effort to break free of his gaze and turn abruptly to look across the terrace. Avril and Philippe had disappeared, doubtless to explore the beautifully laid out garden of the Caravanserai, and suddenly a wave of bitterness surged over Melissa. Her sister really was the limit. She hadn't even the decency to return to the table and be sociable. After all, Raoul was their host, and she was his employee.
She started as he spoke.
'It isn't real, you know.'
'What isn't?' asked Amorel.
He smiled at the dreaminess still patent in her eyes. 'The magical air of romance that is arousing such frustrated envy in your hearts.'
Melissa noticed the plural. She said coldly, hadn't noticed it.'
It was a feeble response, and she knew it.
`No, because the main ingredient is missing. I'm sorry,' he said smoothly, do not care to see two such unhappy faces, but what can I do? I cannot take you both out into that moonlight and murmur the endearments I'm quite sure Philippe is murmuring at this moment.'
For a moment Amorel stared at his lean, mocking features and she seemed to be hovering between laughter and tears. The first might have won, had not Raoul added, 'And I'm sure it's not from me you want to hear them.'
Amorel's mouth twisted. 'Raoul, you're a beast! You've a heart of stone. You make it all seem horrible and—and not true.'
'It isn't true. That is what I'm trying to tell you. Why is it that a woman can be so easily blinded by the
trappings of love? She must have the artifices, the assurances, she must don her artifices of dress and glamour, then she is ready to play her part in the meaningless pleasantries of flirtation. Why?'
'Because that's how we find out about each other,' said Amorel sadly. `It's part of falling in love, and the trappings, as you call them, are not artifices at all; they're defence, until we find out the reality behind them.'
'So that you hide your heart?' The question was directed at Amorel, but the accompanying glance strayed to the silent Melissa. 'The more I think of it the more I'm convinced that you make it a game.'
'That's the way we play it.'
'Experiment, you mean. You have become very English in your outlook, ma petite.'
'And you've become very autocratic.' Amorel was beginning to look decidedly fed up. 'You're about as romantic as—as ...' a suitable epithet eluded her and she ended with a sigh of exasperation while Raoul burst out laughing.
'What's the joke?'
Avril and Philippe arrived and looked curiously at the trio. No one chose to respond, and Avril sank gracefully on to one of the little scarlet cushioned white chairs. 'It's a heavenly night. It's a shame to leave it.'
'Why should we?' Philippe's eyes seemed to convey a secret.
But Avril gave a small shake of her head and by tacit consent the party prepared to return to Kadir. It was a silent two-hour journey through the silver spangled night and no one seemed inclined to linger
for small talk when they reached the house. Amorel went off to her room with only the briefest of goodnights and Melissa, aware of feeling in much the same mood as the younger girl, did the same.
She showered and donned a wrap, then stood uncertainly by the edge of the bed. The lassitude she had felt during the drive back had vanished and she felt so wide-awake she knew she would never sleep. Stillness had descended on the house and a sense of unutterable loneliness pervaded her spirit. Restlessly she wandered out on the terrace and leaned against the open grille.
She had felt so delighted when Philippe arrived out of the blue; and how quickly that delight had dissipated. Now she knew indifference to his departure tomorrow. If she never met Philippe again it wouldn't matter. All she wanted at the moment was to turn her back on them all, Avril included, and return to normality. And by this time next week she should be back. The day of Amorel's birthday was very near. Once it was over the need for her sister's presence here would be over as well, and so would her own enforced stay.
Melissa straightened, about to move back into her room, then stiffened as a whisper of voices came to her hearing. Along the terrace two shadows moved into view under the faint spill of lamplight from one of the other windows.
Melissa's first impulse was to move quickly, but awkwardness and the instinctive wish not to be seen kept her motionless. Her expression dispassionate she waited for Avril and Philippe to move on and continue their extended farewells in privacy. She could see the
misty folds of Avril's gauzy stole and hear the murmurs of her voice, although she could not distinguish what Avril was saying. Then Avril moved towards the garden and half turned towards her companion holding out her hands as though pleading for something, and Melissa recognised her companion. It was not Philippe, it was Raoul.
He said something, and Melissa got the impression of an argument in progress, then Avril laughed softly, the note of triumph quite discernible, and swayed forward. The two shadows merged into one, stayed one, and a quivering sigh escaped Melissa.
Uncaring whether she betrayed her presence or not, she ran into her room and drew the grille closed with an agitated movement. She flung off her wrap and scrambled into bed, and the soft rays of the lamp caught her small trembling mouth as she fumbled for the switch.
She lay stiff and straight and stared up into the darkness. At that moment she hated the whole world, and most of all she hated her own sister and Raoul Germont.
The sense of depression lay on her like a dull cloud when she awakened the following morning. Full wakefulness came and brought memory to life, and she turned over, nuzzling her face into the pillow. She lay like that for a long time, trying to overcome her reluctance to make the first move towards facing the new day.
Presently she stirred and reached out instinctively
for her watch, only to check the movement and swear impatiently under her breath. The first thing she was going to do when she got back to sanity was to buy a new watch. Sanity! Well, she'd been the idiot all along, hadn't she? Chasing after a sister who could manage her own life to her own complete satisfaction if to no one else's, landing herself here in a place which, while undoubtedly out of this world, in essentials was a prison—if she had made any further efforts to leave would Raoul have stopped her?—and letting its infuriating owner get under her skin ... Would he have stopped her ...? It was a question she did not care to reflect on, nor did she care to reflect too deeply on Raoul Germont himself. It aroused altogether too intense a turmoil of resentment; it also made her feel so miserable she wanted to throw things . . .
She sat up jerkily and flung back the covers. A few days would soon pass, and she would never set foot in Morocco again! There wasn't even any morning tea today! She was padding back from the bathroom when the tea in question arrived, brought by, of all people, an Avril who looked remarkably and uncharacteristically full of joie de vivre for that time of morning.
Melissa responded to the blithe greeting with an equally uncharacteristic dourness and Avril grinned at her. 'Cheer up.'
'Bring me a bucket of sand and I'll sing you the Desert Song.' A snag in her tights spread into a hole and she swore violently as she yanked it off again. `What's making you so chirrupy this morning?' she added grumpily.
I don't think you're in the right frame to hear that.
Hang on—drink your tea while I fetch you a new
Pair:
Avril pranced off and Melissa stared wide-eyed at the door. Avril being helpful! She reached for the tea and wondered if her sister was feeling quite well. But after her little fling with Philippe she was bound to be feeling restored to power, especially after rounding off the night with a little romantic dalliance in the moonlight with Raoul. And much good may it do her ! Melissa grumbled to herself.
She was somewhat taken aback when Avril returned and handed over a pair of nylons and also the sheerest most cobwebby tights Melissa had seen.
'Take them. I've enough to see me through till I get back,' said Avril carelessly, waving away Melissa's astonis
hed thanks.
Melissa tucked the cobwebs carefully back into their gold envelope and looked up into her sister's face. There was something behind that nonchalance and the trace of intentness was becoming more apparent. 'What do you want?' she asked suspiciously.
'Nothing really, except ...' Avril sat down on the bed. 'You did arrange with Raoul to stay until Amorel's birthday was over, didn't you?'
'Arrange isn't quite the word,' Melissa said dryly, 'but that was the general idea Raoul managed to put over.'
Avril grinned at the note of irony. 'Past history. It's all over bar the shouting—don't know what he made all the fuss about. Still, it's been worth it.'
`Has it?
Avril decided to let this pass. want you to do me a favour, Lissa.'
'I thought you did.' Melissa stood up and crossed to the mirror. Through it she watched Avril's expression flicker with uncertainty. 'Go on.'
'I want to go back to Casa with Philippe this morning. We talked about it yesterday. It was his idea. And he wants me to have my job back with him. They're going to open a bigger branch—in Rabat—and Philippe will be taking it over. Isn't it super? He says we'll be meeting all sorts of important people and entertaining the top set. It's a super opportunity ...'
'Just a minute.' Melissa continued to brush her hair. 'You haven't finished this job yet. And what about your cruise?'
Avril made a face at the sarcastic tone of her sister's query, then shrugged. 'I can always have that later. Would you mind, Lissa, if I hopped today?'
Melissa swung round and gave a sigh of exasperation. 'You know perfectly well that you'll go, whatever I say, so why ask? But you can't.' A trace of satisfaction crept into her tone. 'Hadn't you better ask Raoul first?'
`Oh, I have !'
Melissa started. The small sense of satisfaction was short-lived. 'And he said yes?'
'Like a lamb.'
Lamblike ! Raoul! Melissa turned back to her brushing. 'I'm delighted to hear it. Congratulations! I'd better start packing.'
'Oh no. You can't. That's just ...'
'Can't? If you're going back with Philippe this morning I'm going to be in that car as well.'
Avril shut her eyes tight and shook her head. 'I knew you'd say that. Please, Lissa, don't be difficult.
You see, that was Raoul's condition. He said I could go, provided that you would stay with Amorel until Monday. After that he's taking her back to Casa, and you as well, naturally.' Avril paused. said you would.'
'You said I . . . You've got a nerve!'
`But you've nothing to rush back for. It's only for a few days.'
'If it's only for a few days why can't you stay yourself ?'
`I've just told you. Anyway, it's pointless for both of us to stay now.' Avril gestured. 'It's only for Amorel's sake, to keep her company. You needn't worry about that other business. That was our idea, you know, just after we met, and we sold it to Raoul.'
'Changing identities, you mean?' Melissa reflected that her sister was being unusually expansive.
`Mm, it seemed a lark, with our names sounding a bit alike if you say them quickly. Raoul looked down his nose at first, then a couple of days later he asked me if I was serious, would I go through with it for a few weeks and keep it a secret, not even tell Sonia, and he would .
'Sonia? Is that . ..?'
'An American, she spends half the year here. I got to know her somewhere, I forget where, and I met Amorel at her place a couple of days after Amorel flew over. She's a very old friend of Raoul's.'
'Sonia is?'
'A very close friend.' Avril's eyes caught the flicker of Melissa's expression. 'You'd like her.'
'Would I?' Melissa sat down rather suddenly. 'Well, the answer's no. If you leave I leave. I don't see
why I should finish off your job for you while you go off on the razzle with Philippe.'
'Jealous?'
'Of you and Philippe? Not in the least. It's the principle of the thing, after all I ...' Melissa drew a deep breath. 'No.'
Avril grimaced. 'Raoul said you'd refuse. Oh, have a heart. All my persuasion gone to waste.'
'What did you expect it to do?'
'I'm not sure.' Avril grinned, as though at a sudden flash of memory. don't know what Raoul expected last night. I think he concluded I was inviting him to seduce me. You know, that man definitely has hidden talent. But he didn't seem to take me seriously.'
'What are you talking about?' Melissa turned her head sharply.
'Raoul, last night. When I asked him if he'd let me off the last few days.'
'Last night ... In the garden,' Melissa said slowly. 'That was what . ..?'
`Did you see?' Avril giggled. 'Anyway, it worked. Like a charm. You should always try charm before temper, my dear little sister. You'd be surprised how it works. With men, of course.'
'No doubt. You never waste it on women, though, do you?' Nevertheless, some of the tartness had ebbed out of Melissa's tone. Her face grew thoughtful; certain things—one thing, at least—were coming clearer, and she could not help thinking that she might have seen Raoul in a totally different light had her sister been a little more frank a bit sooner.
While she pondered, Avril exclaimed : wish you'd change your mind. Honestly, I'm sorry about all the
misunderstanding at the beginning. I realise now that it must have worried you a lot to make you kick up the fuss you did. But I feel sorry for Amorel,' she added with apparent inconsequence. 'There's no one here for her, except Raoul, and I think at heart she's a bit scared of him. She's scared he's going to start ordering her life about in future, and she hasn't got a clue what's going to happen to her. She likes you.'
'But I can't do anything for her, even though I would if it were possible.'
'No, but at least she'd have someone to confide in until the business is settled next week.'
'You're very understanding, all of a sudden.' Melissa sighed, aware that the doubts and mixed loyalties Amorel was experiencing were very real.
'It suits me to be understanding.' Avril shrugged. 'If you won't do it for me maybe you'll do it for her.'
'All right. I'll stay,' Melissa said at last, and received a joyous embrace from Avril, all smiles now that she was getting her own way.
But Melissa could not help experiencing a stab of foreboding when the farewells were said and Avril was borne away in Philippe's car. She glanced at Raoul as they turned to go indoors and to the foreboding was added a sense of depression. If she had expected him to show some sign of pleasure at her compliance she was doomed to disappointment for his expression was cool and remote as ever.
He disappeared after midmorning coffee, leaving the two girls to amuse themselves, and shortly after this Amorel complained of a headache. She picked at her lunch, looking so wan and depressed that Melissa forgot her own lacklustre feelings.
'Take some aspirins and lie down for a while,' she suggested.
`It's so hot and airless today,' Amorel said fretfully when she was settled in her room with the shutters closed against the fierce brassy rays of the sun.
It was extremely hot, Melissa had to admit, watching the younger girl with sympathetic eyes. She smiled. pass off once the evening cool sets in.'
But it didn't. The following day Amorel was still pale and listless and complaining of malaise, and Melissa could not dismiss the impression that Amorel was fretting about something. Raoul, when told that morning, insisted that she rest and stay in her room, and before he departed to visit the plantation said to Melissa : 'It is the heat. I don't think there's anything wrong with her. However, if you think there is cause for alarm I'll send Mahmoud to bring the doctor.'
With that he departed and Melissa, still uneasy, returned to Amorel. He might have shown a little more concern, she thought. For all they knew Amorel might have picked up an infection.
She looked at the untouched lunch tray and then at Amorel's miserable little face. 'What's worrying you?' she asked. 'Are you sure it's just a headache?'
> Amorel nodded. 'It's just that I ... Oh, I don't know what's the matter with me. I just want Monday to be over.'
'Your birthday? What will happen then?'
'The lawyers will come. There'll be formalities and things. I have to produce evidence of identification, and then .. .' she sighed, 'we're going back to Casa. But I wish I knew what's going to happen after that. I ...' she sighed again and turned her head away.
'You want to go back to England?'
'At the moment, yes. I'd give anything to be back. It's not that I don't like it here. It's just that I hate the idea of having to make my home here. I want to be free to go back home, or come here as I please. I don't want to have to choose one or the other.'
'Perhaps you won't have to choose.'
'That's what Avril said. But Raoul is my trustee here and he can stop me. Unless I give up my inheritance.'
'Is it so terribly important to you?'
'At first I thought it was marvellous.' Amorel sat up and brushed a wisp from her brow. 'But now I'm not so sure. If it was only for myself ... But everybody hates the idea of Uncle Jules getting it all. He's an awful man. I've never met him, but according to all the family accounts he doesn't care about anything but himself My grandfather helped him out of trouble time and time again when he was young. Then he married a young widow and took over her husband's business in Marseilles and within two years he was bankrupt. Grandfather set him up again, mainly because of his wife and two young children, and said it was the last time, he was disowning him. After that we never heard anything more of him, until Grandfather died and Uncle Jules came to see if there was anything for him.'
Amorel lapsed into silence and stared into space. There was nothing Melissa could say; certainly it was not for her to offer advice or attempt to sway Amorel towards any decision she might later regret. Presently Amorel stirred, and reached for a drink of water. She made a face and set down the glass after only one sip.
The house of the Amulet Page 11