Season of Shadows (4 page)

'Did Elizabeth know the purpose of his mission?'

'I'm certain she did.'

Laura realised now, with sickening clarity, why he had
been so adamant about their bodies never being recovered, and as she
stared up at his broad back she wished that she could leave the matter
there, but there was one more question she had to ask. 'Why did you
want to hide the truth from me? I can understand why it's best to keep
it from Sally, but why from me?'

'I hoped you would never have to know,' he said, turning
to face her, and as she searched his chiselled features in an effort to
understand his reasoning, he added abruptly, 'What you don't know, you can't divulge to others.'

Her anger rose sharply at the obvious insult. 'Just what
do you think I am?'

'Don't jump to conclusions,' he ordered sharply. 'I've
just told you that there was more danger involved in that mission than
anyone realised, that's why there's safety in total ignorance.'

'Safety?' she echoed stupidly, then her eyes widened as
comprehension dawned and brought with it a certain amount of fear. 'You
mean I—I can't be forced to speak of something I know nothing
about?'

His mouth hardened. 'Exactly.'

'The situation is still dangerous, then?' she asked
unsteadily, a cold shiver racing up her spine.

'It could be, but we're taking no chances.'

'We?' she queried, but Anton's shuttered expression warned
her that she was beginning to pry too deeply. 'I'm sorry,' she muttered
apologetically. 'And thank you for telling me as much as you have.'

She held her breath, trying to decide whether to feel
afraid or not, and then the awkward silence was shattered by the sound
of running footsteps on the path below the terrace.

'I thought you were coming for a swim,' Sally demanded of
Laura with a well-remembered haughtiness as she skipped up the steps.

'Yes… well, I…' Laura flashed an
appealing glance in Anton's direction, and he reacted in a most
surprising way.

'If you give me a couple of minutes, then I'll join the
two of you for that swim,' he announced, removing his tie as he entered
the house through the double glass doors.

'Don't be long, Uncle Anton,' Sally called after him and,
taking Laura's hand, she said: 'Come on, the water is lovely.'

Sally swam well, Laura noticed as she floated lazily on
her back in the cool, refreshing water. Robert Dean and her sister had
made certain that their daughter could swim before she was a year old,
which was just as well, Laura thought wryly, considering that the yacht
had practically been the child's home.

She closed her eyes for a moment to shut out painful
memories, but when she opened them again she found herself staring up
at Anton who stood poised on the edge of the pool. Long-limbed, tanned
and muscular in his blue swimming briefs, she was again made aware of
that quality of steel in him; that ruthless strength which had somehow
always frightened her. To have him as her enemy was something she
prayed would never happen, for Anton DeVere would be merciless in his
attack.

Steel-grey eyes mocked her as if he knew every single
thought that raced through her mind, and then he was diving into the
water, his body moving beneath the surface with eel-like swiftness in
her direction. Her heart hammered and her throat tightened with
something close to panic as she tried to get away, but she felt like a
helpless infant thrashing at the water. Strong hands encircled her
waist, and a little cry of terror passed her lips before she could
prevent it from doing so.

Anton was not indulging in a foolish prank, she realised
at once when he emerged behind her. The roughness of his hard chest was
against her back, and the hands about her waist tightened almost
threateningly as he hissed into her ear, 'Remember… not a
word to Sally of the information I passed on to you. Not a word to
anyone, in fact.'

'Of course not!' she whispered back indignantly, angered
that he should have thought it necessary to remind her, and then she
was released.

'Race you to the other side, Uncle Anton,' Sally
challenged, and then Laura was left to continue with her leisurely
swim, but somehow the pleasure had gone out of it.

Jemima eventually served them with iced lemonade, and they
sipped at it appreciatively while they dried themselves in the sun.

'Are you going back to the office after lunch, Uncle
Anton?' Sally wanted to know.

'No,' he smiled faintly, tugging playfully at one wet
pigtail. 'I thought we might take a drive out to Bloubergstrand.'

There was a terrifying little silence during which only
the chattering of the birds in the trees could be heard, then Sally
asked hesitantly, 'Are we going to the cottage?'

'Yes.' Anton drained his glass and placed it in the tray.
'Would you like to go?' he asked casually, giving the impression that
he did not care whether she went or not, but when Sally finally nodded,
that faint smile was again noticeable about his hard mouth.

The drive out to Bloubergstrand did not take long that
afternoon, and on this occasion they did not travel in the long black
chauffeur-driven limousine which had met Laura at the airport, but in a
white Jaguar with Anton driving himself. His hands were relaxed on the
wheel, and fine dark hairs curled about the gold wrist watch which had
emerged from the sleeve of his grey lightweight jacket. He had nice
hands, she decided absently. They were broad and strong, with clipped,
clean fingernails.

Sally sat quietly in the back of the car, but when Anton
parked the car at the gate of the whitewashed cottage, there was a
frown between her dark brows and a tightness about her small mouth that
disturbed Laura.

From almost every window in the cottage one could look out
across the ten-kilometre stretch of Table Bay at the most photographed
view of Table Mountain with the city sprawled out below it. It was a
view she would never tire of, she thought as she recalled looking out
of the bedroom window one spring morning to see a carpet of colourful
wild flowers covering the sand dunes.

'Why don't you get the rest of your things together so we
can take them back to Bellavista when we leave?' Anton suggested to
Sally as he unlocked the front door and stood aside for them to enter.

'Okay,' Sally replied listlessly and, not wanting to leave
her alone in this mood, Laura followed her to her room.

She helped the child pack some of her belongings into
suitcases and an empty box which they found in the kitchen, but when
Sally eventually said stiffly, 'I can manage on my own,' Laura realised
that she was intruding on Sally's last moments in the home she would
never enter again, and she left her reluctantly to go in search of
Anton.

She found him in Robert's study, searching through the
desk drawers, and he looked up with a noticeable start when she entered
the room and asked curiously, 'What are you looking for?'

'Anything and everything which I may have missed
yesterday, and which might connect Robert with the mission he was on.'

Laura shivered involuntarily. 'I'm beginning to feel as if
I've leapt into the middle of a James Bond movie.' Her foot kicked
against an object lying half hidden beside the desk, and she bent down
quickly to retrieve it. 'Here's something. It looks like a map of
sorts.'

'That's it!' he said sharply, almost snatching the folded
paper from her hands to examine it. Satisfied that he had found what he
had been looking for, he dropped the map into the grate and set it
alight. The paper discoloured and curled as it turned into ashes, and
as the last flame flickered and died, he turned and asked abruptly,
'Why aren't you helping Sally?'

Laura's back stiffened with annoyance. 'She wanted to be
alone, but if you feel I'm in the way—'

'Don't be so touchy, dammit!' he growled irritably, taking
a flat gold case from his jacket pocket and flicking it open.
'Cigarette?'

'No, thank you.'

She turned away towards the window while he lit a
cigarette for himself and stood smoking it in silence beside the
fireplace. Laura felt choked and close to tears as she stared out
across the bay. Being in the cottage among the bric-a-brac Elizabeth
and Robert had collected together over the years was an unbearably
painful experience, and it forced upon her the stark finality of death.

'There's something about you which has always puzzled me,'
Anton's voice invaded her thoughts, and she controlled herself forcibly
before she turned to face him questioningly. 'Why is an attractive girl
like yourself not married yet?' he asked unexpectedly.

Laura stiffened and replied daringly, 'I could ask you a
similar question.'

'I've never found a woman whom I thought I could spend the
rest of my life with.' His eyes were narrowed and mocking beneath the
heavy eyebrows. 'Now it's your turn.'

'I haven't met the right man yet.'

'You've known several men?'

She looked away from his curiously penetrating gaze and
coloured slightly. 'A few.'

'Were they passionate affairs?'

'Certainly not!' she exclaimed indignantly, her colour
heightened by the gleam of sardonic amusement in his eyes. 'I don't
believe in—in that sort of thing.'

'Why not?' he laughed shortly, flinging the remainder of
his cigarette into the grate. 'Are you afraid of sex?'

Laura drew an audible breath, and lowered her eyes as she
said furiously, 'I refuse to continue this outrageous conversation.'

'There's nothing outrageous about sex,' he persisted
blandly.

'I never said there was,' she replied defensively, 'but I
have no desire to indulge in a sexual affair with any man unless I'm
married to him.'

His mouth twisted cynically. 'Chastity in unmarried women
went out of fashion years ago.'

'I wouldn't be so ready to believe that, if I were you,'
she retorted hotly, her blue eyes sparkling with anger. 'It's more
likely that you've met all the wrong kind of women.'

'I've always found women very easily persuaded to
relinquish their virginity.' His glance was an intolerable insult as it
roamed over her with a deliberate slowness that left her with the
shattering sensation that he was stripping her mentally, and then, to
add to her embarrassment, his mouth curved into a sensuous smile as if
he had enjoyed what he had seen. 'If a man with the right amount of
experience came along, you might find yourself equally eager to lose
what you now pride yourself in possessing.'

Her slim body went taut with resentment. 'When you speak
of a man with the right amount of experience, I presume you're
referring to yourself?'

'Possibly.' The lazy, sensuous smile still hovered
infuriatingly about his mouth, but those razor-sharp eyes were quick to
notice that treacherous little pulse throbbing madly at the base of her
throat. 'Does the thought excite you?'

'I think you're despicable!' she exclaimed angrily, for
once not afraid of him as she felt herself blushing to the roots of her
hair.

'Perhaps I am,' he admitted, his expression becoming
decidedly bored as he seated himself on the corner of the desk and
crossed his arms over his chest. 'It was one way, though, of making you
forget your surroundings for a time, and the tragic circumstances which
have brought you here.'

'Do you mean to say you were baiting me deliberately?' she
demanded with a mixture of incredulity and anger.

'You could say so, yes,' he admitted without the slightest
sign of regret.

Laura was speechless for a moment as she stood with her
hands clenched tightly at her sides in an effort to suppress the mad
desire to strike him, then the words seemed to tumble from her lips. 'I
think you're the most detestable man I've ever had the misfortune to
meet!'

During the electrifying silence which followed her
outburst, his eyes pierced her like steel blades, and she realised, too
late, what she had said, and to whom, but, while she still struggled to
formulate an apology, an incredulous voice demanded from just inside
the study door, 'Are you two fighting?'

For a moment neither of them moved, then his expression
cleared miraculously as he turned to look at the little girl who stood
hovering nervously in the doorway. 'You could say we were having a
slight difference of opinion, Sally,' he explained with surprising
affability. 'Are you ready to leave?'

Sally stared at them with a measure of uncertainty, then
she nodded her dark head, and said: 'Yes, I've got everything.'

'Good,' he nodded abruptly, and a few minutes later they
were driving back to Bellavista, leaving behind a locked and shuttered
cottage filled with personal reminders of the two people who had once
lived, and loved, there.

After dinner that evening, when Sally had gone to bed,
Laura joined Anton in the living-room in a grimly determined effort to
discuss her plans for the child. His long, virile body was sprawled
lazily in a chair, and his eyes were closed when she entered, but she
had barely walked a few paces into the room when she found his cool,
calculating glance fixed intently upon herself, and for one frightening
moment her courage almost deserted her.

'I'd like to talk to you about Sally,' she said in a rush
before she had time to change her mind.

'Ah, yes, Sally's future,' he remarked slowly, looking
thoroughly bored as he gestured vaguely that she should sit down.

Laura seated herself stiffly on the edge of the chair
facing him, and tried not to look as nervous as she was feeling at that
moment when she said: 'I want to take Sally back to Johannesburg with
me.'

'I'm afraid that's out of the question,' he replied
evenly. 'Sally will remain here at Bellavista with me where I can keep
an eye on her.'

'I don't think you have any right to dictate her future,'
she argued tritely, hating his superbly confident manner. 'I'm her
aunt; her only living relative, and—'