Island of Darkness (3 page)

“You’re young and there’s nothing wrong with your shape or your complexion,” he said in a soft, deep voice, then he laughed shortly and leaned towards her, his nose wrinkling again in appreciation of her perfume. “And you’re no boy,” he declared firmly. “So who the hell are you?”

“Boss —” Scottie began, but was silenced by a raised hand.

“Let her answer for herself,” Jason Connor told him, and laughed again bitterly. “Unless her
tongue's
useless too, of course. Come on,
cara mia,
speak up - and preferably in English! What little birdies is Scottie luring up to my hideaway?” He turned to Scottie and grinned. “You old devil, I never expected
you
to be entertaining the local lassies -”

“Will you listen?” Scottie begged, but without much hope of being allowed to explain.

“Or have you got some ulterior motive for bringing her here?” his employer asked. “Like hauling me out of the selfpity you’re convinced I’m wallowing in!”

“You have all the wrong ideas, Mr. Connor!” She was glad but a little surprised to find how clear and cool her voice sounded, and he looked startled for a moment, then frowned.

“Oh, so you’re English, are you?” he asked softly.

“That’s even more interesting! And where might you have come from, little Miss Curious?”

It was obvious he suspected her of being a journalist in search of a story, and to a certain extent she could sympathise, but he had subjected her to that disturbing ordeal with no more reason than to satisfy his own malicious ends, and she was angry. Angry enough to want to be revenged on the man who was baiting her so ruthlessly.

She snatched her hands free from his grip. “I happen to live in Terolito, Mr. Connor,” she told him in a small tight voice. I’ve lived there for a lot longer than you’ve been here, and what Scottie - Mr. McLellan says is true. Roberto, the man you buy your fish from, has some domestic trouble and I brought some lobsters over for him. I’m not in the least interested in you or what you do!”

If that was less than the truth, she had no intention of admitting it and she gained a certain satisfaction from guessing he had no often been spoken to so bluntly before, and especially by a woman. She did not for the moment realise she was still sitting on the edge of the chair, but she hastily moved her arm out of touch when he shifted his position and half turned to face her. She had had enough physical contact with Jason Connor for one day.

She was not happy either about the way Scottie was looking at her, as if he thought she had been too harsh with his famous and volatile charge. She got to her feet, her cheeks warmly pink, looking at Scottie with eyes that shone much more brightly than they should, and with her brain spinning with the tangle of emotions she felt. “I’d better go, Scottie,” she said in as steady a voice as she could manage.

“Wait!” Despite her anxiety to leave, she obeyed the demand and stood beside Scottie who looked anxious and unhappy.

Jason Connor got to his feet with less trouble than she would have expected. He was much taller than she realised too and the lean hardness of his body was even more evident with his shirt swinging open. The gold medallion caught her eye and she wondered if he wore it simply because he realised it gave him a piratical and somewhat primitive appeal.

“I still don’t know why you came,” he said, and Leonora frowned.

“I told you, Mr. Connor,” she said quietly. “I brought the lobsters over for Roberto.”

One fair brow lifted above the concealing dark lenses and that wry, twisted smile appeared again. “You surely don’t expect me to believe that yarn, do you?” he asked, and Leonora flushed angrily.

“You can believe what you like!” she retorted. “But you’ll find you’ve got lobster for lunch, and they didn’t climb up here of their own accord!”

“It’s true, boss,” Scottie assured him, breaking his silence at last. “Lucia’ll tell you.”

“Oh, I don’t say she
didn’t
bring the lobsters,” Jason Connor told him with a knowing smile. “I just wonder what reason a well-schooled little English miss like your still nameless friend has for taking on the chores of a local fisherman, that’s all.”

Leonora looked at Scottie, willing to let him explain if he wanted to; for herself, she was anxious to get away before she lost her temper and said something she would really regret - something that would make it impossible for her to come and see Scottie again.

“You’re a suspicious devil,” Scottie told him, after a moment’s silence. He rubbed a hand over the back of his head, glancing at Leonora as if he wanted to say things he would rather she didn’t hear. “I - I like to see Leonora because - well, because it’s somebody I can talk to about home.”

“Leonora?” The dark lenses turned on her again, and she thought how uncanny it was how he always seemed to know just where she was. “Is that what the Leo stands for?”

“Yes!” She made her answer as brief as possible, not caring if he took offence at her sharpness or not.

“Leonora what?” he asked, and Scottie glanced at her apologetically again.

“Leonora Jackson,” he supplied, and Jason Connor

smiled that curiously twisted smile again.

“They don’t come much more English than that, do they?” he remarked dryly. “Except Smith or Robinson, of course.”

Leonora flushed, following the implication easily enough. “It happens to be my name, Mr. Connor,” she said quietly. “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I must go.”

She turned her back on him deliberately although she realised the snub was lost because he could not see her, but she heard the harsh, dry laugh he gave as she walked quickly across the terrace. “I’ll bet she’s got red hair, Scottie,” she heard him say, and she could guess what expression was on Scottie’s honest-looking face.

“She hasn’t!” he said shortly, and Leonora heard his footsteps coming across the terrace after her. “Leonora, wait!”

Reluctantly she did as he asked and turned to face him as he caught up with her. His brown eyes were anxious and apologetic, and she felt sorry that he had had to take some of the resentment meant only for his employer.

He took one of her hands and hesitated before speaking, then he glanced across at the tall figure of Jason Connor. “He doesn’t mean it the way it sounds, Leonora,” he said earnestly. “Please don’t go away - angry.”

For a moment she said nothing, then she smiled and put her other hand on his. “I’m not angry with you, Scottie, you know that, but—” She hesitated and he looked more anxious than ever.

“You will come again?” he asked, and Leonora pulled a face and shrugged.

“I don’t know, Scottie. I think, for the moment at least, I’d better not come again. I’m sorry,” she added hastily when she saw his crestfallen expression, “but you must see that it wouldn’t be very advisable at the moment.”

“Mebbe not,” he agreed reluctantly.

“I’m sorry, Scottie, I really enjoyed talking to you and I know you liked telling me about the old country, but you must admit it wouldn’t be the same, not now that - that
he’s
spoiled it.”

“Och, Leonora!” he said reproachfully. “Don’t judge him too harshly, lass, he’s had to make a lot of adjustments and he’s sometimes a wee bit - crotchety.”

“He’s almost exactly what I expected him to be from the things I’ve read about him,” she said. “Conceited and arrogant and full of his own importance!”

“Och, you’re hard on him, girl,” Scottie protested again. “You’d like him better if you knew him more,” he assured her earnestly.

Leonora looked across at the tall, lean figure now leaning on the walled surround of the terrace. It startled her to find her pulses racing when her eyes registered the blond hair gleaming in the sunlight and the golden brown torso revealed by that open shirt, a look of restrained power about the strong hands and arms. There was an air of tense excitement about him that was startling on first contact and strangely disturbing too, so that she hastily looked away and concentrated instead on Scottie’s nice, uncomplicated character again.

“I don’t want to know him any better,” she said, although part of her was already denying that assertion. “And I doubt if I’ll be given the chance anyway - Mr. Connor doesn’t like my type any more than I like his.” This time she yielded to impulse and tiptoed to plant a light kiss on his cheek. “Good-bye, Scottie, it’s been lovely knowing you!”

CHAPTER TWO

Clive, ever sensitive to her changing moods, was looking at her rather oddly and Leonora guessed that he was reading more into her hurried and rather angry departure from Isola de Marta than she cared for. “So you didn’t like Jason Connor?” he asked, taking another helping of the delicious
contorno
that Maria had made before her hasty departure. He ate meat only seldom but thrived on vegetable dishes and the inevitable
pasta,
and for all her shortcomings, Maria was an excellent cook.

“I didn’t have much encouragement to like him,” Leonora retorted, sensing a hint of blame coming her way. “Not that I really expected to - he’s just as rude and conceited as I expected from the things I’ve read about him.”

“I’ve never seen anything about him being rude and conceited,” Clive mused, and Leonora made a sound very like a snort as she looked at him.

“I read between the lines,” she told him. “The heart-throb of the race-track! The idol of a million women! No wonder he’s so conceited - he thinks he’s irresistible!”

“And is he?” Clive asked softly.

“Not in the least!” She felt the colour in her cheeks and sought to conceal it by reaching for more
contorno.

“Still,” she added a little wistfully, “I shall miss seeing Scottie.”

“You mean it then, about not going over again?” her uncle said, watching her curiously, and she shrugged.

“Not in the foreseeable future,” she told him. “I don’t want to bump into
Mr.
Connor again!”

“It seems a bit hard on your Scottie, though,” Clive said tactlessly. “He’ll miss you, I expect, if he liked talking to you about his home.”

“He did.” Leonora said shortly. “And once and for all, Clive, he’s
not
my Scottie!”

“Sorry!” He got on with his meal, but his eyes watched her surreptitiously from time to time and Leonora suspected he was still curious to hear more about their celebrated neighbour, although he did not say so.

She got on with her own meal in silence for a while, then looked across at him and smiled ruefully. “I suppose you think I’m being unreasonable?” she guessed, and he shrugged.

“It’s your business, honey,” he told her quietly. “But I know you’re prone to blow your top at times, like Maria -well, perhaps not quite so spectacularly. But that poor devil’s been through a lot lately, you know, and your - and Scottie’s right, you have to make allowances for him.”

“You think I’m heartless?” she asked, not looking at him.

“Not quite as strong as that,” Clive demurred. “But you more or less admitted that you’d made up your mind about him before you even met him.”

“And I’ve had no reason to change my views since!” she retorted, resenting his attitude. “You’ve not met him, Clive!”

“Granted I haven’t,” her uncle allowed quietly. “But you did have a preconceived idea of the man, honey, and by what you’ve told me, you let fly as soon as you saw him.”

“I did no such thing,” Leonora denied indignantly. “I - I had to put up with that - that—” She said no more but got on with her meal for a few moments in silence. Her first encounter with Jason Connor had been far more disturbing than anything she could possibly have imagined. Even now, when she thought of that bronzed body and the arrogant blond head, the light, sensual touch of those long brown hands, she felt her heart beat a little faster. She hated deserting Scottie, but she could not face Jason Connor again yet - not until she was much more sure of herself.
“Should
I go over and see Scottie again?” she asked, and Clive smiled.

“I’m not advising you, honey,” he said softly. “But it seems a shame to punish Scottie because you don’t like his boss. From what you’ve told me, he’ll miss you.”

“I suppose it does seem a shame,” she conceded, willing enough to be convinced. “Maybe - maybe if Maria’s still playing up, and Roberto wants me go for him again - Well, perhaps if the opportunity arises, I’ll go.”

Maria, pacified and ready to allow herself to be persuaded, was back at work after only a couple of days and all had been reasonably well for well over a week now. Since Leonora was not inclined to visit the rock without the excuse of having a chore to do for Roberto she began to almost wish that Maria would explode again and give her an excuse. Scottie, she thought, would think she was being as good as her word and staying away deliberately.

It was difficult to know what to do for the best, and she was rather surprised at herself for taking it all so seriously, for she had been to the rock only four times, yet there was something irresistible about the place and its residents that made her want to go back.

She enjoyed taking her small boat out and her uncle often teased her for her solitary pleasures, but she had yet to find anything on land as satisfying to her soul as sailing round the little bay with only her own company. Not that her kind of boating was strictly sailing in the true sense of the word. It was not like being under sleek white sails and having the skill to handle a boat that chopped and changed direction with every puff of wind. She envied what her uncle called real sailors, but had never attempted to try her hand at it so far.