by Mariska
.Virginia turned from the flowers with a smile, and then paused, for Neville had appeared, tall and thin in khaki drill, leaning against the doorway, looking in at her.
"Hello, there," he said noncommittally. "Practising housewifery?"
She answered him with reserve. "What are you doing here so early in the day? Your party doesn't start till seven."
"I've finished all I can do at Amanzi, and thought I might as well spend my last day peacefully, near the Falls. I leave at dawn tomorrow." A pause. "You'll be glad to see me go, won't you?"
She shrugged. "To admit that would be to admit your importance."
"Which wouldn't do at all. The smile suits you. You should wear it more often. I suppose you're pleased that Fernando's due back." His nod indicated the flowers. "You've done him proud; I hope he'll thank you in the way you want. You know, Virginia, I've once or twice promised myself a showdown with you before I leave the district, but I realise now that it wouldn't get either of us anywhere. You do know why we're so antagonistic to each other, don't you?"
"Of course. We're both after the same things, but my backbone happens to be much stiffer than yours."
"Being so wise, you probably also know that stiff things snap. I think your breaking-point will come if Fernando doesn't marry you."
"Don't be silly." She was very calm and disinterested.
"I'm naturally intrigued because, believe it or not, I've occasionally fancied myself in love with you."
She gave him a hasty glance, and for just a second or two seemed to be nonplussed. His attitude was so casual, though, that she was able to tilt her chin and reply without any particular shade of expression. "Good heavens, how touching!" Her tones had hardened slightly. "What have you to offer a woman?"
"That's just it," he said, his inflection very faintly metallic. "I haven't much to offer, but then, on the whole, neither have you. Oh, yes," as she drew a sharp breath, "you're very beautiful and worldly, but don't you think that's rather a bald statement of assets? There's no innate goodness in you, and you never aim to please anybody unless you're out for gain. Maybe you'll marry Fernando, but you'll never love him, because you'll never love anyone, but Virginia Norton."
His bid to rouse her succeeded. She took a pace towards him, her green eyes angry, her lips compressed. "Do you mind if I go now?"
"What, defeated?" He sounded derisive. "You can take me home with you. I want a word with Lesley."
She stood very still. He straightened, and for the first time came right into the room. Something in that stillness of hers made him stand facing her and stare into her eyes. "You haven't heard?" she said jerkily.
"Haven't heard what?"
"She's gone back to England."
Neville was silent, and utterly incredulous. She averted her head. At last he let out a short breath. "I see." His anger was much greater than hers had been a moment ago. "You didn't mean me to hear, did you, till now? You knew I wouldn't have let her go! You turned her out, Virginia —took advantage of your position in your father's house to get rid of her before Fernando returned."
"Stop it! I won't have you speak to me like that."
"You won't?" He gave her a grating laugh. "You're asking for trouble, and I believe this time you're going to get it. You're jealous of her. I warned her about you but she was so entirely loyal that she wouldn't have me speak against you."
"I won't listen!"
"But if I'd imagined for a moment you'd go to such lengths—getting her out of the country and permanently away from your father—I'd have gone to Mr. Norton himself. I wonder what he'd say to anyone who told him that his eldest daughter's feeling for him could be exactly weighed against pounds sterling?"
She was dragging fiercely in his grip, her teeth clenched and a furious tear coursing down each cheek. "You'll be sorry for this !" she panted. "If you were so fond of Lesley, why didn't you marry her and take her away? I know you shy at that sort of responsibility but you wouldn't have had to worry. My father would have footed the bills .. ."
She broke off with a brief scream as his fingers tightened on her wrist. "That's about all it needed," he said grimly. "I'm exceedingly grateful to you, Virginia. As I mentioned before, I used, on occasion, to fancy myself in love with you. I shan't do it again."
He thrust her away from him, and she staggered. The next moment she was weeping, "Fernando! Oh, Fernando!" and had rushed into the arms of the man who stood in the porch. Fernando's face was tight, his expression
demanding. Automatically he had put a protective arm about Virginia, but he was staring over the top of the corn-coloured, silky head at his cousin. "By heavens!" he exclaimed. "What is this, Neville?"
By the time Neville was able to speak, Virginia was weeping uncontrollably against Fernando's chest, and it seemed pointless to defend himself. Fernando glared at him. "I think you had better go!"
They heard his car shudder over the loose stones and gain speed. And then Virginia pleaded a headache and said she would return home. She persuaded Fernando to come for lunch, and set off, well pleased with herself.
IT was around one o'clock when the small plane came down at Manassa, a deserted region east of the large airport where they were to catch the
English plane. It was not till the six passengers were getting ready to disembark that they were told it was more or less a forced landing. "Sorry, folks," the pilot told them. "Technical trouble, and I daren't go farther with lives in my hands. I contacted the airport and gave them my bearings, so we should be picked up soon."
Except for the grilling heat, which he couldn't help, the pilot had chosen a perfect spot for a forced landing. There was a wide and apparently endless strip of grass, edged on one side by an equally endless belt of jungle, and sloping gradually on the other into a shallow valley where a river meandered.
Hathern, who during the trip had taken it upon himself to see that Lesley was provided with coffee and magazines, was now very quiet. He asked the air hostess only one question: "Will they hold up the English plane for us?" And the answer, "Bound to, for a few hours," seemed partially to satisfy him.
Lesley knew he was going home to a wife who had suddenly fallen seriously ill, and she wished with all her heart that there were something she could do for him.
At last a small plane was sighted and frantically signalled to. In due course it landed not two hundred yards away, and though the passengers by this time were excitable with relief, the pilots were very cool and businesslike. It was the air hostess who brought the news. "I'm sorry, but this plane can only take five, and I'm instructed to go as one of them."
"The women and children must go," said Hathern.
She nodded. "Very well, the two women and children."
`Will this plane make the connection for England?" asked Lesley. "Yes, we're leaving right away for that purpose."
"I'm staying and you're going," said Lesley firmly to Hathern. "But I can't possibly leave you here."
"They'll come back for us. It won't matter a bit if I have to spend two or three days waiting for the next English plane."
Time was too short for much argument, and he was almost thrust into the plane. It went off like a bird, sprinkled with gold dust from the setting sun. Before it had entirely disappeared, the pilot of the disabled plane had brewed tea, and given Lesley a steaming mug. It was later, after darkness
had fallen, that he informed her it was unlikely they would be picked up before dawn.
AT the Falls, during Fernando's absence, some minor troubles had arisen at the powerhouse, and he had decided that before lunching with the
Nortons he would weigh up the difficulties which had to be dealt with. He gave a few instructions, made notes, and drove back home to change. In his lounge he found Neville helping himself to a whisky-and-soda. When his cousin filled a second glass he took it from him, tasted the drink, and leaned back on the table, his eyes shrewd. "I am glad you did not leave hurriedly. I realise very clearly how you were feeling when I fou
nd you with Virginia, but she was so upset that I was angry."
Neville lifted his shoulders. "That's all right; you had propriety and the law on your side. But I wasn't trying to make love to her, if that's what you thought."
"No?" A cool direct glance accompanied the monosyllable. "It looked uncommonly like it, my friend."
"You'd be wrong. What I felt for Virginia wasn't love as you know it, and at the moment when you came in it was already on its deathbed."
There was a silence. Fernando was looking out through the doorway and Neville's jaded glance rested upon him speculatively. Was it possible that this Kalindi job really was getting him down? It was unlike Fernando to show even a hint of strain, but there was certainly a difference in him just lately, and it was even more noticeable today since his return. Had Virginia anything to do with it? Did Fernando want the woman in spite of his better judgment?
Fernando swung round from the window. "I have promised to have lunch with Mr. Norton, so I must change. By the way, when did you last see Lesley?"
"Not for some time, unfortunately. I wish I had, then perhaps I could make head or tail of all this. It must have been a· put-up job."
Fernando turned swiftly upon his cousin. "Please explain what you are talking about!"
Neville stared up for a moment at his cousin's dark face. "Virginia didn't tell you?"
"Tell me what? I demand to know at once!"
"It's Lesley. She's gone to England."
For a full minute Fernando was so still that Neville heard a fly smacking against the ceiling. Then the tall figure moved rapidly and almost automatically towards the door. "When did this happen?"
"This morning. She left by plane with Hathern."
Two minutes after he had left his own house, Fernando leapt up into the Norton's veranda and was confronting Edward Norton himself. "Is this true—what Neville tells me—that Lesley was sent off this morning in the plane?" Fernando asked at once. And, before any reply could be forthcoming, "Why did it happen—and with such suddenness?"
The older man's brows rose in faint astonishment. "When young people come to a decision they are always in a hurry to put it into effect. The plane was calling at Buenda. You see . . ."
"I do not see!" The atmosphere positively vibrated with Fernando's fury. "I will not believe for a moment that she wished to leave Africa."
Edward Norton had paled a little. "What's the matter with you, Fernando? Lesley has gone to England to take up the career she abandoned a couple of years ago."
"Did she beg for this opportunity?" snapped Fernando.
"No. We—Virginia and I—talked it over and put it to her. It seemed a pity to waste her talent for commercial art. Once she had decided to return to England, she was glad to be going so soon."
"And I will tell you why she was glad!" said Fernando, grimly. "All her life she has loved you above everyone else, and you do not need me to tell you that since you were first taken ill, nearly three years ago, she has put you first in her life. Yet now because you have another daughter to minister to your needs, you show her you do not want her here; you can do without her. Can you imagine how she has felt since realising that? That is the reason she was glad to be going to England!"
Edward Norton did not defend himself; indeed, he could not have done so. Thinly, he said, "How does it become your business, Fernando?"
"That does not matter. The child was grieved over the death of the young man Boland; she needed sympathy and understanding, not to be sent away to fight her way through alone. You have failed her!"
Very slowly the other said, "I know, but I had no choice. Lesley's hurt is not really deep, but Virginia . . ."
As if there were a magic in the name to summon her, Virginia stepped out into the veranda. Obviously she had heard much of their conversation, for her face was pale and her lips tight, but she spoke with a determined lightness. "You came early, Fernando. All the better; we can have a leisurely drink."
"I am afraid there is no time for that," he said brusquely. "I will have some food at my own house while I change."
She whitened. "What on earth do you mean?"
"You must pardon me, I really have no time to discuss it further."
He was moving away when she cried, "What are you going to do?"
"I am going to England—by plane if I can. Perhaps you will write on a slip of paper the names of a few likely hotels she might choose; I will send a boy for it." Looking straight at Edward Norton he said, "I am going to bring Lesley back."
IN normal circumstances a large African city is a revelation to anyone
visiting the country for the first time. The wide thoroughfares and
elegant buildings, the proud displays in the stores, and the number of good
hotels, combine to make the cities of that huge continent the equal of any
in the world. Almost anyone could be happy in such a place. The fact that
Lesley wasn't cast no reflection on the town. She toured the streets detachedly. At the end of her first day she wondered how she was going to live through the next three days. She went to bed within her mosquito-net, and lay listening to the city sounds which were different from others she had heard in Africa.
Mid-morning she had a telephone call from the travel agent. "Some good news for you, Miss Norton," he said. "It you wish, you may leave for England this afternoon. Unexpectedly there is a plane calling here. It is not one of ours, but as you have been so inconvenienced we will make the arrangements."
When she reached the airport she found the officials stretching as they came from siesta. The one to whom she spoke regarded her with some curiosity. "You are not afraid of going in the small plane, Miss Norton?"
"I did not know it was to be a small one, but I'm not afraid."
"It is very fast, and he is a devil in the air, this Paul Petout."
"That should make the trip interesting."
A plane became audible, and cruised over the grass, dangerously close to the hangars. A brilliant yellow thing with red wing-tips, it slid along to a halt no more than twenty yards from where she stood, and the engine cut out.
Then, in the brilliant sunshine, Lesley went cold and clammy, and her chest tightened so painfully that she could hardly breathe. Two men were clambering down over the yellow wings : the swarthy and merry Belgian, and a tall man with dark hair and an expression both grim and diabolically determined on his dear, familiar face.
Fernando saw Lesley. The shock of astonishment was so sudden that he paused in his stride, only to lengthen his pace the next moment and crush her arms with his hands. The dark eyes blazed questions, and at last he said, "Gran ciclo! It is really you. I can feel it is you!"
"Fernando," she whispered. And as if a spring had been released, she was feeling again—Fernando's nearness and the excruciating bite of his fingers into the soft flesh of her upper arms. Her heart began a wild song, half of elation and half of fear.
A sly, smiling voice said, "Come, Señor del Cuero! Do not tell me that already we have come to the end of our journey."
Fernando spared a glance for the other man. One of his hands dropped, and the other gripped Lesley's elbow. "You will not be the Riser, Paul, my friend," he said. "Is there perhaps a room here where we could have privacy?"
Paul Petout gave an apologetic lift of the shoulders, though a wicked glint shone in his dark eyes. "There is a guest-house. But over there is the car of one of my friends. I know he will be enchanted to lend it to you for half an hour, if you will surrender your passport for that time," came the debonair reply.
Fernando put Lesley into the front seat of the car, and drove out along the deserted road for about five minutes. Then he deliberately nosed the car between a couple of saplings and braked.
He turned and looked at her. "I have found you," he said, quite coolly but not very steadily. "You were not at the airport for the purpose of meeting me, were you? It was as much a shock to you as to me? I could hardly believe my own eyes! Tell me
what happened—how you come to be here."
"Hadn't you heard we were forced to land at a place called Manassa?"
"No!" He had so far kept a foot or so of space between them, but now he shifted quickly and took one of her hands between his. "That was a dreadful experience," he said. "You were scared, carissima?"
Lesley's blood raced; it coloured her pale cheeks and put stars in her eyes. Would he have called her "dearest" like that, if .. .
"It . . . it wasn't that sort of forced landing," she managed. "I think one of the engines failed, and the pilot thought it safer to come down. There was no damage of any kind." She paused, then said with a catch in her voice and a tremulous smile, "I let Mr. Hathern take my place in the other plane."
"You did not want to go?" he asked. She hesitated, and he added, "Answer me honestly! Were you unhappy at leaving Africa?"
Almost below her breath she said, "What do you want me to say?"
He did not reply to that one. His arm went round her and he pulled her to him. That long brown hand of his closed over the back of her head, pressing her face to his shoulder. With an odd, savage inflexion he said, "I am sorry. I did not mean to do this, but such a situation becomes easier to manage this way. For two days I have been distracted, so that at the moment I can only feel a tremendous gratitude that you are here, close to me and safe."
In a sort of delirium she felt his mouth at her temple, warm and urgent. She could hardly breathe against the linen jacket, but she did not care. These were Fernando's arms; it was his breath against her forehead. But presently his hold slackened. "Neville is right," he said. "It is the devil for one like me to be in love. I cannot play it as a game—it means too much. Some day, when you are in love with me, too, I shall begin to enjoy it."
"But Fernando," she pushed back and looked up at him, "I do love you. It's been so difficult . . ."
"Does a woman fly away from the man she loves?" he demanded. "No. You have liked me a little and hated me a great deal, but you do not yet know how love can ravage and pain, how it can turn a sane man into a thing of passions and needs. But love will come to you."