The Velvet Glove

by Rebecca Stratton

  Resentment was a new side to Latife's character, and Laurette recognised it with some surprise, even though she was so preoccupied with trying to recall what it was she did not want her foster-father to know about. 'Baba Refik is here?'

  'One visitor only is allowed at the present time, and it was considered that I was best suited to be the one.' Her dark eyes had a briefly speculative look, half concealed by thick black lashes. 'Nuri brought me here in his car. He is waiting outside to learn how you are.'

  Nuri—it seemed inevitable somehow that he should have come, but hearing his name only brought that curiously elusive problem to the front of her mind again. 'There was something—' She pressed her hand to her aching head once more and frowned. 'I can't remember what it was, Latife, but there was some thing—something to do with Nuri—or Baba Refik—I can't remember—'

  'Did they know that you were going swimming with your cousin Ian, Laurette?'

  'Swimming?'

  Once again something triggered in her mind, but still refused to be identified, and she frowned over it painfully, so that Latife reached out and touched her hand. 'You do not remember that?' If she did it was only vaguely, and Latife went on, her soft voice gently probing her memory. 'It was in a little bay just a short distance off the Alanya road. Your cousin got help from someone passing and an ambulance was sent for you.'

  A whole gamut of half remembered sensation whirled through Laurette's aching head, but still no clear picture emerged, and from the expression on Latife's face it was obvious that she expected a response of some kind. Swimming in a small bay with Ian; it should mean something, but at the moment it only meant a jumble of senseless half-remembered sights and sounds.

  'I think I remember going for a swim, Latife, but I can't—I can't quite—'

  'Then better to leave it, bebek.' A soft hand smoothed her brow and she closed her eyes to enjoy the comfort of its touch. 'It is enough that you are safe and no worse harm has come to you. We were all very concerned.'

  Laurette remembered Nuri waiting outside to learn how she was, and she opened her eyes again a sudden thrill of anticipation stirring in her stomach as she looked at Latife through the thickness of her lashes. 'Is—is Nuri coming in to see me?'

  'No, bebek.' Her voice was gentle, understanding, and somehow it seemed she was apologising. 'Only one visitor was allowed; he came only to drive me and to assure himself that all was well with you. He will not be coming in to see you.'

  'He's angry?'

  It seemed inevitable somehow, though she had no idea what was likely to have caused it in this particular instance, and she knew she was at least partly right when Latife did not deny it outright. Instead her hand was patted gently and a gentle smile sought to reassure her.

  'He is—disturbed, bebek, and worried that you are hurt.'

  It was useless to try and stop the tears that flowed, but Laurette brushed them away impatiently with the back of her hand. 'It isn't fair of him to be angry when I don't know what I've done! I want to know what happened and then I can tell him—oh please, Latife, can't you tell me what happened? Didn't Ian tell you?'

  'Only that you hit your head on a submerged wall while you were swimming. He is a little vague, you will understand, and he was not very close when it happened. So much blood frightened him badly and he was concerned only with your well-being.'

  A shiver ran through her suddenly, perhaps induced by a sudden recollection of a dark looming blackness in the water immediately ahead of her and then—nothing. 'How long will I have to stay in here, Latife?'

  'Not for very long, bebek. Suna has promised that. But you must rest until she says you are well enough to come home.'

  'I'll be allowed other visitors?'

  Latife's dark eyes cast swiftly over her pale face, and she half smiled. 'You refer to your cousin?' She did not wait for an answer but got to her feet again and stood looking down at her for a moment. 'I am sure it will be allowed, perhaps tomorrow, if you ask Doctor Alcilic.'

  'Do you have to go now?'

  Laurette felt far too much as if she was being deserted, and yet it made sense that she should be kept quiet and did not see too many people at first. Latife bent and kissed her forehead gently. 'I will come again tomorrow, bebek. Now I must return and tell them all how much better you are than we expected—it will be a great relief to them.'

  Laurette thought of Nuri waiting outside, and she tried to understand the irrepressible need she felt to see him. It made no sort of sense, especially since she was almost sure he was angry about her accident, yet she wanted to see him so much that she almost mentioned it to Latife, only drawing back at the last minute.

  Instead she raised herself in the bed slightly when Latife opened the door to go, and looked beyond her into the corridor. Meeting with only a blank, cream-painted wall but no sign of Nuri, she sank back against the pillows with an overwhelming sense of disappointment and turned her face away. Perhaps he would come tomorrow.

  Doctor Alcilic was willing enough to allow as many visitors as she liked the following day, and she seemed more than satisfied with the progress she was making. 'There is a young man to see you,' she told Laurette as she pushed her pen back into the pocket of her overall coat, and once more that barely disguised glimpse of curiosity puzzled her. 'I shall let him come in, hmm?' Laurette's heart was hammering at her ribs with quite unaccountable force and she instinctively put up a hand to smooth her hair when the smiling doctor walked across to the door. 'Oh yes, please let him come in!'

  'Your visitor.' The dark eyes looked back at her and the hint of smile on her mouth said a great deal more than her simple announcement did. 'Do not tire her by staying too long, please!'

  The warning was given as the visitor passed her in the doorway and heaven knew why she expected Nuri, but a second after Ian walked into the room Laurette felt a sense of disappointment. Just as she had yesterday when she failed to catch a glimpse of Nuri in the corridor.

  Holding out his hands to her, Ian ignored the chair beside the bed and sat instead on the edge of the bed itself, his blue eyes searching her face and coming to rest on the disfiguring plaster across her brow, its top edge covered by copper-bright hair. For the moment he looked more serious than she ever remembered before.

  'Laurette! Are you all right?'

  'I'm fine now, Ian, apart from an aching head, and even that's much better than it was yesterday.'

  'I couldn't get in to see you yesterday.' It was obvious the situation had not pleased him. 'It was one visitor only, and it seemed to be agreed that Madame Ocak should be the one.'

  'You got the ambulance and got me in here, though, Ian, so I'm told, and the family are very grateful to you—so am I.'

  Ian's blue eyes regarded her steadily for a second. 'I'm family, love, remember?'

  'Oh yes—I'm sorry; but you know what I mean.'

  He nodded, prepared not to argue the point for the moment. 'They tell me you've lost your memory, is that right?'

  It sounded rather too dramatic put like that, though she supposed it was true. Since Latife had told her as much as she could yesterday she had had time to dwell on it, and she thought things were a little clearer this morning.

  'It isn't nearly as bad as it sounds, Ian. I've just— gone a little muzzy about the actual accident, that's all, but Doctor Alcilic says it will come back in time.'

  'That's your lady doctor?' She nodded, sensing something in his manner. 'A friend of the family, I understand?'

  'Her husband and Furedin are business acquaintances. Latife says I've met her before, at the same party where I met you, but I don't remember her.'

  'I do. I recognised her when I brought you in yesterday, and she knew me too, though I don't think she realised where from. She knew you, though, and I could see her trying to figure out how come you were with me.' His eyes were bright and glittering like gems in his sunburned face and his fingers tightened around hers as he looked at her. 'Good God, Laurette, they've even got someone to keep
an eye on you in here!'

  'Ian!' She looked at him in dismay. His visit was welcome, but not if he had come simply to complain about her family, as he so often did. 'It's just a coincidence that Doctor Alcilic knows Latife and Furedin, if she's involved in her husband's social life, she was bound to know them.'

  'And it's just a happy coincidence that she happens to be in charge of your case!'

  'Yes!' Her head was beginning to ache again and she knew it would not take too much to make her weepy again, as she had been yesterday. Tan, I—I—'

  As if he realised suddenly, Ian took her hands again and held them tightly, his face anxious as he leaned across to kiss her mouth. 'I'm sorry, my sweet, I'm rather shaken by all this. There was so much blood, you looked as if—my God, I actually thought you were dead at first, and I didn't know what on earth to do for the best.' He looked down at their clasped hands, and his bowed head had a curiously tense look about it that puzzled her. 'I—I almost ran off and left you, Laurette, I was so damned scared!'

  'Oh, Ian!'

  She did not want to believe it, but she had never been in a position like that and she could not judge what her reaction was likely to be. He was shaking his head, still not looking at her, and his voice was strangely flat, as if he said what he did after much consideration.

  'I thought about your family, what they would say, whether they'd think twice about accusing me—oh, I know it sounds ridiculous now, but I kept thinking about Nuri Kayaman and I was scared!' He looked up at last and a faint, rueful smile tugged at the corners of his good-humoured mouth. 'Good job for me that the Kearns are a sensible breed on the whole and not really cowardly. Somehow I got you on to the beach out of the sun and went to find help.'

  'You did wonderfully well in the circumstances.'

  Ian smiled wryly. 'Yeah! I wasn't exactly dressed for hitch-hiking and it wasn't until I got back that I thought about putting my clothes on again. Luckily a car came along and the driver turned up trumps. You were in here in a remarkably quick time.'

  The last few words fell on partially deaf ears, for Laurette was thinking back. Something he had said distracted her and it took her a moment or two to realise what it was. The something that she had been so anxious about concerning Nuri and Baba Refik—she thought she knew now what it was and she looked at Ian curiously, ignoring the ache in her head.

  'Ian, when I was brought in here, what was I wearing?'

  He smiled and winked an eye at her, his brows flicking upwards in unmistakable meaning. 'Why, that itsy-bitsy bikini, of course, love. Your dress got left behind on the beach, I'm afraid, I just never gave it another thought, and your bag was already in the car.'

  'Oh!'

  She could all too easily imagine what the reaction would be at home when they learned she had been brought into the clinic wearing nothing but that tiny scrap of a swimsuit she had been rash enough to buy and wear—the one she had hoped neither Nuri nor her foster-father would ever see.

  At the moment she was wearing a white hospital gown, but she had no doubt that her swimsuit had been put safely to one side until she was ready to leave, and Doctor Alcilic would have made a note of how scantily she had been dressed, although she was probably too discreet to say anything.

  Ian was watching her, still holding her hands and his eyes searched her face with mingled anxiety and curiosity. 'What's wrong, Laurette?'

  It would be difficult to tell him without raising the old controversies, but he was expecting some kind of an answer, so she made it as light as she could manage in the circumstances. 'I'm just thinking that it must have given some of them a shock to see me in that swimsuit!'

  His eyes narrowed, he scanned her face for a moment, noting the faint flush in her cheeks. 'So that's it!' He gripped her hands in his tightly enough to hurt and made her look at him. 'Laurette, you can wear just whatever you like, do you hear me? You don't have to have their approval before you wear a bikini—you'd never get it anyway!'

  'I didn't say—'

  'You didn't have to!' Ian interrupted harshly. 'I can just imagine Nuri Bey looking down that long nose of his at you daring to wear anything like that, but it's none of his damned business, and you tell him so if he raises the matter!'

  'Ian, please don't shout, my head hurts.'

  'I'm sorry, love!' He was contrite, reaching to draw her into his arms, when there was a knock on the door, and he cursed under his breath as he drew back, his hands still on her arms. 'What the—'

  'There is another visitor for you, hanim.' A young nurse blushed to the roots of her hair at the scene she imagined she had interrupted, and blinked uncertainly for a moment. 'If it is—'

  'Oh no, no, please show him—her in!'

  Instinctively, yet again, Laurette's mind had picked on Nuri as her visitor, but it was no real surprise when Halet walked in instead, in fact she breathed an inward sigh of relief. Maybe she was as much aware that Ian had been about to kiss her, but she would make far less fuss about it.

  'Halet! Oh, I'm glad to see you!'

  Halet smiled, her dark eyes fluttering in the direction of Ian's disgrunded face for a second only. 'I am not an inconvenient visitor?'

  What Ian would have told her, Laurette had no idea, but she hastily made her own decision. 'No, of course you're not; you can have the chair since Ian's not using it.'

  Clearly Halet had something on her mind, and Laurette knew her well enough to recognise it. 'I came to—I came to bring you some other clothes.' The meaning in her dark eyes was unmistakable, and Laur-ette felt like hugging her. Sweet, understanding Halet, knowing she did not want the menfolk to find out about that daring swimsuit, had somehow managed to get herself elected the one to bring her some clothes.

  'Oh, Halet, thank you!' Laurette reached up her arms and hugged her, while Ian worked it out for himself, his frown clearly showing that he too followed her meaning, and liked it a lot less.

  He sat on the edge of her bed, with Laurette's hands in his once more, and squeezed her fingers hard. 'You have it all nicely settled between you, don't you?' he said, his voice flat and resigned. 'You never intended them to find out about that bikini?'

  Leaning back against the pillows, Laurette smiled at Halet. 'Not if we could help it,' she agreed.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  IT had not been easy to convince Ian that by far the best plan was for her foster-father and Halet to fetch her home from the clinic, but Laurette had eventually persuaded him. He was determined to establish himself firmly as her cousin, she realised, and took every possible opportunity to remind her of the fact.

  It seemed strange that she could feel so out of touch after only a couple of days in hospital, but she had a curious sense of unreality when she walked out into the sunshine again, that she could not understand at all. She felt disturbingly unsure of everything, although her foster-father's genuinely warm welcome did a lot to restore her confidence.

  Halet was unmistakably delighted to have her home again, and she chattered endlessly in the car coming back, so that she earned a soft cluck of reproach from her father and subsided, verbally at least. She still glanced repeatedly over her shoulder at Laurette and her bright dark eyes left her pleasure in no doubt at all.

  It was good to be at home, and the sight of Yarev behind its secret walls and lush gardens touched Laurette so deeply that she wondered how much harder it was going to be to leave it for good when Halet married. With the sweet familiar scents surrounding her she walked along the path to the house with Refik Kaya-man on one side of her and Halet on the other, and the tall slim cypress that stood guard by the iron gate cast its long morning shadow the whole length of the wall. It was all so quiet and peaceful, so familiar and so secure.

  Across the hall, as they went into the house, the door of the salon stood partly open, and it was instinctive to glance across at it, half expecting to see Nuri come out to welcome her. But of course he didn't. He would be at the office at this hour of the day, with much more important things to thin
k about.

  Sensitive to her train of thought to a disconcerting degree, her foster-father followed the direction of her glance, and smiled in understanding. 'Nuri is not yet home, bebek, he will welcome you when he comes!' A house servant hovering on the far side of the hall caught the old man's eye, and he nodded, turning to Laurette again when the silent instruction was apparently understood. 'We will have çay, bebek, eh? I am sure you will welcome some.'

  'Oh yes, please, lovely!' She walked across the hall with him, and Halet only half a step behind them, and she was suddenly so overwhelmed by the love she had for her adopted family that she impulsively pushed her arm through Refik Kayaman's as she had once done with Nuri, and hugged him. 'Oh, Baba Refik, I'm so glad to be home!'

  If the old man was surprised by her emotion he did not show it, but smiled to himself when she settled on the ottoman beside him, while Halet sat close by in one of the armchairs. 'You must tell us about this accident, how it happened. We understand from Doctor Alcilic that you have now recovered your memory.'

  'Yes, mostly I have.' She was choosing her words carefully, conscious of doing so, yet unsure why she was doing it. 'I remember going in the water, then swimming, diving and larking about with Ian, but I don't really remember hitting my head.'

  If Refik Kayaman questioned the meaning of larking about he gave no indication. His smile was as blandly understanding as ever, and he gave her his whole attention. 'You swim well, of course, I remember how skilled you were as a child.'

  'Daddy taught me early on. He couldn't always keep an eye on me and we were very near the sea, he thought it safer.'

  'He was a wise man,' Refik Kayaman observed quietly, 'and a much loved one.' The dark eyes looked at her with gentle enquiry for a moment. 'Do you remember him well, Laurette?'