Season of Shadows (6 page)

'Yes,' he admitted with a determination that chilled her
blood in her veins. 'As you pointed out earlier, Sally is nearing the
age where she'll need the advice and guidance of a woman, and that's
where you come in.'

'I see,' she murmured, her lips so stiff that she had
found difficulty in moving them. She tried telling herself that she was
living through a nightmare from which she would soon awaken, but she
knew despairingly that this was not so.

'There's another reason, of course, why it might be wise
for you to marry me,' Anton continued blandly. 'Graham warned me that
people have begun to speculate about your presence here in my home.'

Laura felt the blood surge painfully back into her cheeks.
'You mean they think—'

'That you've not only slept under my roof, but in my bed,'
he finished for her with characteristic ruthlessness when she faltered
with embarrassment.

'But that's ridiculous!' she protested angrily.

'You and I know that,' he said, crossing the room to her
side, 'but who will believe us?'

'But we haven't been alone. Sally has been here in the
house with us,' Laura argued indignantly as she found herself staring a
long way up at him.

'If you were an outsider, would you consider a child of
ten as an adequate chaperon?' he asked with a hint of mockery in his
deep-set eyes.

'I suppose not,' she admitted grudgingly, 'but nothing
like that ever crossed my mind.'

'Not everyone possesses a mind as pure and chaste as
yours,' he laughed harshly.

'Don't mock me!' she retorted angrily, her cheeks flaming
once more. 'I value my reputation even if you don't value yours.'

The atmosphere between them was suddenly electrifying.
'What makes you think that I have a reputation?'

She turned away from him, unable to sustain his piercing
glance, but determined not to be intimidated. 'People wouldn't have
been so quick to jump to the wrong conclusion if you hadn't built up a
reputation for yourself with women.'

'Laura, you're an attractive, healthy young woman in your
mid-twenties, and despite the fact that I'm nearing forty, I'm still
considered an active, virile man,' he assured her with that hint of
mockery still present in his voice. 'Put two elements like that
together in one house for any length of time, and people are bound to
consider the outcome as inevitable.'

'Dear heaven!' she exclaimed, burying her hot face in her
hands.

'Heaven comes later when you've given me an answer to my
proposal,' he stated with harsh cynicism as he forced the issue.

She swung round to face him, an unconscious plea in her
eyes, and cold fear clutching at her insides. 'I
can't
marry you!'

'Can't? Or won't?' he demanded, his mouth drawing into a
hard, thin line as he stared down at her from his imposing height.

'I need time to think it over,' she hedged desperately.

He glanced at his wrist watch. 'I'll give you five
minutes.'

'Five minutes?' she echoed, her voice croaking in despair.
'Do you realise that you're asking me to decide in five minutes about
something which will affect the rest of my life?'

The unrelenting lines of his jaw hardened considerably.
'It shouldn't take you long to decide whether your own happiness is
more important to you than Sally's.'

His words implied that she did not care as much about the
child as she had wanted him to believe and, like well-aimed arrows,
they struck her most vulnerable spot with an agonising accuracy.

'
Naturally
Sally's happiness is of
importance to me,' she stated emphatically, choking back the futile
tears which threatened to overwhelm her. 'I want her to have all the
love and attention which I've always felt Elizabeth had denied her by
being away from her so often, and I want to see Sally grow into a
healthy-minded young woman, but—' She faltered and gestured
helplessly, pleadingly, but Anton was like an immovable concrete wall.
'Anton… what kind of a marriage do you imagine it will be
when we've entered into it for these reasons?'

'A healthy, normal marriage.'

Laura swallowed convulsively. 'You
mean——'

'A sham marriage would never convince Sally of its
security and stability, and I don't intend spending the rest of my life
sharing my home with a woman who denies me access to her bed.' The
colour came and went in her cheeks at the crudeness of his statement,
but Anton seemed quite unperturbed as he glanced at his watch, almost
as if he were concluding a business deal. 'Your five minutes are up.'

'Is there absolutely no other way?'

His eyes, like flints of steel, raked her mercilessly.
'You know the answer to that question as well as I do.'

Laura closed her eyes and leaned heavily against the back
of the chair with her hands while her mind, like a computer, accepted
and rejected every avenue of escape she could think of, until she was
left with only one answer that mattered vitally. 'I would never forgive
myself if I took my own happiness at Sally's expense.'

'Am I to understand, then, that you're agreeing to marry
me?'

She raised her startled glance to his and, realising that
she had sealed her fate by speaking her thoughts aloud, nodded slowly,
her eyes filling with helpless tears as she resigned herself to the
inevitable.

'Let's go upstairs and set Sally's mind at rest by telling
her what we've decided.'

Laura felt certain that, had it not been for Anton's
supporting hand beneath her elbow, she would not have managed to climb
those shallow steps up to Sally's room where they found her propped up
against the pillows, considerably calmer, but still wide awake, and she
observed them warily as they approached her bed and seated themselves
on either side of her.

Anton obviously did not believe in dilly-dallying and came
straight to the point. 'What would you say if I told you that Laura has
agreed to marry me, and that Bellavista will be your home in future?'

Sally looked from one to the other, her red-rimmed eyes
wide and questioning in her pale face, but it was on Anton whom she
finally fixed her intent gaze. 'You mean Aunty Laura won't be going
away?'

'Just for a while, perhaps, to settle whatever she has to
in Johannesburg,' he replied evenly. 'But we'll be married as soon as
she returns.'

'Aunty Laura, is it true?' Dark eyes probed hers
relentlessly for confirmation. 'You
will
come
back? Promise?'

Just for one brief moment Laura shrank from replying.
There was still time to change her mind, but once she had given Sally
her promise there would be no turning back. She felt Anton's eyes on
her, and saw the growing anxiety in Sally's glance, then her heart
dictated the answer.

'I promise,' she whispered.

The change in the child's expression was so dramatic that
Laura was left in no doubt about whether she had made the right
decision.

'Oh, I think that's absolutely super!' Sally exclaimed
exuberantly, leaping up from beneath the blankets to hug them both
profusely. 'I'm so happy, happy, happy!'

'That's enough of that, young lady,' Anton ordered at
last. 'It's time you went to sleep.'

Sally settled down obediently, but her eyes glowed with a
new-found contentment as she looked up at them. 'Kiss me
goodnight… please.'

They complied with her wish, but Sally was not yet
satisfied. 'Now kiss each other like Mummy and Daddy used to do to make
the circle complete.'

'It will be a pleasure,' Anton replied, and before Laura
could retreat in startled surprise, she felt his warm, strong fingers
at the nape of her neck, and the hard pressure of his mouth against her
own. The duration of that kiss was brief, but something had happened to
her; something which she was still trying to define when he released
her and turned his attention to the child who had observed them with
obvious delight. 'Satisfied?' he asked with a faint smile.

'Yes,' Sally nodded happily. 'Goodnight.'

They put out the light and left the room, but when they
stood facing each other in the dimly lit passage, Laura found that she
could not look at Anton—not without her heart behaving in the
oddest manner—and she kept her eyes firmly lowered to the
wine-coloured carpet at her feet. Her skin still tingled at the nape of her neck where his
fingers had lain, and she could still feel the touch of his lips
against her own. The memory of his kiss awakened sensations which she
found difficult to analyse, but it sent a tell-tale warmth rushing into
her cheeks.

'You'll become accustomed to my kisses,' Anton assured her
mockingly as if he had read her thoughts, and her colour deepened,
evoking his soft, deep-throated laughter.

Laura suddenly felt choked and horrifyingly close to
tears. Her head was spinning in an effort to take in the events of that
evening, and Anton's mocking remark had made her realise with shocking
clarity that this nightmare was reality. For Sally's sake she had
agreed to marry this autocratic man with the cold grey eyes and cruel
mouth. For the rest of her life she would be at his mercy, and she
shuddered at the thought of it.

Aware that Anton was observing her closely, she made an
effort to control herself, and said quickly, 'I think I'd like to go to
my room.'

'As you wish,' he nodded coolly. 'We have the weekend
ahead of us to finalise our plans.'

If Laura had hoped to delay matters in some way, then she
soon discovered that Anton had other plans. Within a matter of hours he
had arranged, telephonically, for her to be released from her post as
secretary to a firm of accountants and, through the Johannesburg branch
of DeVere Enterprises, he found someone willing to take over the lease
on her flat in Hillbrow. All that remained for Laura to do when she
arrived in Johannesburg at the end of that week was to sell her
furniture, settle her personal accounts, and pack her bags.

This was all accomplished with frightening speed, and
within less than a week she found herself flying back to Cape Town in
Anton's private jet. The black limousine was at the airport to meet
her, with Eddie, the bulky Coloured, at the wheel, but it was the child
who leapt from the back of the car who caught and held Laura's
attention. Sally ran swiftly across the space dividing them and into
Laura's waiting arms.

'I missed you!' she cried and laughed simultaneously. 'I'm
so glad you're back at last.'

'I missed you too,' Laura replied truthfully as she hugged
the child close, but moments later she was glancing about her nervously.

'Uncle Anton couldn't come,' Sally answered her unspoken
question. 'He said he would see you at dinner this evening.'

Irrational disappointment mingled with relief, but Laura
thought no more about it and, indeed, she was not given the opportunity
to dwell on the perturbing subject, for Sally was hardly silent for one
moment during the drive from the airport to Bellavista.

Laura was amazed at the speed with which Sally had
overcome the shock of her parents' deaths, but then, of course, Sally
had been accustomed to not seeing Robert and Elizabeth for lengthy
periods of time, and this, Laura supposed, helped tremendously to heal
the pain of the child's loss.

Bellavista was bathed in the warm glow of the late
afternoon sun, giving the house and the surrounding landscape that
magical quality that nearly always succeeded in quickening her heart
with appreciation. This was to be her home in future, and although she
could not deny the pleasure this knowledge unwittingly aroused, there
was another side to it that filled her with secret dread.

Having to confront Anton at dinner that evening was an
ordeal she was not looking forward to. She knew that he would wish to
discuss the arrangements he had made with regard to their marriage, but
to her it was a subject that did not bear thinking about. She delayed
going down to dinner that evening for as long as possible, but when
Sally marched into her room and announced, 'I'm hungry,' Laura had no
option but to accompany her down the curved staircase with a sigh of
resignation.

They passed the entrance to the dining hall which was used
only for large, formal dinners, and a few moments later they entered
the small dining-room which was used more often when not entertaining
scores of visitors as it was situated conveniently close to the kitchen.

At their entrance Anton rose from his high-backed chair at
the head of the table, and the wide breadth of his shoulders almost hid
completely the heavy, gilt-framed portrait of one of his piratical
ancestors who seemed to leer at Laura, with sinister intent, the moment
they were seated.

An involuntary shiver coursed its way along her spine and,
glancing covertly at Anton, she noticed for the first time his
extraordinary likeness to the man in the portrait. The grey eyes
beneath the heavy dark brows possessed that same piercing quality, and
the features had been chiselled, as if by the same hand, into harsh,
unrelenting lines, but Laura was more concerned at that moment as to
how many of his ancestor's devilish characteristics Anton had inherited.

Anton poured wine from a crystal decanter into fragile,
long-stemmed glasses while he made a few polite enquiries about her
short stay in Johannesburg. She replied with an equal politeness,
sipping at her wine to steady her nerves, and then the first course was
served. An uncomfortable silence threatened, but Sally saved the
situation by regaling them with an almost non-stop resume of the class
outing that morning to the historical Castle. Her incessant chatter
appeared to irritate Anton, and Laura supposed she should have silenced
the child, but she was grateful for the diversion, and stubbornly
remained silent, allowing Sally to continue.

When coffee had been served, Anton was barely able to
conceal his thunderous expression when he frowned down the length of
the table at Sally. 'Isn't it time you went upstairs to bed?'