Read The Ten Commandments for Free Online

turned back to the table with a smile, to catch her friend absent-mindedly gazing out of the window.
    'Sonia! I don't believe you've heard a word I've been saying!'
    Sonia started guiltily. 'Sorry, I –'
    Gillian looked at her more closely, then put the teapot on the table and sat down. 'Is something wrong?' she asked gently. 'You seem a bit – distracted.'
    'It's probably nothing. I'll feel better after a cup of tea.'
    Not wanting to press her, Gillian changed the subject. I don't often see you on a weekday. Have you been visiting a client?'
    Sonia nodded. She was a private banking manager and spent much of her time calling on clients to assess their financial requirements. They'd been friends from schooldays, and in many ways Gillian felt closer to her than to her own sister. Sonia had been her bridesmaid, but she herself had married only three years ago, at the age of thirty-nine. While rejoicing for her, Gillian had not been entirely happy about her choice.
    She passed a cup and saucer across the table. Then, sipping her own tea, she studied her friend. Sonia hadn't changed much since she was a leggy adolescent, though she'd acquired a certain grace. Her hair, centre-parted and hanging loosely about her face, was in the same style that she had worn at sixteen.
    Now, however, it struck Gillian that the skin was more tautly drawn over her cheekbones, there were shadows under her eyes and some fine little lines at their corners which she hadn't noticed before. Possibly -
    Sonia said abruptly, 'I think Patrick is having an affair.'
    Gillian, taken completely by surprise, could only stare at her, and she gave an uncertain laugh. 'How's that for a conversation stopper?'
    'Tell me.'
    'Oh, there's nothing definite.' Sonia's fingers were playing with her car keys. 'No more than a feeling, really. He just seems – different.'
    'And that's all?'
    She flushed. 'Except that when I hung up his jacket this morning, I thought I detected Chanel. I never wear it.'
    'Oh, Sonia,' Gillian said softly.
    'It's not only me who's noticed it; his mother and sister came for lunch on Sunday. I thought we were behaving perfectly normally, but when I went to get the coffee, Zoe followed me into the kitchen and asked if we'd had a row. You can imagine how I felt.
    'And there's another thing,' she hurried on, before Gillian could comment. 'His mother's going downhill fairly rapidly, and I've a horrible feeling that when she dies, Patrick will expect Zoe to come and live with us.'
    'Has he said so?'
    'No, but you know how close they are. She positively dotes on him, and he's so protective towards her. Damn it, she's over thirty, she should be able to fend for herself.' She added desolately, 'If she does come, it's I who'll be the odd one out.'
    Gillian reached for her hand. I shouldn't worry about that, it might never happen. Tell me about Patrick – when did you begin to suspect?'
    Sonia shrugged. 'It's been several months, I suppose, but it was only a vague feeling to start with, nothing I could tie down. Now – well, we don't seem to do much together any more. He's taken to going out by himself in the evening, to play golf or meet his friends for a drink. Or so he says,' she added in a low voice.
    Gillian, watching her downcast face, felt a spurt of anger, and her thoughts went back to the first time she'd met Patrick Knowles, before he and Sonia were engaged. It had been at a Christmas party and, curious to meet the man who'd finally distracted Sonia from her career, she'd felt an instant disquiet. For had she met him under any other circumstances, she'd have written him off as one of life's bachelors, incapable of forming a lasting attachment to anyone. Which, as she'd told herself at the time, was grossly unfair on first acquaintance.
    That he was a striking-looking man, she could not deny – over six feet tall, with a mane of pale hair already fading almost imperceptibly to grey. His eyes, also grey, were deep-set under