Authors: Unknown
‘Yes.’ She was aware again of a feeling of jealousy.
They stood waiting together while her luggage was being brought into the foyer. ‘Thank you,' Jade looked at Laurent uncertainly. ‘I’m going to enjoy that island cocktail you were telling me about. I’ll sip it while I’m unpacking.’
‘After business hours,' he said, ‘I like to sit and overlook the coral reef. I have a sunset drink and my mind seems free. Sometimes I listen to music. A tranquillity washes away the tensions of the day, which really are of no great importance. You will do this, with me, before Marlow Lewis gets back. Both my chalet and my house, on another part of the island, are places where I can be alone, or have twenty people. Sometimes ....' his eyes held hers, ‘only two.'
At first she felt an odd little thrill, but this soon gave way to anger.
'Well, you did mention back at the airport that you dislike crowds, that a crowd affronts you, after all—so I can imagine that, and I’m sure you don’t have to rely on me to form one of those intimate little twosomes.’
He seemed, she noticed, to be looking at her with a faraway kind of amusement. ‘I know I don’t have to rely on you for this,’ he told her. ‘I only know that, now that I have met you, I have got to go as far as I can go with you.’ Suddenly he smiled. ‘Enjoy your cocktail.’
She watched him go ... dark and handsome, with eyes an odd shade of dark-green when perhaps they should have been a very dark brown, almost black ... or tawny, at the very least, and dark hair which had been allowed to elegantly overgrow his collar. Laurent Sevigny was rich and handsome and would never be at a loss for beautiful women. She should have appreciated the logic, of course, but she couldn’t. You little fool, she said to herself, what have you let this man do to you?
In her room, which had a small entrance foyer, with walk-in cupboard with louvred doors to one side of It, well-appointed bathroom and balcony, she lifted the phone and ordered a cocktail which she had chosen from a list which was on the long bamboo dressing table, and which was ‘on the house’. Then she walked about the delightfully chilled room while she unpacked and thought about Laurent Sevigny when she should have been thinking about Marlow Lewis. When the cocktail arrived it was on a cane tray which had a crimson pink envelope on it across which was written:
Miss Jade Lawford.
When the page had gone she opened the envelope with her nail-file and shook out the card which was inside. It read:
The Manager of the Hotel requests the pleasure of your company for cocktails at the bikini bar at 7.00 this evening.
Her immediate reaction to this was—would Laurent Sevigny be there? And then, reprimanding herself, she changed her thoughts to what she should wear. To be on the safe side she decided to wear a caftan. A caftan, after all, could take one most places.
When she joined Nicole in her office she noticed that the Comtesse had changed into a different caftan-white, this time, and see-through, with a black bikini showing itself tantalisingly.
‘While we corresponded,’ Nicole said, ‘you addressed me as Comtesse de Speville, but now that you are here, please call me Nicole.’
‘Thank you,’ Jade replied, ‘I will.’
They went out to the terrace lounge where they could see the pool and the palms and the sea. Suntanned, near-nude people were either leaving the pool or diving into it.
Cutting across the lounge, with its black and white floor, honey-gold sofas and chairs and exotic plants in great white urns, Nicole said, ‘This way, Jade. We have one whole wing to ourselves, but our clients occupy the same rooms and suites as holiday guests. They are, after all, on a beautiful holiday, although,’ she chuckled, ‘they cannot eat very much, poor things. T hey are here, after all, to get slim and fit.’
The health clinic had its own private terrace which also enjoyed the same views of palms, beach, coral reef and, to one side, the sparkling pool. The coral reef pounded with a kind of regularity. Pampered, beautiful women, with sun-streaked hair, and wearing short Nicole de Speville towelling robes, were lounging about; all were in various stages of becoming slim, more healthy, more lovely. There were a number of tanned men about, also enjoying the treatment of the clinic.
The notice on one of the big glass doors read: Comtesse Nicole de Speville Health and Beauty Clinic. Reception. Female Department. Sauna. Plunge Pool. Swedish Massages. Auto-Masseur. Anti-Cellulite heat. Electro-Therapy.
There was an antique desk in the reception office and an attractive Creole girl wearing a hibiscus-pink sun-frock and a sea shell on a pendant sat in the huge wicker peacock chair behind it. Somebody was saying, ‘You look very sexy today, darling.’
Nicole de Speville looked suddenly harassed and vague, for the moment she had put in an appearance people began demanding her attention.
‘We are overbooked,’ she said, a moment later to Jade, and then sighed. ‘But then we always
are.
Look,' she glanced in the direction of the Creole girl, ‘be a darling and show Jade round, Loreto—and, Jade, join me back in my office when you are through, will you?’ The entire health and beauty clinic appeared to be curtained in shadowed hibiscus-pink, gold and apricot silk, and the floors were honey-gold tiles. There were arches everywhere and white louvred doors, urns with exotic leaves, and in the foyer there was a huge framed poster of a devastatingly beautiful naked girl on the banks of a river. A notice carried the words: Have you had your nine glasses of water today?
‘Men’s section to the left,’ Loreto said, smiling. ‘Women’s section to the right. You wish to see the men’s section?’ She laughed impishly, for there were loud, ‘naked’ slaps coming from that direction. ‘Armand is busy, as you can hear. In any case, in this section we have Armand, Maurice (she pronounced it Maw-reeze) and Pierre. Armand is busy with a massage now, as you can hear. So, all right, now we go through to the women’s section. All staff have been trained by the Comtesse de Speville.’
The Creole girl kept up a running commentary as she showed Jade around the clinic.
‘Before you go back to her office I will show you, very quickly, the hairdressing salon and the beauty parlour,’ Loreto said. ‘I love the salon. It has black Indian temple furniture in it—the chairs look like black lace, with silk hibiscus-pink cushions.’
When it was over Jade found Nicole in her glass-fronted office. At the pool a Frenchman was coaching a tanned girl in the art of diving. Nicole was surrounded by files and brochures and people kept knocking on her door, or merely walking straight into the office to seek her advice on something. Here, the fine, see-through silk curtains were also in shades of hibiscus-pink, apricot and honey-gold, and the combination was at once exciting and sophisticated.
‘Darling,’ Nicole looked at Jade, ‘go and order anything you like—a drink, maybe, a sunset snack, anything. Tomorrow we get organised, no? I am so busy now. Tell me, are you disappointed that Marlow was not here to meet you?’
After an awkward little pause Jade said, ‘I expected that, of course.’
‘Yes, I know—but even so.’
‘Do you know Marlow well?’ Jade asked.
‘Yes, I do. Sometimes he gives parties at his plantation house.'
‘What is it like?’ Jade asked. ‘Marlow’s plantation house?’
‘Oh,’ Nicole shrugged those slim, slim shoulders, ‘old —very old. Gracious, colonial, built of tropical wood and under the constant threat of cyclones.’ She laughed lightly, but Jade’s nerves tightened,
‘The thought of a cyclone scares me to pieces!’
‘We get warnings,’ Nicole said, ‘and fortunately they do not occur often. I myself have experienced only one severe cyclone. Anyway, we speak later, Jade?’
‘Fine.’ Jade moved away from the desk.
‘You will be at the cocktail party at the bikini bar?’
‘Yes, Nicole.’
‘And after dinner, you will have your first taste of Sega dancing,’ Nicole told her.
'The sky at sunset was apricot, pink and pale gold, and it matched the whole set-up, jade thought. The palms and the filao trees swayed in a light breeze. She went upstairs and sat on her balcony for a while, then went downstairs again, and in the direction of the bikini bar.
People were already gathered there. Waiters wearing white moved through the mixed Creole, Chinese, French and European crowd, carrying trays with cocktails and snacks on them. Jade helped herself to a cocktail and sipped it slowly. She did not see anybody she recognised, even though she had met a number of people at the health and beauty clinic ... and then she saw him and their eyes met across the space which divided them. She watched him as he came towards her, drink in hand.
‘You look completely refreshed,’ he said, ‘and very beautiful.’ Those strange eyes went over her and the soft, sexy caftan, a creation in crimson silk, swirled about her ankles in the sea-breezes. They stood crushed together in the mass of people, holding their glasses. This was the time of day, Jade was quick to notice, when Laurent’s eyes were beginning to change from a dark sea-green to almost malachite.
‘I didn’t expect to see you here.’ She tried not to sound pleased and excited about this.
‘Well, it is not surprising, after all. You can see my chalet from here ... see that leaning palm?’ He placed an arm about her shoulders and she found herself thrilling to his touch. ‘That is your landmark.' He turned to look at her face and smiled. Taking his arm away, he went on, ‘I am almost part of the hotel, anyway. You see, I form part of the hotels group.'
‘Oh.’ This took a moment to register with her and she was confused. Was she, as a result of this, going to see more of Laurent Sevigny at the hotel? she asked herself.
‘I don’t recognise any of the people I was introduced to this afternoon,' she said, helping herself to a chilli-bite from a passing tray. She began to nibble at the curried savoury. ‘I’m referring, of course, to the health clinic staff.'
‘They do not all stay at the hotel,’ he told her. ‘Most of them live near to the hotel and Nicole sends a mini-bus to collect them each morning and they return home in this fashion at the end of the day. Some of them have cars of their own. The dieticians, however, remain here on the premises.'
‘Oh, I see,’ she murmured.
Suave and handsome, he was wearing well-cut dark trousers and a white silk shirt, open at the chest. Very island-ish!
There was a rustle as a steel band began to play music with an exciting beat to it. Over the rim of her glass Jade’s eyes met his and sensing a very positive physical reaction towards him she dropped her lashes.
‘This must be Sega music,’ she said, without looking up. ‘Is it?’
‘Yes. Later we will dance to it.’ The tone of his voice was slightly mocking.
Laughing a little, she looked up at him. ‘I can’t dance the Sega.’
‘You don’t have to. They will switch to dance music as you know it, but I think you should give the Sega a try. Expertly, and without fuss, guests are taught the Sega on the dance floor next to the pool.’
‘Well,’ she glanced down at her drink, ‘I’ll have to see.’ To change the conversation she commented, ‘Nicole seems to be kept very busy. The moment we stepped into the clinic people started clamouring for her attention. She looked quite harassed.'
‘She is very busy,’ he replied. ‘Into the bargain, she has to travel constantly, to the many clinics she owns, but you know, although Nicole rises early and goes to bed very late, no one has ever seen her look haggard.’
Laughing a little, she said, ‘You mentioned that I looked rested, a moment ago. Did I, then, look haggard on the plane?’
‘You looked very beautiful, but upset and very frightened. Perhaps one of the most pleasant things to happen to a man is when he is able to be of some small comfort and assistance to a beautiful girl, and I hope I was of some assistance?’ A small, quick smile tugged at his mouth and a shock of excitement raced through her.
‘You were, thank you.’
Her silky caftan blew softly about her bare legs and curled itself around her ankles in the breeze which came in from the coral reef, and it was the most sensual sensation.
At that moment the manager came along and introduced himself and introduced her to several people. They all knew Laurent Sevigny, of course, who remained constantly at her side. With his dark, exciting looks and intent eyes, he reminded Jade of the corsairs who had gone before and who had added their names to the history of the island.
When she finally found herself alone with him again he surprised her by saying, What were you thinking about, a moment ago, to make you look like that?’
After a startled little pause she said lightly, ‘I don’t think I should tell you.’
‘Why?’ By a blink of his lashes she knew that she had made him just more than a little curious.
‘You might resent it,' she said. Her hair had fallen partly over her face as she stared down at the glass she was holding and she shook it back and glanced up at him.
‘Why is this?’ His eyes went over her.
‘I was thinking that you must surely be very much the corsair type.'
‘I am interested in what you have to say,’ he said. ‘In what way?’
'Looks, of course.'
‘Looks? I must admit that such a thing has never crossed my mind. I've never thought about how a corsair might have looked.'
‘Well,’ she felt confused now, and slightly ridiculous, ‘obviously they were brave—and dashing.'
Beneath the dark stroke of his brows his eyes searched her face, then he laughed.
‘There are countless stories and legends about that doubtless interesting and dashing occupation. The ' pirate was a sea-robber who looted ships, of all nations, including his own. If captured, he was hanged on the spot. The corsair, on the other hand, was a gentleman plunderer who operated under a letter of marque, issued by his own government. This was a document which gave him authority to raid ships of his country’s enemies. The corsair did not molest vessels of his own country or its allies. So, in other words, I remind you of a gentleman?’ He laughed again and looked at her with amusement. ‘A dashing, velvet-hatbox type of gentleman? I do not like this description.’