Joshua's Grace

Chapter 2 (2)

Lysette stopped talking with Mariah and moved to stand beside Joshua. "Joshua darling" She enthused as she nuzzled his cheek and looked pointedly at Grace. Grace maintained her smile. Lysette pouted up at Joshua, and wrapped an arm along his waist Grace wanted to deck the woman. "I don't remember you and Miss...."

"Grace Carvalho" Blind to the intense tension, Craig introduced Grace to his wife. "Our parents have known each other for years. Hey, I even took her to her first rugby game."

"Only because I'd won two complimentary tickets to see the game." Grace added dryly.

"Well you couldn't have gone without me." Craig pointed out. "True." Grace conceded and smiled. "Dad and his rules." "Heh, you'd have been mobbed if you'd gone on your own." "A slight exaggeration."

"Guys," Craig turned his attention to Zac and Steven, "Would she have survived a rugby game without being picked up?"

"I was ten at the time." Grace laughed. "All the more reason."

Lysette looked critically at Grace, her pale blue eyes assessing, "Have you known Joshua long?"

For no concrete reason whatsoever, Grace had taken an instant dislike to the blonde woman. So it wasn't so much the question, but the tone that did it. She just didn't like her condescending supposition.

Appearing to be totally unaware of the challenge within the question, Grace remarked softly but loudly enough to be heard by those standing close by. "Long enough to talk marriage." 

"Marriage?" Lysette squeaked and her calm facade crumbled a little.

"You never mentioned that, you sly.." Craig began, only to be quickly interrupted by Grace. Grace was suddenly smote with regret and panic. She could feel Joshua's irritation. She shouldn't have done that. She had taken a dislike to the woman and was now reduced to trading cheap shots.

Grace started bailing herself out, "Just talk." But then Lysette would have to smile like a smug cat. Almost as if she could read the panic and see through the slightly modified truth. Intense dislike was replaced with the will to flatten the pretentious woman. "And, well, Joshua had a narrow escape. Someone tried to pressure him in to marriage." Grace was improvising as she went along, yet she couldn't have been nearer the truth. "So I'm not making her mistake. No pressure."

"Way to go Grace." Craig laughed, but his eyes narrowed as they made contact with Joshua's angry green gaze. Slowly Craig disengaged, as he misinterpreted Joshua's response. "Stay in touch." He added calmly just as Lysette threaded her arm through his.

"I think we should move on darling" Lysette suggested and smiled artificially at the group around her. "We've only managed to get round half the tables." She offered by way of explanation as she tugged on her husband's arm.

"Already ruled by the petticoat government." He said happily as he was led away across the room. 

The instant they were out of earshot Joshua whipped around to face Grace. His mouth held an exasperated slant.

She shrugged, "I didn't like her." She added candidly. Like, didn't even start to describe the way she felt about that woman. There was something about her that rubbed Grace up the wrong way. Lysette was vain, supercilious and she thought she owned Joshua. 

"You shrew." Joshua marched off. He left her standing there to face puzzled curious stares. Grace was ready to curl up and die. Everyone within their immediate radius had heard him. Possibly within a five- foot radius, he certainly hadn't been quiet in denouncing her. Open up and let me slide in. She commanded the floor. But the damage was done and the floor was pretty solid.