by Kay Thorpe
Eve confirmed that she was and began to get dressed herself. By the time Lynn and Juan reached them they were both of them ready to move, and Ramon suggested that they should set out for the car with the basket and rugs, leaving the other two to follow on when they were dressed.
Eve waited until they had reached the car before saying tentatively, 'Ramon, about tonight ...'
Ramon let down the lid of the boot and looked at her. 'If you're about to ask if I'd consider making it a party, then the answer is no,' he said unequivoc-
ably. 'You wish to change your mind?'
'I can't remember being given much of a chance to make it up in the first place,' she answered with irony. 'It is settled! '
His mouth widened. 'You object to having plans made for your entertainment without first being consulted?'
'Well ... no. Of course not. I mean ...' She spread her hands ruefully. 'You're adept at confusing the issue.'
'The issue here being Lynn's possible reactions to our plans for this evening.' He studied her shrewdly. 'Your sister is old enough now to look after herself. So she may not like it that I should take you out alone. That's too bad. Juan will appreciate the opportunity to have his novia to himself for a while, and I would appreciate the company of her sister, also alone. However ...' with a philosophical shrug ... 'if you don't want to accompany me ...'
If she didn't there would be no shortage of those only too ready and willing to take her place. Eve surmised, and knew then that she had never had any real intention of refusing the invitation. Just this once she was going to please herself.
'I do,' she said firmly before she had time to start changing her mind. 'And thanks for thinking of it.'
His mouth curved. 'The pleasure is mine.'
Lynn and Juan were coming across the lava flow towards them. Lynn was a little in front, and seemingly determined to stay there. She looked sulky, and there were two spots of high colour in her
cheeks. When she reached them she got straight into the front passenger seat of the car and sat there stonily, totally ignoring her fiancé as he came up.
Juan's eyes were troubled, but he made no attempt to talk to her, climbing into the rear seat with Eve and settling back with a faint sigh. Wondering what had passed between them while they had been alone, Eve wished that Juan would only learn to conceal his feelings more. The best way to deal with Lynn's little tantrums was to jolly her out of them, not let her see that they were having the calculated effect.
They took a different route back to the villa, driving up through the Orotava Valley to a place called El Portillo at the entrance to the volcano's main crater, and then down again past the TV mast and the Observatory via a road which wound perilously close to the precipitous mountain edge, and afforded views which took the breath away with their sheer magnificence.
`This is nothing compared with what you'll see from the very summit itself,' commented Ramon as both girls exclaimed involuntarily at one particular awe-inspiring vista. 'At twelve thousand feet or more you'll find yourselves on top of the world, with even the clouds hundreds of feet below. Up there the air is thin and cold, and the silence unbelievable.'
'How poetic,' said Lynn with a distinct edge to her voice. 'Are you adding colour again?'
There was a glint in his eyes as he answered her. 'We all of us do that at times. Today has bored
you?'
`No,' she denied swiftly. obviously already regretting her snappy retort. 'I just found it rather tiring, I suppose.'
'Then it will be good for you to rest this evening,' he said, and found Eve's eyes in the mirror as he added shamelessly, 'It appears that your sister and I must dine alone in Puerto.'
Lynn's head came round sharply. She opened her mouth to say something. thought better of it and subsided into a silence which lasted until they reached the villa. Getting out of the car, she announced shortly that she was going to her room, and left the three of them gazing after her with varying expressions as she Bounced up the steps.
Ramon said something softly to his brother in Spanish, received a wry smile and a brief shake of the head by way of reply, and shrugged as he turned back to Eve. 'We'll leave the house about eightish and have a drink on the plaza first. You have time for a rest yourself before we go. It will be the early hours before we return.'
Lynn's door was closed when Eve passed it on the way to her own room. It was the wrong time, she knew, yet she couldn't bring herself to leave things as they were at the moment without at least attempting to bring them into perspective. Her tap on the door, however, went ignored, and when she tried it it was locked. So that was that for the present. Short of breaking the door down there was no way of getting through to Lynn.
There was still no sign of her sister when Eve
descended the stairs at seven-thirty. Señora Perestrello was alone in the salon, the inevitable embroidery in her fine hands. She nodded approval of Eve's long cotton dress with its tiny sleeves and fresh green flower pattern, and was obviously pleased that Eve had taken the trouble to come and visit her before leaving.
Ramon arrived some twenty minutes later, looking vital and devastatingly handsome in a white dinner jacket and black cummerbund. He kissed his mother goodbye without embarrassment, laughingly promised to take good care of their guest, and took Eve's hand in his as they went out through the hall and down the steps to the car.
`You look,' he said before he closed the door, 'like everything that is good in both our languages! '
He took the moonlit drive down into Puerto de la Cruz at a steady pace, arriving there about nine. The plaza was thronged, most of the tables under the lantern-lit trees already taken. But an empty one appeared as if by magic at the bar chosen by Ramon, and the proprietor himself hurried out to serve them, greeting him by name and casting glances of unconcealed curiosity at Eve. In the following half hour they were barely alone for longer than a few minutes, as people kept coming across to pass the time of day. Eve was introduced so many times that she quite lost count of the many faces, and knew that she would never fit them to the right names. Not that it mattered, she told herself. She would hardly be here on the island long enough to find herself in company with any of them again. A
thought which gave rise to a sense of depression which she quickly and firmly smothered. Tonight she was going to enjoy herself without worrying about tomorrow for once.
Dinner at a nearby restaurant was followed by dancing at an open-air nightclub overlooking the sea. Heady with wine and the sheer stimulation of Ramon's company, Eve wished that the night could last for ever. She hadn't realised how much she had missed dancing since Gavin had come into her life. What else she had been missing she wasn't yet quite sure, and she shied away from exploring too deeply. All she did know was that in three short days her whole body had taken on a new vitality.
It was gone three o'clock by the time they eventually left the club to drive home, yet Eve still felt no tiredness. Ramon had all the windows wound fully down, and the night breezes were revitalising in themselves. He drove fast through La Laguna and along the first part of the mountain road, talking and laughing companionably. When they turned off suddenly to the right it took Eve unawares, and for several moments she couldn't decide whether the mistake was his or hers. Only when the road they were on petered out into a track which ended abruptly in a small clearing overlooking the Orotava Valley did she begin to realise that his intentions were not yet homeward bent.
'Is this where you bring all the women you've taken out for an evening?' she asked stiffly as he cut the engine.
`No.' He said it quite calmly. 'I thought that you
might like to see the valley by moonlight on a night as clear as this. The great patch of lights down there to the right is Puerto, while the nearer ones are those of La Orotava where my grandmother lives. Not many lights left shining there. It's a town which sleeps early.'
'Sorry,' said Eve wryly after a moment. 'I thought ...'
'You thought I broug
ht you here to make love to you. Yes?' There was an element of irony in his voice. 'I'll not pretend that the idea hadn't entered my mind. For hours I've held you close with your lips only inches from mine. I'd hardly be a man if I didn't want to kiss them, and you'd be concealing the truth if you denied that you too tasted the urge. Do kisses have to be taken so seriously?'
Eve swallowed on a sudden tightness in her throat. 'I told you I didn't like casual affairs. If I kiss someone it has to mean something.'
'And when you kiss your Gavin, this means something?' mockingly. 'Tell me what you feel when he takes you in his arms. Does your heart pound in your ears and your breath grow short? Do you feel weak at the knees and dazed with emotion?'
'Is that what happens to your women?' she queried tartly.
He laughed softly. 'There's one way of finding out.' His hand cupped her chin, tilting her mouth to his. Eve resisted weakly, aware that it was just a token struggle, aware that she wanted him to kiss her, had been wanting him to all evening. And then his arms were about her and all pretence had
suddenly gone as her own lips softened and yielded —responded. When he put her away from him he was smiling.
'Well?'
'So you've kissed a lot of women,' she said with forced lightness. 'And now you can add me to the list.'
'But you enjoyed it.' It was a statement, not a question.
'You meant me to, didn't you?' She was back in her corner of the seat, determined to give him no further opportunity to undermine her resistance like that. Her heart was pounding, there was no doubt about it. 'It's very late,' she added quickly. 'Shouldn't we be getting back?'
'We have time to smoke a cigarette and enjoy the peace,' he came back equably. He took out his case and offered it to her, flicking a satirical brow when she refused. 'You smoked earlier.'
'Only half a one, she rejoined. 'I don't really like them.'
'But you have no objection to my own indulgence?'
'No, not at all.' She watched him light up, followed the curl of smoke into the still air, said tentatively, 'I wonder if Lynn and Juan have made it up yet.'
The movement of his shoulders was eloquent. 'If they haven't there's nothing you can do to help them. It's up to Juan to sort out his own problems.'
'Is that what you told him this afternoon when Lynn left us at the door?'
Momentarily his mouth widened. 'This afternoon I suggested that it was perhaps time to teach your sister a much-needed lesson, but he didn't agree. He has more tolerance than I have—perhaps too much. I would have spanked her.'
'Oh, please,' Eve protested. 'She's nineteen, not twelve! '
'Today she acted twelve. Lynn can be the most charming of young women, but she's too fond of her own way. If your father had taken the same interest in her that he took in you and his work she might not have needed a firm hand quite so badly as she does now.'
'Are you saying that my father fell down on his responsibilities?' she demanded with some heat, and he smiled a little.
'I realise that for you he could do no wrong, but yes, that is what I'm saying. Lynn was also his daughter; it wasn't her fault that she failed to share his enthusiasms in the way you did yourself. In Juan she may at first have seen those qualities she was deprived of : love, protection, even discipline.'
'And in you ?' asked a suddenly thoughtful Eve. 'If what you say is true then why should she find you the greater attraction now?'
'Because Juan has disappointed her and she hopes to arouse him into asserting himself by deliberately making him jealous. She may not realise it, of course, but it's true.'
'In your opinion.'
'In my considered opinion ...' with an amused glance ... 'it's the secret desire of all women to be
mastered—to have a man prove to them that he's fit to be called one. You'd have little liking for a mate who allowed you to wrap him around your little finger. That's probably why you refuse to marry this young man of yours.'
'I haven't refused,' she returned with some asperity. 'And as you don't know him you're hardly in a position to pass comment on his personality. Gavin doesn't have to prove himself in any way to me. I like him the way he is.'
'Like? That's no basis for a marriage.' His lip curled. 'The truth is that you're afraid of the heights and depths of passion, afraid of being hurt. So you'll make yourself content with the shallower emotions and go on denying your real needs—just as you did a few moments ago when I kissed you.' He was watching her face, and now his voice softened and deepened. 'We only have the one lifetime, chica. Why not enjoy it while the flame still flickers?'
And then what? thought Eve tremulously. For a man like Ramon the flame would flare with brief intensity and die a natural death, but for her ... Her throat contracted. 'I'm tired,' she said unsteadily. 'It must be after four.'
The pause seemed to go on for ever. Then he smiled, shrugged and switched on the ignition. 'As you prefer. There'll be other times.'
Not if she could help it, Eve told herself as the car began to move again. The dangers of allowing herself any kind of relationship at all with Ramon Perestrello were suddenly only too apparent.
CHAPTER FOUR
WHATEVER had passed between Lynn and Juan during the Saturday evening, it appeared to make little difference to the former's general mood over the rest of that weekend. She barely spoke a word to Eve on the Sunday, and studiously ignored Ramon's presence at the pool side. To Eve, who had seen it all before, it was plain that she was desperately unhappy and unsure of herself, and that the only thing to do was to wait until she had come to terms with her own wayward nature. No matter what she decided she would have her own full support.
On Monday, with the two men departed for Santa Cruz, the villa seemed unnaturally empty. Unwilling to admit that she had already learned to miss the taunting challenge of Ramon's presence, Eve took herself off to walk up through the forest to the nearest village, a matter of a couple of miles or so, arriving there hot and dusty to find that the only shop the place possessed had no postcards of any kind at all for sale. Had she thought about it earlier she could have asked either Juan or Ramon to bring her back a selection from the town, she realised with some vexation, uncomfortably aware of the frankly admiring glances being cast her way by the group of men lounging outside the little bodegon further down the main street. As it was, she now faced the return journey empty-handed, with her only comfort in the fact that at least the
way back lay downhill.
She arrived back at the villa at noon, to find herself on the receiving end of a severe scolding from Señora Perestrello for failing to leave some intimation of where she had gone.
`I was about to instruct that Ramon be fetched to look for you,' she said. 'Had you asked my advice I would have told you that the village could not fulfil your needs, and that the walk there would be far too tiring in such heat. You will promise me that you will not think of doing such a thing again.'
Eve promised readily, forbearing to mention that Lynn had been informed of her intentions. She found her sister lounging as usual by the pool. Tackled on the subject, the latter said airily that she had completely forgotten.
'Anyway, I can't see what all the fuss is about,' she finished ungraciously. 'You're capable of looking after yourself.' There was a brief pause, and her voice took on a harder note. 'In fact, you're capable of a whole lot of things I'd never have suspected. I've always looked up to you, Eve, as being above stooping to the kind of tricks I'd expect from anyone else, but you're really no different underneath. I hope you enjoyed yourself with Ramon on Saturday night.'
'I did,' Eve replied steadily. 'He can be very good company, providing you don't take anything he says seriously.'
`And you wouldn't, of course,' with sarcasm. 'I suppose you'd like me to believe that you never even let him kiss you.' Perhaps fortunately she
didn't bother to wait for an answer to that one. 'What is Gavin going to say when he hears about you gadding about with another man?'
&nb
sp; 'It has nothing to do with Gavin,' returned Eve in the same even tones. 'We're not engaged or anything. In any case, there hasn't been anything for him to object to.'
'Yet.' Lynn gave her a dark glance. 'You're here for another eight or nine days, remember.'
'That's rather up to you.' Eve bit her lip, uncertain of how to handle the subject. 'Lynn, have you any idea at all of what you're doing to Juan? He thinks the world of you, you know.'
'Yes,' she said, 'I do know. Sickening, isn't it?'
The cruelty of it left Eve feeling rather sickened herself. She said sharply, 'You know, I think Ramon was right—you do need a good slapping. For two pins I'd do it myself ! '
'Just you try,' was the biting response, 'and I'll push you into the pool! ' The blue eyes were sparkling with angry tears. 'And you can tell Ramon to keep his opinions to himself in future. Who does he think he is! If he hadn't encouraged me I'd never ...' She broke off, turning her face away and dashing a hand furiously across her eyes. 'Oh, go away and leave me alone, can't you! Everything was fine before you came '
'Lynn.' Eve made an impulsive movement towards her, then checked. 'Darling, don't upset yourself like this. Please! ' There was only a momentary hesitation before she added swiftly, 'Look, if you want me to I'll tell Juan that the engagement is off,
and we can go home together, back to the flat. You'll easily find another job.'
`Just you stay away from Juan! ' blazed the younger girl. 'Don't you dare tell him anything! I'll decide for myself what I'm going to do when I'm good and ready, and not before. Until then you can just mind your own business! '
Nothing, decided Eve firmly, was going to persuade her to fight any further over this with Lynn out here where anyone could overhear them. 'All right,' she said. 'If that's what you want. Only just try to remember that we've neither of us any right here if you've no intention at all of marrying Juan, and I. for one don't find it pleasant to accept hospitality under false pretences.'