Master of Comus

by Charlotte Lamb

  Paul's face was taut with anger. 'Get into the house, Leonie,' he said tightly. 'Tennyson, come round into the garden where we won't have so many witnesses.'

  'No!' Leonie cried desperately. A wave of swimming heat rose inside her head. She felt as if she were drowning in the clear waters of the Aegean, the thundering of the waves in her ears, the taste of the salt on her lips.

  Jake looked round in alarm as she swayed. He caught her as she fell, holding her gently against his body.

  'Get away from her!' Paul snapped, snatching her out of Jake's arms.

  'She's as white as a ghost,' Jake said anxiously.

  'Go into the house and get them to ring for a doctor,' Paul ordered. 'I'll carry my wife indoors.

  For a moment the two men's eyes fought a duel over her limp body, then Jake reluctantly moved away.

  Leonie recovered consciousness as Paul gently laid her on a bed in one of her aunt's demure little bedrooms.

  She lay, her lids fluttering weakly, staring at the ceiling. Paul stood watching her in moody silence, the sunlight gilding his butter-gold hair.

  Her glance shifted to him. Her brows jerked together. 'Paul...' She remembered what had happened and tried to sit up. 'Jake? What happened? You didn't hurt him?'

  'No, I didn't hurt your lover,' Paul bit out scathingly. 'You saved him when you fainted.'

  She quivered. 'He isn't my lover ...'

  'Not yet? Never mind, it won't be long,' Paul said in a tone that made her feel sick.

  There was a tap at the door, and a man came into the room. Leonie recognised him as her aunt's doctor. He smiled at her comfortingly. 'Well, my dear, how are you? Fainting, I hear? That can't be allowed, you know.' He glanced at Paul. 'She's only been married a few months, I understand. Is that the answer, I wonder?'

  Paul's look of incomprehension was succeeded by a look of absolute amazement. He shot a narrow- eyed glance at Leonie, who was crimson and trembling against her pillow.

  The doctor did not wait for a reply, bending to take her pulse, to look at her eyes and ask her a few discreet questions. Behind him Paul stood like a stone Statue,, watching her. Leonie could not meet the blue glare of his eyes.

  'I think a few hours' rest should put matters to rights,' the doctor said. 'These things happen. No cause for alarm.' He patted her hand. 'If anything else happens, get in touch with me at once, though. We can't be too careful in the first months of a pregnancy. Rest and a light diet will put you to rights, eh?'

  When he had gone, Paul moved over to the window, his back to her. 'He said a pregnancy?'

  Weakly, she murmured. 'Yes.'

  'You're pregnant?'

  'Yes.'

  Paul turned suddenly and faced her, his blue eyes bright and glittering. 'And you didn't tell me?'

  'I...'

  'You didn't think I had a right to know?'

  'I didn't want to tell you,' she said miserably. 'It might have made you feel ... that you had to stay married to me ...'

  'You're damned right it makes me feel that,' he cried furiously. 'It is my child, isn't it?'

  She went red. 'Of course it is!'

  'How long did you think it would be before I found out? You couldn't keep it from me for long.'

  'I thought by then you might have started divorce proceedings,' she mumbled.

  'So that you could marry Jake?' he demanded,

  'Jake?' She stared at him blankly. 'This is nothing to do with Jake. I thought you might want to marry

  Diane.'

  Paul stiffened, staring at her intently. 'I see. That's why you stayed on Comus for weeks, never writing ...'

  'You didn't write to me,' she protested.

  'I didn't vanish out of your life as you did out of mine,' Paul stated bitterly. 'I came back to the flat and you'd gone, without a word of where you'd gone to ... I rang the airport and found out you'd flown to Greece. I would have followed you, but that evening George had a relapse and I was torn between staying in case he died or flying to Greece to find you. I rang Argon, and he told me he thought you needed to be left alone for the time being. So I left you alone.' His blue eyes were like bright stones as he watched her. 'And I waited for you to write and ask me for a divorce.'

  Her lashes stirred on her cheek. 'Would you have given me one?' she asked faintly.

  'Like hell I would!' he snapped. 'I was just waiting to hear you ask so that I could have the pleasure of telling you precisely why I would never divorce you.'

  Her lids lifted. The shadowed eyes looked at him. 'Tell me now.'

  'This isn't the time or the place,' he said. 'You're too .weak. It will have to wait.'

  Leonie moved off the bed and stood beside it, her head swimming a little. 'There! You see? I'm perfectly all right now.'

  Paul leapt across the room in a fury of anxiety. 'Lie down again, you little fool! Do you want to lose your baby?'

  As he touched her, something deep inside her tightened to a pitch of unendurable sweetness. She drooped like a flower against him, her lids lowered to hide the expression in her eyes. Paul's arms came round her, he lifted her and swung her back on to the bed.

  She looked up at him, trembling with the force of her passion for him, and their eyes met, their faces very close together as he lowered her against the pillows.

  Paul made a sound deep in his throat, a groan of hungry desire which was unmistakable. 'Leonie,' he muttered thickly.

  They moved together in one involuntary movement, their mouths meeting, clinging, parting. Paul's hands slid over her body, he flung himself down beside her on the bed and the long kiss deepened until her head swam and her breath hurt in her lungs.

  Just as she thought she would faint again, he lifted his mouth and looked at her, smoothing back a stray lock of hair from her flushed forehead.

  'Why did you never let me see it before?' he demanded with the bright triumph of the conqueror. 'Why did you keep me in suspense all these weeks?'

  'I thought you loved Diane,' she murmured, half laughing, half sighing. 'How could I have guessed you loved me? You didn't want to marry me. You were furious when Argon suggested it.'

  'Of course I was furious,' Paul said with an echo of that anger. 'I was already falling for you then— I started to fall the very first day, on the plane to Comus. You were so defiant yet so sweet. How could I help being attracted? Each time we saw each other I fell faster. Then Argon dropped his bombshell. I was humiliated by what he said in front of you, but to have a marriage suggested, when I was already thinking that marriage to a girl like you might not be so bad after all ... that rubbed my pride raw. I knew it would ruin everything if we married by arrangement.'

  She remembered vividly her own contempt for him because he was prepared to accept such a marriage. 'Then why did you agree?' she asked in bewilderment.

  Paul's mouth twisted sardonically. 'How could I not? Once Argon had made the suggestion, any attempt I made to get close to you would seem to you like a devious method of doing as Argon wanted. I couldn't have made love to you without you suspecting my motives. I was faced with no alternative. So I married you, hoping that in time we could grow closer. Why do you think I took you off to that shepherd's hut? I needed time alone with you, time to coax you into regarding me with less contempt.' He grinned at her. 'And then you sprained that damned ankle of yours and we had to leave.'

  'You were so horrid in Paris,' she said reproach- fully.

  'My dear girl, I was terrified of Jake. I've known him for years. I know every expression on his face. I saw the way he looked at you, I saw the smile in your eyes as you looked at him.'

  'You were jealous,' she murmured, her mouth dimpling.

  He punched her chin. 'Yes, madam, I was as jealous as hell. Everything between us was so delicately balanced. I knew by then that you were warm and loving, capable of passion. I knew you were ready to fall in love.'

  'Oh, did you?' she asked, raising her chin defiantly.

  He grinned. 'Have you forgotten the way you behaved when y
ou were tipsy? Believe me, I had a hard time that night. I was very tempted to make love to you.'

  She looked at him through her lashes. 'As you did later?'

  His face sobered. 'Do you hate me for what happened that night? I was driven by devils I couldn't control; jealous of Jake, afraid he would steal you away from me, longing to make love to you ... I thought that by forcing the situation I might somehow resolve it,' He grimaced. 'I suppose I was slightly drunk. I had a mad notion that once I'd made love to you, everything would be perfect, that you would realise you loved me and we would be happy ever after.'

  'It could have been,' she whispered, her face pink. 'But next morning you were so different.'

  'I was horrified by what I'd done, I was too much of a coward to face you, so I ran away...'

  'Oh, Paul,' she half laughed, half sobbed. 'Paul, dearest...'

  He bent his head and they kissed softly.

  'But Diane,' she said, as they drew apart. 'You haven't said anything about her.'

  He looked at her in astonishment. 'My dear girl, you can't have believed I was in love with Diane?

  What on earth put that lunatic idea into your head? The woman is a monster! I've always been sorry for poor old George married to her, but for his sake I try to keep her happy. Of course, she likes to pretend that all George's friends are in love with her, but in fact none of us can bear the sight of her.'

  Leonie was silent from sheer incredulity. They stared at each other, then Paul laughed aloud.

  'Don't you believe me?' 'She's so beautiful!'

  'So are tigresses, but no sane man gets into a cage with one!'

  'Paul,' she sighed happily. 'Paul, we must get back to Greece at once ...'

  He stared at her in surprise. 'Why the hurry? The doctor said you must rest.'

  'I want to see Argon's face when we tell him about the baby,' she said joyfully.

  Paul smiled slowly. The sunlight from the window fell across his smooth golden head turning it into a halo of splendour above his handsome face. Leonie's eyes caressed him adoringly.

  'Oh, Paul, I love you,' she whispered.

  Paul's blue eyes blazed down at her. 'My darling girl!'A little grin twitched at his mouth. 'Poor old Jake, I can even be sorry for him now. I could have killed him when I saw you two roll up just now...' His eyes narrowed. 'Where were you last night, by the way?'

  'In a London hotel,' she said demurely.

  Paul's face tightened but he waited for her to go on.

  'Alone,' she said, laughing.

  'Don't tease me, Leonie,' Paul said thickly. 'I have a low threshold where jealousy of you is concerned, I'm afraid. So how did you meet up with Jake?'

  'By accident,' she told him, going on to explain about the dinner on the previous evening, the dancing and her decision to leave without Jake. 'But when I got out of the hotel he was already there, so I had no choice but to let him drive me here.'

  'Clever Jake, he would have guessed what you'd do. What was he saying to you when I came out? He was holding your hands, wasn't he?'

  'He wanted me to leave you for him,' she admitted. 'I feel responsible for having encouraged him. I was unhappy and Jake was there ... I shouldn't have let him think I might ever turn to him.'

  'Poor old Jake,' Paul nodded sympathetically. 'How easy it is to feel pity for the loser when you're the winner. It was a very different story when I was terrified that he might turn out to be the winner.'

  'One day Jake will meet the right woman,' Leonie said wisely. 'He wants to love someone, and that's the first step towards loving.'

  'When did you start loving me?' Paul asked, kissing her neck with a slow, hot insistence.

  She put her hand up to his bright-head. 'Long before I ever met you, I suspect,' she said, laughing. 'When I was a silly schoolgirl who kept a scrapbook filled with pictures of my handsome playboy cousin. I used to dream about meeting you.'

  'You never told me that!'

  'I would have died rather than admit it until now,' she said lightly. 'Then there you were on the plane to Greece, and you didn't recognise me ..

  'What a fool I was!' he murmured wryly.

  'Darling, let's go back to Comus tomorrow,' she said gently. 'We can start again there. Our second honeymoon...'

  He raised himself on his elbow and looked down at her, at the black hair straying over the pillow and the passionate pink mouth, the shining eyes looking up at him. 'Yes,' he said deeply. 'The Master of Comus will take his bride home so that the whole island can rejoice over the news that a new heir is expected.'

  'The Master of Comus...' she murmured. 'Argon said something about that.'

  'It's the title given to the head of the family,' he explained. 'One day it will pass to our son.'

  Her eyes were filled with dreams as she watched his face. 'Our son,' she murmured softly to herself. 'Oh, I' m so happy I' m afraid...'

  'You need never be afraid again,' Paul said with certainty. 'I'm going to make you the happiest woman in the world.'

  She laughed, her eyes filled with love and amusement. 'Oh, Paul, you're still the most arrogant, self-assured man I've ever met!'

  'And you, my spitfire, are the most teasing, infuriating woman I've ever met ... and I adore you.'

  She put her arms around his neck and pulled him down to her, her eyes closing in ecstatic surrender as their mouths met.

  Table of Contents

  Start