He sat there, grinning at her like the Cheshire Cat and fiddling with the medallion at his throat. ‘I could almost believe you,’ he said musingly. ‘And all of this, then, goes back to the fact that I bedded and abandoned you two years ago, took your innocence and walked away?’
He sighed then, the deep, soul-weary sigh of somebody finally released from bondage. And when he looked up at her, his eyes were no longer mocking, but sad beyond comprehension.
‘Ah, Rena,’ he said softly, ‘sometimes I really wonder how I could be in love with somebody as stupid as you are.’ And to her total astonishment, he shrugged. ‘But then I’ve got to be just as stupid, so we’re probably well matched.’
Rena couldn’t believe her ears. Had Ran really said he was in love with her? Her mouth opened, but no words emerged. Before she could even begin to find the words he had suddenly flung his empty glass across the room and lurched to his feet like a man demented.
‘Oh ... God damn that bitch Valerie,’ he raged. ‘I shouldn’t have just fired her; I should have broken her bloody lying neck while I was at it!’
Then he looked at where Rena sat, white-faced and totally confused, unsure that she had heard what she thought she had heard, even less sure she understood it. And his anger flowed away in a visible tide.
He came over to — surprisingly — kneel before her, taking her hands in his. ‘Poor Rena,’ he said. ‘You really don’t understand at all, do you?’
She nodded mutely, making no attempt to free herself from his touch. His voice, when he spoke again, was strangely gentle, hauntingly persuasive.
‘Tell me what happened — exactly what happened — when I supposedly abandoned you back in Sydney. I think I know, but I’d like to hear your side of it.’
‘Does it matter, now?’ she asked incredulously. She had no wish to relieve those frantic, heartrending days of being put off by Ran’s secretary, of demeaning herself.
‘It matters more than you can imagine,’ Ran replied, rising to seat himself on the arm of her chair with his hand still holding her fingers. ‘It matters because when you’ve told me, my love, I’ll explain to you how both of us have spent two long years in the middle of the most vile deception imaginable.’
My love. He’d said it, and Rena could no longer ignore the words. They seemed to pierce like arrows to her troubled heart.
‘Why do you call me your love?’ she asked. ‘I’m not ... I never was and you know it.’
‘You have been since the day I first met you,’ he replied. ‘Even since the second first day that I met you, although all this damned foolishness with names had me fooled for a bit. Ah, Rena, what fools we’ve both been! It was Valerie who told you it was all off, wasn’t it? While I was lying blind in a New Zealand hospital bed and couldn’t reach you myself, when I had to trust her ... fool that I was!’
He rose suddenly and once again stormed around the room, thumping one huge fist into the palm of his other hand as if the sheer physical violence of the act could still his turbulent emotions.
‘Wasn’t it?’ he demanded. ‘Just as she lied to me about you, the treacherous bitch! She told me she’d tried to take my messages to you, had tried to find you, but after the first message — the one saying I was blinded in the riot — you’d made it abundantly clear you wouldn’t be saddled with a blind man.’
And the penny dropped. Rena realised with startling clarity just what Ran was saying. She started up out of her chair, eyes wide with astonishment.
‘Are you really saying what I think you’re saying?’ she cried. ‘That ... that your secretary lied — deliberately —to both of us?’ He didn’t have to answer; it was there to be seen in his coppery eyes, eyes that now softened with a love Rena could no longer deny.
‘My God!’ she whispered, flowing into his arms, cherishing the touch of him, the warmth and strength of his arms around her. She shuddered at the horror of what he had said.
‘It’s true,’ he whispered in her ear. ‘The bitch deliberately and coldly arranged the whole thing. She lied to me, knowing I couldn’t see to do anything about it, and to you because you couldn’t fight her either.’
‘But ... but why?’ It was a silly question; Rena realised that as soon as she’d asked it. Valerie Dunn had wanted Ran, and indeed she had got him.
‘Power? Money? Who knows ... maybe she just fancied my exquisite body,’ he replied in a lame attempt to jest about it. ‘What worries me is that she damned near got away with it; you’ve no idea how much a blind person comes to depend on someone who can see.’
‘We’ve both been blind,’ Rena replied, ‘and I think me even more than you. Oh, Ran, I’m so sorry. If only I’d trusted you more, if only ...’
‘How could you have trusted me more?’ he asked gently. ‘You’d only known me for two weeks. God, it must have been unbelievably easy to believe that damned Valerie. It was for me; she made it all seem very, very plausible.’
‘Yes, but ...’
‘No buts,’ he said, his lips sliding down to claim her mouth in a kiss as soft as butterfly wings. ‘Just tell me you love me. That’s what I’ve been wanting to hear.’
‘Oh, I do. I do,’ she whispered. ‘More than anything, more than life itself. That’s what makes this all so ... so awful. I’ve never stopped loving you. Even when I ... hated you. And yet I should have trusted you ... I should have.’
‘I think we both have to cop a bit of guilt on that score,’ Ran replied, releasing her. Now, how about another drink? There’s still a fair bit of explaining to do and I’m suddenly dry as hell.’
He disappeared into the bedroom while Rena mixed their drinks, and once she had finished and he’d returned, he reached out for her hand, drawing her against him. ‘I do love you,’ he said, ‘and I do want to marry you.’
And he reached out to place on her finger the largest, most beautiful engagement ring she had ever seen. It was an enormous diamond, surrounded by sparkling sapphires in a setting that had obviously been specially designed and handmade.
Rena gasped. ‘It’s ... it’s incredible!’ she exclaimed. ‘But how ... where ...?’ Words failed her; she could only look from the ring to Ran’s smiling eyes and back again, her heart fluttering in her breast and tears lurking behind her eyelids.
‘Sapphires and diamonds, just as I promised,’ he said softly. ‘I’ve been carrying it around with me since ... since the day I got back from New Zealand and went looking for you myself, because I just couldn’t believe that bitch Valerie wasn’t ... mistaken or something.’
There was a catch to his voice, something unsaid that Rena knew must come out, out in the open to be dissembled like all the other misconceptions. And she knew what it was.
‘Was that ... when you became blind again?’ she asked, almost afraid of the answer. ‘Was it? Was it really because of me?’
He didn’t seem to have heard the question, but stayed looking at her, his fingers again toying with the silver medallion.
‘I think that without this I’d have lost my sanity,’ he mused. ‘I’ve never taken it off, you know. Not once since you put it there. They wanted to remove it in the hospital, but I taught them a few new words and they left it.’
‘Ran ... answer my question,’ Rena pleaded. She had to know, no matter how much it hurt.
‘It wasn’t because of you — it was because of that damned lying Valerie,’ he replied finally. ‘But yes, it started then. It didn’t happen all at once; my sight just started to fade out again. I don’t know if being told you’d just ... just damned well disappeared is what caused it, even the doctors didn’t know. But it was amazingly coincidental, especially in view of how it came back in the end.’
‘Was it really because of me dumping you on the floor, or was that just a story you made up?’ Rena wanted, really, to forget about that evening, and yet she had to know.
Ran shrugged. ‘It really was. I landed head-first, and came up with the bedding all over my head. It wasn’t until I pulled it off tha
t I realised I could see light again — not much, but definitely light.’
‘Is that ... what you were trying to tell me was important?’
‘Well, of course. And you, damn you, wouldn’t have a bar of it, not that I blame you considering the circumstances. Anyway, I took a cab to the hospital, where I spent the night, and by morning my sight was almost back to normal.’
‘I spent the night at the pub,’ she said, wondering why that fact should be important under the circumstances.
‘So that’s why you weren’t here when I got back in the morning. I wondered about that,’ he said. ‘They told me to check with my own doctor, but before I left the hospital I happened to pick up the morning paper. God, you can’t imagine how good it was to be able to read a paper again ... or so I thought until I saw the advertisement about your pub performance.’
He grinned, suddenly, an engaging, delighted grin. ‘That’s what put it all together for me, actually, although I had to see for myself, and once I’d actually seen you I blew my top entirely. If I hadn’t left I would have strangled you right on the spot, but on the plane to Sydney I got everything into perspective.’
‘I don’t understand. You’ve been to Sydney?’
‘Hell, yes! I went directly to the airport from the pub on Monday night. I just got back tonight in time for the class, or I’d have found you wherever you were hiding, you can bet on that. But it was that advertisement, really. When I saw that, I knew damned well somebody was lying — somebody besides you, I mean. Because from the very first day we arrived here, I’d specifically asked Valerie to check for anybody singing in pubs. She said there was no one, but of course she knew all along that you were, although I don’t think she realised just exactly who you were.’
‘You ... you actually came to Bundaberg looking for me? After two years?’
‘I never stopped looking for you,’ he said. And in his eyes was the light of truth, undeniable truth. ‘I’ve spent a fortune on private investigators looking all over Sydney for you, but I didn’t remember until just a while ago that you’d mentioned growing up here. When I did remember, I came, much to Valerie’s disappointment. Not that I think she expected me to find you; she could ensure that never happened. But she so hated being away from Sydney ... you have no idea how she hated it.’
‘It’s like some kind of fairy story,’ Rena said wonderingly.
‘Complete with wicked witch,’ he replied, enfolding her in his arms. ‘And now that I’ve found you, I’m never going to let you go again.’
His lips came down on hers like a fairy kiss, so soft, so incredibly gentle, that she could barely feel the pressure. But she could feel the emotion that flowed between them like an electric current, and her own lips parted in response.
The kiss went on for ever, without harshness, without pain, without fear. Ran’s arms gradually tightened around her, while her own flowed up around his neck, pulling him closer, slowly increasing the pressure of his mouth.
‘God, but I want you,’ he whispered when the kiss was done. ‘It seems like forever since I’ve held you like this.’
‘It’s only been a few days, really,’ Rena whispered.
‘Yes, but then I couldn’t see what I was doing. So that means it doesn’t count.’ He was teasing now, his lips nibbling at her ear, his fingers gliding enticingly across her breast.
‘I didn’t notice it slowed you down any,’ she replied, her own fingers caressing the nape of his neck, the strong line of his jaw.
‘Being blind slowed me down more than you can imagine,’ he said. ‘It always made me just that little bit unsure, despite knowing it was you ...’
‘How long have you known?’ She was pulling back against his arms, now, peering intently into his face. ‘And don’t lie to me, because I’ll know if you f do.’
Ran grinned, then bent to kiss the tip of her nose. ‘Well,’ he said, ‘I suspected almost right from the start. Your voice was too familiar, felt too familiar. But I guess I didn’t know for certain until the first time I kissed you. After that the problem was trying to figure out what you were up to.’
‘That long?’ She didn’t know whether to be angry or not. ‘But that means ...’
‘That I’ve been playing you like a fish for weeks,’ he admitted. ‘And fair enough, my love, considering you’ve been doing very much the same thing.’
‘That’s no excuse. So you knew, then, when you moved in here?’
‘I knew the girl who lived upstairs was named Everett ... I didn’t know it was my own Rena Everett/ Catherine Conley Everett until I met you at the bottom of the stairs.’
‘But you knew when we went for that walk, and you knew when you were feeding me those lines about being deserted because of your blindness, and all that.’
‘Just as you knew damned well who I was when you were feeding me those lines about being bedded and abandoned,’ he replied, ‘so that makes us even, I reckon.’
‘It makes you a cunning, devious man,’ Rena growled, feigning a toothy bite at his throat.
‘It does. And I’d say we’re well matched, my love,’ Ran replied, ‘so we’ll have to get married — it wouldn’t be fair to saddle anybody else with either one of us.’
‘I’m not sure I want to marry anybody who goes to such lengths to make me jealous,’ Rena whispered, her fingers making their own music in the hair of his chest. ‘And you did, didn’t you? With Louise ... and even that night with Valerie?’
‘Of course, but don’t ever mention that bitch’s name in my presence again,’ he said.
‘Which bitch?’ His shirt was open to the waist now, but he couldn’t have noticed because his own fingers were as busy as her own.
‘You know very well which bitch,’ he scoffed. ‘Louise was only ever, if you’ll pardon the expression, a red herring.’
Rena laughed. ‘I was .. . going to tell you — to confess, I mean — when I got home on Monday night,’ she said. ‘A bit late, considering you obviously knew already. I’ve ... wanted to all along, but once I’d got started lying, I just didn’t dare. I was too afraid of hurting you, especially after what you’d told me about the girl who deserted you.’
‘And I hoped I’d be able to provoke the truth out of you during our walk on the beach,’ he said. ‘Damned near did, too, didn’t I?’
‘I’m not admitting anything,’ she replied. ‘And stop that, unless you want this conversation to change venues.’
Ran didn’t stop. ‘Of course I do,’ he whispered, his hands constantly adding new delight as her clothing fell away. ‘Only I’m not afraid to admit it.’
‘Neither am I,’ Rena whispered as he lifted her in his arms and walked towards the bedroom door. ‘Neither am I.’
~~~
About the Author
Victoria Gordon is the pseudonym and muse for Canadian/Australian author
Gordon Aalborg’s more than twenty contemporary romances.
As himself, he is the author of the western romance The Horse Tamer’s Challenge (2009) and the Tasmanian-oriented suspense thrillers The Specialist (2004)and Dining with Devils (2009)
as well as the Australian feral cat survival epic Cat Tracks.
Born in Canada, Aalborg spent half his life in Australia, mostly in Tasmania, and now lives
on Vancouver Island, in Canada, with his wife, the mystery and romance author Denise Dietz.
More on www.gordonaalborg.com and www.victoriagordonromance.com
THE BOOKS
As Victoria Gordon
Wolf in Tiger’s Stripes (2010)
Finding Bess (2004)
Beguiled and Bedazzled (1996)
An Irresistible Flirtation (1995)
A Magical Affair (1994)
Gift-Wrapped (1993)
A Taxing Affair (1993)
Love Thy Neighbour (1990)
Arafura Pirate (1989)
Forest Fever (1986)
Cyclone Season (1985)
Age of Consent (1985)
Bu
shranger's Mountain (1985)
Battle of Wills (1982)
Dinner At Wyatt's (1982)
Blind Man's Buff (1982)
Stag At Bay (1982)
Dream House (1981)
Always The Boss (1981)
The Everywhere Man (1981)
Wolf At The Door (1981)
The Sugar Dragon (1980)
as Gordon Aalborg
Cat Tracks (Hyland House: Melbourne: 1981)
(Delphi Books: U.S. edition: 2002)
The Specialist (Five Star Mysteries: 2004)
Dining with Devils (Five Star Mysteries: 2009)
The Horse Tamer’s Challenge (Five Star Expressions: 2009)
Blind Man's Buff Page 17
