White Heat (14 page)

‘I’m not complaining,’ she told him, beginning to smile as she returned her head to her tarpaulin pillow. She was amazed that he could be so concerned for her, so genuinely concerned. ‘And in any case,’ she added, ‘neither you nor Rolands will ever be strangers to me again: One night in an open boat all together would have made that impossible.’

He agreed with a soberness that disturbed her. ‘However, that doesn’t improve the situation in the least. You’re not alone with virtual strangers, perhaps, but you are alone with two men who have no right to inflict their presence on you. If you wish to comb your hair you have to borrow Rolands’ comb, and he can sit and watch
you...’
He tore hard at his lower lip with his excellent white teeth. She was astounded, because he was actually growing agitated, and on her behalf. ‘Your clothes are being torn to shreds, and we can do nothing about it. You have none of the things you depend on for smartening up your appearance and keeping your morale on the right note, and above all you haven’t even another woman to talk to! Whatever happens, you’ve got to depend on masculine society. It’s appalling!’

Unseen by him, she dimpled.

‘If Mrs. Makepiece was here she wouldn’t be much help,’ she said. ‘I’m awfully fond of Mrs. Makepiece, but I simply cannot envisage her in surroundings such as this
...
’
and she waved a hand.

He recoiled.

‘Don’t!’ he said. ‘It would only need Mrs. Makepiece’s presence on a desert island to induce me to commit suicide ... in the lagoon.’

Karin brooded on this.

‘You don’t like her, do you?’ she said.

‘I don’t like her
type ...
Never have.’

‘But you do
like ...
some women?’

‘I can put up with them,’ he conceded curtly.

‘That friend of yours, for instance ... the beautiful Sarah! If she was here on this island, as a companion for me
—
and you!
—
would it make things pleasanter?’

To her surprise he gazed at her in almost a hostile fashion.

‘Why do you bring up Sarah?’ he demanded harshly.

She shrugged.

‘Well, she’s your friend ... or she was! And you were very full of her praises when you spoke to me about her. It occurred to me suddenly that she might typify the kind of woman you would find bearable on a desert island ... Someone quite unlike poor Mrs. Makepiece, who would drive you to commit suicide.’

Willoughby stood up and started to pace up and down over the moonlit sand. His agitation all at once was intense, and Karin realized that she was responsible for it. Very possibly, while she had been quietly sleeping, he had been sitting with his back against a tree, smoking one of his precious cigarettes, thinking about Sarah and the life that might have been his if only things had worked out differently. That
could account for the tautness in his attitude when Karin first opened her eyes, the look of resentment and frustration that had twisted the shape of his mouth.

Sarah ... What more natural, when he was marooned as he was, and he had actually been on his way to her, that he should think about Sarah? Sarah waiting for him in Africa, possibly with her house all swept and garnished for him, her guest-room ready for him, her cook instructed about his particular favourites where meals were concerned.

And unless they were rescued very soon Sarah would have no idea what had happened to him, and it was almost certain that she would be very much concerned ... perhaps desperately concerned! To a man like Kent, who believed in sparing his favourite womenfolk if it could possibly be arranged, and who had no doubt been looking forward keenly to his visit that was now postponed indefinitely, the hitch to his plans must seem like a particularly unkind trick of fate, and in the night watches rebellion stirred in him and he was unable to sleep.

For two nights he had slept the sleep of exhaustion, but now exhaustion had been conquered a little, and all the things he had forgotten
—
the pleasures in store, the past recollections
—
came flocking back into his mind, and that was the reason why his
kn
uckles showed white as he contemplated Karin’s predicament. It was not that Karin’s predicament affected him so much that it deprived him of sleep, but, taken together with his own disappointment at the ruination of his plans, it
was almost too much.

For the first time Karin saw him vulnerable, possibly, even, acutely unhappy, and certainly badly thwarted. He was like a caged tiger as he paced up and down, and not even the fact that Karin lay watching him with wide, thoughtful eyes slowed his footsteps, or eased some of the tension out of his body, until she actually made a small sound that appeared to shock him afresh.

‘I’m sorry,’ she said, and she said it so simply that he paused in his tracks, turned and stared hard at her, and then crossed to her side.

‘What are you sorry for?’ he asked, with a curious roughness.

At first she didn’t know how to answer him, how to cope with this angry-looking man in the dead of the night. And then, as she observed the slight haggardness of his appearance in the ruthless moonlight, and the way he kept tearing at his lower lip, she spoke slowly, as if compelled.

‘For you, I think ... because everything was going so smoothly for you on the ship, and you’re not the type of man to have this kind of thing thrust upon him. I mean, at first you avoided all the women on the ship
—
with the exception of Mrs. Makepiece, whom you no doubt thought was quite safe
—
and you seemed to have a very low opinion of me. And now you’ve got to spend whole days and nights making plans for my safety and
comfort ...
not even the safety and security of a Mrs. Makepiece. You said she would drive you to suicide.
But what am I likely to do?’

For a long moment he stared at her, and then he knelt down beside her and looked incredulous.

‘Are you really simple?’ he asked.

‘N-no.’

‘Are you naive? Or do you wish me to think you’re naive?’

‘Neither.’

‘Then
...’
He knelt on there in the moonlight, shaking his head over her slowly and then finally dissolving into a kind of relaxed laughter ... very low because, although he was only his servant he had no wish to disturb Rolands. Rolands, who was unfailingly cheerful, had earned a good night’s rest.

‘Oh, go to sleep!’ he said, and he laid a finger, lightly, over both of her eyes. As her soft eyelashes fluttered against his hand the finger slipped downwards and stroked her cheek, and, finally, she felt it touching the smooth skin of her throat. ‘You’re a child,’ he said, as if he didn’t really believe it himself. ‘And children need a lot of sleep, so ... Close your eyes!’

She closed them.

For a second or so longer he went on caressing the smooth skin of her throat. And then:

‘Good night
—
child!’ he breathed.

CHAPTER SIX

In
the morning he was up betimes, and when Karin opened her eyes, and Rolands struggled up on to one elbow, he was standing gazing out to sea as if his eyes had been rewarded by the sight of a ship.

He had already had his morning swim, and his appearance was as smart as the limited aids he possessed to improving it would allow, and the golden stubble on his chin melted and merged with the general goldenness of his appearance. Rolands rushed to his side and caught his arm excitedly, and Karin limped over to them both.

‘Do you see anything, boss?’ Rolands demanded.

For one breathless second, while she waited for Willoughby’s reply
—
although she herself could see nothing on the limitless horizon
—
Karin had no clear idea whether she would be unspeakably relieved if he declared that he saw a ship, and that it was putting about to come to their rescue, or more acutely disappointed than she had ever been in her life. And it took her the rest of the day to think that one out for herself.

But Kent’s reply, when it came, was curt and surprised.

‘Of course I don’t see anything. There’s nothing to
see.’

Rolands’ head wagged with disappointment.

‘Only sea,’ he stated obviously. ‘And don’t we know how much there is of it! But for this little saucer of land we’d still be on an unofficial cruise!’

His master turned on him.

‘I thought you were going to search the western side of the island today,’ he said impatiently ... and it was the kind of impatience he had not been guilty of in the past few days. ‘Don’t you think you’d better get breakfast over and make a start?’

Rolands glanced at his face.

‘Yes, sir,’ he returned, with unusual subservience, and then hurried away to take his usual plunge into the lagoon before pumping air into the Primus and opening yet another of their dwindling supply of tins.

Karin waited until Rolands had returned from his dip, and then she plunged into the lagoon herself, and felt considerably refreshed when she joined the other two on the beach. She was still squeezing water out of her skirt, which had lost its pretty pale blue colour and was almost white, and the moisture was running out of her hair and trickling down her neck, but in the bright and brittle sunshine her beautiful red-gold hair was curling most attractively and framing her sunburned face, and her grey eyes, after a reasonably good sleep, were as clear and alert as the daylight itself. When Kent inquired about her foot she exhibited it for his inspection, and to his relief it was already healing ... there would be a long, angry scar, which would fade in time, but that was all.

‘You’re lucky
,’
he said, a little curtly, as he made way for her at their improvised table. ‘You have good healthy blood, which is something to be thankful for at least.’

Rolands glanced admiringly at Karin.

‘Miss Hammond has a good deal more than good healthy blood,’ he offered it as his opinion. ‘She has guts, and I’d like to place it on record that I don’t think I’ve yet heard her complain.’ The admiration in his eyes increased. ‘Now, I’ve met quite a few young ladies in my time, but I don’t think any one of them would have faced up to being shipwrecked as Miss Hammond has done. There’d have been a few grumbles ... probably quite a lot! And it wouldn’t have been so pleasant for you or me, boss!’

Willoughby helped himself to a banana and bit into it savagely.

‘Spare us these recollections of your past life, Rolands,’ he requested him. ‘I’ve no doubt you have known quite a few young ladies, but we don’t want to hear about them ... nothing whatsoever about them!’

Rolands protested:

‘But I was only pointing out that Miss Hammond—’

‘Yes, I understand that, but it wouldn’t help Miss Hammond if she grumbled, anyway. Grumbles never do anyone any good. And why do you make such revolting coffee?’ regarding it as if it was the last straw on an occasion when he, personally, felt he had a good deal to grumble about. ‘It’s nauseating!’ and he emptied it out on the sand.

Rolands regarded him as if he was genuinely perplexed.

‘You just said it don’t do to grumble, sir,
’
he reminded his master. ‘And it isn’t my fault the coffee’s so bad. It’s the fault of that cheap brand of coffee extract, and the fact that I can never get the water to boil. The Primus is giving up, if you ask me.’

Kent apologised handsomely.

‘I’m sorry, Rolands,’ he said. ‘I know perfectly well that you do your best.’ Then he glanced across at Karin, and away. ‘When are you thinking about setting off? If you like, I could go looking for your caves instead, and you could stay here with Miss Hammond.’ He shot another swift glance across at Karin, who concentrated on stirring the dregs at the bottom of her coffee. ‘I’ve a pretty shrewd idea where you think the caves might be, and I’m probably fresher than you are. You looked pretty all in last night.’

For a moment Rolands said nothing, only shrugged his shoulders.

‘Just as you like, boss,’ he answered, at last.

Karin stood up and wandered away from the two of them, then came back. She looked almost coldly at Kent.

‘Why don’t you both go looking for the caves and leave me here?’ she suggested. ‘I’ll be perfectly all right. And anyway,’ on a note of supreme indifference, ‘if a horde of cannibals comes pouring out of the woods with intent to dispatch me I don’t suppose the presence of either one of you will make the smallest amount of difference. You’re not exactly equipped for dealing with cannibals, are you?’

Kent’s good humour was restored miraculously, and he looked up at her with a laugh in his eyes.

‘Don’t you believe it,’ he assured her. ‘Rolands is absolutely right about your making little complaint so far, and I couldn’t allow a young woman like you to provide the main course for a cannibal lunch. I shall remain and take care of you, not only during the moonlit hours, but during the harsher hours of daylight,’ and his strange green eyes glinted at her in a peculiarly disconcerting fashion.

When Rolands,
armed with a slab of chocolate
and nothing very much else, set off to look for his caves, Karin busied herself for a short while rinsing out the coffee-pot and putting away the remnants of their food supply in the locker of the lifeboat. These domestic chores were soon ended, however, and after smoothing down her tattered linen dress and automatically doing the same thing to her hair she looked up and observed Kent watching her. He was prolonging the pleasure of what might well prove to be his final cigarette for a long time, and he was sitting on a sun-warmed rock and up until this moment had been indolently studying the marine life at the bottom of the crystal-clear lagoon.

Still holding Karin’s eyes, he tossed away the butt of the cigarette, made a slight gesture of renunciation, and then stood up.

‘What about going for a swim?’ he said.

She flushed brilliantly and immediately. So far they had indulged in separate dips in the lagoon, and since they didn’t possess swim-suits, or even bathing-trunks, had silently decided against companionable swimming. Karin was well aware that, once in the water, it didn’t greatly matter, and she could always be given a head
start
,
but without him expressing any views on the
subject she had rather gathered that Kent would cast a jaundiced eye on any such proceedings. He was basically old-fashioned and prim, and it didn’t matter that a bikini was very inadequate. She didn’t possess a bikini, and there it was.

Better to dive into the lagoon separately.

But now, with a provocative sparkle in his green eyes, he challenged her.

‘I’ll keep out of the way while you rid yourself of that rapidly disintegrating piece of material you call a dress. I promise not to look until the water has received you, and then you can look the other way while I dive in. Game?’

The provocative sparkle in his green eyes was an unmistakable challenge. She nodded.

‘All right.’

She retired behind a clump of bushes to remove her clothes, and she could hear him coughing somewhat ostentatiously a good way off as she made her dive. The silky green water closed round her, and she floated rapturously on her back. Kent, swimming alongside, didn’t even glance at the bright patch her Titian hair made as it floated on the water.

‘Race you to the gap in the reef,’ he called. ‘Give you a ten-second start.’

‘I don’t need it,’ she called back, and she was off like a streak of light, barely concealed by the brilliance of the water as the words left her lips.

Inevitably, since he was a much stronger swimmer than she was, he reached the gap in the reef ahead of her, and once there they listened to the roar of the water pouring over the natural barrier to the lagoon, while spray shot far above them into the air. It was spray that looked like diamond dust, and as a result of the strong sunlight every colour in the rainbow was reflected in it.

Karin floated happily, and she had seldom felt more content in her life, perhaps because the water felt like a succession of liquid caresses, and it was so light and buoyant that even a poor swimmer would have found it difficult to drown. Or so she thought, until about twenty minutes had passed, and something pricked her foot. At first she thought it was a jellyfish, or something of the sort, that had nipped her;
a
nd then she realized that the prickles were extending all the way up her left leg, and it was beginning to feel numb. In a panic she called out to Kent:

‘I think I’ve got cramp!’

Instantly he turned and swam towards her.

‘Can you manage to get back to the beach?’

‘I
— I
think
so...’

But her voice, was faint, and he urged her to catch hold of him without hampering him, if she could, and he swam with her back to the shore. The pain in her right leg by this time was too intense for her to realize what was happening, while her left leg felt like a useless appendage, and she had only a dim recollection afterwards of him lowering her to the hot sand, disappearing up the beach and returning in a matter of seconds adequately clothed, and then starting to massage the affected parts of her body. Despite the heat her teeth were chattering, and he covered her with her dress and put his coat around her.

‘You were in too long,
’
he addressed her brusquely. ‘And after yesterday’s exertions you should have rested today. Your muscles were thoroughly overtired.’

The colour was seeping slowly back into her face, and by degrees her limbs felt normal once more. She managed to thank him, and at the same time she was aware of his eyes fixed on her bare shoulders as if the creamy skin fascinated him, and she grabbed at his coat and held it tightly fastened round her. Slowly he averted his eyes, but he did not apologize for staring at her.

A slow blush spread upwards over her neck and face.

‘Would you like a sip of brandy?’ he asked, speaking in short, jerky tones. ‘There is some in the locker, you know ... emergency supply,’ a little grimly.

She shook her head hastily.

‘No, thanks. I’m perfectly all right now!’

‘Next time I’ll know better,’ he said. ‘You’re not at all tough, are you?’

And she couldn’t be sure whether he meant that disparagingly or otherwise.

He stood up and turned his back to her.

‘If you like to disappear now and dress I’ll set about making some coffee as soon as you’re ready for it.’ His voice sounded as if he was addressing a stranger. ‘I’m not much good at making coffee, but it’ll probably be drinkable.’

‘I’ll make the coffee when I’m dressed,’ she said breathlessly, and then disappeared into the clump of bushes that usually provided a screen for her undressing, and found that her fingers were shaking as she pulled the linen dress over her head, and then fastened the straps of her sandals. She was quite recovered from her temporary scare in the water, but something else was affecting her in a quite extraordinary fashion, and she simply couldn’t get away from the recollection of the look in Kent’s eyes while they dwelt on her. Her neck and face continued to feel hot and uncomfortable, and for the first time she was able to appreciate fully how Eve must have felt when ,Adam discovered her naked for the first time.