by Wynne May
‘Aha!’ Glen grinned at her, his eyes mocking her from behind the lenses. He was, she thought, the kind of person who looked as though he wore glasses as a gimmick. ‘That would be telling, wouldn’t it?’ He laughed softly, and something told her that he had been drinking before he turned up at the house. She watched him thoughtfully as he began searching for a place to put something and then, giving up, he lifted his glass to his lips while the plate of food, in his other hand, tilted dangerously.
‘Take it easy,’ he said, ‘and relax. Why do you look so worried, Michelle, as you stand there wrapped in your silken folds?’
‘It’s the way I feel,’ she replied curtly. As she turned away from him she saw that from across the room Lyle Cunningham was watching them.
‘What have I done now?’ Glen asked, laughing. He had put his glass on the floor at his feet and was busy eating from his plate, stopping to feel his teeth with his tongue every so often. ‘Tell me, Michelle, what have I done, now, to make you cross?’
Because Lyle was watching them she laughed lightly. ‘Nothing,’ she told him. ‘In fact, Glen, you’ve just put something right for me.’ How could she have imagined herself in love with Lyle Cunningham? she asked herself bitterly. Suddenly she knew she didn’t have to care any more about him.
‘As soon as I’ve finished eating,’ Glen was saying, his speech very slightly slurred, ‘I’m going to dance with you, Michelle.’
Prolonging the next smile until she knew Lyle was looking, she said,
‘Well, I hope you realize what you’re in for.’
‘That’s what I mean.’ He laughed softly. ‘I know what I’m in for.’
‘Let me take your plate for you,’ she said. ‘You’re going to have an accident presently. Don’t forget your glass, at your feet.’
‘I won’t,’ he answered, bending down to pick it up. ‘Next to women, Michelle, this is my other weakness.’ He followed her to the table and when she had saved his plate from possible disaster said, ‘Come on, let’s go and dance.’
‘I’m interested.’ She kept her voice easy. ‘Tell me, what had you planned to do with my brother’s farm?’
‘I’ll show you one day. It’s too late for that now. But if I do buy it I’ll convert it into a luxury inn. What else?’ He looked serious.
‘But you have all those chalets. It doesn’t make sense. Then there are one or two hotels in the vicinity at the moment - not to mention a couple of hotels at Thabana, if my memory serves me correct. Where do you expect to find people to occupy all these places - enough people, I mean?’
‘Don’t worry. Just you try getting in at the Berg during the school holidays and public holidays. It’s virtually an impossibility. We could do with a whole lot more places, believe me. I aim to attract people.’
He was still searching around in his mouth, his tongue busy amongst his teeth. With him, there was something sensual in the way he did this.
‘At the moment I’m launching my own Land-Rover service.’
‘So I understand,’ she replied drily.
‘At special tariffs - cut-throat prices.’
‘What’s all this about cut-throat prices?’ Liza’s voice cut in, and a shiver of shock passed through Michelle when she saw that Liza was with Lyle Cunningham. ‘What are you and Michelle discussing special tariffs for?’
‘We’re sure to tell you,’ Glen replied easily. ‘This happens to be our secret.’ He glanced at Lyle. ‘I was just saying a moment ago that it’s some time since I paid you a visit.’
‘I’m pleased you could come,’ Lyle answered.
‘I wouldn’t have missed it for anything - even if I was late,’ Glen laughed. ‘I’ve just asked Michelle to dance with me.’
‘Well, don’t let us keep you,’ Liza said sweetly.
Michelle allowed Glen to lead her in the direction of the patio and on to the ceramic-tiled floor. The swimming-pool glinted not far from it.
‘Good,’ Glen whispered against Michelle’s hair, ‘the blues, played by Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges. So romantic!’
They danced in silence for a while and then he said, ‘I’ve been out with the bowlers all day.’
Suddenly she laughed. ‘Don’t tell me you play bowls!’
‘Why not?’
‘You just don’t look the type.’
‘I’ll tell you something - I’m not, but I’ve been drinking with them, most of the afternoon. Those are the kind of duties a chalet owner has to perform from time to time. In other words, I have to mix.’
A warm bronze moon was rising above the trees. There was a splash as someone dived into the pool - followed by another splash.
Some time later Michelle got separated from Glen Hayes and found herself involved with other people. Pete and Laney had gone home because Laney was feeling tired, she said.
Directly Cunningham Senior turned up at the party he asked Michelle to dance and when they were on the patio he smiled down at her. ‘I wasn’t being fair in asking you to dance with me, Michelle, but I knew you’d be patient with me. I’m not very good at this sort of thing
- not any more. I always feel I must show up at some of Lyle’s parties, though, mostly given in the interest of the business.’
‘I’m glad you did ask me,’ she smiled back. Lyle’s father was still an extremely good-looking man - tall and lean, with a good tan, clean-shaven face and that fabulous silver hair. Any girl would be proud to be seen with him. Michelle was honest enough to admit to herself that she was not sure whether she was pleased that he had asked her to dance with him merely to show that he had turned up at the party.
She told him this, laughing a little, and he took it in good part, laughing down into her face. As he did so, she was reminded of her feelings towards his son.
By the time the music ended they discovered that they were the only two on the floor and somebody was clapping. ‘Nice work,’ Lyle was saying, coming towards them and still clapping. ‘I can see you also have Dad under your spell.’
Michelle felt suddenly hot and exhausted. ‘You finally made it, then?’
Lyle was looking at his father. ‘Better late than never, I suppose.
What do you say, Michelle?’
‘I agree with you,’ she answered in a polite little voice.
‘What held you up?’ Lyle turned to his father again.
‘I was expecting a trunk call and then I got involved - you know the way it is. Anyway, I’d like to get back, if you don’t mind.’
‘Mr. Cunningham,’ Michelle said quickly, ‘could I go back with you?
I don’t think I’ll stay on, if you don’t mind.’ She turned to look at Lyle. ‘I’m feeling rather exhausted.’
‘I do mind, very much.’ He bullied her with those blue-green eyes of his. ‘Stay a little while longer, then I’ll take you back myself.’
‘That’s more like it,’ Cunningham Senior said, smiling. ‘After all, you’re only young once, Michelle. I’ve just found that out.’ He smiled, puffing elaborately.
Michelle made a gesture which showed her reaction after Lyle’s father had gone. ‘I wanted to go,’ she said, ‘but short of - of causing embarrassment all round, there was nothing I could do about it.’
‘I’ll tell you something - you don’t look exhausted.’ His smile was without amusement.
‘Well, I am,’ she answered in a furious little voice. ‘It’s a state of mind that goes with the stupid situation I happen to find myself in right now.’ She had the frustrated feeling that she might as well be talking to herself.
Ignoring her remark, Lyle said, ‘You will have a Martini with me and then I’ll drive you back to the hotel. All right?’
‘All right,’ she replied, ‘but it doesn’t mean I’m going to be pleasant about it.’
‘I doubt if you could be pleasant lately, Michelle.’
Most of the guests were in the pool and Lyle led the way to the conversation pit, which was empty, except for a couple who were standing talking near
the indoor fountain.
Michelle watched him as he went to pour their drinks and when he came back he said, ‘Sit down, Michelle.’
‘Is this an order?’ she asked.
‘What are you talking about?’ he snapped. ‘Do you know what you’re talking about?’
‘You’re running true to type,’ she told him, but she sat down and nestled against some of the brilliantly hued cushions.
He passed her the Martini, then lowered himself beside her.
Outside, the sound of people diving into the pool made a peculiar hollow and pounding noise as the water broke apart and closed again.
There was the thump, thump of feet chopping the water.
Michelle waited for him to say something. Their eyes met. ‘Where did Hayes get to?’ he asked.
‘I don’t know,’ she answered. There were a lot of empty glasses and small plates with scraps of savouries on them and Lyle began to move them to one side, and she was surprised to see that his hand was shaking slightly.
Her eyes brooded on him, then she said, ‘If you’re embarrassed on my account, because he’s apparently left, please don’t be. Until you spoke I hadn’t even missed him.’ There was an undertone of irritation in her voice. The feelings she had for this man she hardly knew did not make sense. Right from the beginning, he had had the power to excite her. Now, however, she was disappointed in him. All that was over. After what Glen Hayes had told her tonight, she felt she despised Lyle Cunningham.
‘I find our attitude lately rather disconcerting,’ Lyle was saying. ‘I’d like to get to the bottom of it. I’m quite aware of the fact that I was rude to you over the film, but I thought things might be running their course by now.’
‘Oh, they are. Believe me, they are.’ Her voice was bitter.
‘Just what do you mean by that?’ he asked.
‘If it really bothers you, why don’t you just sit back and think about it?’ She turned her head away so that he would not see the tears which threatened to well up in her eyes.
‘That doesn’t answer my question, Michelle.’
‘It does answer your question, if you think about it.’ She knew she should stop talking before she lost her temper completely and said things which would cost her her job, and she didn’t want to lose that -
not right now, anyway. Not when the farm (who were Pete and Laney to pit their feeble financial strength against the great Cunninghams?) and her own affairs were at the lowest ebb, so far as money was concerned. She needed her salary and she also needed to be near to Laney who was expecting her first child and needed her. It was as simple as that.
‘I’d like to ask you a question,’ Lyle broke into her thoughts.
‘Go ahead.’
‘You may not like this.’
‘Ask it anyway.’
‘What is Glen Hayes to you?’
‘I’m not going to answer that,’ she told him.
‘Why not, Michelle?’
‘For the very simple reason that it would get me into the kind of talk you want us to get into. But you could say that Glen Hayes is the same as Liza is to you - if you wanted to. It makes no difference to me.’
‘Right away, we have a disagreement on our hands,’ he said.
‘Stop trying to trap me!’ She met his glance full on for a moment, then glanced away. ‘May we go now?’ she asked, her face still turned from him. ‘I’m not in a very good mood right now.’
‘Well, I’m open to suggestion. Perhaps we can rectify that - put matters right between us?’ He took an impatient breath. ‘How long are we going to keep this up, Michelle?’
She remained silent, then he said, ‘All I ask is that you meet me half-way.’ He sounded exasperated.
There were still splashing noises coming from the pool and although there was music, nobody was dancing on the patio.
Suddenly Michelle stood up. ‘I’d like to leave now,’ she said. ‘I shouldn’t have stayed in the first place.’
‘Don’t push me too far, Michelle.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ she asked angrily. ‘Haven’t I a perfect right to say when I’ve had enough? I want to go back to the hotel. If you aren’t going to take me there, I’ll walk.’
‘What’s happened to make you like this - quite apart from the filming episode?’ He sounded puzzled and annoyed. ‘I refuse to accept that there’s nothing more to it than that.’
‘If it bothers you so much,’ she said, ‘why don’t you take time off, some time, to sit down and think about it?’
‘I find you totally baffling,’ he told her.
‘I think I could say the same of you. But I can’t think why you should find me baffling. I have no secrets.’
‘What do you mean by that?’ he asked.
‘Just work it out.’
After a moment Lyle said quietly, ‘I’ll take you back now, Michelle.’
‘Thank you,’ she replied in a small voice. She knew that when she got back to her room at the hotel she was going to cry.
CHAPTER EIGHT
MICHELLE’S way of defending herself against Lyle Cunningham was to carry on with her position at the hotel as though nothing had happened and to work things so that, whenever he happened to be around, he found her flirting with any man who happened to be present on the other side of the reception desk.
Several of these meaningless flirtations also took part on the telephone should she be talking to one of the drivers from Little Switzerland Motors about booking a Land-Rover to take guests up the Pass.
The expression on Lyle’s face, whenever he happened to see the intricate smiles and blinking of lashes on her part, was enough to reward her. If he chose to misunderstand her she would give him something to misunderstand her about! Lyle Cunningham had made up his mind about her when he saw her posing in the snow in a bikini and, so far as he was concerned, that was that. No matter what he had said about ‘finding her attitude rather disconcerting’ and admitting that he was rude to her over the film, but was now of the opinion that
‘things might be running their course’, the fact was he had insulted her whenever the opportunity presented itself. In the first place, he had tried to trap her, with his questions and sly remarks, about Glen Hayes, not to mention his sarcasm when he had discovered her dancing with his father. ‘I can see you also have Dad under your spell,’ he had said, coming towards them, clapping his hands.
Michelle found herself seething every time she thought about it.
Looking at Lyle Cunningham sometimes, she was staggered at his treachery and wondered what Pete and Laney would think about their very good friend if someone had to tell them that he was trying to buy them out. In view of the fact that they had decided not to sell the farm - not yet, anyway - she had decided to keep this information to herself. It was no good stirring up trouble at this time when a baby was on its way.
The days were long and hot and guests arrived back from walks exhausted and red-faced and more than ready for a bath or a shower and drinks, on the terrace, before lunch or dinner.
There had been several Land-Rover trips up the Pass, and once the passengers had been guests from the chalets; it was Glen Hayes who had made the arrangements, speaking to Michelle because she happened to be at the desk at the time. He had asked when he was to see her again and she had replied that she was very busy and was seeing a lot of her brother and sister-in-law in her spare time.
On one occasion Lyle Cunningham had driven a party up the Pass himself, and as she watched the Land-Rover leave the hotel Michelle had found herself more than just a little envious. Lyle had looked handsome and there was the kind of tanned strength about him which made her know, instinctively, that he would be a superb driver. He certainly did not look the cad she knew him to be.
A few days later she happened to be helping at the desk when Jake Gobbi phoned about a trip the following day. While Michelle was discussing the matter with him she glanced up to see Lyle Cunningham walk into the foyer where he stood talking
to Cunningham Senior.
On the phone Jake was saying, ‘What’s this I hear about your salon being closed?’
‘Only for two days,’ she told him, smiling elaborately - for Lyle’s benefit. ‘There’s a wallpaper man coming from Durban.’
‘Well, what are you doing, then?’
‘I’m helping out here, as you can hear.’ She kept her lashes and her voice down in an effort to make the call appear to be very confidential, but she was, nevertheless, aware that Lyle’s eyes were resting on her face as he continued his discussion with his father.
‘Why not get permission to come up with us, in the morning?’ Jake asked cheerfully, oblivious of the fact that Michelle’s smiling voice was solely for the benefit of Lyle Cunningham.
‘I’ll have to see.’ She lifted her lashes. Cunningham Senior had left the foyer, but Lyle was still there, reading a letter.
‘Surely you’re not all that scared?’ Jakes voice teasing. Michelle felt ashamed, suddenly. Although Jake meant nothing to her, she had often used him when Lyle was around, smiling into the mouthpiece and laughing softly at everything Jake had to say.
‘Of course not. Everybody seems to get back safely - even with you driving,’ she teased back.
‘Well, let’s make it tomorrow-‘ He was silent for a moment. ‘There’s a place for you in the Land-Rover.’
‘Yes, I know there’s room for me.’ Her eyes scanned the names on the list before her.
‘Are their papers in order?’ Jake asked. ‘I don’t want to get half-way and find that somebody is without What about vaccination certificates?’
‘I’ve checked, Jake.’ Out of the corner of her eye she could see Lyle Cunningham speaking to Liza now and Liza had begun searching around in the drawers of one of the filing cabinets. ‘Everything is in order.’
‘Well,’ Jake went on, ‘you’ve been vaccinated, and I don’t know what, inoculations against this and inoculations against that. Right?’
‘Right.’
‘Well, shall we take that as settled, then?’ Jake coughed and then came back on the line. ‘Sorry. Anyway, I’m sure you’ll be able to get away. After all, they’re doing out your salon, aren’t they?’