Loves moves in mysterious ways

Chapter 14

No more snow had fallen, and she had managed to get in to Bayern before three afternoon to have her hair finished.

Privately she wasn't sure what she thought of the wild mane of curls that the salon stylist had teased from her looks.

The stylist, a pretty young girl,had assured her that she looked absolutely fantastic, and the torrent of wild curls was certainly in keeping with her night gown.

She daren't risk a shower in case it flattened her hair, but fortunately she had the fore thought to have one before going out, and as she stripped off her clothes she caught the faint, lingering traces of her scented body cream.

As she smoothed more of it in to her skin she wondered why on earth she was bothering.

Girls scented their bodies for the enjoyment of their lovers.Her hands stilled, her nails digging in to the smooth firmness of her thigh as she tried not to imagine what it would be like to have James as her lover.

That last summer she had gone swimming with him one day and had been both shocked and fascinated by the male structure of his body.

In her mind's eye she could recapture the memory of the dark shadowing of hair covering his chest and disappearing beneath the top of his swimming shorts.

That had been just before she had realised the true nature of her feelings for him and she could still remember the squirming embarrassment c*m excitement curling through her body as he stripped off.

What's the happen? he had teased her tugging her hair with the soft fingers.

The smell of the summer grass and the scent his skin were impressed of her senses for all time and she could still remember the heart pumping, dizzying realisation of how she felt about him.

James. she wasn't even aware of saying his name.Tears filled her eyes and she shook them away, despising herself for being vulnerable.

She put on clean underwear panties and a matching suspender belt in a pretty soft cream that had been my birthday present from her parents.

She couldn't wear a bra under her dress,she avoided her reflection in the mirror as she slid on silk stockings and then pulled on her old dressing grown before starting on her make-up powdered.

The elegant, uncertain girl she had been when she first went to Germany no longer existed, and she applied skilled touches of colour to her eyes and skin with the expertise she had learned during her years as John Secretary.

In living room the grandmother clock sounded the hour.Soon James would be here.

Kirstin a little bit nervous as she stood up and checked her evening small hand carry bag.

She was ready, all she had to do was put on her lovely night dress gown.

She stepped into it, swearing mildly under her breath as she fought with the mask of petticoats.

It zipped up more easily than she remembered, but then her mother had already commented that she seemed to have lost weight and getting slimmed.

The dress had been designed for a play where every famously detail had to be exact, but it still came as a shock to realise how much of the upper curves of her body and breasts the lace trimmed shoulder revealed looked so perfect.

And surely her curves had never been quite as provocative and luscious as they appeared to be now?

The fabric moulded and held her breasts in to rounded fullness that made her frown and chew a little on her upper lip.

Ludicrously,when she tried on her mask and looked at herself in the mirror she felt slightly lovely about the neckline of the evening gown, as though somehow hiding behind her unique lovely mask gave her some protection from her own awareness of her curve shaped body.

Kirstin held her breath slightly when she went in to show her Mom,but she needn't have worried.

She made no comment at all about her neckline,instead

marvelling at the beauty of her evening gown.

When Kirstin drew her attention to her exposed breasts, her mother laughed and said robustly,

'I suppose it is rather provocative,but only in the nicest possible way.

Eventually,Kirstin was glad of the red cloak flowing silk wavy materials that Carol had suggested that she hire and she was very careful to keep it carefully closed when she heard the sound of James's car, and her father opening the main door to him.

I should go,she told her Mom, James will want to be there early as possible.

Yah,.He told me that most on the committee are sitting together on the same table.

They were, but Kirstin wasn't sure whether James intended to join them.

She suspected tha Jessa would have plans of her own for

the night which wouldn't include sharing James with the rest of them.

On the top of the stairs she looked down yearning at where James stood chatting to her Dad,knowing that she was shielded from him and that he couldn't see how avidly and needingly she looked at him.

He was wearing a formal suit and a giant fist seemed to close round her heart as she looked down at him,tanned and dark haired, and completely at ease in his no doubt a very expensive extravagant suit.

He wore it with a familiarity that said that he felt completely at home in its tailored very well.

Perhaps that was what she needed. Kirstin though sadly to be reminded of the vast gulf in experience that now lay between them.

He wouldn't have lived the life of a vast while he was in LA, she was sure of that.

He wouldn't have held himself aloof from s*xaul experimentation because his heart and mind was full of her appearance.

Kirstin saw him glance at his watch, light bouncing off the thin silver gold strap,and she started to walk down the stairs.

So, there you are,her.

Dad beamed at her Aren't we going to get a preview of the outfit?

He turned to James before she could speak.I remember her first grown-up party gown,don't you James?

She couldn't wait to show it off to you.They all laughed, but her father was the only one whose laughter was natural.There was simply no way she could remove her cloak and twirl round for her father's inspection with James standing there watching her,and so she shook her head and said in a voice husky with tension, I'm sorry, Dad, we'll have to go.

We can't be late',She could feel the tension emanating from James as he escorted her to his car, but it wasn't until she was sitting beside him as he drove down the street that he spoke her.

What's the matter? he demanded superior. Where you afraid that your Dad,would recognise it as a gown bought by a person for his lover?

Is that why you wouldn't show it to him?For a moment she was too shocked to speak.

Did James honestly think that? She remembered how he had looked at the box when they were on the train and opened her mouth to contradict him,but the words died unsaid.

What was the point of saying anything? Let him think what he wanted.

Surely it was easier to endure his contempt and animosity than to have to battle against his physical desire,especially when she's was so aware of her own weakness and how very vulnerable she was to him.

Not that she had anything to fear from him in that regard any longer, and as she met the cold condemnation in his eyes she marvelled that they had ever gleamed hot and smelted with desire for her.

looking athom now it seemed almost an impossibility.But he had wanted her ,he had told her so,and she had turned away from him,heartsick beacuse it was only desire and not love.The weren't the first arrive.

A few other auto's were already parked in front of the building.

Anticipating James's attention of opening the auto door for her,Kirstin beat him to it, feeling idiotically gauche as he stepped back from the car and watched with a grim humourless smile.

You are very wise,he told her under his breath.If I put my hands on you feeling the way I do this evening,I might be tempted to indulge myself in brutally.

You have that affect on me, didn't you know? He asked her mysterious as she made a small sound of objection.

Then I suggest you go and look for Jessa,Kirstin told him bitterly.

She looks to me like a lady who knows how to handle a violent male.She might even like it.

Apelled at her own jealousy, she half stumbled in the drive.Sickness churned through her stomach.

She wasn't sure which of them she hated the most James,for getting beneath her guard or herself for allowing him to do so.

Bulshit!Ahe heard him cursed as she caught up with her and took her firmly by the arm.

It doesn't suit you, you know, Kirstin he told her,swimming her round to face him.

Is that what he's done to you, turned you from a sweet, innocent girl into A woman? she threw at him,wrenching her arm free.

The door opened and she hurried inside.James was close behind her.

With an almost bitter sense of satisfaction she watched Jessa detach herself from her Auntie side and hurry across to them, promptly annexing James.

Kristin already knew which room had been put aside as a ladies cloak room, and she made her way there without giving James and Jessa a second glance.

The wives of few members other of the committee, plus some of her mother's friends from other groups, were already there, and Kirstin exchanged greetings and smiles with most of them before taking off her cloak.

She had been carrying her mask on her arm, and she paused in front of one of the mirrors to put it on.

Behind her she heard someone say,My dear,that is the most magnificent attire.

I do like it very much,even though I don't have the figure to wear it any longer.

Looking around, Kirstin recognised on of her mother's friends.

Where on earth did you get it? smiling, she explained.Oh!

well that explains it.

It really is stunning Yes,I can see Megan Young on that,quarrelling with joker...

I'd better get to the ballroom, and check that the musicians have arrived, Kirstin excused herself.

In the Ballroom only the wall lights were illuminated. with low wattage bulbs,and th soft green glow they cast had a softening effect on the room.

The wooden floor had been polished by the volunteers from the attendant before being chalked,and the band musicians were already in place on the hug area.

One of them raised his head and whistled appreciately as Kirstin hurried towards them, and Kirstin dipped him a mock curtsy, only to tense as she felt the heated pressure eyes boring into the back of her neck.

Kirstin knew before she turned round who was looking at her.James was standing with Jessa who was chatting animatedly to her Auntie,far too intent on her own conversation to be aware of her escort's slow thoroug scrutiny of Kirstin's white and silver figure.

It was a long time before he lifted his eyes to her face, and Kirstin felt the whole room sway round her as she read the dreadful contempt in their depths.

Kirstin wanted to cry out against it,and like someone under a numbing spell she moved slowly as though through water as she dragged her gaze away and tried to resume her conversation with the head of music band member.

Am,Kristin.

Everything seems to be under control all organised. The women from the food and drinks catering have provided a first class buffet.

Have you seen it yet? Greatfully Kirstin turned to the General, accepting his invitation to,as he put it, Inspect the squads.

You're not supposed to be able to recognise me with thisbeautiful mask on,she teased him mock-reproachfully.

God, I'd recognise that brown hair of yours anywhere!All the Ladies were to retain their mask until one evening am when thier partners, who would presumably be quite well aware who they were,could demand their taken off or removal of a forfeit.

This had been Frau Samantha's suggestion, and Kirstin had thought it is a good proposal, in view of the romantic idea of the night ball.

Within an hour most of the guests had came and the hallroom floor was pleasantly crowded.

Kirstin watched the dancer's from the sidelines, trying not to notice how well James and Jessa danced together,and how close their self were.

She didn't know how much more of James's contempt she could take.

Kirstin had never thought him a particularly egotistical man, but she could only presume that his mysterious ways towards her now sprang from the fact that in his eyes she had turned him down as her lover in favour of John.

Kirstin told herself that the James she had loved would never have behaved it seemed Loves moves in mysterious ways so cruelly, but it made no difference at all to the ways she felt about him secretly.

The General asked her to dance and she got up to do so,the split of her gown swaying gracefully as she moved.

She was aware that her gown had cause something of a stir,but she took no pleasure in the knowledge.

That one contemptuous look James had given her had stripped her defenses from her,and the night had become something merely to be endure.

The General danced surprisingly well, his oldest worlde courtesy balm yo her soul after James's biting sarcasm, but even so,she was aware that she didn't have all the General's attention.

She had seen him glance more than once at where Frau Samantha was sitting and on some impulse she was reluctant to analyse she said quietly to him,Frau Samantha looks rather lonely, why don't you go and ask her to dance? I would but I know she'd refuse me.

General give rather humourless bark of laughter.And it wouldn't be the first time.

A shadow crossed his face. There was a time when I thought but I was foolish.

Her Dad,wanted to keep the title in the family, and she married Michael.

We were in the same regiment, you know. And the General had loved her, Kirstin suspected, her heart aching for him.Just for a moment she had seen behind his stern mask to the man, and as he glaced across the room to Frau Samantha, Kirstin realised that he still loved her.

The sound stopped just as they swung level with Frau Samantha's table.

You dance very well, my dear, and in that dress you are quite the crystal of the night ball.

The faded blue eyes grew lightly beauty.