To my absolute amazement and total confusion, Emily issued a very loud and surprisingly chirpy, ‘Hi, Olivia.’ She carried on quickly, almost booming the words. ‘You’ll neverguess who I bumped into. I knew you’d be dying to see him, so I invited him round. He’s coming in ten minutes.’
What on earth was she on about?
‘Yes, Olivia. Barney. Your cousin.’
Peter’s face was watchful now. As was mine. I knew who Barney was. What was she trying to tell me? Did she know that Peter was here? Was that why she’d come back?
Peter had stooped to pour a second glass of wine. Then he stood waiting for her to appear over the balustrade, Stanley knife clenched in hand.
She was still shouting, talking absolute nonsense, especially given our last conversation. ‘Blimey, Olivia, have you gone deaf. I’m home. God, I had a horrendous journey on the tube. You’ve no idea how awful it was. I was so pleased to see Barney.’
Finally I heard her pound up the steps. She was making a hell of a racket. Was that also something coming from the direction of the kitchen? And why, with all that noise, hadn’t I heard the front door slam?
At last Emily appeared. Her eyes widened as she let out a stunned gasp when she saw me trussed up. If I hadn’t been watching her so carefully, I’d have missed the quick dart of her eyes away down the corridor to the kitchen. My heart rose for a second. Was the cavalry on its way?
Peter smiled as he picked up the second glass of wine and went over to Emily as if this was entirely normal.
‘Emily, my darling. Thought you’d never get here.’
‘You!’ she said theatrically, swallowing nervously.
‘Yes. Waiting for you. I knew you’d be here eventually.’ He shot me a look of distaste before smiling at her. He looked like a lovesick puppy. ‘I’ve been waiting a long time. Come, sit down. I’ve got you a glass of wine.’
‘Er,’ stuttered Emily. ‘Look Peter, I...’ Her voice was loud again. She looked wildly at me. I gave my shoulders a fatalistic shrug. There was no point looking at me.
‘You haven’t been very nice to me, Emily.’ He waved the Stanley knife at her. ‘Those emails. Not kind. I thought you were different.’
Emily’s eyes caught mine again and frowned in thought for a second. There was a perceptible lift to her spine.
‘Do you know Peter? You’re right. I wasn’t very nice, was I? But Olivia had nothing to do with that. Do you think you could undo her?’
Peter gave me a dismissive look. ‘No, she’s not been very nice to me.’
That was rich but I thought that giving him the evil eye at this point might not help my cause.
‘I’m sure if you let her go, we could sort everything out.’
She went over to him, stomping over making a lot of noise, staunchly ignoring the knife and took the glass of wine and sat down at the other end of the sofa. She smiled at him.
‘Those emails. I was having a really bad week and I took it out on you. I shouldn’t have. I’m sorry. Email isn’t good.’
It was an amazing performance. Emily was trying hard and from Peter’s body language, I thought he might just be buying it. He put down the knife on the table.
The whole time I’d been listening carefully. There had to be some reason for Emily’s noisy entrance and subsequent shouting and reference to Barney. So when I saw Barney’s head peep around the stairs, my whole body slumped back against the chair. Thank God. How I managed not to beam at his reassuring wink, I’ll never know.
So who was in the kitchen? While Emily had been making all that noise downstairs, I’d definitely heard someone in the kitchen.
However, as long as Peter had that knife so close at hand, there on the table, no amount of knights in shining armour was going to save us.
‘Peter, why don’t we start again? We got off on the wrong foot,’ said Emily silkily. I had to admit she was bloody good at the femme fatale bit, even with a man who was clearly not sane.
I watched as Peter sidled along the sofa to sit closer to her, leaving the knife just that bit out of reach. Any minute now as he got nearer, he would have to turn his head. My opinion of her rose several notches, when she didn’t even flinch but sat there, smiling at him.
The minute he turned his back on me, I lunged forward, ignoring my tingling feet, and launched myself on top of the coffee table, even though I was still attached to the chair.
Thank God! The knife stayed sandwiched between the table and my layers of tape as Peter whirled round, spraying wine everywhere. He stood up and from my position on the floor, I saw him lift a foot, inches from my head. My eyes squeezed tight and my teeth locked in anticipation of the kick.
At that moment I heard Barney leap up from the stairs, and a roar of rage from the kitchen. Lying prone, still glued to the chair like a small beetle stuck on its back, I opened my eyes to see Daniel appear from the kitchen like an avenging god. His face was thunderous as he grabbed Peter from behind, his arm hooking round his throat in a bruising neck lock.
