by Anne Mather
Nicola lifted her shoulders again. ‘What about the office?’
‘Graham can spend his time there. Do you want to come or don’t you?’
‘I—well, of course.’
‘Good. We leave at six. I’ll have some sandwiches packed so that we won’t have to wait for breakfast.’
Nicola glanced at her watch. It was already after ten o’clock. That meant that she could expect between six and seven hours’ sleep at the very most, and somehow in this climate that just wasn’t enough. But she nodded, and he, sensing her desire to get to bed, wished her good night and disappeared down the steps.
After he had gone, she went hastily into the bathroom and showered, before sliding beneath the covers. Excitement tingled along every inch of her being. Tomorrow she was to have a wonderful chance of being alone with Jason Wilde. Somehow she must quell the anger and hatred she felt towards him, and endeavour to appear to him as a young and attractive woman. After all, he was only a man. She must succeed.
* * *
She was awake at five, when the first fingers of light began to tinge the sky, and was dressed and waiting on the verandah when she saw a Land-Rover churning up the dust on its way to her bungalow. She stood up, aware of a trembling sensation in her knees, and wondered why Jason Wilde should disturb her so. It must be because of her foreknowledge of the reasons she was setting out to attract him, but even so, there was something about him that challenged her persistently to prove his vulnerability.
He halted at the steps, and thrust open the vehicle’s nearside door. She ran down the steps, slid into the Land-Rover, and slammed the door. The site was just coming to life, but no one took any notice of the Land-Rover or its occupants, it was much too early in the day.
They left the site by the southern route, heading out into limitless wastes of sand. Nicola, glancing at her travelling companion, wondered at the indifference he showed towards such empty spaces. Didn’t it disturb him at all that a sand-storm could obliterate all traces of a route previously well defined, so that a traveller might lose his way for ever in these endless rolling dunes?
She saw the encampment of the Arabs, the horses and camels lying outside the perimeter tents, raising their eyes in bored speculation. The sun was getting hotter, and with the windows closed, it began to get humid in the small compartment.
‘You realize why I wanted to travel in the early hours,’ Jason remarked, speaking for the first time. ‘It can get unbearably hot later in the day.’
Nicola fanned herself. ‘It’s pretty hot now,’ she replied, smoothing her hair behind her ears. She had left it loose, it was more becoming that way, but it lay heavily on her neck so that she longed to put it up. The bandanna she had tied around it would soon dampen with the heat and then her hair would feel lank and lifeless. Perhaps she would have been better succumbing to coolness rather than appearance.
Jason seemed aware of her discomfort, for he said: ‘Long hair isn’t particularly practical in this climate.’
Nicola quelled the ready retort that rose to her lips. ‘I like my hair long,’ she said evenly.
‘I’m sure you do,’ he agreed lazily, swinging the wheel through his lean brown hands. ‘I was merely stating the obvious.’
Nicola watched his hands on the wheel, his wrists with the dark hairs that grew on them, the thick gold band of his watch, a heavy gold signet ring on his little finger.
‘Tell me,’ she said probingly, ‘what part of England do you come from?’
‘Well, my parents come from Yorkshire, but settled near London several years ago,’ he replied easily. ‘My father is retired now, and they live in Worthing.’
‘I see. Do you have any relatives—I mean brothers or sisters?’
Jason shrugged. ‘Two sisters. Both married. Both older than I am.’ His reply was slightly less responsive, as though he didn’t particularly care for such questioning. Nevertheless, Nicola had to go on.
‘Haven’t you ever thought of getting married, Mr. Wilde?’ she asked, looking sideways at him.
Jason felt in his breast pocket for his cigarettes, and getting them out dropped them into her lap. ‘Light two,’ he said briefly. ‘Perhaps that will give you something to think about instead of me!’
Nicola grew hot with embarrassment. He had the knack of reducing her to a disconcerted teenager by his brash remarks. So she lit two cigarettes, and passed one to him which he glanced at before putting it between his lips.
‘Good,’ he said. ‘You haven’t smothered it with lipstick.’
Nicola breathed deeply. ‘I’m not wearing any make-up,’ she said tautly.
‘Aren’t you?’ He glanced her way. ‘That’s a refreshing change.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Oh, nothing personal, I can assure you. However, I can’t remember the last time I saw a girl without make-up. It suits you.’
‘Thank you.’ Nicola almost choked on the words, and then gave her attention to smoking, and tried to forget her companion for a few cooling minutes. But it was difficult when she was conscious of him with every fibre of her being.
She concentrated on the barren landscape until her eyes ached behind her dark glasses. It was such a strain endeavouring to distinguish something, some landmark, with which to identify their passage. Outcrops of rock were nondescript, although she supposed that Jason might recognize their characteristics.
When she saw a cluster of date palms in the far distance she thought she was seeing things, and glanced surreptitiously at Jason to see whether he showed any reaction at all. He intercepted her glance, and half-smiled.
‘Don’t alarm yourself,’ he remarked laconically. ‘Didn’t Graham tell you about Lezzani?’
Nicola hesitated. ‘The oasis?’ she questioned.
‘That’s right.’
‘Oh, then yes, he did. For a minute I thought I was seeing a mirage.’
Jason swung the Land-Rover across the track and made a direct course for the oasis. When they were close by, he said: ‘We’ll stop for a while and eat. If we leave the Rover open it will circulate the air. We’ve still some distance to go to Umbyra.’
Nicola was more than willing, although her stomach plunged a little at the thought of a meal à deux with him. She deliberately brought Louise’s wan little face to mind, and immediately her resolution hardened. He had shown no pity, why should she? Only her uneasy lack of confidence troubled her now.
The meal Ali had prepared was more than adequate, but Nicola had only one sandwich, an orange and some coffee while Jason Wilde ate bacon rolls, egg patties, and drank several cups of coffee while he pored over some maps he had laid across his knees. He had set the hamper beneath the palms where Nicola had an enchanting view of the wide pool that formed the oasis. Reeds edged its perimeter and she thought how marvelous it would have been to bathe in really cool water. But of course, she couldn’t, so she sat beneath the trees and watched Jason, wishing she had some miraculous method of drawing his attention to herself. But short of creating some kind of disturbance there seemed nothing would disturb the quiet of the place and its absolute isolation. She had never experienced such stillness, with not even a bird or an animal to provide distraction. There were plenty of insects, of course, and she was constantly brushing them from her bare arms where she had rolled back the sleeves of her shirt, but otherwise all was calm.
At last she got to her feet and walked to the water’s edge, staring down into its depths with some amazement. It was startling really that water could appear here, miles from anywhere, without any apparent source.
‘What’s wrong?’ asked a voice behind her. ‘Bored?’
Nicola looked round. Jason was still lounging beneath the palms, but he had put his maps away. ‘Yes,’ she said, deciding to be honest. ‘Must you constantly work? Don’t you ever relax? I mean—the men on the site have their free time. I haven’t noticed you having any leave since I arrived.’
‘Did you really notice?’ he murmured, rather derisively, and she turne
d her back on him again, unwilling to give him the satisfaction of knowing he had embarrassed her again.
‘Tell me something,’ he murmured suddenly. ‘Just why did you come out here, Miss King?’
Nicola controlled an involuntary start. ‘You know that as well as I do,’ she replied calmly. ‘Is it such a novelty? Having feminine companionship?’
‘Not at all. In fact women are no longer the trembling vines they used to be. I know of women geologists, scientists; I guess it’s conceivable that there are women engineers. It’s just that usually women who are forced to work with men are—shall we say—less decorative, in the main. That still doesn’t alter my opinion, of course, that Harold Mannering sent you out here for some nefarious purposes of his own.’
‘That’s ridiculous!’ exclaimed Nicola sharply. ‘But at least Sir Harold is a human being—not a machine! He reacts to emotional impulses as well as physical ones.’
‘What’s that supposed to mean? That I’m a machine? That I don’t have emotional impulses?’
Nicola compressed her lips. ‘Oh, you have emotional impulses, all right,’ she replied coldly. ‘But like everything else in your life, they’re categorized!’
‘What do you know about my life?’ Jason’s eyes narrowed. ‘We only met a few days ago. How could you possibly know anything about me?’
Nicola flushed. ‘I’ve read about you—in reports,’ she said, breathing a deep sigh as the lie came easily to her.
Jason looked sceptical, but after glancing at his watch he got to his feet. ‘Come on, let’s go. I want to be at Umbyra by eight.’
‘Eight?’ murmured Nicola, almost to herself. Was it really only an hour since they had set off? It seemed much longer than that.
The Land-Rover had had time to cool down in the shade of the date palms and Nicola was quite glad to be on the way again. Arguments with Jason Wilde tended to get a little out of hand, and she had the feeling that in a genuine encounter she would not stand much chance of bettering him. Considering it was already a year since Louise’s breakdown she was still ridiculously emotional about the whole business, and that must account for the ease with which Jason Wilde was capable of upsetting her. Even so, since getting to know him she had to admit he possessed a compelling personality, and the forthrightness of his questions did much to disconcert her. From Louise’s description she had expected a much less disturbing presence. Of course, she had expected him to be attractive, Louise had been very explicit in that direction, but it was something else, some purely sensuous reaction he produced in herself, that frightened her a little. She had thought she knew almost everything there was to know about men.
Jason glanced at her, noticing her pensive expression. ‘Is something troubling you?’ he asked curiously.
Nicola started. ‘No. No, of course not. Why should there be?’ she exclaimed. ‘I was thinking about something, that’s all, something private.’
Jason shrugged. ‘Pardon me for intruding,’ he remarked sardonically, and Nicola realized she had been indiscreet again. If she was to get anywhere with this man she must stop behaving like a shrew.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said now, managing a frank smile. ‘Tell me about these readings you have to take. What are they?’
Jason studied her for a moment, as though gauging why his words should have produced so unexpected a reaction, and then began to tell her, rather expressionlessly, about the search for oil, and its accompanying techniques. He told her about gravity meters, and magnetometers, and seismographs, describing their particular uses in detail, until she was lost in scientific data. She thought he had done it deliberately, but she refrained from telling him so. Instead, she showed an intense interest, and after a while he was disarmed and warmth crept back into his voice, and she realized he really enjoyed his work.
They stopped once in their passage across a vast expanse of rocklike strata, slightly different from the softer surface of impacted sand, and Nicola perched on her seat, her legs dangling, watching Jason as he extracted a strange instrument from the back of the Land-Rover and set it down on the rocky ground. Restraining the impulse to ask what it was, she waited, and presently he indicated that she should come and look into it as he was doing.
Nicola slid off her seat and jumped to the ground. She approached him cautiously, unsure as to whether this was some trick he was playing on her. But it was not, and she read the gauges as he had done, and listened as he explained the uses of the gravity meter they were using.
‘This is geophysics,’ he remarked later, as he returned the machine to the Land-Rover. ‘Measuring the gravitational force of the earth. Obviously the gravitational pull is not the same at all points, and a more solid formation below ground indicates possible masses of rock. It’s possible with the use of a seismograph to set up impulses in the ground, so that when they’re measured on a seismograph it can be calculated whether there are folds in the rock where oil might be trapped.’
Nicola climbed into her seat. ‘It’s interesting,’ she agreed, finding she really was enjoying learning about his work. ‘I suppose most people imagine an oil company just drills and drills until they strike oil.’
Jason smiled. ‘Drilling’s a pretty expensive business,’ he remarked. ‘Apart from which it wastes a hell of a lot of time. No one can ever be absolutely certain of the presence of oil. It’s just that some places are more possible than others. It’s up to the geo-physicist to find these places.’
‘Is that your job?’
‘Hell, no! That’s a job for an expert. It’s not my field. Mine is all oil, and pipelines, and some liaison.’
Nicola frowned. ‘You were offered a seat on the board. Why didn’t you take it?’ She had hoped he would, back in England, with no immediate possibility at that time of meeting him.
Jason shrugged his broad shoulders, and drew out his cigarettes again, flicking them into her lap, with a half smile, so that she knew he wanted her to light one for him again. ‘It wasn’t convenient,’ he said now, making her jerk her head up to look at him sharply. ‘I preferred to be out of the country.’
Nicola’s fingers were all thumbs, and she hoped he wouldn’t notice. ‘Why?’ she asked casually.
Jason accepted the cigarette she had lit, and drew on it deeply. ‘For someone who usually treats me to scorn and derision, Miss King, you’re inordinately interested in my affairs,’ he remarked.
Nicola gasped. ‘Not at all,’ she snapped, and then got herself in check again. ‘In-interested—that’s all!’
‘Okay. Then tell me something about yourself. I’m interested, too.’ But she felt he wasn’t, he was merely baiting her.
‘What do you want to know?’ she asked, lightly.
‘Oh, the usual things. Background, hobbies, family! You know the sort of thing.’
Nicola sighed. ‘You know my background. I’m Sir Harold’s secretary, or at least I was.’
‘Yes, that’s what puzzles me,’ said Jason thoughtfully. ‘If you were Sir Harold’s secretary, how come he let you come out here? I mean—why you, in particular?’
Nicola ran her tongue over her lips. ‘I—I persuaded him,’ she said frankly.
‘I wonder how,’ murmured Jason significantly.
Nicola decided to ignore this. If she began arguing with him again, she might get herself into more difficulties.
However, Jason wasn’t finished. ‘You said you were going to get married,’ he said. ‘What happened?’
Nicola compressed her lips. ‘I’d rather not talk about it.’
‘Sorry.’ But he didn’t sound it, and she wrinkled her nose.
The Land-Rover was nearing a kind of village now. Nicola could see houses, and smoke, and as they got nearer she could see a kind of fortified dwelling which Jason told her was the chief’s residence.
‘In the days when the tribes were fighting amongst themselves, it was always desirable to have one’s house fortified,’ he said. ‘Can you see the crenellated watch-towers at the corners, the b
attlements?’ He smiled. ‘A fort, in fact.’
Nicola stared in amazement. Standing there with its backdrop of sky and palm trees, it was incredibly unreal, and the brilliance of the sun reflected on mud walls threw back its own reflection, blinding her with its brightness.
They drove between the huts of the villagers, some of whom came out to stand staring at them, the women holding their robes across their faces so that only the darkness of eyes could be seen. There were dozens of children, with bright inquisitive eyes, who seemed to find the sight of Nicola, with her honey-gold hair, quite startlingly interesting.
Jason smiled at her again, drawing a smile in return. ‘Like I once said, you’ve come to a strange place with your appearance.’
‘Why?’
‘Well, you’re so—English. I don’t know, there’s something about an English complexion, even one as tanned as yours. You’ve really surprised me, actually. With your colouring I should have thought the sun would burn your skin, but it hasn’t. It suits you.’
That was better! Nicola’s eyes held his for a moment, deliberately, and a strange questing glance appeared in the depths of his before he withdrew his gaze, leaving her peculiarly enervated suddenly.
They stopped in the courtyard of the fort. Now Nicola could see it was in a sad state of neglect, and the heavy gates that had once protected it now hung on weak hinges, and obviously were never closed. At Jason’s indication, she slid out when he did, and followed him to the entrance, and through the doorway into a shadowy hall. The darkness after the brilliance outside was unnerving, and Nicola hovered near the doorway, unwilling to advance into darkness that was both weird and pungently aromatic.
Jason turned, and a hand caught her wrist in a firm hold. ‘Don’t be alarmed,’ he remarked, drawing her towards him. ‘No one is going to hurt you.’
Nicola stifled a retort. ‘It’s rather—well, smelly,’ she murmured uncomfortably, and Jason laughed.
‘Yes, isn’t it? However, you’ll soon get used to that. Come on. Mustafa will know we have arrived by now. He will wonder what’s delaying us.’
