For His Little Girl

by Lucy Gordon

  Happy as she was, she knew a little spurt of anger.

  It had been done at a distance when it suited him. "There's the phone, and the e-mail-" she began to say.

  "But it's different now, don't you know that? Something started to happen between us-I know you're denying it, and maybe I know why, but give me a chance. Don't throw away what we could have."

  Pippa stared, hardly able to believe her ears, while the spurt of anger leaped higher. It was different now that he wanted it to be different.

  Stop it, said an inner voice. It doesn't matter anymore, and you can't quarrel with him here and now.

  But the old, pugnacious Pippa reared her head, yelling, I can quarrel with him anyplace and anytime I like.

  "This is the first call for British Airways Flight 1083, Los Angeles to London Heathrow…"

  He seized her arms. "You're not taking that plane."

  "You bet I'm not," she said slowly. "You're right. There are things to say, and I'm going to stay right here and say them."

  His heart leaped. He'd won. Of course he had. He always did. But there was something in her eyes that made him uneasy. It should have been the light of love. It looked more like the light of battle. Being Luke, he brushed it aside to be worried about later.

  He took her hand firmly, and they returned to the cafe. Everyone stopped and looked up at them eagerly. "Who's going to get their bags off the flight?" Luke asked, and a cheer went up.

  Josie cast herself wildly against Pippa. "Thank you, Mommy!" Then against Luke, who held her tight.

  Zak went off to recover the bags. Luke's mother seized Pippa's hand and pulled her down beside her.

  "We've had this wonderful idea," she said. "Why don't you let Josie stay with us for a while?"

  "No, I'm sorry," Pippa said at once. "That's out of the question."

  They stared at her, everyone taken aback.

  "Forgive me. I didn't mean to be rude. Of course I know you'll take wonderful care of her. It's just that she's never been out of my sight before."

  But very soon, you may be out of each other's sight forever. Put the thought aside. Don't look at it. But bind her tightly to those who love her.

  "Please, Mommy," Josie begged. "Grandpa says we'll go to Disneyland every day."

  "He's never had an excuse as good as this before," his wife put in.

  "Well," Pippa said helplessly, "I guess maybe…a few days-"

  This cheer was even louder than the other, making passersby cover their ears.

  "When Zak brings the baggage, we'll just load Josie's things in our car and head for home," Luke's dad declared.

  "You mean now?" Pippa asked.

  "Guess there's no time like the present."

  "Guess there isn't, at that," Pippa said, dazed. She felt as though she'd been squashed by a friendly but determined juggernaut. They were all in it. Except perhaps Claudia.

  And a few minutes later even that illusion was destroyed.

  "Hey, this isn't the way back to Manhattan Beach,'' Pippa said, looking around her, puzzled.

  They were in Claudia's car and she was driving them home, so she'd claimed. "I thought we'd do a little detour," she said airily over her shoulder.

  "How big a detour?"

  "Montecito, just southeast of Santa Barbara. I have a little house there, and while Josie stays with Luke's family, you'll stay with me."

  "But-"

  "You'll love it, Pippa. The air is cooler and cleaner than Los Angeles. That'll suit you better."

  Pippa whirled on Luke who was sitting beside her in the back seat.

  "Don't look at me," he said with suspicious innocence. "I've been kidnapped, too."

  "There's kidnapping," Pippa said emphatically, "and kidnapping!"

  "Darn! I was afraid you'd spot that one."

  "Luke, you can't just sweep me off like that."

  His face was Ml of wicked fun. "I'm not. She is."

  "But-"

  He slipped both arms about her, drawing her back onto the seat beside him. "Why don't you just lie back and enjoy it?"

  She couldn't struggle anymore. He was irresistible, thank goodness! And why should she even think of struggling against something she so passionately wanted? Pippa slid down into the seat and gave herself up to Luke's embrace.

  She spared a last conscience-stricken thought for Claudia, reduced to playing gooseberry in her own car. But from somewhere in the distance she heard a delighted chuckle and guessed Claudia had peeked in her rearview mirror.

  They drove for nearly two hours. Then they were climbing into the hills, and, as Claudia had promised, she could feel the air growing cooler and fresher. She took a long breath of pure physical joy. In the distance the ocean sparkled. Above, the sky gleamed an impossible blue.

  Suddenly Claudia took a turn that had been invisible. Another mile, driving amidst lush vegetation, and her house came into view. Pippa stared, openmouthed. Luke had said that Claudia's wealth came from oil, and now she knew it must be true.

  The house was a low, rambling Spanish-style edifice-white walls, red tile roof. For a while it came and went between the trees, but then suddenly the trees cleared and it was before them like a vision.

  Claudia stopped the car, tooting cheerfully, and bringing two men and two women bustling out of the house. "Sonia, Catalina, Ruiz and Alfonso," she said. "They look after the house and garden."

  In moments Ruiz and Alfonso had opened the trunk to remove all the baggage, Sonia and Catalina were ushering them into the house, welcoming them volubly, assuring them that everything was prepared, the rooms were ready, the food was laid out.

  Inside, the air was blessedly cool. Long white curtains wafted gently in the floor-to-ceiling windows.

  Claudia escorted Pippa upstairs to a room at the front of the house.

  "This is yours," she said. "Luke's is across the way."

  The room, which matched the one directly below, was big enough for ten. It had floor-to-ceiling windows, hung with white net curtains, and mosaic tiles on the floor. Its high ceiling and wide spaces gave it an air of peace that seemed to bless her as soon as she walked in. The bed, which could have slept an army, was covered in white lace. The furniture was rosewood, warm, glowing and beautiful.

  Catalina was already there, unpacking Pippa's clothes and hanging them in the huge closets. She showed her where everything was, smiled and disappeared.

  Pippa wandered out onto the wrought-iron balcony to stand looking over the pool and beyond it the sea, feeling all the troubles fall away from her soul.

  "Do you like it?" Claudia asked from the doorway.

  "Claudia, it's beautiful."

  "It's my room. I chose it because it overlooks the sea."

  "But I can't drive you out of your room. I'll take somewhere else."

  "Oh, but I won't be here. I have to dash off for a few days. Did I forget to mention it?"

  "Yes, you somehow forgot that," Pippa said.

  "Well, I have a memory like a sieve," Claudia declared gaily. "I forgot to mention this, too."

  On the bed lay a robe of pure silk, multi-colored in shades of olive-green, tan, orange, pale-yellow. It was the most exquisite thing Pippa had ever seen.

  "It's an old Spanish custom to make a gift when someone stays in your house," Claudia said. "This is my gift. It's for lying around by the pool."

  She held it up, and it looked so perfect that Pippa gasped with pleasure. "It looks fantastic with your coloring," Claudia said. "I'm rather conceited with myself for getting that so right."

  "Claudia it's-it's-"

  "Oh, hush, it's nothing. Just enjoy it." Then abruptly the gaiety faded from her face, and she spoke quietly. "You probably wonder why I brought you here, when you and Luke could simply have returned to his house. But I thought you needed to get away completely. It's all been about Luke and Josie, but what about Luke and you?''

  "I'm not sure that there can be a Luke and me."

  "Now you can find out. And I want you to t
ake this.'' She handed Pippa a scrap of paper on which a name and address were written. "He's my own doctor here and he knows how to be discreet."

  "I don't know what you-'' Pippa began quickly, but her protests died under the gentle honesty on Claudia's face.

  "I don't know what it is exactly," Claudia said. "But I know there's something, and you haven't told Luke. Maybe you'll tell him while you're here. I think it should be soon."

  Pippa looked down at the paper in her hand. "Thank you," she said quietly. "You won't-"

  "No, I won't interfere. Besides, I'll be gone in a few minutes."

  Impulsively she put her hands on Pippa's shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. Pippa clung to her for a moment, smiling. Suddenly she felt full of courage. She would tell Luke without delay.

  Chapter Nine

  Claudia whisked herself out of the house with very little fuss. She stopped briefly with Luke to tell him, "If I'm not back to drive you home, just take something from the garage." Then she gave him a hug, said, "Bye, both of you. Don't bother to be good."

  "We won't," Luke promised her fervently. And

  Claudia was gone.

  Then an odd thing happened. As Luke and Pippa turned to look at each other a constraint seemed to fall over them. Pippa understood it in herself. She had something momentous to tell him. But Luke seemed actually embarrassed.

  Sonia saved them by waddling from the kitchen yodeling, "Food! You come and eat little snacks while I cook big dinner."

  "Great," Luke said with evident relief. "Let's have them by the pool."

  He vanished upstairs at once, leaving Pippa feeling puzzled. She returned to Claudia's room and put through a call to England.

  "Mark, hi! Yes, I know I should be on the plane by now, but we're staying over a few more days. I called so that you'd know not to meet us at the airport." She saw a shadow slip past her half-open door. It was Luke on his way down to the pool. On the other end of the line Mark sounded troubled.

  "Pippa, you've got major surgery scheduled for next week-''

  "I know, but I can have a few extra days here and still be back in time. I'll call Frank and-"

  "No need, he's here. He was going to come to the airport with me. You'd better talk to him."

  She heard the mutter of voices, and the next moment there was Frank, sounding outraged and fearful. "You must be out of your mind."

  "Frank, I'm feeling really well. Please try to understand."

  "Fine, it's plainly useless for me to talk sense to you. I'd like to speak to Josie, please."

  "She's not here. She's staying with Luke's parents."

  She heard his sharp intake of breath. "So that you can be with him, I suppose. He broke your heart once and he'll do it again, but don't you care about that! Don't you care about anything but your fancy man!" He slammed down the phone.

  Such violence of feeling was so unlike Frank that she could only sigh, pitying him. In many ways she knew he was right. She ought to be strong and say goodbye to Luke. But the happiness that possessed her now was so sweet, and there had been so little of it in her life, that no power on earth could have prevented her claiming just a little more, perhaps the last she would ever know.

  She called Luke's parents. Zak answered and said they'd taken Josie to the zoo. He promised to tell Josie that she'd arrived safely, and get her to call when she arrived home.

  When she went down, dressed for swimming, with the silk robe over her costume, Luke was already in the water. Sonia was setting out the snacks and wine by the pool.

  "Champagne," she said. "Miss Claudia's orders."

  "Miss Claudia's really organizing things," Pippa murmured.

  "She's like a big sister to Mr. Luke," Sonia confided. "She knows what's good for him."

  She poured a champagne into a tall, fluted glass, handed it to Pippa and put the bottle back on ice. Pippa sipped and found herself drinking vintage Krug, chilled to perfection. She slipped off her robe and sat on the side, dangling one foot in the water. It was deliciously cool, and glinted in the sun as though the very water was made of champagne.

  "Come on," Luke called from the water. "It's great.''

  "So's the champagne," she called back.

  He swam over to her, threw his head back, mouth open wide. Laughing she poured champagne directly into it. "More! More!" She filled the glass again, but this time she emptied it over his head. "Hey!" he spluttered, and vanished beneath the water.

  Pippa peered down at him, but the next moment a hand had encircled her ankle and she was in the water with him. He released her at once and carried her to the surface, spluttering and struggling. Pippa found herself pressed against his bare torso, feeling the flesh warm despite the cool water, and suddenly very, very conscious of how much of her own body was uncovered.

  "You let me go, right now," she said breathlessly.

  To her surprise, he did so, and swam away, leaving her startled.

  He shouldn't have left her like that, even if she'd told him to. His hands seemed to have made imprints in her waist where he'd held her, and the sensation of his body against hers was still alive. But he had gone. He was up at the far end of the huge pool, splashing and frolicking as though nothing had happened between them.

  She swam lazily, crossing the pool at the width rather than risking the length. She was feeling good, but she knew how quickly that could evaporate.

  At last they climbed out and dried themselves off. Luke held up the robe for her to put her arms in. "Pretty," he said. "I haven't seen it before."

  "Claudia gave it to me. I feel a fraud, it's such perfect silk, and I'm not really a silk kind of person."

  "Why shouldn't you wear the best?" He briefly kissed her cheek and settled down on his own recliner. "Let's eat. It looks good."

  The snacks were Spanish tapas, small portions of fish, meat and salad, and Sonia, whose family came from Andalucia, had turned them into an art form.

  They both enjoyed them with gusto, until Luke said, "Pippa, we have to talk."

  "What about?" she asked, puzzled by an edgy note in his voice.

  "There's something we should have discussed days ago, but I guess I lost my nerve. You, too, maybe."

  "Me… too?"

  "Lost your nerve. Because it's something you really should have told me at the start, not let me blunder on, thinking that you-that we-''

  He floundered to a halt, and in the silence Pippa felt herself drowning in horror. Luke had guessed the truth about her illness. What else could this mean?

  "Luke, please don't blame me too much-"

  "I don't. I know some things are hard to say. It's just that you were always such an honest person-well, you'd tell the truth if it brought an avalanche down on you…and on the rest of us."

  "Maybe I've learned a little tact," she said quietly. "When you grow up, you don't want to risk avalanches. They tend to engulf the people you love."

  "I wish I knew who you include on that list."

  "Well…Josie mainly. You must understand that I've had to put her first."

  "Of course." He seemed deflated. "It's just-would you tell me whether it's too late?"

  Oh, God! He did know.

  "I can't tell if it's too late or not," she said slowly. "How can I know that before I've got back to London?"

  "And seen him."

  "What?"

  "Mark. That's his name, isn't it? You called him from your room…"

  "Yes, he was due to meet us at the other end. I had to let him know not to."

  "You were on the phone to him a long time."

  "I called Josie, too, but she was at the zoo." She couldn't mention Frank.

  "Is he a nice guy, this Mark?"

  "Very nice."

  "A good friend?"

  "The best."

  "Handsome, too."

  "Very. In the guest house we call him Adonis."

  "Oh, really! Well, I guess that's that! More champagne."

  "Luke-what is it?'' She dismissed the suspicion c
reeping into her head as too impossible. "How did you know he was handsome?"

  "Josie showed me some snapshots. There was a real nice one of you and him together in his car. She says you go driving with him a lot." He was looking out over the pool.

  "Luke is this what you were talking about just now? Mark and me?"

  "Of course. What else?"

  They'd been at cross-purposes. He hadn't discovered her secret, after all. She could still tell him in her own way.

  And now the suspicion became a reality. He was jealous. "So, you put two and two together, and came up with-what?"

  "I don't know," he said grumpily. "You tell me. I mean, look-it's fair enough. I guess there was bound to be someone-and you tried to give me a hint-all that stuff about things being different. That's what you meant, wasn't it? About this Mark guy, and his fast cars and his Adonis looks. What's so damned funny?"

  "You are," she chuckled. "Making a big deal about Mark."

  "He isn't a big deal?"

  "He's no kind of deal. Just a friend. They all are."

  "That wasn't what you were trying to tell me the other night?"

  "No, it wasn't. But, Luke, I want to talk to you about something quite different-"

  He never heard her. His relief took the form of leaping to his feet, yelling, "Yahooo!" at the top of his voice, and toppling headfirst into the pool, landing with a splash that soaked her.

  '' Yahooo!'' he yelled. "YAHOOO!''

  She knew she should be firm and insist on telling him everything now, but like that other time, the knowledge that he was jealous filled the world. It could do no harm to enjoy her happiness for just a little longer. She would tell him tomorrow.

  He swam back to her. "You're not in love with Mark?" he yelled.

  She knelt down to talk to him. "No, of course I'm not."

  "You're not in love with anyone else?"

  "No!"

  "YAHOOO!" Pippa covered her ears, laughing. "Listen-" he yelled. She uncovered them. "What did you think I meant, then?''

  "Pardon?"

  "You said I shouldn't blame you. Blame you for what? What did you think I meant?"

  Her mind went blank. "I didn't know what you meant," she prevaricated. "I thought you were talking gibberish, the way you usually do. I just played along."