Dangerous Friendship

by Anne Hampson

  ‘With… whom?’ he prompted coolly.

  She blinked in the darkness.

  ‘Isn’t Magda here?’ she asked in some bewilderment.

  ‘No,’ briefly and still in the same cool accents.

  ‘You’re expecting her, though,’ she said impulsively. ‘And I don’t want to intrude.’

  ‘If I hadn’t wanted you I’d not have agreed to the steward’s request that I take you on board,’ he told her with a hint of impatience. ‘If one can’t accommodate one’s friends then it’s a very poor business indeed.’

  ‘Friends…’ She did not mean to murmur the word aloud, nor did she mean him to see the dreamy expression in her eyes. But at that moment the floodlights flared on, and she found herself caught in the light. Her dress was blowing in the breeze, the hem coming up a little too far for her comfort. Kane laughed as she stooped to catch it before too much of her underwear was revealed. ‘I expect you’re thinking I should have worn trousers,’ she said unsteadily, thinking of June’s far more suitable attire.

  ‘On the contrary,’ smiled Kane, ‘I was thinking how well that dress becomes you.’

  Flushing with pleasure, Lena lifted a smiling face to his.

  ‘Thank you for the compliment, Kane. As a matter of fact, I rather felt that it wasn’t quite right—as there’s a dance afterwards, that is.’ The flurry of the breeze having died, she let go of the hem.

  ‘It’s very right.’ His dark eyes looked it over again, and then his attention was on her face; tense moments passed, with all the activity going on around them unnoticed either by him or her. The launch swayed slightly and his hand reached for hers; he told her in his quiet voice to be careful that she did not fall. ‘I don’t want to make a habit of rescuing you from the river,’ he added in some amusement.

  She laughed at this, marvelling at her total lack of embarrassment at the reminder of his activities on that day. Looking back now, his helping her into the bath seemed the most natural thing in the world, simply because it was a necessity at that particular time.

  ‘Is Magda coming?’ This just had to be said, but the words came slowly—and painfully. How wonderful it would be, Lena was thinking, if there were only Kane and herself, sailing on these smooth romantic waters.

  ‘She should be along directly.’ The tone was confident; Lena’s spirits sank right into her feet. ‘Sit down,’ invited Kane, pulling forward a padded stool. So, even here, Magda was following her normal practice and making a late appearance. So absurd, decided Lena contemptuously. Who would notice her in all the activity and excitement that was going on all around?

  ‘The race will soon start, baas.’ One of Kane’s boys was at the controls; Lena saw the flash of white teeth as he spoke. He was obviously anxious to cast off. Kane ignored him but took a frowning glance at the luminous dial of his wristwatch. Another five minutes passed; Wandering Dawn was now the only launch still moored to the jetty. Two or three minutes went by like an eternity; Lena tensed, praying that Magda would not come, Kane enigmatically silent until at last, his voice sharp and commanding, he told the boy to cast off.

  Glancing up into his face, Lena noted the set jaw, the compressed mouth, the cleft between his brows.

  Had Magda let him down deliberately? she wondered. She decided this was not the case. Magda had in fact intended to make a late entrance but that, this time, she had left it just a little too late. That the two had planned to be together this evening Lena did not doubt and, had Magda turned up in time, she would have been far from pleased at seeing Lena.

  What of Kane? Lena did wish she could read that inscrutable mask that was his face. He was standing up, staring ahead. Suddenly the race was on and the loudspeaker blared out from the bank as the yachts, white sails billowing, moved gracefully across the dark untroubled waters. The moon, low and yellow, became hidden by cloud, and then suddenly the breeze freshened to become a squally wind.

  ‘We’re in for some rain,’ said Lena in a rather troubled tone.

  ‘Not for a while,’ returned Kane knowledgeably. He sat down opposite her, his white jacket standing out against the darkness behind him. ‘You’re not cold?’ He sounded anxious, she thought, as his eyes took in the way the wind was teasing her hair.

  She shook her head, marvelling that she could feel so excited, so abounding with pleasure at being alone with him when she knew full well that it would all turn to pain when they returned to the clubhouse, and her place at Kane’s side would be taken by Magda.

  ‘No, I’m not in the least cold.’

  ‘Did you ride this morning?’ he asked conversationally, and she nodded her head, her eyes lighting up as they looked into his.

  ‘I ride almost every morning.’

  ‘You’re an early riser, obviously.’

  ‘Who wouldn’t be, here?’

  Kane’s smile was faint but friendly.

  ‘Apparently you share my view that the early morning is the best time of the day?’

  ‘It’s so cool and fresh, with the sun coming up from behind the mountains and filling the sky with colour.’

  His eyes flickered with an odd expression.

  ‘What time did you rise at home?’ he wanted to know.

  ‘Fairly early, though not as early as I do here.’

  ‘Because of course the sun isn’t up.’

  ‘Especially in the winter. It doesn’t come light until eight o’clock.’ She brushed the hair from her face, grimacing as the wind blew it back instantly. ‘Here, one could have a day’s work done by that time.’

  ‘Plus an energetic ride on a horse,’ he teased.

  ‘That’s true. Kane,’ she added seriously, holding back her hair as she looked at him, ‘I do thank you for all you’ve done for me. The garden… well, I’d never have been able to afford all those plants and trees, and I’m sure Gerald wouldn’t either. Then the pony. I’m so lucky having her to ride—just as if she were my very own.’

  Kane hesitated a moment, then spoke with a certain measure of reserve.

  ‘You’d like to own Something Special?’ he queried, his eyes intently fixed on hers.

  ‘Own—!’ She looked at him with a startled expression. ‘How could that be?’ Was he suggesting she buy the pony? she wondered. It would appear so, she concluded and, in consequence, she added impulsively, ‘I couldn’t afford it, for one thing, and for another I don’t know how long I shall be staying here.’

  ‘I wasn’t trying to sell you the pony,’ he said, his glance half amused, half impatient. Lena said nothing and after a moment he asked, a sudden crease between his brows, ‘I understood that you’d decided to settle, having got the job with Mr Cookson?’

  She maintained her silence, strange unfathomable prickles running along her spine. For it did seem that in the low intonation of Kane’s voice she had detected a degree of anxiety… as if the last thing he wanted was for her to leave Africa.

  But why? She was his friend, that was true, but she was nothing more. He would not really miss her, simply because all meetings between them were casual, totally lacking any small measure of intimacy. The only times they met in response to a definite ‘date’ was when he came over to ride with her early in the morning. But this was certainly not a regular routine; far from it. Kane would come only on those occasions when, having met her at a dance, perhaps, the idea of riding with her would enter his head and he would say, on bidding her goodnight as she went over to the station wagon with her friends,

  ‘I’ll probably be over early tomorrow morning and take a ride with you.’

  ‘Didn’t you hear what I just said, Lena?’

  She glanced up swiftly as the question broke into her reverie.

  ‘About settling here?’

  ‘That’s right.’

  She paused a moment, uncertain as to how to phrase her words.

  ‘The post might not be permanent,’ she told him at last.

  ‘Not permanent?’ Kane looked at her closely for a second. ‘I don’t think I under
stand?’

  She swallowed several times, convulsively.

  ‘I have a feeling that I’m not considered wholly suitable by Mr Cookson.’

  The grey eyes glinted, but for a long moment he said nothing, compressing his lips as if holding back an angry retort. At length he said,

  ‘What reason have you for that assumption, Lena?’

  She shook her head.

  ‘It’s too difficult to explain, Kane.’ She looked across at him with a worried expression. ‘I’ve been in a bit of trouble lately and it’s resulted in my feeling insecure as regards the permanency of the job. After all,’ she added swiftly as he opened his mouth to question her again, ‘I’m not an experienced shop assistant, so I make mistakes.’

  Kane’s eyelids flickered sharply.

  ‘Do you make mistakes, Lena… or are you merely accused of making mistakes?’

  Another startled glance was shot at him.

  ‘What are you referring to, Kane?’

  ‘When I entered the shop the other day you were denying having-made a mistake,’ he reminded her smoothly.

  She nodded, but went on to say that, as far as Mr Cookson was concerned, she had made the mistake.

  ‘And so the black marks are piling up against me,’ she went on.

  ‘The blame on that occasion lay with Magda, I presume.’ So cool the words, so totally without emotion. It was difficult to believe that he was speaking about the girl whom—it was rumoured—he was going to marry.

  ‘She really believed I’d told her to come for the book on that particular day.’ Lena was most uncomfortable, because for one thing she was telling a deliberate lie, and for another she considered it wholly wrong for Magda to be discussed like this. It astounded her that Kane was not more reserved about the matter.

  Kane was about to speak again when the burst of cheering from the crowd on the bank conveyed the news that the race was over. She asked if they were going back to the jetty right away. She had no desire to return to the lights and the crowds; this interlude with Kane, on the river, with the floodlights having been turned off, was far too precious to terminate if there were any possibility at all of prolonging it.

  But Kane must be wanting to be with Magda…

  ‘Do you want to go back?’ He spoke slowly, and after a long moment of hesitation. Lena became strangely tensed, experiencing again the idea that he was battling within himself. If this were the case, then what was the reason? Kane was not the kind of man one would associate with doubt or uncertainty.

  ‘I could stay out here all night,’ she answered without thinking. ‘It’s so restful and—and—away from the world…’

  ‘All night?’ with an edge of amusement to his voice. ‘Now how am I to take that?’

  She laughed shakily, aware of the delicate colour rising in her checks.

  ‘You know what I mean,’ she managed at length. ‘It was merely a figure of speech.’

  The boy wanted to know what he must do. Kane, after another hesitation, told him to leave the motor switched off.

  ‘Tell me,’ he said after the launch had been drifting for a space, ‘if this job at the bookshop does happen to fold up what will you do? I mean, you won’t return to England at once, I take it?’

  ‘It might be the best thing to do.’ A sudden dejection spread over her; it was something quite beyond her control, for she would have done anything to hold on to the happiness she had been experiencing this evening.

  ‘Those children,’ he frowned. ‘Will you take them again?’

  She gave a small sigh, her mind going back to the last letter she had received from the children’s aunt, It had arrived only three days ago and it had informed Lena once again that their aunt could not have them indefinitely.

  ‘Well?’ demanded Kane abruptly when she did not speak. It was as if he were impatient to know her intentions regarding those children.

  ‘I can’t answer you, Kane.’ She looked unhappily at him, wondering if he could see her in the darkness. The clouds had totally masked the moon and stars, and the sky was now looking angry and ominous. ‘If I don’t take them they’ll have to go into a home.’

  ‘Their aunt has them at present,’ he said, and the implication was apparent.

  ‘Yes, but she’s told me she can’t have them indefinitely.’

  Kane’s mouth compressed; she felt that he was exercising strong self-control in checking words that strove for utterance. She continued to look at him; his profile was to her now and even in the dimness its taut outline was visible. He swallowed, and as he did so the lamp from the mast shone on his face and Lena saw a nerve pulsate in the side of his cheek. He turned as if conscious of her stare; the expression in his eyes was strange, but too difficult for her to read. He was definitely fighting a battle within himself. This time Lena was in no doubt at all about it.

  ‘There seems to be only one thing for it,’ he said at last, ‘and that is that you must remain here.’

  He had said this on a previous occasion, she recalled, and its repetition left her in no doubt that he was concerned about her.

  ‘It’s very kind of you to bother,’ she said with a quivering smile. ‘But the decision will have to be mine entirely.’

  ‘There are other jobs to be obtained,’ he told her. ‘The fact that you might not be quite suitable for Mr Cookson doesn’t mean that you have no alternative other than to return to England.’ He paused a moment, glancing up at the ominous sky. ‘What do June and Gerald have to say about it?’

  ‘They don’t want me to leave.’

  His eyes flickered.

  ‘Then what’s your problem?’

  ‘I can’t sponge on them.’

  He nodded his head.

  ‘I know just how you feel.’

  ‘The other thing is,’ said Lena after some hesitation, ‘that even if I did decide to stay here permanently I shouldn’t want to live with anyone. I mean, I should want a place of my own.’

  ‘But you’re perfectly happy with your friends, surely?’

  ‘Of course. But it’s natural that I should want a little home of my own.’

  To her surprise a swift frown darkened his brow. But any comment he might have made was cut abruptly by the vivid flash of lightning which illuminated the launch and the water all around it.

  ‘All right,’ he said as the boy’s head appeared. ‘Let’s get back to the jetty.’

  A quarter of an hour later, with the first raindrops falling on their heads, they were entering the Club.

  ‘There you are!’ June came up to them at once. ‘How did you come to get yourself separated from us?’ She had not at first noticed that Lena was with Kane, but now she did, and she gave a visible start of surprise. That she was puzzled was obvious by the way her eyes flitted towards the bar—where Magda was. standing, surrounded by a group of admirers.

  ‘I wasn’t taking sufficient notice of where I was going,’ admitted Lena deprecatingly. ‘I was just beginning to feel rather lost and dejected when the steward found me again and took me to Kane’s launch.’

  “How convenient that you hadn’t moved off, Kane.’ June’s tone held an odd inflection.

  ‘Very.’ Kane’s gaze was directed towards the bar.

  ‘Did you have a bet on the winner?’ inquired Gerald, who had just joined them.

  ‘The winner?’ Lena looked blankly at him, then transferred her gaze to Kane. His lips were twitching. ‘I—we—didn’t…’ Both she and Kane burst out laughing, while June and Gerald merely stared, waiting for this bout of unexplained mirth to pass off.

  ‘Who won?’ queried Kane at last.

  ‘What,’ inquired June pointedly, ‘were you two doing out there on that launch?’

  ‘Talking,’ was Lena’s swift reply, and again she saw Kane’s lips twitch.

  ‘It must have been a jolly interesting subject,’ was June’s cool rejoinder.

  ‘I believe it was.’ Kane spoke non-committally, lifting a hand to suppress a yawn. He seemed bor
ed all at once and yet, scanning his face, Lena had the gathering suspicion that this boredom was assumed. His glance was lowered, to meet Lena’s eyes. The smile she gave him was spontaneous, born of the pleasure he had given her during the past hour and a half. She was not to know it, but it was the most disarming smile, and one which deeply affected its recipient. His glance straying to Magda, an inscrutable expression entered his eyes. ‘Please excuse me,’ he said with an abruptness that startled all three of his companions. ‘I’ll sec you later.’ And with that he strode away towards the bar. Lena’s spirits sank right down to the depths, yet she contrived to retain her smile as Rex, coming breezily up to her, asked her to dance.

  ‘What a race!’ he was exclaiming the next moment. ‘Did you have a flutter?’

  ‘No,’ she returned briefly, twisting her head to pick out Kane and his partner, who were just stepping on to the dance floor.

  ‘Good thing the storm kept off. It’s certainly sending it down now.’

  ‘It’s desperately needed.’ Lena’s eye caught that of Magda; there was something akin to venom on the girl’s beautiful face. Yet a dazzling smile transformed the features as, turning, Magda looked up into her partner’s face, and answered something he had said to her.

  ‘Magda watched the race from the veranda,’ Rex said, having noticed that Lena was looking at the girl. ‘She arrived just too late to catch Kane’s launch. I wouldn’t have thought he’d go off without her. However, I expect he was teaching her a lesson for always being late.’ A pause and then, ‘It couldn’t have been much fun for him, though, watching the race all by himself.’