The Tempestuous Flame

by Carole Mortimer

  ‘We are?’ She raised one eyebrow.

  ‘We are.’

  ‘Where?’

  He shrugged out of his jacket. ‘Babs is throwing one of her parties this evening.’

  ‘But you don’t like those sort of parties.’

  ‘I know that,’ he said impatiently. ‘But if it’s the only way to get you out I’m willing to go. Besides, I like Babs.’

  ‘And she likes you too.’

  Matt sighed. ‘None of your matchmaking tonight, Caroline! Ever since you were six years old and you realised you didn’t have a mother like all the other kids you’ve been trying to find me a wife. I don’t need or want a wife, and it’s a bit late to start thinking of a mother for you. Although you look as if you could do with one right now.’

  She blushed, pushing back her hair from her eyes. ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘Look at the state of you!’ He poured himself a stiff measure of whisky. ‘You aren’t taking care of yourself any more—I can’t remember the last time I saw you put on make-up. And your hair looks as if it could do with a good brush.’

  ‘It needs washing,’ she said moodily.

  ‘Then damn well wash it! Come on, Caroline, get up off your backside and move yourself. We leave in less than an hour and I’m certainly not taking you anywhere looking like that.’

  ‘I don’t want to go. I’m perfectly happy where I am.’

  ‘I couldn’t care less whether you are or whether you aren’t, you’re coming with me. Now go and wash your hair and I’ll tell Maggie we’re ready for dinner.’

  ‘But, Daddy, I—’

  ‘Do it, Caroline! I’m fast running out of patience where you’re concerned. Our going out this evening is not for discussion, we’re going and that’s that. Now move!’

  She moved. She knew her father when he was in this mood, and it didn’t pay to argue with him. And just maybe he was right. She studied her pale face in the bathroom mirror. She did look a mess. Her hair hadn’t been washed and given a good brush for days, and her skin needed a proper cleansing and a moisturiser before she attempted to put make-up on it.

  Why was she doing this to herself? All right, so she loved André, but looking like this she hadn’t a hope of winning him—if she should ever see him again, that was. This was what was depressing her the most. She had never met him socially in the past, so why should she start now? Everything she did seemed so futile, so unnecessary.

  Her father opened the bathroom door, frowning at her still form. ‘Move, Caroline,’ he snapped. ‘I have every intention of taking you with me, so there’s no point in delaying. We’re going, even if we don’t get there until midnight.’

  ‘I’m not very good company, Daddy.’

  ‘So you can sit in the corner all evening—but you’re still going.’

  She sighed. ‘Yes, Daddy.’

  He hesitated a moment. ‘There isn’t—isn’t anything you want to tell me, is there?’

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Well… You aren’t ill or—anything?’ He couldn’t quite meet her eyes.

  ‘Ill?’ She looked puzzled and then blushed as she realised what he meant. ‘No, I’m not ill—in any way.’

  Her father looked slightly abashed. ‘I’m sorry, but I had to ask. I know you told me nothing like that happened, but you may have just been too embarrassed to tell me about it. After all, it’s not usually something you discuss with your father.’

  ‘Nothing happened, Daddy,’ she repeated.

  He gave a relieved smile. ‘I’ll see you in a few minutes, then.’

  An hour or so later she looked more like the Caroline of old. Her hair had been washed and now swung in golden waves down her back and curled softly about her cheeks. Her gown was the first one she laid hands on, but it suited her anyway. It was a black chiffon, strapless, but fitted over her not inconsiderable bust to fall in an A-line to her slender ankles. Her skin glowed a golden tan from the summer months and except for her slightly shadowed eyes she looked a picture of beauty. Her loss of weight made her appear more slender than ever and emphasised the fullness of her breasts, but perhaps that wasn’t such a bad thing in this gown.

  Her father gave her hand a confident squeeze before they entered Babs’ house, set in an exclusive part of London. ‘You look beautiful, poppet,’ he told her in a whisper.

  She certainly felt better than she had done for days, and she felt grateful for her father’s deliberate boost to her confidence. ‘I’ll be all right, Daddy. You have no need to worry about me.’

  He gave a rueful smile. ‘And just what do you think I’ve been doing the last few weeks?’

  ‘Well, you don’t have to do it any more. Every girl falls in love disastrously once in her life.’

  ‘Mm, but it was my fault. I could have saved you all this heartache just by telling you who he was in the first place. After our earlier conversation about him you wouldn’t have stayed. I was being my usual arrogant self, hoping things would work out as I’d planned, that the two of you would like each other.’

  Caroline turned to straighten his tie. ‘Let’s forget it, Daddy.’ She put her hand through the crook of his arm. ‘Let’s go and face the throng.’

  ‘Mm,’ he murmured grumpily.

  She laughed at the expression on his face. He usually refused to go to these parties, declaring they were almost like a free-for-all. There wouldn’t be many of her own friends here tonight; Babs Lerner was her father’s age and consequently so were most of her friends. But Caroline had always liked Babs, and as her father had said, she had once hoped to have her as a stepmother. But it was not to be.

  She was still laughing at her father’s bad humour when they entered the crowded lounge, and the first person she saw was André! A different André from the one she was used to, dressed formally in a cream suit and contrasting brown shirt. His hair was brushed back in the casual windswept style he favoured. Within seconds of her seeing him he had spotted her too, those green eyes narrowing as he looked at her.

  The smile faded from Caroline’s lips and her skin became pale under her make-up. And she had thought she would never meet him socially! Her first evening out for days and here he was. She clutched compulsively at her father’s arm and saw him follow her fixed gaze, nodding his head politely in acknowledgment as he recognised André.

  ‘Did you know he was going to be here?’ she muttered angrily under her breath, dragging her eyes determinedly away from that mocking face.

  ‘How the hell would I know that?’

  She looked at him closely, noting the slight flush to his cheeks. ‘You did know, don’t bother to deny it. I always know when you’re lying, you’re on the defensive.’

  ‘I could just be on the defensive because I’m innocent,’ he blustered, smiling politely at the people who greeted him.

  ‘You’re not,’ she returned firmly. ‘How could you do this to me?’ she asked brokenly. ‘And after just apologising to me!’

  ‘Now don’t cause a scene here.’ He took a drink from a passing waiter, handing one to Caroline. ‘Drink some of that, it will steady your nerves. I’ll just go and find our hostess and say hello.’

  ‘Oh, but—’ before she could say any more he had gone, leaving her alone and at the mercy of her own thoughts. André was at this party and at any moment she could come face to face with him! She went cold at the thought of it. How could her father do this to her!

  She sensed rather than heard him behind her, her whole body feeling the electricity of his presence. ‘Caroline.’ His voice was husky and low and she turned slowly to greet him, forcing a tight smile to her frozen lips.

  ‘André,’ she acknowledged.

  He smiled. ‘That’s an improvement! The last time we met you vowed you would never call me André again.’

  ‘Did I?’ she returned brightly. ‘I can’t remember every conversation we had.’ But she could, she could!

  ‘I can,’ he said tautly, watching her over the flame of his lighter as he lit
a cigarette. ‘You came here with Matt?’

  She shrugged. ‘You saw us come in together.’

  ‘That wasn’t what I asked. Did you come here with him?’ he repeated harshly.

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Have you been with him all the time you’ve been back?’ he returned sharply, his stance one of challenge.

  ‘Most of it. But I—’

  ‘I see. So you went straight back to him like a frightened child. I frightened you at the cottage, because I wanted you and I promised nothing in return for your delectable body. So you came back to your old lover.’

  She shook her head. ‘You don’t understand. He isn’t—’

  André stubbed his cigarette out viciously. ‘I understand all right. I just wish I could get you out of my mind.’

  ‘Let me explain—’

  ‘Greg darling!’ A tall brunette swayed her way over to his side and Caroline recognised her as Lisa Young, one of the best-known actresses in the world today. She pouted up at him. ‘Can we leave now, Greg?’

  ‘Maybe.’ He was still watching Caroline.

  ‘You did promise we wouldn’t have to stay long,’ she insisted.

  Caroline watched the two of them together, thinking what a handsome couple they made. Lisa Young was tall, much taller than Caroline, her hair arranged in a glowing cap about her beautiful face. Her red silk gown showed up vividly, drawing attention to her—which was probably the desired effect, Caroline thought bitchily.

  ‘Greg?’ the actress put in pleadingly. ‘Let’s go now. I want to meet the others at the club.’

  He looked at her with irritation. ‘Can’t you see I’m talking to someone, Lisa? Just wait a few minutes and we’ll be on our way.’

  Deep brown eyes looked Caroline up and down. ‘Do I know you?’ she asked icily.

  ‘I doubt it,’ Caroline returned just as coolly.

  ‘You look vaguely familiar,’ the actress said thoughtfully. ‘Should I know you?’

  ‘No,’ Caroline lied. That was all she needed, for this woman to blurt out just exactly who she was. She intended telling André herself, not have him angered anew by finding out from someone else.

  ‘Oh well,’ Lisa Young lost interest. ‘My mistake.’

  ‘Okay, Lisa, let’s go.’ André took hold of her elbow. ‘Goodnight, Caroline.’

  She watched them leave, only coming to an awareness of her surroundings when her father touched her arm. ‘What’s the matter?’ He looked down at her white face with concern.

  ‘André just left,’ she said dully.

  ‘I would have thought that would have pleased you.’ He looked puzzled.

  ‘He spoke to me before he left.’ She suppressed a cold shiver, even though the room was warm. ‘And Lisa Young.’

  ‘Mm, he’s been friends with her for quite some time now.’ He took hold of her arm. ‘Come and say hello to Babs, she asked after you.’

  ‘I—I want to leave.’ Caroline licked her dry lips.

  Her father’s hold on her tightened. ‘You have no reason to do that if Greg’s already left.’

  ‘I—I—’

  ‘We’re not leaving, Caroline. I brought you up with better manners than that. Babs is your hostess and you haven’t even spoken to her yet,’ he said angrily.

  ‘Oh, Daddy!’ her eyes begged him.

  ‘Remember where you are, Caroline,’ he snapped. ‘Remember who you are.’

  ‘All right,’ she sighed. ‘You win. I’m being hysterical about this. Where’s Babs?’

  Matt gave a triumphant smile. The first shock of seeing André was beginning to wear off, perhaps now she could get on with the rest of her life. This meeting had been necessary to shake her out of her mood of despondency, and while he hadn’t been sure of André being here this evening, he had had a pretty good idea.

  There was dancing in the other room, and after greeting Babs, Caroline accepted an invitation from one of the younger men to dance. She had met Mike a couple of times before, he was the son of one of her father’s business associates. After that she danced with several of the younger members of the party.

  She realised her mistake in accepting one rather persistent young man as soon as he began to touch her bare back with his hot sweaty hands. He was an old acquaintance of hers, but he had obviously had too much to drink, and all her efforts to stop his fumbling caresses were to no avail. He seemed to have the strength and hands of half a dozen men in his inebriated state, and Caroline was becoming quite agitated when she felt him suddenly wrenched away from her.

  She looked up into blazing green eyes, André’s face white with the effort it took him to hold on to his temper. But his anger and the contempt she saw in his eyes didn’t seem important right now, all that seemed to matter to her was that he had come back. André had come back to the party! And he was alone.

  CHAPTER NINE

  ‘GO and get yourself some black coffee, Danville,’ André growled at the younger man. ‘And stop making a nuisance of yourself!’

  Richard Danville flushed in the face of this powerful man’s unhidden anger. ‘I didn’t know I was stepping on any toes, Greg, old man,’ he blustered. ‘I thought you were pretty well tied up with the beautiful and demanding Lisa.’

  ‘Well, now you know I’m not,’ André told him between gritted teeth. ‘Now go and get that coffee.’

  Caroline waited until he had left before turning on André. ‘Did you have to humiliate him like that?’ Her blue eyes flashed her dislike.

  André took a tight hold of her arm and led her away from the curious eyes that had been turned on them during that obviously heated exchange. Thank goodness her father hadn’t seen it, he would not have been pleased. ‘I would have done more than humiliate him if we weren’t in such a public place, I would have beaten him to a pulp. How dare you allow him to paw you about like that? And where the hell is Matt to allow it to happen?’

  ‘He’s talking to Babs somewhere,’ she said vaguely, watching his scowling face. He was furiously angry, of that there could be no doubt. And she was the cause of that anger, that was obvious too.

  ‘Then he should be keeping a better eye on his property,’ he rasped. ‘Allowing that young kid to wander his hands all over you!’ he added in disgust.

  ‘I’ve known Richard for years,’ Caroline snapped back angrily. ‘He’s just had too much to drink. He’ll apologise the next time we meet.’

  Green eyes narrowed as he looked down at her, narrowing even more as they slid appraisingly up and down her slender body. ‘It’s that damned dress you nearly have on,’ he muttered savagely. ‘No wonder half the men in the room can’t take their eyes off you.’

  ‘Only half the men?’ she queried flippantly, wincing as his fingers tightened painfully on her arm.

  ‘You ought to be locked up,’ he groaned in her ear. ‘Locked up where no one else can look at you but me. Come on,’ he began to pull her roughly towards the door. ‘We’re leaving.’

  Caroline came to an abrupt halt, uncaring of the renewed pain to her bare arm. ‘I can’t do that,’ she said stubbornly. ‘I came here with—with Matt.’ Now was hardly the time to explain that Matt was her father, not here in the middle of a noisy party. ‘I can’t just leave without telling him where I’m going—or who I’m going with.’

  ‘Caro,’ he looked down at her, his eyes deepening with an emotion she thought she recognised as passion, but surely she must be mistaken. But he had called her Caro! ‘I want to be alone with you,’ he insisted.

  ‘And I have to let Matt know I’m leaving. He’ll be worried about me if I just disappear.’

  ‘Okay, okay,’ he gave in impatiently. ‘Let’s find him and then get out of here.’

  ‘I’m not sure I want to leave, André.’ She hung back. ‘Not with you in this mood.’

  ‘What mood?’ he frowned.

  ‘That mood,’ she said pointedly. ‘You’re angry and annoyed about something, and I think I’m to be the whipping-post. What happened? Did Lisa
Young not like you talking to me and turn awkward?’

  His eyes narrowed to icy green slits. ‘What are you talking about, Caroline? What does Lisa have to do with us?’

  She arched her eyebrows. ‘Everything, I would have thought. She’s your lastest girl-friend, isn’t she?’

  ‘She was,’ he told her grimly. ‘I’m not going to explain anything in the middle of this crowd. Matt’s over there,’ he nodded in the direction of the smaller sitting-room.

  By the time they reached her father’s side she was resigned to the fact that André meant her to leave with him, and no matter what obstacles she put in his way he would walk right over them.

  ‘Matt,’ he said deeply, and she saw her father’s eyes widen as he saw the two of them together. ‘Matt, Caroline is leaving with me.’

  Her father excused himself from the crowd of people he had been talking to. ‘Is she now?’ he queried mildly. ‘Caroline?’ he shot her a keen glance. ‘How do you feel about this?’

  She glanced nervously at the stony-faced André. ‘Well, I—’ She licked her dry lips.

  ‘She’s leaving with me, Matt,’ he said firmly.

  Her father gave him a cool look. ‘Caroline is perfectly capable of answering for herself.’

  They both looked at her and she looked from one to the other of them, not quite knowing what to do. She wanted to go with André, and yet she feared his mood. ‘I—’

  ‘You don’t have to go, Caroline,’ her father put in gently. ‘You came with me, you can leave with me.’

  In that moment she came to perhaps the most important decision of her young life. All her life she had depended on her father—oh, they argued, but that was only natural between two people so much alike, but for all their differences of opinion it was to him she ran when she was in trouble or anything was worrying her. But she couldn’t depend on him for ever, sooner or later she was going to have to stand on her own two feet. And now was as good a time as any to start.

  ‘I’ll go with André,’ she said in a rash.

  ‘All right,’ her father nodded approval. ‘As long as it’s your own decision I have no objection.’