“I am not sure as I think most people believe the old legends of Greece are fairy tales, but to me the Gods and Goddesses are very real.”
The Marquis smiled at her.
“I too have always wanted to visit Greece,” he admitted. “But there are many other countries I would like to see as well.”
“I think I will be content with Greece,” replied Lexia. “It’s so lovely and I know it has helped and inspired people since the beginning of time and everyone needs help and inspiration.”
“Ourselves, particularly,” he agreed, “but afterwards, there is the whole world waiting to be explored and if we don’t find what we are seeking almost at once, we will go on looking.”
Lexia laughed.
“You forget. I have already found him.”
His heart seemed to give an uncomfortable lurch.
“You have really found your true love?” he asked idly.
“Why, Mr. Storton, of course. I promise you, he’s at my feet any time I want him, but the trouble is that I don’t want him and I cannot make him believe it.”
His heart resumed its normal rhythm.
“And there was I thinking that you had a preference for Alaric Carnoustie!”
“He has left the ship, somewhat earlier than he planned, I gather. I cannot think why.”
“I can,” muttered the Marquis grimly.
They eyed each other satirically.
“Perhaps you should give me back my blue feather,” she laughed.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I think you do. Mr. Carnoustie had a word with me before he left the ship. A very interesting word. Where’s my blue feather?”
“I am not sure you can be trusted with it. You seem willing to distribute your personal adornment to every man in sight and as your brother, I disapprove.”
Lexia chuckled.
“Well, I haven’t given one to Mr. Storton, although I know he’d like it.”
“Is he making a nuisance of himself, because if so – ”
“You may safely leave him to me,” declared Lexia, her eyes teasing him.
“Hmm!”
She sighed luxuriously.
“Oh, this is lovely. Wouldn’t it be nice to stay away from England so long that people forgot our very existence?”
“I fear there is no hope of that, but something may happen – ” he seemed suddenly awkward, “something that makes it possible for us to drift on like this for a long time.”
“I cannot think what that could be.”
“Can’t you?” he asked, a little sadly. “Can you really think of nothing?”
“It would take a miracle,” she mused.
“But miracles do sometimes occur, don’t they?”
“I think I’ve had all the miracles I dare ask for recently. Once, everything looked so grim and now it’s so wonderful. Asking for more might be tempting fate and the Gods might think we were being greedy.”
The Marquis seemed to be occupied with looking into his glass.
“Surely we could ask for just a little more?” he suggested.
“More than this?” she teased. “Is there any more?”
“There might be,” he said cautiously.
The Marquis was choosing his words with great care, trying to divine what was happening in her mind before going any further.
“When we came away we were only reluctant allies,” she said, “and now we’re good friends. That alone is far more than I dared to hope for and I won’t risk asking for anything else.”
“But you did just a moment ago, when you expressed a wish to go on like this forever,” he reminded her.
“I was only thinking that it would be nice to be free to do as we pleased, without having to worry what anyone said, always to be able to slip away unnoticed.”
“I don’t think you could ever slip away unnoticed. Wherever you appeared you would fill the air with mystery and excitement.”
She laughed.
“Thank you, kind sir, but it isn’t true.”
“I say it is.”
“But we were talking seriously about Greece, where there is real mystery and excitement to be found.”
“I still think you look very lovely. In fact I shall enjoy seeing you in Greece, which will be a perfect background for you.”
“What a lovely compliment and one I will always cherish. In future, when I look in the mirror I will ask if I look like a Greek Goddess or a rather ordinary English girl?”
He smiled and said no more. She no longer looked like an ordinary girl to him and soon the time was coming when he would tell her so.
*
They took the carriage back to the Maybelle, where the last of the new passengers had just boarded and instead of going to their rooms they lingered on deck, watching the activity of the sailors as they prepared to leave port.
The sun was setting as the Maybelle drew away from the shore and headed out to sea. The Marquis turned to look at Lexia trying not to alert her.
He enjoyed watching her while she was unaware of his attention and he loved to contemplate her beauty and the slightly wistful look on her face as she gazed out over the water.
He wondered if the look was a true indication of her feelings. Was she still sad about the man she had loved and lost and was it too soon for her to have put him into her past?
He hoped with all his heart that she had managed to do so, because there were words he was longing to say to her.
He was not quite sure when he had begun to realise that he was in love with her.
Perhaps it had started on the evening in the casino, when he had felt the stirrings of jealousy.
Or maybe it had been when he saw her looking so pretty in bed with her hair streaming over her shoulders.
She had been jealous of him too he had realised and she had not liked him spending so much time with Juanita. Had that been when he had begun to hope?
Or had the love been there from the first moment?
He was rather inclined to believe that it had.
He had fallen in love with her beauty and her irrepressible spirit. Now he could think only about her and he loved her for herself, caring nothing for her money.
In short he was the very man that she had set out to find, if only she could be brought to see it.
“What are you thinking?” he asked gently.
She turned and gave him a smile that melted his heart.
“Just – how beautiful everything is,” she sighed. “And yet – I don’t know how to say it – ”
“Beautiful but strangely incomplete?”
“Yes,” she said eagerly. “Something is missing, but I am not quite sure what it is.”
“I feel that too. I sense it very often these days.”
“We’re very ungrateful to be discontented,” she said. “We have so much.”
“Yet perhaps we lack the one thing that really matters.”
His heart was beating hard as he sensed his moment coming. Now, surely, he could tell her the feelings that came from deep in his soul and which were for her alone.
“Lexia,” he began gently.
She looked up, giving him the smile that took his breath away.
It was hard for him to speak, knowing that the great event of his life had come. This was make or break and in a moment he would know his fate.
“Lexia,” he said again.
“Yes, Frank?”
He drew a deep breath, gathering his courage.
And then her face changed.
She was looking at something beyond him and he saw her eyes widen and a look of incredulous joy came into them.
“Oh, my goodness!” she breathed.
He turned, trying to see whatever had made this transformation in her.
A man was standing by the rail.
He was very tall with thick fair hair and the look of a young God.
Lexia gave a little squeal of delight.
“Wayne!” she cried.
> The next moment she had flown away from the Marquis’s outstretched hand and was speeding along the deck to throw herself into the stranger’s arms.
He saw her coming and a huge beaming smile spread over his ridiculously handsome face.
“Lexy!” he bellowed, enfolding her in his arms and holding her tight against his broad chest. “Dang me if it ain’t my little girl!”
His embrace was so exuberant that he lifted her clear off her feet and swung her round and round in the air.
Her parasol fell to the ground unnoticed and the Marquis retrieved it as he walked quietly towards them and stood, waiting for one of them to notice him.
“Lexy,” the stranger repeated over and over.
“Oh, Wayne, this is so wonderful.”
The Marquis felt as though he had been swallowed up by an earthquake.
One moment he had been inching slowly but surely towards his goal and the next everything had been snatched away from him and he had been brutally reminded that she loved another man.
He wondered how he had allowed himself to forget the other man and now it all came back to him that Lexia had declared she would marry Wayne Freeman or die.
For a moment he knew a surge of anger. She had made a fool of him, using him as a way of travelling to meet her true love.
Then his common sense returned. It was he, not she, who had booked passage on this ship and she had known nothing about it until they were aboard.
To his relief the other two had finally finished their transports of delights, although Wayne was still murmuring, “Lexy, Lexy,” which the Marquis thought a very ugly and unnecessary distortion of her beautiful name.
“Oh, no, Wayne, you must not call me that,” admonished Lexia hastily.
“Why not? I recall your Daddy didn’t like it, but you never minded. He ain’t here, is he?”
“No, Pa’s back in England. I am travelling incognito.”
“Well, I’ll be – ! Why?”
“It’s a long story. You must have dinner with us and I’ll tell you all about it. In the meantime, allow me to introduce my brother – ”
“I don’t remember you having a brother. In fact, your Daddy used to say that you were his only child and he was darned if he was going to see you married to some no-hoper with – ”
“Wayne, will you hush and listen?”
“Sorry, ma’am.”
He looked so sheepish that Lexia burst out laughing. He laughed with her and then they were in each other’s arms again.
“Oh, it’s so good to see you!” she cried.
“You really are sure your Daddy ain’t here, ’cos if he saw us acting like this – never did know such a man with a shotgun.”
The Marquis, eyeing them wryly, thought that a shotgun might be a very good idea.
“Anyway, this is my brother, Mr. Edward Malcolm,”
said Lexia, indicating him. “I am his sister, Agnes – ”
“You are?”
“No, of course I’m not really, but we’re pretending.”
“I think I’ll go and dress for dinner,” said the Marquis in a strained voice. He did not think he could stand much more of this. “Mr. Freeman – ”
“Hey, you know my name!”
“My – er – sister, has mentioned you to me. I look forward to seeing you at dinner.”
He gave them a brief bow and walked away.
Another few moments and he would have tossed Wayne Freeman overboard.
The last words he heard the man say was,
“Meeting you again is the most wonderful thing that ever happened to me.”
He moved quickly out of earshot before he could hear any more.
“Can we go somewhere private?” Wayne asked at once. “I have so much to say to you.”
“We can talk, but Wayne dear, if you’re thinking – ”
“Oh, lordy no! That was just your Daddy with windmills in his head. You’ve always been like a kid sister to me, but sometimes a guy needs a sister to help him out and this is just one of those times.”
“Then let’s go below and you can tell me all about it.” She took him straight below to her cabin.
“How did you come to be here?” she asked when they were safely inside. “I thought you were in America.”
“I was, but I met this girl – she is the most wonderful, beautiful, incredible – ”
Lexia listened patiently while he went on in this way for a few minutes, until at last he said with a sheepish smile,
“And she’s also – hey, I guess I’ve said that already.”
“Several times. Why don’t you tell me her name?”
“Harriet Grant and she’s English. Her father’s a diplomat and he was in the States as third Secretary at the Embassy, but since then he’s been sent to Greece as the first Secretary of the Embassy in Athens.
“He’s an important man – at least, he thinks he is and he wasn’t going to let her marry me, no sir! I told him I’ve got plenty of money and I could give her a really comfortable life, anything she wants. But he wants a title for her.”
“It’s a common affliction,” murmured Lexia. “She has my sympathy. Does Harriet love you?”
“Oh, yes, she definitely does. When her father took her off to Greece I told her I’d come for her and that’s what I’m doing.”
“You’re going to meet her in Athens?”
“That’s right, if I can do it without attracting too much attention, but if I get recognised, he’ll put guards around her.”
“And you might just be recognised,” mused Lexia. “You’re so tall and – well, handsome, I suppose.”
He grinned ruefully.
“Gee, thanks!”
They laughed together.
“What about Mr. Malcolm?” he asked. “If that’s really his name.”
“What makes you think it isn’t?”
“Well I sure as heck know that you aren’t called Agnes Malcolm. So what’s he called?”
“That’s a secret.”
“Are you two eloping?”
“Certainly not. He’s like a brother to me.”
“I thought I was your brother,” said Wayne, slightly hurt.
“You too.”
“You sure do collect brothers, don’t you?
“We want to find love,” explained Lexia, “and isn’t that what everyone wants? People keep trying to marry us off to each other.”
“And you don’t want that, huh?”
“Neither of us wants it,” replied Lexia in a carefully colourless voice. “But as brother and sister, we can help each other.”
“Does that mean you can’t help me?”
“Of course it doesn’t. But what can I do for you?”
“Hide me.”
“All six foot four of you?” she could not help saying.
“I wouldn’t ask if there was anything between you and that guy, but if he’s supposed to be your brother then we could pretend to be – you know – ”
“Just as far as Athens?” she supplied.
“Right. Then nobody will get suspicious of me until it’s too late.”
“What counts as ‘too late’?”
“There’s a ball in Athens and it’s a big occasion with most of the diplomatic community there and they always issue tickets to the First Class passengers from these ships, if they happen to be in port.”
“Hence your presence on the Maybelle?”
“That’s right. Harriet will be at the ball and we’re going to elope. It’s all arranged. We’ve been managing to write to each other, but it’s difficult over such a long distance.
“Her last letter reached me three weeks ago, telling me about the ball and hoping I could come for her. I wrote back, promising to be there, but I don’t know if she received it or perhaps her father intercepted it and will keep her away.
“But I have to be there, just in case. So I will arrive by this ship and if I could go as one of your party, we might fool him. You will help me, won�
�t you?”
“Of course I will and I know Edward will too. Let’s meet at six o’clock in my cabin.”
Wayne jumped up, gave her an enthusiastic hug and then he dashed out without another word.
He was like a playful puppy, Lexia thought, smiling tenderly. She would help him in any way that she could and be happy for him.
She dressed that evening in deep blue satin that made her blue eyes gleam like sapphires.
Wayne was the first to arrive and Annie admitted him with a sigh of admiration. The magnificence of his height and bearing had made an impression on her, as Lexia guessed it did on many women.
Tonight he was splendid in white tie and tails and he whistled when he saw Lexia, in a way that would have made her father wince and immediately produced a gift.
“It’s just a little something to show how grateful I am,” he said, holding up an exquisite diamond pendant. “Luckily the ship has a good jewellery shop.”
“It’s lovely and it will go so well with this dress. Put it on for me.”
There was another knock on the door and Annie opened it to admit the Marquis, who crossed the threshold just in time to see Wayne fastening the pendant around her neck.
He halted for a moment to quell the revulsion of feeling in his breast. What shocked him most was the beaming smile of welcome that Lexia gave him and evidently she saw nothing wrong in being caught like this with a man in her room, bedecking her with jewels.
He chose to forget how he had sat on her bed while she lay in it, but that was entirely different. She trusted him as a gentleman and he had not betrayed that trust.
But Wayne Freeman was a man who had earned her father’s express disapproval and no doubt Mr. Drayton had had his reasons.
With difficulty the Marquis stopped himself from scowling.
Seeing the pendant close up was like receiving a blow in the stomach. He had noticed it in the shop and recognised that he could never have bought it for her himself.
So Wayne Freeman was not after her money and that perhaps was the secret of his attraction for her.
At the thought of what he had been about to say to her that day he felt himself shrivel inside.
“Are we all ready to go to dinner?” he asked stiffly.
“Yes,” said Lexia, “but first, we want to explain – ”
“My dear girl,” he interrupted her quickly, “why bother? Brothers aren’t entitled to explanations. Shall we go?”
The Waters of Love Page 12
