Taken at the Flood

by K. J. Rabane

  “Hullo you. Enjoying the spring sunshine?” she panted, her breath billowing around her in the frosty air.

  “I am indeed. You look energetic.”

  “I’ve walked over to Kings Datchet. Henry’s got a cold, poor thing. I’ve been to the chemist’s for some cough medicine.”

  I sympathised and asked her to pass on my regards to Henry.

  “You’ll never guess who I saw in the chemist’s?” Josie slipped her arm through mine and I helped her over the style.

  “Leonora Bennett,” I said.

  “How? Oh you’ve spoiled my surprise. I must admit I didn’t think we’d be seeing her again. I had it in mind she might put the house on the market and leave the area.”

  “What made you think that?” I asked falling into step alongside her as the dogs bounded off through the woodland.

  “Oh I don’t know. I suppose I’ve always had the feeling that she was more drawn to Italy than here. I know Lucas mentioned, on more than one occasion, he’d thought of retiring there. I think he felt it would please her if he suggested it. Poor Lucas, I still can’t quite believe he’s gone too.”

  We were silent for a while and then Josie asked, “When did you see Leonora?”

  “She called over last night. I was reading through more of those letters and suddenly she was there, outside the conservatory. It gave me quite a shock.”

  “I can imagine. Had she seen the magazine article by any chance?” She stopped to catch her breath for a moment waiting for my reply.

  “She had, as a matter of fact. Why do you ask?”

  Josie gave me what my mother would have described as an ‘old fashioned look’, drew in her breath and started to walk on. “No special reason. I just wondered that’s all.”

  We reached the river path to find the dogs looking up at us, whilst standing over the body of a small shrew, and eagerly awaiting congratulatory pats. “I must be off or Henry will wonder where I’ve got to. He’s always like a bear with a sore head when he has a cold. Don’t forget to pop over and see us when you have time?”

  “I won’t,” I assured her and, calling Tinker, started to walk back to River House.

  The telephone was ringing as I opened the back door. I picked up the kitchen extension. It was her. “Hi. Would you like to see if you can win back the matchsticks you lost last night?” she asked.

  I didn’t hesitate. “Try and stop me,”

  “Good, my place at eight then.”

  My face was stretched into a wide grin as I replaced the receiver.

  That night was the start of it. She was waiting for me, dressed in a flowing white silk shift that took my breath away. Standing on tiptoe, she removed my coat from my shoulders and was so close I could smell her perfume and feel the warmth of her body through my shirt.

  I can’t quite remember what we ate; all I remember was her eyes. They seemed to bore into my soul. I think she let me win at cards but I can’t be sure. I know I drank too much and so did she. We laughed a lot and flirted with each other and as the evening wore on, I became desperate to take her to bed, my desperation increasing as she kissed me goodnight. This time no mere brush of lips but a tender lingering pressure, her mouth slightly open, so I could taste her tongue. I held her close, feeling the softness of her body through the thin silk of her dress. I drew her even closer and kissed her with a passion that was threatening to explode within me but when we parted for air, I heard her say. “Goodnight, Mr Hope, until the next time?”

  I wanted to pick her up and carry her up the stairs to the bedroom but something in her expression held the assurance of much, much more for the future if I did not force the issue, so I held her hand up to my lips and kissed it gently. “Until the next time,” I promised.

  Chapter 19

  The following morning I awoke with an excited feeling in the pit of my stomach, like childhood Christmas’s when I’d scrambled from my bed to see if ‘he’d’ come, but this was no Christmas morning and I was no longer a child. Waiting to see Leonora, to continue what I felt had begun the previous evening, was as frustrating as poking the brightly wrapped presents under the Christmas tree with the end of my finger until finally being allowed to open them.

  I was pulling on my jeans, after taking a cold shower to restore my equilibrium, when the telephone rang. I rushed to the phone; it had to be her. “Sorry to bother you, Boss.” It was Alan Henderson and my disappointment showed in the reflection staring back at me in the bedroom mirror. “Maxwell Hutton’s been on the line from New York. He wants to see you, said he’d tried your house yesterday but couldn’t get hold of you. He needs to discuss an urgent matter, something about a follow up to Centaur?”

  “Damn. Can’t you put him off?”

  “’Fraid not. I did try my best but he was adamant.”

  “OK, OK. I’ll ring him.” I glanced at my bedside clock. It would be 2.30 a.m. in New York. “I’ll leave it until this afternoon.”

  “I wouldn’t, Boss. His last words were ‘Tell him to ring me at home. I don’t care what the time is. I want to see him over here on the next plane.”

  My heart sank. Megacells were our biggest distributor in the States and I didn’t want to upset their chief executive. “Right, thanks, Alan. I’ll get back to you,” I said, as I replaced the receiver and dialled Hutton’s number.

  Alan hadn’t exaggerated; he was insistent, saying he had to see me at once as there was a deal in the air and he had to get some first hand details from me before he could give his assurances that he could come up with the goods. This could be a very lucrative deal for both of us he stressed.

  From then on, it was one mad rush. I had my secretary book the first available flight on Concorde from Heathrow, which turned out to be at one o’clock that day. I tried to ring Leonora but the phone kept ringing, without the satisfying click of the answer phone cutting in. It was a close thing but I managed to make the flight with minutes to spare.

  Later, in my room at the Plaza, I slept soundly until my travel alarm woke me. I felt refreshed and ready for my meeting with Maxwell Hutton. I tried to ring Leonora again but there was still no reply from her number.

  Hutton was alone in his office when I arrived. Minotaur was completed and with a few minor last minute adjustments, I assured him, it would be ready for distribution. After I had apprised him of its capabilities, he leaned back in his chair and lit a fat cigar, a smile creasing his plump face. “Too big a deal to lose son. Had to see it for myself before going ahead.”

  He was content with the last of the Gorgon trilogy. It appeared the panic was over.

  “There’s something else I’d like you take a look at whilst I’m here,” I said, removing Minotaur from my laptop. I slipped my PSD into a USB port and transferred the files. It was an outline of the new project with the working title Andromeda. I knew it to be a revolutionary concept so was unwilling to give too much away at its inception but even so Hutton seemed excited by the prospect of becoming our U.S. distributor. He was no fool and could see the potential immediately.

  “I must point out,” I stressed, “this concept is in its infancy. The first module will not be available much before the end of November.”

  “No problem,” he said, shaking my hand across the desk. “This is better than I could have hoped. I now have something I can work with and the prospect of another project in the making.” He inhaled the smoke and coughed. “But I don’t want you to run off back to England just at the moment, son. There are some people I want you to meet. I’m having a party on Friday and I’d like you to be there. I promise you it will be worth your while.” He rose and walked around the desk to where I stood ready to leave then placed a friendly arm around my shoulder, the smoke from his cigar making my eyes water.

  “You will say yes, now won’t you? Louanne is dying to meet you. I’ve told her so much about my soft spoken English genius that she’s insisting I don’t take no for an answer.”

  What could I say? “I’ll be delighted, see y
ou the day after tomorrow,” I said, backing out of his office in an effort to escape what I was afraid was going to turn out to be a bear hug.

  That night I dreamed of Evelyn. She was standing in our garden at the edge of the river. She seemed to be floating just above the surface of the ground. She was trying to tell me something and was smiling, her arms outstretched. As I drew nearer she whispered, ‘I’m happy for you. I loved Leo,’ and with that her image dissolved. I awoke, the dream still vivid, and found I felt extraordinarily calm. My mind was clear, the future mapped out for me with an unusual clarity. I saw my life, as it could be with Leonora, and was impatient to begin the journey.

  The feeling of elation persisted as I walked down Fifth Avenue. I had the day to myself, I was in New York and the spring sunshine was flooding Central Park with colour, illuminating the shades of greens as effectively as floodlights on a football pitch. I turned up the collar of my coat against the cool breeze, which swept across the park and stood watching a young mother and toddler feeding the ducks. The young birds were crowding around them in eager anticipation, and it was the sound of their hungry cries that accompanied me as I walked through the park and out into Fifth Avenue where, as in another life, I’d headed for Tiffany’s. This time I knew exactly what I was after. I took the lift to the second floor and walked towards the counter holding trays of diamond rings.

  The assistant nodded in my direction and I smiled. I was standing in front of a glass counter under which stood a raised plinth supporting just one ring. The diamond was large, square cut and burned with a pale blue fire, which emanated from its centre and splayed out as its facets caught the light. It was perfect. It matched the colour of her eyes exactly.

  “See anything you like, sir?” the assistant asked, hopefully.

  “Yes, this one.” I pointed and saw him hesitate.

  “That is a very special diamond, if I may say so, sir.” He looked at me uncertainly and I could see he was trying to assess whether I could be in the financial bracket, which would allow me to possess such a gem. He seemed unsure.

  “It’s for a very special lady,” I said.

  “Well in that case, may I suggest we have our security men stand by, as we remove it, to enable you to inspect the ring at close quarters?” He held a chair for me to sit down and placed the ring in my hand. I held it up for inspection.

  “It’s beautiful. I’ll take it.”

  The assistant coughed, discreetly showed me the price tag and waited. His anxious expression disappeared as I handed him my platinum card.

  “Would sir like me to have it sent around to his hotel?”

  I was about to say no that I’d take it but remembered this was New York, so I wrote down the number of my room at the Plaza and left feeling happy and contented.

  I decided to walk for a while and for the first time noticed how bright everything seemed. The inhabitants of New York appeared a breed apart, smiling and chatting with each other as they passed me. I was looking at the world through a haze of happiness. The expression ‘walking on air’ was clear to me as I drifted on a cloud of euphoria towards my hotel.

  When the ring arrived, I placed it in my room safe then later dressed for the Huttons’ party without much enthusiasm. As I’d anticipated, it was a boring affair and I couldn’t wait to make my excuses to leave. At the first opportunity, I thanked my hosts, promised to keep in touch and left by yellow cab for the sanctuary of my hotel room.

  Closing the door behind me, I walked to the bed and picked up the phone from the bedside table in order to ring Leonora. At last, I heard her pick up the receiver.

  “It’s me. I’ve tried to ring you before but you must have been out. Did you get my message about New York, your answer phone cut out the second time I rang?”

  Once more, she ignored my question.

  “God, I’ve missed you,” she said, in a breathless voice.

  “I’ll be home as soon as I can,” I promised then rang the airport. I was in luck as there was a spare seat on a flight leaving in four hours’ time. I hurriedly pushed my clothes into my case and checked out of the hotel, the ring in the inside pocket of my overcoat. Inside the cab, I asked the taxi driver to hurry. I was anxious for my new life was about to begin.

  The flight and taxi ride home seemed endless, although in fact both Concorde and my awaiting car made good time. Throughout the journey, I kept seeing Leonora, as I had last seen her, standing in her garden bathed in moonlight.

  When I reached River House, I opened the front door and walked through into the kitchen to wash my hands. There was someone sitting in the back porch. I could see the outline of a figure against the glass. The house was quiet and the kitchen in darkness. I felt a faint stirring of unease as I gingerly opened the door and Leonora fell backwards into the room. She’d been leaning against the glass and I suspected she’d been waiting for some time.

  I took her in my arms and kissed her with all the pent up passion within me exploding with a force that surprised us both. She laughed nervously. “Oh good, you’ve missed me too.”

  Then I picked her up and carried her gently upstairs to the bedroom. I could feel her hair brushing against my arms and smell the damp rising from her clothes.

  Removing her wax jacket, jumper and jeans with trembling hands, I kissed her like a drowning man grasping at a life raft then in desperation tore off my clothes and led her into the shower room. We made love in the shower, the water spilling around and over our bodies as we urgently satisfied our desires.

  Later, in bed, sliding beneath cool silk sheets, I took her to me gently, caressing every part of her with such tenderness that is only possible when both love and lust are satisfied in one glorious moment. Her skin was as soft as the dew on the grass and at her touch my body reacted as if I’d been stroked by a thousand fingertips, each one intent on finding the places that pleasured me most. It is impossible to find the words to describe how it felt making love with Leonora; if I were a poet then maybe, I’d stand a chance.

  Comparisons, I know, are odious and I wouldn’t dream of comparing what Evelyn and I shared to my present situation but that night I felt as if I’d experienced true ecstasy for the first time in my life.

  Afterwards, she sighed, her blonde hair fanning over my chest, her warm breath rippling over me as she gently tugged the hair at the nape of my neck until our lips met once more. “I was afraid I’d imagined the other night and when I couldn’t find you I thought you’d left because you couldn’t bear to be with me,” she said, looking up at me.

  “So you didn’t get my message?”

  “There’s something wrong with the answer phone. I was trying to record a new message and the tape must have jammed. I couldn’t bear to keep hearing Lucas’s voice. It was too upsetting.”

  She shivered and I drew her to me once more.

  Leonora never again lived at the house she once shared with Lucas Bennett. The week following my visit to New York, we spent mostly in bed, sometimes on the rug in front of the log fire and occasionally on the large pine kitchen table much to Tinker’s disgust. I’d picked him up from the kennels earlier in the week and he seemed almost as pleased as me to see Leonora living in the house.

  Early on the following Monday morning, I heard a noise downstairs. I’d been nuzzling Leonora’s neck and emerged from her curtain of hair just as I heard a key turn in the lock in the front door. Jumping out of bed, I tucked a towel around my waist, and was halfway down the stairs followed by Leonora, who had the foresight to pull on a silk dressing gown, as Mrs Bates appeared from the confines of the downstairs cloakroom. The expression on her face was one of shock as she looked behind me.

  “Oh! I didn’t realise you were entertaining, sir. I’m sorry if I’ve disturbed you.”

  I cleared my throat. “Not at all, Mrs Bates. In fact, I’m glad that you are here. You must be the first to hear our good news. Leonora has consented to be my wife.”

  To be fair to Mrs Bates, she rearranged her expression ve
ry well but I could see that, quite naturally, the news had come as a great shock. “Congratulations to you both, I’m sure,” she stammered, sitting down heavily on the chair in the hallway.

  “Show Mrs Bates the ring, Leo, while I put something on,” I urged her, my pride, at seeing her wearing the diamond, demanding to be shared.

  I shot up the stairs two at a time and was pulling on my jeans when I realised I had called her Leo.

  Looking back, I realise anyone who knew Leonora reacted to her with an intensity of emotion, which was difficult to explain. Evelyn’s friendship with her had been intense. Mrs Bates had disliked her fervently, which was unusual in such a placid woman and Josie? Sweet, even-tempered Josie had hated her. And what about me? I felt a passion, the strength of which was frightening. She invaded my senses to the exclusion of all else often robbing me of rational thought. At those times, all I could think about was her face, her body, and our lovemaking. She was an opiate inflaming my emotions and heightening my desire as effectively as any Class A drug. Henry was the only person I knew who was unaffected by her. He had no strong feelings about her either one way or the other.

  Chapter 20

  I believe Mrs Bates made a half-hearted attempt to like Leonora but I could see the struggle she had to keep a civil tongue in her head. I don’t know exactly what drove her to act in the way she did, except I sensed she thought the two of us were unseemly in our haste to remarry, especially Leonora, as it had only been six months since Lucas died. However, we both ignored the frosty looks she gave us and accepted her hostility in the hope she would thaw out before too long.

  I admit to feeling uncomfortable about not telling Henry and Josie of our good news. We were so immersed in each other we couldn’t think of anyone else. It was an omission, which we had to remedy so one sunny morning, when the birds woke us early with their dawn chorus, I persuaded Leo to walk the river path with me to their house. The sun was warm, the woods to our left carpeted in bluebells, the scent filling our nostrils as we walked, arms entwined, enjoying the peace and tranquillity of a beautiful May morning. When we came to the section of the path near her house, Leonora stopped, held her hand up to her face, the diamond gleaming in the sunshine and then standing on tiptoe kissed me gently on the lips. She held her hand out in front of her and twisting the ring to catch the light, said, “You’re not going to like this. I’m not coming with you.”