Blake saw her eyes settle on them, without warmth or encouragement. If there was anything at all it was contempt. The two young men hurried away in confusion.
She said, ‘Children, the lot of them.’
Blake tried again. ‘It won’t work, Diana. It’s over, finished. You’ll have to sort it out with your lover, whoever he is.’
‘I see.’
‘You don’t. You never have. It’s a game to you. It will
happen again if you have your way. But as I said, I’ve had enough. A divorce is the only thing left.’
‘Really?’ She leaned back, entirely relaxed. ‘You do surprise me.’
Blake was caught off balance. He had expected anger, scathing words which could sting a man out of his wits.
He said, ‘Your father will fix it. You seem to have a lot of very important people on your side.’
She smiled. ‘Don’t be bitter. It sounds petty. I’ve come to make up, to forget the past and try again.’ She reached out and gripped his hand, pulling it to her side beneath her breast while she said softly, ‘You know you want me. I can make you forget. Bring us closer than we’ve ever been.’ She looked at the door. ‘We’ll go to your room. I’m sick of being stared at.’
Blake withdrew his hand, astonished that it had been so easy.
He said, ‘You think I’m joking? In a minute I’m going to walk through that door. Things are quite bad enough at the moment without you making them worse.’
She stood up and smoothed her skirt. ‘Divorce then. But we’ll do it my way.’ She looked at him and added quietly, ‘But when your poor little Wren gets her name dragged through the courts, and her father, a
reverend
gentlemen, I believe, is stared at by the yokels in his village or whatever it is,
don’t come crawling to me
!’
Blake clenched his fists to his sides. It was like part of a nightmare.
‘It’s nothing like that, and you know it!’
‘Perhaps I do, but try to ask yourself who will be believed?’ She took a pace away from him. ‘I’m still here. Waiting.’
Several people in the lounge were at last aware that something was wrong and were staring with unveiled curiosity. The dark, beautiful girl and the young captain with a crimson ribbon on his jacket.
She said, ‘I’ll tell you this,
dear
Richard, if you won’t do as I ask, I’ll not give you a divorce without a fight. When I’ve done with your little madam she’ll loathe the ground you walk on!’
‘You bitch!’
Blake felt the room closing in. She was mocking him, enjoying his torment and despair. And she meant every single word of it. As if in a flashback he saw the little church, the glow of pipes in the garden, the girl slamming on the car’s brakes while he gave her the ring. His need of her would destroy them both.
She picked up her handbag. ‘I am staying at a somewhat better hotel down the road from here. If you change your mind, call me. If not, don’t say I didn’t warn you.’
Blake was staring at the place where she had been standing for several seconds after she had gone.
He turned and walked from the lounge, the buzz of conversation welling up behind him as he knew it would.
All the way to his room her words kept coming back to him. It was pointless to wonder how she had discovered about Claire and her father. But she knew her weapons as well as her own strength. After losing their son in the
Paradox
, Claire’s parents were in no position to withstand another hurt. In a small town like theirs the minister was important. How could he expect to protect his daughter and hold the people’s respect whom he met each day of his life?
And it was all his own fault. He had come to do the job he was trained to do, the one which had first attracted Diana and then as quickly repelled her.
The room looked even smaller than before. Blake sat down on the bed and stared at the whisky bottle and at the telephone.
After a further hesitation he telephoned the base at Williamstown. It took an age to get connected with
Andromeda,
and when he finally got through to Scovell he barely knew why he had called. To kill time, to put off the moment when he would have to call Claire and tell her.
Scovell sounded clipped and formal.
Probably thinks I don’t trust him in control
.
‘Nothing to report, sir. The dockyard is still working on the radar and the starboard outer shaft. But everything’s in hand.’ He coughed politely, impatient to hang up. ‘Was there something, sir?’
‘No. Not really. I’ll call you tomorrow.’ He put down the receiver.
There was no point in delaying any further. Claire would be at her quarters now. He opened his pocket diary, the scribbled dates and numbers blurred as he gripped it with both hands.
Blake reached for the telephone and then gave a start as it began to ring.
A bored voice said, ‘You’re through, sir.’
For a moment Blake thought it was Stagg again, but this time it was Quintin.
He barked, ‘Glad I found you. What with Commodore Stagg and the Navy Office, your Admiralty and the Spanish consul, I’m about ready to drop!’
Blake pictured Quintin as he had last seen him in his wheel-chair.
‘You shouldn’t get involved, sir.’
‘Don’t talk such rot, and stop calling me sir. We’re both the same rank, even if I am damn near old enough to be your father.’ He broke off in a fit of coughing. In a more controlled voice he continued, ‘Can’t talk much over the phone, but things are moving at this end. You can forget about courts of enquiry, being sent home and all that stuff. You are going to be needed right here, and soon, if my information is correct. But enough of that. Walls have ears.’
Blake found he was holding the telephone with such force that it was a wonder it did not split in halves. The absurd contrast between his scene with Diana and Quintin’s guarded comments about the immediate future were enough to push anyone over the edge, he thought.
Quintin said, ‘I think we’ve become very close, what with that bloody air crash and what followed. I know a lot about war, what it costs, what it can take out of a man. I’m very fond of Claire, too, but then you know that.’
Blake sat very still, his heart suddenly pounding at his ribs.
Quintin said, ‘She’s been through a lot, and when I saw what was happening between you two I thought I should add my weight. There have been people asking questions, snooping about like spies, but being in charge of intelligence here
gives
me
an advantage. I heard about your wife’s arrival in Sydney, and what I could not guess about it I dragged out of that spineless halfwit Livesay.’
Blake heard him take a deep breath and then say, ‘Now hold on to your hat and don’t hang up on me. Your wife has tried to get you both together again, is that right?’
‘Yes, but I don’t see. . . .’
‘You will, Dick, you
will
.’ Quintin lowered his voice. ‘The man she’s been living with in London, and he outranks both of us pretty considerably, by the way, wants her to get a divorce from you then marry him, all very neat and dignified so far. He’s an ambitious man and wants no scandal. It would not look too smart to take the wife of a VC, now would it? So she’s to divorce you, after laying the blame firmly at Claire’s doorstep, with all that involves. You know the idea, man away from home, service love-affair, mud-slinging all round.’
Blake’s spirits sank. He did not know what he had been expecting, but he had held on to a hope that Quintin’s blunt involvement might help in some way.
‘I know. She told me she’ll start proceedings unless I agree to her proposal. But she said nothing about the man, nor that she expected to marry
him
.’
Quintin spoke very slowly, so that Blake should not miss a word. ‘She failed to allow for one small thing. She got herself pregnant. Whether it was by our senior officer or somebody else doesn’t matter much. The man she wants to marry would run like a scalded cat if he thought there was a nice juicy scandal in the offing!’
Blake said, ‘And her father would not help with this. It’s about the only thing he would draw the line at, where she’s concerned.’
‘Yeh. I got that much out of Livesay. Did you ever meet such a creep?’
Blake felt light-headed, as if he was going to be sick.
‘So Diana needed me just for one night. To provide her with a case.’
Quintin sounded suddenly cheerful. ‘Right! Think about it. How you would have looked. Giving your wife a child even though you were having an affair with Claire. She would
come out whiter than white, and you and Claire would be right in it up to your necks!’
Blake asked, ‘How did you get all this out of Livesay? It’s more than I’ve ever heard him say in his life.’
Quintin chuckled. ‘I threatened to tell the admiral he was no good out here and to have him sent back to the UK with a duff report. Rank has its privileges, and boy I was happy to use ’em after what he tried to do to you.’
‘Thanks for telling me. I don’t know what to say. A few minutes ago I felt like jumping off the harbour bridge. I’m still a bit stunned by all of it. Sickened at being caught with my guard down again. I should have known. People don’t change. Especially Diana.’
‘I’ve got to go. I promised my wife.’ Quintin added brightly, ‘I feel a whole lot better myself!’ He slammed down the telephone.
Blake sat for a long time just looking at the opposite wall. It had very nearly worked. It would have been easy for Diana, especially as she had discovered how much he cared for Claire Grenfell. To protect her he might have gone to bed with Diana. Just to get rid of her. To wait until she had got herself into a situation where she was in danger for once. He stared round the room. And she was out there somewhere, expecting him to call her. Unless Livesay had told her what had happened.
The telephone rang again and Blake picked it up. Diana or Jack Quintin, or perhaps Stagg with some crazy scheme for catching his German raider.
She sounded very close, as if she was standing beside him with her mouth to his ear.
‘I hoped I’d catch you.’ She sounded unsure. Out of breath.
‘Claire! I was just going to ring you. To try and explain –’
‘Please, don’t talk. I want to tell you. What I’ve been thinking about. Everything.’ She gave a quick gasp, like sob. ‘You don’t have to explain anything to me. I love you, Richard. It’s so easy to say when you can’t see my face or touch me. I know about your wife. . . .’
‘Yes, but you don’t know what’s happened –’
‘Please, you mustn’t talk. Not yet. And I do know. She
came here to see me. It was horrible to start with. I’m no good at that sort of thing. And then I thought of you. Us. In that terrible raft. With the shark always there. It was then I began to fight her, Richard. When she threatened me and my family I told her to go to hell.’ She tried to laugh. ‘Not like me at all.’
‘Claire, I do love you.’
‘I know. I think I knew from the beginning. Captain Quintin told me the rest. He must have seen I was worried. He’s been pretty wonderful.’
Blake said, ‘I must see you. I’m so sorry to get you mixed up with this. But I’ll make it up to you. Nobody will hurt you any more, I promise.’
She was half laughing, partly crying, as she said, ‘What’s it like in Sydney?’
Blake looked at the window. It had begun to pour, the rain like steel needles across the nearest rooftops.
‘It’s suddenly very beautiful!’
‘Here, too!’ There was a metallic click and she said huskily, ‘Sorry. That was your ring. It hit the phone. It’s still there, I’ve not taken it off since that night.’
He said suddenly, ‘Can you come, Claire? Here, to Sydney. I’m not certain how long it will be before. . . .’ No, he had to shut that from his mind. Nothing mattered now. ‘I want to see you so much.’
She could not control the tears any more. ‘Tomorrow. Captain Quintin will fix it. I love you.’
Blake lay back on the bed, his fingers interlaced behind his head. He was still lying there, staring at his own thoughts, when darkness closed over the city.
In another part of Sydney, Commander Victor Fairfax stood by a window looking out into the gloom, but seeing his wife’s reflection in the glass as she finished packing his suitcase.
She turned and looked at him, her breasts half bare in the special nightdress which she had bought for the trip.
‘I still don’t see why you’ve got to leave so early tomorrow?’
He shrugged. ‘You know the Navy, Sarah. Always at the crack of dawn.’
She crossed the room and put her arms round his neck and pressed herself against him.
‘God, I shall miss you, Vic.’
He stroked her bare back and laid his chin in her hair. She was worried, and so was he. Neither wanted to hurt the other on the last night. It was always the same. Except this was worse.
He said, ‘It will soon be over and done with, I expect. Or another false alarm. I wonder what the skipper’s doing?’
She recognized his attempt to change the subject. ‘I mean, why all the secrecy? Surely you can tell me? You’re off tomorrow and I shall go back to Melbourne. It’s not as if nothing has happened!’
He tilted her chin with his fingers. ‘I can’t tell you. It’s top secret. You know the score.’
‘You mean, it’s
dangerous
?’
‘Even crossing the road’s that, my love.’
‘Well, you be careful. I love you so.’
He pulled the ribbons on her shoulders and she stood back from him to let the nightdress fall to the floor. She did not take her eyes from his face as he lifted her breasts in his hands and ran his fingers over her body.
Then with great care he laid her on the bed and undressed while she watched him.
Then she said, ‘You’d
better
come back to me! Otherwise. . . .’
The rest was lost as his mouth covered hers and with sudden urgency they joined together.
In Williamstown, a small, inoffensive man paused to watch some tipsy sailors lurching towards the heavily-guarded dockyard gates. He smiled at them, a gentle, amused smile, but the sailors were too far gone to notice. Beyond the wired gates the ships stood like unmoving blocks of steel, peaceful now that the rivet guns had stopped their din and the last of the workers had gone home.