by Anne Hampson
Having stood undecided for a few moments Jane went along to Scott's study and placed the letter on his desk. He had said it was important and that he wanted it to catch the next post, which was in less than an hour's time from Bridgetown. However, Jane somehow felt that her intrusion, no matter for what purpose, would be so greatly resented that once again she would feel the lash of his temper. But as she left his room the phone rang and on picking up the receiver she heard a silky female voice say,
'Oh… it's you, Miss Coates. Is Scott there? Please tell him I want to speak to him, will you?' To Jane's ears the voice contained a trace of contrition and she instantly assumed there had been a quarrel between the girl and Scott—a lovers' quarrel, she thought, tight-lipped as a sort of bitter contempt caught her for a few seconds.
'He isn't here at the moment,' began Jane, feeling catty enough to leave the girl in suspense.
'Oh, but he must be around somewhere, otherwise you wouldn't be there,' purred Alma. 'Please look for him, Miss Coates.' An order, though silkily given. Jane set her teeth and hesitated.
'I'll see if I can find him,' she said resignedly at last, and put down the receiver.
Scott was nowhere in sight when she stepped out on to the verandah, shaded by a bougainvillaea vine trained up the coral stone pillars and along the roof. He had gone towards a pool formed in the course of a stream and she took the flower-bordered path which led to it. She reached the stream, stopping for an appreciative moment to watch it bubbling and sparkling as it cascaded between tropical plants fringing its banks and spreading over huge coral boulders lying in the bed of the stream. She walked on, passing pools and waterfalls, artificially constructed, but as coral stone was used all the time the result was as natural as if it had been designed by nature's cunning hand, and not by man's at all.
Where could he be? Jane had never been in this part of the grounds before and she stopped again and looked around. Here the gardens began to merge with the acres of woodland which formed the delightful outer perimeter of the estate. She called out eventually and heard a reply. It was a fair way off and she went towards the sugar mill, as it was from that direction Scott's voice had come. A little gasp escaped her as she entered what could only be described as a fairyland of colour and perfume. Huge coral limestone boulders formed a natural rock garden where every kind of exotic plant had been included.
'Oh, how beautiful!' Forgetting the object of her mission, she stopped and stared; a myriad shades of rose and gold, of mauve and pink, met her spellbound gaze. Morning glory and African tulip vied with the exotic passion flower and dazzling flame vine; allamandas spread over the highest boulders, and a fantastic array of orchids contributed their kaleidoscope of colour to the scene of tropical splendour. How lucky Scott was to own such an array of beauty! Jane felt that had she owned these spectacular grounds she would come out here every single day, to wander blissfully among the glorious flowers and trees.
'You were calling?' Scott was at her side, having approached unheard on the soft springy moss growing in the large flat areas between the boulders.
She nodded, still a little dazed by all the splendour around her.
'Miss Bonsall is on the phone,' she informed him.
Ts she?' He appeared not to be in the least interested in Alma just at present. 'You haven't been here before?'
Jane shook her head.
'I didn't even know it existed.'
'I took it for granted you'd have looked around.'
'Only in the gardens near the house. I wouldn't dream of intruding here, unless you invited me to.' She glanced towards the woodlands; wedges of dazzling blue sea could be discerned through a clump of Royal poinciana trees and swaying cabbage palms.
'What makes you think you'd have been intruding? I seem to recall inviting you to look around; we were talking about the monkeys at the time. Have you seen them yet?'
'Not here. I've seen one or two on other parts of the island.' She looked up at him, noticing the little grey lines at the sides of his mouth. There was something tense about the atmosphere which made her say hurriedly, 'Miss Bonsall—aren't you going to answer the telephone?'
He nodded, but absently.
'Yes, I expect so. How long is it since she rang?'
'It must be five minutes—or even more.'
'She's probably rung off, then,' he decided, and an unfathomable silence fell between them as they stood there, side by side, in the beautiful rock garden, with the sound of cascading water drifting to them from the waterfall in the stream which wound into the woodlands before emerging some way off and eventually reaching the sea to mingle its waters with those of the lovely Caribbean.
'I left the letter on your desk,' supplied Jane awkwardly.
'Thank you.' He looked down into her face, twisting a little so that he was in front of her instead of at the side. 'You've no need to be afraid,' he said harshly on seeing her take an involuntary step backwards. 'My ardour's kept for the more romantic atmosphere of the evening.'
She blinked, then stared, eyes wide open.
'That's a very strange remark to make,' she couldn't help saying, and to her added amazement his blue eyes kindled with sudden anger.
'I've come to a decision,' he snapped, and she had the certain impression that he had been dwelling on this decision—whatever it might be—ever since last night, and that he had come out here this morning, into the grounds of his home, to be alone and ponder over it yet again. 'I've an ultimatum to offer you.'
She started, and her heart jerked. She felt a hint of colour rise in her cheeks. Scott's eyes narrowed and a half-sneer twisted the corners of his mouth.
'There's nothing to blush about,' he assured her in the same harsh tones. 'It's not that sort of an ultimatum.'
Jane could only stare, for a moment bereft of speech, fascinated by the swift uncontrollable pulsation of a nerve in his throat.
'Wh-what is it, then?'
'I've decided to overlook the deception, both of your brother and your friends, on one condition.'
'Oh?' was all she could manage, still staring at that nerve and wondering what was to come next. Here was Scott in a totally different mood from any she had encountered before.
'The condition is that you continue working for me.'
'It is—?' Suddenly, like an electric flash across a darkened sky, comprehension dawned, depriving her of breath and speech and affecting every nerve in her body. Dazed by the miracle, she moved her head from side to side and, taking it for a refusal, Scott snarled, eyes blazing,
'In that case, you all go—all!'
Jane came to, and a strange little smile touched her full rosy lips.
'I can't believe it,' she breathed, looking into his eyes with an expression that should have told him all he needed to know but which merely produced puzzlement, to replace the harshness that had settled on the lean angular features. 'It just isn't true.…' Overcome, she pressed the tips of her fingers to her eyes, and two great tears escaped and trickled right down to her wrists. 'You wouldn't take it out on David and Susan in any case,' she said, deciding to be practical. 'It isn't like you at all—'
'What the hell are you talking about!' Roughly he gripped her wrists and brought her hands away from her face. 'What are you trying to say?' he demanded. 'Say it and don't go on like that, babbling about the Shores!'
'You're hurting me, Scott—'
'Hurting you! Before I've finished I'll.…' His threat was never uttered; he let go of her hands and stared down at her, a slow, triumphant smile dawning as he too managed to see the light at last. 'Jane… Jane, my dear.…' He too seemed dazed, though not so dazed that he let pass the clear invitation offered by Jane's softly-parted lips. 'My beloved… my own girl. How has it happened?'
'It was when you made that threat just now. You were trying to use the situation to get what you wanted—which was for me to stay here. I suddenly grasped the fact that it must be love that led you to such a course, because why else sho
uld you be so anxious for me to stay?'
He nodded, admitting that he had given himself away by that threat. He hadn't meant to, though, he told her, not after she had baldly told him she liked Hal Charlton.
'I was madly jealous of him,' continued Scott roughly. 'That's why I ordered you to act in a more seemly manner. I hated the thought that he might be encouraged to make love to you—'
'Oh, but I'd never have let him!'
'I mean—he might have felt he had the light to kiss you.'
'It was a lie anyway,' she confessed. 'I had no feelings whatsoever for him. How could I when I loved you? I merely said I liked him in an effort to stop you from wanting an affair with me.'
'I never did want an affair with you. But I enjoyed frightening you,' he added without a trace of contrition or apology in his voice.
'No—you really never wanted an affair with me?' He shook his head and she accepted this, but went on to say, 'You were punishing me for what I'd done before, weren't you?'
He confessed that this was so.
'My pride had never received such a blow as you gave it when you declared that I had no strength of character, no personality—'
'Don't,' she pleaded. 'I must have been out of my mind to imply such a thing. I know now that you let me have all my own way simply because you loved me so.' She raised her eyes to his and he saw that they were still bright with a film of tears. 'I realized, almost as soon as I began getting to know you again, just what I'd thrown away. I never even dared to hope that I'd be given a second chance.' Scott said nothing and after a moment she continued, 'I do understand that you should want to punish me, and show me that you could be—be masterful and overbearing, but you needn't have gone so far as to make me believe that you were a rake.'
He made no answer to that and as she watched his expression she knew for sure that he had been around since she had sent him away. He had learned all about women in that four years and so his cynicism was not, after all, assumed. Was she disappointed that here was one change that really had taken place? Jane dismissed it from her mind, conscious all at once that it did not matter anyway. It was all in the past; the future was all that now mattered. But she did have to ask if Alma had slept at Driftwood House that night, and she knew an overwhelming sense of relief when he instantly shook his head.
'I'd never any intention of having her sleep here—even in her own apartment,' he added a trifle heartlessly as Jane coloured. 'I was merely endeavouring to make you jealous—in which I failed miserably,' he ended, but now it was Jane's turn to shake her head.
'Haven't I admitted that I very soon began to realize what I'd thrown away?'
'Yes, sweetheart. I forgot.' He drew her into his arms and pressed his lips to hers, tenderly and so very gently, as in the old days. 'I can't bully you, my love,' he said. 'Am I to take it that I'll do as I am?'
For answer she lifted her face again, offering him her lips.
'You certainly put on the act most efficiently,' she said after a long while during which her mouth had become more rosy than ever from his kisses. 'You were cruel!'
He shrugged.
'That was just to show you, my dear, that I'm not really without the ability to master, if I want to.' He paused and his blue eyes glinted. 'I've said I can't ever bully you, but if ever the time comes when you become over-confident about getting all your own way, you'll learn, to your cost, that you have in fact got yourself a master. Remember, I've learned a great deal about women during the past few years, and one important thing is always to know when to draw in the rein.'
Jane changed the subject.
'You know, Scott, although I'd told myself you were acting the way you did in order to get your own back for—for my turning down your offer of marriage, it always seemed—' She stopped for one uncertain moment, endeavouring to find a tactful way of phrasing her words. 'It always seemed quite out of character—as if such conduct was not yours at all.'
He was nodding his head already, even before she had finished speaking.
'And the fact of my reminding you all the while that I had a hold on you?' he supplemented, as if aware that she had meant to include this. 'I just had to keep you here, so that I could try and win your love. I felt that, had I allowed you to tell Les of my knowledge of the deception, both you and he might have left the island. That's what I meant when I said that it didn't suit my purpose for him to be enlightened.'
'I see that now, but it was puzzling at the time.'
'As for my conduct in reminding you I was your employer—'
'Boss,' she put in a little tartly, and Scott laughed.
'All right, sweet, your boss. Well, that was all part of the domineering, masterful pose. I just had to win your love—'
'In that horrid way!' she gasped, and received an amused glance from Scott and the reminder that this was what she had given him to understand was necessary in the man she would eventually marry. 'Oh, dear,' she managed to insert, 'I'll never live it down, I can see that—' Her words were cut as Scott spoke again.
'The man you'd marry must be able to assert himself ; he must be possessed of a certain amount of mastery. I can't remember the rest,' he went on, heartlessly immune to her little protesting gestures of the hand. 'Well, my love, I was only giving you what you wanted. Why, then, didn't you respond? I asked myself.'
'I realized,' she offered rather lamely, 'that I really wanted you as you were before.'
'How like a woman! Where do they get their perversity? Not from the spear side, I'll be bound!' Jane said nothing and he added, 'I'm sorry, dear Jane, but it's too late to have me as I was.'
'I know.' But she did add, looking rather coquettishly up at him, 'Nevertheless, there is an element of teasing about what you're saying to me.'
'There is?' with a strange, slanting glance that really should have warned her.
'Yes. I know you'll always be gentle with me—' She got no further, the rest being smothered by a kiss that was very, very far from gentle. His arms about her, too, were giving as much pain as pleasure, being as ruthlessly possessive as they were tenderly caressing.
'Scott,' she gasped when at last she was allowed to speak. 'You're crushing me to death! And you said your ardour's kept for the more romantic atmosphere of the evening!'
'And so it is—so beware!' But he was laughing, and he swung her right off the ground and, holding her aloft, looked up with tender emotion into her eyes. 'Dearest Jane—' He put her on her feet. 'My own sweet love! Is this really happening, or is it a dream?' He kissed her, with real tenderness this time and no passion. 'When I awoke this morning I felt as if there wasn't anything to live for, because although I had half decided to threaten you, I knew that if you insisted on turning down my ultimatum I'd never make the others suffer. And what troubled me was that you yourself might just suspect this, in which case my threat would be totally ineffective. But of course, I had no idea that you loved me—' He shook his head. 'Do you know something, darling?'
'We've both been blind.' He nodded and she went on, 'For myself—I've been inordinately stupid, because Les kept on hinting that you cared for me.'
'He did?' Scott was drawing her to him again and it was easy to see that he had little or no interest in Les at this moment.
'Yes. He attached far mere importance than I to things like your concern when I hadn't slept— You remember taking me home?' Absently he nodded, caressing her cheek with his lips. 'Then there was the occasion when I ran short of petrol and you took me home again. And there was the occasion when.… Darling, are you listening?'
'Hmm…?'
Jane gave a happy little laugh and nestled her head against his shoulder. Presently she broke the deep silence,
'I love you, dearest.' The whispered words came like the soft enchanted breath of a summer breeze before, once again, she was swept into the whirlpool of his ardour.
nter>
