Close to the Heart

by Rebecca Stratton

  She tried hard to control the wildly erratic beat of her heart, but her head was spinning with excitement and relief, and she scarcely realised she was smiling. A small and very tentative smile, but one that gave her blue eyes a soft, misty look that was irresistibly appealing.

  'It seems that I hardly know you at all/ she ventured in a small voice, and caught her breath when his long fingers squeezed hers hard for a moment. Almost afraid of saying anything that could spoil the moment, she hesitated before going on. Tell me/ she said softly, still with that misty look in her eyes. Tell me what you're really like, Yusuf/

  It was hard to say whether he minded being questioned, but Lisa took heart from the fact that his mouth still wore a faint half-smile and he did not let go her hands, 'First I want to know about you/ he insisted. 'You are an only child; am I correct?'

  Lisa nodded, a slight angle to her chin defying him to agree with her suggestion. 'Which is probably why I'm spoiled/ He made no comment either way, so she went on, telling him the ordinary things like where she was born and where she went to school, and he seemed interested. 'My mother died a few years ago, and I lived with an aunt in Fngland until last year, then I came out to join my father in Casa.' She raised her eyes that U big and shining but also vaguely defensive too. The rest you know!'

  He was not looking directly at her any more, but down at the hand that clasped hers, and his fingers, she

  thought, tightened just a fraction when he spoke. 'And you have a boy-friend; this—Geoffrey Mason, eh?'

  'I wouldn't exactly call him a boy-friend.' She tried to sound cool, but it was hard when those hard brown fingers were clasped so tightly over hers. 'I met him at a group meeting, the first I ever went to, and he '

  Tell in love with you?' Yusuf suggested softly, then smiled and raised her hand to his lips. Tes, of course, he would/

  Lisa's heart pounded so hard it was difficult to hear even her own voice. 'I can't answer for Geoffrey,' she declared as firmly as her wavering voice was capable of being, 'but I'm certainly not in love with him. I—like Geoffrey, but that's all.' She looked at him for a moment steadily, because it suddenly seemed very important to convince him of that, but her lashes fluttered uneasily and it was hard to hold his gaze. 'Anyway, we've been through all this about Geoffrey and me, haven't we? Now I'd like to know about you/

  'Would you?'

  His smile appeared to mock her curiosity, but his eyes were darkly serious, and she nodded firmly. 'Sheik Abahn's your—adopted father, isn't he?'

  She had been about to say stepfather, but she had no wish to let him know that Ali had been talking to her about his family. 'My stepfather,' Yusuf confirmed. 'My true father was, as you seemed to know, a Frenchman, from Poitiers; a civil engineer, as I am, although I hardly knew him. His name was Joseph d'Acra, and of course you will already have recognised that I too have the same name translated into Arabic. My mother is a distant cousin of my—of Sheik Abahn's and she is now his second wife. They have a daughter, my sister Zeineb, who is about your age—very young/ He looked up briefly and smiled. 'But you will surely know all this from your dossier on me, eh?'

  'I didn't have a dossier/ Lisa admitted, discomfited when she remembered how she had come by what little she knew of him in the beginning. 'We—just heard about you and what you were going to do, that was all. We—I didn't really know anything about you at all/

  'But now you feel that you do?'

  She nodded, flicking the tip of her tongue across her lips in an unconsciously nervous gesture that he was sure to notice. 'I feel I understand you better/ She only very briefly raised her eyes and noticed he was smiling with his eyes now, too. 'I think I do/

  Tor the sake of future relations, let us hope so, hmm V

  Something about the way he said it sent little shivers coursing along her spine, and Lisa hastily sought another subject. 'How long have you known my father?'

  'Quite a long time; although it is my father who is better acquainted with him, in fact/

  Lisa pulled a face. 'And if I hadn't always discouraged Daddy from talking shop at home, I might have known all about you, and what '

  'An ogre I was?' Yusuf suggested softly.

  'I didn't say that!' She denied it swiftly, but from the look in his eyes he knew it must have been close to the way she had thought of him initially. 'Not an ogre—1 didn't say that/

  He got to his feet suddenly and reached for her hand, drawing her with him across to the rail, and for several minutes they stood just looking at the sea and the moon without saying a word, nor needing to. Then he turned and raised her hand in his, pressing his mouth to her open palm, his lips warm and startlingly evocative.

  'So small and contrite because you misjudged me/ he whispered, and held her palm to the smooth tanned warmth of his cheek. 'So vulnerable and so— charmante, eh, Lisn V

  'Yusuf '

  She wasn't at all sure what she wanted to say, only that she was sorry she had believed what she had about him, and that she would try if she could to stop the group from making a terrible mistake. But it was so difficult to find the right words, and while she stood silently beside him, he leaned across and lightly kissed the soft skin below her ear, his smooth tanned cheek laid against hers for a second.

  Turning her head but keeping her eyes hidden below their long brown lashes, Lisa tried hard to keep her racing heart under control. He was so close, much too close for comfort, and it was too easy to lift her face to him; to let herself lean towards him, sensing the tension in his lean hardness, and a reticence which she neither understood nor experienced herself.

  With one hand she reached out and touched the soft silk shirt, feeling the warmth of his body through its fine texture and his heartbeat throbbing under her finger-tips, almost unaware of the gesture, but responding to a need to be in touch with him that could not be denied.

  Then he took her hand in his again, his long fingers gentle as he twined them with hers, raising her hand to his lips again and pressing his mouth into her palm and then to his cheek. She was trembling but elated, and she did not recognise the emotions that surged through her, taking her breath away and setting up a wild, exultant beat in her heart, only responded to them eagerly. ' 'Lisa?' His voice shivered softly over her skin and she looked up. 'Will you do something for my sake, petite? 9 She nodded unhesitatingly and his eyes were glowingly dark when he looked down at her. 'Something you do not want to do?' Again she nodded willingly, ready to do anything he said. 'Will you please leave me now—go to your cabin, eh?'

  Lisa caught her breath, and her fingers, still held by his, curled defensively. Her heart hammered and she was shaking with the shock of disillusionment as she stared at him, not wanting to believe it. 'You—you want me to go?'

  He bent his head once more, to press his lips to her palm. 'It is not what I want, Lisa, it is what I remind myself I must do. I have promised your father that you are safe aboard the Djenoun.' He kissed her again, then turned the hand over and brushed her fingers with his mouth. 'Would you have me break my word?'

  'Yusuf '

  'I cannot break my word/ he insisted, although he was obviously as reluctant as she was herself to bring the evening to such a disappointing end. Holding both her hands he pushed her away gently, watching her all the time with glowing dark eyes. 'Goodnight, Lisa,' he murmured quietly. 'Help me to keep my word.'

  Lisa could see his predicament, and she wished she couldn't, but she was not going to be simply put off without some compensation and she dodged between those insistent hands suddenly, and put her hands on his shoulders. Standing on tiptoe, she lifted her mouth and kissed him lightly, almost teasingly, on the lips.

  'Lisa!'

  He reached out for her, but she was playing his game now, and she knew he would really hate to break his word to her father. Dodging his hands once more, she turned swiftly and hurried away from him. She turned when she reached the corner of the upper deck, and smiled at him, her eyes bright and gleaming in the soft light, the laughte
r of excitement hovering on her lips.

  'Goodnight/ she said.

  He would not follow her, she was almost sure of it, for he was a man of iron self-control as well as a man of his word. But she liked to think that he was tempted to

  do so, and as she walked along past the gangway she was still smiling to herself. How could she ever have guessed that dinner with Yusuf would end as it had? How could she have anticipated when she sneaked aboard the Djenoun that she would end by

  'Lisa!'

  Startled out of her reverie, she took a moment to convince herself that she had actually heard the faint call, but she was almost sure she had. It seemed to have come from the shadows between the galley window and Yusuf s dining-salon, and she tried to see, narrowing her eyes against the shifting shadows. It would not be Yusuf, and Ali would never have used her first name so familiarly.

  'Who is it?' She spoke in a whisper instinctively, without quite knowing why. Then someone emerged from the shadows and stepped into the light and she stared in startled disbelief. 'Geoffrey!'

  'Sssh!'

  He glanced over his shoulder and in her present state of mind it was all Lisa could do not to giggle at the suggestion of melodrama. He was dressed in dark clothes from head to foot, and he looked unfamiliar and vaguely sinister; his good-looking face as sober as she had ever seen it. He took a second or two to take in the different look that the red caftan gave her, then shook his head.

  'I came to take you back/ he said in a harsh whisper. 'Come on, darling, while there's nobody about.'

  'No, Geoffrey—I can't!'

  He frowned, looking for a moment as if he did not believe his own ears. Only a few days ago Lisa would have welcomed his appearance as a chance to get away, but now she knew that if she went with Geoffrey Yusuf would never understand why. He would get quite the wrong idea, and that was what concerned her more than anything else at the moment.

  'What do you mean, you can't?' he demanded hoarsely.

  He held her wrist in a relentless grip and she realised how tensed up he must be. He had risked a great deal to come for her, and he was not going to understand her present state of mind unless she explained how wrong they had been about Yusuf and the Zobi project—how wrong they had been about the whole wretched business.

  'Geoffrey, we've been wrong to blame Yusuf for Zobi/ She spoke quickly and in a small breathless voice, too anxious to convince him to realise why he narrowed his eyes as he did over her use of Yusuf s first name. 'We've got the wrong idea about '

  'What the hell has he been telling you?' he demanded, and Lisa hastily avoided his eyes.

  'Only the truth/ she murmured huskily. 'Zobi isn't being vandalised, Geoffrey; it never was.'

  'You believe that?' She nodded, desperate to convince him, and he eyed her with a strange coldness for a second or two. 'Because he told you?' he asked, and again she nodded agreement.

  'I believe him, Geoffrey. He isn't at all like I—we thought. He does care about the people there, and he— they, Yusuf and his father, are doing something to help them/

  'My God!' Lisa had never seen that look in his eyes before, and she shrank from it, from the implications it made. 'It's time you went home/ he declared harshly. 'God knows what he's done to you, but he's got you eating out of his hand and talking like a fool. Now come on, Lisa, before it's too late!'

  'No! No, I can't/

  Geoffrey did nothing for a moment, but he still had hold of her wrist and his grip did not relax at all. 'I haven't the time to hang about,' he said in a flat voice. 'Let's go!'

  He tugged at her arm so suddenly that Lisa was half-dragged across to the gangway before she could resist, but when he would have pulled her down after him, she struggled, pulling back desperately. 'No, Geoffrey, wait!'

  'What for?' he demanded in a harsh whisper. 'You've been conned, Lisa, and the sooner I get you away the better!'

  Gripping her even more firmly he pulled at her arm again, while Lisa just as determinedly pulled back, and it wasn't until she won the tussle and her arm was free that she realised what the result was. She felt the silver bracelet slide down over her hand, cool and gleaming in the yacht's lights in the second before it disappeared into the darkness, then she heard the faint plop when it fell into the sea.

  'It's gone! Oh, Geoffrey, my bracelet's gone!'

  Her cry of despair was more anguished than she realised, and Geoffrey turned quickly to stare at her. 'Lisa, for God's sake, you'll bring the whole crew running!'

  She didn't bother to correct him, but stared downward, trying to see into the dark water that lapped the sides of the Djenoun, and her eyes were filled with tears. His patience almost exhausted, Geoffrey made to take her arm again, but she avoided him, skirting round him and coming to a halt in the shadows of the deserted wheelhouse, defiant and unhappy at the loss of her precious bracelet

  'Are you mad?'

  He dared not raise his voice, but he was angrier than Lisa had ever seen him and she recognised, even in her present mood, that he had cause to be. He had come to rescue her and she did not want to be rescued. Perhaps he was in love with her, as Yusuf had suggested, she had half suspected it before all this happened, but whether he was or not, she could not go off with him

  without saying a word to Yusuf—not now.

  'Geoffrey, you have to tell them that there's no reason to stop what's going on at Zobi. It's all right, really, the people have been •

  'It's too late/ Geoffrey interrupted shortly. They're already in there, Lisa, and it doesn't take long to slit sacks of cement!'

  She stared at him wildly; not so much concerned with what happened over there as with the possibility of Yusuf thinking she had had something to do with it. The crew are over there,' she whispered, and Geoffrey eyed her narrowly. 'Geoffrey, it isn't only the workmen on the site they'll have to get past, Yusuf sent the crew of the Djenoun over there too. They'll be waiting for them— oh, you must do something to stop them before it's too late!'

  ♦'It's already too late/ he said grimly. 'I told you— they're on the site and by now they're at work on the cement sacks. Nobody will see them, they're stacked at the far end under the trees/

  'Oh no!' She looked at him with eyes that were already filling with tears again. 'Yusuf will think ■

  'Damn Yusuf!' Geoffrey snapped in a harsh whisper. *We're getting out of here!'

  He reached out for her again, but Lisa jerked her arm upward and out of his reach. The ensuing collision with something hard and painfully unyielding made her gasp aloud, but the worst was yet to come when she realised what she had come into contact with. There was a large brass bell hanging beside the wheelhouse and the blow she struck it with her forearm sent it swinging upwards, its clapper striking with ear-splitting resonance and repeating on the downward swing.

  Geoffrey swore fervently, as stunned for a moment as she was by the sheer volume of sound, then he glanced over his shoulder. 'Someone's coming! Come on!'

  He grabbed her roughly and this time Lisa was too dazed to resist when he hauled her across to the gangway and down the steep slope to the pier, scuttling like fugitives and bent almost double as they made for his car, parked at the end of the pier.

  In normal circumstances he would never have got away with coming that close without being seen and challenged, but Yusuf had sent his entire crew across to Zobi, and Ali had been too busy to notice. Geoffrey opened the car door and bundled Lisa in, slamming the door shut almost before she was in the seat, then ran round and got in beside her.

  The engine started up, splitting the quiet night like a scream, and he revved it up mercilessly, then put his foot down hard on the accelerator almost the moment they started moving. They shot away along the unlit sandy strip towards the highway in the second that Lisa recovered enough to see Yusuf and Ali come hurrying to the rail of the Djenoun and stand watching them go.

  Bumping and bouncing along the track, Lisa sat with her head low, clinging to the side of the car and crying silently, as if he
r heart would break. Geoffrey said nothing but drove with his mouth set grimly, concentrating on the two blobs of light that danced in front of them, until suddenly he braked hard and leaned towards her to stare through the window beside her.

  Distracted for a moment from her misery, Lisa too turned her head, and brushed blinding tears from her eyes so that she could see better. Lights moved erratically across the beach between Zobi and the Djenoun's mooring, and even at that distance it was possible to make out the shadowy forms that carried them.

  That damned bell!' Geoffrey murmured harshly close to her ear, and laughed. The men on the site have gone to investigate; they think their boss is in trouble and they're going to his rescue!'

  Lisa turned away, her hands tightly gripped in her lap, too unhappy to even cry any more. 'He'll never believe I didn't know you were going to be there, not now/ she said in a small flat, hopeless voice, and Geoffrey turned to frown at her impatiently as he started the engine again.

  'Does it matter?' he demanded.

  Lisa twisted her own restless fingers round and round her naked left wrist and the tears started again. Tes, it matters/ she said, but she doubted very much if he heard her.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Lisa was aware that Madame Raymond was worrying about her and the fact that she had so little appetite since she came home, but she did not see what she could do about it. Whenever Lisa's father was away from home, Madame Raymond took upon herself the role of mother hen and fussed about everything she did. Normally she had very little to worry about, but now she eyed Lisa anxiously each time she shook her head over an enquiry if she was going out, or when meals went back only partly eaten.

  Lisa had not been out of the house since she came home, but spent the time either reading or just sitting and doing nothing but feel sorry for herself. She was the first to admit that what had happened on board the Djenoun had changed her life in such a way that it would never be the same again.