‘Hmm!’ He reminded her so much of Dominic when he did that that she once more marvelled at how many small characteristics the two of them had in common. ‘They come today, don’t they? Ready for the festivities tomorrow. I’m surprised Dom allowed you to invite them for so long, you know how he is about people coming here as a rule.’
‘I’ve never asked to have anyone here before!’ Her swift and unmistakably defensive retort brought a grimace from Tim that she found discomfiting, and she once more sought the distraction of the passing schooner while he frowned at her curiously.
‘Did you ever know him ask anyone here? Or encourage anyone else to?’
‘Jules brought Jenny before they were married!’ She remembered what Jenny had confided to her about that visit, and hastily dismissed the disturbing possibilities it aroused.
‘Exactly!’ Tim declared, bent on making his point. ‘The only people the old Laminaires imported were their slaves and their wives, and I sometimes think Dom would like to see it all come back to that!’
‘Oh, Tim, stop it!’ She turned and looked at him, her eyes dark and unhappy because she did not understand his present mood, and his attack on Dominic least of all. ‘We both owe Dom a great deal, me especially, I know, but you too. When Father died he could quite easily have sent us both packing to some convenient relations in England, but he didn’t! You must be fair!’
She had touched his conscience, she knew it from the way he avoided her eyes suddenly, and concentrated on the grass that twirled between his fingers instead. Then he looked up at her, eyes crinkled and shiny in his tanned face, and as irresistible as only Tim could be.
‘All right,’ he conceded, without for a minute losing sight of his cause, ‘but you must admit that he doesn’t normally like having his little kingdom invaded, and the fact that he’s letting you have friends over for several days is therefore out of character. To me it’s obvious he’s got something up his sleeve.’
It was difficult not to put another reason to him for Dominic having Marion and Edward to stay, for she was used to confiding in Tim, and looking down at her hands as they dug into the sand, she laughed a little uncertainly.
‘I suppose it hasn’t occurred to you that he might have another reason than hoping Marion will lure you away from your Sarah?’ she asked, and Tim frowned at her curiously. ‘Hasn’t it occurred to you that he might want to keep an eye on me and Ned Fuller?’
Tim stared at her for a moment without answering, obviously giving it serious consideration. ‘Good grief!’ he breathed after a moment or two. ‘He didn’t say so, did he?’
Dominic had said so, quite frankly, but Bryony had no intention of letting Tim know that much, and she laughed and shook her head again. ‘I just don’t see why you should think it’s entirely for your sake that Marion and Ned are coming!’
‘But suppose it was to keep an eye on you with Ned Fuller that he’s encouraging this get-together; wouldn’t you mind?’
Bryony drew a large circle in the sand and added points, like the rays of a sun radiating from it. ‘I might,’ she admitted, ‘if I thought he meant it, but quite frankly I don’t think Dom is that interested in what Ned Fuller does, serious or not.’ She laughed, tossing back her copper-red hair and scuffing out the drawing she had done. ‘But for all I know he considers Ned an ideal match for me.’
‘Matchmaking, you mean?’
She knew it would be completely against Dominic’s nature to indulge in anything of that nature, and she thought Tim knew it too, that was why he looked so doubtful, though not entirely sure either way. But she shrugged as if she at least considered the possibility of it.
‘Maybe, I don’t know. He might be glad to get me off his hands, as the saying goes!’
There was a look in Tim’s eyes that gave him a shrewd, sharp look reminiscent of the father she barely remembered. ‘Your Aunt Germyn was well off the mark, then, with those hints about Dom having—’ Those expressive hands were disturbing in their explicitness. ‘Ideas?’
If only she had not coloured so obviously and with Tim’s eyes on her, or that he was not so quick to form a conclusion, she could have passed it off with more assurance. As it was there was a different air about him when he reached across and covered one of her hands with his, and his eyes were serious.
‘Bry, you’re not thinking of going back to England as your aunt suggested, are you? I mean—there’s no reason for you to?’
‘No, of course not!’ She got to her feet with more haste than elegance, brushing sand from her clothes with hands that were much too unsteady, and glancing at her wristwatch as she did so. ‘Good heavens, no wonder I’m so hungry! Come on, I’ll race you back to the house!’
Bryony sat in the jeep beside Tim, who was perched up on the top of the seat to be able to see better and shading his eyes as she was herself, watching the progress of a cabin cruiser coming on down the shoreline towards the quay.
‘Is this them?’
Bryony knelt on the seat, dazzled by the gleaming white hull as it skimmed through the water, handled with a panache that made her pretty certain it was Edward Fuller at the helm, and after a second or two, she nodded.
‘It’s them!’
Tim looked down at her and grinned as the cruiser was brought into the quay under Louis’s dark and critical eye. ‘Lovely way to show off,’ he remarked mischievously. ‘Your Ned looks like a bit of a swashbuckler!’
Bryony made no answer, refusing to be drawn, climbing out of the jeep as the mooring lines were flung ashore and caught by willing hands. Edward looked as smooth and charming as she remembered him, though perhaps not quite so good-looking, unless comparing him with Tim put him at a disadvantage; both her brothers were very good-looking.
Marion was dressed for the crossing, in white slacks and a bright blue tee-shirt that flattered her vivid colouring, and she looked tall and confident as she came ashore, accepting Tim’s eagerly offered assistance with a smile and a glowing glance from her dark eyes. Edward, looking slightly darker than she remembered him in a white shirt and slacks, lost no time. He came ashore in one long, clean athletic stride and took Bryony’s hands in his.
‘Bryony!’ He raised her hands one at a time to his lips and kissed her fingers. ‘You look stunning in that dress!’
It was ice-green and sleeveless, with a low neck that showed off a good deal of her golden tan, and Bryony had felt good in it as soon as she put it on. Noting that Tim was giving most of his attention to Marion, she smiled up at Edward and shook back her hair.
‘It’s new,’ she said. ‘I’m glad you like it.’
‘A birthday dress?’
She shook her head, feeling wonderfully lighthearted suddenly, and Edward was holding her hand, a searching appreciative gaze scanning her face. ‘My birthday isn’t until tomorrow, but Dom thought it would be much better if you and Marion came over today.’
‘Good of him!’
‘How is Dominic?’ Marion’s enquiry cut across her brother’s obviously sarcastic comment, and her air of familiarity with his brother’s name brought a swift glance of enquiry from Tim.
‘Oh, he’s fine, Marion, thanks. We all are!’ Bryony led the way to the jeep parked at the end of the sheds and apologised for the lack of ceremony. ‘I’m afraid there’s only the jeep; we don’t have any call for a car on an island this size. All the driving we do is purely functional!’
Louis brought the cases over and put them on the rack at the back of the jeep, catching Bryony’s eye as he did so and lifting a brow in the direction of Tim with Marion. There was no mistaking his meaning and she hastily avoided his eyes, unwilling to make her feeling known one way or the other.
It seemed a foregone conclusion that Marion should sit in the front with Tim while Bryony occupied the back seat with Edward, and equally natural that his arm should curve lightly about her shoulders as Tim started the engine and they set off along the coast road to the house.
It was a pleasant enough ride past
the tall fringed banana groves, but to Bryony it had too much familiarity to cause comment, and she thought nothing of the idea of all of it belonging to Dominic and, indirectly, to her and her brothers.
She noticed Tim glance over his shoulder at Marion and smile, being as charming as he knew how, Bryony realised, and did not know whether or not to accept it at its face value. ‘You don’t know our island, do you, Marion?’
‘It’s wonderful to think it all belongs to one family!’ Marion was quite equal to the occasion, and she gave him a smile that was unmistakably encouraging. ‘It’s real king-of-the-castle stuff, isn’t it? Imagine the Laminaires ruling this little plot for three hundred years—it’s fabulous!’
Tim took the bait, smiling and charming as ever, his good-looking face turned far more often in the direction of his front seat passenger than to the road. ‘I’ll show you the whole thing before you go back,’ he promised. ‘You can drive over most of it, you know, and the rest is easily walkable.’
‘Lovely!’
Tim swung the jeep round in front of the house and gallantly handed Marion out of her seat, a service that Edward performed for Bryony with even more attention and retaining his hold on her hand as they followed the other two into the house.
‘I’m looking forward to the next few days,’ he confessed, in a voice he kept low and deliberately intimate, she suspected. ‘I’ve been longing to see you again, Bryony.’
Tim and Marion had gone into the salon where the rest of the family awaited them, leaving the door open behind them for Bryony and Edward to follow, but Edward held her back, his hold on her too firm to be denied. Squeezing her fingers, he looked down into her face with a look in his eyes that brought a faint flush of colour to her cheeks.
‘While Tim’s busy with Marion, you’ll be my guide, won’t you, Bryony?’ His voice was low and quiet, and her pulses responded to it no matter how she tried to control them. ‘You’ll show me your island, won’t you?’
She could see from the corner of her eye that Tim was already introducing Marion to Jules and Jenny, and she was uneasily conscious that they were equally in full view to the people in the salon. But Edward was bent on one thing only, and he turned her face to him with a hand under her chin.
‘Bryony?’
‘Yes, of course I’ll show you the island, Ned.’ She took a hasty glance at the cool room and stirred uneasily. ‘You’d better come and meet the family,’ she said. You haven’t met my other brother, Jules, and his wife, have you?’
‘No.’ The brown eyes had a bright challenging look that she thought she remembered from their last meeting. ‘I’ve only met your third brother, Dominic.’
‘My stepbrother, Ned!’
She felt a flick of resentment that he should so soon raise that same controversy, and the set of her mouth told him he had erred. Without hesitation he bent his head and pressed a kiss to her lips, smiling into her eyes as he did so. ‘Ah, yes,’ he said. ‘I remember, you told me so several times, didn’t you?’
Bryony nodded, catching her breath when she saw Dominic’s tall lean figure coming across the salon, and she remembered his reaction the last time he had seen Edward kiss her. ‘It’s a pleasure to see you again, Mr. Fuller—welcome to Petitnue!’
He had a hand outstretched which a rather dazed Edward took automatically, and he was smiling, but when Bryony looked up and caught his eye, she saw the dark, stormy grey look of anger in them that was beginning to be all too familiar, and she discreetly avoided holding Edward’s hand as they walked together into the salon to join the others. Having visitors for her birthday could prove more eventful than she had bargained for, and she wondered if she was going to regret issuing that impulsive invitation after all.
CHAPTER SEVEN
BRYONY had enjoyed her birthday, perhaps more than she had expected to if she was honest, and Marie had done them proud with the dinner she had prepared. A whole variety of Bryony’s favourite French and Creole dishes had followed one after the other, culminating in a magnificent concoction of fresh fruits, meringue and cream, which Marie had named, with a flourish, La Belle Laminaire. The fact that it was presumably named in her honour and that Bryony was not a Laminaire was not questioned, except possibly by a brief glance that passed between Marion and her brother.
Tim was so obviously taken with Marion that Bryony wondered if perhaps Dominic had intended her to take Tim’s mind off Sarah Bryant. Once or twice she had tried to judge how true it was, but Dominic had merely smiled at her with those unfathomable grey eyes and left her no wiser.
Edward was frankly interested in no one but Bryony, and monopolised her in the same way that Tim did Marion. With Jules and Jenny an already established pair that seemed to leave Dominic as the odd man out, and the idea troubled her occasionally when she thought about it. When she mentioned it once to Tim, however, when he came to refill his own and Marion’s glass, he laughed and suggested that Dominic should either have invited someone of his own, or let him ask Sarah.
‘Tim, you know he couldn’t! Let you invite Sarah, I mean.’
‘Not good enough, you think?’
‘I mean she wouldn’t have been at ease in the circumstances, and you know very well she wouldn’t, Tim! Knowing what we do, and—’
‘You mean knowing that she’s just about the same number of years older than me than Dom is older than you, one less in fact!’
Her colour rose swiftly, burning in her cheeks as she looked at him with reproachful eyes. ‘You’re being stupid, Tim, and not very nice, when you know this is my birthday party!’
‘Sorry, Bry, but I’m not getting at you as much as Dom!’ Malice lurked behind his good-natured grin, and he stood holding two wine glasses up to the light so that the liquid in them gleamed richly and satisfyingly. ‘One thing, though, I owe him thanks for having Marion here—she’s not bad.’
‘I’m sure she’s flattered.’
He laughed, nudging her with an elbow and almost spilling one of the drinks. ‘And Ned’s gaga about you. Dom’s noticed that too, in case you didn’t know; you’ll be next for the stern guardian treatment if you’re not careful!’
‘Tim—’
‘My lady awaits!’
He went off leaving Bryony with a hand to her neck, fingering the jewelled pendant that was Dominic’s birthday gift to her. It was the first time he had ever given her jewellery and she had been thrilled with the small gold filigree leaf set with a diamond dewdrop. It was, she felt, an acknowledgement of the fact that he saw her as a woman at last and no longer as a child, and it pleased her more than she would have believed possible.
The pendant rested where the jade green silk dress she wore curved below the shadowy vee of her breast, light and cool on her soft skin and a constant reminder of its donor. And once more she looked across at Dominic, leaning back in his chair and chatting with Marion and Jules while Jenny listened, seemingly preoccupied with her own thoughts.
She could not see Edward, but while she still toyed with the jewel at her breast he leaned from behind her and spoke close to her ear. ‘It’s rather unusual, isn’t it?’
With the delicate leaf shape between thumb and forefinger, Bryony looked down at the bright dazzle of the diamond drop, turning it so that it threw off shafts of rainbow light. ‘It’s beautiful,’ she said softly, and wondered if Edward could have any idea of how much it had meant for her to get such a gift from Dominic, such an admission that she was grown-up at last.
‘Of course it’s not really a brotherly kind of present, I wouldn’t have thought, but very flattering, I’m sure.’ He came around to face her and she could see the way his eyes gleamed between their brown lashes while one finger traced an imaginary line from her ear to the vulnerable softness of her throat. He was smiling too, in a way that made her heart flutter. ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend, aren’t they, Bryony?’
‘I think the design is lovely.’ She sounded breathless and wished she didn’t, for the fact seemed to intrigue him. �
��It’s so very simple really, and yet it’s so beautiful. Just a leaf with a dewdrop on it, or maybe a—’ She broke off there, and caught her breath, remembering something suddenly that had lain forgotten in the back of her mind until now, and now gave an even deeper meaning to the gift.
Years ago when she had first come to Petitnue, before her father died even, she had come out into the garden after a rain storm and discovered what to her had seemed a miracle of beauty. On one of the garden shrubs a brown skeleton leaf eaten by insects had somehow survived the beating rain and winds and still clung to its stem, with a single raindrop shimmering on its hair-fine veins.
She had stood and gazed at it for a long time, she remembered, and when she heard someone coming, turned quickly, anxious for whoever it was to share her wonder. Seeing Dominic she had expected impatience, perhaps even scorn, but instead he had seemed as enchanted as she was herself, crouching down beside her with an arm about her shoulders while they watched the single drop of moisture shimmer and gleam in the sunlight with rainbow colours, just as the diamond did. It was, she thought, the first time she had been consciously aware of Dominic’s gentleness, and she had never told another soul about their shared miracle.
It was instinctive to seek him where he sat relaxed and at ease, using his hands to emphasise some point he was making, and her heart beat with a stronger more urgent beat as she watched him. Then, as if he sensed her watching, he turned his head and looked at the filigree leaf with its diamond raindrop nestled against her skin, before raising his eyes.
He recognised her sudden realisation and he smiled; a smile that showed in his eyes rather than on his mouth and, pressing the precious reminder to her breast, she held his gaze, her own eyes huge and brilliant as blue gems while her lips formed his name. ‘Dom!’ so softly that not even Edward heard.
‘Hey!’ Edward waved a hand in front of her face, laughing and looking deep into her eyes, so that she could no longer see Dominic. ‘What happened? You suddenly went off into a trance and looked all starry-eyed!’ An arm encircled her shoulders and he hugged her with the familiarity she was beginning to expect from him now. ‘Maybe you need a change of scene, eh? Let’s go and explore the gardens and take in the moonlight, shall we?’
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