Keith and Molly sat over the remains of breakfast on their balcony. Below them, the hotel swimming pool had been taken over by four of the local black swans, but a blonde in a bikini was swimming nervously in the furthest corner of the pool. She had been making eyes at Keith in the bar the night before.
‘But I don’t want to go home yet,’ Molly said.
‘I’ve done what I came for.’
‘Well, I haven’t. I came out for a holiday. It’s been lovely swimming and sunbathing and having drinks by the pool, but I haven’t been out of the hotel grounds. I want to see the Crater Village, and have rides in bullock-carts and wicker sledges and things. And there’s plenty to interest you.’ Keith looked down at the pool. Molly tossed down a well-aimed crust. The black swans made a rush, necks outstretched. The blonde screamed and fled from the pool. ‘I didn’t mean that,’ Molly said with satisfaction. ‘Vineyards and so on.’
‘The grouse season starts soon,’ Keith said.
‘Not for ages.’
‘But there’s always a rush of guns for overhaul before then. And we’ve got tickets for the Billy Connolly concert.’
‘Never mind the concert,’ Molly said. She felt guilty. If Keith knew that she had given his precious tickets to the man who had threatened his family, he would be furious. Worse, he might be responsive to more trustworthy female company. ‘If it’s Deborah you’re worried about,’ she said, ‘she’ll be all right with Janet. And if Janet wants to get away, Mrs Heller said that she’d take Deborah for a few days.’
The idea of his infant daughter spending even a minute at Millmont House scandalised Keith. ‘Certainly not,’ he said. ‘Under no circumstances does she go to Debbie Heller!’
‘Debbie Heller?’ Molly said sharply. ‘Is that her name? Keith, when you insisted that we call our daughter Deborah –?’
‘Good God, no! I only met her for the first time when this blew up. Ask Wallace.’
‘Then why don’t you want her to look after Deborah?’
‘She’s the wrong sort of person.’ By now, Keith realised that he had put his foot firmly into it. He wondered whether to get Molly’s mind off Mrs Heller by provoking some quite different quarrel, but decided against it. He would placate Molly, he decided, but not to the extent of staying on much longer in Madeira while the grouse season loomed ever nearer. ‘She’s a busy woman with no experience of babies,’ he said. ‘And I don’t like being under an obligation to a client.’
‘I see.’ Molly wondered whether to work up a quarrel over Mrs Heller, to put Keith in the wrong and keep his mind off returning home too quickly. But she decided against it. Charity, after all, can cover up a multitude of sins. ‘Perhaps you’re right,’ she said. ‘Your sister might be better. We’ll telephone later. Just for now, this sun’s getting a bit hot. Why don’t we think it over inside?’
Inside was a small room with a large, soft bed.
‘Good idea,’ Keith said. ‘I’m glad you thought of that.’
Each breathed a sigh of relief Their sins had not found them out.
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The Game Page 19