When the dance ended they left the floor, but Carmina noticed that they didn’t hold hands. Luc tried to take her hand but Gina quickly pulled it away. Oh dear, he was definitely still in the dog-house.
Carmina smiled to herself. How long would a boy like Luc put up with such treatment? Not long, surely. And she’d be ready and waiting when he grew bored.
‘Are you enjoying yourself?’ Luc asked and Gina gave him a little nod of agreement.
‘Would you like a lemonade or something?’
‘No thanks, I’m fine.’
Luc took a breath. He hadn’t expected it to be easy but trying to get a smile out of her, let alone any sort of conversation, was proving impossible.
‘Carmina’s over there, why don’t you go and dance with her,’ Gina said.
Once upon a time she would have been thrilled to be at a dance with Luc, now she felt awkward with him, and conspicuous on the dance floor with her limp, as if people were looking at her and wondering why she danced in that funny way. ‘She keeps glancing across. I think she must be feeling a bit low now that you’ve called the wedding off.’
‘Don’t tell me that you’re feeling sorry for Carmina now?’
Gina still didn’t look at him. ‘I’m saying that you’re free to ask her to dance, if you wish. You don’t have to stay here with me.’
With an exasperated sigh, Luc took Gina firmly by the shoulders and turned her to face him. ‘Look, if you keep talking about Carmina like this, it isn’t going to help us to forget what happened, is it? You have to stop being so concerned about her, and stop believing every bit of rubbish she says.’
‘She’s my sister.’
I know she’s your sister but can’t you see what she tried to do to us? It wasn’t a mistake, all this talk about a baby, it was another of her lies. She wouldn’t recognise the truth if it jumped up and bit her.’[
Gina scowled, hating herself for behaving this way but quite unable to help it. They were huddled in a corner of the dance floor, speaking to each other in furious whispers above the noise of the music. Elvis Presley was belting out
All Shook Up
, and people were glancing across at them in curiosity. The room was hot and crowded and Gina felt harassed and uncomfortable, wishing she’d never come and was safe at home in her bedroom. What had possessed her to imagine she could go through with this, and pick up where they’d left off? Hadn’t Luc destroyed everything they’d had together by sleeping with her sister?
‘She says you were rampant for her, wouldn’t leave her alone. Maybe Carmina too was fooled into thinking you cared for her, just as I believed you loved
me
. Wrongly as it turns out.’
‘I
do
love you.’
‘But not enough.’
‘Oh, Gina, let’s stop this arguing, let’s just try to be friends.’ He touched the swathe of hair that fell forward over her face, and tucked it behind her ear. ‘One day, I hope you
will
believe me, but I accept that maybe it’s too soon right now.’
An awkward silence fell between them, one in which Gina realised the band was playing
Bye, Bye Love,
an Everly Brothers hit. It seemed so appropriate that for a moment she feared she might start to cry. It entirely echoed the terrible despair she felt.
Perhaps Luc realised this for he gently took her arm. ‘Come on, love, those words aren’t meant for us. Let me show you how to do the hand jive, which we can do sitting down. It’ll cheer you up. No more quarrelling, we’re here to have fun, remember?’
And to Gina’s great surprise, even though she was upset over the heated words they’d exchanged, felt vulnerable and nervous because in some mysterious way Luc seemed almost like a stranger to her now, she did indeed start to relax a little and have fun. She even had a go at the cha-cha and found she could do it rather well. Luc said she’d be an expert dancer in no time.
Not that she believed him when he said that either, not with her lolloping gait. He was just being kind, and she’d really no wish to be an expert in anything. Gina simply wanted him to love her, as she’d once fondly imagined that he did. He swore that his feelings hadn’t changed, but how could she believe anything he said after all that had happened? There’d been so many lies told, Gina no longer knew who she could trust.
Bored, and temporarily short of partners, having refused several candidates because they were too tall, too short, had spots, a big nose or simply weren’t Luc Fabriani, Carmina had been sitting in a corner sulking for some time when she suddenly noticed that the band had gone off for a break and Alec Hall was setting up his record player in their place.
An image of their encounter on the supposed site of the old Roman Fort flashed instantly into her mind. She no longer thought of it as rape, only too aware of her own part in the incident. Things had simply got out of hand, and, okay, so he’d taken advantage of her, in a way. He’d rushed things instead of making sure she was entirely willing. Yet there was something appealing about the man. His casual assurance that he could do with her as he pleased excited her. Carmina had discovered that she rather liked a man who knew how to take control.
She liked his smoky grey eyes that seemed to devour her, even the derisory smirk when she said something that amused him.
A burn that could only be desire started up deep inside her at the memory of his passion, his intense hunger for her. That’s all it had been; not wickedness, not a violation, simply an unstoppable, unquenchable need to possess her.
Carmina rather liked that too. So thrilling! So dangerous!
She fluffed out her hair, smoothed her circular skirt over her bouffant petticoats and strolled over to say hello.
Alec Hall looked oddly out of place in his black velvet jacket and pink dickie-bow tie with a carnation in his buttonhole, but she smiled at the way the light came into his eyes as he saw her approaching. Carmina had forgotten that she’d once thought him an old fashioned fuddy-duddy. He was simply a man who liked women; a man who fancied her like mad.
Rumour had it that he’d been married twice; his first wife dying when a V2 bomb dropped on his house, the second someone he met when he was out in Vietnam who’d either tragically died or deserted him. A bit of a ladies man, our Alec.
‘I wondered when you’d come over,’ he said, as soon as she reached him. ‘I knew you wouldn’t be able to resist.’
Carmina couldn’t help laughing. ‘Don’t flatter yourself.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it. I’m flattering
you
. You’re the most beautiful girl in the room.’
His words were balm to her bruised pride, exactly what she needed right now: a man who appreciated her charms.
‘Cigarette?’ He was offering her a Capstan full strength. Carmina didn’t smoke but she thought, what the hell, and took one. It made her cough and it was his turn now to laugh.
‘I think you need a bit more practise.’
‘Maybe I do, but then I am only seventeen, so I’m needing practise in all sorts of things. Maybe I just need a good teacher.’
He looked at her steadily, one eyebrow raised as he slid another record on to the turn-table, then gave that little smirk. ‘Maybe I should apply for the job.’
‘Maybe you’d get it.’
‘That’s a lot of maybes.’
Carmina shrugged. ‘Well, it’s up to you, isn’t it?’
‘Is it?’
‘I’m a bit disappointed in you though.’
She was delighted to see that his face fell. ‘Why, what have I done? Look, if it’s about what happened the other week, I can only say I read the signals wrong. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.’
‘It certainly won’t.’
‘Next time I’ll be the perfect gentleman.’
Carmina stared at him. ‘Next time? Now you are flattering yourself. All I meant was that you once said you’d come and ask me to dance when the band came back, but you never did. You forgot all about me.’
‘How could anyone forget you, Carmina? Once seen, never forgotten.’
She moved closer, so that she could look directly into that steady, penetrating grey gaze of his. ‘Why don’t you ask me tonight then? If you did ask me - to dance, I mean - I might be more amenable this time.’
Both of them were breathing quite deeply as they each considered the underlying meaning beneath this ouwardly casual remark. After a moment Alec gave her a slow smile. ‘Okay, how about the first one after the band comes back?’
Carmina shook her head as she half turned to walk away, except that she was really only doing a little pirouette to let him appreciate the full picture of her shapely figure. ‘It might be a rock ‘n’ roll. Do you jive, or rock?’
He shook his head. ‘Maybe I need a teacher too. We could have the last waltz then, how about that?‘
A slight pause while Carmina considered, and then, ‘OK, the last waltz it is. Don’t forget this time. I’ll be waiting.’
‘I won’t forget.’
To her great satisfaction, Carmina noticed that Luc hadn’t missed this little flirtatious exchange, and she cast him a glance of pure triumph as she sauntered back to her friends.
If Luc Fabriani imagined he could simply walk away and abandon her then he was badly mistaken. Once he realised what he was missing, he’d be begging her to take him back. Let him see how other boys, and even grown men of experience, couldn’t get enough of her.
If her over-protective mother hadn’t taken her to the doctor, the lie would never have been discovered until after they were married, which would have been far too late for Luc to do anything about it. She really had been very unlucky.
But it was only a set-back, Carmina told herself as she went to see if her friends had remembered to get her a plate of supper. She was beginning to think more clearly now. All she had to do was prove the lie to be the truth. She even had an idea how to banish her stupid sister from the picture once and for all.
Alec did not forget his promise of the last waltz, but Carmina did. She looked at him blankly when he suddenly appeared at her side.
‘Our dance, I think,’ he said, brushing aside the young man who’d hoped for that pleasure.
‘Maybe I’ve changed my mind,’ Carmina replied, somewhat brusquely.
She hadn’t expected to have to keep this promise. She’d rather hoped that having seen what he was missing Luc would have left Gina and come rushing to her side. It hadn’t happened. For all her sister’s evident coolness towards him, he was still hovering about her like some love-sick puppy. And now she would have to keep her promise to dance with Alec, after all. Really, she should learn to think things through properly before being tempted by a roguish smile.
‘We seem to be off on those maybes again,’ he said, again with that twisted little smile.
Allowing no further argument, he took her in his arms and swept her on to the dance floor. Alec Hall surprised her still further by being an excellent dancer. He even knew the proper steps instead of just stumbling round as the other lads did.
But it wasn’t his expertise with the waltz that appealed most as the way he was holding her, the heat of his body searing through her thin blouse. She could feel his hand hot and heavy in the small of her back, the pressure of his thighs against hers. She could sense his steps slowing, his mood growing languorous with desire.
Carmina was equally surprised by the effect this was having upon her. Momma would accuse her of being wanton. Fortunately, Momma wasn’t here to see what her daughter was up to but Carmina certainly felt wanton. What was wrong with having a bit of fun?
She eased herself closer allowing his cheek to rest against hers, his warm breath sending little shivers of excitement down her spine. She became so engrossed with the image of smooching with a mature, experienced male with whom she’d already had intimate relations, Carmina even forgot to check if Luc was watching.
‘I must be the luckiest guy on the dance floor,’ he murmured, flicking his tongue against her ear.
Carmina felt drowsy with lust, entranced by the fact he could have any woman, any girl in the room, yet she was the one he wanted.
‘I’d feel even luckier if you let me drive you home.’
He has a car, she thought, unlike these randy young lads who would be only too eager to take her home if they didn’t have to walk quite so far. Of course, Luc had that beat up old Morris, but Alec’s car would surely be far better.
‘Okay.’
They passed Luc and Gina waiting at the bus stop as they drove by, so maybe the beat up old Morris was in the knacker’s yard, as it so often was. Carmina waved through the window and then leant back in her seat, feeling exceedingly pleased with herself. She’d make Luc sorry for choosing her sister instead of her.
Alec didn’t take her home, but then she hadn’t expected him to. His car was a sporty MG Midget in British Racing Green, which Carmina loved on sight. It was so satisfying to know he could afford such a vehicle. So grown-up.
He drove down by the River Irwell and parked the car under one of the railway arches where they had a view of slate-grey water glistening in the pale moonlight as it slid under Princes Bridge. A bonded warehouse in dark red brick loomed in the background, its myriad barred windows and doors giving it the look of a prison. Carmina shivered.