Unknown (12 page)

‘I thought Bingo enjoyed his meal that night,’ grinned Richard when she had finished.

‘Well, now you’re wise about fibres of different cuts, Richard.’ Paddy served him a big plate.

‘Where’s yours?’ They all wanted to know.

‘Mr David is taking me to the club tonight.’

‘Like that?’—Paddy wore jeans and tank top.

‘No, I’m going to change.’

‘Change now,’ they urged eagerly, and Paddy smiled and went to her room. Poor kids, she thought, they want a bit of glamour, but they’ll never get it out of me. She looked, dubiously now, confident no longer, down at her skirt.

But something had happened to the outfit. It had been a good enough skirt, as well cut a black velvet as she could have bought, but still ordinary. But now it looked quite wonderful. There was a beautiful jewelled belt on it, and on the blouse there was a matching pendant and bracelet.

Then she saw the note.

‘I looked in to see if you had obeyed orders and found that you had laid out your gear. Please accept Aunt Mirabel’s trinkets, if only to brighten the boys’ hearts. M.D.’

‘Oh, I will,’ said Paddy eagerly.

She showered and dressed and where the blouse and skirt had looked neat enough, when the jewelled belt was clipped round, and the pendant and bracelet added, it was a different story.

‘I look ... I look …' Paddy beamed at herself, well pleased.

When Magnus tapped on the door and she opened the door and he saw her, he only glanced very briefly. But that brief glance missed nothing, Paddy sensed.

‘Thank you for Aunt Mirabel’s jewels,' she proffered.

‘Semi-precious only, in fact local stuff—quite a lot of beryl and lesser sapphire is found down our valleys, so you needn’t be afraid of losing anything irreplaceable. Come now and slay the boys.’

The boys were satisfactorily ‘slayed’, their eyes were like saucers. They gave appropriate wolf whistles, and Richard even foresaw Paddy getting herself a feller.

‘What are you talking about?’ demanded Magnus. ‘I’m her feller.’

‘Are you, sir?’

‘The one who escorts a lady is always her feller.’ Magnus added cautiously: ‘For the night, of course. Are you ready, Milady?’

Yes, Milady was ready, and she went down to his waiting car.

It was not far to the club, a small tasteful building set in a thicket of trees, surrounded by patios lit with coloured lights and just now sending out sweet music.

‘Dancing music,’ said Magnus. ‘They like that sort up here.’

Paddy did, too, but she did not say so. It might sound as though she wanted to dance, and though she did, she was not going to tell him. Probably he didn’t dance himself. He had said he did not socialize.

He had booked a table, a corner table near a palm, good to look out from but nicely concealed if anyone looked in.

‘Considering the remoteness here,’ Magnus said, ‘the food is excellent. Shall I order?’

‘Please.’

‘Any preferences?’

‘Yes. No jam-chutney-preserve.’

‘I’ll keep that in mind,’ he promised, and he chose, then took up the wine list.

Paddy was surprised at the number of attractive young females present. She asked Magnus if they came up from the valley.

‘Some,’ he said, ‘but a lot of them would be strappers from the different studs.’

‘Girl strappers?’

‘Why not?’

‘You have none yourself,’ she pointed out.

‘That was Norris’s idea, not mine. As a matter of fact if he had had his way he would have had nobody, he would have employed only himself. He was a hog for work, and I must admit he certainly got through it. I was deeply impressed at first, then puzzled ... and then I caught on.’

‘Caught on?’ she queried.

‘Caught on why,’ said Magnus cryptically.

‘Why he didn’t employ more? But surely that would be your prerogative.’

‘It was his. When I delegate a job, I delegate it entirely. He just kept the staff to a bare minimum. So much so that I ’

‘Caught on?’

‘You
are catching on,’ Magnus said.

‘Perhaps Ki—perhaps Mr Norris didn’t want to employ women.’

‘He didn’t want to employ anyone.’

Paddy suggested, ‘He could have been considering your purse.’

‘He could.’ But Magnus’s lips were curled.

‘Probably,’ persisted Paddy, ‘he’s a male-male, a disliker of the female sex.’

‘Does
that
look like it?’ Magnus laughed sarcastically, and nodded towards the opposite corner. Feeling suddenly cold, Paddy pulled aside a palm leaf and recognised Kip across the room. He was surrounded by at least four pretty girls. That did not dismay Paddy, but the fact that he was here did. What, she thought, am I to say if he comes across, or waves, or nods, or greets me, what am I to explain to Magnus when Magnus thinks I don’t even know him ?

But she need not have worried. At that moment Kip looked up and across, saw her and did not show any interest.

Thank heaven! Paddy began to relax again.

It was a good meal. The wine was fine. The music was pleasing. Kip seemed to have left, so Paddy could breathe easily again, enjoy herself. She smiled across at Magnus.

‘This is nice,’ she appreciated.

‘Thank you. It’s nice bringing you. I never enjoyed the place before.’

‘Now you are enjoying it?’

‘Very much so, but you must tell me the moment you feel tired, you’re barely out of bed, remember.’

‘I’ll tell you.’ Paddy tried not to look wistfully at the dance floor. She adored dancing and would have liked nothing better than to have joined the small crowd on the polished square.

At that moment the orchestra broke off for a request through the mike to the owner of a certain car to remove it because—Some reason was given, but Paddy did not hear it in the noise of Magnus scraping his chair as he got to his feet.

‘Damn,’ he said.

‘Yours?’ asked Paddy.

‘Yes. I can’t see how it’s in the way, but if it has to be removed, it has to be, I expect. The trouble is I got the last bit of handy parking, now I’ll have to park the thing a long way away. Will you be all right?’

‘In here?’

‘You can get picked up in other places than cities.’

‘Of course I’ll be all right,’ Paddy assured him. ‘I’ll enjoy watching.’

She watched Magnus go ... and someone else must have been watching, too. Within seconds Kip Norris was standing at her side ... no, not standing, bowing.

‘May I?’ He smiled and nodded to the floor.

‘Kip, I can’t, you know I can’t.’

‘He’ll be ten minutes at least. There’s not a spot anywhere close.’'

‘How do you know? Kip, what have you done?’

‘Put a message over the loudspeaker, that’s all. For heaven’s sake, get up, Padua, or people will start to stare at us.’

‘Then they can stare,’ she said. This is awful. You are awful.’

‘All’s fair in love and war, and that’s what this is all about, love for you, and war for David, if he stands in my way.’

‘He can’t stand now, he’s not here.’

‘And won’t be for a while.’ With that Kip leaned forward and drew Paddy into his arms.

He was an excellent dancer. Paddy went carefully at first, then let herself go to the lilt and rhythm.

‘You shouldn’t have,’ she said.

‘I had to.’

‘If he comes back ’

'Then you can tell him the club made all the ladies get up... they do, you know... and that you got me.’

‘That’s a lie,’ she protested.

‘Padua, you’re already deep in lies. What’s another?’

‘But I don’t want to be a liar, Kip, I never have been one.’

‘But you haven’t been in love before, either.’

‘I’m not now.’

‘Yes, you are. With me.’

He swayed her to the music, his lips not far from her ears. The lights went out and he stopped talking and kissed each ear instead.

The lights went on again, and, miraculously, she was back at her table, Kip was gone, and

And Magnus sat waiting for her.

Paddy sat down as well.

'The car,’ he said, ‘is round the other side.’

'Then shall we go?’ she asked.

‘Oh, no, not without a dance.’

‘I... you ...’ she began.

‘You think I don’t dance? But I do. If I’d been here when the Ladies’ Choice was on ... I believe they call them that.... you could have asked me, not Norris.’

‘I—I had to get up.’ There, the lie had started.

‘Dear child, of course. And of all people you chanced on Kip Norris, my ex-trainer. I’ve already told you about Norris, remember? You said you two hadn’t met.’

She nodded.

‘But you have now. What did you talk about while you danced?’

‘He’s a very good dancer, quite an intricate one, I’m afraid it took me all my time to keep up with him.’

‘Really? Then let’s see how you go with me.’

If Paddy had thought Kip quick, then this man was wildfire. Barely had he spoken than she was on the floor with him, and they were dancing, and Paddy knew that prior to this dance she never had danced before.

One of his hands held one of her hands, and though the touch was featherlight at the same time it seemed made of steel. His other hand round her waist was almost impersonal, and yet it imprisoned her for all its deliberate slackness, it held her more tightly than she had ever been held in her life.

The band, as though sensing something, had quickened their strains, so perforce their steps quickened. And, like it or not, and she did like it, Paddy’s blood quickened.

‘What did he say to you?’ Magnus was demanding.

‘Who?’

‘Norris.’

‘Nothing.’

‘Are you still sure you hadn’t met him before?’

‘I hadn’t,’ she insisted. ‘I told you.’

‘But you tell me a lot of lies, don’t you? You deal in lies. “Remember September”, that was a lie.’

‘It’s September now,’ Paddy said a little stupidly.

‘Yes, and it’s a September, my God, that you
will
remember, not like poor Jeremy’s spring.’ Now Magnus made no pretence of impersonality, of indifference, he pulled her close to him and forced her to dance cheek by cheek. Round the floor they went, couples making way for them, dancers drifting off so they could have the small space to themselves, then standing and watching them.

Breath-close ... closer than Kip had been ... then deliberately Magnus David was putting his lips not to her ears, as Kip had done, but to her hair. Then, after her hair, her mouth.

'Tonight you are not found wanting,’ he said.

The music stopped and they walked back to their corner. Instinctively Paddy did not sit down, and she was right about that, for he said:

‘We’ll go now.’

They drove back in silence, and they entered the house in silence. When Paddy went through the door that led to her suite, she said: ‘Goodnight.’

‘Goodnight,’ he said back.

Nothing more.

Paddy fumbled out of her clothes. She did not even replace the jewelled belt, pendant and bracelet as they deserved, she simply spilled them down with the rest of her gear, put out the light and slipped into bed.

She was shivering. The night was balmy, but she was still cold. After all that whirling round, she was still cold. After that kiss, she was still icy.

Because, she knew, he was only taunting me, Magnus David will always only be taunting me, and I don’t want it like that, I want... why, I want...

She turned her head into her pillow, not believing her tumbling thoughts, not permitting them for one moment, trying to smile over them ...

The next morning she found she could.

Paddy coped with the meals for a few days, delighting the boys, who like all boys had a sweet tooth, with selections from Magnus David’s mother’s banana cookbook.

Brandy Banana Flambe was their favourite, but because of their years, and also because of no brandy, Paddy substituted caramel for the cognac. They were so enthusiastic they must have told Magnus about it, and he came into the kitchen and asked her: ‘What’s all this about Brandy Banana Flambe?’

‘I took it from your banana cookbook.’

‘But you didn’t take any brandy from my bar, I’ve checked and the bottle’s intact. Have you a secret source?’

‘Oh, no, I use caramel instead.’

‘For a Brandy Flambe?’

‘Of course. Remember they’re boys of tender years.’ Tender? My God!’ he said.

He left her but a few minutes later returned with a bottle of brandy.

‘Make it again,’ he ordered.

‘But the boys ’

‘I don’t think it will set them on an alcoholic path,’ she said. ‘Besides,
I
want it, and I want Brandy, not Caramel Flambe.’

‘Yes, sir,’ agreed Paddy dubiously, ‘though do you really think ’

'The boys?’

‘Yes.’

‘I do. You see, they’ll be maturing a lot more in a short time.’ She looked at him in puzzlement, and he explained : ‘Little Lulu.’

‘Oh, she’s having her foal.’

‘I hope. It’s soon about to begin, I should say, but being Lulu ’

‘And how will the event mature them?’

‘I’ve spoken to them and they all want to be there.’

‘Do you think that’s wise?’

‘I think it’s very wise. I think it’s even essential. By the way,
you
know all about birds and bees, of course?’

‘Oh, don’t be silly!’ she snapped. ‘I’m twenty-one.’

‘Meaning nothing.’

'Then don’t forget’ ... she could not stop herself saying it, for every time he had spoken in the same strain to her she had hated him for it... ‘I had a month at Pelican Beach.’

He looked at her furiously, was obviously about to say something furious, then he stopped himself. Instead, after a moment, he admitted: ‘I suppose I’ve asked for that.’

‘And now you’re asking for Brandy Banana Flambe.’ She decided to accept his apology.

‘Please.’

He watched her while she choose six large firm bananas, while she stirred cream into the cognac.

‘I’m drooling already!’ he grinned.

‘I hope it will be all right,’ said Paddy. ‘I’ve only tried the boys’ variety.’

‘The boys will be men this week. Now don’t ask me if it’s wise again.’