'Please, Richard, don't ask any questions now. Look, there's paper and a pen here.'
He was about to argue, but after a long look at her stricken face, said reluctantly, 'All right, what are the details?'
He seated himself at a massive desk ornamented with brass inlay, and Lee replied, 'I want to make an unconditional gift, to take effect immediately, of the Chalet Alpenrose and the land that goes with it, to Herr von Reistoven.'
Richard opened his mouth to protest, thin shut it again grimly and began to write. Lee took another piece of paper and wrote a short, very terse note. 'I know about the toll-road and the hotel you intend to build on the Alpenrose estate. You must have wanted it very badly to even be willing to marry me. I make you a gift of it. I want neither the Chalet Alpenrose nor you so badly that I would be willing to live a lie.' With shaking hands she put down her pen and folded the paper.
'You'll have to sign this,' Richard told her. 'And I'll witness your signature.' But when she went to sign it he stopped her and said, 'Lee, do you realise what you're giving up?'
She turned to look at him, her eyes haunted, her face ashen. 'Yes, I know exactly what I'm giving up.' Richard witnessed her signature and Lee put the deed and her note in an envelope and wrote Max's name on it. She would have to write to Anna von Reistoven later and apologise for not saying goodbye.
'Richard, do you have a car here?' she asked.
'Yes, I hired one at the airport. I left it in the road outside the castle. I'll go and bring it in and you can…'
'No, don't bring it into the Schloss. The road continues alongside the wall to another gate further on. Will you drive the car round to there and wait for me? I have to pack.'
'Why don't you just ring for the maid, or butler, and tell them to bring the cases to that courtyard I came through?' Richard asked.
'Because I don't want anyone to know I'm leaving.'
'Lee, what's been happening here? Why all the secrecy?'
'I can't explain now, there isn't time. Please trust me, Richard, I'll tell you everything when we get home.'
He looked at her searchingly. 'All right, if that's the way you want it. I'll go and get the car'
Quickly Lee ran back to her room and propped the letter for Max on the dressing table. It didn't take long to throw her belongings into her suitcases; taking them down the back stairs without being seen was more difficult, but luckily the servants were all in the kitchens preparing dinner, so she was able to reach Richard" undetected.
'Is that the lot?' he asked, putting the cases in the boot.
'Yes. Please, Richard, let's go quickly.'
He glanced at her face, then grimly started the engine and sent them speeding from the castle.
CHAPTER TEN
Filled with an overpowering sense of desolation, Lee sat silently in the car as they drove through the village arid out towards the other side of the valley. She was trying not to think, not to feel. Gradually they began to climb up the switchback mountain road that would lead them to a pass through the Alps, and then, Lee knew, the valley would be gone for ever. On impulse she put out a hand to touch Richard's arm.
'There's a place just ahead where you can park and look back down the valley. Could we stop there for a few minutes, please?'
'Are you sure that's wise, Lee? You'll only be turning the knife in the wound,' he told her, anxiety for her in his eyes.
'Just for a minute, that's all.'�
He nodded reluctantly and drove right to the front of the observation platform. A coach-load of tourists, taking photographs or looking through binoculars, obscured the view, so Lee got out to find a space where she could see. The air was cooler up here and made the green valley with its little towns nestling in the sun seem a world away. Lee felt as if she was leaving a place of warmth and laughter to enter one of grey bleakness as cold as the mountain peaks around her. Only the road joined the two worlds as it wound like a long serpent for miles back down the valley. Cars crawled slowly round the hairpin bends, hugging the mountainside away from the sheer drop below, but far away, almost on the valley floor, Lee could see a car driven at speed, honking furiously until a coach pulled over and it flashed past seemingly within a few inches of the edge. The driver must be a maniac, Lee thought as the tyres of the big grey car screeched round a bend taken much too fast. A big grey car.' She grabbed the binoculars from the hands Of a startled tourist standing next to her and trained them on the speeding vehicle. It was Max! She would know that car anywhere.
With a yelp she pushed the glasses back into the man's hands and sprinted for the car. 'Richard, get going, quickly! He's coming after us!'
'What! You mean…'
'Yes. Please hurry.'
'I'm not running away from…"
'But I am! Richard, if you don't drive this thing, I'll drive it myself. Move over!'
'On this road?' He started the engine and pulled back on to the road. 'But I hate running like this.'
'Oh, never mind that, just drive. Can't you go any faster?' She peered anxiously through the back window.
Richard shot her a look, but obligingly overtook two cars before quickly pulling back in to avoid one coming the other way. As they reached the pass he was able to go even faster and Lee's hopes began to rise, but then they got held up behind a slow-moving caravan that was just beginning the descent of the other side. Tar back at the beginning of the pass Lee saw a grey car nose past another coach and begin to thunder towards them.
'Richard, hurry! He's gaining on us.'
A small gap in the oncoming traffic appeared and Richard was through. In a trice they were rushing down the switchback at a speed that took Lee's breath away and left them only a margin of safety. But Max hadn't left himself even that; he came screeching round the bends with burning tyres and all the skill of a racing driver.
'We don't stand a chance against that car,' Richard said after a glance in the mirror. 'There's a side road to the left down in the next valley. If I can get far enough ahead of him the bend will hide us while I pull into it.'
He put his foot down as they reached the valley floor and they drew ahead while Max still tore down the hairpins, then Richard stood on the brakes and swung the wheel to the left as they bolted into a road shrouded by trees. Frantically Lee looked through the rear window. Would their ruse work? There was no sign of the Mercedes and she turned and pummelled Richard exultantly on the shoulder.
'We've done it! We've lost him!'
'Afraid not, Lee,' Richard said ruefully, his eyes on the rear mirror. 'Here he comes.'
The grey car was only a few hundred yards behind them when Max put his hand on the horn and held it there. The powerful motor seemed to surge towards them.
'Damn him, I'm not pulling up,' Richard said between his teeth, but then the Mercedes was alongside and was moving over towards them, crowding them off the road. 'He's trying to force us off the road! Why, the crazy…' His words were lost as he hit a small rock on the verge and went careering down a bank to come to a halt in a grassy meadow.
For several seconds Lee sat there, too stunned to move, then, with trembling fingers, she unfastened her safety belt. After one glance to make sure she wasn't hurt, Richard was out of the car, but Max had already left the Mercedes on the road and raced round to Lee. Throwing open the door, he took hold of her arm and roughly pulled her out.
'I want to talk to you,' he said grimly.
Suddenly Lee was gloriously angry. 'Are you crazy? You could have killed us, do you know that?' she yelled at him.
Richard ran up beside her and added his voice to hers. 'You maniac! I'm going to call the police and have you arrested! What the hell did you do a thing like that for?'
Max opened his 'mouth to say something, but couldn't make himself heard.
'I hope you do get arrested. I hope you go to jail for years and years!'
'Don't you know you scared the life out of Lee? You shouldn't be allowed on the roads!'
Exasperated beyond patience, Max gave Richard
a push that sent him fiat on his back, said, 'Will you shut up?' and taking hold of Lee tried to carry her towards his car.
With a howl of rage Richard leapt to his feet and tore a struggling Lee from Max's arms. 'Take your hands off my girl!' he yelled.
Lee found herself sprawling on the ground as Max unceremoniously dropped her to defend himself. Dazedly she stared up as the two men wrestled together, each trying to knock the other down. Before she recollected that she ought to be stopping the fight, it was all over. Richard took Max by surprise and hit him with a punishing right hand that caught him off balance and sent him crashing to the ground.
'Max!' Lee gave a cry of fright and ran to fling herself on her knees beside his prone body.
'Come on, Lee. Leave him! Let's get out of here.'
'But he's hurt. He might have fractured his skull!'
'No, he's only stunned. Come on, you drive my car back on to the road while I take the rotor-arm out of his engine. We can be across the border before he gets it fixed.'
'But, Richard, I can't leave him like this.'
'I tell you he'll be all right,' Richard said impatiently, and was about to add a good deal more, but just then Max groaned and sat up, a hand to his jaw.
'Max, are you all right?' Lee asked anxiously.
'He knocked me down!' he said in amazement. He was so big that it had obviously never happened to him before, and he seemed more stunned by this than by the blow. His hands balled into fists and a vengeful gleam came into his eyes, so Lee said hastily.
'I'm not surprised. He was the boxing champion of his university for two years, and he's a judo black belt,' she added for good measure.
'He is?' A wary look came into Max's eyes as he got to his feet and pulled her up beside him. Richard had gone away in disgust and was examining his car.
Seeing this, Max pulled Lee towards some trees at the edge of a, wood and hurried her along regardless of her efforts to get free until they came to a grassy clearing where rays of sunlight shafted down through the branches
'Why did you, run away ?' he asked abruptly: 'You read my note. I should think that explains everything,' she said coldly.
'Mein Gott, you really believed that of me!' Max spoke half to himself, disbelief in his voice. Suddenly he caught hold of her by the shoulders, his eyes dark with rage and hurt, almost shaking her in his anger. 'Are you never going to learn to trust me?' he said harshly. 'You'd rather believe the gossip of a serving- maid than me, wouldn't you? Ever since I've known you you've been ready to believe the worst of me. Even now—after we…' he broke off, his breathing unsteady. With a tremendous effort he controlled his emotion and when next he spoke his voice was heavy with sarcasm. 'Well, for your information, the road and the hotel are being built in a completely different valley, in an entirely different region of the Tyrol. You could have found that out quite easily for yourself if you'd bothered to come and ask me. I'd even have shown you the plans, just like I offered to show you the proof of the chalet's ownership. But you couldn't do that, could you?' he went on inexorably. 'You naturally credited me with every dishonourable purpose you could think of, and then made your noble little gesture before sneaking out of the back door!' Lee stared at him, her face ashen. 'Max, I…' 'Well, here's your precious chalet back, Lee.' He took the deed of gift from his pocket and savagely tore it into shreds. 'Do what you like with it. I never really cared whether you sold it to me or not. From the moment I met you all I wanted was you!' He turned on his heel and strode a few yards away to stand against a tree trunk, his back towards her.
Lee gazed after him, unable to speak, unable to find any words to ask him to forgive her. All she could do was to imploringly say his name. 'Max!'
It seemed an age before he turned to face her, his features set in grim lines. Then slowly his expression changed. 'Come here,' he said sternly.
On shaking legs she slowly went to stand a few feet away from him, her eyes never leaving his face. 'You crazy little fool!' Max opened his arm's and she gave a choking cry of thankfulness as she ran into them. She tried to talk to him, to tell him how sorry she was, but he wouldn't let her. He kept calling her a lovely little fool, a beautiful idiot, telling her she deserved a good spanking, so in the end she gave up and stopped him with her lips. He took them savagely and his kisses became possessively demanding.
'Liebchen, I want you so much,' he said huskily. 'Did you really think that I would ever let you go? When they told me that you had driven off with another man… Gott, it was pure hell until I read your note and realised why you'd gone. Oh, Lee, marry me soon.'
'Just as soon as you want.' Breathlessly she returned his kiss. 'People will think I'm marrying you for your money,' she said, half teasing, half serious.
He laughed. 'After all the trouble I've had in getting you to admit you love me!' He began to undo the top button of her blouse and his voice became muffled as he kissed her shoulder, the curve of her breast.
'Hey,' Lee said softly. 'Have you forgotten Richard?'
Reluctantly Max straightened up. 'I suppose we shall have to go and find him. He's probably told the police that I've kidnapped you by now.' He put a fingertip where his lips had touched her breast. 'Remember where I got to. I may need to find that place again.'
Lee looked mistily up at him. 'I'll bear it in mind.'
But when they emerged hand-in-hand from the wood only the Mercedes was to be seen.
'He's gone!' Lee exclaimed. 'And he's put my cases in your car.'
'He's left us a note,' Max said as he saw a piece of paper propped up against the steering wheel. 'It says, "Old Chinese proverb: He who wins fight loses girl." You know, I think I might have liked your unofficial fiancé, even after all the things I've been wishing him these last weeks. He's a good loser. Perhaps we could invite him to the wedding, and we'll have all your family and friends fly out for it too.'
Lee reached out to gently stroke his cheek. 'Thank you, I'd like that.'
Her fingers wandered to the silky hairs that curled at the back of his neck. Max drew in his breath sharply and bent to kiss her compulsively.
'Where shall we go for our honeymoon?' Lee asked at last, her arms around his neck.
'There's a certain mountain hut I know of,' Max ventured.
'But I haven't a thing to wear that's suitable for mountain huts,' Lee pretended to pout.
'How about that dress you wanted to wear to the Opera Ball?' Max suggested mockingly.
'But that wouldn't be suitable for a mountain hut!' she objected.
'On the contrary, my love, I think it very suitable.'
At the sight of Lee's blushing cheeks, Max chuckled and drove them decorously home to the Schloss Reistoven.
Sally Wentworth - King of the Castle Page 17