Roumelia Lane - The Scented Hills

by Roumelia Lane

  Watching him, Neil said lazily, after a while, 'It's Cannes tonight, I take it?'

  'Yeah,' Barry said with a non-committal grin. Tessa thought he looked a little flushed, but that wasn't surprising, the way he was going through the meal. He fidgeted until she had finished, then dropped a kiss on his grandmother's cheek, and made for the door. Half-way towards it he bethought himself to turn and grin jauntily, 'So long, everybody. We'll be late back, so don't wait up.'

  Madame Devereux smiled after him and said in her gentle tones, 'Take good care of Taysa.'

  Barry nodded absently and then seemed to wake up to jerk on a smile. 'Sure I'll look after Tessa. Don't I always?' He waited until she had caught up with him and dropped an arm round her waist.

  Neil had been watching Barry closely. He kept the speculative green gaze trained on him as he led Tessa out of the room.

  Seeing her turn to go upstairs, Barry said impatiently, 'Aw, don't be all night, Tess. We want to get moving.'

  'Five minutes,' she smiled.

  It was so hot that she doubted if she would need to take any other garment, but just to be on the safe side she searched out a fleecy cardigan. Picking up her handbag she hurried downstairs.

  There was no need to ask where Barry was. She could hear the car engine straining to be away. She took her seat and barely had she pulled her feet in from the ground, than the tangerine sports was zipping along the drive. At least the top was up, Tessa counted her blessings. She looked across at the driving wheel and sighed good-naturedly. Her fiance-to-be hadn't said more than two sentences to her all afternoon, and it didn't look as though he felt any more like chattering now. She settled down to try and enjoy the pacy drive.

  Dusk was just creeping in from the sea when they reached Cannes. The palm trees were black against a colourless sky, the villas in the hills shrouded in a pearly haze. The car cruised past the yachts floating on pale violet silk and on to the curving Croisette, and then just when Tessa was visualising turning off up one of the wide avenues to some brilliant place of entertainment, Barry stopped the car. He vaulted out without looking her way and feeling a quick stab of apprehension, Tessa clutched her cardigan and handbag and followed him. As they met on the wide stretch of sidewalk flanking the sea, he faced her with a sheepish look, thrust his hands in and out of his pockets several times and then rushed cheerfully, 'Well, this is where we part company.'

  'Oh, Barry!' Tessa crumpled. 'Not again!'

  'What's wrong?' he asked, pacing and watching her with an embarrassed smile. 'You're enjoying yourself, aren't you?'

  'How can I, without you?' she said miserably.

  He squeezed her arm and then pushed a roll of notes into her hand. 'Look, let your hair down and have a good time. Okay? And make sure you don't get back to the villa until late.' He gave her another encouraging squeeze, then jumped into his car and swept away.

  Completely shattered, Tessa dropped the notes blindly into her bag and sank down on a seat facing the road. She watched the tangerine sports car disappear up an avenue opposite, with mixed feelings of annoyance and regret, but as the night closed in and the people and the cars came, and the lights flashed gaily, she knew only wistfulness at being left on her own.

  Big-eyed, she gazed dejectedly at the merrily bowling traffic, then her heart shot up into her throat. A gleaming amber car was coming down on the other side of the road. Watching it slow down she knew Neil had seen her, long before she had seen him. As he waited his chance to turn, she tried to work out what was happening.

  It couldn't be coincidence this time. It was almost as though he had known where to come. She took her mind back to dinner at the villa. He had been watching Barry most of the time. Had he suspected that things would turn out like this? It was possible, she, told herself, for he must have practically followed behind in his car.

  A pity she wasn't a little more discerning herself, she thought miserably. She could have saved him the trouble.

  He cruised alongside, looking at her small and alone on the seat, and asked drily, 'Fancy a lift?'

  Tessa rose heavily and walked to the car. He opened the door for her and pulled it closed as she sank down. They must have been driving for several minutes before he said obliquely, 'Looks like it's taken a tumble.'

  'What has?' she asked glumly.

  'Whatever it was that Barry had for you.' He swung the wheel and added with a green glint to the road, 'That magic we were talking about.'

  So he thought it was wearing off! Tessa drooped in her seat. She was beginning to wonder now if there had ever been any magic. Things had moved too fast for her to catch her breath in London, and since coming to the South of France, Barry's friends had always somehow been neatly between her and him. At the Villa Valrose she seemed to have spent most of her time with his guardian; alone at the breakfast table with him, out in the fields, and now twice he had come to scoop her up out of a crowded city.

  But she needed some retort for the man at the wheel now and lifting her chin she said spiritedly, 'He brings me out every night.'

  'I don't expect him to come and admit anything to me,' Neil said with a grim smile.

  Slumping again, Tessa turned her gaze out into the night. What was the use of trying to work out the ways of men? Especially those who could sweep you off your feet and talk in terms of marriage one minute and leave you flat for their male companions the next.

  She noticed for the first time that the car was climbing and by the look of it they were leaving Cannes behind. Even as she gazed down the town's lights began to spread out below in blurred patterns of pink and turquoise and blue. She had never seen the view from this angle, so they couldn't be going straight back to the villa. As she turned a faintly questioning gaze inwards she came up against the green glance of the man at the wheel. He took his eyes back to the road to say with a satirical smile, 'Well, at least you don't have to be fed tonight, but no doubt you could do with a drink?'

  She sat silent while the car wound its way up to the yellow lights of a hilltop village. Soon it was climbing the steep winding streets and eventually came to a halt in a tiny square. As there seemed to be no signs of life Tessa wondered why they were getting out. She felt a hand on her elbow and was led down a narrow alleyway between old stone houses, and then she saw a small cafe with tables beside tubs of roses, and red lanterns hanging from the wood. Its front overhung the lights of the city and beyond them, the sea was a sweep of black silk.

  If there was a more enchanting setting, Tessa had yet to find it. Downcast as she had been at Barry's sudden abandoning of her for his friends, she couldn't keep the light of pleasure out of her eyes now as she was guided towards a chair beside, a tiny orange-draped table.

  Towering over her, Neil asked with lazy humour, 'What's it to be tonight? Cocktail, aperitif, spirits…?'

  'Would it be all right if I had a lemonade?' She looked up.

  'Cutting down already?' He sloped her a taut smile and thrust his hands into his pockets to add drily, 'What happened to the expensive tastes?'

  Tessa wasn't aware that she had any, but rather than argue she said flippantly, 'All right then, if you insist. I'll have the best drink in the house.'

  'That's more like it,' came the drawling reply. A waiter came out and the order was given in French, and Tessa waited intrigued to see what would come out of the grottolike interior. A few minutes later the waiter reappeared and poured golden champagne into crystal glasses. She sipped at it at Neil's request, then put it down with a half-smile. It was fragrant and light and it would last her for hours and hours.

  It might have been as long as that that they sat there, Tessa didn't know. She was aware only of the peace and the view and the velvet touch of the summer-scented night. Occasionally the big frame, relaxed in the chair opposite, would lean in and lift the other glass, but its contents went down no quicker than her own, and it occurred to her vaguely that a drink had been no more necessary to him than it was to her.

  At one time the sil
ence was split by an exuberant group who seemed to have dropped in en route for somewhere else. Their laughter rang out, the wine glasses clinked merrily and Neil pulled lazily on his cigarette and somehow deterred high-spirited individuals from jostling too close to their table. But almost as soon as they had swooped in the revellers were off again, and the peace descended as though it had never been disturbed.

  Listening to the raucous voices echoing down the hillsides, Tessa smiled to herself in the shadows. She was young enough to enjoy movement and life herself, but somehow tonight nothing seemed sweeter than staying exactly where she was.

  Only when she woke up to the fact that the man across from her wouldn't be feeling the same did she bring herself to finish the last of her champagne, and put the glass down pointedly in the centre of the table. Rising, Neil thrust a hand in his pocket and dropped a tip near his glass, then led the way out.

  The narrow track that would eventually turn up between the village houses was walled along the ridge of the hillside, and still reluctant to leave the view, Tessa paused to soak up an extra moment. She hadn't expected Neil to drop back from where he was leading the way ahead, but he was behind her resting one arm lazily on the wall, before she had time to move away.

  For the sake of something to say, because the silence didn't feel all that comfortable now, she nodded to the two black shapes out in the water that she was always seeing and knew nothing about, and asked conversationally,

  'Do the islands attract many tourists?'

  'A few,' Neil said. 'There's a village on Ste. Marguerite and a fortress, and St. Honorat has a monastery, but as far as I know there are no hotels and no roads there. Just a handful of monks hidden away and a small restaurant.'

  'Mmm!' Tessa pulled a smile. 'Bit different from the gaiety of Cannes.'

  She gazed long and dreamily at the lights below, and after a while Neil said tauntingly, 'They glitter like diamonds, don't they?'

  'No,' Tessa replied with a twinkle, not rising to the bait, 'they glitter like lights.'

  He sloped a grin and went on, 'Just think—Barry's down there somewhere having a whale of a time with his pals. Doesn't that worry you?'

  'Well…' She tugged in a light sigh. 'It's not exactly a nice feeling to be left high and dry, but I'll survive !'

  'It doesn't bother you that you might be drifting away from all that Devereux money?' he mocked close to her ear.

  'I don't think I am,' she returned his play, and then just to enter into the spirit of the game she swung to him and said daringly, 'The job you've got with the firm, you can't be poor. Maybe I should transfer my… er… affections.'

  'You might find me more difficult to handle.'

  She could see the green eyes glinting menacingly above hers in the darkness. It was only then she realised just how close he was. As the tightly smiling mouth descended, she felt her heart explode and pushing away laughed shakily, 'You're right! I probably would.'

  There was a wild moment when she didn't know whether to turn back to the wall, or stay where she was facing him, and then the smile became slightly bent and relaxing his frame he drawled, 'It's time we were getting back.'

  He took her arm impersonally and led her back to the car. There was no conversation as they drove back to the villa. On Tessa's part she felt strangely tongue-tied and keyed up inside, and the dark profile over the wheel seemed to be concentrating on the winding roads. They pulled up quietly on the villa terrace, and Neil came round to help her out. He stood over her for a second in the shadows, but Tessa couldn't even manage a light-hearted goodnight. For some reason she felt she would never be able to talk naturally to him again, and as they went inside she fled silently to her room.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Her courage hadn't returned the next morning, and rather than go down and meet across the table in the brilliant light of day, the mocking face that had been so close to her own last night, she decided to have breakfast in her room. Afterwards she pottered around doing odd chores, like stitching on loose buttons and brushing the dust off her sandals, and while she was folding the mosquito net back that had been fitted over her bed, she heard a footstep striding by below on the terrace. Why she should go out on to her balcony and gaze down she couldn't explain. She knew beyond a doubt that it was Neil, but just the same she felt the need to linger and watch the dark head pass beneath her. He moved on, and then the big frame was draping into the amber car and gently jerking it into life. With the merest whisper of exhaust, the car slid away from the terrace and disappeared up the drive.

  Five minutes later Tessa felt completely at a loose end. She missed badly not going down to the flower fields as usual, but that area was also taboo this morning; and yet nothing else she thought of as an alternative came remotely near to having the same appeal. She flicked through a magazine for a while, did a few more repair jobs on her clothes and then watered the flowers along the balustrade.

  The heat shimmered over the surrounding countryside. Below, a plump straw-hatted gardener and his assistant chopped busily with their hoes among the blossoms. Tessa wondered why she didn't go and stroll around down there herself. It was perfectly safe, now that a certain person wasn't around, and yet… well, perhaps later, when Barry was up and about. She would have someone to talk to then and things would be back to normal.

  There was a sun-mattress rolled up in her wardrobe. At the latter end of the morning she slipped into her swim-suit and trying the pink shorts on top and liking the effect, she went to lie out in the sun. Not keen on the deep copper tan that the Riviera people seemed to go for for herself, she was careful to keep her sunbathing hours to the minimum, always making sure she was near an umbrella on the beach. Half an hour now, she reckoned, would be her limit.

  It was when she was rising to go indoors before the half hour was up that she saw a crinkly golden head and slender bronzed frame across the width of the doorway on the nearest of the other two balconies. By the look of it, Barry spent his time lying in the sun too. He was reaching for a drink on an outside table, as she turned to go in, and catching sight of her he yelled, 'Hey, Tess ! Come here!'

  She looked at the width between the balconies and asked humorously, 'Do you want me to fly?'

  He grinned and sent a nod inside his room. 'Come on round, the door's open.'

  Tessa padded barefoot along the corridor, happy to be wanted again. She walked shyly through Barry's room, noticing the untidy scatter of expensive clothing, and went to where he stood on the balcony.

  He turned a little impatiently as though he thought she ought to have arrived sooner, and near to him Tessa saw the boyish smoothness of his tanned skin, the perfect cut of his pale blue shorts. She thought he might have asked how she had coped last night when he had gone off and left her, but instead he started straight in with that sheepish grin of his and the rush of words, 'Look, Tess, I can't make the beach this afternoon, but I'll take you down to Cannes and then you can…'

  'Oh no, I can't!' Tessa stepped back, her violet eyes dark with panic. 'I don't want to be found wandering a third time, and besides, Neil…'

  She bit back her words, aware that Barry hated his guardian to know his affairs. But she had let the name slip out and the sky-blue gaze that had been fixed on the contents of his glass swung up to her rapidly as he asked, 'What's Neil got to do with it?'

  'Well,' she swallowed, 'that night when you left me at the cinema. It was in French, so I came out. I was walking along one of the boulevards, and Neil was driving by and…'

  'And you let him see you without me!' Barry stepped up to her, the good-looking features contorted with some kind of inner emotion. 'Of all the stupid, crazy…!'

  Tessa blinked. She had expected him to be annoyed, but this mood now seemed to go far beyond that.

  After he had pulled in a thin breath he asked, 'What did you tell him?'

  'That you'd gone off with your mates,' she shrugged, trying to sound lighthearted, and that you'd bought me a ticket for the…'

&
nbsp; 'And he knew I was with… the fellers last night too?' Barry cut in.

  Tessa nodded. 'He came along just after you had driven off.'

  There was a long silence, then Barry relaxed his frame,'t 'That settles it, then, doesn't it?' He shrugged a grin over her. 'I'd better get back with my girl this afternoon.'

  Tessa brightened. He couldn't have been as angry as she had thought, after all. 'You mean we'll be staying together now?' she asked.

  He nodded thoughtfully. 'I'll phone the crowd and tell them it's the beach at Juan.'

  Tessa's spirits dropped. Not his friends again! She moved up to him and said quickly, 'Barry, there's something I've been wanting to ask you for ages. Don't you think we could… just for once…' She had only stepped up to put her request to him earnestly, but suddenly she found herself a whole lot closer to the bronze frame than she had intended. Before she knew it Barry had manoeuvred himself so that the smooth skin of his chest was brushing her shoulders and was querying laughingly, 'Think we could do what just for once, Tess?'

  Baffled at this sudden change in him, Tessa trembled a smile, and then she saw the tall figure moving below. The amber car must have whispered to a stop along the terrace while she had been engrossed in what Barry had been saying. Now she had no time to do anything but remain exactly where she was. Barry didn't seem to mind. He called down cheerfully, 'Hi, Neil!'

  The tanned features looked to be carved out of teak as Neil clipped, 'Good morning, Barry.' There was nothing for her, but she hadn't missed the steely green gaze taking in her scantily clad appearance, and the fact that she was more or less in Barry's bedroom.

  She might have been reading his thoughts, for he tacked on crisply as he strode by, 'Outdoors is the place for swim-suits.'