by Natalie Fox
He stopped suddenly and Karis stared at him because she had listened intently, soaked up every word and suddenly they were making sense. He had been speaking in the past tense, as if he and Simone had already made the decision not to go ahead.
She felt dizzy talking about it. But perhaps she hadn’t heard right; perhaps she had misinterpreted it because it was what she wanted to hear.
Daniel cleared his throat. ‘So we go ahead with tonight’s arrangements,’ he said stiffly. ‘The children go to the party and we relax and have some time to ourselves. Do you have any problem with that?’
A million, she wanted to say, but because she was still puzzling over all he had said about him and Simone she decided a close guard on her feelings would be for the best.
She lifted her chin and told him tightly, ‘There is no problem, just so long as you remember that you pay my wages, as you are so inclined to remind me now and then. All should be well if we stick to the rules. You my employer, me the expendable one.’
He smiled and shook his dark head as if he couldn’t believe her at times. ‘I doubt all will be well till you spirit yourself out into the real world, Karis. You’ve lived too long coiled in the protection of a magic lamp. Watch out for Aladdin tonight.’
He left her breathless and puzzled in the kitchen. So he was about to free her, was he? He was the one living in an unreal world. He’d find out tonight if he dared to try and work his magic on her. If he wanted a pantomime he’d soon find out she wasn’t Widow Twanky!
CHAPTER SEVEN
‘OH, SAFFRON,’ Karis breathed with pleasure. ‘It’s gorgeous. She looks wonderful. Look, Daniel. Isn’t Saffron clever? She’s made Tara a party dress.’
‘Amazing,’ Daniel agreed, leaning forward in Saffron’s rocker on the verandah and holding his hands out to Tara who toddled towards him laughing happily. ‘Come on, treasure, give us a twirl so we can see how beautiful you look.’
The dress was sunshine-yellow with a mass of frills at the tiny sleeves and hem. The bodice was embroidered with tiny flowers and glass beads. Saffron had tied her dark curly hair up on her head with a yellow satin ribbon and the ends spiralled down her back. It was a fun party outfit, frothy and extravagant and very Caribbean.
Daniel held her hands and turned her around so they could all see the big satin bow tied behind her back. Tara giggled and rose to the occasion, showing off until she toppled and Daniel swept her up onto his lap.
‘And next,’ Saffron cooed. ‘Come on, Josh, out from those shadows and show your papa your new outfit’
Daniel threw Karis an agonised glance which she returned with one of her own. If Saffron had decked Josh out so extravagantly the boy would cringe with embarrassment.
Josh stepped out of the shadows with a tentative grin on his face, not sure if he liked being paraded or not.
‘Oh, Josh, you look so grown-up,’ breathed Karis, half in relief, half in genuine admiration. She flashed a quick look at Daniel and his eyes reflected equal relief.
Josh wore long white trousers—his first. His shirt was crisp white too, short-sleeved with a narrow band of yellow at the edge—the same fabric as Tara’s dress. A very conservative frill of matching yellow ran down the front of the shirt. At his waist was a yellow satin cummerbund. Saffron had put some sort of gel on his usually tousled dark hair and combed it back from his forehead.
‘Josh, you look marvellous, immaculate,’ Daniel enthused. ‘Come here. Let me see you together.’
Still holding Tara on his lap, he held his other hand out to Josh. Josh looked shyly at him and then crossed the verandah and stood in front of his father. He didn’t take Daniel’s outstretched hand, though; instead he reached for Tara’s and held it as if drawing confidence from her.
Karis felt a lump in her throat. The sight of Daniel with her daughter on his lap and his son holding the little girl’s hand was very moving.
‘You got a camera, Mr Kennedy? You should have a picture of you all.’
Karis glowered at Saffron, knowing what she was trying to do, but Saffron looked so innocent she wondered if she was mistaken.
Nevertheless Karis said, ‘I have,’ and scooted along to her bedroom to get it. She’d taken several films since coming to Levos, none of them developed yet, all in store in the fridge. She only fleetingly thought that when she left here she’d have them developed and put herself through agonies looking at them.
She held the camera in her hand and stared at it and the fleeting thought she had just dismissed leapt back at her with a vengeance. This film would make her suffer the worst. Daniel would be on it, and Josh and Tara, and it would be unbearable to look at them after Daniel and Josh had left, unbearable. Bravely Karis willed herself into planting a smile on her face and returning to the verandah where everyone was waiting.
‘Here, let me do it,’ Saffron said, and took the camera from her. ‘You stand behind them, Miss Karis.’
Karis took up her position behind the group and tried to look comfortable about the whole business. She wasn’t, though; it was awful trying to hide her angst. It would look like a family group and it wasn’t but to object would spoil the evening for everyone.
‘The other end,’ Daniel laughed, and Josh laughed with him as Saffron turned the unfamiliar camera around in her hands.
The flash lightening the darkness around them sent Tara into fits of giggles and Josh laughed and pulled at her hand, urging her down from his father’s lap.
Karis wondered if Josh was jealous. If he was it would show a feeling for his father. Jealousy was a positive response in some cases, she thought ruefully.
‘Saffron said she used the same material for our clothes so people would think we were brother and sister,’ Josh said as he knelt to adjust the rumpled frills at Tara’s hem.
Karis gave Saffron a dark look. She shouldn’t be putting ideas into his head.
‘You do look like brother and sister,’ Daniel agreed.
And Karis gave Saffron an even darker look. She shouldn’t be putting ideas into Daniel’s head either.
‘Come on, you two; let’s get to the party before the jelly melts,’ Saffron suggested, handing the camera back to Karis.
She hoisted Tara up onto her ample hip and reached for Josh’s hand. He went to Karis, though, and lifted his arms for a hug and a kiss goodbye and then went to his father. Karis held her breath. He paused slightly before extending his right hand formally to Daniel. Daniel looked at his son for what seemed like for ever to Karis. His eyes looked pained, as if he was disappointed his son hadn’t given him the same fond farewell he’d given to Karis. He took his son’s hand and shook it and when Josh turned away to take Saffron’s outstretched hand Karis saw a flush on the boy’s face and a very small smile at the corner of his mouth.
‘The presents,’ Karis said quickly, feeling the pain of Daniel’s disappointment and trying to cover it for them both. ‘You nearly forgot the presents, Josh.’
She gathered up the gaily wrapped gifts from the table. After siesta she and Josh had scoured the toy cupboard for something suitable. There were no shops on the island so something new wasn’t possible. Josh had wanted to give Saffron’s niece the robot Simone had given him but Karis had persuaded him it wasn’t suitable for a four-year-old girl. They’d found a new box of crayons Josh hadn’t used and a doll that Karis had bought for Tara in St Lucia, meaning to keep it for her next birthday, and Josh had painted a card and stuck shells on it. He’d helped wrap the presents too and Karis had been thrilled by his enthusiasm.
Karis stood by the verandah rail and waved them off through the lit gardens, Saffron singing a calypso and Josh joining in in the bits that he knew. Karis turned to Daniel and was dismayed to see him with his head in his hands.
The silence was as heavy as the heat around them. A gecko scuttled up the wall and a candle flickered and Karis at last broke the silence. ‘Don’t be disappointed, Daniel,’ she said softly. ‘He’ll get around to giving you a hug very soon. The hand
shake is a start.’
Daniel let his hands drop and lifted his face to look at her. The pain was so obvious in his eyes that she knew no words of consolation could ease his suffering.
‘We used to do that when he was no more than Tara’s age,’ he told her thickly. ‘It was a game, shaking hands like grown men. I didn’t think he remembered that far back. He must remember it all. The night his mother died. He could have heard her cry out—Oh, God, it’s all still with him, buried so deep inside—’
‘Don’t, Daniel, don’t,’ she pleaded. Without thinking she dropped to her knees and took his hand and squeezed it tightly. ‘Not everything; he wouldn’t remember everything. Children don’t; they are so resilient at times we could learn a lesson from them. Yes, he remembered the handshake and that is wonderful, not sad. He remembered something good, a game you played, and that was his way of reminding you, just in case you had forgotten.’
He lifted her hand over his and kissed it lightly and when he looked at her he was smiling. ‘You’re wonderful,’ he whispered. ‘Too good to be true.’
Embarrassed and touched, Karis stood up. He caught her hand and when she looked down at him he said, ‘Our time now, Karis, and God forbid that Saffron has made you a party dress too.’
The joke eased the tension and they laughed together and Karis was still smiling as she went to get ready. They had both agreed Tara had looked like something off the top of the Christmas tree and Josh like a trainee waiter for a mini-tots’ restaurant. But Saffron had made the children happy and they both appreciated her efforts, though only Karis knew the scale of her effort in making the children look like brother and sister. She must have plotted that ages ago, even before she had known how Karis felt about Daniel. Cunning Saffron. Tomorrow Karis would have to have words with her…
But tonight she wanted to forget tomorrow. Tonight was for them, no children, no shadows from the past, just the night. A barbecue under the stars with Daniel. It would be what she made it, nothing more and nothing less.
But as Karis showered and dressed, taking great care over her appearance, a sort of panic started to creep over her. It was only a barbecue on the beach but they would be alone, completely and utterly alone, and he had made it clear he desired her and she knew how she felt too.
The evening would be fizzing with danger. She could feel it now, the thrill of his touch when he had caressed her breasts…Karis shivered and frowned. If he kissed her…He would of course, she thought, and when he did would she want more? After being an emotion-weary widow for so long, would she be able to control her emotions and feelings long enough to summon flight to her boneless legs? Did she want to?
She gazed at herself in the mirror. What had Saffron seen in her eyes when she looked at Daniel? Did you wear the look of love on your face and not know it? She looked flushed, that was for sure. She glanced down at her small hands. They were shaking slightly. Nerves, excitement? She felt peculiar, wobbly inside like a teenager on a first date. But she wasn’t a teenager, she reminded herself, and started to giggle. She was a widow getting ready for a date with a widower…and that sounded as if they were in their dotage!
Daniel burst out laughing when she appeared on the verandah.
‘Karis, you are priceless. I refuse to take you out like that. Come here.’
Laughing, she stepped towards him. For fun she’d massed the remains of the ribbon she had wrapped the parcels with in her hair, scooping it all to the top of her head as Saffron had done to Tara. For good measure she had thrust a handful of yellow hibiscus flowers into the mass of dark hair.
Daniel loosened the ribbons and let her hair tumble to her shoulders. ‘Just like I first saw you,’ he murmured. ‘Wild and unkempt, warmed by the tropical sun, untouched by civilisation.’
‘You make me sound like Girl Friday.’ She laughed hesitantly.
‘You make me feel like Robinson Crusoe—haven’t seen a woman in years,’ he growled wolfishly.
She laughed with him. ‘Well, this will crush your ardor, Romeo and Juliet we ain’t. What we are are single parents snatching a few hours of respite, and if that doesn’t bring you down to earth with a bump nothing will,’ she teased.
‘For that fearful reminder you will pay a penance,’ he told her, and smiled, lifting her chin to look into her eyes. ‘And it will cost you dearly, Karis,’ he murmured before brushing his lips lightly across hers.
Then he took her hand and led her through the gardens to the beach and Karis thought he was probably right—it would cost her dearly and she would probably willingly pay.
She smelt the wood burning before she saw the barbecue. They stepped out onto the moonlit beach and Karis caught her breath in her throat. What she saw beside the gently smoking barbecue was astonishing.
‘Oh, Daniel,’ she breathed, ‘it’s beautiful. I’m overwhelmed.’
She gazed in awe at the table set for two under a leaning palm tree. A long white damask cloth hung down to the sand and was set with silver and crystal and fine china. A candle in a bowl with hibiscus flowers floating around it sat at the centre. The crystal sparkled and the silver glowed and it looked perfectly romantic. And not without Saffron’s help, Karis felt sure. It all came from the main house; there were no such luxuries as damask, crystal and silver and bone china at the cottage.
‘Like a true Caribbean pirate I plundered all of this,’ he told her, squashing the Saffron theory for her. ‘While the cat is away the mice shall play.’
‘Fiesta will have you hung, drawn and quartered for this,’ Karis warned him with humour.
‘Worth it, don’t you think?’
He held a chair out for her, one of a pair of exquisite French Louis the fourteenth’s Karis had seen in Fiesta’s sumptuous dining room; the other sat at the other side of the table, both of them with their beautifully gilded legs sunk inches into the powdery sand.
‘Oh, Daniel,’ Karis whispered with concern as she sat down. ‘You shouldn’t have gone to all this trouble. Heavens, if the sand does damage to these priceless antiques Fiesta will go crazy with rage.’
‘No, she won’t I won’t allow her to. The stars were a bit of a problem, I must admit. They were reluctant to come out to play tonight I had a job and a half coaxing them out’ He looked up and Karis followed his eyes. Stars sparkled overhead in a cloudless sky.
Karis grinned at him. ‘Divine intervention, more like.’
‘Yes, I made a bargain with the gods. My soul for the stars.’
‘Thank you,’ murmured Karis, her eyes misty as she watched him take champagne from an ice bucket and pop the cork.
‘You know, it’s considered terribly bad form to pop a champagne cork,’ he told her. ‘You’re supposed to soundlessly ease it off but I think it takes the fun out of it, don’t you?’
I do love him, she thought. Hopelessly, completely, utterly. She loved him more for this because it showed his romanticism. A man who did this had to be romantic. How could he have ever considered marriage to Simone on such a cold, calculated basis? But he had said, hadn’t he? That it was all for Josh, only for Josh. And now he was here, doing this for her, and he wasn’t doing it for Josh. This was for her and him. Respite, romanticism, some fun? She didn’t care. She was experiencing it and enjoying it and for the moment little else mattered.
‘Don’t you agree?’
Karis blinked and smiled. Champagne corks, she recalled. ‘Yes, I agree. The louder the better.’ The louder her heart beat, the champagne cork of her soul. She laughed suddenly as Daniel poured the frothy wine. The stars had gone to her head and she hadn’t even drunk the wine yet.
‘What can I do to help?’ she asked as Daniel raked the hot ashes.
‘Nothing with this. Barbecues are men’s work. You can take that bowl of salad out of the cold box, though.’
Karis did it while Daniel threw the steaks onto the grill. They sizzled and threw sparks into the night and the smell was delicious. She set the bowl of salad on the table and sat sipping her ch
ampagne, suddenly at a loss for words and wondering if any were needed.
‘I always thought these leaning palms grew this way because of the wind,’ she began eventually, some minutes later. ‘But they don’t, you know. They lean over towards the sea so that when they drop their seeds, the coconuts or whatever, they are carried out on the tide and onto some distant shore, so propagating their species far and wide.’
Suddenly he was behind her and gently drawing her up from her chair. He gathered her into his arms and kissed her so tenderly she wondered what she had said to make him do it. But perhaps it was just the magic of the night affecting him as it was affecting her. The stars, the moon, the heat of a tropical night. Such things turned the mind. When at last he released her she felt weak and senseless, with only a smidgen of desire to fight it. With a knowing smile he turned back to the grill and Karis sat down and waited and wished away all thoughts but to enjoy this evening.
‘Are you hungry?’ he asked, taking her plate to the grill to dish up the steaks.
She was and she wasn’t. How could you be hungry for food when love took your appetite away?
‘Starving,’ she admitted. She must be for his sake. He had gone to such trouble.
‘Good. Me too.’
He sat down across from her and topped up their champagne glasses and held his aloft.
‘What shall we toast?’
Karis shrugged. Josh’s future might be nice to toast to but tonight wasn’t about Josh. She sensed that bringing the children into the conversation would bring the night down from its magical height.
‘What about us?’ Daniel suggested, and held her green eyes in the candle-glow.
Karis held her glass up nervously. And what about us? she thought miserably. Where is all this going to end? The night was perfect, too perfect, too worrying, too dangerous. And would be spoiled if she didn’t take it for what it was—an act of appreciation from Daniel, surely?