Scarlet Lady

by Sara Wood

  The old man spread his hands in a gesture of helpless defeat. 'I know,' he said wearily. 'I admit I turned to other women. Mary wouldn't let me near her very often, you see—and I was a hot-blooded man in those days. I tried to be discreet, but this is a small island and news travels fast. People were only too delighted to tell Mary of my infidelity and I regret the pain I put her through.

  'But the woman I brought into the house was not my mistress at all. She was supposed to be a companion for my wife because she wouldn't go out. I told her that but she refused to believe it. How can I ever prove that half the things said about me were lies?'

  Ginny's face was soft with pity. 'You can't,' she said. 'Unless you find your wife. Wouldn't that help?'

  'Yes!' cried Vincente, and she dearly wanted to believe his story because it would be a weight off her mind. He smiled weakly, his eyes devouring her from top to toe. 'You are so like her!'

  He reached out his arms and drew Ginny to him, sobbing his heart out. Her own eyes grew moist and soon she was crying too. Vincente was friendless but he was a human being in distress and she probably carried his blood in her body. Overwhelmed by emotion, Ginny cradled him and rocked him till he'd regained control of himself.

  'Do you really think I'm your daughter?' she asked tentatively. 'Really?'

  Nicotine-stained fingers stroked her face with an extraordinary gentleness and awe. 'I know you are!' he declared. 'We must be sure, of course—do a DNA check... I knew Mandy wasn't the one. But the detective agency assured me—'

  'Wait a minute,' she said, halting him in mid-flow. 'Mandy? What do you mean?'

  Vincente smiled and was overtaken by a fit of coughing. It was a while before he recovered and in that time Ginny shot a quick glance to the doorway. Leo was watching from the shadows, his face cold and full of hate. Ginny felt sick. Her worst fears had become a reality. Leo had a burning mission. Revenge—perhaps for something Vincente hadn't even done.

  'Sorry,' croaked Vincente. 'Lungs. I'm dying, Virginia. That's why I wanted to find my child.'

  'Oh, Vincente!' she cried, wide-eyed in dismay.

  Her sympathy made him sigh. 'No one's spoken so caringly to me for a long time,' he said, choking with emotion. 'When I was led to believe that Mandy was my daughter, I hoped she would come to love me. Then I discovered she'd married Pascal. That almost broke my heart. I knew she'd side with him.' He saw Ginny's bewilderment and patted her hand. 'Mandy came from England in answer to my advert,' he explained. 'The detective agency I'd retained assured me she was Mary's daughter.'

  'I see.' So Mandy had been the other woman who'd contacted the solicitor in London! 'Mandy and I both responded to your advert?'

  'Yes. I've been searching for my daughter for a long time,' Vincente explained. 'I was so happy when Mandy arrived. She seemed so sweet and had all the right documents. Mary Brandon was given as her mother's name on her birth certificate.'

  Ginny's eyebrows lifted. 'I don't understand—'

  'Perhaps, Ginny,' came Leo's deep voice from behind them, 'Mary swapped her identity with Mandy's mother to make sure that Vincente never traced his real daughter.'

  'Leo. My.. .husband,' said Ginny quickly, seeing Vincente's start of surprise. She was mulling over the suggestion, wondering if the idea had come from Leo's father. If it had, she thought it might possibly be true. Stuart Brandon knew a lot more than he'd let on, she decided. And one day she'd learn the whole story.

  Vincente smiled, easing himself to his feet and extending his hand eagerly. 'My pleasure, Mr McKenzie. My very great pleasure. And perhaps you're right. In fact I have proof that Mandy isn't related to me so you must be, mustn't you?'

  Ginny waited with bated breath. Leo would either stay true to his principles and denounce Vincente as a man unworthy of his regard or pretend that nothing was wrong. And she didn't know which of those she wanted him to do.

  Leo hesitated for a fraction of a second before shaking Vincente's hand. 'How do you do?' he said formally. Because of his restraint, Ginny knew with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach that Leo was compromising his integrity in order to get his hands on Beau Rivage and to avenge Mary.

  'You were saying,' said Leo idly, 'that you have proof that Mandy's claim is invalid?'

  Vincente gripped Ginny's hand tightly. 'It's why I was so upset. I'd just had a telephone call from Pascal to say that the DNA tests prove Mandy doesn't have a drop of my blood in her. I was devastated by the news. I was feeling very sorry for myself.'

  'How—how does Mandy feel about not being your daughter?' she asked tactfully.

  'Pascal says she's delighted. So's he,' growled Vincente.

  'They hate you,' she stated unhappily. 'He obviously thinks you treated your wife badly and he is ashamed of the women who keep coming here.'

  Vincente snorted. 'Everyone thinks they're my mistresses,' he said wryly. 'Truth is, I haven't the energy any more. Haven't had it for years. I've been paying these young women well because I need companionship, I need someone to look after me and entertain me and they might as well be pretty. I'm lonely, you see.'

  He sighed. 'Trouble is, they either expect marriage and a share in my fortune or can't stand the isolation. So they go running to Pascal and he pays them off and sends them home—if he hasn't bribed them to go already. Reputations aren't always deserved,' he said huskily.

  'I know,' agreed Ginny with heartfelt fervour. 'I'll put Mandy and Pascal straight,' she promised.

  'They'll still think badly of me,' Vincente said, almost inaudibly. 'Pascal believes I carelessly threw away a cigar and started the fire that killed his wife and child. He turned the whole community against me and he's loathed the sight of me ever since.' He took Ginny's face in his rough, planter's hands, and said earnestly, 'I didn't, Virginia. I wasn't anywhere near the house. It was someone else. You have to believe me—you have to!' he finished hoarsely.

  Her pained eyes studied his. There was such anguish in his expression that she felt sure that he was telling the truth. 'I believe you.'

  Vincente shuddered with relief. 'Thank God!' he said simply. 'If you hated and despised me too, I'd feel like killing myself. A few moments ago I thought I'd die without ever seeing my only child,' he added with a sentimental smile, stroking her silky hair in wonder. 'And then she walks in, just when I'm thinking that life's not worth living—'

  'No!' she cried urgently. 'You mustn't think like that!'

  'It's not true any more! We should celebrate,' said Vincente, his eyes shining with happiness. 'Champagne. It's in the cellar... Damn! I forgot my maid's left me— and the glasses are in the kitchen—'

  'Are you all alone?' Ginny asked, shocked.

  'Not any more,' Vincente answered softly.

  'I'll get the champagne,' offered Leo, nothing in his voice betraying how he felt. Ginny shrugged off the chill that was wending its way down her spine. 'Ginny will find the glasses. Shall we celebrate outside?'

  Vincente nodded, kissed Ginny warmly and directed them to the cellar and the kitchen. On emerging from the cellar Leo found her still searching for three glasses that weren't chipped.

  'This place will be yours one day.'

  She froze at Leo's flat tones, her hand on a cupboard door. Then she opened it and began to take down three Venetian flutes, obviously of great age and value. Washing them carefully and drying them on a glass cloth she'd fotind gave her time to compose her voice.

  'I'm grateful to you for being so polite to him,' she said quietly. 'It must be an effort, considering.'

  'How can you act as if you love him already?' he asked in soft reproach.

  She whirled round, her eyes big and lustrous in the dark room. He was leaning against the doorjamb, his eyes dark and brooding. 'He's old and he's ill and he's genuinely sorry for what he's done. And he's not all bad. He's been misjudged. I think that's a shame and I want to reunite him with Pascal—even though they're not related.

  'People make mistakes, Leo,' she said, her voice quivering with p
assion. 'I made a mistake. I know what he's going through, what remorse he's feeling. I think if you realise where you went wrong and badly want to make amends that you should have a second chance.'

  They looked at one another for a breathless moment. And then he nodded curtly. 'Yes,' he said in a strangled rasp. 'You're right.'

  'I want to live here, Leo,' she said flatly. 'I want to bring some joy into Vincente's life. He's dying and he's my father and he needs me.'

  'I need you,' growled Leo.

  'Oh? A woman who'll bring notoriety to the Brandons?' she asked bitterly. 'I think your motives are suspect. I believe you and your father are in some conspiracy to ensure that Beau Rivage becomes Brandon property.

  'Would you give up Castlestowe for me? Do you love me so much that you'd throw away the land you've worked on all your life? Would you give up the social scene, the esteem with which everyone regards you and stay here with me?' The words were wobbling. She took a deep breath and steadied herself against the wooden draining-board. 'I think not, Leo,' she said, her heartbreaking. Again. Because he'd leave her now. 'It means too much to you. I think not.'

  And, unable to bear to think of losing him, she took the flutes in her hand and ran out to the veranda before she burst into tears.

  They talked for the rest of the morning. Well, she and Vincente talked, telling each other about themselves. Leo sat silent, watching her as if mesmerised. And as if he was thinking out his future.

  Eventually he offered to make lunch and surprised her by producing a sweet potato and pepper omelette with a plate of fruit to follow. In the afternoon Vincente went to sleep in his room, happily exhausted by the excitement.

  Ginny and Leo followed Vincente's suggestion that they take two ponies and explore part of the estate. It suited her. She didn't want to talk to Leo or to hear his lies. Now that she'd given her ultimatum, he wouldn't marry her. Obviously he'd be leaving before dusk and the hours with him were precious and sweet.

  Deliberately she lagged behind him when they galloped along the beautiful, deserted beach. What they'd seen had dismayed her. It would take a fortune to restore the plantation. Up in the valley, mill wheels, old slave quarters and sugar distilleries lay in ruins among frangipani trees and profusely flowering orchids. A sleeping paradise, occupied by one lonely and unhappy man.

  Again she longed to seek out the truth of what had happened between Vincente and Mary and how they had become estranged. She knew now how easy that was when couples didn't communicate. Imagined affronts and misunderstandings grew in proportions till it was hard to take the first step towards reconciliation. And as a result her mother had run away and left Vincente with a reputation that had damned him.

  She started. Leo had doubled back and had caught her pony's bridle.

  'I want to talk to you,' he said quietly. 'Would you get down?' Nervously she obeyed. Leo studied her as if he'd never seen her before—perhaps as if he would never see her again. Her breath quickened in agitation. The moment to say goodbye had come, perhaps. 'Shall we sit in the shade?' he suggested, his voice sounding strangely husky.

  'Mmm.' It was all she thought she could manage.

  Leo sat a little way from her, staring out to sea. He pushed back his heavy silken hair with a quick gesture and she realised that he was tenser than he made out.

  'What did you dislike most about our marriage?' he asked with studied casualness. But the hand he put on her arm was hot, as if it burned from a fire inside him.

  'Your lifestyle,' she said nervously as the heat set her nerves dancing. 'Castlestowe, the closed world you moved in. It scared me. It never welcomed me.'

  'Then for you I will give it up.'

  Slowly Ginny turned her head. 'What?' she asked in astonishment. 'It means everything to you.'

  He smiled and said lovingly, 'No. Not everything. I am prepared to give it up. I'm hoping you will abandon the thing I hated most—'

  'My job?' Her puzzled face clouded. 'But... I want to do a little work each year. Not a lot, but perhaps some magazine-cover work—'

  'It's not your job that was the problem,' he said softly. 'It was the fact that I hated being parted from you so much.'

  'I would only take the occasional job. We could be together... But what's the point talking about it when you don't love me?' she said shakily. 'I won't be part of your revenge, Leo! I do want to be married. I love you so much. I can't pretend I don't. But you would hurt me every day by not loving me back. I would be nothing other than a convenience, a means to an end.

  'You would be master of Beau Rivage. You would want us to have a child—children,' she amended jerkily when she saw the gleam in his eyes. 'A Brandon would own the plantation and your family honour would be satisfied. Where would I be once you'd achieved all that? Divorced? Abandoned for someone suitable, who would go back with you to bleak Castlestowe and act as a potential earl's wife should?

  'I can't!' she wailed. 'I'd rather stay alone for the rest of my life than put my trust in you and have it flung back in my face! You have an ability to hide your feelings. To deceive. I don't know where I am with you and I can't marry you on such a shaky basis!'

  'Ginny...' he began huskily, his tone almost cruelly loving.

  'Don't coax me!' she stormed. 'I'm beyond coaxing! You wanted me to be Vincente's daughter! You said that knowing who I was would make a difference—'

  'Sure. You'd be my financial and social equal—'

  'And I'd be suitable then, would I?' she raged.

  'Dammit, Ginny,' he said with a laugh. 'Let me finish! It's not that I'd care who you were, but that you would see yourself differently. No more believing you are inferior to me and my family! Because that's always been part of the trouble between us. You always were my equal!' he said affectionately. 'You didn't have to drive yourself into the ground earning a fortune and immense fame to prove that!'

  'But... you only got interested in me again when you scented a chance to grab Beau Rivage!' she accused hysterically.

  'Oh, no. I was always interested in you. Fascinated. Riveted. Bound to you, body, soul, mind, heart... Why the hell do you think I came over here, if it wasn't to win you back and protect you from a man my father said was a rogue?'

  She covered her ears because it couldn't be true. 'I won't listen to you any more! Don't speak to me!'

  Unable to bear looking at him any longer, she scrambled to her feet and turned away, walking a few steps into the tangled vegetation, her hand splayed out on the bark of a mahogany tree. And she breathed heavily, her whole body aching with misery.

  'Stand very still,' Leo said suddenly in a strangely cracked voice.

  Ginny frowned, began to turn her head, then saw by her outstretched hand the unmistakable head of an enormous snake. A boa constrictor. Only her eyes moved, growing larger and larger as the snake swayed its head with terrifying interest.

  'Don't move an inch, my darling.'

  As if she could! Panic had frozen her to the spot. Her horrified eyes made out yards of thick, muscled coils moving inexorably along a branch just above her head.

  His voice came again. 'It's all right, darling. I'm here. I'll deal with it.'

  She could hear Leo slowly, carefully treading on the soft jungle debris. He hated snakes, she thought. What could he do? They paralysed him with a morbid fear. He'd never touch it, would never—

  The snake drew back its head. And suddenly she had been knocked to the ground, something sharp scoring down the length of her cheek. At first she thought it was the snake bite, but then she saw that Leo had his hands around the reptile's neck and was frantically trying to unwind the tightening coils from his bare arm.

  She screamed, over and over again, slowly rising to her feet.

  'You're safe now. Listen to me! I love you!' said Leo fiercely. 'For God's sake, Ginny, believe me! I'll eat this damn thing if it'll convince you! I love you and I always have! Believe me!'

  Tears sprang to her eyes. To her astonishment, Leo smiled, then laughed exultantly
and tightened his grip on the snake's throat. The coils flexed and loosened. With a grunt of disgust, he flung the boa into the bushes and she heard it softly slithering away.

  Then Leo was tugging her to the beach and beneath the shade of a rustling palm. 'You believe me!' he murmured, kissing her.

  'Of course I do!' she sobbed in relief. 'You rescued m-me from a s-s-snake when you loathe them..

  'I'd walk through fire for you. Oh, my darling,' he cried m alarm, touching her bleeding face. 'How did that happen? Your face! Your beautiful face! I can see some fragments of bark.' He brushed them away. 'A branch must have gone into it. It's deep, Ginny. We've got to get you to the hospital or you'll have a scar...'

  'It doesn't matter,' she said with a shuddering sigh. 'It doesn't matter, Leo.' She smiled, kissing him. 'We'll wash it clean soon... But I don't care. My face isn't important any more.'

  'It is! Your career—'

  'No. You are important. You and Vincente.' She touched the livid bands on his arm, the imprints of the boa's scales clearly marked. 'You do love me. And I love you.'

  'Yes,' he said passionately, kissing her again and again. 'I love you. With all my heart.'

  'Then...will you live with me here?' she begged. 'Can you live with the man your family hates?'

  'For you I can do anything, live anywhere, be anything,' he husked. 'I tried to protect you from Vincente because I couldn't bear to think of you being hurt in any way—not because of anything that might reflect on my family. That was an excuse to hide my real feelings.' He grinned lopsidedly. 'I'm crazy about you, Ginny!' he said fervently. 'I always have been, always will be.'

  'Oh, Leo!' she sighed happily. 'And... you said that's why you came to St Lucia? Because you wanted me back?'

  'Oh, yes. When I talked to Father and was told there was no doubt that you were Vincente's daughter, I wanted to be with you when you found out.' He smiled gently. 'I wanted to hold your hand, to help you cope with your emotions and whatever decision you came to. I thought you loved me—but I wasn't sure. I had to be sure. If I'd made a mistake it would have crucified me, Ginny. You mean so much to me.'