‘Liz and Gerry seem very nice people,’ she said.
‘And Caroline?’
‘She doesn’t look anything like you,’ Lisa said, for want of anything else. She hadn’t liked Caroline. She hadn’t liked the cool condescension she had heard in that precisely manicured voice and she found such perfect looks slightly unsettling.
‘You’ll have to excuse her,’ Angus said, ignoring the remark. ‘Caroline is here as a favour to her parents. They find her a bit of a handful.’
‘And they think that you might be able to straighten her out?’
‘Nothing quite so optimistic, I assure you. Nor am I in the business of straightening people out. Don’t let anything she says upset you, though.’
‘Thank you for the advice,’ Lisa said, coolly, because he made her sound as though she was a complete walkover and for some reason she was sick of having him treat her like a minor. ‘I’ll bear it in mind.’
‘It’s not meant to be an insult,’ he said, raising his eyebrows, and she reddened.
‘Of course it isn’t,’ she replied quickly. ‘And I’m grateful for it. Thank you.’
‘Oh, for God’s sake.’ He ran his fingers through his dark hair and shot her an impatient glance from under his lashes. ‘Will you stop being grateful?’
‘But I am.’
‘Unpack,’ he said, and she impulsively went towards him and rested her hand on his arm for a fraction of a second.
‘Don’t be angry.’
‘Then stop acting as though I’ve done you the most enormous favour in inviting you here. As I recall, you weren’t exactly grateful to me when you found out that this was to be a cruise of six people and not six hundred.’
‘I know that,’ Lisa admitted. ‘But whether it was six or six hundred it was still very kind of you to think of me enough to issue the invitation.’
‘I was responsible for ruining your original holiday,’ he reminded her. ‘Have you forgotten?’
‘But most people wouldn’t have taken the trouble to recompense me in the way that you’ve done.’
‘Most people haven’t got the money to do it,’ he murmured, looking at her, watching her, she knew, for her reaction.
‘What do you want me to say to that?’
She looked at him and looked away, feeling her breathing thicken and hoping that he was as unaware of it as she was aware. Why did she react to him like this? Was it just an understandable physical response, or was it an intellectual one?
She was sensible, she knew, so why did her body ignite the minute he came close to her, when common sense told her that he was off limits? Off limits in the way that screen stars were off limits? They lived in different worlds and only a fool would try to unite the two.
It wasn’t as though he was attracted to her. When he looked at her, there was no sexual appraisal in his eyes. She wasn’t his type. She was just another average face. Her features were regular, except for her lips, which were too full as far as she was concerned. Her figure was neat but not extraordinary. Her hair fell in a clean swoop to her shoulders and that, like the rest of her, was unexceptional. Background material. If her head could tell her this, then why couldn’t her body act accordingly?
‘Is that why you felt nervous about this? Because you imagine my wealth puts you at a disadvantage? Or was it because you’re unsure of yourself?’
‘I’m not unsure of myself!’ Lisa denied. ‘You hardly know me. How can you say that?’
Her heart was beating quickly. She wished that she hadn’t tried to detain him. She wished that she had just let him leave and got on with her unpacking, as he had commanded.
He didn’t say anything, which was as telling as if he had argued the point.
‘This is none of your business,’ she muttered, folding her arms and looking away. ‘You invited me here and I came, but I am none of your business.’
‘Do you ever open up to anyone?’ he asked, with less amusement in his voice and considerably more impatience. ‘Or do you hide yourself away and let the rest of the human race get on with it?’
‘Please may I unpack now?’
‘Once you’ve answered my question. I’m interested.’
‘You’re curious.’
He shrugged and continued looking at her, waiting for her to answer.
‘I don’t like being an object of curiosity,’ she said stubbornly. Nor, for that matter, do I like being an object of pity, she added to herself. ‘It doesn’t matter to me how much money you have,’ she said, prodded into speech by his silence. ‘I’ve already told you that money makes no difference to what a person’s worth. But, of course, here...’ She paused and flashed him a quick look from under her lashes. ‘Here, I am the odd one out. I don’t know the responses I’m supposed to make. I’ve never had to learn them.’
‘How about just being yourself?’
‘I thought you didn’t like that, because being myself means being secretive and reserved?’
‘Touché.’ He grinned at her with appreciation and she blushed. He straightened his long body. ‘Now I’ll leave you to unpack. Come up when you’re ready and wear a swimsuit.’
‘I was going to.’
‘Not,’ he amended, back to his dry amusement, ‘that I want you to think I’m trying to give you orders. I don’t want you to see me as a dictator.’
Then how would you like me to see you? she asked herself once he had sauntered off. As a benefactor? As a man? She unpacked quickly, not giving much thought to that choice. She didn’t want to see him as a man; she didn’t want to catch herself thinking too hard about the supple strength of his body or the disarming charm of his conversation.
She emerged a few minutes later to find her juice next to an empty lounger, inconveniently next to Caroline, and a platter of sandwiches in the middle. They were all eating, making desultory conversation. Liz, who was reading a book, looked up to say something, then returned to the more drowsy pastime of soaking up the sun.
The heat made everyone lazy. It was impossible to be energetic when it was so hot.
Lisa lay back on the lounger with her broad straw hat shielding her face and surreptitiously looked at Angus, who was talking to Gerry in a low murmur, from the looks of it about work because there was a certain amount of animation to their conversation. He was leaning forward slightly, his elbows resting on his knees. She observed the curve of his back and the latent power of his body and had forgotten about Caroline until the other woman said, sotto voce, ‘You two took rather a long time down there, considering Angus was just supposed to be showing you to your cabin.’
Lisa didn’t say anything, but her body tensed and she looked at the fair-haired beauty warily.
‘What were you and he up to?’ Caroline laughed a little but there was something hostile behind the laughter.
‘Up to?’ Lisa asked, puzzled. ‘Nothing. Why?’ Does he get up to things with women the minute he’s alone with one for longer than three seconds? she wanted to ask.
Caroline gave an elegant shrug and fixed her expression to one of indifference. ‘Just wondered.’ She began to apply some more suntan oil with the unhurried thoroughness of someone who knew that her body was worth looking at. ‘It’s just,’ she continued, when Lisa had hoped that the conversation had been terminated, ‘that Angus needs protecting.’
That almost made Lisa laugh, but she managed to say, with some incredulity, ‘He does? I’m sorry but I hadn’t noticed.’
She stretched out with her towel behind her head and her feet crossed at the ankles. Liz and Sarah were chatting in bursts. After a while they got up from their loungers and strolled out of sight and their voices drifted on the breeze, snippets of information which Liz was trying to impart about tropical fish.
‘He explained why he invited you here,’ Caroline said languidly, in a low voice.
‘Did he?’
‘Something about George running into you in the Jag at the airport. He felt sorry for you so he asked you here.’
‘It was very kind of him,’ Lisa said, for want of anything less inflammatory. She had to remind herself that she was a guest and that outbursts of anger were not advisable, but she could feel her fists clenching and she had to take a few deep breaths to steady herself.
‘Yes, it was, which is why I wouldn’t want you to take advantage of the fact.’
‘I wish you’d get to the point,’ Lisa said tightly. ‘If there is a point. I’m not very good at playing games.’
Caroline turned on her side so that she was facing her and propped her sunglasses on her head. The green, feline eyes, when they looked at her, glittered like emeralds.
‘The point is that Angus is a very desirable catch and I wouldn’t like you to get any ideas in that direction.’
The accusation was so bald that for a minute Lisa stared at her speechlessly. Then she said, without any pretense at politeness, ‘In that case, let me just set your mind at rest. He’s perfectly safe from me. I couldn’t care less how eligible your cousin is and I find your remarks insulting.’
Caroline’s lips thinned and she seemed on the brink of continuing the subject, but with rather more venom now, when Liz and Sarah returned from their stroll around the deck and general conversation took over. The sandwiches were passed around, drinks were topped up, voices grew louder, as did the laughter, and as soon as the anchor was lifted Lisa removed herself from her lounger and went across to where Liz was standing, holding onto the rails of the boat, with the wind blowing her hair back.
Angus and Gerry were sailing it. They were both highly experienced at it; they had learnt together a long time ago. They had known each other for years, Liz told her, even though Gerry was eleven years older than Angus. Her voice was kind as she provided background material which Lisa only partially heard. She was far more absorbed in the spectacle of the ocean slipping past them and in what Caroline had said to her in that cutting, derogatory voice of hers.
The worst thing was that she could see the logic behind the accusations. Angus was, there was no doubt about it, a good catch. It was surprising, really, that he hadn’t been netted before, but if what Liz had told her was anything to go by, then he would hardly have had the time to cultivate any sort of family life. Building empires, it appeared, didn’t leave much room for a wife and children and winter evenings in front of the fire.
‘He’s out of the country most of the time,’ Liz was confiding, when Angus said from behind them,
‘I do hope you’re not talking about me. It’s very bad manners, you know, to discuss your host behind his back.’
Liz laughed and turned to him. ‘You should be flattered. I’ve only said good things about you!’
‘Is that true?’ Angus turned to Lisa with a slow smile. She felt her heart begin to thud and remembered what Caroline had said.
‘Yes, it is,’ she said lightly, smiling back at him but finding herself quite unable to meet his eyes straight on. ‘She says that you’re a very hard worker and that you travel a lot.’
‘You make me sound like an ant.’ He laughed, turning to Liz. There was a warm empathy between the two of them and Lisa felt a brief pang of envy. Her experience of men was limited and she had certainly never had an easy rapport with any of them. On the whole, she was tense in their company, only relaxing slowly, certainly unable to joke in the semi-flirtatious manner that Liz did.
‘I think,’ Liz said over her shoulder as she sauntered off to be with Gerry, ‘I can spot a few basic differences!’
‘She’s great fun, isn’t she?’ Lisa said, looking at him.
‘We go back a long way.’
‘I envy that,’ she heard herself say wistfully, and she abruptly turned away so that she was leaning over the rail, staring down at the sea. She hadn’t meant to confide. in him. It had just emerged, without prior thought, and now she felt a little awkward.
‘The fact that she goes back a long way with me?’ Angus asked, laughing.
‘No, that wasn’t what I meant...’
‘I know what you meant.’ He leaned over the rail alongside her, their arms almost touching.
‘How long before we reach land?’ she asked, and he laughed again, as though he had read her mind and knew that she was trying to change the subject.
‘Not very long.’
‘Do you do this every year?’
‘Social savoir-faire isn’t something you’re born with. It’s something that’s cultivated. As you said, you just never had to learn the art. I don’t suppose there’s a great deal of it needed if you work in a garden centre.’
‘My father worked in Scotland for a while, but the sea was nothing like this.’
‘No, I don’t imagine it was. What did he do?’
‘He was a biologist.’
‘And your mother?’
‘A biologist’s wife.’
‘And you were the biologist’s child.’
‘That’s right. There’s something very fierce about the sea in Scotland, even when it’s calm.’
He shrugged and she could feel his eyes on her. ‘The water here is very blue, very inviting, but you’d be stupid to imagine that it doesn’t conceal its own dangers.’
‘I heard Liz telling Sarah all about it.’
‘I’m surprised you weren’t sent to a boarding school.’
‘I know a bit about tropical fish, from when my father was going through his marine biology phase. He had books on the subject. You think that I had an unhappy life, but I didn’t and I would have hated boarding school.’
‘Did your interest in plants come from your father?’
‘I suppose so. I’ve never really thought about it. Why are you asking me all these questions? I don’t ask you any.’
‘Feel free to.’ His lazy charm swept over her and she had to steady herself on the rail before she could turn to face him, shielding her eyes from the sun with the palm of her hand.
‘I don’t want to. I’m not interested.’
She glanced behind him to where Caroline was still basking like a lizard in the sun. Was she asleep? It was difficult to tell although the large, dark sunglasses were turned in their direction.
‘Where are Liz and Sarah?’ she asked.
‘Liz is with Gerry and Sarah is below deck somewhere. There are limits set as to how much time she spends in the sun. Why didn’t you go to university?’
Lisa sighed. She wished that he would stop prying, trying to discover what made her tick, treating her like a specimen under a microscope.
‘If you must know,’ she said shortly, ‘my parents died and it was all I could do to climb through my A levels. I couldn’t even contemplate university. I just needed to get some sanity back into my life and having a house and a job represented that.’
‘Understandable,’ he murmured.
She replied, in a tart voice, ‘Oh, I’m so glad you see it like that. It makes me feel much better.’ She swept her hair away from her face and narrowed her eyes against the glare of the sun to look at him. ‘And what makes you tick?’ she asked angrily. ‘You’re so keen to point out all my little inadequacies. Does anything make you feel inadequate?’
‘No,’ he said lazily, ‘I don’t think so.’
‘How lucky you are, then. Swanning through life in your chauffeur-driven car, flying from one important meeting to another, jet-setting across the globe. I expect there are lines of beautiful women queuing up for you as well? To complete the picture, so to speak?’
Now that she had worked herself up to self-righteous indignation, she would have been more than prepared to carry on with the conversation until the cows came home, but the yacht began slowing down. Bequia, their first port of call, was approaching, and she hadn’t even noticed, with her back to the sea and her mind seething with anger.
Liz emerged, with Sarah in tow, her face wreathed in delighted smiles as she walked unsteadily towards them, and Angus said to her, under his breath, ‘Don’t think that this conversation is finished.’ He wasn’t looking at her
when he said this, nor was there any amusement etched on his face.
‘Is that a threat?’ She wouldn’t have said it if she had thought about it.
‘A promise.’ He pushed himself away from the railing and began preparing the yacht for docking.
Caroline didn’t move until the yacht was moored; then she lazily stood up, shaking her hair, which obediently fell back into place, and slung a silk shirt over her swimsuit.
She must, Lisa thought, be quite accustomed to this sort of thing, because she didn’t look in the least excited—or perhaps excitement was something that she no longer indulged in at the ripe old age of nineteen.
Two nights in Bequia, Liz was telling her. She was to bring next to nothing from the yacht. If she needed anything, she could always go and get it, but really they would just be sunbathing, swimming and indulging in the odd water sport, if energy levels permitted.
Lisa was glad of the advice. She slipped on a pair of shorts and a halter-neck top and managed to stuff everything she wanted into her holdall, so that she didn’t emerge from her cabin five minutes later laden down with three times more than she needed.
They took two taxis to the hotel. She travelled in one with Liz and Sarah, and Angus, Gerry and Caroline took the other. She spent the short journey chatting to Sarah about the plant life, just as her father used to do with her when she was a child. She described what grew where and why and what harboured which sorts of insects. Facts which she had thought she had forgotten sprang back to memory and she surprised herself with the extent of her knowledge.
The taxis disgorged them outside the hotel, a secluded plantation estate, set in rambling orchards of tropical fruit trees.
She looked around her and couldn’t imagine that anything, anywhere in the world, could surpass this ageless, discreet magnificence. It was the unspoken epitome of what money could buy. Liz and Gerry had been before, and were pointing out things that had changed, and Caroline, after a quick glance around, stretched gracefully and announced that she was off to the pool.
‘Too much sun is bad for you,’ Sarah said, holding her mother’s hand, and Caroline scowled.
‘Bad for you maybe, but not me. Oh, no, I intend to return to England with something to show for two weeks in the Tropics!’
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