A Second Chance at Eden (41 page)

‘It’s for hair,’ he told her. ‘You snip off a few strands of your hair for mine, and I do the same for you. If you want.’

She nodded eagerly. ‘I do.’

‘Good.’ Finally, he produced a square box, and gave Tiarella a pointedly dubious look before he eased the lid off a fraction to show Althaea what was inside. Her eyes flashed as she saw the tiny white-silk negligee. She hugged him tightly, and licked his ear mischievously. Closer than she had been for a week.

They sat together on the cabin roof, back to back, sipping champagne as
Orphée
cut through the water. He could feel the tension slipping away as the mainland fell behind.

It wouldn’t be long, a month at most, before there was nothing left of the hardliners of the Quissico Independence Party. Vaughan Tenvis was right to say the ESA’s main activity was collecting information; but if it ever found a threat to the Kingdom it acted with terrifying efficiency to eliminate it. Nobody would come for him now.

The just cause would go on, of course, led by whoever survived. Moderates and compromisers, those who lacked fire. And in another thirty-five years Quissico would be an independent state, just as the founding charter promised.

One chapter of his life had closed irrevocably. He was free to embrace the new. Tiarella was now nothing more than an annoying irrelevance, one he could ignore with impunity. She was deranged, reading portents in the sky. Althaea belonged to him, and through her Charmaine. Fait accompli. If Tiarella continued to object . . . well, there had already been one boating accident in the family.

It was for the best. He could do wonders with Charmaine; a smart tough new master with plenty of money to invest was exactly what it needed. In a few years the old place would be up and jumping.

‘More champagne?’ Althaea asked.

He grinned and kissed her. ‘I think so.’

*

Tiarella sat behind the desk in her study, dealing from her pack of tarot cards. She was aligning them in the shape of a cross, each one pushed down firmly on the dark wooden surface with a distinct
snick
.

‘I’m going to live here permanently,’ Eason told her.

Another card was dealt. ‘You wouldn’t enjoy it, not fulltime. Oh, granted you’re riding a crest with all these improvements you’re making right now. It’s all new and thrilling for you. But forty years of hard labour. I don’t think you’re quite cut out for that, now are you?’

‘I wasn’t proposing to do it all myself. I’m offering to buy in. I’ve cashed in my starship ticket, and liquidated some other investments. There’s enough money.’

‘A dowry. How quaint.’ The arms of the cross were laid down methodically, five cards on each side. ‘The man Althaea chooses won’t have to buy his way in. I’ll greet him with open arms. He will have Charmaine because she has Charmaine. It’s that simple, Eason. Have you asked her if she wants to share it with you?’

‘We’re virtually engaged. She’s mine, and you know it.’

‘Quite the opposite. She is not yours. She never will be. Her destiny is with another.’

The sly attitude of superiority infuriated him. He leant over the desk and caught her wrist as the last card was slapped down.

Tiarella didn’t flinch at the pressure he exerted.

‘Maybe you’re jealous,’ he said harshly.

‘Of you two being lovers? Good God, no! You can never replace Vanstone. I thought you knew that by now.’

He bit back a furious retort.

‘Would you mind letting go of me now, please?’ she asked grimly.

He released her, slouching back in his own chair. ‘The money would make an incredible difference,’ he said, refusing to give up. ‘We could buy some more tractors, clean out the rest of the groves, restore the coffee bushes, hire some labourers to prune the trees. Then there’s the house to fix up properly.’

‘That’s the short cut, Eason, the easy option. You want to be a manager, the grand plantation owner living in his mansion while others bring in the crop. That’s not the way to do it, not here. Life is about cycles; you can’t fight what nature has ordained. And now we’ve come round to the time when Charmaine is passed on to Althaea just as it was passed to me all those years ago. I haven’t done very well with it, but Althaea and her husband will. They’ll rebuild Charmaine slowly. Every day there will be some new accomplishment for them to rejoice about. Their whole life is going to be rich with genuine satisfaction, not this cheaply bought gratitude you offer.’

‘Then I’ll give the bloody money away. She can have me just the way I was when we met, a destitute drifter.’

Tiarella’s mask of indifference cracked for the very first time. She gave him a tired smile, compassion lurking in flecked emerald irises. ‘I never expected you to fall in love with her. I really didn’t.’

‘I . . .’ He clenched his fists. Admitting that to her would be a defeat in this war, he knew.

‘The money won’t make any difference to Althaea’s answer or mine,’ she said weakly. ‘Believe me, I’m being kind to you. Just go, Eason. If you truly love her. Go now. You’ll be hurt by her if you don’t.’

‘Is that a threat?’

‘No. Listen to me, I had a lover before I met Vanstone. He was a good man, he adored me passionately, and I did him. But then Vanstone arrived, and I dropped him. Just like that. I never thought about how he felt. Girls that age can be unknowingly cruel. I don’t want that to happen to you.’

‘Althaea’s not like you. She has a heart.’

Tiarella laughed. ‘And you believe I don’t? I suppose I can’t blame you for thinking that. I am a bitch these days, I admit. But I used to, Eason, I used to have a heart just like hers.’

‘I don’t get it. I really don’t. You brought me here, you and that monstrosity snake helped me snuff the bounty hunters. You screwed with me. You stand by and let me screw your daughter. Now you tell me you don’t want me here.
Why?
’

‘Your time is over.’

‘Don’t give me that card shit again. You realize she’s probably pregnant by now. I didn’t exactly hold back.’

‘Don’t get excited, she’s not pregnant. I made quite sure she was using a contraceptive.’

He stared at her, shocked. ‘You . . .’

‘Bitch? I’m her mother, Eason.’

‘Jesus Christ.’

‘You’re welcome to stay here as long as you like, although I expect you won’t want to. But you must understand, neither Althaea nor Charmaine is ever going to belong to you.’

‘We’ll see.’ He was so furious he didn’t trust himself to say anything else to her.

Althaea was in the kitchen, preparing their lunch. She looked up when he came in and gave him a happy smile. He kissed her, and took her hand. ‘Come along.’

She skipped after him as he went out into the hall. Tiarella was standing in the study’s doorway, watching. Althaea automatically stiffened, glancing sheepishly at her mother.

‘Althaea and I are going upstairs,’ Eason said levelly. ‘That cot in my chalet is too small for the kind of sex I prefer. So from now on we’ll be using the bed in her room. OK?’

Althaea drew a loud, astonished breath.

Tiarella shrugged indifferently. ‘Whatever.’

Eason grinned victoriously, and tugged a confounded Althaea up the stairs.

‘Oh God, she’ll kill me,’ Althaea wailed as soon as the door shut behind them. ‘She’ll kill both of us.’

‘No, she won’t.’ He imprisoned her head between his palms, putting his face centimetres from hers. ‘She must learn to accept that you’re a grown woman now, and that you and I are in love. We have a perfect right to be together in your bed. I did this for you. Everything I do is for you now.’

‘You love me?’ She sounded even more frightened than before.

‘Yes. Now you and I are going to take the rest of the afternoon and evening off, and spend it in here. If your mother doesn’t like that, then she should seriously start to think about leaving the island.’

*

Eason had never been in Althaea’s bedroom before. When he woke up the next morning he looked round blearily. Wan white walls were hung with holographic posters, one of which gave the bed a panoramic view over rugged snowcapped mountains and a magical Bavarian castle. He turned over. Althaea was missing. Her ageing Animate Animal bear was on the floor along with the white silk negligée. Last night she hadn’t quite dropped her reserve completely, but he was definitely making progress. And the seeds of rebellion against her witch mother had been firmly planted. Another pleasurable day at Charmaine.

He pulled on his jeans and went down to the kitchen. Althaea wasn’t there either, which was unusual. She normally made breakfast for everyone.

He started opening cupboards, then he heard her screaming for help. Tiarella was already charging down the stairs as he rushed out of the back door. It sounded as though she was down at the jetty. He pounded along the path, wishing to Christ that the fluxpump wasn’t back at his chalet. If that damn snake had run amok . . .

When Eason burst out of the trees, the scene he found was nothing like what he expected. Althaea was lying on the grass right on top of the coral wall, stretching out desperately. There was a wooden dinghy in the water, being tossed about by the current. It smacked into the coral wall with a nasty crunch. Althaea tried to grab the arm of the single occupant, but the dingy twisted and surged backwards.

Eason ran forwards and threw himself down beside her. The dinghy had been holed on the vicious coral teeth surrounding the wall, and was sinking fast. Another swell rose, pitching it forward again. His synaptic web came online, calculating the approach vector and projecting the impact point. He shifted round fractionally, stretching out—

A wrist slapped into his waiting palm. He grabbed tight and pulled. The dinghy was dragged back, sharp spears of coral punching through the hull as it sank below the foam. Tiarella landed on the grass beside him with a hefty thump, reaching out to grasp the shoulder of the lad Eason was holding. Together, the three of them hauled him up over the top of the wall.

Eason blinked in surprise. It was Mullen.

‘You idiot!’ Tiarella yelled. ‘You could have been killed.’ She flung her arms round the dazed lad. ‘Dear God, you could have been killed.’

‘I’m sorry,’ Mullen stammered. He was shaking badly. There was blood oozing from his palms.

Tiarella let go, as self-conscious as Althaea had ever been, then sniffed and wiped away what Eason swore were tears. ‘Yes. Well, OK. It’s a tricky approach, you’ll have to learn about the currents round the island.’

‘Yes, miss,’ Mullen said meekly.

Eason took one of the lad’s hands and turned it over.

The skin on the palm had been rubbed raw. ‘What happened?’

‘It was the rowing. I’m not used to it.’

‘Rowing? You mean you rowed here from Oliviera?’

‘Yes.’

Eason’s immediate response died in his throat. He glanced at Althaea who was looking at Mullen with an expression of surprise and wonder.

‘Why?’ she asked timidly. ‘Why did you come?’

‘I wanted . . .’ He glanced round at Eason and Tiarella, panic-stricken.

‘Go on,’ Tiarella said gently. ‘The truth never hurts in the long run.’ She smiled encouragement.

Mullen took a nervous breath. ‘I wanted to see you again,’ he blurted to Althaea.

‘Me?’

‘Uh-huh.’

Her delicate face betrayed a universe of delight. Then it crumpled to guilt, and she looked at Eason, almost fearful.

His own emotions were almost as confused. What a ridiculous romantic the lad was. Small wonder Althaea was flattered. However, right now he was not prepared to tolerate a rival.

‘Eason,’ Tiarella said sharply. ‘You and I have to talk. Right now.’

‘We do, yes, but now is not the time.’ He said it politely, making an effort to keep his temper in check.

‘I insist. Althaea.’

‘Yes, Mother?’

‘I want you to treat Mullen’s hands. You know where the first aid kit is. Do it in the kitchen, I expect he’ll want something to eat after that voyage.’ She patted the surprised lad’s head. ‘Silly boy. Welcome back.’

*

Eason closed the study door, cutting off the sound of Althaea and Mullen chattering in the kitchen. When he faced Tiarella he knew that somehow she’d undermined him. Mullen’s arrival had changed everything. Yet he didn’t see how that was possible.

‘Just what the fuck is going on?’ he asked.

Tiarella’s expression was glacial. ‘I warned you. I told you your time was up, but you wouldn’t listen.’

‘My time is just beginning.’

‘No it isn’t. And as from now, you’re not to sleep with Althaea again. I mean that, Eason. And I will enforce it if you make me. Solange is quite capable of dealing with you, and that’s just the creature you know about.’

‘You’re bluffing.’

‘Am I? Then it’s your call.’ She opened a drawer in the desk and pulled out a finger-length cylinder with wires trailing from one end. ‘This is out of the fluxpump. I visited your chalet yesterday evening, just in case.’

‘You would seriously set that snake on me for loving your daughter?’

‘I would now, yes. Force is all you know, Eason. It’s what you’ll use if you think Mullen threatens you. I won’t tolerate any violence against him.’

‘Oh, come on! You honestly think she’s going to choose that boy-child over me?’

‘She chose him before she was born.’

‘This is your cards shit again, isn’t it?’

‘Far from it.’ She walked round the desk and pointed up at the big family print. ‘Who is this?’ A finger tapped impatiently on Vanstone.

He gave an exasperated sigh. Crazy bitch. Then he looked, really looked at the man’s features. All the confidence, all the anger inside him started to chill. ‘It’s . . . But it can’t be.’

‘Yes, it is,’ she said wistfully. ‘It’s Mullen. About ten years older than he is now.’

‘What have you done? What is going on here?’

Tiarella grinned ruefully. ‘Small wonder he frightened the life out of me in that dinghy this morning.’ She cocked her head to one side, looking up at Eason. ‘There’s just one last thing to show you.’

He hadn’t even known the house had a cellar. Tiarella took a torch to lead him down the slippery stone steps. There was a metal airlock door at the bottom. It was open, leading into a small decontamination chamber. The door at the far end was shut.