Fire Mountain

by Rose elver

  So she told him as they strolled up the beach towards the forest path, their fingers closely entwined. `Dr Hallow is a wonderful friend to you, Don. I wouldn't have been able to manage without his help, he has so many contacts through his work on tropical diseases. I've been sharing a tent with Lotte Meister and working with the children in the camp, trying to do whatever I could to help while I waited to find out what had become of you. Mrs Meister encouraged me to hope that you would come back, but they couldn't be sure, it was no use pretending ...' Her voice petered out and his hard fingers tightened around hers for a second or two in a grip that nearly made her cry out with the sweet pain of it.

  `What shall we do now, Don?' she asked a little breathlessly as he vaulted the fallen tree and lifted her over. She rested against his bare chest briefly, savouring the moment.

  `I'll go and report to the medical officers first. Then a good clean up,' he held her at arms' length and looked her over. 'You smell faintly sulphurous, like a witch.'

  `Well!' she cried indignantly, 'that's a loving remark!'

  His eyes glinted with laughter. 'You are a witch, you've been quietly weaving your insinuating spells around me for months. No, don't hide behind your spectacles, that little game is over for keeps!'

  Busy and overworked though they were, the medical team hailed Donovan Lyne's return with sincere relief. He disappeared with Dr Meister and one of the officials into the office to have his burns tended and report on conditions on the other side of Sarava. Amelia had hung back while the others surrounded him, proud of their obvious admiration and respect for the eminent professor whose knowledge of the area and natural authority had been invaluable in the first chaotic days, and whose courage had helped them to save so many lives.

  When he had gone Amelia turned towards the women's quarters to find Lotte Meister beside her lightly tapping her arm.

  `He is a brave, good man,' she said kindly. 'You are happy again, and I am so happy for you too.'

  `Yes ... yes ... thank you.' Amelia squeezed her hand and almost ran into the tent, dropping the flap behind her as the tears trickled down her cheeks. After a silent, emotional little weep she dried her eyes, put on her glasses and stooped over her small travelling case. She picked up her plastic wash-bag and cologne rub, and the pair of worn-looking jeans and long-sleeved blue-flowered shirt she had washed out the day before. Collecting her towel and undies, which had been hung on the tent ropes outside to dry, she went down to the forest pool.

  The water was sluggish but cooler than the heavy

  humid air, and she stripped and waded in, feeling it slide over her sweated skin, sighing with pleasure. She soaped herself lavishly, knowing that there would no longer be any need to eke it out, and even used 'a little to wash her hair. Drying herself hastily among the bushes, she massaged her skin with cooling cologne and got dressed.

  Donovan loved her—somehow a miracle had occurred. She went over in her mind those revealing moments on the beach until her heart thudded against her ribs and her breath caught in her throat.

  It was time for the children's evening meal. Amelia was sitting crosslegged on the ground, feeding a child as frail and tiny as a brown sparrow with small slow mouthfuls of milky gruel, when she sensed that Don had come into the tent. 'Gentle hands—I remember!' he said softly, and her pulses leapt at the sound of his voice. He had shaved and his hair was wet. He wore rather crumpled khaki slacks and a bush shirt and although his eyes had a sunken look he was very much himself again. Because of me! she realised with renewed amazement. No trace of that tired, dispirited man.

  After the children had been settled for the night, they had their own frugal meal of some boiled rice and a mug of meat extract, swallowed their vitamin tablets, said good-night to the other workers in the mess tent and strolled out towards the ghostly forest again. Donovan put an arm about Amelia and held her close to his side.

  She asked shyly, 'Where will you sleep tonight?'

  have my survival pack. I can bivouac anywhere and sling up a hammock. Stay with me for a while?' `For as long as you want me.'

  He stopped and studied her pale oval features in the hazy, yellowish moonlight. 'Always,' he said soberly. 'There's a plane coming in with supplies from Waingapu tomorrow, and Dr Daud will get us out on the return flight. Then we'll go to Denpasar or Djakarta and on to Singapore. We can phone the Austins from there and let them know we're coming -home together.'

  Home together ... home together . it was a benediction. High in the distance the crater of Fire Mountain smoked like a blazing cauldron with long glowing ribbons of orange and black lava. So beautiful—so lethal. Amelia shuddered. He caught her in his arms and lifted her face, kissing her until she forgot the awesome sight.

  Presently he said huskily : 'For the second and last time—marry me?'

  `Yes, of course—you know I will.'

  `Do I? You turned me down pretty convincingly once ! '

  `That was different.' She drew away and stood a little apart. 'When you suddenly proposed you threw me into such a muddle ! ' She shrugged helplessly. `I knew I was in love with you soon after we met, Don, but you gave no sign of thinking of me that way. You were stern and made me nervous ... talking about compatibility, and security, about not indulging in romantic nonsense. I felt so drab and

  inadequate—loving you so much, I c-couldn't accept.'

  `God ! I bungled it even more than I imagined!' His arms went round her, bringing the length of him hard against her back. 'It didn't take me long to discover the empathy between us either—and how very gentle and subdued you were, Over the months you became an essential part of my life.' He laid his cheek on her head. 'I loved you, wanted you, Amelia, but you were always so damnably reserved and self-possessed, as if you'd built a little wall around yourself with a No Trespassers sign ! I couldn't gauge your feelings, and had no encouragement to show mine. One look from those calm, moss-brown eyes set me at a distance for days !'

  She said diffidently, 'Was that why you never—well—'

  He raised his head. 'Made a pass at you?' he supplied quizzically. 'Yes, you'll never know the discipline it took ! —but I dared not risk losing you. I had to have you, my darling, on any terms. I thought that if I could get you away from the Manor House and all the unhappy associations, I might be able to awaken you and teach you to love me. I thought you would find it more acceptable if I made a practical proposition, not too demanding, and hoped that a child would bring us closer. And I had to give you the option of being rid of me if it hadn't worked out after a couple of years.'

  `Oh, Don,' she struggled round and buried her face in his shoulder.

  `Oh, Don ! —is that all you can say after what

  you've put me through?' he said tautly. 'You claim you were in love with me from the start, yet you behaved like a conscientious robot when I was ill! Do I sound rather—ungrateful? It seemed like the end when you walked out and left me flat because you didn't trust me.'

  `No,' she quivered. 'I couldn't trust myself to stay ... I was miserable for weeks, and when you came down to the Manor House, so violently angry with me, nothing mattered any more—nothing. I even kept away from Polly for fear of meeting you. I couldn't bear you to look at me and treat me as though I were a stranger.'

  But the night of the dinner?—God! that's another world from this—You'd changed—something had changed. .I could sense it, but Max Hall was around, and I thought you were trying to get back at me for my behaviour at the Manor House.'

  had changed ! ' she retorted. 'It was something Marguerite said—it's not—it's not important now,' she put in hastily. Tut it made me see things differently, Don. I made up my mind that I'd marry you, if you would still have me—whether you loved me or not. And I longed to tell you. As for Max,' she moved with a little dismissive gesture, 'he's an amusing companion, I saw a lot of him, but I knew he could never mean anything to me. I belonged to you. He can be malicious sometimes, and he was a bit jealous that night ...'

  `That
made two of us ! I wanted to kick him out of the place ! '

  She said in a muffled voice, 'I thought you were

  furious with him over Marguerite.'

  He stiffened. 'My dear, sweet idiot, where did you get hold of that idea?'

  `Oh, just something I heard,' she murmured vaguely.

  `That old story!' He groaned and went on wryly : `When we were youngsters, Bill and I, we both protected her, took her around with us. Because she was Bill's sister, we were inevitably paired off, and it was flattering to show her off to my friends—the devoted little acolyte! So beautiful— beautiful and brainless. I was fond of her, I suppose, and people jumped to conclusions. But I had no intention of being tied down, and when it came to the choice between Sarava or Marguerite, I chose Sarava. Do you think I still have designs on Tom Anderson's wife?'

  His arms tightened punishingly, crushing her ribs, making the blood pound in her throat. Marguerite and Max—and everything else—were irrelevancies while she stood in this bruising circle where she had yearned to be. Donovan raked his fingers through her hair and tugged her face up to his. `To hell with the lot of them,' he said succinctly.

  She had dreaded the thought that Sarava would separate them instead it had brought them together. With a surge of happiness she gave herself up to the urgent possession of his lips.

  There would be other rapturous moments of absolute surrender and intimacy with him, but Amelia would remember, for the rest of her life, how they had found each other in the shadow of Fire Mountain.