He was back within a few minutes. 'No sign of him— he must have gone out. But his car is still here, I see.'
'Are you sure he isn't there?'
Emilio shrugged. 'The doors were open. I had a good look round—no sign. But don't worry, I expect he's gone for a walk on the beach. It's a nice way to unwind.' He looked at his wife.
Later Flame doused the candles. Marlow hadn't come up to eat with them, and when she walked over to the casita it was as Emilio had told them. The doors were open, but of Marlow there was ho sign. Apprehensive, she returned to the villa to wait.
Midnight came.
'Best get some sleep,' advised Samantha. 'He's probably walked into town. It can be done in under an hour. He's done it before when he thinks he's not getting enough exercise.' She smiled. 'You're worried, aren't you? I thought you said you didn't care.'
'I've discovered caring is something I do a lot of where Marlow's concerned,' muttered Flame. 'I can't fight what I feel any longer. It's just no good without him.'
Samantha took her briefly in her arms. 'I know, you silly idiot. You've always loved him—we all know that. Only I wish you'd made it plainer to him. He's gone through hell.'
'I never wanted to make him unhappy. It's just what he did to me --'
'What did he do, Flame?'
Flame turned away, then she gave a little shrug. 'I suppose I may as well tell you. And maybe you'll think I'm crazy to let it mean so much. But do you remember that time I went to Ibiza to surprise him shortly after we came back from our honeymoon?'
Samantha nodded. 'It was just before you left for England.'
'Well,' Flame paused, finding the memory painful even now, 'it was me who was surprised,' she said. 'And not pleasantly... I found Victoria in his bed at the hotel. Of course, I didn't know who she was at that time.'
'In bed with Marlow?' Samantha looked shocked.
'Not exactly in with him. He'd gone out or something. But she was in his bed, very definitely.'
'I can't believe this. It was only a few days after your honeymoon...' Samantha was frowning. 'I know they've worked together for a long time, but I wouldn't have thought she was his type. I mean, they're such friends. They don't have that aura of people having an illicit affair. Are you sure about this?'
'She was in his bed, that's for sure. I recognised her the other night when she turned up with him. Then she admitted she'd worked in Ibiza. You don't imagine I'd make a mistake about it, do you?' Flame asked stiffly.
'Not about whether you saw her, no.'
'What, then?'
Samantha frowned. 'Maybe it's best if you ask Marlow point-blank what was going on. He won't lie to you.'
'Won't he?'
'Don't be ridiculous, Flame! Of course he won't. If he had anything to hide he'd damn well tell you and ask you to forgive him. You know Marlow. He'd rely on his famous charm to get him off the hook—that's if he would ever get himself into a situation like that in the first place! Oh, really, Flame, I can't believe this! Go and talk to him as soon as he comes back. Set your mind at rest, please do!'
By now Flame realised she was going to have to forget her pride and confess how she really felt. She would have to tell Marlow why she had fled to England so abruptly, and she would tell him why she had begun to suspect he had only married her to get his hands on the Montrose land—that that idea had only entered her head when she saw he was capable of adultery. She would explain how she couldn't understand how he could deceive her with another woman. It could only mean he didn't love her. And if he didn't love her there had to be a reason for marrying her. Cabo Santa Margarita was the obvious reason.
Only the problem presented by what she had been hearing in the last few days had aroused her doubts. Was Samantha wrong? And her mother? And Emilio? And all the other friends with whom Marlow seemed so popular? They didn't treat him like a land shark. It made the doubts niggle at her.
But why on earth had he married her if it wasn't for the land? She was in a quandary and couldn't see her way out.
Midnight came and went and Marlow still hadn't put in an appearance. Flame went to bed, intending to stay awake until he came back, but her eyes began to close even as she was telling herself she was only going to rest them for a minute.
Later it was the sound of rain that woke her. Not just ordinary rain, but the unleashing of tons of water from the heavens.
She lay and imagined Marlow walking through the rain as the gutters filled and all the sluices of the house rattled and gurgled with the overflow. She imagined Marlow in it, walking, walking, his dark hair shiny and wet, his white shirt sticking to his back. She wanted to go out and search for him. She wanted to bring him back home. But she didn't know where to start. And the misery of not having told him how much she loved him filled her heart.
CHAPTER TEN
When Flame couldn't stay in bed any longer she went over to the casita, but it was obvious that Marlow hadn't been back the previous night. After last night's rain everything in the garden was steaming and a rich earthy smell filled the air. She stood under the pines and wondered what to do next. That he had said 'goodbye' filled her with a terrible dread. But before giving way to panic she had to check every avenue first. The obvious next step was to go down to the town as soon as everything opened.
Borrowing Samantha's little yellow sports car an hour or so later, she drove down the side of the hill towards the main road. There was one place he might be and one person there who might know something.
She parked outside the familiar white edifice in the town centre and took the lift to Marlow's private sanctum on the fifth floor.
The first person she met after she had talked her way through Reception was Victoria herself.
In view of the strained atmosphere at their previous meeting she was surprisingly friendly. 'Flame, how nice to see you!' she exclaimed, pausing with a bundle of files under her arm as she came out of a door on the other side of the foyer. She came straight over to her. 'Do you want to speak to Marlow? I'm afraid he's in a meeting, but I can drag him out if it's urgent.'
'A meeting?' Flame floundered for a moment. All the horrible, half-formed images of Marlow's body lying amid the wreckage of a car—though how, when his car was still parked outside the villa—and the hundred and one other nightmares with which she had taunted herself last night, faded, leaving only the nightmare of reality. The other woman.
'He may not be long.' Victoria flicked a glance at the clock. 'I can buzz him now if you like?'
'No, don't do that --'
'Come and have a cup of coffee with me in my office, then—you may as well wait in comfort.' Victoria had a pleasant smile. She was smiling a few seconds later as she settled Flame in a comfortable chair near her desk. 'I still feel we've met before,' she told her chattily as she dumped her files down. 'It's odd, because I've usually got an excellent memory for faces. But somehow I just can't place you.'
,'I can help you there.' Flame realised she was on the brink of hearing the truth at last. Fear at having her nightmare brought into the open made her long to draw back. But it was too late for that now. 'We met in Ibiza,' she told the older woman. Her face must have looked strained, for Victoria gave a frown.
'Really? In the office, you mean?'
'No.' Flame gulped. 'Actually, you were in bed at the Hotel Excelsior.'
'Good lord, was I?' Victoria's brow furrowed.
'It was eighteen months ago.'
Victoria's mouth twitched, then to Flame's astonishment she began to laugh. 'So that's it!' she exploded. 'No wonder I'd forgotten! How embarrassing for us both! You looked absolutely stunned. I suppose you expected to find Marlow!' She bit her lip. 'I really bawled you out, didn't I? Then before I could apologise you'd gone! I was in a high old rage, I can tell you. I thought at first you were one of the staff, and the fact that you just breezed straight in really made me blow my top. I thought, this is the final straw. I've had enough!'
'I'm sorry --' Flame felt bewildered
.
'Didn't Marlow tell you what happened? I expect he had far more important things on his mind just then.' Victoria chuckled again. 'I thought he was going to give me the sack! I felt awful, knowing he'd been dragged away from his honeymoon and expected everything to be set up and running like clockwork so he could get back to you. But absolutely everything went wrong that trip.'
'I still don't understand.'
'I'd been working on the new development at San Antonio, but then I was promoted to the Ibiza office. It was August. Well, you know what the island's like then. There wasn't a room to be had anywhere. I'd been hotel-hopping for two weeks and was just about at the end of my tether. Anyway, I thought I'd got Marlow fixed up—they used to keep a room free for him at the Excelsior—but just the night before he was due to turn up I had to move out of the place I was in and I simply couldn't find anywhere else. It was crazy! I decided it wouldn't matter if I stayed one night at the Excelsior, expecting to have found somewhere by the time Marlow arrived. But when he found out what had happened he told me to stay put and he'd find somewhere else. Well, of course it was impossible, but rather than give up and sleep on the beach he had his bags sent up to the room and went out again. It was about midnight by this time.
Anyway, to cut a long story short, he rang me in the early hours to say he'd managed to find a small room on the other side of the city and did I mind if his bags stayed where they were till next morning. Considering it was his room I thought he was being damned decent! Next thing I knew you turned up.' She chuckled. 'I hope you managed to contact him later that morning. He was leaving for the development on the north coast and I didn't manage to see him for another three months as he flew back to the mainland a few days later.'
By that time, Flame remembered, she had already left for England. She felt stunned, scarcely able to take in what Victoria had told her.
A phone call came through and Flame took the opportunity to think things through. Everything about the way Victoria told her story rang true. And now, looking at her as she spoke on the phone, Flame wondered why she hadn't thought to approach her long ago. It was just that Victoria's fury as she had sat up in the double bed that morning had seemed such evidence of guilt that Flame hadn't even begun to question it. Marlow's name was on the room and his bags were in it. That seemed proof enough.
Now Victoria's large brown eyes were opening wide at something she heard on the other end of the line, and when she replaced the receiver they were brighter than before. 'Thank heavens for that!' she exclaimed. 'Forgive me.' She shot a quick glance at Flame. 'It's just --'
She leaned back in her leather chair and closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them she gave a huge sigh of relief. 'That was about my fiancé,' she confessed. 'He was beaten up the night before last by a gang of youths trying to break into his car. He's been in intensive care, but he's off the danger list now.'
She pressed a buzzer on her desk. 'I think I could do with that coffee. How do you like yours?' When her secretary answered she also asked her to tell Marlow his wife was here. Then she turned to Flame.
'Marlow was a real friend the other night,' she went on. 'You remember I came dashing over at some godawful hour to your place? It was because the hospital had told me they couldn't let me in because I'm not a relative. Marlow came back with me and soon sorted them out.' She heaved another sigh of relief. 'I've been so hellishly worried about him. He's so mad and brave, taking on four men single-handed.'
She got up as her secretary came in carrying two small cups of very black Spanish coffee. 'There now. You just sit and wait for Marlow here.' Victoria handed one cup to Flame, oblivious to the chaos of thoughts that had rendered her speechless since the bombshell of what had really happened on Ibiza hit her. But before she could bring herself to say anything the door swung in and Marlow himself stood there, looking pale, almost hollow-cheeked, his black hair accentuating his pallor. His eyes sought Flame's at once.
'Well?' he demanded. 'Come to tell me when you're leaving?'
'I—no, not at all. That isn't what I—oh, Marlow!' Somehow her coffee-cup deposited itself on the table beside her and she found herself across the room and in his arms. He drew her back into the corridor, closing the door on the two women on the other side.
'What are you trying to say?' he demanded, his eyes still lifeless as they searched her face for clues.
'I've been wrong. I don't expect you to forgive me, but Marlow, if you'll have me back, as your wife, forever—oh, please, say something, Marlow! I love you so much.' Her eyes filled and she reached up to touch his lips with the tip of one finger, wondering why she should be so incoherent when the truth was so simple to say. 'I love you, Marlow. I always have. I always have, my darling.'
He crumpled her fingers in his and held them to his lips, not saying anything, just touching them gently with the merest brush of his lips, then as time swelled and her words sank in he touched each one separately with the tip of his tongue, then kissed them properly, turning her hands over and kissing both palms, then her wrist and finally, slowly, powerfully, bringing his lips down over her mouth in a kiss that was deep and true and marked his repossession of her.
Eventually he lifted his head, and this time his eyes were bluer than the sky, bright, as if the sun were in it. His mouth quirked humorously. 'We'd better let these two out of their office, we've got them cornered!'
He opened the door and called inside, and the secretary came out, giggling and casting envious glances at Flame where she stood, still entwined in Marlow's arms, oblivious to his dignity as the boss, only the running of his hands in secret underneath her short jacket showing her that dignity was the last thing on his mind.
'I talked to Victoria,' she told him when they were safely in the privacy of his own office with orders not to be disturbed.
'What was all this about Victoria?'
'I made a horrible mistake,' she confessed. Then she told him all about it, finishing up with a shamefaced plea, 'I would hate her to know what I've been thinking about her all this time. I've been so unjust!'
'She'd think you were crazy. She knows she would never stand a chance with me.' Marlow pulled her into his arms. 'I still can't quite grasp this. This morning I was fully prepared to go over and have a word with Marcos about rushing a divorce through. I thought it was the one thing I could give you that you really wanted. I was willing to give you even that if it would make you happy.'
'Marlow, I can't bear to feel I've caused so much anguish for us both. I'm going to make it up to you, if you'll let me. It was just loving you—I think I was loving you too much. And it made me so frightened, so vulnerable. The slightest thing hurt me. And I felt so young and inexperienced. I couldn't imagine you would ever find enough in me to keep you interested. I wanted to grow up quickly just for you. Even in London I thought, everything I do is for Marlow. My course in public relations—I chose that because I thought you would approve. And my job. I wanted to be the best so that if ever—if we ever met again, you would approve of me and—well, just maybe have a little regret or two that you'd ever let me go.' Flame pressed her face against the side of his chest, feeling his heart thudding in unison with her own.
'That was the hardest part—letting you go, forcing myself to sit it out until I thought you'd had enough time to find yourself. I began to feel guilty at marrying you before you'd had a chance to do any living—do you understand?'
'I think I do. Now.' Green eyes misted as he brought his lips down to hers.
'And this guy in London --' he began tentatively, when he eventually released her.
'He never was and never could be my lover. He flirts with me and makes me laugh. He's not the man of my dreams, and never could be. He's always known it.'
'And what about this other problem? The one that makes you think I only want you for your inheritance?'
Shyly she looked up at him. 'I give you whatever I have willingly and completely, Marlow. It was base of me even to raise the subjec
t.'
'It was relevant when you thought I didn't love you.'
She nodded.
'But now you know I love you, you feel it doesn't matter. You do know I love you, don't you?'
She looked at his blue eyes shining with tenderness into her own and had no doubt that all her fears were vanquished. Pressing her body against his told him what she felt.
'Even so,' he went on, 'I'm going to insist that proper deeds are drawn up. The Montrose land will always remain the property of you and your sister and your children in perpetuity.'
'Children, Marlow?'
'Don't you want babies?' He looked uncertain until she reached up and began to whisper little words of love as she scattered his face with kisses. 'Ask Mother and Samantha how I feel about babies,' she told him happily. 'If you feel the same way I can think of nothing more perfect than talking soft furnishings and rabbits and bows!'
* * *
It was late when they returned to Santa Margarita, to their house among the pine trees at the top of the cliff. They had been for an evening drive along the coast and Marlow had pointed out the new village he was building and various other projects that were pockets of beauty amid the contours of the hills. They came on to the terrace as everyone, including Sybilla, allowed up for the first time in weeks, was sitting down to dine.
'Welcome, darlings, just in time,' she said, taking their appearance draped in each other's arms with amazing aplomb. 'I've been looking forward to this event for a long time.' Whether she meant being allowed out of bed or seeing them both back together again no one asked. It was enough that everything was as it was.
Emilio rose to his feet and proposed a toast in rapid Spanish that was flowery and over the top and exactly what everyone felt, and they raised their glasses with many joyful clinks. Flame couldn't stop her eyes meeting Marlow's in a secret exchange. Soon there would be other reasons for family celebrations, but now it was enough to know they were together again at last.
Simply Forever Page 15
