Roumelia Lane - The Scented Hills

by Roumelia Lane

  'Sure, Neil.' Barry sounded eager to please. He hung over the balustrade to call, 'We'll carry on with our conversation in the garden.'

  He put his arm round Tessa's waist and escorted her through his room and down the stairs. She went with him trying to hold her smile. There was nothing she could do about things now, but she wished with all her heart that Neil hadn't chosen to come back to the villa at that precise moment.

  Barry surprised her by being full of mischief and merriment in the garden. He bounced a huge coloured beach ball at her until she was breathless and laughing, then pulled her down beside him on the lawn and hung over her with that devastating smile of his. Tessa was overwhelmed. She gazed up into the brilliant blue eyes and wondered why it couldn't have been like this all the time. At least now she was having fun with the boy who had talked of marrying her.

  Impulsively she reached to pluck a yellow flower nearby and tried to stick it in the golden waves, but Barry howled and rolled away, and returned with a prickly leaf which he held tauntingly just above her nose as she struggled. Weak with laughter and effort, she had to capitulate in the end and suffer the prickly leaf to be trailed across her face. The hilarities went on until Tessa flopped back worn out and Barry remained in his supreme position of hanging over her. She was laughing up into his eyes when a voice just above them on the terrace pointed out tersely, 'I don't know whether you two know it, but you've got exactly half an hour to get dressed for lunch.'

  Tessa looked up at the big frame from where she was lying. Half an hour to her seemed oceans of time, but the scowling green gaze seemed to think differently. Barry pushed up from where he had sat and said good-naturedly, 'Just coming.' He jerked Tessa up and on to the terrace and challenged with a grin, 'Bet I make the stairs before you do!'

  'I bet you do,' she twinkled languidly, watching him streak away. She padded by beneath the green gaze and wide silk-shirted shoulders, feeling small and acutely conscious of her bare slender limbs and brief outfit.

  Without a word, Neil strode ahead of her and disappeared inside.

  Tessa was glad that Madame Devereux was feeling talkative at lunch. It gave her the excuse to keep her attention with the older woman and not let it wander towards the big shape at the other end of the table. Barry was something of a distraction. He seemed to want to make it known that he was looking forward to taking her to the beach for the afternoon. As he laughingly dropped it in the conversation every five or ten minutes, Tessa considered that even Nicolette knew what they were about.

  For herself she found the meal something of a strain and knew only relief when it was over and the tangerine sports car was spinning them away and along the roads to Juan-les- Pins. The sun was blazing down with tropical intensity when they arrived. They changed thankfully into swim-suits in the cabines and left their clothes in the locked car.

  The ever faithful crowd, rung up on the spur of the moment, were there, of course. They had found themselves a new haunt beside a beach bar that fronted a hotel. Some of them hung on stools, clutching glasses at the far end of the bar, the rest spilled over on to the white sand, in the shade of small slender pines. As they were quite some distance away, Tessa had a job at first to spot them, but Barry must have known the exact location, for he shot ahead, that dazzling smile of his fixed on something or someone beneath the trees.

  Tessa took her time following. She knew she could expect to remain in the same spot all afternoon, so there was no point in wearing herself out to get to it. She was thankful of the shade when she arrived. There was no sign of Barry. His friends gave her their languid smiles, then retired into themselves or with each other. She flopped down and recovered from the solid blow of heat that had hit her on her trek over the sand.

  Later, recovered, she rested back against the pine, and crinkled her eyes up against the brilliant blue of the sea, watching life generally on the beach. Games were being played in the shade of the trees and at the water's edge, and under the huge umbrellas people dozed or read books. When her eyes began to ache from the glare, Tessa dozed herself, and enjoyed the occasional lift of breeze as someone sped by.

  She stirred when the assortment of bodies around her began to shuffle into life, and watched as one by one they dragged up and prepared to slog down for a swim. There was the lift of an eyebrow towards her, here and there, and Tessa knew she was as near now as she had ever been to receiving an actual invitation, but she declined with a smile. Nothing would induce her to go out into that molten glare.

  She watched the group move off. Barry wasn't among them, but there was nothing unusual in that. He fell in with nobody's plans but his own. He was probably sprawled out under a tree somewhere or drinking at the bar. Men were funny, Tessa twinkled to herself, or at least Barry was. He made all that performance about bringing her out to the beach for the afternoon, and then deserted her on their arrival. Still, she couldn't grumble. This morning in the garden had been fun, and she couldn't expect to monopolise all his time.

  She was musing on what they might do for entertainment that evening when a blond mop-haired boy of about nineteen came over from where he had been watching her at the bar. He smiled, looking hot in checked shirt and slacks, and remarked, 'I didn't know there was a new face in the Devereux set.'

  'If you mean me, I wouldn't say I was exactly in the Devereux set,' Tessa drooped a smile, and then because his clothes, though casual, had that unmistakable moneyed touch, and so had his accent, she asked, 'Are you?'

  'I knock around with them back home,' he grinned, 'but on holiday I like to move about on my own. I'm Stuart Lyall.' He dropped down beside her and thrust out his hand.

  Tessa shook it, liking his open friendly manner. She told him her name and asked, 'Are you holidaying in Juan?'

  'No, I'm motoring down to San Remo over the border.' He stretched out his legs. 'I just stopped off for a breather.'

  'It must be hot work driving on a day like this,' Tessa said conversationally.

  'It's cooler on the roads than it is here,' he grimaced. After running a handkerchief around his neck he offered, 'Can I buy you a drink?'

  'Thanks,' Tessa smiled, 'but I'm too much of a coward to step out into the fiery glare.'

  'Well, I'll never get anything back to you here,' he grinned, looking at the crowds jostling at the bar. 'Come on,' he tugged her up, 'I'll find you a shady spot somewhere.' It was impossible to resist his boyish charm, and the fact that she really was thirsty decided her in the end.

  Stuart manoeuvred her in at the far end of the bar where a striped canopy hung overhead and a nearby umbrella obligingly cast a circle of shade on the sand by her stool. He struggled gallantly to get served, but it must have been fully ten minutes before he was carefully carrying over the heads towards her two tall cool-looking drinks with straws bouncing about at the top. Tessa took a long draw on the tangy fruit and ice concoction that he handed her, and came up to sigh, 'Heaven!'

  'You might have died with thirst if I hadn't come along,' Stuart quirked, thrusting a hand through his hair and looking pleased with himself.

  He drank beside her for a while, then turned to prop himself up at the bar to enjoy the sea view. Tessa let her gaze wander idly around before turning it towards the pine trees to see if any of the swimmers had returned. They hadn't, but somebody was there. Barry was standing bronzed and smiling beneath the tree where the clothes were scattered, and reclining against its slender trunk was the woman of the spear-shaped ear-rings and thick coiled fair hair; the friend that he had talked a lot to that first night in the cellar club, and somehow always seemed to end up draped alongside on the beach in the afternoons.

  Introductions had never been a strong point where Barry's friends were concerned, so names were something of a mystery, but from the ones that had been tossed around, Tessa learned that the poised, cigarette-smoking older member of the group was known as Elaine.

  She watched fascinated now, as Elaine gazed up into Barry's eyes and laughed a delicate little ripple which
couldn't be heard above the din at the bar, but could be seen in the slight tremor of the perfectly formed bosom.

  Stuart must have taken his glance on towards the pine trees too, for Tessa heard him comment with a low chuckle, 'There's old Barry and Elaine Fields.' He watched the bronze chest brush against the white swim-suit and grinned, 'He's nuts about her.'

  'About Elaine?' Tessa was jolted into looking at him with a disbelieving laugh. 'She's far too worldly for Barry.'

  'That's what Neil thought, Barry's guardian.' Stuart lowered his head to draw on his drink and came up to grin. 'He warned him off, and when Neil gives an order it stays given. That's why Barry got Elaine fixed up in a hotel out here for the summer near his grandmother's place at Grasse. He had it all set up for himself, then he found out that Neil was coming south for the summer to work.' Stuart flicked the straw out of his glass and swigged the rest of his drink down. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and turned a sly smile towards the pine trees to conclude, 'I thought that would have finished things, but trust old Barry to come up with something.'

  'Trust old Barry.' Tessa heard her voice coming from a long way off. She groped for her glass as her acquaintance of but a few minutes thrust his crumpled shirt into slacks and announced cheerfully, 'Well, time I was moving. If you get down as far as San Remo any time, look me up.' He sent a smile her way, lifted his hand and trudged off, blithely unaware that he had pulled the bottom out of her world.

  She could see the pair beyond the people jostling for drinks at the bar. Barry wasn't bothering to make any secret of his affections. But he wouldn't for the moment, would he? Not when he thought that she, Tessa, was in the sea along with the rest of his faithful band. She pulled a mirthless smile. It was ironic to think that it had been one of his friends after all who had let her in on the game that was being played. Stuart hadn't been briefed like the rest of the group, so he didn't know he was giving any secrets away.

  The more she thought now on what he had said, the more she realised what a starry-eyed fool she had been not to have seen it herself earlier. All those evenings she had sat entangled in the group while Barry had been otherwise engaged.. And the beach days when he had always been engrossed some distance away, or out of sight altogether. And what about these last two nights when he had abandoned her in Cannes? Oh yes! She could see now that she couldn't possibly have hoped to compete with the alternative company he had chosen.

  Gazing at the lovely features not far away, the smooth fair hair and perfectly proportioned figure, Tessa swallowed miserably. She must have been hopelessly blind to believe that she was Barry's choice, knowing his tastes in the opposite sex. Yet she had believed it up to a few moments ago.

  She lowered her gaze to the white sand beneath her feet. It was funny, wasn't it, how a few simple sentences from a perfect stranger could paint the picture for her, so clearly and so completely, as it really was. She saw those scenes back in London now through different eyes.

  The day she had collided with Barry as he had flung out of the office in the salon. He had been angry then. Probably because he had just learned of Neil's intention to put some work in at the factories in Grasse. Having gone to a great deal of trouble to transfer his love life away from under his guardian's nose, it must have been upsetting, to say the least, to find that the man was going to be right there on the spot at Grasse.

  He was used to the hero-worship from the girls at the salon, but the Tessa Browning kind, when she had stood there mooning over him outside the office, must have given him the idea. He knew he wouldn't be free to come and go as he pleased with Neil at the villa, so what better way to put him off his guard than to arrive there with, and be on the point of being engaged to, a home-spun simple-minded girl who would make him look as steady as a rock and settled for life?

  Knowing Neil, it was certain that, even here, he would have someone to see to it that his orders were not being disobeyed where Barry was concerned, but it wasn't likely that he would consider anything in that nature necessary with his ward contemplating marriage.

  And so, keeping Tessa there beside him as his faithful fiancee-to-be, Barry was free to carry on his affair with Elaine Fields for as long as he wished. Oh yes, it was all so neat and very very simple, and because a naive, featherbrained salesgirl had been ready to believe that dreams really do come true, it had worked. Or at least, so Barry thought. She had to give a small smile when she thought of his superb confidence in thinking he had outwitted his guardian. He didn't know it, but Neil had never believed for one second in the tender partnership. Ironically though—she could see the green eyes glinting at her now—it wasn't Barry he suspected of having false emotions.

  A rattle of glasses being cleared away at the bar brought Tessa back to the present. She noticed that the people were thinning out around it, and as the pair were still alone under the tree, she decided to give them a wide berth and make her way down to the sea. She could drift in with the others as though she had been somewhere near all the time, and knowing them they wouldn't put themselves out to think any different.

  The water looked cool and inviting from here, now that some of the brassy glare had gone from the sky. It would be pleasant to splash around for a while. Padding over the hot sand, it suddenly struck her that her cool self-possessed attitude was rather odd. A few minutes ago she had learned the truth behind her invitation to the Devereux villa. She knew now she meant nothing at all to Barry; that she was just his alibi. The news ought to have shattered her heart beyond repair, yet here she was calmly contemplating a dip.

  Oh, she was angry at Barry's deception. Yes, determined to have it out with him. Certainly! But shouldn't there have been something else? Shouldn't she be collapsing in tears or leaping at Elaine's throat? Or could it be… she listened to the slow even throbbing of her pulses… that she wasn't as wildly in love with Barry as she had once imagined? If she had been, wouldn't she have known, have felt something was wrong at the very start? And it wasn't as though Barry's friends had gone madly out of their way to hide anything from her, nor, come to think of it, for that matter had Barry.

  She felt the waves cool as silk over her feet, and waded in until they were lapping about her throat. She could see familiar figures bobbing and reclining around a diving raft not far away. It wasn't difficult to manoeuvre her position, so that she came in line for the beach ball that was being tossed idly around. She played until the game petered out, then climbed up on to the raft to sprawl in the sun. When everyone turned in the direction of the shore, she made certain she was in among them.

  There was no one under the tree when they got back. Tessa towelled her curls and dripping body and sat down with the rest. She didn't see which way Barry drifted in, but suddenly he was there, smiling among the group and looking as though his conversation with them was the all-important thing in the world.

  Later, when he came to grin over her and give the order, 'Come on, Tess. Time to move,' she smiled up at him as she always did and allowed him to pull her to her feet.

  The sun was dropping behind the hills as they walked back to change. Only a sprinkling of people had stayed to enjoy the cool after the heat. Tessa dressed and combed her hair and went to where Barry was waiting in the tangerine sports car. Within' seconds they were pulling away. As they roared through Juan and on towards Grasse, she decided that what she had to say would have to wait. A car driven recklessly round corners and along narrow winding roads was no place to have a showdown.

  The Villa Valrose looked an oasis of peace and calm after her calamitous afternoon, and the hectic drive back. She loved the dappled shade that rippled over them as they glided along the drive. The walls between the climbing vine leaves, and the roof of the house were a mellowing gold in the late sunlight; the garden, quiet with colour and deep sable shadows.

  Barry brought the car to a flourishing stop and vaulted out, laughing at Tessa because she bothered with the formalities of a door. He came round to her as a big frame rose lazily from a
chair on the terrace, and tugging her close greeted, 'Hi, Neil. We've had a great afternoon, haven't we, Tess?'

  'Great!' Tessa echoed breathlessly, caught against the boyish figure. You had to hand it to Barry. He knew how to look convincing.

  'Glad to hear it,' Neil drawled, flicking a green glance her way. He strolled alongside Barry to add levelly, 'No need to rush to change. Your grandmother's chauffeur is having mechanical trouble somewhere the other side of Grasse. Dinner will be at least half an hour late.'

  Having seen the vintage model that Madame Devereux used for her outings chugging along the drive occasionally, Tessa wasn't surprised to hear of its collapse. She also saw the time gap before dinner as the perfect opportunity to have it out with Barry.

  Neil didn't come indoors with them, and when they had walked the length of the hall and were taking the curving staircase, she said quietly, 'Barry, I want to talk to you.'

  'Okay,' he looked at her and grinned, 'go ahead and talk.'

  'All right,' she met his gaze and held it, 'if you're sure it doesn't matter what I say here.'

  The sky-blue eyes were suddenly paying attention. He shot a look back over his shoulder, and then taking her arm said quickly, 'Look, we'll have plenty of time after we've showered and changed. How about you and me taking a walk?'

  'Very well,' Tessa nodded, 'but don't be long.'

  'I won't. I'll see you back here as soon as I'm ready.' He left her at the top of the stairs and went on ahead to his room.

  Tessa made her way slackly to hers. What she had learned this afternoon was just beginning to make itself felt. She knew now that she couldn't stay on at the Villa Valrose, yet the thought of going left her with a peculiar hollow feeling.

  There was nothing complicated about dressing for dinner these hot evenings and fresh in sleeveless dress and pale shoes, she made her way out to the stairs again. Barry was there relaxed in purple shirt and pale trousers. He turned an arm about her waist and without a word, escorted her down the stairs and outside.