A plate of mangoes and papayas, peeled and cut into the shape of flowers, which was something the Thais excelled at, had been set on the table, and Marly helped , herself to a fruit.
'Care for one?' she asked.
'No, thanks. I felt ill again in the night so I'm giving my tummy a rest.'
'Why not let Kevin take a look at you?'
'It isn't necessary. I just ate too much. In fact I think I'll tell Sumalee to count me out for lunch.'
'I'll do it. I want to go in and shower anyway.'
Marly gave the housekeeper the message, then went to her room. She had a shower and was drying herself when she heard Alex talking on the telephone in the living-room. He was checking something with his secretary, and at the sound of his crisp voice she experienced such an urge to see him that she almost tiptoed out to beckon him into her room. No need to wonder what would happen if she did! Suffice it to say Fiona would have hysterics. Smiling at the thought, she dropped the towel and slipped into shorts and top.
■
Kevin and Fiona were in the living-room with Alex when Marly joined them.
'We're going out in the boat,' Kevin informed her. 'I haven't been on it yet and Alex is taking us round some of the islands.'
'I hope we won't have any more engine trouble,' she answered with a straight face, and swung round to the tall, tawny-haired man who had come to stand beside her. 'You should have some lessons in boat maintenance, Alex.'
'You have to be kidding!' Fiona giggled before he could reply. 'There's nothing he doesn't know about boats.'
Marly raised wide-apart brown eyes in his direction. 'Really? Then how is it we were marooned the other night?'
'One of those freak happenings,' he replied, meeting her gaze without so much as a bhnk. 'Even an expert can be flummoxed.' He moved to the door. 'I suggest we get moving. Sumalee's prepared us a picnic and we can have lunch on board.'
They set off in high spirits, as befitted the cloudless blue sky, golden sunshine, and azure sea glinting pure and clear as crystal. If there was pollution in their waters there were no visible signs of it.
Within half an hour Phuket was a smudge on the horizon, and they lolled on deck eating stuffed chicken wings, spicy tiger prawns—large and pink—and tiny ears of corn, marble-size aubergines, and bowls of cardamon- scented rice.
Fiona merely picked at her food, and later was content to lounge on deck while everyone else went swimming, giving the excuse that the Bucks Fizz Alex had served at lunch had made her sleepy. But Marly suspected she was feeling far from well and was putting on a brave face so as not to spoil their day.
It was dusk when they finally returned to the house, and Alex announced that he didn't know about anyone else but he intended having a couple of hours' sleep.
'Me too.' Fiona leaned tiredly against his side. 'Will we be dining in or out?'
'I've booked a table at the yacht club. As it's our last night I thought you two girls would welcome a chance to dress up.'
'What a super idea. I bought a black dress in Paris that will knock you out!'
'You'd be a knock-out in a sack,' Kevin said.
'Which doesn't say much for your fashion sense!'
'Maybe not. But it says a helluva lot for your figure!'
Fiona had to laugh, though the look she cast Alex was faintly aggrieved. 'Why don'tyou ever compliment me? You're always so serious.'
'It's my age,' he retorted. 'I'm what's known as the older generation.'
'Don't be silly. You're in the prime of life.'
'I'm years older than you, my dear. It may not be apparent now, but you'd notice the gap ten years from now. You'll still want to go out dancing while I'll be happy to sit and read by the fire.'
'Rubbish.' Fiona punched him playfully on the arm. 'You're the most active, energetic man I've met, and you'll be the same when you're sixty—just like your father.'
Marly heard Alex's faint sigh and knew exactly how he felt. He could go on talking in this vein till the cows came home and it still wouldn't persuade Fiona they were wrong for one another. Only the brutal truth would do that. Echoing his sigh, she quickened her pace, unwilling to listen to any more of the conversation.
Later that evening, bathed and dressed, she surveyed herself in the mirror and wished she was wearing one of her own dresses instead of Nan's. Not that the pink silk cheong-sam wasn't beautiful; it was, but it was at variance with her own style, which her friends called high fashion, and her mother referred to as gimmicky!
Still, if she managed to contact Andrea tomorrow she could confront Alex in the evening as herself—providing they managed to sneak time together without Fiona finding out. Marly frowned, wondering when the girl was returning to England and whether he'd be flying back with her.
Picking up her hairbrush, she brushed her glossy black hair. It fell like a velvet cloud to her shoulders, enhancing her air of fragility, but again it was a false picture of her, for she was a strong girl with a forceful personality. Again she wondered if Alex would be dismayed by this, and could not quell a frisson of anxiety.
As she came on to the terrace, she saw him standing by the wooden railing, staring out at the moonlit ocean. At her step he turned and came towards her, impeccably dressed in white trousers and black crocodile Gucci belt, with a thin, black cotton open-necked sports shirt, the sleeves rolled up to reveal bronzed, muscular arms.
'Do you know this is the first time we've been alone today?' he said deeply.
Before she could answer, Kevin appeared in the doorway. 'I think we should get Fiona to a hospital.'
'Why? What's wrong?' Alex demanded.
'She has violent stomach pains and I think it's appendicitis.'
Alex strode swiftly into Fiona's room, where she was lying on the bed, her face pale and glistening with sweat.
'Sorry to be such a nuisance.' She smiled wanly. 'I'm sure Kevin's fussing over nothing.'
'I'm sure he isn't,' Alex replied bluntly, leaning forward to clasp her hand. 'He's a doctor, sweetie, and they don't make a fuss without reason.'
'I still think I can hang on until we get back to Bangkok.'
Alex glanced at Kevin. 'What do you think?'
'She should be in hospital now.'
'In that case there's nothing further to discuss.'
A call to the yacht club ascertained that there was an excellent hospital a few miles away, and within the hour Fiona was installed there and had been seen by a surgeon, who confirmed Kevin's diagnosis and said she should be operated on immediately.
'Can't I fly back to Bangkok and have the operation there?' a tearful Fiona pleaded, holding tightly to Alex's hand. 'You're all going back tomorrow and I'll be left here alone.'
'No, you won't,' he soothed. 'I'll stay with you.'
'You can't. You said you had some architects flying in from Hong Kong and———— '
'They'll wait for me. I'm the client, my dear, and too valuable a one for them to make a fuss. Now stop worrying.'
Tears rolled down her cheeks. 'You're so good to me, Alex. I'm being a dreadful nuisance, and————'
'You aren't. You'll ill and I want to be with you. It's what brothers are for.'
'You aren't my brother.'
'I feel as if I am,' he said softly, stroking her hair. 'Relax and stop worrying.'
Fiona went to reply but the injection the doctor had given her was already taking effect, and her eyelids drooped shut over eyes already becoming unfocused.
'There's no reason for you to stay with Fiona,' Kevin said to Alex as she was wheeled away and they all retired to the waiting-room. 'I've a few days left of my vacation and I'm more than willing to remain here.'
Marly found her heart beating faster as she waited for Alex to reply. She knew he didn't love the girl, yet he had been so tender with her that jealousy had reared its head again.
'Thanks for the offer, Kevin, but I think it's my duty to stay. Fiona's very dependent on me, and——'
'She'll go
on being dependent unless you do something drastic.'
'I intend to. But when she's recovering from an operation is hardly the time.'
'It's the best time,' Kevin argued. 'I know it's none of my business but I think Fiona's problem is she's scared of being left alone—the way she was when her parents died. She became fixated on you, and she can't let go. But if she were forced to transfer her dependency to someone else—which she'd have to do if she were left here with only me to turn to—it might make her realise you aren't the only man she can rely on.'
'I doubt if it will be that simple,' Alex muttered.
'It's worth giving it a try.'
'If it works, I hope you know what you're letting yourself in for?'
'I do.'
The two men looked at each other and came to an unspoken agreement, and Marly, watching them, couldn't help thinking how differently two women would have handled such a situation. Certainly not as quickly, nor with such a lack of Angst.
It was well after midnight when they returned to the house, having stopped off for a meal in the coffee-shop of one of the main hotels. Marly was very tired and went straight to bed, but once there found she could not sleep, beset by a nameless anxiety that finally coalesced into the fear that when she told Alex she loved him and disclosed her identity, he would be so furious, he would walk away from her.
After all, he was a proud man, and to discover she had thought so badly of him that she had wanted to pay him back for his behaviour might raise a host of questions in his mind; the most important one being why, once she had got to know him and fallen in love with him, she had not come right out and asked to hear his side of the story.
There was no answer to this, of course. Well, there was an answer, but giving it would be like waving a red rag at a bull. How did you tell a man you instinctively sided with a woman when a male-female relationship didn't work out?
'It's been a marvellous few days, Marly,' Alex said gruffly over coffee in the departure lounge, where they sat waiting to fly back to Bangkok. 'But it would have been even better if we'd been on our own.'
'It wouldn't have been possible,' she chastised in her sweetest tone.
'I realise you could never have gone away with me unchaperoned,' he said huskily.
Unable to meet his gaze, she lowered her head. This was getting worse and worse. Perhaps she should tell him the truth now, and not wait until she had spoken to Andrea?
'Alex, there's something I——- '
'Alex, my dear! What a wonderful surprise to see you.'
The greeting, in heavily accented English, came from a tall, red-haired, voluptuous beauty in her mid-thirties. She was accompanied by a short, plump man with iron- grey hair, who was at least two decades her senior.
'Inge!' Alex jumped to his feet. 'I'd no idea you were in this part of the world.'
He kissed her on both cheeks, then shook the man's hand before introducing the couple to Marly as Inge and Per Svensson, from Stockholm. He offered them no explanation as to his relationship with Marly, merely saying they had been staying with another couple at a friend's house.
The Swedish couple, who Marly later discovered owned the largest sportswear company in Europe, monopolised Alex throughout the flight, giving her no chance to make her confession. Even when they arrived in Bangkok, the Svenssons remained with them, for they were staying at the Hamilton Hotel, and Alex naturally offered them a lift in the chauffeur-driven car that had come to meet him.
'Any chance of you having dinner with us tonight?' Inge asked as they entered the air-conditioned foyer.
The invitation was echoed by her husband, whose glance, unlike his wife's, included Marly.
'I may be tied up with business,' Alex replied. 'Give me a chance to look through my messages first, and I'll call your room and let you know.'
They parted at the lift, the Svenssons taking the express one to the penthouse floor, and Marly and Alex going to his office on the first floor. As she glanced at him as they walked down the corridor, her heart seemed to turn over in her breast. What a magnificent specimen of a man he was. Unbelievable to think they would be spending the rest of their lives together. But oh, lord, she hadn't yet told him she was going to marry him!
He turned his head and, seeing her watching him, reached for her hand. 'Forgive me, darling,' he whispered.
'For what?'
'I should have dropped you home first. I don't expect you to work today.'
'Why not? I've a mass of things to catch up on. But I'd like to talk to you first.'
'Not until I've kissed you.' They had reached the private entrance to his office and he opened the door and ushered her inside. But as he went to take her in his arms, his latest secretary, Mrs Dewsbury, came through from her office.
'Thank goodness you're here at last, Mr Hamilton!' she greeted him with undisguised relief. 'Your father tried to contact you early this morning in Phuket but you'd already left. He asked for you to call him the instant you arrived.'
'Did he say why?'
'It's to do with the new hotel in Hawaii. Shall I get him on the line for you?'
'Please.'
As he crossed to his desk, Marly went to the door. 'I'll be in my office. Let me know when you're free.'
It was lunchtime when Mrs Dewsbury called and asked her to go to Alex's office, and anticipating a meal with him, she was dismayed to find him standing by his desk, stuffing files into his briefcase. His grey suit and dark tie made it unnecessary for him to tell her he was leaving the country, and she bit back a sigh in the knowledge that she would have to maintain her role until his return.
'Sorry about this, Marly.'
'How long will you be away?'
'I won't know till I get to London.'
'I thought you were going to Hawaii?'
'Afterwards. I'll be in London a week.' He frowned as he consulted a piece of paper in his hand on which she could see several sets of figures.
'It sounds as if you'll be gone some time.'
'I——- ' He broke off as his intercom buzzed and Mrs
Dewsbury reminded him that his car was waiting, and he was cutting it fine.
With a muttered imprecation he picked up his briefcase and strode to the door. Expecting him to stop and draw her into his arms, Marly was confounded when he only gave her a brief kiss and an even briefer smile.
'Looks as if we're out of sync with each other, Marly. It will have to be another time, another place.'
She was still standing there, bemused, when the door closed behind him and she was alone. For an instant she thought she was going to burst into tears, thai common sense reasserted itself and she drew a deep breath. Alex was clearly concerned with the situation in Hawaii and could not think of anything else. Heavens, she had been working long enough to know the truth of the old adage that for a man love was a thing apart, though it was a woman's whole existence. Well, perhaps it wasn't quite so true these days, but it was still true enough for it to have validity.
'You don't look as if you've come back from a hohday on paradise island!' Nan greeted her when she walked into the house later that afternoon.
Forcing a smile, Marly carried her case to her bedroom, with Nan in tow. 'Phuket was exactly the paradise you described.'
'Then what's with the long face? No, let me guess. Trouble with Alex Hamilton.'
Marly turned from hanging away the cheong-sams she had taken with her. 'In a way. He asked me to marry him.'
Nan's mouth fell open. 'You said no, of course?'
Marly shook her head, then added, 'But I haven't yet said yes either.'
'Is this a magical mystery tour or are you going to explain?'
'I do love him, I have for quite a while but I refused to admit it because of Andrea. That's why I won't say yes to him until I've spoken to her.'
'I don't envy you having to tell her.'
'I'm dreading it,' Marly admitted. 'I want to get it over as soon as I can.'
'Then call her now. It's eig
ht in the morning British time and she won't have left for her office. If she's terribly upset, it might help if I have a word with her too.'
Ringing Nan a grateful look, Marly dialled Andrea's number. Her hand was shaking and she had to do it twice, but eventually she heard the ringing tone.
'There's no answer,' she said when it had rung for more than a minute. 'She may be out of town. I'll call her office later.'
'You won't want to talk to her there!'
'Obviously. But I can find out from the switchboard if she is away. Having to keep dialling would put me on tenterhooks each time.'
'Poor love.' Nan came over and gave her a hug. 'Let's go out for a meal and you can tell me how Kevin got on with Fiona.'
'I'd forgotten all about her! She had her appendix out last night and he stayed behind to be with her.' Marly rummaged in her bag for the number of the clinic. 'I must see how she is.'
'Feeling sorry for herself,' Kevin explained, coming on the hne when the call was put through to Fiona's room. 'She was allergic to the pain-killer they gave her, though she's not so nauseous now. I'll give her your love.'
'Do that. I just hope she gives hers toyow!'
Marly felt less fraught after she had talked to Kevin, for it brought home to her that one couldn't account for love—either for falling in or falling out of it. If only she could make Andrea see this too. If she couldn't, they probably wouldn't speak to each other again.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Contacting Andrea proved easier said than done, for her office said she had taken a few days' leave, and as far as they were aware was spending it at home. But though Marly telephoned early in the morning and late at night, she was still unable to contact her.
As if that weren't bad enough, there was no word from Alex either, and though she told herself he was probably inundated with problems, deep down she was surprised that no matter how busy he was he had not found a spare moment to call her. Inevitably, doubts began to disturb her. Was out of sight out of mind? Had his offer of marriage merely been a means to an end—like his proposal to Andrea—and did he now feel differently?
Roberta Leigh - Give A Man A Bad Name Page 13
