by Isobel Chace
She wouldn't have been here,' Celine answered with a logic Jennifer was far from appreciating. Her usual sunny smile broke across her perfect features. 'I'm glad she was, though. Stuart says we can get married at once now.'
'Stuart?' Jennifer's whole aspect changed at the prospect of meeting a man and not having to make do only with members of her own sex. 'Were you here last night?'
Stuart smiled briefly. 'I was outside.'
Jennifer took a step nearer to him, her whole being concentrated on his lightest word. 'How wonderful!' she breathed. 'I hope Celine knows how lucky she was to have you rescue her? I quite thought that that little enterprise was going to be left to Georgie. My sister, you know, thrives on manipulating people in and out of incidents of her creation. She has a chronic need to look after everyone all round her. Only there's a snag. There always is a snag, isn't there? Everything has to be done in the way she thinks will be best for you! Take care she doesn't make you out to Celine to be some kind of medicine she has to take three times a day to keep her nerves under control. Romance and nasty medicine don't go well together —and I can see you're romantic just by looking at you] One romantic can always spot another, can't they?'
Celine's lovely smile changed to stony displeasure. 'It isn't my nerves, there's nothing wrong with my nerves! I'm not very clever and I have bad dreams, but if Stuart doesn't mind, why should you?'
Georgina thought it was time she took a hand in the conversation herself, dragging herself away from her own attack of the miseries to deal with her sister. How Jennifer loved stirring things up with her little wooden spoon! But she wasn't going to spoil Celine's happiness, not if she, Georgina, could prevent it.
'Jennifer, don't!' she rapped out.
Her sister turned innocent eyes in her direction. 'Don't what?'
But it was Stuart who answered. 'I've heard a lot about you, Miss Perry,' he said quietly, 'not from Georgina, but from William. He always said you had soft, gentle manners and a nice nature. Pity he was mistaken.'
Jennifer gasped. 'What do you mean?'
'I mean Georgina has had a lot to put up with from you in the past, but you won't have her around in the future to smooth your path for you. Shall I hand you a good laugh, Jennifer? Georgie gave your letter to William on the plane as you told her to. Anyone else would have torn it up unread, but not Georgina Ayres! William was furious, as you hoped he would be, but after a while he began to think there was more to it than Georgina hanging on to it until it was too late for him to do anything about it. He decided Georgie was the one who was telling the truth.'
'He never said so to me!' Georgina blurted out.
'He will, when he gets around to it,' Stuart said comfortably. 'Meanwhile, shall we go across to the factory?'
It was a subdued party that made its way along the path towards the factory. Stuart ignored their sulky faces and insisted they paid attention as he plucked a twig from one of the tea bushes and showed them how the white flowers grew underneath the leaves, facing down towards the ground.
'This is the bit which is picked,' he went on. 'Two leaves and a bud, never more than that. That's what those women are doing over there.'
He led them on into the factory, ignoring Jennifer's cries that she didn't want to go up the rickety steps that led to the upper storey of the factory.
'This is where the leaves are put to dry,' he explained, pointing to the long racks that stretched their way across the room. 'There's a complicated system of air vents that help desiccate them. One of my jobs is to see that they're not left here too long, or for too short a time. After that, the leaves are passed through these rollers —' he pointed out the giant, electrically operated machines — 'and a chemical change begins to take place. Oxygen combines with the aromatic juices which are released and fermentation begins. The leaves change colour from green to copper and it takes judgment to know exactly when they are "done". The final stage is the firing, which arrests any further oxidization by baking the tea evenly. It depends where the tea is to be marketed as to how much firing we do in the factory. If it has to travel through the Red Sea, for example, it would get a further baking there, and that has to be allowed for.'
He rushed them round the building, going rapidly from one process to another, until they came to the place where he did the most difficult part of his work, the tasting area.
'Teas have such lovely names!' he enthused, putting the kettle on to boil. 'Pekoe, Orange Pekoe, Pekoe Souchong, Tippy and Flowery, among others. When you taste them you should be able to tell the major differences between them for yourselves.'
Georgina took the cup of tea he handed her and sipped it carefully. 'Is this a good tea?' she asked him.
'One of the best. Try this and you'll see the difference.'
She did and, even to her indifferent palate, it tasted rougher and more bitter than the first tea. 'Are there many different grades?' she pressed him, her interest now thoroughly caught.
He grinned. 'How about pungent, malty, pointy, bakey, thick, coppery, dull or bright? We tasters have our own jargon to describe every kind of tea. How would you like the job?'
He looked over her head as the sound of shod feet came
through one of the open doors. 'At last!' he exclaimed. His smile widened as William joined them. 'I thought you were never coming! Pity, though, you're going to remove my star talent from our tea-tasting competition. I suppose you won't wait for her to finish the course?'
'Not today,' said William. 'She'll have to come back some other time.'
Georgina clasped her hands together. 'Shouldn't you be working?' she squeaked. She cleared her throat, and her voice came down a whole octave. 'I didn't expect you for ages!'
'I've been working! Good God, woman, I've been working since dawn to hurry things on and get back to you, and you don't even look pleased to see me!'
Georgina's eyes fell before his. 'I am—of course I am. Only you couldn't even be bothered to wish me good morning, so how am I expected to greet you now?'
William sighed. 'That's my Georgina! How about with a kiss?'
But Georgina couldn't, not with Jennifer standing there watching her, ready to pick holes in her performance. 'Not now!' she said urgently.
He appeared to find that riotously funny and her anger against him kindled into a steady blaze.
'Very funny!' she jeered at him. 'But you've yet to prove to me that you want my kisses!'
His laughter fell away from him. 'That's true.' His tawny eyes challenged hers, making her feel quite dizzy with their impact. 'But if you think I'm going to do that in front of witnesses, you have another think coming. Some things are better done in privacy —'
'Because you're ashamed of me!' Georgina flung at him.
His lips twitched. 'I want to spare your blushes —'
'You could have fooled me!'
'—but that isn't the same thing at all,' he went on calmly. 'That's because I don't want others to think I married anyone as stupid as you seem determined to be.' He shook his head at her. 'Really, Georgina, don't you ever think things out before you come rushing out of your corner, ready to do battle with all and sundry? Well, you're not fighting with me, my girl! Not today! Today you're going to learn what it means to be a wife —'
She panicked. 'I won't come with you!'
The golden flecks shone bright in his eyes. 'Won't you, Georgie? Why not?'
'Because — ' she floundered. 'Because I don't want to!'
The gold flecks changed to warm laughter. 'You have, a lot to learn, little Georgie, and I'm the man to teach it to you. Give in gracefully and come along, my love, because you're coming whether you want it or not, and you know it!'
If she ran, she thought, if she ran hard enough, she could still make her escape through the open door. But what would she do then? She eyed him with all the nervousness of a trapped animal and saw the purpose with which he in turn was regarding her.
'You can't carry me the whole way back to the house!' she declared with a lift to her
chin.
'I won't have to!'
Georgina cast a proud, angry look about her, but there was no help to be gained from either Celine or Stuart, who were intent only on each other, and from Jennifer she would scorn to ask so much as the time of day!
'Where are we going, then?' she asked abruptly, knowing herself to be defeated.
'On a picnic,' he answered without hesitation. 'I have all the food in the jeep, waiting for you. Are you coming?'
She put her hand in the one he held out to her and bent her head. 'But I haven't forgiven you yet, William Ayres, not for anything!'
'Ah!' His fingers closed about hers with a painful intensity. 'It isn't your forgiveness I'm seeking,' he mocked her. 'I've never fancied the role of penitential sinner much and I won't grovel at your feet, because neither of us would care for that. I have another proposition to put to you—'
'And I suppose if I don't accept it at once, you'll coerce me into it just the same!' she interrupted him shortly. 'Why can't you be nice to me, just for once, just until—until—?' Her eyes widened and she stood stock still, refusing to budge another inch. 'William, what kind of proposition?'
'Why don't you come and find out?'
She blinked nervously. 'Will I like it?' she probed.
'You will, if you don't strain my patience too far before we get started! Look, sweetheart, I want you to myself for a few hours and I've spent a sleepless night and a great many hours of hard work to achieve it. Don't you think it's time we had a talk, just the two of us, without any interruptions, and got certain things straight between us?'
She nodded slowly. 'Didn't you go back to bed last night?'
'For a few hours.'
'Was that enough for you?'
His smile was wry. 'Lack of sleep doesn't help my temper any. You have been warned, my sweet Georgina! I need you on my side for the rest of today!'
'Oh yes!' she exclaimed. 'Why didn't you say so? I thought — ' She broke off, wondering exactly what it was that she had thought. A proposition in her experience was the first step on the road to ruin, but as she was already married to William he couldn't possibly have meant the temporary liaison that his words had conjured up. Indeed, it had to be something else, and that something set her nerves jangling and the blood racing through her veins.
She ignored his look of enquiry, a smile of sheer delight hovering at the corners of her mouth. 'William, I wish you'd come earlier! It was such a long morning without you! Why didn't you come in to wish me good morning?'
'How do you know I didn't? You were fast asleep when I left the house this morning.'
'I wouldn't have minded if you had woken me,' she protested. 'I thought it was because you preferred to have breakfast with Jennifer.'
He cast a quick look in her direction, giving her a push towards his waiting jeep. 'Jennifer is essentially an evening person, don't you think?' he returned.
'I'd much rather you didn't think of her as any sort of person,' she said in a small voice. 'I know you thought you were in love with
her — '
‘That was a misunderstanding, Georgina. That's one of the things I want to talk to you about. I've treated you very badly, dear heart, but a little bit of it was your own fault. You're going to have to give up fighting me in the future and try a spot of loving instead. Think you can stand it?'
She sat on the canvas-covered seat, her knees together and her hands clasped lightly in her lap. The colour edged up her face as she strove to find a credible answer that would not commit her to more than he wanted from her. None occurred to her.
‘Never mind, Georgie Porgie, I can wait.' He got into the driving seat beside her, lifting a hand in salute to the others who had come out from the factory to see them off. He grinned happily to himself. ‘Atta girl, Georgie! At least Celine knows what she wants from Stuart!'
The tea gardens looked particularly lovely that morning. The atmosphere was thin and clear and it was possible to look across miles and miles of tea-planted hillsides and up into the heights where even the tea came to an end, to be replaced by some scrawny laurels, rhododendrons, pipal, balsams and pitcher plants. The land was well watered too, a multitude of waterfalls giving life to some of the rockier gorges.
Georgina was beginning to relax and enjoy herself. She knew what she wanted too. She wanted William, but she wanted him all to herself and, for today at least, that was what it seemed she was going to get.
‘This must be the most beautiful place on earth!' she said, increasingly certain that this was going to be the most wonderful day in her life.
‘It must be the company you're keeping,' he teased her.
She sat up very straight. ‘Could be.' She would have said something more, something a great deal more enthusiastic, but there didn't seem to be any words to express what she was feeling.
William drove on in silence, only speaking again when he told her they were approaching their destination. ‘Stuart claims this spot is as near paradise as one is likely to get. He'd better be right!'
'He probably is,' she encouraged him. 'Not that it matters. It's such a lovely day that I wouldn't care if we were in the middle of Piccadilly Circus!'
He looked at her, his thoughts hidden behind a mask of indifference. 'I should,' he said.
She clasped her hands tighter together. 'Why?'
He smiled ruefully. 'Because, my Georgie Porgie, today I'm going to be very gentle with you and you're going to respond in kind. Shouting above the roar of the traffic wouldn't be conducive to the kind of atmosphere I want to achieve.' He glanced across at her. 'How does the programme appeal so far?'
'I don't mind when you're not gentle,' she blurted out. 'I l-like being with you, you see.'
'Do you, darling? I think you're more generous than I deserve, because in the past I've bruised your spirit more than a little, haven't I?'
Surprisingly, she was amused by that. 'I shall enjoy having you apply a little balm,' she told him. 'William, you fool! You know it will be just the same tomorrow when you want something from me! And I'm just as big a fool. I think I must like the masterful touch!'
'The iron hand in the velvet glove? That's all very well, love, but not without love, and not without the glove. It'll be different from now on, I promise you. I've been obtuse as far as you're concerned,
but my eyes are wide open now.'
'It doesn't matter,' she said uncomfortably.
'Because you're used to being misjudged?' His foot slipped on the accelerator and they shot forward, coming to rest under a group of trees close beside one of the prettiest silver waterfalls that Georgina had ever seen. 'It's going to be different from now on!'
She didn't know what to say to that. She was glad to be able to busy herself helping to spread the rug on the ground just short of the spray from the waterfall, and to carry the packages of food and drink from the jeep to the rug.
'Oh, do look!' she whispered, awed. 'That bird, over there!'
He glanced where she was pointing. 'A blue-tailed bee-eater.' 'And that?'
'A black headed oriole. It has a pretty mustard-coloured body which you can see better in flight. That one over there is a kingfisher.'
'But it's quite black and dull,' she complained.
'Wait until it takes off. See it?'
It flew across the water in a blaze of greeny-blue, settling on the other side of the water, its right-angled beak turning busily from side to side as the bird inspected the possibilities of his territory.
Georgina turned impulsively to William. 'Thank you for bringing me here! You looked so tired last night, and then to get up as early as you did—it was kind of you, because I didn't think I'd see you before this evening.'
'And that mattered to you?'
She nodded, embarrassed. 'It was nice having a whole week together before you started work. It spoilt me for having to entertain myself, I expect. I've never had nothing in particular to do before.'
'Enjoy it while you can,' he advised her. 'You'll be
busy enough when the children make their appearance.'
'Children?' She sounded as if she had never heard the word before.
'The fruit of the marriage-bed,' he reminded her dryly.
'Oh.' She coloured and turned away, saying again, 'Oh!'
He sat down on the rug, spreading his long legs out in front of him and patting the place beside him. 'Don't sound so surprised, Georgie.
Celine seems to expect it of us, even if you don't!'
'I hadn't thought —'
'What had you thought about?'
She sat down quickly, feeling suddenly weak at the knees. 'I don't know. I was busy taking each day as it came.' She paused, gathering up her courage. 'William, about Jennifer — '
'What about her?'
'She doesn't mean half what she says. I think she is — fond of you, if that's what's worrying you.'
His eyes narrowed, the amber of his eyes looking very yellow against the black of his lashes. 'It's not. I heard all I wanted to from Jennifer last night. Not that it changed anything. You'd already wrought havoc with my feelings, long before Jennie made her appearance. You're such an innocent, Georgie! Didn't you guess how I felt?'
She bit her lip, trying not to allow the burgeoning excitement within her to get away from her rapidly diminishing control over it. 'I still don't know,' she said.
But it seemed he wasn't going to tell her—not yet. He lay back, pillowing his head on his hands, and changed the subject.
'Tell me about Jennifer,' he coaxed her. 'Tell me the truth, and make it as short as you can. She's a dull subject on such a day as this!'
'Dull?' The word exploded out of her. 'Aren't you in love with her after all? If you've changed your mind, you shouldn't have allowed her to come all this way to be with you. She'll be furious!'
'I'd say Duncan is more entitled to feel ill-used. I wonder how she persuaded him to pay for her to visit us. It's a damned sight more than I'd do for you, Georgie! Nobody else is ever going to have you but me!'
Georgina traced the pattern of the rug with her finger, waiting for the thunder of her heart to subside a little. 'She may go back to him,' she volunteered at last. 'It's the sort of thing she would do. Perhaps he knows that. He might have been prepared to take a gamble on her, don't you think?'
