The Island Bride

by Jane Corrie

  It wasn't until she was setting her alarm clock that she realised that the following day was a Saturday, and the start of a long weekend, for Monday was a public holiday, but there was no relief in this thought either, for it might prove more difficult to contact Pierre since he would most probably be entertaining his guest at home—and in that case, Cara would have to wait until the Tuesday to contact him at the office, since she had no intention of

  spoiling his weekend, particularly as Paula was there.

  Contrary to expectation, Cara fell asleep as soon as her head touched the pillows. Her sleep was quite peaceful, and would have been quite exhilarating had she not had to face up again to her troubles the moment she awoke the following morning.

  For most of the next day, she pottered around the villa finding various odd jobs to do inside, and also outside on the small rockery at the back of the property, pulling out what looked like weeds, although she couldn't be absolutely sure that they were, but it helped her to keep her mind off her worries for a short time at least.

  For a while she toyed with the idea of asking her uncle to share her evening meal, but some inner caution warned her to leave the evening free, and although she was inclined to put this vague uneasy feeling down to nervous reaction, she nevertheless obeyed her inner instinct.

  At precisely eight o'clock the doorbell rang, and Cara, who had just cleared away the remains of her meagre meal and was on the point of doing the washing-up, frowned perplexedly at the sudden summons that rang through the stillness of the villa. As she went to answer the door, her first thought was of her uncle. Perhaps he had decided to drop in on her, yet she knew it wasn't Uncle Theobald —he would do no such thing, not without notifying her first, and her chin stuck out a little further on her second guess. If it was Julia Besson, she wasn't going to find Cara as mute as she had been on other occasions—in fact, she was in for a

  battle royal if she did but know it!

  On opening the door, her expression, that had held a certain determination together with a positive glint in her eye, underwent a rapid change when she saw who her visitor was. 'Oh, I wanted to see you,' she said on a note of pure relief, and stood aside for Pierre to enter the villa.

  'And I wanted to see you,' was his grim answer as she followed his stiff back into the small lounge, and her relief changed to swift apprehension as she noted the way he had turned to face her after they had entered the room and now stood looking at her with narrowed eyes. 'Is it true?' he asked harshly. 'Are you the girl I caught trespassing on our property that day?'

  Cara swallowed and nodded miserably.

  'Then why the hell didn't you tell me who you were when you came to my office that day?' he demanded furiously.

  Cara's hands twisted together. What could she say? She ought to have said something, she knew, but if she spoke the truth and said she hadn't wanted to embarrass him—or herself, come to that--or that she hadn't been given much chance of bringing such a subject up, surely he would understand? 'I didn't want to embarrass you,' she answered in a low voice.

  'Thank you!' was his biting reply. 'And how do you think I feel now?' he queried in a soft dangerous voice that made Cara quake inwardly.

  If it was anything like Cara felt, then it was pretty bad. 'Does Paula know?' she asked, before she gave herself time for thought.

  °Miss Ericson unfortunately does know,' he re-

  plied coldly, and Cara felt as if she had been slapped in the face with a wet towel. It had been 'Paula' to her before—now it was 'Miss Ericson'. The 'old friend of the family' bit was obviously not strong enough to withstand the recent revelations!

  'Someone made it their business to see that she was informed,' he said grimly, then gave her a swift calculating look. 'Any idea who that might be?' he shot out at her.

  Cara knew very well that it could only be Julia's doing, and if he had stopped to think he would have reached that conclusion, too. but it wasn't for her to say. Truthfully, she couldn't be certain that it was Julia who had passed the news on to Paula. but there just wasn't anybody else interested enough to make that kind of mischief. 'I'm afraid not.' she answered steadily.

  His eyebrows rose sceptically. 'Haven't you?' he queried. 'Well. I've a few ideas of my own on that. and I'm about to put them to the test!' he added grimly, and strode over to one of the easy chairs by the fireside and pointed to the matching one opposite it. 'Sit down.' he commanded harshly. 'I've a feeling we're in for a long session.'

  As soon as Cara had seated herself, he sat down too, and settled himself comfortably into the deep cushioned chair, giving Cara the impression that if it took all night he was determined to get to the bottom of things. 'Now.' he said firmly. 'I'd like to hear the reason for your earlier reticence on this matter.'

  Cara met his gaze steadily, then dragged her eyes away from his compelling ones and studied the tip of her shoes. 'I've already told you,' she replied in

  a low voice. 'I saw no reason to mention the incident.'

  He studied her set features for a long moment, then said softly, 'What a pity; and I thought you were an intelligent person.'

  'I like to think I'm still intelligent,' Cara retorted smartly, stung by the sarcasm in his voice.

  'Then stop playing cat and mouse with me!' he bit back sharply. 'And grant me a little intelligence. too! You must have known you were putting me in a damned embarrassing position when you accepted the lease of the villa. You knew the past history of the place—yet you said nothing when a few words would have settled the matter—you knew I hadn't recognised you.' He, stared at her

  with narrowed eyes, 'Perhaps it was pique that made you act as you did, but even after I had outlined my feelings on the past history of this place—you still said nothing.' He nodded grimly at Cara's swift flush in acknowledgement of this accusation. 'And all the time you sat there looking as if butter wouldn't melt in your mouth, although you must have realised you were sitting on a powder keg that was bound to be ignited sometime in the future!'

  Cara blinked in indignation at this strong and entirely uncalled-for observation on his part. 'That's not fair!' she retorted quickly. 'How was I to know that such a stupid incident would have caused such trouble? I would never have come back if I'd known this would happen.' She gave him a withering look. 'I'm surprised at you,' she remarked as her indignant eyes met- his cold ones. 'I was so sure you wouldn't attach any importance to it. I'd

  forgotten it myself,' she added, then remembered the London restaurant episode and amended slowly as if talking to herself, 'At least. I had until ...' She stopped suddenly as she realised that it would be better if that part was left out.

  'Until?' Pierre prompted her, but Cara was not to be drawn any further and closed her soft lips firmly as her gaze went back to her shoes again.

  'Very well,' said Pierre, as if accepting her decision not to elaborate any further. 'Now I'll give my views on the matter, although I feel sure that there are quite a number of things you haven't been strictly honest about,' and he held up a lean hand to stem Cara's swift denial on this. 'Of course I didn't attach any importance to the incident you are referring to. I'm not that easily intimidated. I wasn't then, and I'm not now. It's the implication behind the event that worries me. Look at it from my point of view. I come across a girl trespassing on our property—a girl who had obviously run away from her village and by the look of the make-do shelter I found, had intended to stay for several days. I had no hesitation whatsoever in taking you back to where I thought you belonged.' He stared at Cara before adding on a vexatious note, 'Once again, a few words from you would have clarified the position. I was convinced I was dealing with a girl froth the village—one does not expect to come across a young European girl living as a native in the tropical forest.'

  He was silent for a few seconds as he recalled what happened that day, then shrugged. 'As for what took place when we arrived at the village ...'

  here his intense blue eyes met Cara's wary brown ones.

 
; 'I can explain that,' she interjected swiftly, wanting to end this embarrassing interlude for both of them.

  'I have given the matter a great deal of thought since then,' he carried on, totally ignoring Cara's intervention. 'And I could only come up with one reasonable explanation.' He paused a moment and gave her a long considering look, and there was something about that look that made her feel completely naked and she shrank from his cold appraisal. 'My apologies,' he said dryly, and this made things worse for her as she sensed what he was about to say. 'I could only deduce that you were in the habit of carrying out such escapades—a little promiscuous, perhaps, and that I just happened to be the unlucky one.'

  By now Cara's cheeks were burning like a beacon in the night, and she jumped up out of her chair with a stiff propelling motion. His meaning was extremely lucid and she had no intention of allowing him further scope on this distasteful subject. 'If anyone was unlucky, it was me!' she flashed back at him. `Do you know why I'd run away? I'll tell you why—I had just lost my father and had been told that I must leave the island and go back to England. I was given no time to get used to the idea. They were going to put me on a plane back within hours of the decision being made.'

  She took a deep breath to enable her to make her point without breaking down and screaming at him. She felt let down, and all he past misery welled up, making her want to hit out at the man

  who was the cause of it all. If he had left well alone that day, she would have eventually returned to the village of her own volition, instead of being bullied into returning with him. All the resentment she had felt towards the man who had forced her to return now came back in full spate, and she not only resented him, she hated him for letting her down when she had been so sure that she could count on his good sense to put everything into its proper perspective.

  At this thought she wanted to laugh hysterically; he was worse than Julia! She at least had a good reason for acting as she had, for it was sheer plain jealousy that had goaded her on, but what was his reason? As another thought came, her anger evaporated as quickly as it had arisen. Wasn't Paula a good enough reason? Had he lost Paula through her thoughtlessness? She looked across at him sitting watching her with that calm assured look that gave no hint of his feelings.

  'I can also tell you why Tu-Tu took it upon himself to marry us,' she said quietly, not failing to note the quick haughty flash in his eyes as she said this. 'Polynesian fashion, remember,' she added on a sardonic note, 'and as such it formed no binding commitment on either of us. It was his way of providing for my future. He was a good friend of my father's, too.' She sighed, then continued, 'I also think he was well aware of the strict code of propriety practised by the Europeans, and I suspect that he felt that my father would have wanted such a ceremony carried out. What he failed to take into consideration was the fact that I was only sixteen and in European eyes was still a child and

  that there was no need for such a ceremony.' She ended the last sentence wearily; there was not much else she could add. Her anger gone, she felt only sadness for the past, and for what might have been her future had things been different.

  Pierre said nothing for a few moments, but then as if thinking aloud he said, 'On the face of things, it all sounds very commendable, but unfortunately the episode has proved a powerful weapon for a person bent on mischiefmaking, and that could,' he reminded her sharply, 'have been nipped in the bud long before any damage was done.'

  The damage, Cara presumed tiredly, being his break-up with Paula, and she had to accept a certain amount of responsibility for this. 'It was bound to come out sooner or later,' she answered slowly, 'and it could have been treated as a joke,' she added sadly. 'That would have put paid to any mischief-making.'

  He studied her silently before he answered, as if trying to detect any sign of duplicity in her expression. 'I was not given a great deal of say in the matter, was I?' he reminded her grimly. 'There are other facts that seem to have escaped your attention, too. I have since learned that you were missing for three days before I came across you. I'm certain that that particular fact did not escape the old chief's reasoning in spite of what you thought was the motive behind his action, It won't escape others' reasoning either. There's only your word and mine that I didn't come across you earlier, and I don't have to spell out what interpretation might be put on that supposition, do I?'

  Cara's eyes widened as she digested his words,

  and even though she had discussed this a spect with Cathy, she still felt a sense of shock hearing it from him. 'Add to that interesting little snippet,' he went on grimly, 'the fact that I had you installed in this villa, and the grapevine will be working overtime. No, Miss Vernon, I am unable to view the matter as a joke, or if it is, it is a very distasteful one.'

  'I entirely agree,' said Cara, finding it hard to keep her temper; he was only looking at things from his point of view. 'I had as good a reason as you had for not wanting the past brought up. That was why I said nothing,' she flashed back at him.

  'At first, yes,' he agreed harshly, 'but something happened to make you change your mind, didn't it? I can't think of anyone else who would have enough interest in the affair to make that disclosure, can you?' he bit out at her.

  Cara could, but there was no point in saying so, as he wouldn't believe her. It was Julia who had really put the cat among the pigeons. As for telling Paula about the past, Pierre must have forgotten her parting words at the airport. 'I didn't have to tell her,' she said witheringly. 'She knew about that before she came here.'

  Pierre stared at her, and if his expression had been grim before. it was even grimmer now. 'And how do you happen to know that?' he asked silkily.

  Cara started; now what had she done? It was too late to say that she presumed she must have known, he was a little too astute to swallow that. Her small chin came up in a gesture of defiance; he might as well know the truth, she told herself. 'I overheard something she said to you before you

  boarded the plane coming over here,' she told him. 'In fact, you collided into me as you turned to listen to what she was saying,' she added for good measure. Not that he would remember that, he had been too engrossed with Paula to notice her, she thought.

  'For someone who had apparently forgotten the past. you seem to have taken an exceptional interest in me,' he said quietly, yet there was an element of distaste in his voice that made Cara feel the lowest of the low.

  'It wasn't intentional,' she said firmly. 'I couldn't help overhearing what she said.'

  'The interesting thing is that you had instantly recognised me,' he said musingly. 'Oh, I grant you that six years is not all that long ago, but I would swear that you took not the slightest notice of me that day. You were too busy sulking, if that is the right word. To you, I was a stranger who just happened to come across you and spoilt whatever machinations you had had in mind; You barely afforded me a glance, not even while the old chief was chanting his spell over us.'

  Cara looked away from his speculating eyes and studied the carpet at her feet. Now was the time to tell him about the restaurant, and how she had happened to overhear a certain conversation between him and a few of his friends. Just what he would make of that she hated to think! He had already hinted that he didn't think much of someone who went around listening to others' private conversation. To report another such incident to him was out of the question—not even if her job depended upon it!

  `And I wonder why you chose to come to me for a reference,' he added blandly. 'I would have thought I was the last person you would have applied to, considering how anxious you were not to bring up the past.'

  Cara blinked in confusion; she wouldn't have gone to him if she had known who he was! Again she decided honesty was the best policy. 'I didn't know who you were then,' she said. 'I only knew your father had been my father's patron and I couldn't think of anyone else. I told you this at the time,' she added simply.

  His closed expression told her that he didn't believe her. `I'm afraid I fin
d your explanation just a little too pat for comfort,' he said gratingly. `Perhaps you feel unable to show your hand at this precise moment, although I have my own ideas on this. One thing I can tell you, and that is that you can forget whatever plans you had in mind for future appliance, where I'm concerned, anyway.'

  Cara gave a gasp of outraged astonishment. She was sick of his veiled innuendoes. 'And just what do you think my plans, as you put it, are?' she demanded furiously. 'You might as well tell me. I prefer to have things straight.'

  Pierre studied her out of narrowed eyes before he said quietly, 'Very well. I think you knew perfectly well that the day would come when the whole island would be aware of what happened six years ago. You couldn't have been so naïve as not to realise that. I believe that it must have been an added stroke of luck when I offered you this villa. It meant you were halfway there, didn't it?' he

  said meaningly. `Do I have to go on?' he queried haughtily.

  Cara stared at him, the amber flecks in her wide eyes now turned to pure gold that sparkled as her fury rose. 'Yes, please,' she said in a low tight voice.

  Pierre gave her a disdainful look and Cara's hand itched to slap the expression off his haughty face. He then gave an expressive shrug as if to say that he didn't think further explanation was necessary. 'Perhaps you thought I might offer you marriage, on a more permanent basis, that is,' he said harshly. 'It would also explain why you took the trouble to put Miss Ericson into the picture.'

  'It appears that great minds do think alike,' Cara said bitterly, remembering what Julia had said about her hoping for a civil wedding.

  'I beg your pardon?' Pierre broke into her musings. 'Would you care to be more explicit?' His voice was low and very intimidating, but Cara was beyond intimidation.

  'Offer me marriage?' she exclaimed in a voice that trembled with fury. 'Just you try, Monsieur Moreton! Oh, how I wish you would! Just to give me the pleasure of turning you down! As for being naïve—well, I have to admit to that. I really thought I could come back to the island as if nothing had happened—and it hadn't, no matter how much importance small-minded people tried to attach to the past. As for your suggestive surmise as to what I'd been up to in the bush, well, I won't even bother to answer that. I've told you why I was there. I love this island and look upon it as my home, and that,' she ended furiously, 'is the only reason why I returned. Now, is there anything else