by Lucy Gordon
The evening stretched ahead of him, warm and inviting. Another new experience. When had he last whiled away the hours with a friend?
Two friends, he realised, feeling Phantom nuzzle his hand.
‘Just wait until we get home,’ he said. ‘Kate’s got something really special for you.’
‘I’m looking forward to it,’ Harriet declared.
Man and dog stared at her, then at each other. Darius gave a shrug of resignation, and Harriet could almost have sworn that Phantom returned the gesture.
‘You have to explain things carefully to women,’ Darius told him.
Woof!
‘You meant that remark about something special for Phantom?’ Harriet demanded.
‘Who else? Kate’s taken a lot of trouble with his supper. I told her he was the guest of honour.’
Harriet chuckled. ‘I guess you’re learning.’
Kate was waiting at the door, beaming a welcome. For Phantom there was the dog equivalent of a banquet, which he tucked into with due appreciation. Her mind at ease, Harriet left him to it and followed Darius into the large dining room at the back where a table for two had been set up by the French windows. From here the lawn stretched out until it shaded into the stretch of private beach where they had first met.
‘Remember?’ he asked, filling her wine glass.
‘I remember, and I shouldn’t think you’ll ever forget,’ she said. ‘You never did send me the bill for that suit.’
‘Well, maybe I’m not the monster you think me to be,’ he said.
‘Thought, not think. I wouldn’t dare think badly of someone who treats Phantom so well.’
‘Ah, you’ve noticed that I’m grovelling to him. I’m so glad. I knew I had no chance of getting on your right side unless I got on his first.’
Harriet seemed to give this serious consideration. ‘I see. And it’s important to get on my right side?’
‘Well, I can’t let you go on being my enemy. It wouldn’t be practical.’
‘And at all costs we must be practical,’ she agreed. ‘But I have to say, Mr Falcon, that I’m disappointed at how badly you’ve misread the situation. I’d expected more efficiency from “the most fearsome man in London.”’
‘Please,’ he protested. ‘None of that. It was enough of an embarrassment when I could make a pretence of living up to it. Now-’ He shuddered. ‘But how did I misread the situation?’
‘I was never your enemy.’
‘Really? You expect me to believe that when you got a bodyguard for Phantom? Oh, yes, I heard. And then you despised me so much that you made jokes about leaving me to drown.’
‘Well, you got your own back by walking in on me right after, didn’t you? And I didn’t leave you to drown-’ She checked herself, alerted by his teasing look. ‘Oh, ha ha! Well, I guess you’re entitled to make fun of me.’
‘Yes, I think I am as well,’ he said, smiling and raising his glass. ‘Truce?’
She regarded him with her head on one side. ‘Armed?’
He nodded. ‘Safer that way for both of us.’
‘It’s a deal.’
She raised her own glass and they clinked as Kate entered with the first dish.
‘Just in time to save me from your terrible vengeance,’ Darius said.
‘Don’t fool yourself,’ she told him. ‘When I wreak terrible vengeance on you, nothing and nobody will be able to save you.’
‘Then I’d better have my supper quickly,’ he said, leading her to the table.
Kate gave them a strange look and departed, making Harriet say in a quivering voice, trying not to laugh, ‘She thinks we’re both potty.’
‘She’s very observant.’
For a few moments they didn’t speak, concentrating on the food, which was Kate’s best, plain but delicious. Harriet wondered how it tasted to Darius, who must be used to more sophisticated fare, but he seemed happy to devour every mouthful.
‘If I had “enemy” thoughts, so did you,’ she observed. ‘When you came upon us in the garden of the pub you seemed to hate me.’
She thought he wasn’t going to reply, but then he nodded.
‘I did. I heard you talking about how I looked on the beach, “standing there like a king come into his birthright” according to you.’
‘That’ll teach me to jump to conclusions,’ she sighed. ‘You weren’t really feeling anything like that, were you?’
‘No, I was feeling what a glorious place it was. It took me completely by surprise and I just stood there, stunned, trying to believe such beauty existed.’
‘That was what I sensed when I first saw you,’ she admitted. ‘It was only later that I thought-oh, dear, I’m sorry. I guess I got it all wrong.’
‘We both got a lot of things wrong, but this is the moment when we put it all behind us and become friends.’
‘Friends…’ She considered the word for a moment before saying, ‘I must warn you, friends claim the right to ask each other questions.’
‘Fire away.’
‘Why did you go out to sea at all? It was madness.’
‘I needed to see the wind farm, and learn all I could.’
‘But surely you did an in-depth investigation before you bought the island?’ Something in his wry expression made her say, ‘You did, surely?’
‘The first I heard about it was when Kate told me.’
She stared. ‘I can’t believe a smart operator like you bought this place without checking every detail first.’ He shrugged.
‘You didn’t?’ she breathed. ‘But why?’
‘Perhaps I’m not quite as smart as I like people to think. Look, if I tell you, you’ve got to promise not to breathe a word to another soul.’
‘I promise.’
‘Seriously. Swear it on what you hold most dear.’
‘I swear it on Phantom’s life,’ she said, holding up her hand. ‘Now, tell, tell! The curiosity’s driving me crazy.’
‘I didn’t buy Herringdean. Rancing owed me money, couldn’t pay it, so he assigned the place to me, sent me the papers and vanished.’
‘What?’
‘My lawyer says everything’s in order, I’m the legal owner. But I had no chance to study the place, negotiate, refuse the deal, anything. Whatever I learn about the island comes as a surprise. My “investigation” consisted of looking Herringdean up online. What I found wasn’t informative-fishing, beautiful countryside, but no mention of a wind farm.’
‘Probably because it had only just got under way and they hadn’t updated the site,’ she mused.
‘Exactly. So you see I’ve approached everything like a dimwit. All right, all right,’ he added as she choked with laughter. ‘Have your fun.’
‘I’m sorry,’ she gasped. ‘I didn’t mean to but-he fooled you-’
‘Yes, he fooled me,’ Darius said, managing to be faintly amused through his chagrin. ‘And I’ll tell you something else. Before he left, he got a lot of the bigger tenants to pay him several months’ rent in advance, then he pocketed the money and ran. So it’ll be a while before they pay me anything.’
He knew he was crazy to have told her such damaging things. If she betrayed his trust she could make him look like an idiot all over the island.
But she wouldn’t betray him. Instinctively, he knew that he was safe with her.
Harriet was making confused gestures, trying to get her head around what she’d just heard.
‘But the papers always say-you know, the mighty entrepreneur, all that stuff-’
‘Been checking up on me, huh?’ he said wryly.
‘Of course. Be fair. Since you control our lives, I had to find out what I could.’
‘Control your lives? Oh, sure, it looks like it. I arrive knowing nothing, nearly die finding out, get snatched from the jaws of death by you and the others. Some control! So I suppose you know all there is to know about me?’
Harriet shook her head. ‘Only basics. Your father is Amos Falcon-the Amos Falcon. Emp
ire builder, financial mogul-all right, all right.’ She backed off hastily, seeing his expression. ‘And you have lots of brothers. It must be nice coming from a large family. I’m an only child and it can be lonely.’
‘So can being in a large family,’ Darius said.
‘Really? I can’t imagine that. Tell me more.’
But suddenly his mouth closed in a firm line. It was as though something had brought him to the edge of a cliff, Harriet thought, and he’d backed away in alarm. She could almost see him retreating further and further.
‘What is it?’ she asked.
He rose and walked away to the window. She had a strange feeling that he was trying to put a distance between them, as though she was some kind of threat. After a moment’s hesitation she followed him and laid a tentative hand on his arm.
‘I’m sorry,’ she said. ‘Of course it’s none of my business. I’m always sticking my nose into other people’s affairs. Just ignore me.’
With anyone else he would have seized this offer with relief, but with her things were mysteriously different. In his mind he saw again the defining moment of their relationship, the moment when she had reached out to him, offering rescue, offering life. The moment had passed, yet it lived in him still and, he guessed, would always do so.
The need to accept her friendship, trust it, rely on it, was so strong that it sent warning signals. Nothing would ever be the same again. But there was no turning back now.
‘I don’t think I’ll ignore you,’ he said softly, taking her hand. ‘You’re not a woman that’s easy to ignore.’
‘I’ll just vanish if you like.’
‘No,’ he said, his hand tightening on hers so suddenly that she gasped. ‘Stay. I want you to stay.’
‘All right,’ she said. ‘I’ll stay.’
He led her back to the table and poured her a glass of wine.
‘People always think big families are charming,’ he said after a while. ‘But it can be an illusion. Most of us didn’t grow up together. My father’s family was very poor and he had a hard life, which he was determined to escape at all costs. Some of the things he did don’t look very sympathetic, but maybe if you have to live as he did-’ He made an expressive gesture with his hands.
‘Was he very-?’ She paused delicately.
‘Yes, very. Still is, for that matter. His family were miners, and he was expected to go down the pit. But his father had died down there and hell would freeze over before he went the same way. He did well at school, got top marks in practical subjects like maths. Not literature, or “the soft stuff” as he calls it. He reckons that’s for fools. But with figures there’s nothing he can’t do.
‘So he ran away and managed to start up his own business, just a little market stall, but it grew into a big one, and then bigger, until he got a shop.’
‘He made enough profit to rent a shop? Wow!’
‘Not rent. Buy. By that time he’d married my mother. She came from a rich family and they met when he made deliveries to their house. Her relatives did everything they could to stop the wedding. They believed all he really wanted was her money.’
‘But they gave in at last?’
‘No way. He simply ran off with her. “If you want something, go after it by the shortest route.” That’s his motto. She gave him every penny she had. I know that because I’ve heard her father complaining about it.’
‘But he probably loved her, and you. Surely everything in his life wasn’t about money? It couldn’t be, could it? There’s always something else.’
‘Is there?’ he murmured. ‘Is there?’
His face had changed. Now it wore a look of pain that made her take his hand in hers in a gesture of comfort.
‘Don’t say any more,’ she said. ‘Not if it hurts too much.’
He didn’t answer. His gaze was fixed on the hand holding his, as it had once before. Then it had offered survival, now it offered another kind of life, one he couldn’t describe. He had no talent for words, only figures. She’d spoken of it hurting him too much to talk, but now he knew that the real pain lay in not talking about things that had been shrouded in silence for too long. Somehow the words must come. But only with her.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘I ’LL tell you something,’ Darius said at last. ‘Falcon isn’t my father’s real name. He chose it for effect.’
‘He wanted to be named after a bird?’
‘No, he discovered that it has connections with a Roman consul and two princes.’
‘You’re kidding me.’
‘Do you mean you’ve never heard of Pompeyo Falco?’ Darius demanded with mock surprise. ‘He was a very powerful Roman. The princes were Spanish, and there’s even supposed to be a saint in the background. Not that he’s ever made too much of that one. Nobody could keep a straight face.’
‘I guess your father isn’t much like a saint.’
‘That’s putting it mildly. He called me Darius because it means “wealthy”. It was his way of signalling what he expected of me.’
Harriet dropped her face into her hands. ‘I can hardly believe it,’ she said at last. ‘It’s like something out of a mad fantasy.’
‘That’s just what it is. I grew up knowing what I had to do to please my father-or else! Luckily, I’d inherited his head for figures, so I was able to live up to at least some of his expectations.’
‘Only some?’
‘He’s not pleased with me at the moment, losing so much money and letting things crumble under me.’
‘But that’s happened to a lot of people.’
‘Doesn’t matter. It shouldn’t have happened to a Falcon. He’s currently considering whether I, or one of my brothers, does him the most credit. At the moment I think I’m bottom of the list.’
Harriet frowned. ‘I think I read somewhere that your brothers come from different parts of the world,’ she said carefully.
‘If you mean that my father spread himself thinly, yes, that’s right. As the business built up he did a lot of travelling, first in England, then abroad. I don’t think he was ever faithful to my mother for five minutes; that’s how, in addition to a full brother, I come to have a half-brother from Russia, one from France, and one from America.
‘In the end my mother couldn’t stand it any more and she left, taking my brother Jackson and me with her. But she died after a few years and my father reclaimed us. By that time he had a new wife and a new son. We entered their house as strangers, and that was how we felt for a long time. Jackson coped better, although even he had a tough time with our stepmother.’
‘She was furious that we were there at all because that meant that her boy, Marcel, wasn’t the eldest. When she caught my father playing around she left him and went back to France. Marcel turned up a few years ago and, oddly enough, we all get on well. Our father has helped him start up in business in Paris, and I understand he’s a real chip off the old block.’
‘More than you?’ she asked shrewdly.
He hesitated before saying, ‘Who can say?’
Greatly daring, she ventured to ask, ‘Is that what you want? To be like him?’
‘I don’t know,’ he said. ‘It’s all become confused. When I was growing up my one thought was to follow in his footsteps and be a power in the land. People were awed by him, they hurried to please him, and that seemed wonderful to me. But I was immature and, as you grow up, things happen to you-’
He grew silent. After a while he repeated softly, ‘I simply don’t know.’
A noise made him look up quickly, smiling as if everything was normal. Nobody, Harriet thought, could guess that the moment of insight had taken him by surprise. Now she felt he was trying to forget it.
‘Ah, here’s Kate with the next course,’ he said cheerfully. ‘And not only Kate.’
Phantom had slipped in and came to curl up near the table.
‘Have you had enough?’ Harriet asked, caressing his ears. ‘Has the guest of honour been properly cared for?
’
A soft woof was the reply.
‘How did Phantom happen to be with you and the rest of the crew that night?’ Darius asked when they were alone again. ‘I gather you’d been out on a shout. Don’t tell me he comes too?’
She laughed. ‘No, I left him with my neighbour-’
‘To protect him from me?’
‘Please.’
‘All right, I won’t say it again.’
‘She was out walking him when she saw the boat coming home across the water, so she waited, then came and joined us.’
‘How old is he?’
‘Fourteen, maybe. He belonged to Brad, my husband, before we married, and he’d got him from a home for abandoned dogs, so he wasn’t sure of his age. I know he’s getting on a bit but he’s still full of beans.’
There was a hint of defiance in her voice that warned Darius to go carefully. Fourteen was old for a dog, especially a large one, but not for the world would he have voiced his conviction that she would soon lose her beloved companion.
‘Talking of being full of beans, are you really better?’ she asked.
‘I’m fine now. I’ve spent some time in bed-why that cynical look?’
‘I’m getting to understand you now. All that time in bed, I’ll bet you weren’t alone.’
‘No, I haven’t seduced any willing ladies-’
‘I meant you had your laptop computer with you.’
‘Ah…yes…I see.’ He met her teasing eyes and grinned sheepishly. ‘I fell right into that one, didn’t I? Yes, I did have it with me now and then. But not always. I got a lot of sleep and I have to admit you and Kate were right. It was what I needed. And, as well as rest, I’ve been taking exercise. I go swimming from my private beach. I keep looking out for you, but you’re never there.’
Her eyes widened in theatrical innocence. ‘But how can I be? I don’t have the permission of the owner. He’s a terrible man. When he found me there once before he was very annoyed.’
‘No, you just imagined that.’ He grinned. ‘In future you go there whenever you like. And take Phantom too.’