by Anne Hampson
She managed to get him quickly, at his office. He was delighted to hear from her, and relieved.
'I rang the Florida two days ago, and they said you'd left after only one night. I was so worried. What happened? Why did you not stay at the hotel? Wasn't it comfortable?'
She paused to assimilate what he had said. He was worried at not being able to contact her at the hotel.
She tried to imagine what Paul would have done under similar circumstances. But it needed no imagination. He'd have taken the first plane over. Yes, she was sure of it.
'I'm staying with the man who employed Joseph.' She went on quickly to explain everything and was glad that Phil listened without interruption. 'So you can see that it's an almost impossible task without going to the police, and this I just can't do.'
'But you don't need the police in order to, find this Joseph Warburton. Forget all about Irene; she's not worth a thought. And if you forget her than you can also forget about the police. The man Warburton can't have vanished into thin air, especially as he has two babies with him. I guess he isn't very far away.'
'If he wasn't going far, then he'd not have left Paul's employ in the first place.'
'But you've just said he left owing to his not wanting people to know of the desertion of his wife—I suppose she was known as his wife?'
'Yes, among his friends and fellow workers he was. Paul knew—'
'This Paul,' he cut in sharply. 'You seem to have become familiar in a very short space of time.'
'He asked me to call him Paul.' She was full up, and hurt. 'Phil, darling, I want you to take Mandy. Please say she can stay with us. I want to marry you—so very much. You're my life, Phil, and I need you so much at this moment. I'm pleading with you to understand, and to say it's all right about Mandy. I want to come home just as soon as I can get a flight.' She was remembering her promise to give Mandy a holiday. Well, for once she was willing to let the child down if only Phil would give her the assurance she was begging for. It would all be for Mandy's benefit in the end. She added before Phil could speak, 'Even if I did find Joseph Warburton, I don't think for one moment he'd take another child, and in any case I just can't see myself parting with her—'
'Have you forgotten the legal aspect of the case?' Abrupt the interruption, terse the tone of voice. Laura could not answer for the constriction in her throat, and after a while she heard Phil say, 'Are you still there, Laura?'
She managed to answer briefly, 'Yes, I'm here.'
'You heard what I've just said?'
'About the legal aspect, yes. But I've been thinking, Phil, that the authorities wouldn't prosecute me for giving Mandy a home and caring for her. I feel sure they'd let me adopt her—I mean, let us adopt her.' Why was she persevering like this when she knew with unerring instinct that she was fighting a losing battle?
'Laura,' came the voice from the other end of the line, 'I haven't changed my mind. There is no question of my adopting Mandy.'
'But—Phil…' Her voice broke, and to her consternation she burst into tears. 'I—I l-love you, darling. Please don't hurt me like this…' Her voice trailed as, very gently, the receiver was taken from her trembling fingers and placed upon its rest. She turned, and it seemed the most natural thing that she should allow herself to be folded in the strong arms that came about her, that she should bury her face against the roughness of the wrap, that she should find comfort even in the midst of the paroxysm of weeping that resulted from the wave of bitter despair that swept over her.
'Hush, my child, the man isn't worth all this misery.' Paul's hand was on her hair, stroking it gently. 'Come into the salon,' he urged and she obeyed meekly, aware that here, in the hall, they were more likely to be come upon by one of the servants than they would be in the living room.
'I'm… sorry,' she quavered when at last she was able to speak. 'I don't usually break down like this, but the strain, and… and Phil…' She lifted her face from his chest and looked at him through lashes still wet with tears. 'He won't take her, Paul—Oh, why won't he?'
'Because he doesn't love you enough to make a sacrifice.'
'You seem so sure he doesn't love me!'
'And so are you sure—'
'No—no! I won't accept it. We've been too happy together… the—the three of us.'
'It's easy to be happy when there are no immediate obstacles to contend with. But once he decided to marry you the situation changed. Instead of three of you there were to be only two.' Although Paul's voice was quiet, the undertone of grimness came through, and Laura knew that Paul was condemning Phil, probably branding him fickle and insincere. 'It would seem, Laura, that you have to make a choice; either you put Mandy into the care of the authorities, or you put this man out of your life. You can't have them both.'
She sagged against him, tears beginning to flow again. Paul found a handkerchief to dry her eyes; he tilted her face, and as she stared at him through the mistiness of her vision she knew he was going to kiss her. His lips came down slowly, as if he were allowing her time for a protest, but she merely stared, caught in the net of misery so that nothing else mattered. Let him kiss her, let him hold her in his arms. She had neither the strength nor the desire to draw herself from the comfort of his nearness. His lips were warm and moist and softly caressing as they moved gently over hers. His hands were cupping her face; she closed her eyes and accepted the lethargy that was flowing over her.
'How much did you hear?' she asked at length. Strangely, it did not seem to matter how much or how little he had heard.
'I hadn't intended to hear anything,' he said. 'But as I came through to find Lefki and send her out to be with Mandy I could not help but overhear you pleading with this man, and saying you wanted to go home. I stopped then because I was interested. I felt you would need sympathy.' He looked down into her moisture-laden eyes and his hands on her arms seemed to tighten. 'The legal aspect came into it and it seemed to me that he was threatening you.'
It was some moments before Laura could speak, and when she did her voice caught and stopped several times. 'I did mention—to you about the legal aspect—if —if you remember?' Paul nodded and she continued immediately, 'Phil seems to think I shall be in serious trouble for keeping her. You see, she ought to have been handed over to the authorities at once, but Mother wouldn't let her go.'
'I heard your reply. You yourself don't seem to fear the authorities?' A question in his voice and in his eyes. Before she could answer he had bent his head and his lips met hers again, this time not quite so gently; but although she sensed the passion in the kiss, she had neither the physical nor the mental energy to resent it and break away from his hold.
'I feel I'd be treated with leniency because, after all, I meant it for the best—the best for the child, that is.'
'And in any case, it was your mother who originally committed the offence.'
She nodded but said after a moment's consideration 'Nevertheless, it was I who later did wrong by not informing the authorities of what had occurred. I just took Mandy when Mother died, as I told you, and I had every intention of keeping her. But since then I've been troubled about her birth certificate, which I shall need as soon as she starts school six months from now. I can't get that without leaving myself open to censure, and perhaps prosecution.'
Paul was shaking his head even before she had finished speaking. 'I cannot see any authority prosecuting you when all you've done is good. Do you not realise, my dear, that there isn't a woman in a million who would accept the responsibility for a child who wasn't her own, especially a woman as young as you? You've had to work for the child; you've given her a wonderful home, and you've given her love. Anyone who sees you together would be in no doubt about the love she has for you, either. She'd never have had that kind of love from your sister, would she?'
Laura was silent, pondering all he had been saying. And at last she shook her head. 'I oughtn't even to have considered handing her over to her father,' she said, 'not when he was living wi
th Irene, because, as you say, she could never have given Mandy love.' Irene's action had proved that she did not even care anything for her own children, mused Laura, wondering how her sister had come to agree to have children in the first place. For she had always seemed anxious to retain her freedom, and her youth. 'I've been selfish,' admitted Laura, looking at Paul through shadowed eyes. 'I was willing to hand over Mandy to her father just to ensure my own happiness with Phil.'
'Don't blame yourself, Laura.' Paul's quiet, faintly accented voice was plainly meant to soothe. 'In the light of your need, it was the most natural move for you to make.'
'When I arrived here,' she murmured thoughtfully, bypassing his comment, 'and found that Joseph already had two children on his hands I should have decided there and then to go back home, for as we've said, it isn't feasible that he'll take Mandy as well—even if I were able to find him.'
'Nevertheless, it would have been as well if you had been able to find him, because, if you intend to keep Mandy, then you must legalise the position. You must adopt her.' Paul's eyes were focused intently upon her; she read his thoughts accurately. He was sufficiently well informed to be sure that, in her country, no single woman could adopt a child.
'Tell me,' he said, still fixing her eyes with his, 'what were your original intentions—before you met this Phil, I mean?'
'I don't really know,' she confessed. 'It was one of those situations where, because all is running smoothly, you have no wish to look around for possible sources of trouble. Oh, I knew, in a vague sort of way, that as soon as Mandy started school I'd be required to produce her birth certificate, but, somehow, I found myself living from day to day and—well, not crossing my bridges before I came to them.'
Faintly he smiled; she could not miss the hint of mocking amusement there, nor the faintly contemptuous expression in his eyes. 'Just like a woman,' he scoffed. 'Didn't you mind living on the edge of a precipice, then?'
'I never thought of it that way.' Colour had mounted into her cheeks at his manner, and the way he was looking at her. 'As I've just said, all was running smoothly; both Mandy and I were happy until— until…'
She broke off and Paul finished for her, 'Until this man came upon the scene.'
'Even then it was the same—or even better, because he took to Mandy instantly and she to him. We were like a family, going about together…' Again she broke off, tears tight and hurtful locked in a cloud behind her eyes. 'It was—was when he asked me to marry him that the whole thing took on this different light. It became an upheaval in my life which I'd never contemplated because, since Phil was so fond of Mandy, I took it for granted that he'd not only want her to stay but that he'd be a wonderful father to her.'
'You'd begun by this time to think of adoption?'
She nodded her head. 'It would have been the only way.'
'Did you not know that adoption in your country is impossible without the consent of the parents?'
She bit her lip, fully aware that all along she had been subconsciously shirking what in the end must inevitably catch up with her. She said, murmuring her thoughts aloud, 'While she was small there was no urgency—'
'And so you left it like that.'
'I've already said I lived from day to day.'
Paul sighed and shook his head. 'Even if you go home you're going to be in a mess within the next few months; you do realise that?'
'Yes, I do—but even if they won't let me adopt Mandy they'll surely let me keep her. I could be her foster-mother.'
'Authorities have a way of doing things which in their opinion are correct. It's my belief that Mandy will be taken from you unless you can find her father and get him to discuss other possibilities with you. But certainly you will never be allowed, as a single woman, to adopt her. That is,' he added after a slight pause, 'unless the law in your country had recently been changed.'
She shook her head. 'It hasn't, to my knowledge.'
'Also, the child might still have a mother,' Paul reminded her. 'The suicide note could have meant nothing. It could have been written by a woman who was distraught at the time and perhaps did contemplate suicide, but it's doubtful if she would have carried out the threat once she had relieved her situation by discarding her child.'
'Somehow, the mother never seemed to come into the picture after those first few days when Mother and I felt so sorry for her.' She paused in thought, her wide brow creased in a frown. 'Nor for that matter did the father. It was a case of "he was gone and that was that" as far as Mother was concerned. She loved Mandy from the start, and Mandy fitted into her home so well that she could almost have been Mother's own grandchild— in fact, I truly believe that was how she regarded Mandy.' Laura was remembering the reaction of the neighbours when her mother said she was fostering the baby. She must be out of her mind, taking a baby at her age! It would not last long, predicted one or two, while others even went as far as to say she Would be fed up with the child in a week. However, it was only a nine days' wonder and very soon people became used to seeing Mrs. Hudson pushing the pram to the shops, or, on sunny afternoons, taking the baby into the park.
'What are you thinking about?' Paul's softly spoken enquiry brought her back to the present and to the pressing anxiety on her mind.
'I was thinking about Mother.' She changed the subject abruptly. 'I must go home, Paul. Can you arrange a flight for me earlier than I had planned?'
A frown touched his brow. 'I advised you to stay here,' he reminded her. 'Try to think about this situation from all angles—'
'What angles?' she broke in desperately. 'The best thing I can do is go home, get in touch with the authorities—or the police—immediately and get the whole thing sorted out.'
'And if they take Mandy into care?' So soft the tone and her eyes flew to his, for there was something in the way he spoke which betrayed a strange unfathomable undercurrent which, for no reason she could explain, sparked off the recollection of the uneasiness she had felt on several occasions.
'She'd be heartbroken!'
'You'd both be heartbroken.' The statement seemed brutal, she thought. 'If you stay here she will be safe…'
'I can't stay here indefinitely!'
'Why can't you stay here indefinitely?'
'Why… ?' Laura could only stare at him in bewilderment for fully half a minute. 'I have my job for one thing, and my home. I have Phil—'
'I think you can leave him out of it,' broke in Paul and to her consternation Laura burst into tears.
'All r-right,' she cried, 'I can leave him out of it! But your suggestion's crazy! I can't understand why you made it! I couldn't possibly stay here indefinitely!' she repeated, searching for a handkerchief to dry her eyes.
'You could stay here if you married me, Laura,' he said, taking a handkerchief from his pocket and handing it to her.
Automatically she took it from him, staring dazedly, sure she was in such an anguished state of mind that she was hearing things which had never been spoken.
But before she could utter a word Paul was saying, as he drew her towards him, 'I'm in deadly earnest, Laura. I've just asked you to marry me. It will solve many problems both for you and Mandy. We can say, when we take her to school, that her father used to work for me but at present cannot be found. Her birth certificate will be produced just as soon as it is possible. I am well known and respected here so there'll be no trouble at all. When we find Joseph I shall offer to adopt Mandy, and I'm sure he'll be only too glad to hand over the responsibility to me.'
Laura was dumb, her mind unable to assimilate all he was saying. She stared up at him through a mist of tears, and very gently he took back his handkerchief and began to dry her eyes. She closed them tightly, swallowing convulsively, and yet vitally conscious of the comfort of his arm about her shoulders, his touch now and then as he continued to dry her eyes and then her cheeks.
'I can't marry you,' she whispered, shaking her head. 'I know that there's a good deal of sense in what you've said, but one thing
you've forgotten, Paul…' She looked up now, her mouth moving wordlessly, for she was filled with misery and it was choking her. Phil's face had risen to superimpose itself on Paul's aristocratic features, and the love she felt for him seemed to well up within her to overflowing point. 'I love someone else,' she managed at last. 'I—I w-want to go home to Phil.'
'After what went on just now on the phone?' There was a harsh ring to Paul's voice which hurt, and she was readily owning to the need for his kindness and sympathy.
'He was angry because of failure on my part, but if you knew him you'd understand that he's not really as hard and adamant as it seemed when you were listening to our conversation.'
Paul's eyes flickered and for a long moment he was silent. 'Do you honestly believe he'll be willing to adopt Mandy?' he queried at last and again there was silence between them. 'Well, Laura?' he prompted eventually. 'Aren't you going to answer me?'
She drew her tongue over lips that had gone suddenly stiff and dry. 'No,' she replied and tears again filled her eyes. 'No, he won't be willing to adopt Mandy.'
'In that case you have very little choice—'
'Why do you want to marry me?' she asked, for now it really had registered that he was very serious in his proposal. 'You don't even know me. I can't understand…' She trailed away, shaking her head and looking up at him in utter bewilderment. He dabbed at a tear that had fallen before putting the handkerchief into his pocket. Then both hands were on her shoulders and his eyes were looking deeply into hers.
'Obviously you are unable to understand,' he said, and it did seem that he himself was faintly puzzled as to how he must answer her. 'I will be honest with you, Laura. You appeal to me—'
'Physically?' she broke in as she suddenly remembered what she had heard about Greek men.
'Not entirely,' he answered, surprising her. 'The moment I saw you I felt something I've never felt before. I want you for a friend as well as a lover. I am convinced we'll be happy together… one day when you've forgotten all about this other man.'
