Island of Darkness (18 page)

Then he smiled suddenly and folded his other hand about hers too, holding it between his large warm palms while he turned those disconcerting blank lenses on her. “I shouldn’t tease you so,” he said softly. “You’ll miss Scottie, won’t you, Leonora?”

“Yes, yes, I will.” She could answer that truthfully enough, but she found his sudden gentleness even more disturbing.

“And me?” he asked, still more softly. “Will you miss me too, Leonora?”

If only he knew how much, she thought wildly, as she fought with the tears that almost choked her, robbing her of speech for several seconds. She knew that everything she felt in her heart was revealed in her eyes as she looked up at him, and thanked heaven that he could not see her.

“I shall miss you too,” she agreed quietly. She hesitated for a moment, biting her lip before taking the plunge. “I - I came to say goodbye, Jason.”

“Goodbye?” His hands tightened their hold on her and she could feel the heavy thud of his heart under her arm where it was pressed close to his chest. “Not yet, surely?” he said. “There’s several days before it all happens, unless -” He frowned. “Unless
you’re
going away - are you?”

“No, I’m not going away.”

He squeezed her fingers hard and bent his head so that the warmth of his breath was soft against her cheek. “Then why?” he demanded softly.

It took her several heart-stopping seconds to find an answer and then she was afraid it sounded so weak a reason that she quite expected to hear him laugh it to scorn. “I - we thought it might be best if I - if I made this my last visit,” she said, and again a swift frown drew his fair brows together.

“We?” he asked. “You and who else? Scottie?”

Again she shook her head in that futile gesture of denial. “No, not Scottie,” she told him. “Clive - my uncle. He - he thinks it would be best if I said goodbye now and didn’t come again. You - you’ll have a lot to do and a - a lot to think about,” she added in a slightly breathless-sounding voice. “It might be best, Jason.”

“That’s not the reason really, is it?” he asked bluntly, and she bit her lip. “I suspect your uncle never has been keen on you coming over here, has he?”

“He never said much about my coming,” she said, and remembered the times Clive had warned her about just such a situation as she now found herself in.

“Uh-huh!” There was a tightness about his mouth that forecast anger and she regretted that more than anything. She hated to think of their last meeting ending in anger as they had done so often before. “So your venerable uncle thinks I’m a bad lot, does he?” he asked softly. “No doubt judging me on hearsay - especially yours, and probably Scottie’s too!”

“Neither!” Leonora denied, hastily defensive. “But he knows about you. I

mean, he’s - he’s read—”

“That I like playing the field?” he suggested harshly. “Well, it’s true, and I’ve no intention of apologising for that or anything else I’ve done!”

“No one expects you to apologise for anything,” Lenora assured him, her voice shaking as she foresaw the inevitable quarrel looming. “I just meant that -”

“He doesn’t like you being mixed up with a man like me?” he suggested, and laughed shortly. “Well, he needn’t worry, need he? My activities in that direction are a little limited, to say the least, at the moment. And you can assure him that even if I wasn’t hampered he need have no fears for his little niece, she’s safe enough with the big, bad wolf! If I recall correctly, even on the odd occasion when I’ve kissed you, you took my kisses with as much warmth as a snow maiden!”

“Jason, don’t!”

She snatched her hand away, the force of the gesture almost unbalancing her as she got to her feet. For a second or two she stood looking down at him, her eyes bright with unshed tears and her other hand pressing the one he had held to her breast, the fingers still tingling with his warmth.

He sat there for a moment longer, then he too got to his feet in one of those incredibly swift, smooth movements that made it difficult to believe he was blind. He stood over her, his blond head bent, his hands at his sides, the fingers tightly curled as if he wanted to hit out and hurt somebody, and she realised at last how tense and nervous he was.

It seemed such a long time that they stood there with only inches between them, and gradually the tension seemed to ease from his body and the fingers uncurled. He shook his head, running one hand through the thick hair at the back of his neck. “Leonora—” She waited, her breathing short and erratic, her eyes anxious and gentle as she watched the expressions come and go on those rugged brown features. “I - like talking to you,” he said softly, at last. “That’s all I want of you, Leonora, just to talk to you.”

“But we - always quarrel.” Her voice was small and tight as she fought to keep it steady, and she longed to reach out to him. To touch his face, smooth the tightness from his mouth, and lay her hands over the broad tanned chest where his heart beat steadily.

Not always,” he denied, and for a moment a hint of smile touched his mouth as he looked down. “You make me laugh and you make me mad,” he told her softly. “But I like having you around, Leonora, and it isn’t for very long now.”

You make me laugh, you make me mad, it isn’t for very long now - she echoed the words in her mind and found little comfort in any of them. Then she swallowed hard on the lump in her throat and wished the tears would let her see his face more clearly. “Only seven more days,” she said in a small husky voice.

“Right!” He reached out for her again, but she evaded him, hating herself for doing so but unable to bear having him so close when it all had to end in a few days, as he said. “So why not give me just seven more days, Leonora?” he asked softly.

She put her hands to her mouth, unable to answer for a moment, then pressed the palms to her throat as she stared at him with eyes that looked huge and dark. “I - I don’t see how I can help by coming again,” she said huskily. “You - you manage well enough with just Scottie, and

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you—

“Damn Scottie!” His vehemence startled her, and she wondered if there had been more disagreement between the two of them. “And damn you, too, Leonora! You’re making me beg, and I dislike

begging!”

“But Jason, I-”

He turned suddenly, hunching his broad back to her, his arms folded across his chest in an oddly defensive way, his head bowed. “I—” He shook his head and a great shuddering sigh went through him, making her shiver as she looked at him, both defiant and defensive and hating to plead for anything. “God help me,” he whispered hoarsely, “I’m scared silly, Leonora - I
need
you!”

In a moment she reached out her arms to him, all the love she felt for him pouring from her in a tide of warmth and longing to comfort him. Tears blinded her for a moment, then ran warmly down her cheeks. “Oh, Jason!” Her voice was no more than a whisper and she slid her arms around his waist, pressing close to that firm, straight back, her face against the warmth of his body, as if she would protect him from any more hurt.

For a moment or two he held her hands, pressing them with his own against the tanned smoothness of his body, her palms throbbing with the beat of his heart. Then gently he eased her encircling arms and turned within their circle to face her, pulling her head against his chest, his face resting on the softness of her hair.

She sighed, a soft, gentle sigh of infinite satisfaction, and closed her eyes, willing to stay like that for the rest of time. But a few seconds later she opened them again with a small murmur of surprise when the arms about her tightened suddenly and his head jerked sharply upwards.

“Scottie?”

Leonora had heard nothing, but Jason’s senses were keener and she turned in his arms to look behind her. Scottie stood a few feet away, his broad tanned face wearing an uneasy frown, as if he was undecided whether or not to go back the way he had come and leave them alone again.

Jason had not sounded exactly welcoming, but for herself, now that she was in better control of her senses, she felt a certain relief to have him there. She had yielded all too easily to Jason’s moment of appeal and she had been close to betraying her true filings,

“Hello, Scottie!” She gently eased herself out of Jason’s arms and he let her go reluctantly. He needed someone to cling to, and he had said once that she was the only girl he knew who would put up with his moods. “I - I thought I’d better come over today in case you thought I was simply going to drift out of your life without saying goodbye!”

She laughed as she said it and tried to make it sound like lighthearted banter, but she knew Scottie had read his own meaning into the scene he had interrupted.

“I wouldn’t like you to do that,” he said quietly, and his brown eyes looked at her steadily for a moment, then glanced at the face of his employer, seeking some clue, some confirmation. “I hope I didn’t choose a wrong moment,” he said. “I didn’t realise you were here, Leonora.”

“I haven’t been here long.” She glanced up hastily when Jason put an arm round her shoulders. His own emotions now seemed perfectly under control and there was no sign of the deep despair that had made him beg her to stay with him.

A trace of that familiar dry and bitter smile just touched his mouth as he spoke. “She came to say goodbye,” he told Scottie. “But I’ve been trying to persuade her otherwise - see what you can do!”

“Making a clean break?” Scottie suggested softly, and Leonora saw the small frown that creased Jason’s brow for a moment.

“There’s - it’s only a few days now until - until—”

“The big carve-up,” Jason put in harshly. “Don’t be afraid to mention it, Leonora, I won’t have the vapours, don’t worry!”

The hurt she felt showed in her eyes for a moment, but only Scottie saw it and recognised the reason for it, and he shook his head slowly, as if in regret. “It’s up to you whether you come again or not, Leonora,” he said quietly. “If you’d rather not then he shrugged, “we’ll understand.”

“You might!” Jason retorted sharply, seeing his support slipping away When he had banked on it. “I want her to come and see me again - every day until
the
day! You’re a big help, I must say!”

Scottie said nothing for a moment, but his eyes were looking at Leonora with a kind of gentle pity and she could not face him for long and control her tears. She looked instead at the gold medallion that swung from Jason’s neck.

She wanted to be with him for as long as possible, to spend every precious day there was left to her, but if she spent the next seven days with him the eighth day would be all that much harder to face. She had no illusions about his reasons for wanting her there, for those few seconds had betrayed more of the inner man to her than he probably realised and far from being deterred by his fear, it had made her love for him even stronger.

He wanted someone he could tease, someone who would take his mind off the prospect before him. Scottie was no use in this instance, he was too detached now from the interests of his employer, too involved in his own future plans. Also, since she was a woman he found her more amenable, no doubt. He would not know how deeply she felt about him, he might not have cared, even if he did.

The arm about her shoulders half turned her towards him, hugging her close for a moment, while he bent his head and buried his face in the soft cloud of her windblown hair, his voice muffled. “You won’t desert me, will you, Leonora?” he asked softly, and she heard Scottie’s sharp intake of breath.

“For God’s sake let the girl go, if she wants to!” he said harshly. “Sometimes, Jason, you’re not only literally blind!”

It was a bitterly cruel thing to say in the circumstances, and she knew Scottie had only done it in her defence, but she flinched as if the hurt had been hers when Jason’s arm went rigid on her shoulders. A hasty glance revealed the wide mouth set hard and a thousand tiny lines at its comers, but she put up a hand and placed a finger over his lips before he could speak, her heart clamouring wildly under her ribs.

“Don’t say anything else!” She said a little breathlessly. “If you do I
will
take myself off for good! Please, Jason!” she added softly, and watched anxiously while he fought to control his temper.

Then he shrugged his shoulders and smiled that dry, bitter smile again. “You’re the boss,” he decreed in a harsh cold voice. “But you’d better come every day now, you little peacemaker, or I’ll come over and fetch you personally!”

“I’ll come,” she promised, and caught Scottie’s eye for a moment before she hastily looked away. “It isn’t for long.”

CHAPTER NINE

It was a soft and golden day, and Leonora drove her car along the highway with her mind only half on what she was doing. Autumn was drawing closer every day; shorter, cooler days and the glorious, rioting colours of the summer flowers dying away to the last defiant roses and geraniums.

It had been some time since she went out in her car and she found the change quite pleasant. She had refused to be miserable when Jason went and she had not even cried, although sometimes she felt as if she must for the sake of her sanity. She helped Clive in the studio and kept herself so busy that she was glad to fall into bed at night and sleep.

Usually the tiny shop in Terolito obtained Clive’s two English newspapers for him, but today they had not arrived. Signor Maglini had been profusely apologetic about it, but Leonora had assured him that she did not mind in the least driving in to Rapallo for them.