A Poisonous Echo
her threat?
He knew very well that if his wife heard what he’d done
he would be out on his ear! If only he hadn’t been so
weak... If only!
It had started more by accident than any real desire to
seduce Joyce or stray from the fold. After a staff dance,
deciding he was too drunk to drive to his hotel, Joyce had
given him a lift – back to her own bed! The first thing he’d
been aware of the following morning was the moist
warmth of naked flesh pressed against his, and the weight
of an arm over his stomach. He was comfortable and
naturally assumed he was at home, although he did
wonder vaguely how he came to be there. Then,
unfamiliar traffic sounds had penetrated his dimly
throbbing senses.
Joyce had stirred and murmured as he turned in alarm,
making his senses swim and he had felt so rotten, having
lifted his head, that it was easier to accept the situation
rather than fight it. He had dozed off and came round
again to find her standing above him, her shining red-
gold hair tumbling over her bare shoulders: deliciously
alluring, charmingly shy, holding a breakfast tray.
“Don’t be alarmed,” she said, “it’s only coffee and toast
– perhaps you’ll be able to face something more
substantial later.” Then she’d whispered, as their eyes met,
“In fact my darling, you can have anything you like – after
last night.”
He groaned aloud at the memory of the moment when,
groaning inwardly, he had realised that despite having no
recollection of the previous night, things had gone far
enough for him to be completely compromised. Had he left
immediately, the situation might have been retrieved –
after all, it had been his wife who insisted he should stay
and enjoy the annual ‘do’. She had been heavily pregnant
and unenthusiastic about going with him, insisting that it
would do him good to unwind at a party instead of
7