Merlyn's Magic (18 page)

'Anne,' she spoke shakily. 'When did you tell Rand about
your baby?' She swallowed hard.

The other woman sighed again. 'Well, just announcing it at
the party last night seemed too callous a thing to do so I invited him
over for lunch yesterday. He—took it quite calmly at the
time.'

Too calmly! He had come to her room after Anne told him
about her baby with the intention of hurting someone as badly as he was
hurting. And she could never tell him that she understood the pain that
had driven him that day because she could never tell him she knew about
the baby he had lost, his and Suzie's baby…

'I'll never tell anyone what you've just told me.' She
squeezed Anne's arm reassuringly. 'As you said, some things belong only
to them.'

Anne nodded. 'You're very fond of Brandon, aren't you?'
she probed gently.

Delicate colour brightened Merlyn's cheeks.
'I—barely know him,' she answered truthfully, realising how
little she really did know him—or the demons that drove him.

'He told me there was someone outside your room last
night,' Anne said slowly. '
Late
last night.'

The colour deepened in Merlyn's cheeks. 'He —he
walked me back to my room—'

'Merlyn,' the other woman cut in chidingly. 'Brandon is a
very attractive man, only thirty-nine, and he deserves to make a new
life for himself if he can. Besides,' she added with a smile, 'James
and I like you so much.'

She sighed. 'It would be pointless to deny that I'm seeing
Rand, but I really don't think you should make too much of it. We're
just two consenting adults who are attracted to each other.'

God, she sounded like one of those bed-hopping women that
she despised who explained away their behaviour with words like
'consenting adult' and 'mutual attraction'. She wasn't a prude, and she
realised soon after her break-up with Mark that if she had really loved
him she would have let him make love to her, would have wanted to make
love to him too, that if there had been any other man since then that
she had really cared about she wouldn't have hesitated to go to bed
with him. She just couldn't stand it when people explained away their
sexual promiscuity as experimentation for that 'one perfect
relationship'. Half of them didn't recognise it when it did come along
because they were too busy 'experimenting'!

'Brandon likes you very much.' Anne touched Merlyn's arm
reassuringly. 'You're the first woman he's shown an interest in
since—well, since—'

'Since Suzie,' finished Merlyn softly. 'I know that. It's
a big responsibility.'

Anne nodded understandingly. 'But he's already changed a
little since you came here, taking an interest in his businesses again,
shaving off that dreadful beard.'

'I quite liked it,' she said lightly, glad that Anne had
taken her relationship with Rand so well. It could have been very
awkward for all of them if she hadn't.

Anne gave her a sceptical look. 'It was awful!' she
grimaced. 'Anyway, I didn't come over here to probe into your
relationship with Brandon—'

'Or to tell me things I didn't hear.' Merlyn once again
assured her of her confidence being kept strictly between the two of
them.

'No, I actually came to tell you that the police have been
informed about the prowler last night—'

'Do you really think that's necessary?' She frowned her
surprise.

'Brandon does,' Anne told her as if that said
everything—and perhaps it did; he could be a very forceful
man. 'About this other business—I'm not usually so
careless. I think it's just that you've become such a friend these last
few weeks that I forgot you didn't know.'

'It didn't become public at the time?' she asked slowly.

'Oh no.' The other woman shook her head. 'Suzie was only a
few weeks pregnant when they—when they discovered her
illness. I think it was finding out about that that brought on the
miscarriage.'

Poor Rand, being dealt two such tragic blows in one go. No
wonder he was so bitter. And no wonder he was determined never to love
again, to take only the physical gratification of the moment that
Merlyn could give him. She couldn't expect any more from a man who had
lost so much.

'Just care for him, Merlyn.' Anne seemed to sense her
despair. 'He has so much love to give.'

Learning of the child Suzie had been going to give him
changed their relationship yet again, Merlyn realised after Anne had
left. She understood what had brought him to her room the afternoon
before, knew that it had been completely different from when he came to
her last night. Last night he really had needed
her
,
and not just to block out the unhappy memories Anne's pregnancy had
given him.

It was something to build their relationship upon. She
hoped.

'Coming over to dinner?' Liza invited when Merlyn answered
the door to her.

'I thought you would be with our "pussycat" of a
director,' she taunted.

Liza grinned as she strolled into the room, the bright
orange dress she wore suiting her sunny personality. 'He really was a
bastard to you today, wasn't he,' she dismissed.

'I think you're being over-generous, Liza,' she mocked.
'Am I to take it his mood will be improved tomorrow?' Merlyn raised
questioning brows.

'Not because of anything I've done,' her friend shrugged,
dropping down into an armchair.

'In that case, he'll probably be worse than today.'
Merlyn's eyes rolled expressively.

'Never mind, he'll have someone else to vent his anger on
then. He's concentrating on that scene with Mark in the gazebo,
remember?' she prompted.

Merlyn remembered. The 'scene' with Mark was one of those
purely fictional ones that had been put in to provide the 'romance' in
the film, 'Suzie and Brandon' making love in the glass and pine gazebo
beside the lake after Suzie stepped out of the boat.

Anne had actually written that Rand had been at the
doctor's office with Suzie when she got the results of her tests, so it
was ludicrous to assume the couple had made violent love in the gazebo
after Suzie had told him of her illness herself. But film directors,
and certainly film companies, didn't particularly care for the accuracy
of those minor facts as long as the story was fast-paced and moving.
They also seemed to think that a little sex thrown in for good measure
never did anyone any harm.

Merlyn had known the scene was scheduled for tomorrow, and
was dreading having to do it with Mark, of all people.

'Did I say the wrong thing?' Liza grimaced as she saw her
expression.

'Yes,' Merlyn sighed. 'What do you think about Mark
Hillier?'

Liza grimaced. 'I haven't seen him act yet.'

'I didn't mean from a professional point of view,' she
replied dryly.

'He seems okay,' her friend shrugged. 'How do you feel
about seeing your ex-fiancé again?'

Merlyn's eyes widened as she stared open-mouthed at Liza.
'How did you know that?'

'When we first met you were still very bitter about what
he tried to do to you,' Liza reminded her. 'I'd never forget the name
of a louse like that!'

Merlyn couldn't help laughing. 'You certainly see things
in black and white!'

'A rat of the first degree,' Liza nodded. 'I certainly
don't envy you out there in that draughty gazebo with him tomorrow,'
she shivered.

She grimaced. 'It has to be warmer than the rowing-boat
today.'

'Not without your clothes on!' Liza said expressively.

Merlyn's breath seemed forced from her body before she
became completely still. 'What did you say?' she finally managed to
croak.

'You can hardly make love with your clothes on, Merlyn,'
her friend scorned.

'It's supposed to "fade off into the sunset" when they
start to make love,' she bit out tautly.

'Well I don't know,' Liza shrugged dismissively. 'Why ask
me? I just know that Christopher was talking of restricting the crew to
the minimum to save you and Mark any embarrassment.'

'He
has
to be joking,' Merlyn said
through gritted teeth.

'I somehow don't think Christopher ever jokes about his
work,' Liza grimaced.

Neither did she, but if he thought she was going to be
agreeable to any nude scenes— especially in an exposed gazebo
with Mark Hillier —he was in for a disappointment!

Liza uncurled herself from the chair as she stood up.
'I've seen that look on your face before, and I don't want to be
anywhere within range when the sparks start to fly!'

'Where is Christopher now?'

'Don't ask me, I dumped him after his first improper
suggestion.' Liza's look spoke volumes. 'You could try his room. He was
probably as cold as the rest of us earlier; as far as I know he's
human!'

He was going to know he was very human by the time she
finished telling him what she thought of his idea that she and Mark
strip off in the gazebo!

He conveniently wasn't in his room when she rang, and he
didn't answer the page she had the hotel receptionist put out for him
either. Coward, she muttered to herself. He had to know Liza would tell
her about his bright idea for tomorrow, just as he had to know how she
would feel about it.

She felt completely depressed when she rang The Forresters
and the housekeeper told her Rand wasn't home yet.

'As soon as he comes in could you tell him I called?' she
requested heavily.

'I'm just on my way home now; you only just caught me as I
was going out the door.' The woman managed to convey her disapproval of
that fact even down the telephone line. 'But I can leave your message
on the pad here for him to read. With the others.'

What others, Merlyn wanted to demand, but knew she
wouldn't get an answer. Being the last on a list of other messages,
some of them perhaps from other women, one of them maybe even from the
lovely Deborah, didn't please her one bit. But there wasn't much she
could do about it.

An hour later Rand still hadn't arrived or returned her
call, and so she tried the house once again. This time not even the
disapproving housekeeper answered her call.

Where was he? Anne said he had taken up the reins of his
businesses once again; did that mean he had gone to London? Tired of
the confines of her room she headed towards the lake. The gazebo stood
across from the hotel like a mockery to her anger.

It was a beautiful structure, pine like the hotel, with
windows taking up the top half of the walls of the rounded
construction. Inside it was like a one-room cottage, with a pine floor
partly covered by a couple of scatter rugs, and a sofa and chair to sit
on as you gazed out at the pine-covered mountains beyond the hotel.

Merlyn deliberately avoided the building, walking along
the jetty to the small landing area that the family used to moor their
boats.

It was so still and peaceful after the day's hectic
activity, and she took a moment to drink in the tranquillity.

A board cracked beneath her foot with a suddenness that
sent her tumbling through the air, the coldness of the water closing
over her. She felt as if she took half the lake into her lungs as she
went deeper and deeper under the water, blackness and an ominous
rushing sound surrounding her.

She was drowning!

She began to thrash her legs to and fro in an effort to
get back to the surface, felt one of her shoes leave her foot as she
did so, the narrow-skirted dress she wore impeding her movements and
clinging to her body like a restrictive skin. Weeds tangled against her thrashing limbs, and she cried
out soundlessly at their slimy tentacles, immediately taking in more
water, choking, desperately needing to take air into her lungs.

If only she could reach the surface, if only she could
breathe
!
God, she was going to drown out here and no one would even know about
it until they found her body in the morning. No one even knew where she
had gone. Why hadn't she—?

Suddenly she felt something close about her waist as she
was forced through the water to the surface, drawing air into her
starved lungs even as she choked up the water she had taken in, her
arms going around Rand's neck as she clung to him, tears streaming down
her face as she sobbed with the relief of being alive.

'Are you all right?' he rasped.

'Yes,' she sobbed.

'What the hell happened?' demanded Rand, his arms about
her as he kept them both afloat.

'I don't know,' Merlyn choked. 'I—Oh I'm just so
glad you found me!' She couldn't seem to stop clinging to him,
frightened to let go in case the black water closed over her again.
'Don't let go of me, Rand. Please, don't let go!' She trembled
uncontrollably.

He drew in a ragged breath, his eyes silver in the
moonlight. 'You're safe now, Merlyn,' he assured her gruffly. 'You're
safe!'

For all his confidence, she still clung to him when he had
managed to push her out of the water up on to the bank, pulling himself
out beside her to lay back panting on the grass.

'Well my life had become a little dull before you exploded
into it,' he smiled, his chest heaving up and down from the effort it
had taken to subdue her panic enough to get her over to the bank and
out of the water. 'Thunderstorms, prowlers, and now this!'

She gave a shaky laugh, her head resting on his chest,
relieved just to be alive.

'What happened?' Rand probed again softly.

'I—You're shivering,' she realised, sitting up
to look down at him. His shirt clung to him wetly, as did his trousers,
but at least he had had the good sense to throw off his shoes before
jumping into the water, she realised as she ruefully looked down at her
own feet where only one sandal remained. Her stockings were laddered in
several places, her green dress as covered in mud as was the rest of
her. They both looked a mess.

'Let's go inside.' He pulled her to her feet and over to
the warmth the gazebo offered, picking up his jacket and shoes as they
passed them. 'No electricity,' he told her as she looked around inside
for a light-switch, finding a box of matches in a cupboard with a
familiarity that told of his use of the gazebo in the past, striking
one to light the oil lamp that stood on a small table. 'And there
should be some blankets in here.' He lifted up the lid to an ottoman
that also seemed to serve as the coffee-table as it stood in front of
the sofa, taking out one of the blankets to wrap it around Merlyn and
another one to drape about his own shoulders. '
Now
I could do with the brandy I've been drinking like water lately,' he
said as Merlyn huddled down into the blanket as she sat on the sofa.