Robyn Donald – Iceberg (17 page)

and struck out for the other side of the bay, seeking to exhaust herself in the rhythm of her stroke, to clear her

mind of everything but the water and the sun and the physical sensations of her body.

She was a good swimmer, strong and fast, and made the other side with no difficulty. Once there she waved to

Sarah, then began the return journey.

Halfway back a searing pain caught her in the leg, forcing -a cry between her lips. For a moment she couldn't

breathe, held in thrall by the agony, then she found herself spluttering as she sank beneath the water, and after

that there was a nightmare of pain and fear which made her thrash out in a useless effort to keep her head above

water. '

How long it was before she was hauled to the surface again she never knew; probably only a minute or so, for

later she discovered that Justin had been in the water before she went under. But it wasn't until she was back on

the sand, had had the water in her lungs forcibly expelled and been sick, that she realised just how close she had

been to death.

And then, in the face of Sarah's terrified silence and Justin's grim efficiency, she had to fight off the bout of

sobbing in case she frightened the child even further. But the tears filled her eyes and flowed down her cheeks,

and her breath came heavily, in short gasps which hurt her chest and ribs.

'Are you all right?' Sarah enquired in a high, thin voice. 'Linnet, are you all right now?'

'Leave her,' Justin ordered. 'She's fine, sweetheart. Look, colour is coming back into her cheeks.'
. '

And so saying he swung-her up into his arms and carried her op to the house with Sarah trotting anxiously

behind.

Linnet found she was crying quietly, the tears dripping down on to his chest, each soft gasping breath releasing

more as she relaxed against the warm strength of his arms and shoulders. Once she made an effort to wipe them

away, but he said in dry tones, 'You can't make me any wetter than I am already,' and she just let them flow.

Half an hour later she was tucked up in bed, the electric blanket on and Sarah gone, shooed from the room by

Cherry, who, unflappable as ever, had known exactly what to do.

And then 'the tears-came properly, so -that she wept bitterly for the ache in her heart, wept as if she was

releasing herself from all the pain which lay ahead.

After a while she slept.

It must have been after midnight when she woke, for the house was quiet, and a glance from the window

showed that the McCarthys' cottage was dark and still. Very quietly she crawled from beneath the bedclothes,

surprised to find that someone had been in and turned off the electric blanket. She was a little stiff and sore, but

apart from dial felt well and ravenously hungry.

So, with the least possible amount of noise, she pulled a thin cotton wrap on over her transparent nightgown

arid made her way to the door, waiting there with bated breath. There was no noise but the almost silent hush of

the waves, no sound of anyone moving’ so she tiptoed down the passage towards the kitchen.

Once there she closed the door behind her, fortunately it clicked only once, and that softly. Without switching

the light on she made her way across to the fridge. If anything had been left over from dinner it would, be stored

there.

In the silence the faint rattle of the door seemed ominously loud; she looked anxiously over her shoulder for a

moment, but there was no answering noise to indicate that she had woken anybody.

Unfortunately the interior light showed only the raw materials of future meals; nothing' remotely edible. So,

again holding her breath, she closed the door and made her way across to where a large cane basket held an

assortment of fruit.

An apple and a pear in either hand, she was half way back across the kitchen when to her horror she saw the

door into the hall gape open. From the darkness of the passage Justin moved, panther-silent, into the room.

Certain that the heavy thumping of her heart must reverberate through the house, Linnet froze. Like a guilty Eve

she, clutched the fruit beneath her breasts as he came towards her, while her dry throat refused to allow any

sound through.

'What the
hell
are you doing?’ he breathed as he came up to within a few inches of her.

She couldn't prevent the step backwards. 'I'm hungry,' she managed, after licking her lips, 'so I got some fruit.'

Even in the darkness she could see his frown. 'I thought you were burgling the place.'

'You shouldn't have walked straight into the room, then,' she returned, striving for a touch of lightness. 'I ..

could have bopped you from behind the door.’

Td already looked in your room, so I knew it was you,' he told her drily. 'Why didn't you turn the lights on?'

'I didn't want to wake anyone.’

'I'm a very light sleeper, but I'm more likely to wake at anything unusual, like someone tiptoeing around.'

'What about Sarah?'

The light through the window was quite strong, for she saw him smile, even saw the irony in it. 'If you stood by

her bed and screamed into her ear she just might wake.'

'Oh.' She felt foolish, caught like a child stealing food, yet on edge too. Standing so close together and talking in

whispers was an open invitation to intimacy. So she walked across to the sink and pressed the switch which

brought the light above it to life.

Without looking behind her she pulled a door open, took out a glass and filled it with water to ease the dryness

of her throat.

'Well, ‘thank you for checking up on me,’ she said politely, after she had drunk half of it. ‘I’ll eat the fruit in my

bedroom.'

'Don't let me chase you out,' he returned, just as politely. 'Would you like some hot milk to go with it?'

'No, thank you.'

'No after-effects?'

'No, thank you.'

A moment of silence, then he asked silkily, 'Just what were you doing out in the middle of the bay?'

'Trying to drown,' she returned with a flippancy she was far from feeling. 'I'm sorry,'

'So I should bloody well think!'

At the barely repressed fury in-his tones she turned, bewildered by the fact that Justin, who never swore, had

twice sworn at her.

'Heavens, I didn't mean to,' she began spiritedly, 'I got cramp and——'

'Anyone with an atom of sense would have realised that swimming in a pool where the water is warm is no

training for swimming a mile in the sea.' He bit the words out, each one cold condemnation. 'Sarah was almost

out of her mind when I got you back!'

Linnet trembled. 'I am sorry,' she whispered, remembering the stark terror in the child's eyes.

'Sorry?' His hand shot out, fastened on her upper arm like a vice-grip, uncaring of the fact that he hurt her. 'I

should hope so! Another death would have been more than she could have borne.'

'Another death?'

'Yes. "Those pale eyes were fixed on hers now, and she could see that he hated her, 'Sarah was with her mother

when she rolled the car,’ he told her with pitiless clarity. 'Alison wasn't wearing a seat, belt and she was thrown

under the car and crushed, She was still alive when I got her out, but she died almost immediately. Sarah saw

her.'

A tide of nausea robbed Linnet's already pale face of whatever colour it had. With a curious repellant gesture

she wiped her hand across her mouth as though by so doing she could wipe away Justin's words from her

consciousness.

Poor little Sarah! It was no use telling herself that the child would not remember; an event like that would be

deeply burned into her memory. No wonder she had' panicked when she saw Linnet's struggles; no wonder

Justin's features were set in an expression of implacable dislike!

'I didn't know,', she said beneath her breath. 'I'm sorry.'

Knocked off balance by the shock of this information, she lost any desire she might have-had to answer him

with her usual spirit. Instead, great, tears welled up, drowning the gold in her eyes.

'I'm sony,9 she said again, knowing as she said it how useless such an apology was, but unable to think of

anything eke to say which would tell him how much she regretted opening old wounds for both him and his

daughter.

'Stop that!' The words cracked like a whip in the still air.

Horrified, she blinked the tears back, but it was too late. Justin's other hand closed on to the softness of her

shoulder as he jerked her into his arms and coveted her trembling mouth with his own, kissing her with a kind

of desperation which sent a warning signal to her brain before the sheer physical magic of his touch got through

to her, and all of her fears were banished by the riotous response he awoke in her.

His mouth was firm and warm, weaving a spell to enthrall her senses. The warmth of his body radiated through

her flimsy clothes, trembling faintly with the force of his desire. Linnet knew a traitorous surge of passion in

response.

Then he lifted his head and kissed her eyes closed and his hands moved over to stroke the vulnerable nape of

her neck beneath her .hair, the other to hold her across the back. Perhaps he thought she wanted to pull away.

Linnet was too lost in the primitive need to continue this delight to even think of moving from the warm haven

of his arms; every warning of her brain was swamped.

Her skin tingled with anticipation as his mouth moved to her cheek and the lobe of an ear, the warm hollow

beneath and down to the tender, throbbing base of her throat.

'Justin,' she whispered achingly.

'Hush!' One hand pushed the neck of her wrap back,,, revealing the skin beneath. Shivering at the smooth

sensuous movement of his fingers across her skin, she must have made some soft noise, for he whispered again,

'Hush!'

The words were soft on her skin. Held in a trance of turbulence, at the mercy of needs and desires she could no

longer control, Linnet lay quietly in his arms. Passion flared into life within her, an all-encompassing flame

which responded to the hunger in him with the ardour of her generous youth.

Again she whispered his name, only to have it crushed to nothing beneath the pressure of his lips on her open

mouth.

Ah, but she wanted him, wanted him, with a yearning which was as strong as it was lawless, conjured to life by

his desire for her. He did not shock her, not even when his hands touched her body as if she were already his

woman, for his hands and lips told her that she was beautiful, that he needed the soft forgetfulness of her skin,

the willing nirvana of her body.

The distant sound of Sarah's voice was shocking in its suddenness, shocking in its effect on Linnet. It was a

douche of icy water, a swift descent from rapture to cold sanity awakening her brain.

'Stay here,’ Justin ordered harshly, shaking her as she turned blindly away from him.
'Stay here!'

As coolly as if this had happened a hundred times before he collected a glass of water, threw a glance at her

from which all of the glazed languor of passion had fled; and left the room.

Like a sleepwalker Linnet picked up the half empty glass of water she had left and drank, staring with distaste at

the apple and the pear on the bench. Art hysterical bubble of laughter had to be repressed; she did not feel at all

hungry now. Ignoring them, and Justin's command5, she switched the light off and made her way along the

passage to her own bedroom.

But outside the door she paused, irresolute. Sarah was half-sobbing, and above Justin's deep tones Linnet could

hear the childish voice calling her name.

Swiftly she went into Sarah's room.

'Oh, L-Linnet——' The wailing stopped. 'I had a horrid dream. I thought you were dead!' ‘

'Well, as you can see, I'm not,' Linnet said in as matter-of-fact tones as she could manage with Justin's gaze on

her. I’m sorry I gave you such a fright, chicken, but I'm fine now.'

She sat down as she spoke, on the opposite side of the bed from Justin, and received Sarah's clinging arms

around her neck with a hug and a kiss on the. flushed cheek.

'Silly old thing,' she soothed comfortably. 'Everything's fine now. Sh-sh!'

The sobbing stopped as if by magic. Whatever realms of fantasy and horror Sarah had inhabited had been

banished well and truly.

'Daddy said you were asleep,' she said with a final hug before sliding back on to her pillows with a satisfied,

sleepy smile. 'I'm sorry I woke you up.' Her half-closed eyes opened. 'We're like a family again, aren't we?' she

said, only
\a\f
smiling. 'Goodnight, Linnet. Goo'night, Daddy.'

Linnet retreated in as good order as she could; she almost ran into her bedroom and found herself staring around

it as if in search of something to barricade the door. Scolding herself for being stupid she walked across to the

window, drew back the curtain and stared out at the enormous stars caught in the black tangle of the silhouetted

pines! A soft breeze brought the sound of the sea to her ears, carrying with it a feint salt scent mingled with the

tang of pine tree balsam and a more exotic, heavier perfume from one of the shrubs.

A night made for love, she thought bitterly. Lord, what an
idiot
she had been! And thank God that little Sarah

had had her nightmare. Probably set off by the faint noise of movement in the house, and how fortunate it had

been for Linnet's chastity.

A slight noise made her swing to face the door,; a hand flying to the pulse at the base of her throat as she saw