by Jane Corrie
Thea had never envisaged a time when she would long for the end of an evening in his company, a complete end, that was, to everything that had gone before. She had done with star-gazing, and the evening was turning out much as she had envisaged, as a re-run of an old movie. The magic had gone, leaving her feeling depleted and somehow jaded, and she was beginning to hate Marcus for spoiling her dream world. It was certainly a much better world than she was in now, she told herself sadly, as Marcus guided her to his private alcove on the terrace after dinner.
The alcove was situated at the far end of the hotel, and was more in the nature of an arbour, with climbing shrubs nestling along the trellis work that formed a barrier that effectively separated the alcove from the rest of the terrace, but left the occupants a full view of the scenic panorama spread out before them, for the hotel was built on a hill , that overlooked the bay that was part of the
holiday complex.
The alcove was large enough to contain an ornate garden table and two chairs of matching style, and Thea's first thought was how many women Marcus had entertained there during the years, and the thought surprised her. She had sat there so often in the past and not once had such a thought occurred to her.
She had been very slow, she thought ironically, but she was learning fast, and she thanked the waiter who had appeared silently with a tray of drinks and then left as unobtrusively as he had come, leaving Marcus to mix the drinks.
Thea watched him pick up the cocktail shaker in his strong well-shaped hands and start to mix her Martini, and her mind went back to the night that he had proposed to her and she frowned. In view of what she now knew about him it was entirely out of character. He had said that he saw no other way— She felt her cheeks grow warm and was grateful for the dimmed light around her, but it still didn't make sense. He had so much going for him, and it wasn't as if he loved her, so why had he proposed?
`Why did you ask me to marry you, Marcus?' she asked casually, as she accepted the glass he held out towards her.
Marcus gave her a quick assessing look before he sat down opposite her and drew his glass towards him. 'I told you,' he replied, just as casually. 'Anything else you want to know?' he asked lightly.
`That doesn't answer my question,' Thea replied quietly. 'So I'm green and inexperienced, that's really what you mean, isn't it? You felt you couldn't take advantage of me, was that it?' she asked.
`I guess it's what it boils down to,' he replied dryly.
Thea shook her head bewilderedly. But why marriage?' she asked.
`Wasn't that what you wanted?' he asked her bluntly. 'Would you have settled for less?'
`Not if you mean what I think you mean,' she replied indignantly.
He gave a half-shrug of his powerful shoulders. `That's what I figured,' he said slowly.
For goodness' sake!' Thea exclaimed impatiently. `Are you honestly telling me that you were prepared to tie yourself down for life on a whim just because you ' She swallowed; she couldn't go on, and he knew very well what she meant.
Marcus's eyes opened a fraction wider at her cool reasoning. 'Who said it was for life?' he asked in a voice that showed his amazement.
Thea felt her throat constrict. 'How long exactly do you think it would last?' she heard herself asking.
She received another piercing stare from him, then he gave another shrug of his shoulders that fitted his evening jacket so perfectly. 'How the hell do I know the answer to that?' he replied somewhat irritably, as if she had asked a stupid question. `Maybe a year, maybe two,' his mocking eyes met Thea's widening ones. 'We might set a record and make it five,' he added softly. 'Having second thoughts, are you?'
This was asked in a tone of utter sureness, and with mocking undertones that said that he might have changed his mind since, and Thea wanted to slap his arrogant face, but she wasn't finished yet. She couldn't believe any of this conversation, and wondered if she was dreaming. It was a little akin to hitting one's head against a stone wall, it was nice when you stopped. And afterwards?' she queried breathlessly. 'When the attraction has worn off, because that's what you mean, isn't it?'
He gave a deep sigh as if to say that he didn't think such information was necessary at that stage of the game. 'The same as happens to everybody else,' he replied harshly. 'You go your way, and I go mine. You'll have no need to worry about the future. I shall provide for you, you'll have all you could possibly want, and please yourself what you do with your time.' His white teeth gleamed in the dim light. 'Like a rich widow,' he added, 'only you'll be a rich divorcee.'
`I know this is a stupid question,' she said quickly, `but what about children?'
He scowled at her. 'Children are fine, as long as they're someone else's,' he replied curtly. 'Does that answer your question?'
Thea nodded. She had got the picture now. 'Do you know why I turned you down?' she asked, as steadily as she was able, for she could feel the fury rising within her at the thought that she had very nearly married this overbearing, utterly selfish man. She must have been mad to fall in love with him in the first place. She had needed a drastic cure, and she had got one, she thought grimly.
`Sure,' he replied dryly. 'You thought I was marrying you to make up for what happened to your brother.'
Thea gave a decisive shake of her head, then took a deep breath. 'Well, I suppose that was part of it,' she conceded slowly, 'but I wouldn't have turned
you down on that basis alone. I asked you if you loved me, if you remember- and you dodged the issue.'
Marcus's autocratic brow lifted at this. 'I wouldn't know the meaning of the word,' he drawled. 'Sure, I know all that stuff about love making the world go round, but in my book it's overrated. So is marriage. It only serves to give an aura of respectability to what after all is said and done is a natural instinct. The happy-ever-after cliche is a myth, and the stuff for dreamers- and I guess you're one of them, honey,' he ended mockingly.
Thea looked away from the amusement in his eyes, her heart felt as heavy as lead. 'That's what Sapphire said,' she replied in a low voice. 'She knows you well, doesn't she?' She stood up suddenly, wanting to remove herself as far as possible away from this despicable man. 'You ought to thank your lucky stars that I didn't marry you, Marcus,' she said in a low vibrant voice. 'I'm everything that you despise. Yes, I'm a dreamer. I believe in marriage and the happy-ever-after bit. I also believe in children, and wouldn't contemplate marriage without them. I suggest you marry Sapphire, I'd say you were well suited!' She swept her evening bag off the table in a manner that showed her disdain for him, and the need to remove herself from his company. `Don't bother to see me home,' she announced grandly. 'I'll pick up a taxi on the stand,' and marched off.
She felt Marcus's eyes on her as she walked out of the arbour and towards the hotel car park only a few yards away from the front of the hotel. When
she reached the line of taxis she got in the first one she came to, and was about to give her address to the cabby, when a hard voice cut across the stillness of the night. 'Move off that spot and you're fired!'
With mounting fury Thea heard the cabby's reply of, 'Yes, sir!' and put up the For hire' sign again that he had lowered when she had got in the cab, and she glared at Marcus as he opened her door. 'I brought you, and I'm taking you back,' was all he said, as he reached in and caught hold of her wrist and propelled her out of the taxi and down towards where his car was parked. 'Don't you ever walk out on me like that again,' he bit out at her furiously. `No one turns their back on me, and certainly no woman!'
`Well, this one does!' Thea spat back at him, as he all but threw her into his car. But then I'm different, aren't I?' she added furiously, feeling the frustration well up inside her, he wasn't even going to allow her just that one last triumph.
She sat as far away from him as was possible in the space of the front seat, and gazed steadily out of the window, wishing the miles away to the time when she could get out of the car and slam the door behind her, and behind the whole o
f that wretched episode of her life.
As the car purred out of Pirates' Cove, Thea tried not to go over his brutal summing-up of what marriage meant to him, but the words seared through her brain as Sapphire's words had done. To think that Sapphire had been jealous of her, she thought pithily. She had credited him with more than he deserved, and had really thought that the marriage was for real, and how delighted she would have
been when Marcus resumed their relationship again only a few months after the marriage.
Thinking of Sapphire reminded her that she would shortly be coming to the end of her performance at the hotel. 'You'd better hurry,' she said cuttingly to Marcus. 'Sapphire was furious when you let her down before. It's very hard to get taxis out there at this time of night.'
Marcus gave her a swift hard look before turning his attention to the road again. 'Don't push your luck, honey,' he growled ominously. 'At least Sapphire knows the score. You don't, but you're learning fast.'
There was simply no answer to that, Thea thought, furious at being classed with Sapphire as one of his women.
Soon the welcoming sight of Beach House came into view, and Marcus brought the big car to a sleek stop in front of the house.
Thea tried not to make a rush for the door, and as casually as she was able, she felt for the door catch, only to find Marcus's hand closing over hers, effectively preventing her from opening the door. 'How about a goodnight kiss?' he asked her mockingly.
`How about a jump in the lake!' retorted the incensed Thea, who was done with politeness, and her fury increased at his low chuckle.
`Change that to seven years,' he said in amusement, then released her hand from the catch. 'I'll pick you up at nine,' he said casually.
Thea got out of the car and whirled round to face him. Her wide eyes showing her disbelief that he could imagine for one moment that she 'I'm not going anywhere tomorrow,' she muttered through clenched teeth. 'So you're going to have a long wait!'
She hadn't believed anyone could move as fast as Marcus did then. One minute he was in the car favouring her with a sardonic look, the next moment he was beside her and pulling her into his arms with savage force. 'As I said, you're learning fast,' he said harshly, as he forced her head up by catching hold of the back of her head and making her submit to his kiss.
`I'm through playing footsie with You,' he said grimly as he released her after what seemed an age later. Thea had never been kissed like that before, and she was sure her lips must be swollen by such brutal treatment, because they hurt very much. `And I don't know why the hell I bother!' he ground' out. 'There's something about you that gets me, and the sooner I get it out of my system, the better. You're about as responsive as a stone wall,' he fumed at her. 'I take back all I said. You're right, honey—we'd never have made it. I need a woman, not a refrigerator!' and on this highly complementary remark, he got back into his car and slammed the car door behind him with a force that must have jarred its hinges. The next moment the engine sprang into life, and with a screech of tires swept out of Thea's sight.
CHAPTER EIGHT
WHEN Marcus had gone, Thea managed to find her door key. Her numbed fingers fumbled clumsily as she inserted it into the lock. Her eyes were dimmed by tears, not wholly of indignation, but with a deep sense of hurt.
Tomorrow, she told herself, as she climbed the stairs to her room, she would congratulate herself on successfully evading falling into the clutches of such a man. She would feel that much more able to cope with her future too, and one that quite definitely had nothing to do with Marcus Conan.
She wouldn't think about what happened that evening, even though her soft lips were now starting to sting from the rough treatment they had received from the brutal pressure of Marcus's lips.
`Is that you, Thea? Did you have a nice time?' Mrs Welling called, as Thea walked past her bedroom door.
`W—wonderful time, thank you, Mrs Welling,' Thea called back, hoping to be forgiven for the lie, and walked on quickly to her room in case Mrs Welling wanted to know anything else. There would be time enough to make up some plausible excuse as to why her latest gentleman friend, as Mrs Welling would have phrased it, had lost interest in her.
Thea slept well, she was too exhausted to keep awake, and sleep was a balm in itself. When she
awoke the following morning to the same bright blue sky that she had awoken to since her arrival to the island, she still felt a sense of wonder that the sky would remain blue, and that the sun would shine all the day, for she had not been long enough on the island to take such things for granted. A sense of well-being flowed through her and she gave a luxurious stretch as she wondered what time it was.
There was a timid knock on her door a few minutes later, and Mrs Welling opened her door a fraction and called out, 'Are you awake, Thea? I've brought you a pot of tea.'
Receiving Thea's answer that she would love a cup of tea, she brought a tray in for her and placed it on the bedside table. 'You shouldn't spoil me like this,' Thea scolded her gently, as she sat up in bed. `I ought to be bringing you your tea. You never have a lie-in.'
Mrs Welling smiled as she fussed about with arranging the cup and saucer ready to pour out the tea. 'I've never been able to lie-in,' she said. 'I've always got up early and I'm too old to change now,' she commented, as she poured Thea's tea out. 'You were back earlier than I thought you'd be,' she said conversationally, as she handed the tea to Thea.
Thea accepted the cup, and her eyes clouded over as she recalled the events of the evening. She also knew a pang of dismay, because it was obvious that Mrs Welling was longing to hear more about her distinguished visitor.
To stall for time, Thea took a sip of her tea while she considered the best way to handle the situation. Fortunately Marcus had not been all that attentive to her in Mrs Welling's presence but had concentrated his charm on the old lady. Her lips then met the hot liquid and she winced in pain, then coughed to cover her reaction and placed the tea down on the bedside table again. 'I never could drink hot tea first thing in the morning,' she said, smiling at Mrs Welling, wondering how she could still smile. 'It wasn't a date, you know,' she said carefully, to take Mrs Welling's mind off her rejection of the tea. `Well, at least not in the true sense of a date,' she went on determinedly. 'He just wanted to know how I was getting on. I did tell you that he felt responsible for me since my brother's death, didn't I?' she added quickly. 'And it's very kind of him to bother, isn't it?' she tacked on hurriedly.
Mrs Welling was clearly disappointed, and her expression gave her away, but she rallied sufficiently to say lamely, 'Well, as long as you had a nice time.'
Thea almost let out a great sigh of relief at this. `Thank you, yes,' she replied, her voice sounding as grateful as she felt at having got over that particular hurdle. 'He gave me dinner, and then we sat and talked for a while, then he brought me home,' she offered, wondering if she dared risk taking another sip of her tea.
`You know, seeing Mr Conan like that took me back years,' said Mrs Welling, settling down on Thea's bed. 'My sister used to work at their hotel— oh, not the big complex he now owns, but the one his parents owned.' She creased her brow in thought, then brightened as she recalled the name of the hotel. 'The Roxana, that's what it was called,' she said, pleased with herself for remembering. `Jenny—that was my sister—used to do the bedrooms—well, not only her, of course, it was a big
place in those days—but she was one of the bedroom staff, and she used to tell us little bits and pieces about the family.'
She stared at the counterpane on which her hand rested. `Mr Conan's very like his father was at his age,' she went on in a half-dreaming faraway voice. `Just as good-looking, and he had a way with him too. Wouldn't put up with fools. Very strong-minded, you know, and that was half the trouble, I think.'
Thea picked up her cup and tried an experimental sip of the tea and found that it was now possible to drink it. 'Trouble?' she asked, not really wanting to continue the conversation; she had had en
ough of the Conan family to last her a lifetime.
Mrs Welling nodded sagely. 'I'm afraid Mrs Conan was strong-minded too,' she said, 'and the rows they had were the talk of the island. She was lovely, though,' she added wistfully, 'but very spoilt. She was an actress, you know, and very successful, so naturally everyone was interested in her.'
She paused as she watched Thea finish her tea. `Would you like another cup?' she asked kindly.
Thea's shake of the head was very decisive. `No, thank you,' she replied hastily. 'Did she go on with her acting career after her marriage?' she asked, now interested in what Mrs Welling was telling her.
`Oh, no!' Mrs Welling replied in a shocked voice. `Mr Conan would not have allowed that, and really that was what caused a lot of their trouble.' She gave an emphatic nod, as if confirming her thoughts. 'She missed all the glamour, I suppose, and used to take her frustration out on him, but he wasn't the type to take that without giving as good
as he got.' She gave a small shake of her head. 'It couldn't have been a very happy atmosphere for a child to grow up in,' she added slowly, then smiled at Thea. 'Still, it doesn't appear to have done him any harm, does it? I mean, a nicer gentleman you couldn't wish to meet.'
Thea looked away hastily from Mrs Welling's earnest expression. She had her own thoughts on this, but decided not to disillusion her. 'Was M
Mr Conan the only child?' she asked.
`Oh, yes,' Mrs Welling answered. 'The marriage didn't last all that long. Well, it couldn't, could it? Not when neither of them would give way, and they must have got sick of the continual rows. I think it only lasted long enough to let the child know who was who, if you know what I mean, so that he could get to know his parents.'
`Are they still alive?' Thea asked.
This brought another shake of Mrs Welling's grey head. `Mr Conan's father died five years ago, and his mother, ' she frowned, 'some time before that, I think. She'd left years before that to take up her profession again.'
