Roumelia Lane - The Scented Hills

by Roumelia Lane

  One evening when they were just about to start out, Neil strolled out from his office across the hall and walked with them out to the car. A grin of affection for Barry as thev stood in the hot still evening, he asked lazily, 'How's the night life going?'

  'Great! Just great.' Barry fidgeted, smiling.

  'Tessa looks well on it.'

  She knew the voice well enough to recognise the slight sneer in it, yet she coloured shyly, as his gaze roamed her softly made up features and simple silk dress. Barry dropped an arm about her shoulders perhaps to steady himself and shrugged, directing his smile into her eyes, 'We have a good time, don't we, Tess?'

  After a moment Neil asked, 'Just the two of you?'

  'Well, the crowd are still in town,' Barry's grip tightened but his smile was wide, 'and then there's Tessa's friends.'

  Neil nodded over the words. While they waited on tenterhooks to be allowed to go, he drew out his cigarette case and casually flicked his lighter, then after a deep draw he said in the same lazy tones, 'You kids must be well known in every night spot in Cannes by now. It might be an idea if you were to spend more of your time here at the villa. Your grandmother likes young people about the place, and there's no reason why the rest of your set shouldn't make this their second home.'

  'Sounds a great idea, Neil.' Barry looked faintly enthusiastic. He thrust his hands into his pockets and pulled them out again, then after fiddling with the handle of the door, asked, keeping his grin on it, 'You mean… Tessa's friends too.'

  'Why not?' Neil dropped her a dry glance before moving off. 'The more the merrier.'

  The tangerine sports car thundered into life, and when they were out on the road, Tessa asked, slightly horrified, 'Barry, you're not thinking of bringing Elaine to the villa?'

  'Why not?' he shrugged. 'It will be mine one day, and Elaine might want to live there.'

  'But you surely don't think you're going to get away with anything under Neil's nose?' she gasped.

  'What have I got to worry about?' he smiled innocently, putting an arm round her shoulders. 'You're my girl, and anyway Neil's got as much as he can handle with company business. I don't think he'll have time to come snooping on me and Elaine.'

  'Well, I don't want to be around to find out,' Tessa said angrily. She would have shaken herself free, but Barry's fingers tightened on her shoulder. With his one hand on the wheel, he swung it until the car careered madly over the downward route, and pulling her against him smiled close to her cheek, 'You made a promise, remember?'

  'I don't recall any promise,' Tessa replied coldly, 'only an ultimatum.'

  'Same thing,' Barry said blithely, releasing her. He brought the car into line and continued whistling on his way, and then as though he didn't want anything to spoil his good humour he turned and grinned cajolingly, 'Oh, come on, Tess. What does it matter if we use the house for a while? With the gang around we'll have nothing to worry about, and you know Elaine won't stick the cellar clubs until we're married.'

  Drowning in the blue imploring gaze, Tessa felt herself soften, as she always did. She could see his point of course about the awful night clubs, and it was certain that Elaine wouldn't object to coming that much nearer the Devereux fortune. Pulling in a deep sigh, she said heavily, trying to smile, 'I know what you mean, Barry. I just wish you'd tell Neil what you're planning.'

  'He'd wreck it for sure.'

  'He seems to have looked after you all right in the past,' Tessa said slowly.

  'Sure, when I was just out of school,' Barry sneered. 'But things are different now. How can he know what I want?'

  The car picked up speed again and Tessa dropped back in her seat. It was useless trying to get Barry to see sense. He was determined to marry the day he was eighteen, which couldn't be far off now, and nothing was going to stop him. All she could hope was that Elaine would make him reasonably happy as his wife.

  The days sped by. His friends came in force to the villa, where they flopped around the terrace among long drinks and idle conversation, or shook under the stars to the nonstop music. Elaine was always there somewhere among them, lovely as ever in her figure-moulding dresses, but

  Barry had no intention of giving himself away. Whenever his guardian was around, he was always careful to stay close to Tessa, holding her tight if they were dancing, an arm about her waist, if they were standing by.

  Tessa didn't miss the glinting green gaze on her, and it always seemed to be when Barry was irrepressibly amusing and she couldn't help but laugh up into his eyes. But there were other times when her heart was weighted down with misery. Most of the time in fact, for Neil would inevitably search out Elaine, drawing her into his arms to the music, and guiding her expertly away into the shadows.

  On these occasions they saw little of the prospective mistress of the Villa Valrose, but on the evenings when Neil strode off after dinner to put some work in down at the factories, Elaine came into her own. She would arrive before anyone else by taxi and click around the rooms of the villa, mellow in the setting sun, touching things possessively and eyeing the sweep of the garden and valley below every window, with that diamond-hard light of satisfaction. To Madame Devereux she was one of her grandson's many friends and welcome to wander and admire as much as she pleased.

  She used Tessa's room as though it were her own, spreading her make-up over the dressing table and her perfumes in the shower. Barry saw little of her at first, but when she had familiarised herself with every antique and precious vase in the place, she strolled in the gathering dusk with him, suffering his arm about her shoulders with a cool smile, listening to his boyish endearments with a bored air.

  Tessa could have shook him for his blindness, but at the same time she worried for him and the risks he had started to take. One evening when he had been particularly on view with Elaine, brushing his lips against a smooth unrelenting cheek, she moved in from the balcony, knowing she would have to say something if only to preserve her own cracking nerves. Half-heartedly she finished her own toilet, hardly caring that a too hot shower had left a flush on her cheeks, a brilliant glow in the deep violet eyes. She brushed up the copper waves, fastened the buttons of her sleeveless pink dress and turned to the door. Elaine always came up to retouch her make-up before the others arrived. It might be possible to talk to Barry on his own.

  She went downstairs and met Elaine just coming in. As they passed in the pale fingers of evening sunshine slanting across the hall, Tessa could understand something of Barry's boyish ardour. The slim curving figure was exquisitely perfect in coffee silk polka-dot dress. A film of delicately embroidered lace nestled in the cleavage of the small round bosom, and the pale hair was drawn back from beautifully arched eyebrows to fall in thick coils behind.

  The cool grey eyes met Tessa's in a look of disdainful amusement, then she was clicking her way off up the stairs. Barry came in before Tessa got to the open doorway. His flushed features dropped into a grin at the sight of her, and then he moved into the nearby drawing room to pour himself a drink. Tessa noticed it was a spirit and a rather large one, but she made no comment as he gulped it down. She waited until he had placed his empty glass back sweepingly on the tray and then stepped up to say earnestly, 'Barry, don't you think you're taking an awful chance, coming out in the open with your affections like this?'

  'Who cares?' He lifted his shoulders and rocked back elatedly, then, a leaping light in the blue eyes, he pulled her against him and laughed, 'Do you realise, a week from today we'll be married. Just one week, Tess!' Before she knew what was happening he had dropped his mouth on her own. Tessa was shocked and surprised at the demanding intensity of his kiss, but she didn't struggle. She knew it was just his happiness bubbling over.

  It was a long moment before she released herself with a shaky laugh. She was in the action of patting her hair into place, when her gaze came up against a big figure framed in the doorway. The laughter lodged in her throat. Mechanically, she noticed the checked shirt and rough slacks and thick
suede shoes, and dimly it registered that Neil must have come in from the fields almost directly behind them.

  His face was a pale drawn mask of immobility. Only the dark green eyes showed pinpoints of flame.

  With a tight white smile he moved into the room and tossing his jacket into a chair drawled, 'Thirsty work, this walking.' He poured himself a stiffer drink than Barry had just taken and threw half of it back in one gulp, then gradually relaxing his frame, he asked lazily, 'What happened to the music and the people? I thought I'd get a dance in myself tonight.'

  Barry, completely at ease, thrust his hands into his pockets and grinned, 'Nobody's arrived yet, but I expect they're on their way by this time.' The thought must have inspired him to action, for he tugged his hands out of his pockets again, and reaching for the tray of drinks urged, 'Come on, Tess, let's start getting the stuff out.'

  Tessa, only too glad to have something to do under that burning green gaze, moved towards him, but before she could do anything to help, Neil rasped, 'You can leave that where it is.'

  There was a certain viciousness in the way he aimed the words at Barry, the way his smile trailed sneeringly over the boyish frame. He tossed the contents of his own glass back and added gratingly, 'Soft drinks have always been good enough up to now.'

  'Sure, Neil.' Barry turned and shrugged good-humouredly. 'I just thought…'

  'By the cut of your breath, you're lucky you can still think,' Neil clipped sourly, and somehow Tessa felt herself included in the barb. He nodded towards the recently drained glass on the tray and glinted, 'That kind of drinking is a man's game and needs to be handled.'

  Any other time, Barry would have glowered at the rebuke, but tonight nothing could upset him. He laughed his good humour and swaggered towards the door with, 'Okay, Neil. We'll stick to our coke and limes.' On his way out he cut his whistling to ask casually, 'You dropping in on the fun later?'

  'Just give me time to shower and change,' Tessa found the flame-lit green gaze fastened on hers, 'and I'll be down,'

  CHAPTER NINE

  Tessa didn't know why she spent the time dreading Neil's appearance. He looked harmless enough when he came out on to the terrace and moved among Barry's friends; big in dark lounge suit and brilliant shirt, his smile lazy and white as the girls lifted him coquettish glances, his eyes crinkled humorously at the boys' callow jokes.

  But something in the way those eyes searched round and fastened glintingly on her made her move close to Madame Devereux, who sat tapping her foot delightedly to the music. Barry had gone off with Elaine somewhere and Tessa could only feel thankful for the cloak of darkness shrouding the areas beyond the terrace. She was just thinking of hurrying off herself into the night when Neil was there beside her. She could hear his deep tones as he talked pleasantly with Madame Devereux. The older woman turned to include her in the conversation, and Tessa forced herself to drop the odd light-hearted comment, though her heart was beating out a tattoo.

  She knew Neil was watching her, but she didn't let herself look at him. When he moved in to tower over her with a lazy, 'Dance?' she tilted him a gay smile of unconcern and replied, 'Love to!'

  Not that he waited for a reply. She was jerked into his arms and guided forcefully away, before she could think of any more clever conversation.

  Most of the terrace was lit from the windows fronting the house, and the lamps on the balustrade, but Neil didn't seem to care for the bright lights. He swung her off to the side, where the vine leaves and overhanging branches dropped a curtain of lacy shadows across the terrace. The music was hardly a waltz, but that didn't deter him either. Clamped against him, Tessa felt her knees quake. Something in the way the green eyes bore down into hers, the way he held her brutally close, drained the life from her. She wanted to plunge into gay conversation, but the curl of his smile didn't somehow invite it. He did once slant a razor-edged gleam of white teeth to drawl, 'Great night for dancing.'

  'Great!' Tessa replied weakly, finding herself prevented from looking anywhere else but up into his gaze. Gripped in this way, through one record after another she could only breathe her bewilderment through slightly parted lips.

  Neil moved with her in silence. She tried to read something of his mood in his eyes, but there was a savage gleam there that sent her gaze veering off towards his shoulder. As the music seemed unending she willed herself to go on with the game until he grew tired, but when that peculiar smile of his came down to hover only inches from her lips, she struggled to break loose, knowing a violent desire to run from him. He dropped his arms then, but she didn't stay free for long. As she was rushing away, one hand shot out to grip her elbow and he was offering suavely, 'Drink?' She was guided to where the table was laden with drinks and some thing was poured for her, but in the blur of her confusion she didn't see what it was. As it was colourless and iced, it could only be lemonade, but the way it was thrust at her made her hesitate.

  'Drink it.' The words were laconically rasping. 'It bubbles like champagne.'

  To everyone else, laughing and talking or dancing on the terrace, Neil's smile probably looked normal. To Tessa it looked more like a sneer. He threw back a drink himself, but she had a feeling it wasn't from the mineral bottles.

  As hers was a long drink, she sipped it, dragging it out almost to the end of the evening, but there was no shaking off Neil's presence. He stood close beside her, pulling leisurely on a cigarette and looking out on the young gyrating figures. His big frame might have appeared to be relaxed, but she had the feeling it was tensed tighter than a steel spring.

  When she could eke out her drink no longer, she thought of placing her glass down quickly and darting off, but her move was anticipated and taking the glass from her hand, Neil pulled her into his arms again, smiling thinly. 'Just time for a last dance.'

  The music was low now, the lights dim. Madame Devereux had gone to bed, and the shadowy figures were moving to a muted beat. Nobody cared that she was back in the shadows locked against the unrelenting frame. But Tessa cared, too much. The bitter-sweet pleasure of being held in these arms was marred only by the fact that tonight, Neil was some kind of ruthless machine, not a man. Though every part of her cried out to stay close and take him for what he was, she obeyed the panic in her heart and held herself rigidly aloof.

  He seemed to enjoy that. She half thought he would break her in two with his hold. But his strength became a boost to her flying nerves and finally they willed her to act. Perhaps it was because she had more fight than she realised, or because he relented his hold, but she found a moment when the vicelike grip slackened, and wrenching herself free, she ran.

  Towards the back of the house it was so dark she could barely see her way, but she knew the layout of the breakfast patio and the trellised loggia well enough to pick a path towards the double glass doors and let herself in. The dining room was all in darkness, but the lights from the hall cast a pale patch by the door. Tessa felt her heart banging in the silence as she stumbled through.

  The glow from the terrace and the shadowy figures bending to the music was a comforting sight. Lifting her chin, she slipped out and merged in smilingly with the youth, determined to act as though the world wasn't rocking around her. Her gay countenance earned her several partners, but the lowering of the volume of the music had brought a tameness to their scene, and everyone was in a mood to move on to Cannes where things would be slightly noisier.

  In ones and twos they drifted off to their cars up the drive and Tessa busied herself as she always did helping Nicolette to clear up the terrace. She would much rather have fled to her room, but a natural concern for Barry kept her hanging about, and when she saw him come back alone from the direction of the drive, where the cars were roaring away, she breathed easily. So easily that she felt moved to link her arm with his as he came alongside her.

  He looked happy and gave her a grin to comment, 'Not a bad night!'

  'Not bad at all.' Tessa found a smile, and then mildly admonishing, 'Though I di
dn't see much of you.'

  'Oh, I was around.' He gave her a sly look and allowed her to pass inside.

  The lights across in the drawing room shone out after the evening glow outside and Tessa was quietly amazed to see Elaine poised elegantly on the arm of a wing chair sipping enjoyably from a small glass.

  Her muddled impressions kept her hovering in the doorway while she tried to work out why she had been so sure that Elaine had left with the others, then a wide-shouldered shape looming down the hall made her hurry ahead of Barry inside. She had just time to wonder what either of them could be dreaming of, to be so blatantly open, when Neil paced rather than moved into the room. Meeting that tigerlike gleam, Tessa moved nearer to Barry for protection.

  The green eyes included him in their gaze also as Neil asked raspingly, 'Everybody gone?' He flicked a glance towards the winged chair, and Tessa realised that as her 'friend' Elaine wasn't really out of place. Barry, happy to let it look that way, nodded with a big grin. He must have thought that Neil would go straight out again, but he didn't. He stayed where he was in the middle of the room, big and thick-set and hunched.

  He didn't speak, but there was no polite shuffling to the door. Everybody was anchored where they were by his mood.

  After a weighty silence, Barry rocked swaggeringly to say with a strained smile, 'The night certainly went with a swing, Neil.' 'It did, didn't it?' The ironic gleam and drawn smile were turned Tessa's way.

  Barry waited and then fidgeted on in the same vein, 'If we had a swimming pool up here, we could have lots of fun.'

  'I think we'll keep things as they are for the moment.' Neil said drily, taking out cigarettes. He flicked his lighter under one, pulled on it deeply and then blowing out the smoke through clenched teeth he grated, 'It's the eighteenth birthday on Friday, isn't it?'

  Barry shrugged as though he didn't set all that much importance on it.