The Man From Ti Kouka

by Rosalie Henaghan

  A familiar car pulled up outside the flat and she greeted her mother happily. She made her mother a drink and told her about Dan. Her mother smiled and told her daughter that happiness was shining out like a beacon on a black night.

  ‘Your father would have been pleased to see his two girls so happy. I know I am. Bring Dan over soon.’

  ‘Mother, no wonder Dad loved you!’ Trudi bent and kissed her mother, and after she left she realised that now she could see her own mother’s new happiness too.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  On Wednesday afternoon, after the sample range had been viewed, the atmosphere in Mr. Maugh’s office was one of mutual congratulation. The meeting had gone extremely well. All the garments selected were carrying their new numbers.

  ‘Before you go home, Trudi, what about having dinner with me tonight? By the way, did you like your pay slip?’ Mr. Maugh sounded pleased.

  Trudi smiled. ‘You won’t believe it, I know, but I haven’t even glimpsed it. It’s probably still sitting on my desk! I’d love to have dinner with you so long as I’m home early, as Dan might ring.’

  ‘Fine, I’ll ring and book an early meal. I feel after the view today we’ve got quite a lot to celebrate. I’m going home now. I’ll pick you up at six-thirty.’

  Trudi smiled and agreed. The figures looked very good and the enthusiastic response to the new designs from the reps had reassured them. Small wonder Mr. Maugh was happy! She made her way back to her office and saw the pay slip envelope on the desk. She opened it, then sat back into her chair with a small disbelieving squeak. She studied it again, shaking her head in disbelief. The amount she had been given was the equivalent of three months’ wages. It explained why Mr. Maugh had looked so smug when he asked if she had seen her pay slip. Hastily she dialled his number, but the uninterrupted buzz told her he was not yet home. She could hardly wait to tell Dan, knowing he would be delighted. She grinned, thinking that they could have a honeymoon after all. Although Dan had told her jokingly that he was not quite broke, she guessed he had little saved for such an event, certainly he had never mentioned it.

  She decided to dress up for the evening. She would have little chance with Dan. A glance at the large old clock on the office wall told her she would have to hurry if she wanted to put her hair up.

  As she wound her hair into a series of shining curls she glanced at the telephone, wondering if she should ring Dan before she went out. She had expected him to ring during the day, but then realised that his call had probably not been put through as she had been in conference so much of the time. Promising herself she would return home by nine, she finished her dressing and promptly at six-thirty saw Mr. Maugh’s familiar car swoop into the park outside.

  As he came towards her Trudi walked forward and kissed him on the cheek, thanking him warmly for the cheque. He patted her arm, reminding her it was well deserved. The hotel was busy and Mr. Maugh mentioned that an Agricultural Promotion Conference was being held there. Seeing the outdoor men around her reminded her immediately of Dan, but she smiled at the thought of his ever being in such a position.

  The service was considerably slower, but they had plenty to discuss. They were still discussing work when a glance at her watch told Trudi it was half past nine. A burst of laughter from behind her made her wish she could see the cause of merriment at the tables that were being used by the farmers’ groups.

  ‘Did you see in tonight’s paper that your boyfriend’s boss is one of the new members of the promotion board?’ Mr. Maugh asked her.

  ‘Sheridan Jay?’

  ‘Yes, he was born with a golden spoon, not a silver one.’

  ‘Pity I didn’t fall in love with him,’ grinned Trudi. ‘At least no one will be able to say I’m marrying Dan for his money. He hasn’t a bean.’

  ‘Well, I’ll give you a good wedding present, lass. Sounds as if money might be the answer.’

  ‘Mr. Maugh, today’s bonus is quite enough,’ answered Trudi firmly. ‘Dan will be pleased, and if he can be torn away from Ti Kouka long enough, we’ll probably have our honeymoon on the strength of it.’

  ‘Doesn’t sound like my sensible, practical Production Manager at all!’ Mr. Maugh shook his head. ‘Are you wise to rush into this marriage, Trudi? After all, you hardly know the fellow.’

  ‘Once you’ve met Dan, you won’t worry,’ Trudi stated. ‘I’m going to Ti Kouka tomorrow, so I’ll meet his boss then, I dare say. I’m more worried about meeting the boss’s mother. They call her the “tyrant” among themselves.’

  ‘Don’t you fret, Trudi. You’ve nothing to worry about.’ He patted her hand in a fatherly gesture. ‘Worry about the placement of the new lights instead. Come to think of it, I remember my wife designed a special bracket and stand years ago. I’ve still got the designs at home.’

  ‘That could be helpful,’ put in Trudi.

  ‘I’ll look them up on the way. We can have coffee there. It would take another hour here, the service is slow tonight.’

  Trudi agreed, then glanced at her watch surreptitiously. Mr. Maugh, being so methodical, would be able to locate the plans within a few minutes; she could make coffee in that time and still be at home at least by ten-thirty. She waited patiently as Mr. Maugh signed the chit. A large group of farmers walked down the corridor and she stared, thinking one was Dan. She shook herself, knowing it must have been some other tall dark-haired man in the soft lighting of the hotel.

  She slipped into the big car and sat calmly, trying not to see her watch and the precious minutes ticking away. It would have been lovely to have said ‘Please drop me at home, I’ll see the papers next week’, but she knew she could not be so churlish. Another quarter of an hour would not be too long, she thought, before she could ring Dan and explain.

  As they pulled up at the large ornamental gates and the car nosed its familiar way Trudi couldn’t help a fleeting envy at the thought of the large empty house. Stepping into the lushly carpeted foyer, Mr. Maugh switched on lights and the warmth of the heated rooms welcomed her.

  ‘Make the coffee, Trudi, and I’ll run upstairs and see if I can find those papers. If I can’t find them immediately I’ll give you a call.’

  Trudi nodded and went off to the kitchen. It suddenly hit her that Rita and Mr. Maugh would make a good match, and she wondered why she had never thought of it before. Both were nice people, both had seen their lives altered tragically and both had matured through it. Mr. Maugh was shy of strange female companionship and Rita had spent her efforts concentrating on her family. Smiling at the thought, she decided that in the coming weeks she would do her best to see that Rita and the boss were thrown together. If Rita was to do Sales and Publicity, she would take the former advertising office next door to Mr. Maugh. The thought had all sorts of possibilities, Trudi realised, as the coffee hissed and bubbled. She watched the tiny stream of pale liquid gradually darken, then prepared a tray. As she was entering the lounge Mr. Maugh came down the stairs holding the papers. They studied them as they drank the coffee.

  Trudi could see the value of the design and they soon became involved in a discussion. The soft chiming of a clock made her look at the time with a frown, and Mr. Maugh gathered up the papers.

  ‘I must run you home, don’t want you missing your beauty sleep for the all-important meeting tomorrow. Goodness, the time has run on!’

  Mr. Maugh escorted her to the flat and she bent forward and kissed him quickly on the cheek as she opened the door. He said goodnight and then went back to his car.

  The precious papers she put down on the lounge table. Dan would not ring now, she realised, instinctively glancing at the phone. She must have been at Mr. Maugh’s place for an hour at least. She undipped her hair and it fell in fat curls around her face, making her eyes large and deep. She pulled a face at her reflection and turned away thoughtfully to pick up her purse with the cheque safely tucked inside. She smoothed it out, studying the design of the paper absently. The peal of the doorbell shocked her out of h
er reverie, and she wondered at its almost urgent sound. She put the cheque on to the table and opened the door.

  ‘Dan, what a surprise!’ she exclaimed.

  ‘Surprise? You didn’t expect me tonight, obviously.’

  The street light emphasised the dark lines of his face, so that he looked like the ancient Rangitira, pride, anger and vengeance at war in his stance. He slammed the door behind him and the sharp bang made Trudi wince in alarm.

  ‘Dan, whatever’s the matter?’

  ‘Don’t try and act the innocent, Trudi. You really have been keeping me on a string, haven’t you? What’s the matter? Been trying to work out which way you can have your cake and eat it too?’

  Dan’s eyes lit on the cheque on the table. He picked it up and eyed it incredulously.

  ‘Well, at least he pays well for your time. Money—that’s all you care about! I hope it satisfies you. I must have been mad!’

  ‘I don’t understand, Dan.’ White-faced, Trudi stood looking at him.

  ‘Come off it! Trudi, I saw you at the hotel—there was a dinner I had to go to. You told me you couldn’t spare a minute today or yesterday because of work. I tried to ring you several times and you were always out, or in conference. But tonight I saw you dining with an old man, and you had plenty of time for him. You gave him all your attention. I had to stay put, but I could watch you. When our party broke up at the same time I thought there could well be some simple explanation, so I followed you, intending to surprise you.’ Dan’s eyes glittered, his face harsh. ‘I saw the lights go on upstairs and that tubby little guy starting to undress before he realised the curtains weren’t pulled.’

  ‘Dan, stop it! You’re wrong! Mr. Maugh isn’t like that—he’s just my boss.’

  ‘So what does it matter who he is, so long as he has money?’ The scorn in Dan’s voice cracked icily. ‘I remember now—you said you were thinking of marrying him. He’s old enough to be your father!’

  Trudi sank back on to the sofa shaking her head in stunned disbelief, as she tried to explain.

  ‘No, Dan. I made some coffee and we had a couple of liqueurs, then went over some business papers together. You must be...’

  ‘Mad? Yes, I was crazy about you.’ His mouth twisted into a straight line. ‘You played me like some tantalising fish. All the time you couldn’t come to Ti Kouka because of work!’ He paced the floor, then snapped to a stop in front of her, his voice bitter. ‘Oh yes, it was work all right, but it certainly wasn’t anything to do with the factory, only the boss!’ His eyes raked her, hard and chilled. ‘You have such an air of innocence, yet so much sensuous appeal. Well, now it’s my turn.’

  He reached for her and pulled her towards him. in a grip of steel. His mouth descended, silencing her protest in a hard, angry movement. This time there was no trace of love or gentleness, only a blinding, searing rage. Trudi struggled against the iron body ineffectually, feeling the scrape of the dinner jacket he wore bite into her tender skin. Tears formed in her eyes and she put all her strength into pushing Dan away, and some of her terror must have penetrated as he stopped to look at her.

  ‘Dan, no!’ Agonised, she looked at him.

  ‘Don’t worry, I don’t like second-hand goods,’ he spat, and released her. He thrust her back on to the sofa, her body limp as a rag doll. The slam of the door told her that he had left, his anger still raging. Tears spurted down her face, muffled by the velvet of the cushion. Her lips were tender and she put her fingers to them as though to shield them from further ill usage.

  The whole scene flashed before her and she groaned in misery. She stifled a sob, wondering about Dan’s comments, her brain beginning to function again as she pieced the evening together. She remembered the boss telling her that Sheridan Jay had been voted into membership of the prestigious committee. He must have taken Dan along to enjoy the success, as the dinner had been an all-male affair. Dan must have spotted her, but he could hardly have joined her in the middle of speeches or during dinner, she reasoned.

  If only he could have sat close enough to have heard their innocent conversation about work, she thought sadly. She frowned, recalling that Dan had said something about Mr. Maugh getting undressed. It didn’t make sense to her—till with a gasp she realised that Mr. Maugh had changed his shirt while he was upstairs. Over dinner he had complained of a prickling sensation at the back of his collar of his new shirt. She could even remember laughing about it, suggesting that he had left the pin from the packaging in the cloth. Thinking about it, she knew that Dan had seen Mr. Maugh pull off his shirt. Probably only then had Mr. Maugh drawn the curtains. She could visualise only too well Dan’s stunned imagination. If they had not taken so long over coffee the situation would have righted itself, but the time had sped and to Dan every second would have been like an hour. The agony and anger on Dan’s face when he saw the cheque flashed before her again. She couldn’t blame him, the buildup of evidence had been totally crushing. The cheque had been the coup de grace. Trudi gulped back the tears which kept rising in her throat.

  It was ironic, she thought, that Dan should think she was so money-hungry, when she had agreed to marry him. She went slowly to the bedroom and her mind flicked her a vision of herself in Dan’s arms when she had coolly announced that she might marry her boss. It had been totally ridiculous, of course, and she had known it immediately. To Dan, it had all been part of the same picture. But he now believed that she had been having a long-standing relationship with Mr. Maugh. Her desire to get back to work, her inability to get to Ti Kouka, all fitted. Each day she had been able to tell Dan little of the exciting work she was handling as she had never discussed her boss’s affairs with anyone. Tiredly she undressed, and crawled into bed.

  ‘It would never have worked, Trudi,’ she told herself. ‘You’ve been your own boss for so long, you couldn’t have married a man like Dan.’

  This instruction to herself had the disastrous effect of filling her eyes again, and she burrowed her head in the pillow, letting the misery she felt completely overwhelm her.

  The morning was well advanced when she woke feeling heavy and miserable. Her eyes were still puffy and ringed with red and she wondered if she had cried even in her sleep. Her lips felt oddly tender and her finger touched them gingerly. It was just as well she was not going in to work today or there would be a few raised eyebrows. She felt ill and turned reluctantly to the wall. In her mind’s eye she pictured Dan at the creek, seeing the laughing sense of challenge he had issued and his rich amusement. Then she saw him at the rock, talking quietly and gently, treating her as delicately as a piece of sea foam.

  She wondered miserably what Dan would have said at Ti Kouka that morning. It would be embarrassing for him to have to admit that she would not be visiting. Dan would not give any explanation, she knew instinctively.

  Shuddering, Trudi got up; she had to keep busy, had to drive the thought of Dan away.

  As she showered, the cold showers at Bell Bay crossed her mind, but the self-inflicted thoughts of Dan only made her more miserable than before. When she had dressed she began spring-cleaning the flat in an orgy of work, to banish the dark angry eyes and the firm well sculptured mouth she knew so well.

  The cheque and the papers lying on the table she carefully put away. The cheque had cost her dearly and she bitterly regretted encouraging Mr. Maugh to find the old papers. If she had only insisted on leaving them till her return, she told herself sadly. Dan would not have been so jealous; he would have understood. She could have explained about her bonus and the completion of the decisions on the range. Her shoulders drooped as she thought of Dan, riding the horse towards the beach, his mouth a hard line, as unyielding as the rocks, standing as a guard before the sea. He would never return to her.

  She scrubbed madly at the windows, rubbing the spots viciously in her despair. They glinted brightly at her, reminding her of the diamond sparkle on the waves at Ti Kouka. She finished the task, then made herself a drink, forcing herself to concentr
ate on pouring the water into the coffee. She remembered the trek Maria had to get water at Bell Bay, and how Dan had approached her, his eyes chill over the drink bottle at the top of the ridge. Now she had seen all the feeling whipped from him, so that his eyes had been frozen, and she rubbed her eyes to stem the tears.

  ‘Do something, girl. Go somewhere. Somewhere Dan’s image won’t follow.’

  She walked up to the local shop and bought some groceries, carrying the heavy load back mechanically. Back at the flat again she looked around with fresh eyes. The flat was tidy and the interior that she and Maria had refurnished neatly and wallpapered brightly, but the lack of outlook suddenly appalled her.

  Compared with open vistas for hundreds of miles at Ti Kouka, the neighbour’s fence was an affront. Trudi felt shut in, trapped by the four walls that had been her home for so long.

  Picking up her keys and her purse, she slammed the door behind her, then climbed into her car. Stooping to fasten the seat belt with mechanical movements, she eased the car out. The drive took her towards the south and she kept along that route thinking that every mile took her further from him. Long before, he would have returned to Ti Kouka. Perhaps he had stayed at the flat belonging to the Jays last evening, or perhaps he had driven back to the farm then. She creased her brows, hoping he had returned safely.

  Her route stretched open before her and she kept the car heading south, glad that she was being forced to concentrate on the road. The mountains stood in the far west and for a minute she felt tempted to turn, but then the thought of Maria stopped her, and she decided to keep heading south until she reached Ashburton. The car petrol gauge was showing almost full as everything had been checked carefully the day before in readiness for her trip to Ti Kouka.