Milieu Dawn

by Malcolm Franks

Gratia bent her elbow to prop her head against the upright palm of her hand and smiled.

  “I am deeply impressed you have not fallen into a sleep induced state of unconsciousness on me yet, given the time and distances you have travelled.”

  “There’s nothing better than lying outside on a moonlit night to watch the stars.”

  “The night sky is all that has kept you awake!”

  “Okay, okay,” he grinned. “I suppose the company has helped a little.”

  Her subsequent laugh preceded the affectionate tap against his arm. In truth, the company had been everything about this night. Matt couldn’t recall the last occasion he’d enjoyed a conversation so much. Then again, he’d rarely exchanged more than a few sentences with anyone for such a long time. Matt had planned to retire to his bed hours ago, to catch up on lost sleep. Yet here he lay, under a powerful patio heater on one of the two sun lounges he’d rescued from the end of the promenade, merrily chatting the night hours away to a complete stranger with dawn about to arise.

  Gratia had removed the hairpins, allowing her raven hair to tousle free and fall around her slender shoulders. He glimpsed her reaching up to push the long dark hair back behind her ear with her free hand. She was quiet for a moment.

  “Do you sleep under the stars every night back home?”

  “I always leave the curtains open so I can see them.”

  “Are you afraid of the dark, night spirits perhaps?”

  “Most people are afraid of the dark,” he laughed. “I just like to be able to see the stars.”

  “You are an astronomer as well as a pilot?”

  “No,” he smiled. “Confinement makes me restless.”

  Matt glanced towards her. He hadn’t meant to reveal this much of himself. The woman had this uncanny knack of drawing things out of him. Time to deflect her attention, he reasoned.

  “You see that star, the one just to the left of the mountain ahead,” he said.

  “Yes.”

  “That’s Sam.”

  “Sam? There is no star called Sam!”

  “Of course there is. And the one right next to it is called Genevieve.”

  Gratia erupted into a brief fit of giggles.

  “You are toying with me. All of the stars have Greek and Latin names.”

  “To the academic world that might be the case; we mere mortals however, must content ourselves with more mundane variants.”

  “Such as Genevieve?” she laughed.

  “Sometimes I call her Gen, for short.”

  Gratia burst out into another fit of giggles, her second of the night. Matt liked to hear this woman laugh. She had a nice laugh, and the friendliest of smiles. Every time he looked into the dark whirlpools of her eyes he could feel his steady gaze being imprisoned, so he never held his attention for long.

  “Can I ask you something?” he said.

  “You may ask.”

  “Is your family naturalised German?”

  She was curious at the question.

  “I was born in Germany. Does this intrigue you?”

  “No. Well, yes actually. It’s just that you have a very German sounding name for a …”

  He glanced across and saw her eyes sparkle.

  “A German perhaps?” she said. “I understood Canada has a mixed race society too.”

  “We do, only… God, the hole gets bigger every time I open my bloody mouth. I’m sorry, it was a stupid question to ask,” he replied defensively.

  Fortunately Gratia appeared more amused than offended.

  “Father used to be a structural engineer, mother a doctor. They met after he had an accident at work while on a contract in the sub-continent. My mother attended to him. The way my father tells the story, she set his pulse racing at the same time as setting his arm back into place.”

  “All sounds pretty romantic,” quipped Matt.

  Her eyes rolled in apparent disapproval at his comment. He wondered if he’d inadvertently said the wrong thing.

  “Men are seduced easily,” she said with a degree of casual detachment. “They live only for the next romantic encounter. This is what leads them astray from commitment.”

  Her coolness towards the subject surprised him.

  “Not one for all this true love stuff then?” he said.

  “Compatibility is the key behind any successful and lasting relationship. This is what must be established first, before any promises of long term commitment are made.”

  Gratia’s words let Matt to believe her parent’s marriage was an unhappy one, if it still existed. He elected not to press the matter.

  “And what about your parents?” she asked, deflecting the conversation.

  “My father was a career policeman who cared for nothing but his work. Mother, on the other hand, was different. She was a community worker who seemed to care for everybody else in the world, except me that is. I was never convinced my arrival on the planet had been as carefully planned as alleged. Not that I’m likely to discover the truth. They both died when I was younger.”

  A brief lull ensued.

  “This is what draws you to Martha and Gerhardt.”

  Matt looked away from the darkened sky and returned her studious gaze. He had never considered it like that before. Her mind was razor sharp. He was going to have to be careful over what he said to her.

  “I guess,” he said.

  For the first time this night he felt the evening cold, despite the presence of the heater, and shivered briefly. Perhaps her insight had struck a chord.

  “Maybe it’s getting time to retire,” he said. “I’m starting to feel the chill.”

  She feigned offence.

  “You have talked all night about the wonder of watching the sun rise above the mountains on a morning. And now you wish to retire?” she mocked. “The least I expect is we would wait to see in the dawn.”

  Matt had waxed lyrical about the sight of dawn breaking through the mountains. He was going to have to see this through. And it was not as if he hadn’t enjoyed the night’s conversation. He looked across. Her small face started to exhibit the first signs of a curious frown.

  “I am intrigued by the diary you showed me earlier. The embossed letter S on the front is an unusual font. The notes inside are written almost like a puzzle, a very interesting mixture of code and reference. Perhaps I could help you to locate the owner.”

  “Thanks, but no. I should be able to take it on from here. Anyway, don’t you have the small matter of a very large business empire to manage? That has to be far more important than a little geographical research.”

  “The advantage of my position is I can determine my own agenda.”

  “Really, it’s fine.”

  “And if I insist?”

  “Then I would point out you are not seated behind your big corporate desk at this time, therefore unable to make demands of others.”

  Her eyes smiled at his directness.

  “You are a man who does not take kindly to instruction,” she observed.

  “Something tells me you don’t much like being told what to do either.”

  A second chill appeared and invaded the protection of the woollen blanket, causing Matt to shiver briefly again.

  “Should you instruct me to move across to keep each other warm, then I will comply,” she said with a sly grin.

  “Now you’re toying with me,” he replied.

  He turned on to his side to face her. Gratia responded by lowering her head back on to the cushioned covering to look straight into his eyes. This time he held his gaze.

  “You are right,” she said. “It is beginning to get cold.”

  With an elegant sweep of her hand Gratia drew the blanket from her body. He watched as she sat upright and then draped the covering over her arm. She did not speak or smile as she stood, nor as she took the short step to where he lay. Gratia gently positioned the blanket over his body.

  Instinctively, Matt raised his arm to allow her room to slip in beside hi
m. She lowered down onto her back with her head rested on his shoulder. She felt soft and warm. They fitted seamlessly together, as though they had done this many times before. Her perfume smelt rich and exotic. He breathed in and caught the scent of her hair, a mixture of sweet and dangerous intoxication. Matt couldn’t remember the last time a woman had lain up next to him. The sensation of her touching body felt good. She felt good.

  “I don’t believe I’ve ever lain in the same bed as a Chief Executive Officer before,” he said dryly.

  “At least we are both a little warmer and able to properly enjoy the rising sun. Now, tell me again, which one is Sam?” she said, looking up to the stars.

  “That one, over to the left,” he replied.

  Matt unconsciously began to stroke at the thick texture of her hair. Gratia didn’t seem to mind at all. If anything, she appeared to enjoy his light touch. It caused him to think and he recalled her earlier comments, about men being so easily seduced. Surely this was not what she intended? Why would a multinational Chief Executive seek to bed a floatplane taxi owner? It made no sense. Yet the whole thing felt uncannily comfortable. A question sprang into his mind.

  “What does Gratia Fuchs mean, in English?”

  “Grace,” she replied after giving the matter some thought. “Grace Fox.”

  The name resonated to every corner of his mind, as though an alarm bell had been sounded. His mind went temporarily blank as he sought to digest this sudden news. His eyes stared cold and blankly up into the night sky. Matt felt as though his entire nervous system was spinning out of control. Gratia bore precisely the same name as the woman he had last made love to, albeit in a different language. It was surreal, like someone had deliberately engineered this situation to play mind games with his head.

  “You do not like my name?”

  “Yes,” he stuttered uncertainly. “It is a beautiful name. I used to know someone called Grace.”

  She turned her head and looked into his eyes.

  “I will not object if you wish to use the English translation, Grace. Would you prefer this?”

  “No,” he said immediately. “Your name is Gratia, Gratia Fuchs.”

  He could see her mind trying to understand his thinking.

  “I can see I have much to read,” she said.

  Matt offered some sort of smile in return, more a nervous twitch.

  “Take it from me,” he said, “I’m a very thin volume.”

  Gratia was oblivious to the context of her disclosure. And though he felt he had successfully managed to disguise the full impact of her words, he was nevertheless unnerved. The revelation brought the past and the present rushing into high definition focus. He should have pushed this woman away much earlier. There was every chance she could become embroiled in his problem, become a target too. Matt looked at his watch for the first time this night and sat bolt upright.

  “We should return to our rooms and try and get some rest,” he said.

  He felt her hand rest against the small of his his back and rub gently.

  “Dawn is almost here. You have talked all night about the magical sight of the sun shining through the mountains as it rises. I want to see what is so special.”

  Matt turned his head and gazed down into her large dark eyes. She had asked him to stay, not pleaded. Gratia would never do that. She was too strong.

  “Once the morning light appears people will rise,” he said. “There will be other dawns, and it is probably better we are not seen together.”

  “I am not at all compromised by this,” she replied with an amused smile.

  “I wasn’t thinking about that,” he said without thinking.

  Her stroking stopped, leaving her fingers to rest against his back.

  “Why should we not be seen together? What is it you have not told me about yourself I should know?”

  Matt inwardly cursed at his carelessness. Gratia spotted his indecision.

  “Is it something illegal you are involved in?”

  “No,” he replied instantly, “of course not.”

  “Then what is it?”

  Matt elected not to respond immediately, recognising the can of worms he’d inadvertently opened with his careless remark. Desperately, he searched for an evasive manoeuvre, some sort of believable answer.

  “Martha might get the wrong idea if she discovers us like this. In some things her values remain old fashioned, and I do not want her to misinterpret the situation and be disappointed in either of us.”

  He turned and offered a confident smile. Gratia’s returning gaze was blank, which he understood to mean she remained unconvinced by his timid excuse and was deep in thought, trying to rationalise his statement. Matt sought to rectify his mistake, his mind searching for words to deflect her attention.

  “You are very beautiful,” he said, for no other reason than he believed her to be.

  His hand moved to gently sweep away the dark hair from her brow. Her smile thanked him for the compliment.

  “I am also very cold now without the blanket,” she said.

  Obediently, he dropped back onto the cushioned surface. Only this time his head rested on her shoulder and he felt her fingers gently massage at his temple.

  “Martha is not as old-fashioned as you say you believe. But I think you know this already. So there can be no reason for you to go.”

  “Trust me,” he said. “It is better I leave.”

  “Are we to disagree?”

  He laughed.

  “I doubt anyone would be brave enough to openly disagree with the Chief Operating Officer of Schafen Industries.”

  “There is a first time for everything.”

  The gentle stroking of his temple resumed. He found the motion of her fingers relaxing his mind, playing soothing musical melodies in his head. The need to catch up on lost sleep began to exercise its influence, and he could feel his resistance weakening. Any thought on her part of seduction was irrelevant now. He needed to rest. Matt could feel his body succumbing to fatigue.

  “Surely, a few more minutes can do no harm,” she said softly.

  Matt knew he was losing the struggle to stay awake. He sensed she was aware of it too.

  “Five minutes,” he said. “Then I should go.”

  “Yes,” she replied, continuing the soft, even strokes of her fingers. “Rest your eyes for a moment and I will wake you when it is time.”

  He didn’t respond. Gratia adjusted the position of her head to peer down at his face. Matt had fallen asleep.

  Chapter Twelve

  A Fool Rushes In