Plain Jane in the Spotlight Read online

  As they shared coffee, she looked Charlene up and down and said frankly, ‘Thank heavens the rumours are true. They say he’s found a nice girl who’ll do him a lot of good and no harm. Good for you!’

  ‘Thank you,’ Charlene said.

  ‘Of course you know the story about the dancer who descended on him at that party. She did it on purpose. I never liked her.’

  ‘You know her?’

  ‘I used to give lessons to girls who were going to dance in front of the camera. At least it was called dancing, but mostly it was sexy wriggling. She was one of my pupils.’ She added hastily, ‘But don’t tell Travis.’

  ‘I promise.’ Charlene laughed. ‘But about those lessons, you mean you can teach that sort of thing?’

  ‘There are certain tricks, depending on how provocative you want to be.’ She noticed a definite look in Charlene’s eyes and asked teasingly, ‘Want to try?’

  She was about to decline when the daring imp who seemed to pop up in her mind a lot these days said, Go on. Be a devil.

  ‘Yes,’ she said. ‘I’d like to give it a try.’

  ‘Like this,’ Rita said, and went into a wriggling dance that still contained much of her old ability.

  She laughed as she danced, obviously enjoying the joke, and Charlene laughed too as she imitated her.

  ‘Put your hands up high over your head so that people can see your body moving,’ Rita advised.

  ‘Like that?’

  ‘Fine. Now imagine that the man you’re dancing for is sitting in that chair over there. Approach him slinkily-good, that’s right, but move your bottom more. You have to twist and squirm a bit-more, more-you’re getting the hang of it. Now try to twirl and writhe at the same time. Well done!’

  Laughing, Charlene spun around, moving so fast that she lost track of the room whirling about her, and didn’t see the door open, admitting Travis. Next moment she lost her balance and felt herself falling.

  ‘Aaaah!’ she cried.

  ‘It’s all right, I’ve got you.’

  It was Travis’s comforting voice, and Travis’s steady arms enclosing her. But she’d collided with him so hard that he too lost his balance and fell into the chair with her in his lap.

  ‘OK.’ He laughed. ‘The worst is over now.’

  ‘Well,’ Rita said, arms akimbo, ‘that’s one way of getting onto the guy’s lap. Not one I’ve seen before, but I guess it works.’

  ‘Hello, Rita,’ Travis said. ‘What are you two up to?’

  ‘Rita was teaching me lap dancing,’ Charlene said breathlessly.

  ‘Really? Planning to take up a new career?’

  ‘You never know,’ she retorted. ‘It’s good to try anything once.’

  ‘And she’s got a real gift for it,’ Rita added.

  ‘Yeah, the gift of knocking a guy flying,’ Travis said with a grin. ‘I’ve come across it before.’ He rubbed his back.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ Charlene said. ‘Let me do that for you.’

  She reached for him but he veered away. ‘No need. I’ll manage. You’re a wicked woman. Rita, don’t teach her any more dangerous tricks. She’s beginning to scare me.’

  ‘Nonsense, I’ve always scared you,’ Charlene retorted, and the three of them shared a laugh.

  ‘You know what you should do,’ Rita said. ‘Go back to that nightclub where it happened-’

  ‘Not in a million years,’ Travis said at once.

  ‘No, wait. Take Charlene with you, and if those floozies start their nonsense again she’ll show that she can do it even better than they can.’

  ‘Hey, that’s an idea,’ Charlene said, fascinated.

  ‘No,’ Travis said quietly.

  Rita beamed at Charlene. ‘I’ll need to teach you a bit more so that you’re really expert-’

  ‘I said no,’ Travis snapped.

  In the silence that followed they both looked at him, puzzled. That Travis, a man known for his sweet temper, should speak in that way was astonishing.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ he said, recovering himself quickly. ‘It’s been a long, hard day and I’m not at my best.’

  ‘I’ll be off now,’ Rita said. ‘I only came to return your book.’

  She pushed it towards him, blew them both a kiss, and was gone.

  ‘Did it go well today?’ Charlene asked.

  ‘Not too good. I’ve got a bad headache. I’ll go straight to bed.’

  ‘Let me get you something to eat.’

  ‘No, thanks.’ His words were tense and his smile forced. ‘I just need to sleep. Goodnight.’

  He vanished into his room, leaving Charlene staring at the closed door, frowning.

  Why was Travis cross with her?

  Ah, well, she thought at last. His headache must be worse than he’d said.

  * * *

  Travis lay awake for a long time. Something had happened that he needed to come to terms with, if he only knew how.

  The moment when Charlene had landed in his lap was still with him. Her wriggling movements had been innocent, he knew. She’d been trying to steady herself, not inflame his senses, but she’d inflamed them nonetheless. The awareness of her body was burned into his flesh: searing, alarming, impossible to remove.

  He’d never dreamed of this. Her plain looks had tricked him into thinking that the rest of her was the same. But now he knew otherwise, he thought, groaning as he remembered the enticing way she had moved against him, almost caressing him. Beneath her usually unrevealing clothes was a truly lovely body, one that he wanted to see as well as touch. The alarming discovery had been the reason he’d snapped at them, driven to distraction by the effort to keep himself under control while Rita joked about Charlene’s sensual possibilities.

  He groaned as he felt desire singing through his body, ignoring his attempts to silence it. He no longer knew the woman living in his home. She was a new, different Charlene, one he’d never imagined before.

  One thing was clear. She must never know. His desire violated every promise he’d made to her. It also, he realised, broke her own promises about keeping everything sisterly. But in her innocence she had no idea about that. Nor would he allow her to suspect.

  Over breakfast next morning his phone rang. As soon as he answered, his face brightened. ‘Mom! You’re coming home? Great. Tomorrow. We’ll be at the airport. Yes, both of us. You can meet Charlene and I can meet-what did you say his name was? Sure I’m cheeky. I always was.’

  He hung up, saying, ‘You probably gathered what that was about. I told you my mom leads a colourful life.’

  ‘With plenty of “gentleman friends”?’

  ‘Definitely. She’s been on vacation in Paris with Eric, the latest, and they’re returning tomorrow.’

  They were there early next day. To pass the time Travis bought a magazine and flicked through it casually until he came to something that made him stare.

  Glancing over his shoulder, Charlene saw a young woman, scantily dressed, stretched out on a sofa. Her figure was curvaceous and magnificent, but that wasn’t her chief attraction. It was more the look in her eyes as they gazed into the camera, a look that said, Why don’t we get together and…see what happens?

  She felt mildly insulted. If Travis expected her to play the role of the faithful girlfriend it was hardly courteous of him to slaver over another female in public.

  ‘Hmm,’ she said.

  Glancing up, he read her thoughts. ‘No, no, it’s not what you think. That’s Cassie.’

  ‘Cassie? The one who-?’

  ‘The girl Marcel wants to marry, and who told him to take a running jump. I did hear a rumour that she’d once had a career as a glamour model-’

  ‘She seems to have returned to it.’

  ‘And how! Poor Marcel.’ Travis sighed. ‘I shouldn’t think he’ll get her back now.’

  ‘I wonder how much they paid her for that,’ Charlene mused. ‘Enough to buy her a lot of independence.’

  ‘Is that all you see?’ he demanded, c
omically outraged. ‘Money?’

  ‘It matters. When we’re finished, I think I’ll buy myself a toy boy.’

  ‘He wouldn’t be called Lee, would he?’ Travis asked lightly. He knew he shouldn’t have asked the question, but since the other night something mysterious seemed to have happened to his self-control.

  ‘Lee? No way. He’s in the past. But of course-’ she studied the picture again ‘-if I looked like her I wouldn’t need to pay. The men would be clamouring to enjoy my charms.’

  ‘It’s not just voluptuous women who make men clamour,’ he observed. ‘There are other things that can be enchanting.’

  ‘Nonsense!’ she teased. ‘That’s just polite male talk. What all of you actually think is that real women are plump and luscious. The rest of us are too skinny to count.’

  ‘Oh, that’s what men think, is it?’ he asked, raising his eyebrows.

  ‘Sure is.’

  ‘And who made you an expert in male thinking?’

  ‘Women are born knowing it. And if they don’t, they soon find out.’

  He cocked his head on one side. ‘So you’re going to lecture me on the subject?’

  ‘Why not? Since we’re brother and sister, I can say what I like to you.’

  ‘Brother and sister,’ he murmured.

  ‘It’s what we agreed. That way, we’re both safe.’

  ‘Then, since we’re speaking frankly, let me tell you that you don’t know half what you think you do. Some men like to be taken by surprise.’

  That made her gaze at him, wondering about his meaning and the slight edge in his voice. But then the loudspeaker shrieked, ‘The flight from Paris has landed-’

  The moment collapsed and died. It was time to get back to real life.

  Whatever that was.

  Julia Franklin still looked much as Charlene remembered her from old films on television. Though well into her fifties, she could have passed for forty or less, the result, Charlene guessed, of much cosmetic surgery and sessions in the gym. It was the same with her charm, which was untouched by the years.

  She greeted Travis with an eager cry of, ‘Darling!’ shrieked over a distance, and began to run. He did the same and they threw themselves into each other’s arms, to the delight of the crowd, most of whom had recognised Travis.

  Behind Julia came a man in his thirties, with a cherubic face and a good-natured air. This must be Eric, Charlene thought. Travis greeted him amiably, but with the caution of a man who’d met too many of his predecessors.

  A cab took them to Bunker Hill, where Julia lived in a house that was defiantly colourful and un-modern. From the first moment Charlene felt herself under inspection. Julia had clearly heard the talk and was buzzing with curiosity.

  ‘I haven’t told her everything about us,’ Travis had said earlier. ‘Only that we met by accident in the studio, and found we could talk to each other easily. She doesn’t know anything about Lee.’

  During the meal, Julia dominated the conversation, talking about Paris and Rome, where she and Eric had spent their vacation. Eric sat looking at Julia with a little smile on his face.

  Afterwards, Julia drew Charlene aside, saying, ‘Come and have lunch here tomorrow. We’ll do much better without the men.’ Her voice became teasing. ‘I think we always do better without men, don’t you?’

  ‘Sometimes.’ Charlene laughed. ‘But they come in handy now and then.’

  ‘Good thinking,’ Julia said triumphantly.

  Later, Julia pulled her son into the kitchen and shut the door.

  ‘So that’s her. That’s really her. I’ve been dying to meet her, although I’ve seen so many pictures of the two of you that I almost feel I know her. Look at that.’

  She held up the snap taken in the hotel restaurant, showing Charlene convulsed with laughter.

  ‘I’d bought her some pearl earrings,’ Travis recalled, ‘but I’d also bought some Daft Doody earrings for a friend, and I got muddled and gave her the wrong ones.’

  ‘And she saw the funny side of that?’ Julia asked, amazed.

  ‘As you see.’

  ‘Then she’s a real jewel.’ She eyed him with motherly suspicion. ‘You do realise that, don’t you?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ he murmured. ‘I realise that. Mom, can we talk about this later? I have a lot to tell you.’

  ‘And I’ve got a lot to tell you. Paris was fantastic, and guess what! I bumped into your father. I was invited to some big reception, and there he was. Marcel was there too. Poor soul, he’s so sad since he broke up with Cassie. He sent you his good wishes.’

  ‘I’ll bet my father didn’t send me any good wishes.’

  ‘Actually, he was on his best behaviour because Freya was there.’

  ‘Freya? She’s his stepdaughter by his new wife, isn’t she?’

  ‘Yes, and she’s really very nice. Amos has set his heart on marrying her to one of his sons. He failed with Darius, so now he wants it to be Marcel. You should be careful. If he fails with Marcel he’ll get you in his sights.’

  ‘Hey, c’mon!’

  ‘Really. “The Falcon” never gives up. That’s what they say.’

  ‘Then I’ll have to set Charlene onto him. If that doesn’t fill him with fear, nothing will.’

  Which left Julia regarding him oddly and mulling over the conversation long into the night, so that Eric was roused to ask if anything was wrong.

  ‘Nothing wrong,’ she murmured. ‘Just something I can’t make up my mind about.’

  ‘Would a cuddle help?’

  ‘Yes, please!’

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  NEXT day Charlene paid Julia a visit. The two women liked each other. Julia was no actress. The cheeky kid she’d played as a starlet was simply her real self, and after thirty years she still existed. For much of the meal they swapped witticisms, but they both wanted to talk about Travis, and at last Julia said, ‘He was always a lovely boy. So sweet-natured and full of feeling. I used to wish he didn’t have so many feelings, so that his father couldn’t hurt him so much.’

  ‘He really minded about that, didn’t he? He didn’t say much but I could sense rivers running deep underneath.’

  Julia nodded, then went to a cupboard and brought out a large book, which she opened, revealing a portrait photograph of Amos Falcon.

  ‘I took this shot of him when we knew each other, years ago,’ she said.

  Amos had been an attractive man, not conventionally handsome, but with a fierce purpose in his face that proclaimed him one of life’s winners. Many women would find that appealing, as the young Julia had done.

  As she still did, Charlene thought, watching the other woman as she surveyed the photograph. After all this time, there was sadness and longing in her face as she flipped over the pages to find pictures of the two of them together. Amos and Julia, a young girl, her face full of love, happy in the conviction that she had found her man and they would be together for ever.

  More pictures: Julia with baby Travis in her arms, but never the three of them together.

  ‘Are there any of Amos and Travis together?’ she asked.

  ‘None,’ Julia said. ‘That’s one thing I can’t forgive Amos for. He paid maintenance for Travis, but he never took any real interest in him. He’d visit, talk to him about how he was doing at school, criticise him. But he wouldn’t pose for a picture or become really involved with him. But look at these.’

  At the back of the book were newspaper cuttings showing Amos with some of his other sons.

  ‘Darius, Jackson, Marcel,’ Julia said bitterly. ‘But not Travis. I’ve seen him looking at these pictures with such sadness. Just imagine what he must have been thinking.’

  ‘That they were a complete family without him,’ Charlene whispered. ‘How well I know that feeling.’

  ‘Then you understand how it’s been for him. I’m so glad.’

  ‘It was much the same for me,’ Charlene said.

  Briefly she outlined the situation in her own f
amily.

  ‘I’m lucky in my grandparents. I get on with them wonderfully, and thank goodness I do because they’re all I’ve got.’

  ‘And I’m all Travis has got,’ Julia said. ‘I have no relatives. I’m an orphan, raised in an institution.’ She gave a grim laugh. ‘You wouldn’t believe it, would you? The big star, the world at his feet, women pursuing him, but it breaks his heart that he’s never felt really included in a family.

  ‘I haven’t been as good a mother as I meant to be,’ she added wryly. ‘At one time I thought I’d marry and give him a father, but none of my relationships ever quite worked out and…well, it didn’t increase stability, if you see what I mean.’

  Charlene nodded, liking Julia even more for the honesty with which she admitted her own failings.

  ‘But he’s got you,’ Julia went on. ‘He hasn’t said much, but I gather you’re protecting him from the people who are out to harm him. I can see that he’s close to you, much closer than to women he sleeps with. Sometimes sex can actually form a barrier to closeness.’

  She took Charlene’s hand. ‘Just be there for him,’ she said. ‘I know you will be, and I thank you with all my heart.’

  ‘I’ll be there,’ Charlene promised.

  Soon after that Travis arrived to collect her, looking from one to the other, smiling when he sensed the warmth and friendliness.

  As soon as she could, Julia drew him aside, murmuring, ‘Now I can have an easy mind about you. And I never thought I’d say that.’

  ‘Mom, it’s not like that. She’s a friend.’

  ‘A friend who happens to be living with you. A friend the whole world is talking about.’

  ‘That’s just it. We want the world to be talking about her so that they forget what happened in the nightclub. I couldn’t face losing all I’d gained. Luckily Charlene agreed to help me.’

  ‘How much does she know?’

  ‘Everything. I didn’t lie to her. That’s the most wonderful thing about her. You can be completely honest and trust her to understand. It’s such a relief.’

  ‘Someone you can be completely open with. That’s more luck than most people ever have. And you actually persuaded her to put on a big performance for the cameras?’