hotel provides a flask in the bedrooms. Coming?'
    She went with him to the lift, a trifle bemused by the many exhibitions that were being housed in the various public rooms of the hotel.
    'Still wanting to go home?' William inquired as they stepped into the lift.
    She watched him press the button, knowing that he thought she was being silly. 'I suppose you feel at home in places like this?' she hazarded. 'I don't think I've ever stayed in a large hotel before. I read somewhere that such places have a well-oiled cosmopolitan atmosphere, but I've never been part of the international jet set before, so it just seems frighteningly impersonal. Positively gruesome!'
    He laughed. 'Still hankering after going sightseeing?'
    'No,' she admitted, 'I'll settle for some sleep. I expect the beds will be comfortable anyway —' She broke off, playing nervously with the strap of her handbag. 'Have we got two rooms?' she asked abruptly.
    'Married couples usually share a room,' he responded calmly. 'But cheer up, Georgina, you'll have your bed to yourself for today and tonight.'
    She expelled her breath in a sigh of naked relief. Indeed, she felt sufficiently reassured to answer him in his own manner. 'I hope you don't snore,' she said. 'Jennifer does. When we've been away together, I never would share a room with her because of it. But perhaps no one has told you whether you do or not?'
    'I've never had any complaints,' he said dryly.
    The lift doors opened and he stepped out before her, marching off down the red-carpeted corridor with an air of knowing exactly where he was going. Georgina followed more slowly. It came to her that she really knew very little about her husband, or the kind of life he led when he was away from home. There could have been any number of women who had shared more with him than she ever would.
    The thought of them disturbed her, distressing her out of all proportion to their probable importance to him and therefore to her.
    He unlocked and