Alyona's Voice Read online

  The door opened. A man’s voice startled her and brought her out of her daydream. ‘Hello there! Can I help you?’

  Claudia turned and smiled. ‘I’m here to see Tony Franklin, about the…’ Shock hit her abdomen, like a blow from a huge fist. She feared her body would sway, but she pressed her hand to the wall and then fixed her wide, staring eyes on the man who stood by the open door. Her voice was mute, but a loud cry inside her head screamed out, ‘Fraser…Oh, my God, no! Not Fraser!’

  Chapter Two

  Locked in the grip of disbelief, Claudia stared at the man she thought to be well and truly fixed in her back-story, a time when her life’s course suddenly twisted out of shape and left her heart in shreds.

  Fraser’s arms were extended, one hand gripped the edge of the door, the other rested on the frame. His brow was furrowed as he uttered, ‘Claudia?’ His voice was hoarse and hardly audible. ‘Claudia, what…?’

  Elsa Hamilton had trained and prepared Claudia―from childhood―to face many challenging situations, but this one wasn’t in the manual. It was like a chilling nightmare. If only it was, she wouldn’t have to think what to say, what to do. She would wake up, go downstairs as usual and make coffee―just for one. Words failed her despite searching her muddled brain for the right ones. All she could do was softly say, ‘Hello Fraser.’

  Fraser’s throat twitched above the knot in his tie, and a look of complete bewilderment lingered on his face. But bitterness lurked in his deep blue irises. ‘Hello Fraser?’ he challenged. ‘Hello Fraser? Isn’t that a bit casual after all this time?’

  Claudia’s body was trembling as her mind frantically searched for a way out of this. Should she walk away from him? She did that once, it was harrowing, but she thought it was for good. Her brain teetered on the brink of decision, whether to leave, stick that pin in the map and find work elsewhere or stay and deal with the implications of this cruel and untimely coincidence. Fraser seemed taller where he stood in the doorway, like some mythical gatekeeper, waiting for her to say the right words so she could enter. She didn’t have them, but a lucrative commission, a solution to her problem, lay beyond that threshold, this was no time to be a coward, giving up at the first obstacle. ‘I didn’t know what else to say,’ she told him. ‘I’m here to do some restoration work on a tapestry.’

  They seemed to be the magic words because Fraser gestured for her to enter.

  As Claudia walked past him, she recalled the last time she saw him, the heart-twisting pain, the isolation, and then the vow she made to free herself from the powerful grip of an unrequited love for man she could never have. She stood in the entrance hall and waited, fearful that the feelings would return. This was to be her haven while she thought through the disastrous situation with her mother, but she had gone headlong into another potential crisis.

  ‘You look as though you need to sit down,’ Fraser spoke politely but with a cool edge to his tone. The good manners she already knew, but the cold hint in his attitude was not something she had experienced before.

  ‘I’m fine. Just a bit tired.’ Claudia searched her mind for an excuse. ‘I moved house a few days ago, it’s been very stressful.’

  ‘Yes,’ Fraser agreed, ‘one of the major ones I believe.’

  If he’d changed in some way, it might have been easier to deal with. He still had thick, dark hair, eyebrows that lifted in a slight arc towards his temple, and his nose straight and noble but with a slight bump on the bridge. His mouth curled upwards slightly at the corners, which, even when he was serious, looked like a very faint smile. Everything was just as always, save for that cold look in his eyes, something else she hadn’t seen before.

  Fraser made no attempt to move on. ‘I didn’t know you did wall-hangings,’ he said. ‘What brings you, so far out of London, to do this one?’

  ‘I had to…’ Claudia faltered for a moment and then spoke more convincingly. ‘I normally do finer work, but my agent told me about this.’ Fraser frowned and didn’t seem convinced, so she bluffed a cheery answer. ‘I felt like a change, so here I am.’

  ‘Yes,’ he returned bluntly, ‘here you are. I didn’t know Tony had found somebody. I only arrived here last night.’

  Job or no job, Claudia still wanted to run, but at least it seemed Fraser was only visiting. He was being a gentleman, but she could see that he was still rather cold towards her. Did he honestly think it was her fault entirely? ‘You’re not very pleased to see me here, are you?’

  Fraser scowled. ‘Two years ago, I would have been delighted.’

  ‘It’s not…’ she hesitated. ‘It’s not quite two.’

  ‘You look pale.’ It sounded more like an accusation than an observation. ‘Can I get you something, some tea, water?’

  Claudia shook her head. ‘I was told to ask for Tony Franklyn. Do you know where I can find him?’

  ‘This time of the day, he’ll be with his children. He likes to spend time with them before he starts work.’

  ‘Don’t let me keep you. I’m very early. I’ll just wait.’

  ‘I have a meeting in the marquee, and then some business with Tony. Excuse me…’ He walked towards the door. Claudia recognised the easy, athletic, gross motor action of his limbs. His business suit was immaculate. Her soul sighed twice, once with admiration and the other with relief to see him leaving. Yet, both made her heart ache.

  Fraser reached the door, paused a moment and then turned back as if a question burned in his mind and needed to be asked. ‘So you’re just going to carry on?’ he challenged. ‘No explanation, no excuses?’

  Claudia was taken aback. ‘Explain what?’

  The gentlemanly tone in Fraser’s voice suddenly lapsed, the volume raised and echoed around the entrance hall. ‘What the hell happened to you?’

  Claudia glanced around, wary of the echo but suddenly feeling more positive. ‘I didn’t come here to see you. I came to work.’

  Fraser’s expression softened. ‘You’re quite right, I’m sorry.’ A sudden glimmer of sincerity sneaked through his bitterness as he said, ‘I missed you,’ almost in a whisper.

  Claudia feared the careful seams, that once mended her broken heart, wouldn’t hold. ‘You clearly see yourself as the injured party.’

  ‘How else would I see it? You fall off the planet and then turn up, almost two years later, in my cousin’s house?’

  ‘I didn’t even know you had a cousin.’

  ‘Otherwise you wouldn’t have come?’

  ‘No, I… I wouldn’t.’

  Fraser expelled a sigh of frustration. ‘What on earth possessed you to just…?’ He seemed to check his frustration. Then he paused a few moments and said, ‘We were friends, for goodness sake, such good friends…the best.’

  Fraser’s gestures of frustration were completely out of character. She felt cornered but made an effort to keep her voice stable. ‘Friends, yes, but that’s all we were.’

  ‘All we were?’ Fraser challenged.

  ‘It was very casual,’ Claudia returned. ‘We weren’t a couple. There was no Claudia and Fraser, no double dating with friends. Did we ever go out to dinner or the theatre…?’ She paused awhile waiting for him to speak, but he didn’t react. She had spoken the truth, but it seemed he hadn’t considered it that way. ‘You’d turn up at my apartment now and then, after a bad day at the office. Sometimes you wanted me to help you celebrate some good news―usually when everybody else was out. Often we cooked, talked about books, movies, art, but never family or anything else real. I settled for that. It was a great friendship. No strings, just strictly here and now, right?’

  Fraser nodded solemnly. ‘A person can miss a friend like that.’

  ‘I did…desperately,’ Claudia murmured. Her eyes became watery. This was impossible. Her coping mechanism was already seriously challenged. One little chink now would start a cathartic flood of tears. It would be so embarrassing. ‘Losing touch with people isn’t a crime, Fraser.’

  He looked at her face for
several seconds. Eventually, he said, ‘I didn’t recognise you at first.’

  ‘Have I changed so much in a couple of years?’

  ‘No. Just your hair.’

  Claudia grasped it and pushed it back from her face. ‘What’s wrong with it?’

  A faint smile momentarily twitched at Fraser’s lips. ‘It’s almost fair. You’ve obviously been out in the sun.’ He reached out and gently touched her head as if she was a stray puppy liable to run. His voice mellowed as he ran his fingers slowly down to where her hair fell past her shoulders.

  Claudia’s neck tingled at the illusive touch. ‘I walk a lot.’

  ‘But it was so short back then,’ Fraser continued. ‘Short, light-brown hair…like Peter Pan.’

  She was a little insulted by the reference to a boy, but it helped to keep the old reactions at bay. ‘Peter Pan?’

  Fraser frowned, paused a moment and then said, ‘Where did you go?’

  ‘Well, I couldn’t fly anywhere, I was fresh out of magic fairy dust.’

  Fraser shook his head. ‘Well, the last two years haven’t mellowed your sharp tongue, that’s for sure.’

  A voice from upstairs echoed around the entrance hall. ‘Fraser!’ A woman looked down from the landing, her hands rested on the shining bannister that was supported by white, bulbous balusters that skirted the curve of the landing around the hall. She walked, barefoot, to the top of the sweeping staircase. A man’s dressing gown was wrapped around her tall, slender body, long, blonde, tousled hair fell about her face and shoulders. ‘Darling, I wondered where you’d gone. Your half of the bed was cold when I woke up.’ She began to step down the blue-carpeted treads, like a movie star entering the scene.

  Fraser looked at Claudia, nodded politely and said, ‘Excuse me.’

  He went to meet the woman as she stepped down onto the tiled floor. ‘Natalie, I’m working this morning. I did tell you, darling.’

  ‘I know, but…’ she shrugged, as if she expected him to understand what she meant.

  ‘I’ll catch up with you at lunchtime.’

  Natalie’s eyes darted to Claudia, and then returned to Fraser as she pulled open his jacket, threaded her arms inside it and hugged him.

  Claudia turned around. There was way too much information flowing in her direction, but she mentally thanked Natalie for her timely appearance. There was a very large mirror on the wall, so she didn’t escape the interaction altogether. If only she hadn’t arrived so early, then maybe Fraser would be long gone to his business appointments. She went to look at the beautiful, rich, flower arrangement on the round table that stood in the centre of the hall, but there was no escaping the conversation.

  ‘I have to work, Natalie,’ Fraser said, ‘you know that.’

  ‘Can I come with you? If you hold on a minute or two, Hon, I can get ready.’

  Fraser chuckled and said, ‘A minute or two? You couldn’t get ready in that time. You’d be hard-pressed to make it in an hour or two.’

  Natalie pulled her tall body closer against him and pressed a kiss on his mouth. He stepped back and said, ‘This isn’t appropriate. We’re guests here, it’s a family home, there are children in the house. I’ll see you later.’

  Natalie groaned. ‘Do you have to? Can’t we go somewhere?’

  Fraser’s voice was firm. ‘Yes, at lunchtime. You can amuse yourself until then, can’t you?’

  ‘So these meetings are more important than me?’

  ‘You can’t compare your boredom with the difficulties that the people, of Wainford, are facing right now. These meetings are very important. You can find something to do. You haven’t seen the place yet. There’s a pool and a gym. The gardens are lovely. You can go for a walk.’

  ‘Walk?’ Natalie made it sound like a barefoot trip across hot coals.

  ‘Then go shopping, in Bowbury. Take my car. I’ll get Joe to bring it around to the front. I know this is tedious for you, but before you know it, we’ll be in Tuscany. We’ll have time together then―lots of it.’

  Natalie expelled a loud sigh, akin to that of a teenager being told to tidy her room, and went back upstairs.

  Fraser left the house. Claudia’s whole body and mind sighed with relief.

  ‘Miss Hamilton…Claudia?’

  A woman, about Claudia’s own age, approached. She was dressed in jeans and a blouse. Her shining, chestnut hair fell to her shoulders. A warm smile lit her face. ‘Hi! I’m Lizzy. Sorry, have you been waiting long?’

  ‘Not long, I was really early.’

  ‘We’re so relieved you’re here. Tony’s been trying to find somebody for ages. The tapestry’s in the banqueting room. I’ll show you.’

  In total contrast to the high specification of the décor in the house, the banqueting room was not so fine. It was a cavernous place approached by double doors that were already open, and a smaller door at the other end. There were four huge windows along one wall, and on the opposite side, a fireplace with a mantelpiece, that was way above Claudia’s head. A chaise longue was by one of the windows, two odd dining chairs by another. A beautiful, shining, Regency banqueting table, long enough to need five tripod pedestal supports, stood in contrast to the gallery of old, cracked, sombre portraits around the walls.

  ‘Spooky, aren’t they?’ Lizzy said as she looked around. ‘They’re the last relics of the Franklyn Estate.’

  ‘So this is Tony’s family home?’

  ‘In a way, his father didn’t inherit, his uncle did, let it get into a terrible state. Tony bought him out before it crumbled to the ground. Anything that could be moved had been sold.’

  Claudia smiled. ‘But not that fabulous table.’

  ‘No, thank goodness. The chairs went and any portraits of pretty, young ladies in beautiful gowns.’

  ‘And you’re left with the grumpy old men in black coats.’

  Lizzy’s face lit up, and her eyes shone. ‘But I’m going to put beautiful gowns back into it. It’s going to be my new showroom and studio. I’m already running my business from here. It was meant to be a temporary measure while the children were small, but I’m going to make it permanent. I like working from home. So, the tapestry and the ancestors will be moved on.’

  ‘You’re an inspiration. Running a business and still being there for your children. How old are they?’

  ‘Stephanie’s almost three, and Eddy’s nine months.’ She sighed and pressed her hands to her chest. ‘It’s so hard leaving your babies, no matter how good the carers are. But it’s equally hard to turn your back on your dream. I did once, to help my sister, it took so long to get back on track. This way my babies will thrive, and so will the Lizzy Yardley label.’

  ‘You’re Lizzy Yardley?’ Claudia beamed a smile. ‘I’m sorry, I should have known that.’

  ‘Why would you?’

  ‘I’ve seen your work recently. I restored some embroidered silk cushions for a very stylish, traditional drawing room. The client’s daughter was getting married at home. I was invited. Her dress was stunning…the beadwork…’ She shook her head, unable to find words fit enough to describe it, and then she simply added, ‘Beautiful, just beautiful.’

  Lizzy laughed. ‘We were on the same team and didn’t know it. We should do that more often. Tell you what…when I first moved into Larchwood, I found some fabulous textiles, packed away in the linen room. Could you look at them sometime, and let me know if any of them can be restored? Of course, I’ll wait until you can fit it in.’

  Claudia felt warmed by Lizzy’s presence. It was like meeting a sister who appreciated the same things, such a comfort after the shock of meeting Fraser. ‘That sounds great. I’d love to.’

  Lizzy grimaced and indicated to the tapestry. ‘But I think his needs are more pressing than our passion for fine textiles.’

  Claudia scanned her eyes over the tapestry. It featured a knight, but he had suffered a great deal of damage and appeared to be headless. ‘I guess you’d call it distressed.’

  Lizzy laug
hed. ‘Well, he is that’s for sure.’

  ‘It must have taken a whole army of moths to do that.’

  ‘Or a bunch of young guys in fancy officer’s uniforms, playing jousting games after dinner.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I can certainly improve it.’

  ‘Thank goodness. Tony will be so pleased. You have carte blanche. We’ll get you whatever you want. Just ask. You’ll probably need a worktable. I’ll get somebody to sort that out. There’s going to be a lot of activity in here. People will be packing the portraits and cleaning the walls. I hope it won’t be too much of a hassle.’

  ‘Don’t worry about me. I’ll just get on with it. I need my equipment from the car.’

  ‘I’ll get Joe to help you. He’s in charge of security, and he’s a chauffeur. The guy looks pretty fierce because he’s huge, and he keeps his hair really short, but he’s our gentle giant…takes care of us. There’s so much going on, inside and out.’

  ‘I noticed the marquee.’

  ‘At least that’ll be over by Friday. I hope it doesn’t rain, the forecast isn’t too good.’ She sighed and shook her head. ‘I suppose it would have been much better in the hotel, but Fraser was adamant it had to be here… He’s Tony’s cousin.’