A Multitude of Sins

by Margaret Pemberton

  ‘But there’s absolutely no need!’ Tom said explosively. ‘Good God! You can stay with me for as long as I’m posted here, and that could be years!’

  ‘No, I can’t,’ Helena said with unusual gentleness. ‘I’m on my own now, Tom, and I have to learn to live on my own.’

  Beneath the gentleness her voice was firm, and he knew that it was useless to argue. Also, he had a sneaking suspicion that she was right. Her own flat in Kowloon would be far better for her than continuing to live with him. It would give her greater freedom in her personal life. If she wished Alastair Munroe to stay the night with her, then it would be easy for him to do so and no embarrassment to anyone would be caused.

  ‘OK,’ he said with a broad grin. ‘I give in. When’s the house-warming party?’

  All through lunch he was aware of male heads turning in their direction and knew that it was Elizabeth who was attracting them. He now knew why Adam Harland always looked so pleased with himself. It was a highly pleasant sensation being the envy of every man in the room. ‘When are you going to take a trip into the New Territories?’ he asked her as they were served with filet mignon lili. That’s where you’ll see the real China. The unspoilt China!

  ‘Soon, I hope.’ The low husky note in her voice sent a flare of heat through his groin. On board the Orient Princess he had intended, if she were willing, to have an affair with her. It had taken him very little time to realize that extramarital affairs were not part of her lifestyle, and in a way he didn’t regret it. His personal life was complicated enough as it was, and he had begun to value her friendship too much to squander it on an affair that could have no long-terra happy outcome.

  ‘Adam had planned that we would drive up there this weekend,’ she said, a smile touching the full generous curves of her mouth, ‘but Ronnie is adamant that we attend the race meeting at Happy Valley. His horse is running, and he has a new jockey and he is convinced he is going to win. He has the celebration-party all arranged!’

  ‘He’s an eternal optimist,’ Tom said with a grin, wondering if Ronnie had propositioned her yet. A refusal would be unlikely to offend in that quarter, although it was something he suspected that Ronnie didn’t experience very often. Not for the first time he wondered how a marriage that seemed founded on mutual light-hearted adultery could thrive as happily as the Ledsham marriage apparently did. ‘But, if you’re not going to the New Territories this weekend, perhaps I could join you when you do go? The country is pretty wild, up there, and for anyone who isn’t familiar with it it’s best to have a guide.’

  ‘My goodness, yes,’ Helena said feelingly. ‘There are still leopards on the prowl up there, and anteaters and cobras, and a score of other hideous things. The children think it’s wonderful, but it scares me half to death. Take my word for it, Happy Valley, and even Ronnie, are much safer!’

  Elizabeth had laughed, determining that if the New Territories were as fall of dangers as Helena had indicated, then she would be only too glad to postpone the trip until Tom could accompany them. Adam hadn’t been in agreement with her. ‘There are two well-made roads running from Kowloon to the border. Whichever one we take, we’ll be safe enough as long as we don’t leave it.’

  ‘What about Ronnie’s party?’

  ‘There’ll be another party next week, and another one the week after that A trip north will be far more interesting than seeing Ronnie’s horse trail in third or fourth or last. We can accept Tom’s offer to act as a guide another time. When we want to explore off the beaten track.’

  They had set off early Saturday morning, driving out through Kowloon and taking the Taipo road towards Fanling and the Chinese border. As soon as they left the crowded garish streets of Kowloon behind them, Elizabeth was aware of being in a remote and distant country in a way she had never been while on Hong Kong Island. There was no trace of westernization. The countryside was bleak and barren, rising on either side into inhospitable mountains clothed with forests of fir. There was little cultivation, the villages they passed through were poor and sparsely populated with a few rice-fields surrounding them and very little else. As they drove by black pyjama-clad villagers paused from their tasks to watch them, large circular coolie-hats shielding their heads from the sun, their feet bare and caked with dirt.

  ‘It doesn’t look very prosperous, does it?’ Adam said, shocked at the difference in living standards between the Chinese working the fields and those living in Kowloon and Victoria.

  ‘There must be some prosperous farms,’ Elizabeth said, remembering Julienne’s reference to Raefe Elliot having banished his wife to a farm in the New Territories.

  ‘If there are, I haven’t seen any.’ A frown furrowed his brow. ‘Have you seen that old woman bent double working that rice-field? She must be a hundred if she’s a day!’

  They crossed the Shin Mun River, the water eddying in muddy swirls towards the sea. ‘Is that a sparrow-hawk?’ Elizabeth asked, pointing to a bird of prey hovering over the far bank in the still, hot air.

  Adam squinted his eyes against the sun. ‘Could be. Leigh Stafford told me that this place was a heaven on earth for birdwatchers. There are cockatoos, mynah birds, pelicans, the lot.’

  At the small town of Sha Tin they stopped to pay their respects at the Buddhist monastery. Hand in hand, they walked up the hundreds of stone steps that led to the Man Fat Temple, reaching with relief the temple’s veranda and shaded courtyard. Hundreds of small gilt statues of Buddha lined the wall, standing in niches and in crevices, a handful of Chinese meditating solemnly before them. On the far side of the courtyard rose a nine-storey pagoda, its walls a delicate shell-pink, its oriental up-turned roofs a rich coral red.

  ‘Missy climb. Missy see wonderful view,’ an ancient Chinese woman said, beaming toothlessly at them.

  Adam groaned. ‘Not more steps!’

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ Elizabeth said relentlessly. ‘Come on, the view will be worth it.’

  Breathing heavily, they climbed the cool circular stone steps that led to the top of the pagoda and emerged, gasping, into the sunlight.

  It was like looking out over a painted landscape. Far to the north were the rolling forest-covered hills of China; to the west was the sea and Tolo Harbour and a flurry of junks, their square sails looking like a cloud of great brown and golden butterflies as they skimmed the silky blue water, and to the south lay the Kowloon Peninsula and Hong Kong Island and the soaring peaks of Mount Victoria and Mount Butler and Mount Nicholson.

  ‘Oh, wonderful!’ Elizabeth breathed rapturously, leaning her arms on the edge of the parapet and gazing down at the panorama spread before her. Down at the foot of the hill she could see their Riley, looking like a small black beetle, and a hundred yards or so away, half-hidden by a clump of pine trees, another European car indicating that they were not the only tourists exploring the pagoda and temple. As she looked down at the squares and courtyards and the black-dad Chinese that had come to worship, she saw a tall familiar figure stride out of the temple. She seized Adam’s arm. ‘It’s Tom! Look! Down there!’ She was just about to wave and call his name when Adam said suddenly: ‘Who is that with him?’

  Her waving hand faltered.

  A small delicate figure was walking with tiny hurried steps at his side. Her hair was black and sleek, coiled heavily at the nape of her neck; her cheong-sam was richly embroidered, the slits at the side only modestly high. And her hand was very firmly in Tom’s.

  ‘Is it a girl from one of the nightclubs, do you think?’ Elizabeth asked bewilderedly.

  Adam shook his head. ‘I don’t think so. She doesn’t look like a bar-girl. Even from this distance, she looks very respectable and demure.’

  The two figures were beginning to walk down the hundreds of stone steps that led to their car. As they did so, Tom’s arm slid round the girl’s waist and they could hear the distant sound of her laughter as Tom stood still, turning her round to face him, drawing her close.

  ‘That’s no casual date,’ Ada
m said decisively as they kissed. ‘They’re in love. Who the devil can she be?’

  ‘I’ve no idea,’ Elizabeth said wonderingly, watching as the two embracing figures finally drew apart and continued to walk, hand in hand, down the remaining steps. ‘He’s never mentioned her to me but, then, he wouldn’t, would he?’

  ‘Why the devil not?’ Adam asked as they turned away from the parapet and began to make their way back down the stairs.

  ‘Remember our first dinner at Tom’s? Remember the remarks Sir Denholm made about Raefe Elliot and his Chinese girlfriend? Chinese girls are regarded as perfectly all right in the bars and nightclubs of Wanchai, but they are most definitely notregarded as all right in European clubs and at European dinner-tables. Poor Tom. I wonder how long it has been going on.’

  Adam shrugged. The girl had looked beautiful and well bred. It seemed a nonsense that Nicholson had to keep his liaison with her a secret. ‘Goodness knows, but I shall have a word with him when I see him again. I don’t want him to think that we would disapprove. Life’s too short for prejudices of that kind.’

  She squeezed his hand tightly. ‘I do love you, Adam. You’re the kindest man I’ve ever met in my life.’

  He grinned ‘I hope I’m a lot more than just kind!’ he said, pulling her close against him as they ran down the remaining steps.

  They continued their journey up as far as Fanling, returning to Kowloon on the Castle Peak Road, past ancient Chinese fishponds and duckponds and the medieval walled village of Kat Hing Wai. It was early evening by the time they crossed to Victoria on the ferry.

  ‘Do you still want to catch up with Ronnie’s party at the Jockey club?’ Adam asked as they docked.

  She shook her head. ‘No, I don’t think so. We’re seeing Ronnie and Julienne and Helena and Alastair for lunch tomorrow at the Repulse Bay Hotel. Let’s have an early night tonight. I’m tired.’

  That night in bed she tried to overcome her tiredness and imagine that she was Julienne or Helena. It was no use. Adam’s hands on her body were warm and familiar and even pleasant, but they did not inflame her or fill her with passion. She responded to him as she always responded to him, lovingly and patiently, holding him tight in her arms, wondering what it was that was wrong with her and how she could possibly put it right.

  As they lay together afterwards, she rested her head against his chest and said tentatively: ‘I’m sorry if I’m not very sensuous in bed, darling. Do you mind very much?’

  His arms tightened round her. ‘What a silly thing to say,’ he said gently. ‘I don’t want you to be any different. I love you just as you are; I always have done.’

  She twisted on to her elbow, her pale blonde hair tumbling around her shoulders as she said with sudden vehemence: ‘But I don’t want to be as I am! I feel such a failure!’

  He laughed indulgently, pulling her down once again beside him. ‘You’re not a failure, darling. Sex isn’t a competition. You make me very happy. Now, go to sleep and stop worrying about something that isn’t important.’

  Sunday lunch at the Repulse Bay Hotel was becoming a regular fixture for them. The hotel lay on the south side of the island, long and white and low, overlooking the most beautiful of Hong Kong’s bays. The sand stretched in a perfect crescent of silver, lapped by gently creaming waves and backed by lush green mountains.

  The Ledshams were already sitting on the veranda when they arrived, Ronnie resplendent in white ducks and an open-necked white shirt, his blond hair slicked and gleaming, his grin triumphant. ‘You missed a sensational day yesterday,’ he said gleefully as they sat down. ‘My horse romped home. Julienne lost a fortune because she didn’t believe me when I told her it would win and the silly girl put all her money on an old wreck that barely tottered from the starting-gate!’

  Julienne said something extremely rude beneath her breath, and he leaned across to her, kissing her beneath her ear. ‘I told you it would win, darling. Why, oh, why do you never trust me?’

  Julienne began to giggle. ‘Because you are utterly untrustworthy, chéri, and utterly adorable.’ She gave him a kiss on his nose as Helena and Tom and Alastair strolled out to join them.

  ‘What’s this?’ Tom asked teasingly as he sat down. ‘I thought you two wouldn’t be on speaking terms after yesterday.’

  ‘I have a forgiving nature,’ Julienne said impishly as he leaned over and kissed her on the cheek. ‘Besides, I want to make quite sure Ronnie tells me when his horse is going to run again. I lost a fortune yesterday!’

  ‘Old Denholm’s got a new jockey,’ Alastair said as the waiter served them with ice-cold Martinis. ‘Swears he can outstrip yours any day of the week. He’s entering him for the race next week.’

  A friendly quarrel began to develop as to whether Ronnie’s win had been occasioned by his new jockey or was nothing more than a freak stroke of good fortune.

  ‘It was the jockey, blast you!’ Ronnie was saying indignantly for the umpteenth time when they became aware that the tables around them had fallen suddenly quiet.

  Elizabeth looked up and saw that Raefe Elliot was walking through the lounge towards the veranda, a diminutive Malay girl at his side.

  ‘Tiens!’ Julienne said admiringly. ‘How dare he when he knows his father-in-law lunches here?’

  Several other people were obviously thinking the same thing, their heads turning round to see if Colonel Langdon was present and, if so, what his reaction to his son-in-law and his companion would be. They were disappointed. The corner table normally patronized by Colonel Langdon was empty. Elizabeth, unable to help herself, watched in mesmerized fascination as he neared their table, certain that it was a matter of supreme indifference to him whether his father-in-law was there or not.

  ‘Hello, Tom,’ he said, and his dark rich voice sent a tingle down her spine. His lean, hard muscled body was taller and broader than she had remembered, and she forced her eyes away from him and down into her glass, furious at the response he aroused in her.

  ‘Hello, Mrs Harland.’ The amusement in his voice was blatant. ‘Be careful with your drink. Martini stains far more lethally than lemonade!’

  She was aware of Julienne looking at her with raised eyebrows and Adam looking at her in surprise.

  She lifted her head, her eyes meeting his. ‘Then, be careful what you say, Mr Elliot,’ she said coolly, and was aware of Adam’s surprise deepening into incomprehension.

  Raefe Elliot grinned down at her, his eyes bold and black and frankly appraising. ‘Allow me to introduce my companion. Alute, Mrs Adam Harland.’

  Elizabeth rose and shook the Malay girl’s hand, seeing with relief that she had no need to feel sorry for her. The almond slanted eyes were full of confidence. If Raefe Elliot was behaving badly, his companion was happily uncaring.

  He introduced her to Julienne and Helena and Ronnie and Tom, and Tom said easily, ‘I don’t believe you’ve met Adam Harland yet, Raefe,’ and performed the introductions while Ronnie eyed Alute with open lasciviousness and Julienne tried desperately to catch Elizabeth’s eye.

  ‘Did you watch my horse run on Saturday?’ Ronnie asked him. Elliot was an expert on horseflesh, and it was nice to be able to let him know that he, too, knew a thing or two about it. ‘Won by a mile.’

  ‘Congratulations,’ Raefe said, his eyes no longer on him but on Elizabeth again.

  ‘I owe you a fuller apology than the one I made earlier,’ he said, and she was aware of the blue sheen on his hair and the disturbing sensuality of his finely chiselled, well-shaped mouth. ‘Perhaps we could have lunch together so that I can make amends?’

  Elizabeth heard Alastair Munroe’s quick intake of breath and knew that they were being looked at with shocked eyes.

  ‘I don’t think so,’ she said with an indifference she was far from feeling. ‘Goodbye, Mr Elliot.’

  The snub was obvious. A smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, and the broad shoulders shrugged philosophically beneath the linen of his well-cut jacket. ‘Goodbye
, Mrs Harland,’ he said and, nodding in Tom and Ronnie’s direction, he slid his arm around his girlfriend’s waist and strolled off with her towards a corner table.

  ‘My God! The bloody nerve!’ Alastair Munroe said incredulously. ‘What the hell will happen if Langdon walks in here?’

  No one answered him. Adam said, an odd note in his voice: ‘I didn’t know you’d met him before, Beth. What on earth was he talking about? Why the devil does he owe you an apology?’

  A faint flush touched Elizabeth’s cheeks. ‘It’s nothing. There was an accident at the club. My glass fell and sprayed him with lemonade, that’s all.’

  Julienne’s eyes sparkled. So, the day she had wanted to stay on at the club and speak to Raefe, Elizabeth had already been speaking to him. So effectively that Raefe Elliot had suggested they lunch together, and he had asked in front of Adam. It was all most intriguing.

  ‘Even Elliot can’t expect to get away with squiring a coloured round so openly,’ Ronnie Ledsham said, unwilling admiration in his voice. ‘Not in locales that Melissa frequents as well.’

  Tom Nicholson’s face had hardened at Ronnie Ledsham’s words, and his sister-in-law said hurriedly: ‘Melissa hasn’t been seen anywhere since the end of the trial.’

  ‘That’s because Raefe is keeping her a prisoner,’ Julienne said with relish. ‘Ronnie overheard Colonel Langdon fuming about it to Sir Denholm. Apparently Melissa is on one of the Elliot farms in the New Territories, but Colonel Langdon doesn’t know where and has had no contact with her since the trial ended.’

  ‘He’ll need to be keeping her a prisoner if he’s going to continue squiring his Malay girlfriend around so openly,’ Ronnie said drily. ‘Melissa Langdon’s temper is nearly as vicious as Raefe’s. We could all be witnessing another murder trial before too long.’