Spindrift

by Rebecca Stratton

  There was a slight curl on Tim’s top lip, she noticed uneasily, and from his eyes it was clear he suspected where her loyalties lay. ‘Dom would be right, you should expect that, Bry—he always is, isn’t he?’

  She took a moment, wishing she could understand .him in his present mood as well as she had always thought she did. ‘Tim, that isn’t quite fair.’ At her soft-voiced reproach, Louis shifted uneasily behind her, and she guessed he was reminded of the fact that he would inevitably be called upon to explain his own part in the expedition.

  Tim looked unrepentant, and still determinedly cocksure. ‘You must all have known where I’d gone, surely?’

  Shrugging, Bryony let the matter slide without answering him, looking down at the hand she held. ‘It’s a relief to know you’re not badly hurt, anyway. Does it hurt much?’

  ‘It hurt like hell last night!’ Tim declared bluntly. ‘But this morning I’m more hungry than hurt, and all I’ve been given apart from that muck that Marie brought me is baby food. See what you can do about wangling me something a bit more substantial, will you, Bry?’

  ‘I’ll see what I can do.’ She got up and stood beside the bed, her eyes thoughtful. ‘Maybe you’ll be able to come down later—Dom’s sent for the doctor to come and see you, so he might say you’ll be as well up and about.’

  ‘What the hell did he want to do that for?’

  ‘Because it’s the most sensible thing to do!’ Dominic had come into the room without anyone hearing him, except possibly Louis, who looked suddenly uneasy and glanced hastily at the door. Dominic loomed large and dark in the bright room, and he glanced only briefly at Tim, then shifted his gaze to Bryony. ‘And I suggest it’s too early in the day for you to have a room full of visitors.’

  ‘I just called in on my way down!’ The response was irresistible, and the merest flick of one dark brow recognised the fact resignedly.

  ‘Your breakfast is waiting for you if you want any this morning; and when you’ve had your breakfast, Louis, I’ll see you in my office!’ As if he considered them both dismissed, he turned back to Tim. ‘From the look of you it’s as well that Doctor Gemais will be here some time after lunch. I think you’d better try and get some more sleep and give those ribs a chance to heal.’

  ‘I’ll see you again later, Tim.’

  She lingered deliberately, aware that Louis had already left the room, discreetly soft-footed and offering no argument, and Dominic’s glance fell on her again. ‘I’ll join you for breakfast in a few minutes, Bryony, don’t wait for me.’

  It surprised her that he had not already breakfasted, but she did not remark on it. Instead she simply nodded, gave Tim a smile that intimated some kind of conspiracy, and left. Usually Jules and Jenny were there for breakfast too, and they would take the edge off that stern and sober mood of Dom’s.

  Down in the hall she found Louis hovering around at the foot of the stairs and apparently waiting for her, and when she smiled at him curiously, he glanced hastily up the stairs behind her before he said anything. Checking to make sure Dominic was not following her, she suspected, and wondered what he had in mind.

  ‘Tim promised to see her today, maitresse, what happen now?’ He kept glancing upstairs all the time and spoke low as if he feared he might be overheard. ‘After las’ night she maybe think he drowned.’

  ‘Sarah Bryant?’

  ‘Tim’s woman.’ He knew no name, apparently, or else he preferred not to say it aloud. ‘She ’spect to see him today an’ after that storm las’ night—’

  Bryony put herself in Sarah Bryant’s place and could guess how she must be feeling this morning, if she was as fond of Tim as he was of her. ‘She’ll be worried about him. Louis, are you going out today?’

  Louis was eyeing her in a way that suggested he knew what she had in mind. ‘I got some work to do on the Bonne Chance, maitresse, she got broke up a li’l.’

  ‘But you could put one of the other men on to it, and go with the Felicite, couldn’t you? Do you know what Miss Bryant looks like, or where to find her?’

  He was cautious, and it wasn’t like him to hesitate when Tim’s happiness was involved. He must be very anxious about Dominic’s reaction to last night, and she could not help but feel for him. ‘I see her once, mebbe twice, maitresse, but I don’ know her, an’ I—’

  ‘You could find her and speak to her, let her know that Tim’s all right, Louis.’

  ‘Oh no, Bryony!’ In his agitation it was more natural for him to let slip her Christian name, and he was shaking his head firmly. ‘I’m in trouble enough with Monsieur Laminaire, I ain’t goin’ to make no more!’

  ‘But someone has to let the poor woman know, and I can’t telephone from here without Dom finding out!’

  ‘An’ I can’t go makin’ trips to Basse-terre instead of mendin’ broken spars without Monsieur Laminaire findin’ out, maitresse!’

  ‘It was Bryony just now!’

  ‘Maitresse.’ He persisted with the formality because, she suspected, it set him a little further apart from her. ‘I can’t get in no more trouble from Monsieur Laminaire! I tol’ you ’bout Tim’s woman so you could mebbe think of some way to let her know, but I can’t take no more chances. Monsieur Laminaire skin my hide if I take messages ’stead of doin’ my job!’

  ‘Oh, Louis, you know that isn’t true!’

  ‘I can’t do it, maitresse!’

  Reproach would do no good, Bryony recognised that; not even for Tim would Louis chance bringing down Dominic’s wrath on his head again, and she heaved a great sigh of resignation. ‘All right, Louis, I’ll think of something.’

  He was half-turned towards the kitchen door when he hesitated and looked back at her with dark, anxious eyes, asking for her understanding. ‘I don’ like sayin’ no to you, petite maitresse, but you know how Monsieur Laminaire is.’

  ‘It’s all right, Louis!’ She made a wry face, touching his arm lightly with her finger-tips. ‘I know just how Monsieur Laminaire is.’ Once more she remembered that impetuous slap stinging her cheek, and shook her head. ‘I’m not anxious to cross him again just yet either; but I’ll think of something.’

  When Dominic appeared at the top of the stairs, Louis edged nearer to the kitchen door, his voice dropped to a whisper. ‘Take care, petite!’ he warned.

  Uncertain whether she should wait for Dominic to join her so that they could go in to breakfast together, Bryony hesitated long enough for it to have looked too pointed if she turned away then, so she stood watching him with a curious sense of anticipation as he came downstairs.

  A blue shirt that showed a dart of brown throat at the open neck and light fawn slacks gave him a deceptively casual air that Bryony did not take at face value. She judged instead by his eyes and the way he held his head, so arrogant and sure of his authority—the signs she had learned by experience to look for. He came down into the hall, and long smooth strides brought him across to her, steady grey eyes noting the flush in her cheeks and the slightly anxious way she watched him.

  ‘Aren’t you hungry this morning? I thought you’d be in having your breakfast by now!’ He sounded cool and easy, but she saw the way he glanced briefly at the kitchen door, picking up, as she did herself, the tangled sounds of Creole that suggested Marie and her grandson were both talking at once. ‘Or did you get held up?’ His meaning was obvious and Bryony saw no reason to hide the fact that she had stopped to talk with Louis. ‘I was having a word with Louis—he’s worried about Tim.’

  A ghost of a smile tugged briefly at Dom’s wide mouth, but did not reach his eyes. ‘It’s a pity he didn’t worry a little more before he went off with him on that mad scheme last night. Then neither of them would have been feeling so sorry for themselves this morning!’

  ‘They weren’t to know it would blow up a storm—you said yourself there was no warning!’

  ‘It’s foolhardy to start a twenty-mile crossing at that time of day whatever the weather—and Louis should have known better, even i
f I can’t expect Tim to have that much sense!’

  ‘So you’re blaming Louis?’

  ‘I’m blaming him and Tim! I know Louis dotes on the pair of you, but if he’d had half the sense I’ve always credited him with, he’d have come to me when that trip was first proposed.’

  ‘He couldn’t!’ He led her across the hall with a hand on her arm while she sought for words to remind him yet again that neither she nor Tim were children any longer. ‘Tim isn’t a baby, Dom, he’s a man, and as a member of the family he has some authority! He had the right to go off if he wanted to, and Louis could hardly come running to you as if Tim was still a schoolboy bent on mischief!’

  ‘That cry yet again!’ The tightness of his grip made her wince and he immediately eased it when he realised he was hurting her. ‘Why is it always the same complaint, Bryony? It would make more sense if you behaved as adults, but when Tim indulges in a silly—calf-love antic like last night it only helps to show how immature he is!’

  ‘Dom, you must—’

  ‘No, Bryony! I’ve had more than enough!’ He silenced her firmly, and she subsided more from instinct than inclination as he saw her seated at the table. ‘We’ll have breakfast and then I have to give my attention to the business I’m supposed to be running here! You and Tim may do as you please without hindrance from me in future; you’re free to do exactly as you like and with none of what you obviously consider is interference on my part!’

  ‘Oh, Dom!’ She scarcely noticed that they were alone in the room apart from Marie. Her eyes were suspiciously bright and she felt as if tears were not far off as she looked at him. ‘I didn’t want you to feel like that, I didn’t mean to—’

  ‘You have things your own way at last, Bryony, let that be an end of it!’

  He looked so distant, and there was an unfamiliar coolness to the way he ignored her when she looked at him, that she wanted to do something about it. Instead she refused the food Marie brought for her and sat with a cup of coffee between her hands while he ate, his appetite apparently unimpaired. Remembering how she had expected him to apologise for last night, a small niggle of resentment stirred in her as she sat silent and unhappy while he scanned some letters beside his plate.

  ‘Dom—’

  He looked up, eyes cool and steady as far as she could tell for the shadowing lashes that made it difficult to be quite sure. He put down the letter he had been reading while she sought desperately for the right words, now that she had his attention. Then he reached out suddenly and covered her hand, strong brown fingers gently enfolding hers, holding them tightly for a moment before he said anything.

  ‘I had meant to say I am sorry for last night,’ he said, and his voice had a quiet softness that made the threatening tears even more imminent. ‘I have never slapped you before, have I, Bryony?’ She shook her head and briefly his mouth curved in to a smile, softening the lines of sternness and warming his eyes. ‘Perhaps I should have done so more often when you were small, although I have never believed that devils can be beaten out!’

  Her lower lip trembled unsteadily and she looked at him with a bright glistening look, unable to understand the way she felt. ‘I never knew you thought of me as a devil. I—I didn’t think I was as bad as that.’

  ‘Only when you let that carroty head run away with your common sense,’ he said, and shook his head. ‘No matter, Bryony, I should not have struck you and I’m sorry I did. For one thing because it showed a sad lack of control on my part, and for another because I know how often you say and do things that infuriate me, without stopping to think. You speak first and think later—too late sometimes! You don’t mean them, but it’s too late to recall them!’

  It was quite an unconscious gesture when she put a hand to her face, and she realised suddenly how unutterably relieved she felt to have some trace of normality restored between her and Dominic. ‘I’m impulsive,’ she allowed with a ghost of a smile. ‘It’s a trait shared by all the Charns.’

  Dominic smiled, the letters beside him forgotten for the moment. Picking up his coffee, he rested his elbows on the table and gave her his whole attention. ‘It does seem to be a family trait,’ he agreed. ‘Your father was here only a few weeks before he and Mama were married, and he married your mother only ten months after Mama died, and only six weeks after he met her. Jules knew Jenny only a month before they were married, and now Tim goes off after his—’ He shook his head and laughed shortly. ‘Yes, you could say that the Charns are impulsive!’

  ‘Unlike the Laminaires?’ She held his eyes for a long moment, her pulses racing with a kind of excitement she could neither control nor account for. ‘You’re not likely to go off and marry someone on the spur of the moment, are you, Dom?’

  He took a sip from his cup and said nothing for a moment, then she noticed a small and oddly disturbing smile on his mouth as he looked at her. ‘I might surprise you one day, petite; but one thing I can promise you—my wife won’t be someone I’ve known for barely a month, nor will I ask her to marry me until I’m quite sure not only that she’s right for me, but that I’m right for her. I shall take the matter of her happiness very seriously.’

  The fact that he had not denied he had marriage plans surprised her initially, until she realised it really should not have done. She stared at him for a moment, not knowing quite what to say. ‘And your happiness, Dom? What about that?’

  He smiled. ‘Oh, that’s assured the moment she says she’ll marry me!’

  Bryony remembered how she had once thought how impossible it would be for her to stay on Petitnue if Dominic ever married. Then the prospect had seemed something distant and too abstract to be considered seriously; now something told her that he was not only considering the idea, but possibly had someone in mind, and the idea stunned her for a moment, partly because she realised she did not want to believe it.

  Whether or not she would have questioned him further, she would never know, for at that moment Jules joined them, closely followed by Marie, and pulling a wry face when he looked at his wristwatch. ‘Jenny’s still sleeping,’ he told them. ‘I’ve only just woken up myself. How did you two manage to be so bright and early?’ He glanced from one to the other, and it was clear that he sensed something in the air. ‘Am I interrupting something?’ he asked, half serious, and Dominic shook his head.

  ‘Nothing important,’ he said quietly. ‘Nothing that won’t keep.’

  Bryony read her letter through for the third or fourth time and looked up when she heard Jules chuckle. She so seldom received mail that, except for an occasional one from a great-aunt in England, a letter was cause for comment and curiosity.

  ‘If it isn’t from your great-aunt Germyn,’ Jules said, ‘who is it, Bryony? A secret boy-friend?’

  Bryony was used to being teased, Jules had always teased her, and she seldom took it to heart, but she answered him with such a vague air of distraction that he locked more curious than ever. An idea had begun to formulate the moment she read the letter for the first time, and the more she thought about it the more convinced she was that she could do it.

  ‘It’s from a girl I was at school with.’ She folded the single paper and put it back in the envelope. ‘Her family have moved to Guadeloupe, and she’s asked me to go and visit her—they’ve got a house in St Claude now.’

  ‘It’ll do you good.’ Jules approved unhesitatingly, although she noticed that Dominic was less quick to pass an opinion. ‘You are going?’

  ‘Oh yes, I think so.’ It was quite automatic to look at Dominic when she said it and she wondered why he did not express an opinion too. ‘I’ll beg a lift over on one of the boats, Dom.’

  He took a sip of coffee before he answered. ‘Yes, of course, but don’t forget to catch the return trip.’

  ‘Oh, not the return trip!’ She protested, knowing how little time it would give her when she had in mind to visit Sarah Bryant as well as her old school-friend.

  ‘I don’t like the idea of you being stranded if y
ou miss the boat, that’s all.’ He seemed to catch a certain look in her eye for he raised a hand and there was a smile on his mouth that gave it a slightly lopsided look for a moment. ‘I wasn’t trying to tell you what to do, petite, only thinking ahead.’

  It was easy to remember how close she had come to tears yesterday at breakfast, when he had declared himself no longer concerned with her and Tim’s activities, so she avoided looking at him and instead looked across at Jules as she suggested an alternative solution.

  ‘I could go over on the Felicite—she usually leaves first, doesn’t she?—and come back on the Bonne Chance. It will give me a bit longer, and I haven’t seen Marion for ages.’

  ‘It’s not certain the Bonne Chance will be ready by Thursday.’ Dominic poured himself more coffee, so casual about it all that Bryony began to resent it.

  ‘Then why don’t you stay for longer, sweetheart?’ The solution came from Jules and she thought Dominic frowned, though she could not be sure. Jules went on, anxious to make her trip as enjoyable as possible and egged on by Jenny, who was nodding agreement, ‘If your friend can’t put you up, I’m sure old Chaubetain, our agent, would be delighted to have you. His wife likes to have young folks around and they haven’t any children.’

  ‘I could ask Marion and find out.’ The idea of staying for a day or two appealed to Bryony, for it would make it so much easier for her to seek out Tim’s schoolteacher, and that at the moment was what she had in mind, regardless of whether or not she was on dangerous ground. ‘I’m sure she’ll find room for me if she can.’

  ‘The change will do you good,’ Jules told her. ‘You haven’t spent a night away from here since you left school, and that’s a year ago.’

  ‘More than a year,’ Bryony corrected him hastily. ‘I’m nineteen this year, Jules.’

  ‘So you are!’ His eyes twinkled good-naturedly. ‘Well then, it’s time you spread your wings a bit, sweetheart. You’re a sensible girl and if you’re with your friend’s family you’ll be O.K.’