The Spotted Plume

by Yvonne Whittal

  She tried not to glance in that direction again, but she could not help herself, and a wave of white-hot jealousy seared through her when she saw Hunter whisper something in Louella's ear which brought a dreamy smile to the singer's lips.

  Jennifer wrenched her eyes from the sight to find herself shaking inwardly. She had never known jealousy before, let alone a jealousy as destructive as this, and she cringed inwardly at the suggestion which she imagined had brought that looked of intimate delight to Louella's strikingly attractive face.

  'Shall we go for a walk on the beach?' Dirk suggested at length, and Jennifer grasped at the opportunity to get away like someone grasping at a lifeline.

  'A short walk, yes,' she said as she rose from her chair and allowed Dirk to drape her wrap about her shoulders. 'I'd like to have an early night tonight.'

  She was almost certain that Hunter watched them leave, she could feel his eyes boring into her back, and she filled her tortured lungs with fresh sea air when they stepped out on to the patio and turned towards the steps leading down on to the smooth, moonlit beach.

  'Will I see you again when I return to Oudtshoorn at the end of the week?' Dirk asked when she had removed her high-heeled sandals to walk on stockinged feet across the cool, soft sand.

  'I'm not sure,' she replied, dragging her thoughts back to the man beside her.

  'What do you mean, you're not sure?' Dirk demanded. 'Don't you want to see me again?'

  'It's not that,' she assured him hastily. 'I might have returned to Cape Town by that time.'

  'Are you honestly leaving that soon?' he asked with disappointment clearly evident in his voice.

  'Mrs Maynard is well enough to manage on her own now, and I've become rather superfluous,' she explained, swallowing down the lump which had risen unexpectedly in her throat.

  'That means I might never see you again.'

  Jennifer drew her gaze from the ever-moving sea to glance at him. 'Don't look so sad about it.'

  'But I am.'

  'You must know plenty of girls.'

  He shrugged carelessly. 'I know a few, but—'

  'But?' she prompted curiously.

  'You're not going to believe this, but I'm usually so tonguetied with them that I seldom know what to talk about,' he confessed.

  'But you haven't been tonguetied with me,' she argued.

  'You're not young and silly.'

  'You make me feel like a grandmother,' she said reprovingly, and he looked faintly embarrassed when she stopped to face him squarely.

  'I didn't mean it that way,' he assured her, 'but the girls I know are all just out of their teens, and you're… how old?'

  She hid a smile of amusement. 'You shouldn't ask a woman her age, Dirk, but I'll be twenty-five next month.'

  'We're the same age, then.'

  'That's nice,' she murmured, unable to match his enthusiasm.

  'Shall we go back?' he asked eventually, peering at her closely in the star-studded darkness.

  'I think so.'

  He took her hand and drew it through his arm as they strolled back along the deserted beach towards the hotel, and they walked in silence for a time until he said curiously, 'Tell me, Jennifer, did Hunter have any objections about you having dinner with me?'

  She stiffened automatically. 'I'm a free agent, Dirk, and I can have dinner with whom I please.'

  'You should have seen the glowering looks he shot in your direction before that Louella woman joined him at his table,' he laughed softly.

  'I couldn't care less how he looked at me,' she replied coldly, but it was not true. She did care, she cared very much, and she would have given anything for him to smile at her just once in the way he had smiled at Louella.

  'I've heard a rumour that he's going to marry Carla von Brandis,' Dirk's voice invaded her thoughts. 'Is this true?'

  'I wouldn't know,' she lied. 'Why do you ask?'

  'I just wondered, because I've seen her a couple of times with Hunter's cousin Stanley, cuddling around corners at functions, and so on.' After what she had witnessed personally, this no longer had the power to shock her, she discovered as she felt Dirk shrug beside her. 'If you ask me, she's playing Hunter for a sucker.'

  Jennifer considered this in silence for a time, then she said quietly, 'I guess it's really none of our business, Dirk.'

  'No, I suppose it isn't,' he agreed, and they continued their walk in silence, but when they reached the hotel foyer he turned her round to face him and gripped her hands tightly. 'Do you have to go now?'

  She looked up into his amber-coloured eyes and nodded. 'I'm tired, Dirk, but it's been a lovely evening, and I've really enjoyed your company.'

  'I shan't forget you in a hurry.'

  'Oh, yes, you will,' she smiled and, extricating her hands gently from his, she said: 'Goodbye, Dirk.'

  'I prefer to say tot siens,' he returned her smile a little sadly. 'It doesn't sound so final.'

  Jennifer did not reply to that, but when she stepped into the lift she turned to see that he was still standing where she had left him. He raised his hand in a swift salute before the doors slid shut, and then she was being swept up to the sixth floor.

  A tiredness seeped into her limbs; a tiredness which seemed to stem from a heavy-laden heart. In less than a week she would be returning to Cape Town, and she would, no doubt, never see Hunter again. She did not want to think of it; she wanted to think of Dirk instead, but her mind conjured up the torturous vision of a lonely, empty future, and she groaned inwardly when she stepped from the lift to walk the short distance to her room. She had thought that she would never recover from Colin's death, and yet she had, but only to learn the real meaning of love; a love in which there was no future. Hunter would never believe anything but the worst of her, and she supposed that she was partially to blame for the opinion he had formed of her. He needed to trust again, to regain his faith in women, but he would never find what he was seeking with Carla, and most certainly not with Louella.

  'That's what I like about women like Louella. They don't pretend to be what they're not,' Hunter's words echoed through her mind.

  Jennifer could almost understand and sympathise. He knew what kind of woman Louella was, and he admired her for not denying it, but his admiration and faith in women ended right there.

  Her mind was in a painful turmoil when she took her keys from her purse and unlocked her bedroom door, but, when she closed it behind her moments later and switched on the light, her heart lurched with a paralysing fear.

  'Hunter!' she exclaimed hoarsely as he uncurled his great length from the high-backed chair facing the glass doors which led out on to the balcony.

  'Surprised to see me?' he asked mockingly as he turned to face her, his razor-sharp glance raking over her pale features unsympathetically.

  It took several agonising seconds for her to recover sufficiently from the shock of finding him there, and when she spoke her voice still bore traces of the nervous tremor which had not quite subsided within her.

  'What are you doing here?' she managed huskily.

  'Waiting for you,' he smiled faintly.

  Her eyes darted about the room. 'How did you get in?'

  'The door on to your balcony was open, and our balconies are linked by a low wall,' he explained casually. 'It was a simple matter just to climb over it.'

  Jennifer pushed herself away from the door which had acted as a support to keep her upright on her trembling limbs and, making a tremendous effort to appear calm, she removed her wrap and placed it with her evening purse and keys on the table against the wall.

  'What do you want?' she asked, her voice much steadier now.

  'To talk to you.'

  Suspicion was mirrored in her eyes. 'What about?'

  'About your evening spent with Dirk Pienaar,' he elaborated smoothly. 'Were you disappointed?'

  She clamped down hard on her rising temper, and said, 'No, I was not.'

  'You mean, he gained by your experience, and in that wa
y he made the evening worthwhile for you?'

  His mocking insinuations sliced deep, but still she hung on to her temper as she met his glance unwaveringly. 'Hunter, I'm tired, and I'm in no mood to enter into a verbal battle with you.'

  'A verbal battle wasn't exactly what I had in mind.'

  Those hard, glittering eyes held hers captive while his statement took time to sink into her lethargic brain, then she wrenched open the door and said icily, 'Get out!'

  'Not so fast,' he replied, moving with incredible speed to slam the door shut before she even had it open properly. With her hand still clutching the handle the force of his actions dragged her with it so that she landed somehow with her back against the carved doorframe to find Hunter towering over her in a frightening manner. 'I intend to have my fair share of the takings,' he told her harshly.

  'What—what do you mean?' she demanded hesitantly, not wanting to accept the warning her mind shouted out to her.

  'Just what I said,' he replied, his jaw hard and unrelenting. 'It's my turn tonight.'

  Fear trickled up her spine, chilling the blood in her veins, but she was determined not to show it. 'What happened to Louella? Is she occupied elsewhere this evening?'

  His eyes burned down into hers, and his lips were drawn back in anger against his strong teeth. 'Forget about Louella.'

  'Why should I when you're so damned interested in whom I spend my time with, and how?' Her voice had risen in anger and fear. 'You accuse me of having no morals, but what about yourself?'

  'Shut up!' he ordered menacingly.

  'I won't shut up!' she cried, but when she saw the dangerous gleam in his eyes she knew that anger would not come to her rescue on this occasion and, passing a tired hand over her eyes, she said with a forced calmness, 'Please, Hunter, don't contemplate anything you'll end up regretting in the morning.'

  'I shan't regret it,. I assure you.' She stood impassively beneath his hands as they caressed her throat and shoulders before brushing aside the narrow straps of her dress, and his touch sent a strange fire racing through her veins which quickened her pulse. His eyes darkened, the pupils enlarging, and his rough voice held a note of unmistakable desire when he said: 'I want you, Jenny, and I mean to have you.'

  She wished that she could run from him, and from this fatal magnetism he exuded, but her tired limbs refused to move, and she realised that her only escape lay in the hope that she could perhaps reason with him.

  'If this is intended as some sort of joke, Hunter, then don't you think it's gone far enough?' she asked unsteadily, her breath coming fast over parted lips.

  'This is no joke, Jenny,' he assured her, 'and neither is this.'

  His hands slid down her back, moulding her into the curve of his body while his hard mouth bruised hers with a savage passion that seared her soul, and stirred up an answering fire she could not suppress. Fear was the only thing that made her cling to her sanity as she struggled wildly against him in an effort to escape, but the bruising pressure of his mouth increased, and his arms tightened about her crushingly, leaving her no room to breathe, or think, or even stop to consider Carla.

  A blackness threatened to engulf her as he edged her towards the bed, and his mouth left hers only briefly as he lowered her on to it, giving her the much needed opportunity to draw air into her lungs, but his lips swooped down on to hers again almost as if he had anticipated the cry that rose in her throat. She struggled beneath him, conscious of lean hips and muscled thighs pressing into hers as he pulled down the zip of her dress, but her efforts to escape were futile, and those clever hands against her responsive flesh drove away the last shred of her sanity until there was only the aching desire to belong to him.

  The shrill ringing of the telephone on the bedside table sliced through her dulled senses and acted like a douche of iced water. She dragged her lips from Hunter's, but strong fingers latched on to her wrist, staying her hand in the act of reaching for the receiver.

  'Leave it!' he ordered in a voice still vibrant with passion.

  'It could be something important,' she pleaded, frantic now as his tongue explored her ear and travelled sensuously down to the rosy peak of her breast to send delicious little shivers cascading through her receptive body.

  'Nothing could be more important than this at the moment,' he growled.

  'Hunter, please!' she begged, her breath coming fast and uneven over parted lips, and her hands pushing frantically at his shoulders. 'It might be your mother.'

  The mention of his mother seemed to have a sobering effect on him at last, and he rolled away from her with a muttered oath on his lips, giving her the opportunity to restore some order to her appearance while he lifted the receiver off the hook and extended it towards her.

  'Hello? Hello? Are you there, Jennifer?' Alice Maynard's voice could be heard quite distinctly, and Jennifer almost snatched the receiver from his hand.

  'Yes, Mrs Maynard?' she said into the mouthpiece, but even to her own ears her voice sounded strange.

  'Is something wrong?' Alice demanded at once.

  From the gleam of mockery in Hunter's eyes Jennifer knew that he could hear every word his mother was saying, and she made a decisive effort to pull herself together as she said haltingly, 'No… no, of course not.'

  Alice seemed to hesitate, then she sighed and said: 'Look, Jennifer, I know it's late, but do you think you could come along and give my leg a massage?'

  'I'm coming at once, Mrs Maynard,' Jennifer replied, then a shiver of emotion rippled through her as Hunter trailed a sensual finger up her spine in the process of pulling up her zip.

  She replaced the receiver hastily and rose jerkily to her feet, placing a suitable distance between Hunter and herself before she felt capable of facing him.

  'That was your mother,' she said unnecessarily.

  'So I heard,' he answered abruptly, and not without a thread of anger in his voice.

  Their eyes met and held; his searching and intent, hers wary, and something in the way his mouth hardened compelled her to say, 'You would have regretted it, Hunter.'

  It was a mistake to say that, for his eyes travelled over her with a slow sensuality that made her tremble as if he had actually touched her physically, and intimately, and the blood rushed painfully into her cheeks when he smiled with faint satisfaction and said: 'I don't somehow think so.'

  She came to her senses as if he had slapped her and, walking towards the door, she fought to regain her composure. Her hand was as cold as the chrome handle, and opening the door wide, she said:, 'Please go.'

  Hunter crossed the room until he stood directly in front of her, and the height and breadth of him set her nerves quivering once more. His eyes were hard, as hard as the line of his square jaw, and a little shiver of apprehension coursed its way through her.

  'What will you do if I insist on waiting here for you to return?'

  'I shall think up some plausible excuse to spend the night in your mother's room,' she replied without hesitation, and his eyebrows rose in sardonic amusement.

  'You won't always escape me this easily, Jennifer,' he warned. 'Next time I shall have what I came for.'

  Something in his manner made her aware of how vulnerable she was, and how totally she would be at his mercy if he should actually carry out his threat, and her anger rose sharply, her eyes sparking green fire as she raised them to his.

  'I'll see you in hell first!' she hissed.

  'I accept that as a challenge,' he nodded abruptly. 'Goodnight, Jennifer.'

  He strode down the passage, his footsteps making no sound on the thick pile of the carpet, and her eyes, frightened now, followed him until he was out of sight.

  Was he serious, or was he merely trying to frighten her? If he were confronted with the truth would he change his opinion of her, or would he scorn her? These questions, unanswered, raced through her mind, but whichever way she looked at it, there was only one thing she could do to avoid the final humiliation of having him learn the truth, and that
was to leave Vogelsvlei as soon as possible. If Hunter succeeded in carrying out his threat he would discover that she loved him, and that was something she dared not allow. Knowing it, he would destroy her, and she would never be able to live with herself after that.

  CHAPTER NINE

  Jennifer put on a more comfortable pair of shoes and slipped into one of her overalls before going along to Alice Maynard's room to massage her leg and hip. Her hip had healed well, but it was not yet strong enough to take the long hours of travelling which they had accomplished since leaving Vogelsvlei early the previous day. Jennifer's mind was somehow not on what she was doing, and Hunter's behaviour had disturbed and frightened her, making the level of her uneasiness rise sharply.

  'I hope you don't mind my calling you at this late hour?' Alice asked tentatively, her eyes searching Jennifer's.

  'I don't mind at all, Mrs Maynard,' she assured the older woman at once. 'I hadn't gone to bed yet, and even if I had it wouldn't have mattered.'

  'You're an angel of mercy, Jennifer. I've been in agony most of the afternoon and evening.'

  Jennifer glanced up sharply from her task. 'You should have called me in sooner. I wouldn't have minded, you know that, and I was, after all, employed specifically to help you.'

  'I know, I know,' Alice muttered impatiently, 'but I didn't want to spoil things for you. You deserved this little break from your usual routine.'

  'You've always given me plenty of freedom, and I've appreciated that, but if you should need me while I'm still with you, then you mustn't hesitate to call me.'

  Alice laughed shortly. 'You sound just like Marian when you speak to me in that tone of voice; reprimanding and authoritative.'

  'I presume you're speaking of Matron Griffiths,' Jennifer smiled down at her. 'Your sister is a very good Matron, and I certainly don't envy her the responsibility that goes with her job.'

  'Don't think that I'm not fond of my sister, Jennifer,' Alice said at once. 'I know I quite often utter a few disparaging remarks which are directed at her, but it's because I know how much she has had to change to fit the position she holds. She's really a very tender-hearted soul, but…' Alice smiled mischievously'… don't let her know I said so.'