Wake the Sleeping Tiger

by Margaret Way

  'There now!' Harriet patted her shoulder. 'I'll go make us all a cup of tea. Everything will be all right now. You'll see! '

  A spasm crossed Brooke's eyes and she put out a hand to Lucia, who took Brooke's hand firmly in her own.

  'I'll stay here when you go up and see Papa. He will want to see you.'

  'Sh-sh I We'll both go and if he is very much better then Gianni will want to see him as well.'

  'Thank you, signora !' Gianni bowed and his face lost its aged, forlorn look. 'I have prayed and the good God has heard me! '

  The time passed slowly, but then they were at the hospital and Lucia insisted gently that Brooke go in to see Paul first. He had a private room and though his eyes were shut, he knew the instant she walked in the door.

  'Brooke! '

  He pulled himself up in the bed and she went to him swiftly. 'No, please, Paul. Lie quietly.'

  'But why?' He sounded faintly surprised.

  'You're in a hospital and you've had quite a blow to your head.' She looked at him appealingly, her golden-green eyes shadowed from lack of sleep. 'How are you? Don't move, if it will hurt you. Lucia is waiting just outside the door. You gave us all such a terrible fright! '

  'Please, little one!' he checked her nervous flow of words, 'Lucia, in a moment, first tell me why you look this way?' His black eyes were looking into hers in the same brilliant way.

  'You know. I was so very worried and afraid.'

  He framed her face between his hands. 'Then kiss me.'

  'It might be bad for you, so soon! '

  'Little fool! ' He held her head firmly, a kind of reproach in his dark eyes, then he covered her mouth with his own.

  'I love you! ' Her fingers clenched around his own.

  'Do you?' He was looking at her searchingly.

  'Terribly!' Her eyes fell and she kissed his hand. 'I hope you'll let me tell you how much when you get home.'

  'Of course I will!' There seemed to be a dangerous light in his eyes and he hadn't lost his mocking smile. 'I'm sorry I had to frighten you, my beautiful wife. You I look as if you've been through a time of confusion and fear, a small crisis.'

  'The biggest of my life!' she said in a voice that shook slightly. 'I must let Lucia in. It's been a distressing time for her as well.'

  'M-m, do that, my darling.' said Paul, looking at her for a moment with searching attention. 'I should very much like to see her. If everything turns out all right, I should be home tomorrow.'

  'Oh, I hope so!' Brooke said fervently, and turning away, missed the expression on her husband's face.

  Lucia came in in a little fearful rush, then as she saw her father looking so absolutely normal, an overwhelming thankfulness turned her knees to water.

  'Oh, Papa!' she exclaimed, and hunched against his breast.

  Miraculously Paul was discharged the next day and his doctor overrode all Brooke's remaining fears and anxieties. Paul's memory of the incident was complete right until the crucial second before he hurled himself and his workman clear of the main danger zone when the slightest miscalculation could have killed them both, and all his tests were clear. There was no further cause for anxiety and Paul had taken the time to visit Tom Doyle, his workman, on the third floor, reassuring him by his presence even though Tom realised he had a few things to answer for when he got out of hospital. At least the boss was all right, and that blotted out his main fear.

  The phone had been ringing for most of the day, mostly to support Brooke, then when she informed all her callers that Paul was coming home that day, they greeted the news with sincere pleasure and relief. Carla rang as well, Gianni and Brooke converging on the phone simultaneously, but Brooke mouthed to Gianni with confidence that she would take the call after he ascertained who was ringing and took the receiver out of his hand.

  'Brooke here, Carla !' she said clearly.

  'When is Paul coming home?' Carla cut her short.

  'Today.'

  'You mean it?'

  'I mean there's nothing more I'm going to tell you,' Brooke said calmly. 'You played your hand and lost. My husband is coming home this afternoon and you can speak to him some other time if you wish. As a gentleman and a distant relative he's bound to answer you, but nothing more, Carla―not that I would enjoy telling him your deliberate lies. Now, if you'll excuse me, I've many things to do, This is a day of celebration in our house !'

  'But, Brooke—” Carla tried to hold her.

  “Bye now!' said Brooke, and hung up with considerable satisfaction.

  Dinner went off with a flourish, with Gianni serving looking twenty years younger and Lucia talking gaily without a trace of the little nervous stammer that sometimes assailed' her. Brooke, though she was looking very slender and beautiful, was rather quiet as though her days and nights of anxiety had almost consumed her nervous energy. Paul had been spared to her and that was all she could seem to remember. He sat at the head of the table with the light from the chandelier playing all over the planes and angles of his dark face and she couldn't seem to get enough of the sight of it. Did he really know how she cared?

  Later when she prepared for bed she did the only thing she could think of doing. She touched perfume to her wrists and ears and the valley between her breasts and changed into a gown and robe from her beautiful trousseau, a delicate shade of peach that harmonised perfectly with her colouring. Love and desire were like a fever within her, though she was deeply aware Paul had been giving her brilliant, disarming glances all evening. Perhaps he didn't believe in her frantic declaration of love. Perhaps he was convinced it was only the result of shock..The pattern of their life, shaped over the past months, would have completely changed if anything had happened to him. Paul was the all-powerful figure in their lives. They were all dependent on him, even Mamma and Louise, so busy enjoying themselves overseas.

  She walked towards his room and hesitated at the door. 'Paul?'

  He turned and looked at her, a little curiously, she thought. 'Yes, darling?'

  'Would you like anything?' Her heart was melting at the sight of him.

  'I want you here.' he said smoothly, 'so you can finish confiding in me.'

  'You know all my secrets now !'

  'I know you told me you loved me in the urgency of a moment. What I don't know is whether you really meant it or if you felt desperately insecure.'

  She couldn't answer him, but gave an involuntary little shiver. Something was aching at the base of her throat and she put a hand to it instinctively. The light was moving along her hair, the curve of her cheek, caressing her body beneath the nearly sheer gown she wore. 'How odd it is that you don't believe me.'

  'Come here!' he said a little roughly. 'Maybe I daren't believe you.'

  Brooke's heart turned over, but she moved towards him and he pulled her down on to the bed, lying beside her and turning her slowly towards him. 'Are you sorry you married me?'

  'No,' she said with sudden spirit, though she had gone rather white. 'I told you—'

  'Be quiet, darling. I've waited a long time, so you may have to go on saying you love me for a long time as well.'

  'Would the rest of our lives be fair?'

  Paul drew a sharp little breath and put out his hand, sliding the thin strap of her nightgown off her shoulder, letting his hand linger before it slid downwards over her breast. 'You love me, yet you feel I'm not to be trusted ?'

  His desire was being communicated to her, yet there was a faint bitterness in his tone. 'I had no right,' she said uncertainly.

  'No, you didn't!' he agreed, and pushed her nightgown right off her shoulders. 'Do you really think I could be with you and want someone else?'

  'You've never told me you loved me!' She had to shut her eyes against the shattering arousal.

  'It's you, my darling, who does not understand Italian. Some things in life we cannot control. I've wanted you since the first moment I laid eyes on you, and it has taken me all this time to make you mine! '

  'Kiss me!' she begge
d with a little moan. He was caressing her with such skill, it seemed as if he was tormenting her.

  'You won't fight me?'

  'I told you I love you !'

  'And I must be perfectly sure. You see, darling, I want your heart and your brain as well as this beautiful body you now offer me!' He bent his head and kissed her, just a brief pressure of his mouth, but a vast passion was behind it. 'Open your eyes! ' he said gently. 'I want to look into your soul!' His arms went around her and he half held her up to him.

  'What more can I tell you?' Her eyes met his and her hair tumbled back over his shoulder.

  'Come, you can think of something l' His mouth touched her breast and he pressed her back against his arm. 'Could you live without me?'

  'No!' She was taking in quick little breaths, her whole body flushed and ardent. 'The morning of your accident I tried to ring you. I wanted to tell you I loved you, how much you had taught me, but you were out. I couldn't get you, then that dreadful phone call in the afternoon ! I thought I would lose you when I'd just discovered you were my life! '

  For a split second every muscle in his body went taut. She looked up at him and heard his quickly indrawn breath. 'Don't say things like that if you don't mean it.'

  'But it's true !' She lifted her hand with a sure instinct and placed a finger against the dent in his chin. 'I can't hide anything from you any more―I don't want to. I only want to reach you in any way I can. Like this, in your arms, when we're all alone and when we have people around us and, one day, our children. All I have to offer is yours !'

  Paul's brilliant black eyes seemed to be blazing, all the uncertainty gone, and the smooth controlled manner. 'You know how vulnerable you make me?' he demanded. 'I have never belonged to any woman or wished to, but you are quite different. You have been from the beginning when you disturbed all my tranquillity. I think now I have been searching for you all my life. The sort of woman I never found who haunted me. And even when I did, you rejected me.'

  'I can't imagine how ! ' Brooke said a little helplessly. 'I always knew you for the passionate man you are, but I wanted your love. It went very deep with me. Many women throw themselves at you without reticence or pride. I've seen them and I didn't want to be one of them. You don't know, but I couldn't have borne it if you had treated me with contempt! '

  'Little fool!' he said in a low, vibrant tone, and dropped a kiss on her soft, parted mouth. 'I have always been extremely concerned with the way I treat you. You are very precious to me. Surely you know that by now?'

  'I didn't know! ' she pointed out gently. 'I was even jealous of Carla.'

  'Carla!'

  He sounded so profoundly shocked and yet arrogant, she had to smile. 'Yes, Carla. She hinted at many things, and she had the gold lighter I gave you.'

  'So?' He looked down at her gleaming satiny skin and began to stroke it. 'I'm afraid I didn't tell you about the lighter. I put it down somewhere and I couldn't remember where. I've kept hoping I would find it again, and to the best of my knowledge I have never used it anywhere else but this house.'

  'It's all right, darling, I believe you.'

  'So you should!' he returned with slight disdain. 'Carla is a troublemaker, what you call a malicious person. Not always, but sometimes! '

  'She's a big liar! ' said Brooke.

  'All right, she's a liar. What does it matter to us ? We won't be seeing very much, of her. I have a strong feeling she will soon be returning to Kenya. You should have told me she was disturbing you. I would have dealt with it.'

  'Paolo!' She spoke his name in a voice full of tenderness.

  'Nice!' He mocked her, but she could see the expression in his eyes. A wild sweetness surged through her, an inevitability.

  'Love me!' she demanded, in an imperious little whisper.

  'All the days of my life! '

  His black eyes were smouldering, his dark face very close to her own. He lifted her arms arid placed them around his neck, then he pulled her very close to him, fitting her slender feminine body to his own.

  'My love. My own! '

  Very tenderly, with rising passion, he placed his .mouth over hers and began to kiss her slowly and deeply, as languorously as if they had all the time in the world, while Brooke responded with all the beauty and passion that was in her. Each answering the vow they had fervently promised forever.