'Rafe!' They embraced each other and he kissed her cheek, then she bent to kiss Penny's cheek. Very politely, Penny greeted her and kissed her in return.
'Anne,' said Rafe, 'this is Elisa.'
Anne looked at her searchingly, and not altogether approvingly, Elisa thought, but then the carefully made-up and slightly bulbous hazel eyes became veiled and she couldn't have been more courteous as she made her welcome. 'Penny's new nanny,' she said. 'It's so nice to meet you at last. Rafe's told me so much about you.'
Had he, indeed? They must keep in very close contact. And what did she mean about 'at last'? Elisa counted up and found it was only six days since she'd started working for Rafe. Anne seemed to be showing an extraordinary amount of interest in a common or garden nanny.
This suspicion deepened when Anne took her by the arm, Penny by the hand, and led them to a table. 'Come and sit down and get your breath back after fighting your way through that crowd.' She looked over her shoulder and added, 'Rafe, will you join us?'
'Be right there,' he replied, and went back into the house.
Anne chatted lightly and so charmingly that Elisa wondered why she was on her guard, and yet she was. She was glad when Rafe returned with three drinks on a tray. 'Beer for me,' he said as he unloaded it, 'lemonade for Penny, and ouzo and lemonade for you, Elisa.' He sat down, smiled at her and added softly, 'Peasant.'
Elisa smiled back and then, aware of Anne's eyes going from his face to hers and back again, explained, 'Rafe's trying to cure me of adulterating my ouzo with lemonade. It's one of my tripper's habits he finds very hard to live with.'
Did that sound too intimate? Anne's eyes had become veiled again, but Elisa thought, Drat, I can't watch every word I say, and why should I when our association is entirely innocent?
There was a sound of laughter, followed by childish shouts from among the trees up the hilly garden. 'Nikos, Markos and the others are playing hide and seek,' Anne explained.
Penny jumped off her chair, her face eager. 'Can I play, too?' she asked.
'Sure,' Elisa and Rafe said together, and Elisa added, 'Do you want me to come with you?'
'No, I know Nikos and Markos.' Then she was running across the patio and up the slope towards the noise.
'Good heavens, what a difference!' Anne exclaimed. 'She wouldn't leave Janet's side last time you brought her here.'
'She's under new management, and blossoming,' Rafe replied. 'She's my daughter again. I have Elisa to thank for that.'
Anne covered his hand with hers. 'I'm so pleased. I knew it could only be a matter of time, although I didn't think it would be this quick. She seemed pretty traumatised to me.'
'Without Janet, Penny's a different child. It's as though a cloud's been lifted from her or, more accurately, Elisa's blown it away. Elisa doesn't stand on ceremony with her, and it works. Penny responds.'
Anne looked at Elisa without a trace of her former hostility. She even sounded different as she said, 'Well done, Elisa. Rafe said he needed a miracle. I'm glad he's found one.'
Elisa was about to stammer that she was no such thing, when a soft but distinctive voice said, 'Rafe.'
If it was a summons, Rafe responded swiftly to it. He got to his feet and smiled at a slender woman who stood, not by the open patio doors, but by another farther along. She was delicately lovely, with black-lashed grey eyes and titian hair curling over her head, stray wisps and tendrils touching her forehead and ears. She wore a frock of ivory satin that was so simple, so beautifully cut, it must have cost a fortune.
'Angelique,' Rafe said, and something within Elisa died.
She watched him walk towards the elegant vision, kiss her cheek and slip an arm around her waist to lead her back into that private room. She had to mock the pain she felt to make it bearable, and tell herself that now she knew how Cinderella felt when her coach turned back into a pumpkin—robbed.
Elisa wished that whatever was dying within her would get it over and done with. She rather thought it must be hope, because now she could see there never had been any hope for her and Rafe. For him, physical attraction was as far as it went, and Angelique was the reason he could master it so much better than she could. What a fool she'd been to overlook anything as obvious as another woman. A man like Rafe was hardly likely to be without one, now was he?
'Who is Angelique?' Elisa asked, finding it painful just to say the name.
'My daughter. She married young and was widowed by the time she was twenty-two. It was very tragic. Dimitri was a Greek hotelier. He died of a pulmonary embolism following a minor operation. The twins, Nikos and Markos, were born six months later, so he never saw them.'
Elisa expressed her sympathy and Anne smiled. 'It happened nine years ago. Angelique had the twins to live for and everybody was very supportive—particularly Rafe, but of course they'd known each other all their lives. The mystery was why they didn't marry. Everything pointed that way, but then --'
Anne broke off and Elisa, wondering where all this was leading, guessed, 'Angelique met Dimitri?'
'Yes, and Rafe was very wild in those days. He didn't steady up until he took over the family business. It was failing, you know. He's done a marvellous recovery job in spite of --'
'Marrying Sheena?' prompted Elisa, knowing she was being nosy, but wanting to learn all she could about Rafe.
'Precisely. What do you know about her?'
'Virtually nothing.'
There was a rush of movement and three children came running towards them, followed by a dark-haired young woman. 'Ah, my grandchildren, Nikos and Markos,' Anne introduced, 'and Gwen, Angelique's au pair.'
The third child was Penny, and she bobbed around impatiently while the introductions were made, then said to Elisa, 'Is it all right if I go swimming?'
'Of course. I'll come with you.' But Anne put a restraining hand on her arm.
'Gwen will look after them. You can join them after we've had our little talk.'
The children were off, closely followed by Gwen, and Elisa was left with an impression of merry-faced identical twins with large-brown eyes and unruly mops of curly red-brown hair.
'Now, where was I?' Anne murmured, and it was then Elisa realised her hostess was as keen to tell her about Rafe and Angelique as she was to find out. 'Ah, yes— Sheena. She came into our lives seven years ago. The twins were eighteen months old, Angelique had been widowed for two years, and the pressures of business had steadied Rafe and made him responsible in a way that was remarkable. They'd always been close, and it seemed to me that summer they were growing closer— then he met Sheena.'
Elisa looked down at her drink and swirled the glass so that the ice-cubes clinked. 'I can't believe Sheena was lovelier than Angelique,' she told Anne, because that was the uppermost thought on her mind.
'She wasn't. What Sheena had was something different entirely. There was something about her—a way of walking, a way of holding her head—that challenged every man in sight, and Rafe is very much a man.' Anne leaned back in her chair and surveyed Elisa humorously. 'I was prepared to hate you on sight because you have the same quality.'
So that was what the hostility was all about. Elisa had suffered the same from Rafe, and she was tired of it. 'I'm not Sheena,' she said with an edge on her voice, 'and if I offer a challenge it's a passive one. I don't make a habit of following it up.'
Anne patted her arm again. 'I realised that quickly enough, or Rafe would never have employed you. One bad experience with a girl like Sheena is enough to cure any man for life.'
'Well, if she couldn't be happy with Rafe, I shouldn't think she could be happy with anyone,' Elisa said, and then wondered if she'd said too much.
But Anne only agreed. 'That was the problem. Sheena had to keep proving she was irresistible. It was an ego thing. She was, quite simply, incapable of being faithful, and Rafe was incapable of being the cuckolded husband. He turned her out. It was so inconceivable to her that any man would want to be rid of her that she turned nasty. and
struck back through Penny. The rest, I suppose, you know.'
Elisa nodded, but she'd had too much boxing in the dark with Rafe to tolerate any more, and she asked, 'Why are you telling me all this?'
'I'm sure Rafe hasn't, and it's something you should know. He hides his wounds just as Angelique does. They have another opportunity now to discover how deep their feelings are for each other, and it would be a great pity if anything interfered with that.'
'In fact, you're warning me off.'
'What a very frank young lady you are. I can appreciate that. Can you appreciate that after all they've been through they deserve their chance?'
'Yes,' Elisa agreed, because she had no choice. 'Frankly, though, if Rafe and Angelique are in love, there's nothing I or anybody else could do about it— and I deeply resent the inference that I'm like Sheena and set my cap at a man just for kicks.'
'Now I've upset you. I'm sorry, my dear, I can only plead that old as I am, and grown up as Angelique is, I'm still her mother. I only have to see one of my chicks threatened and up come my feathers and I'm cackling out a lot of nonsense.' Anne smiled in a way that made herself—and Elisa's anger—seem ridiculous. 'Am I forgiven?'
She held out her hand and Elisa couldn't help but take it. 'Forgiven,' she said, 'but don't you think it's a good idea to bury the past and let the future take care of itself?'
Anne pulled a face. 'I'm not a great lover of platitudes.'
'Neither am I,' Elisa admitted, and they both laughed. 'I think I'd better go down to the beach to give Gwen a hand.' She tried not to look at the door to that private room, just as she tried to tell herself it was no business of hers if Rafe and Angelique didn't want to join the other guests. 'If Rafe wonders where Penny is, will you tell him?'
'Certainly, although it might be a while before he comes looking. He'll be showing Angelique the designs he's made for her new villa. She's selling the one she has on the Kanoni peninsula and building here. I expect they'll also be discussing the holiday complex Rafe's designing for the Kapsoskis brothers. She married the eldest of them, Dimitri. She's a trustee for the twins' share in the business, and she takes an active part in running it.'
'I see,' Elisa replied, and she did. Not only was Angelique lovely, and quite apart from the fact that her sons needed a father and Penny needed a mother, there were excellent business reasons for Rafe marrying her. Where did that leave herself? On the outside, where she'd always been.
She tried to forget her troubles on the beach. It wasn't easy, because there was so little for her to do. Penny was playing happily with the other children, which was as it should be. Eventually everybody from the villa trooped down to the beach and the barbecue was lit.
Elisa, without the least bit wanting to, gathered a group of eligible—and not so eligible—men around her. If Rafe noticed, he gave no sign. It was her eyes that kept straying to him, and he was always with Angelique. She sat with them to eat steaks and salads and, much as she wanted to dislike Angelique, she couldn't.
She was pleasant and unpretentious, her voice was soft and husky, and when Penny spilt some lemonade over the beautiful ivory silk frock she didn't mind at all. It was Penny who was stricken. Her animation fled and she bowed her head. It was Angelique who instantly put it right by hugging her and saying, 'Don't worry. Your father's already spilt his drink over me, so I don't see why you shouldn't.'
She laughed, and Penny's head came up and she laughed with her. So, Elisa thought, Angelique is good with children, too. It only reinforced what Anne had been getting at, that Angelique and Rafe were tailor-made for each other. As for me, she thought, her heart twisting in anguish, I just happen to love him, and that doesn't count at all.
The sun was beginning to set by the time the barbecue was finished, and everybody began to drift back to the villa. Elisa took Penny to the bathing cabins and they changed out of their swimsuits. 'We'll put on our sweaters, too,' Elisa said. 'It will be getting chilly soon.'
When they had put the beach-bags back into the Land Rover and climbed the steps to the villa, they found somebody had put on a stereo and couples were dancing. Penny ran off to play with the children in the garden and Elisa had the dubious pleasure of watching Rafe and Angelique in each other's arms. They talked all the time as they danced, her face turned up to his, his smiling down at hers. Elisa would have had to be blind not to see how close they were, in more ways than one.
The anguish, which didn't lessen with familiarity, struck once more and stayed with her.
She danced herself, never at a loss for a partner, and she saw that Rafe and Angelique danced with other partners, too. She yearned for Rafe to ask her, knowing that only his arms around her could lull the pain, if only for a few precious minutes. He never did. She laughed and joked and chatted, anything to hide the fact that she was frozen with grief inside.
She never thought that this was worse than she had suffered with Austyn, because he never crossed her mind. One heartbreak was totally eclipsed by another. Her heart was beating for Rafe alone now, but this time she had lost the will-power to save herself, to flee.
Dusk fell and the lights were switched on, making the atmosphere all the more intimate. Elisa discovered hope was a funny thing, and never quite died, because her pulses began racing when she saw Rafe striding purposefully through the throng towards her. So it was going to happen, she was going to be in his arms...
'Time to say goodbye to Anne and collect Penny,' he said. 'We're leaving. She must be falling asleep by now.'
On top of her disappointment, his voice was harsh. Had he found it so very difficult to say goodnight to Angelique? Was he wishing, however fleetingly, that he didn't have a child to drag him away? As for herself, his tone was clear proof she didn't figure in his calculations.
Anne was very friendly towards Elisa, inviting her to visit any time she was at a loose end. 'This beach is always quiet and if I should happen to be out, the maids will make you welcome until I get back. Angelique asked me to say goodbye for her. She's just caught sight of the time and she and the boys are flying back to Athens tonight. The boys have school in the morning.'
So that was why Rafe was disgruntled. Not because he'd had to leave Angelique, but because she'd had to leave him. More for something to say than anything, Elisa remarked, 'They'll be sleepy by the time they get to bed.'
'Oh, no, they live in -the Greek style,' Anne replied with a laugh. 'A good siesta, and then up until all hours of the night. It's not a bad way to live once you get used to it.'
They said their goodbyes, found Penny and began the drive home. Penny didn't seem at all tired at first, but the quiet, the motion of the car, soon had her eyes drooping. They stopped to wrap her in a travel rug and lie her down, and she was asleep almost before they set off again.
The silence continued. I must say something, Elisa thought. He might get the idea I'm sulking, and then what will I say? But her mind was numb, perhaps because once more she was having to pretend she wasn't agonisingly aware of his closeness.
It was Rafe who eventually broke the silence. 'You enjoyed yourself.' He made it sound like an accusation.
Elisa was startled. At first she thought only a jealous man could speak like that. Only after frantic thought did another explanation occur to her, and humiliation stained her cheeks. She said stiffly, 'You mean I shouldn't have behaved like a guest? I'm sorry, put it down to inexperience. I'm not used to this sort of work.'
'Don't be ridiculous! I didn't mean that.'
'What did you mean, then?'
'God knows,' he muttered.
'I'm glad somebody does, because I don't,' she grumbled. She'd known him in many moods, but never just plain moody. He didn't seem to know what he was angry about or what to focus it on, and she just happened to be there. Tough luck on her!
The silence was ominous now, and it got to her enough to make her ask, 'Did your business go badly?'
'No.'
That wasn't helpful, and she couldn't believe anything
had gone wrong with his personal relationship with Angelique. Besides, Anne wouldn't have been that complacent when they left. What had happened, then, to make him turn on her? She didn't dare ask any more questions, not before his mood softened.
After a while he told her, 'Anyway, I'm glad you enjoyed yourself,' and she knew that was his way of making amends. Whatever the cause of the storm, it had passed. Then he took her aback by asking, 'Is that all Penny and me are to you—work?'
He sounded disgruntled and she asked tremulously, 'Wh-what do you mean?'
'Your stay with us should be something of a holiday as well.'
'Oh. Yes, yes, of course it is.'
He snatched a quick glance at her. 'We'll be doing a fair bit of socialising from now on. I'll give you some expenses to cover suitable clothes.'
Was he ashamed of her well-washed cotton among all that couturier silk? With anybody else, she would have been amused. With Rafe she was so extraordinarily sensitive that her voice trembled with anger as she retorted, 'No, thanks. What I have suits me fine.'
'Don't be so bloody proud. I'm only trying to be nice.'
But Elisa had taken one knock too many. She rounded on him with a viciousness that stunned him. 'Don't try to be nice, Rafe, it would be too much of a shock to both our systems. Be bloody awful, as usual. That way we know just where we are with each other.'
They drove the rest of the way home in frigid, fuming silence.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
From the next day on, and purely for Penny's sake, Elisa and Rafe kept up a very good imitation of the companionship they'd lost almost as soon as they'd discovered it. There was a barrier between them neither attempted to cross. It had nothing to do with Angelique, Austyn or anybody else. It was theirs alone, and somehow that made it all the more formidable.
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