'Well, don't blame me; someone had to go and open the door. If you'd gone yourself I wouldn't have met him at all. Anyway, why don't you just tell him that I'm the paid help? He'd soon drop me then,' she suggested mischievously.
'But I couldn't do that! Nora was horrified. 'He'd think we ... He wouldn't understand the circumstances,' she amended. She stood up. 'Have you nearly finished that? Mummy and Daddy are going into Nice to have lunch with someone they know and they're going to drop me off to do some shopping, so you might as well come with me.'
So Tressy spent the gorgeous afternoon trailing round behind Nora, watching her try on and buy clothes that didn't suit her, carrying her parcels and sweltering in the heat haze that came up from the pavement.
'Wouldn't you rather be on the beach getting a tan?' she asked wistfully, as Nora sorted through a rack of evening dresses.
'No, I always go terribly red first.'
'I've got some super stuff that stops you from doing that,' Tressy assured her. 'And once you get a tan you won't have to wear make-up and you'll look much healthier. '
Nora turned on her, her patience, too, eroded by the heat. 'Will you for heaven's sake shut up? I don't want to look healthy.'
Tressy looked at her angry face, gave up and shut up.
But the next day she had more success and, when the older generation had gone out, persuaded Nora to come down to the strip of beach at the foot of the Cap to sunbathe by simply remarking on how sexy a tan always looked. Nora thought about that for a minute and then agreed to come. There were already many people there from other villas, or from nearby hotels, but they managed to find a space to spread their beach mats and put up a parasol that Nora had insisted on bringing. She seemed to think she needed a great deal just to spend a couple of hours on the beach and had a big bag full of absolute necessities.
'I don't know why we have to come down here when we could go on one of the private beaches in Monte Carlo,' she grumbled.
'Don't be so stuffy. This one's okay.' Tressy hadn't yet let on that she had damaged the scooter. She spread tanning lotion on Nora's back and legs, made sure that the parasol covered her head and found her book for her, then took off her own bikini top and lay back with a sigh of contentment, the sun fully on her.
Nora read quietly for about ten minutes, then turned to ask Tressy how long she'd had. 'Tressy!' Her horrified exclamation startled Tressy out of her semi-doze and she jerked up. 'What is it? What's happened?'
'You haven't got any top on! Cover yourself up.' Nora was carefully averting her eyes and holding out a towel.
'Is that all? God, Nora, you nearly frightened the life out of me! Look around you. You're the only woman on this beach wearing a top. You're the one who's odd, not me.'
'Well, I'm certainly not taking mine off. Just look at those middle-aged men over there eyeing all the young girls!'
'So what?' Tressy said tiredly. 'It isn't hurting anyone, is it?'
'It's disgusting!' Nora went muttering on, not reading her book any more but looking round the beach at everyone else. After half an hour she turned over and carefully oiled all her front, then lay down again. But within minutes she was sitting up. 'I was thinking about that sundress I want to wear on the boat tomorrow,' she remarked. 'If I took my top off I wouldn't get any strap marks, would I?'
Tressy opened one eye and looked at her. 'For God's sake, Nora, take it off. Let it all hang out.'
'Oh really! You're so vulgar.' But she took her top off and after nervously covering herself with her arms for a few minutes gradually exposed herself to what she thought was the avid gaze of every male over the age of twelve on the beach. Tressy grinned to herself and went back to sleep.
Nora had forgotten to oil her breasts. This fact became painfully apparent a couple of hours after they returned from the beach and she was dressing to go out after her bath. Tressy heard her give a yell of pain and went into her room to find her trying to put a bra on. The special oil had done its work well and the rest of her was a pale pink, but her breasts were fiery red. Tressy goggled and ran to the first aid cabinet, coming back to smear anti-burn cream on for her.
'You can't possibly put a bra on---'it'll hurt too much. You'll have to go without one.'
Nora was shocked. 'I can't go without a bra!' 'Why not? I hardly ever wear one.'
Nora gave her a snooty look that spoke volumes. 'What will Mummy say?'
'Don't tell her. Honestly, Nora, you're unnatural, the way you tell your mother everything.'
So Nora went out for the first time in her life without a bra, and later spent a restless night unable to sleep. The next morning they were only a little better. 'What am I going to do?' she wailed, looking at herself in the mirror.
'Rub some more cream on and wear a loose sundress. No one's going to know, for heaven's sake.' Tressy was getting heartily fed up with Nora's burnt boobs.
'Oh, and I so wanted everything to be perfect for today!'
Tressy ignored her; she was run off her feet blow-drying Nora and her aunt's hair and doing their makeup before they left, and she hadn't even started to get ready herself. Cris had said he wanted to start at some ungodly hour and they were late already. She had only time to run upstairs to put on a pair of shorts and a loose top over a bikini, and brush her hair before Uncle Jack hooted impatiently on the car horn and it was time to go.
Michel had reserved a parking place for them near the quay and helped them to carryall the things Nora and her mother had insisted on bringing, not to mention the bottles of wine that Uncle Jack had brought along as his contribution to the day's outing.
Cris was on deck, waiting for them with another middle-aged English couple whom he introduced as Helen and Edward Young. He raised his eyebrows when he saw the amount of stuff the Sinclairs had brought with them and quickly crossed the gangplank to greet them and take a heavy portable video recorder and camera that Tressy was carrying for her uncle so that he could carry his precious wine.
'Which of this lot is yours?' he asked her.
'Oh, I travel light.' She gestured towards the sunglasses perched on top of her head. 'These are all I need.'
He looked at her in amazed disbelief. 'Then you're a woman in a million. A pearl beyond price.'
Tressy glanced frowningly up at him, expecting to find him mocking her as usual, but to her surprise saw that he was quite serious.
He smiled at her and, taking her hand, helped her across the gangplank. 'Welcome aboard the Chimera,' he said, and gave her a small wink that only she could see.
After a moment, Tressy smiled back at him and suddenly made up her mind that she was going to enjoy herself, that a day she hadn't particularly been looking forward to might turn out to be okay after all.
CHAPTER FIVE
AND it did turn out to be a good day, in so far as any day that included the close proximity of her aunt and uncle could be called good. But the presence on board of the other couple, the Youngs, helped a great deal, because the four older people tended to keep together, carefully sounding each other out by casual questions about holidays and houses, and establishing that their social and financial backgrounds were more or less equal. And once that was done they were able to relax and enjoy each other's company.
Tressy loved the boat. She sat alone on the deck up on the bow, as Cris took the boat out of the harbour, past the entrance with its twin lighthouse towers and out into the open sea. There were craft everywhere: motor cruisers like their own, sail-boats, pedalos, canoes, water-skiers being pulled along, big sightseeing boats, and even windsurfers quite a long way out, riding the swell. The wind caught at her hair and Tressy freed it from its restraining bach. She slipped off her sun-top and shorts and pushed them through an open window into a cabin behind her, then leant back, revelling in the breeze that cooled the warmth of the sun.
After they had cleared the beach area, Michel came forward carrying two glasses of champagne. Tressy looked at the one he gave her rather dubiously, remembering how squiff
y she'd got on a mixture of wine and sun before, but thought, what the hell! and drank deeply. Michel was a good companion to have as they travelled westwards, parallel to the coastline and about half a mile away from it. Being a native, he was able to point out Cap Ferrat and the long Promenade des Anglais in Nice, the Upper Corniche high up in the hills, and then Antibes and Cannes, places that had only been names to her before. And he had anecdotes and stories to tell about every place.
'You love it here, don't you?' Tressy remarked, watching his animated face as he looked at the towns they passed.
'Mais oui. I could never leave the Riviera.' 'Do you live in Monte Carlo?'
'Yes, I have an apartment in the town.' 'And do you have a boat, too?'
He laughed. 'A boat, yes. But not one such as this.
Only a sailing boat; what you call a yacht.'
They had finished their champagne some time ago, and now Michel stood up to get some more, but as he did so the boat lurched a bit and he had to grab the rail to keep his balance. Looking up, they saw that Cris was giving Nora a lesson in steering the boat; she waved to them, her face full of excitement, and the boat wobbled again.
Michel laughed. 'We go and join them, oui?' Tressy was happy enough where she was, but thought she had better go and be sociable, so she went with him up to the bridge where Cris was standing beside Nora, ready to grab the wheel if need be. He had one hand casually on her shoulder and Nora had never looked so happy.
Turning to look at them, Cris smiled at Tressy and said, 'Perhaps you'd like to have a go too?' and Nora's face fell ludicrously.
Suddenly angry with them both, Tressy said shortly, 'No, thanks. Being able to handle a boat is hardly likely to be of much use to me back in London, now is it?'
His mouth thinning a little, Cris said to Michel, 'Take over here for me for a while, will you? I'll get another bottle of champagne out of the fridge.'
Michel took his place and Tressy moved to let Cris go past, but he put a firm hand in the small of her back and propelled her down into the cabin in front of him. 'What's got into you?' he demanded as soon as they were out of earshot in the galley.
'Nothing's got into me. I thought you came down here for more champagne,' she pointed out when he just stood and looked at her.
'So why did you jump down my throat just now?' 'Because I felt like it,' she retorted waspishly. 'Does there have to be a reason?'
'With anybody else, yes. But with you I'm beginning to have doubts. But you're right; you do seem to fly off the handle irrationally.'
'I'm not irrational,' she objected.
'Then you must have a reason,' he pointed out smoothly.
Cornered, Tressy burst out, 'Well, if you must know, I dislike seeing Nora making a fool of herself over you. And you encourage her.'
'Do I?' His left eyebrow rose questioningly.
'You know darn well you do. She's besotted about you!'
'But maybe I don't think she's making a fool of herself.' Tressy looked at him suspiciously. 'You don't?' 'No. Maybe I like it.'
Her eyes widened incredulously. 'You're--you're serious about Nora?'
'Why? Do you find it so hard to believe?' he asked, his eyes on her face.
'Because I ... I mean, that is, I don't of course .. .' But it was impossible to be either tactful or polite, not with this man, and she was suddenly angry again.
'Because you're all wrong for Nora! She isn't in your league at all.'
'Are you saying that I couldn't make her happy?' Tressy was about to make a stinging retort, but then her breath caught in her throat; today Crispin was wearing just a pair of denim shorts, revealing the muscled body that she had already imagined. He was tanned and tall and very, very masculine. Slowly she said, 'I'm quite sure you could make any woman happy-if you wanted to.'
'And don't you think that, if she were my wife, I would want to make Nora happy?'
'Oh yes, for a time, but then you'd start to despise her because she was trying too hard to please you. And then you'd just be polite.'
'Really?' His tone was sneering, derisive. 'You know me so well?'
'That's exactly what I mean,' Tressy said hotly. 'You'd speak to Nora in that tone and you'd crush her. She isn't insensitive, you know.'
He gave her an odd kind of look. 'And you? If it were you, would you try to please me?'
'No, I damn well wouldn't!' she retorted vehemently. Cris grinned and suddenly the whole conversation seemed ridiculous. 'That's what I thought. Here, take this up to the others, will you?' And taking some champagne from the fridge, he put the cold bottle into her arms, so that she nearly dropped it.
Afterwards, Tressy tried to work out whether he had been serious during that conversation or not, but he was such an enigma that she couldn't make up her mind. If he was, then it would make Nora ecstatically happy in the short term, but Tressy was still sure that they were fundamentally unsuited. So did she discourage her cousin or not? Eventually she resolved to just stay out of it and watch what happened.
But if Cris was serious about Nora he gave no particular sign of it, although he did spend quite a lot of time with her that day. But he also spent time with all his guests, and that included Tressy, sitting beside her when they anchored off St Tropez for lunch and coming to sit with her in her favourite place in the bow on their return journey while Michel took the wheel.
'You look two shades browner than you did this morning already,' he observed as he ran his eyes over her. 'Why isn't Nora sunbathing?'
'She can't,' Tressy answered without thinking. 'She burnt her boobs on the beach the other day and can't get her top on.'
Cris burst out laughing. 'I didn't think she was that daring!'
'Only because she hasn't had any encouragement to break out before.'
'Which you're providing now?'
'Do you disapprove?' she challenged.
He grinned and lay back beside her. 'Don't try to provoke me, woman, I'm not in the mood. Shut up and enjoy the sun.'
Tressy laughed too, and turned over on to her front so that she could look at him, studying his hard profile as he lay with his eyes closed. 'Why aren't you married already?' she asked after several minutes.
His lips curved. 'So you're becoming curious, are you?'
'Not in the least,' Tressy snapped, and got up and flounced away, the sound of his laughter making her angrier than ever.
It had been a good day; all the Sinclairs had enjoyed it, although Tressy had one or two reservations about Cris; she still didn't know whether he was serious about Nora or not, but decided to just let it ride and see what happened. Her aunt and uncle had got on well with the Youngs and the acquaintance soon blossomed into friendship, with the four of them seeing each other most days. And somehow Tressy found that she was reluctantly making up a foursome with Nora, Crispin and Michel and they, too, began to see each other nearly every day. Occasionally other people were invited along, but usually it worked out that just the four of them would go for a boat trip, or else by car to explore other towns along the coast, or inland to old villages perched like eagles' nests on the top of great, cliff like hills among the many gorges a few miles inland.
Tressy expected her aunt and uncle to be annoyed that she was invited along with Nora, but one day her aunt took her aside and, after giving her a rather involved lecture on the responsibility and gratitude she owed them and reminding her that her morals must be beyond reproach while she was with them, more or less said that it was okay for her to go so long as she stayed in the background and merely acted as a sort of chaperone for Nora. Which, Tressy realized with an inward laugh, didn't say much for her aunt's opinion of Cris and Michel's morals either. Or perhaps Aunt Grace believed that every man turned into a seducer given the slightest opportunity or encouragement.
Most foursomes naturally divide into two couples, and Tressy had expected this one to be the same, with her and Michel paired off together, but right from the start they had been just four people with no splitting into pairs
, all constantly changing around like figures in a dance. And, although he didn't make it obvious, Tressy noticed that it was Cris who generally arranged this. She wondered if he wanted to give himself more time before committing himself to the relationship; after all, he hadn't really known Nora all that long. And he certainly wasn't behaving in a very loverlike way. As a host he was perfect, but Tressy had never seen him do more than take Nora's arm to help her when she needed it or occasionally put a casual arm across her shoulders when they walked along together. But he did that with Tressy, too. Or tried to, because she usually moved away from him when he did, and she often tried to keep with Michel so that Cris could spend more time with Nora, but somehow she always found herself adroitly outmaneuvered.
The Wings of Love Page 9