Spell of the Island (16 page)

‘But it was you who saved him in the end.’

‘It would have been too late to save him if you hadn’t done your part first,’ he was quick to remind her. ‘You risked your own life—’

‘There didn’t seem to be any risk at first,’ she interrupted, embarrassed by what Pierre was saying. ‘In any case, in that kind of emergency anyone would have acted as I did. You do so automatically and think afterwards. I knew I ought to have called to Louise, for that was what we had planned to do if either of us found Jeremy.

‘Well, all’s well that end’s well,’ he quoted, ‘and as long as you’re both going to be all right then that’s all that matters.’ He stayed for five minutes or so and then left.

Paul said that Emma must call if she needed anything in the night. ‘Louise is next door and I’m only just along the corridor.’ For some incomprehensible reason his mouth tightened and he added, ‘But I suppose I shall be the last person you’d want.’

Her head shot up off the pillow then dropped again.

‘Why should you say a thing like that?” she wanted to know.

‘It doesn’t matter.’ His voice had a bitter edge to it, and Emma frowned in puzzlement. He said good night, but as he reached the door she asked, ‘When shall I be able to go home? Did the doctor tell you how long I must stay here?’

‘A few days,’ shortly and with his hand reaching out for the doorknob. ‘Don’t worry about a thing.’

‘You mean—the air tickets. I suppose we can get a refund.’

‘We’ll talk about it later,’ he returned brusquely and went out.

He was in a very strange mood, thought Emma as she stared at the closed door. Oh, well, she had never been able to understand him so this was nothing new. She was sleepy but able to think, and the more she dwelt on the fact that she had been here only two weeks, the more she wondered how so much could have happened. The intimacy that had come between Paul and herself . . . but of course that could be explained by his behavior towards her; he had wanted her for his lover and made no bones about it. And when he at last had to accept defeat, he’d treated her with near indifference. But at the dinner dance he’d changed his mood even yet again, admonishing her for becoming friendly with the two young men. Not Louise, she now recalled, and yet Louise was at that time in his employ whereas Emma was not. So why chastise her and not her sister? It did not make sense at all.

Another thing that had puzzled Emma was his change of mind about taking her and Louise to the airport after saying he would. It was not as if he had
been going out or had any other reason for his change of mind.

Emma’s eyelids began to droop; she reached to snap off the bedlight then eased herself down beneath the covers, gingerly so as not to move her head too much. Within three minutes she was asleep.

Chapter Ten

Louise was there when Emma opened her eyes to the golden sun slanting through a chink in the drapes. She blinked several times, endeavouring to recall and concentrate.

‘So you’re awake. I’ve only just this moment come in to see if you’re all right.’ Louise’s cool hand was on Emma’s forehead. ‘How are you feeling?’

‘Much better; I haven’t any pain.’ She knew that part of her head had been shaved in order that the wound could be dressed. ‘How is Jeremy?’

‘As lively as a cricket. He seems to have forgotten the incident already. He’s with Sarogni, eating a hearty breakfast.’

‘Mother,’ said Emma swiftly as her thoughts became more clear. ‘She’ll—’

‘I phoned her just after Paul brought you in—’

‘What excuse did you make for our not coming? You didn’t tell her of the accident, I hope?’

Louise was oddly silent for a space. She looked troubled, and Emma’s nerves tensed as she waited for her to speak.

‘As a matter of fact I didn’t speak to Mother. Mrs. Grant answered the phone—’

‘Her next-door neighbour? Is—is something wrong?’

‘Mother’s ill—a very bad attack of flu but tummy trouble as well. She’s been in bed for three days, and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of improvement. I had intended telling Mother that there’d been some mistake about the flight we were supposed to get, but we’d be home as soon as possible. However, as I said, I didn’t speak to Mother.’

‘Is it serious?’ Emma felt she must go home in defiance of the doctor’s order that she must stay in bed for a few days.

‘Seems so. But an equally worrying thing is that Mrs. Grant’s leaving tomorrow evening for Canada to spend a month with her son and his family; so I shall have to go home without you—if I can get a flight and I only hope to heaven I can.’ Louise looked exceedingly troubled about the possibility of her not being able to get a flight.

Emma said thoughtfully,

‘So Mother doesn’t know that we’re not coming home together—’ She stopped, a determined light in her eyes. ‘I’m coming with you, Louise!’

‘I’d not be too sure, Emma. It would be unwise to
travel if the doctor doesn’t give his permission—please let me finish,’ she went on as Emma would have interrupted. ‘If I can get a flight then I shall be home before Mrs. Grant leaves, but if not—I have asked Mrs. Grant to get a nurse in—’

‘But Mother will be worried out of her mind!’

‘Mrs. Grant will already have told Mother the reason why we’re not arriving home today. I said we’d made some mistake about the flight date—’

‘That’s another thing. Mother will know that’s not true, because you and I would never muddle the time of anything so important as a flight. . . .’ She tailed off as the door swung inwards and Paul came into the room.

‘How do you feel this morning?’ he wanted to know, taking up her wrist as if he were feeling her pulse.

‘Much better,’ was her instant reply, ‘I’m going home today.’

There was a challenge in her voice which Paul completely ignored as he commented, ‘Much better. Good. You will stay in bed until the doctor gives you permission to get up—’

‘I don’t require the doctor’s permission!’

‘Louise has been talking to me, and I have just now managed to get her a seat on this evening’s flight—’

‘You have?’ from Louise who, mused her sister on noting her manner with Paul, had certainly acquired confidence in the last few days. ‘Thank you very much. It’s taken a load off my mind.’

Paul gave her his full attention for a space, and it was as if he were seeing her for the very first time . . . and forming a good impression.

Emma said, before either of the others could speak, ‘Mother will be so worried if I don’t go home. I don’t want her to know I’ve had an accident.’ In her anxiety she spoke without thinking and heard Paul say rather dryly as he glanced at her head, ‘And if you did go home, how would you explain the head shaving and the dressing?’

She bit her lip.

‘Perhaps I’d better stay—’

‘There’s no perhaps about it,’ broke in Paul inexorably. ‘You
are
staying.’

Louise shot him a glance, then transferred it to her sister. Emma had coloured up and turned her head away. If Louise had not been here she could have flashed Paul an acid retort!

Paul spoke to Louise. ‘You will have to tell your mother that Emma has had an accident, but you can truthfully reassure her that not only is her injury not serious but also that she is in good hands.’

Louise nodded mechanically, an odd expression on her face.

‘I shall make sure Mother’s mind is put fully at rest,’ she assured him, and after a moment’s pause she added curiously, ‘How long do you suppose it will be before my sister comes home?’

To her surprise he shrugged and said that depended entirely on the doctor. He seemed off-hand all at once, and a frown knit his brow. He spoke a few more words to her about the flight and then turned to go. Louise followed his departing figure, and now it was her turn to frown. She had been convinced, for one short moment, that Emma’s chances with Paul were rather good . . . but now she was having second thoughts.

‘What are you having for breakfast?’ she inquired after saying she would have some tea sent up.

‘Nothing much—er—a slice of toast will do. I’m not in the least hungry.’ She was vexed at this delay, and yet almost at the same second came the thought that if she and Louise had left the house without her, Emma, having gone into the nursery, then little Jeremy would not be alive at this moment.

‘I’ll see to it, then,’ she heard Louise say as she went over to draw the curtains back. ‘And then I’ll bring you a bowl of water to wash with.’

‘That isn’t necessary, Louise. I am quite able to use the bathroom.’

‘Sure?’

‘Absolutely.’ She paused and then asked where Eileen was, as Emma felt sure the girl would not be pleased by this delay in her departure from the chateau.

‘She decided to stay with her friend for a few more days, and likewise Madame Fanchette is prolonging her visit to friends.’

Emma fell silent, not too happy at the idea of all three women being away from the house. However, she hoped she could convince the doctor, when he came later this morning, that she really felt fit enough to travel with her sister this evening.

But her hopes were to be dashed; and when the doctor had gone, Emma looked at Paul, who had himself shown the doctor into her room, Louise being with Jeremy in the nursery.

‘It’s your doing, isn’t it?’ she accused even though she was not quite sure that her suspicions were correct.

‘You’re not fit to travel today.’ There was an
incisive quality about his tone and a hard light in his eyes. He seemed hesitant for a space but then said tautly, ‘There is no need for you to trouble yourself about me. I am fully aware of your opinion of me, so I’m unlikely to pay you any unwanted attention.’ And with that he left her, her brows drawn together in a frown of sheer perplexity, the words repeating themselves in her mind, ‘I am fully aware of your opinion of me. . . .’

Oh, well, she had told him several times that he was pompous and arrogant—Emma shook her head. There was something
more
than this in the words he had spoken with, she now realised, a thread of bitterness in their depths.

It was two days since the accident, and Emma, feeling completely fit and well, was standing by the little gate leading from the chateau grounds onto Paul’s private beach, talking to Pierre. He had been walking on the shore, and there was a look of boredom on his face.

‘I’m for home later today,’ he announced, and Emma’s nerves went tight. She and Paul alone . . . but for the servants. For the past two days she had been in bed for the most part—looked after by Ouma, another of the housemaids employed by Paul. But now she was up she must inevitably see more of Paul. . . .

‘You’re not waiting till your mother returns, then?’ she said.

‘There’s no knowing when she’ll be back. One never does know with my mother; she has what is called itchy feet. She always has to be on the move.’

‘But she was to stay here for a week—’

‘That’s guarantee that she wouldn’t get some other idea into her mind.’ His eyes wandered to where his brother’s yacht swayed gently in the water, movement caused by the trade wind breeze. ‘I can’t find much to do here; it isn’t as if I have a business to keep me occupied, like Paul.’ He looked at her head, the wound still covered with a buff-coloured dressing. ‘Feeling okay?’

She smiled at him.

‘Yes, thanks, I’m still feeling fine. I want to go home.’

‘Then why don’t you?’

She hesitated, wondering if she dared ask Paul for a loan.

‘I haven’t the money for my ticket,’ she said at length.

He stared at her.

‘You lost the other, of course, but surely Paul’s going to reimburse you?’

She shook her head reluctantly, and confided,

‘He hasn’t offered, Pierre, and I must get back home. My mother’s ill. I phoned my sister yesterday, and Mother is still very poorly.’

‘You seem distressed,’ he observed almost angrily. ‘Have you told Paul you want to go home?’

‘He knows I do. But I must admit that the doctor hasn’t said I can travel. However, I feel fine, and in any case, a flight doesn’t take anything out of you. You’re only sitting there, and it’s often possible to sleep.’

Pierre seemed puzzled and said decisively,

‘I’ll talk to Paul if you like? I know it’s a difficult subject for you to broach to him, but I feel sure it is only an oversight on his part—not offering you your
fare, I mean. He’s so busy these days and spends long hours in his study. In fact,’ he went on a trifle grimly, ‘that’s one reason I’m going home. Paul’s been no company for me except at dinner. As for these past few days he’s even gone back to his study afterwards.’

Emma said tentatively, ‘You’re sure you won’t mind talking to him, Pierre? Perhaps you could mention it casually—in passing?’

He smiled at her manner and immediately reassured her.

‘I’ll be tactful, never fear. He won’t guess that you and I have discussed the matter.’

‘Thank you,’ was all she said, and they parted company, Pierre to make for the house and Emma deciding to go on to the beach. But she was restless, and greatly troubled about her mother. As she felt well enough to travel, she wanted to get away soon, especially now that Pierre was leaving the chateau. For she was profoundly alive to the temptation that might be put in her way by Paul once he and she were alone. Emma was as much afraid of herself—her weakness—as she was of Paul.

So she turned back, her mind fully made up. If Pierre had not yet spoken to Paul about the air ticket, then she would do it herself.

He was out when she arrived back at the house, and she frowned in vexation. She went in search of Pierre and found him in the sitting-room, looking rather disconsolate. He had a glass in his hand, and she looked questioningly at him, for it was early in the day to be drinking brandy—and that seemed to be what the glass contained.

‘Paul’s gone out for the day,’ he grumbled, ‘and so I can’t leave after all.’

‘Why not?’ Paul out for the day . . . this meant she could not ask him for her air fare, so she could not leave either.

‘I can hardly leave without saying good-bye,’ pointed out Pierre impatiently. ‘It would be the height of bad manners.’

‘Because you’re his brother,’ she murmured. ‘But with me it wouldn’t matter—’ She broke off with a sigh. ‘I wish you’d managed to catch him before he went out, so you could have mentioned the money I need.’ It struck her that it might be a good idea to phone the airline, explain everything, and ask if she could travel now and pay as soon as she arrived home.