Tree of Paradise

by Abor, Jane

  'You never showed any signs of wanting to! '

  'On the contrary, there were at least two occasions when I made -what might be called scouting forays to test the climate.'

  Donna blushed, remembering. 'You've always been so brusque with me, impatient of me,' she went on.

  'Only with your resistance to me. I'd never been used to that and I didn't take to it willingly. But you can't say I haven't tried to serve you in kind—what about the Dial House, for instance?'

  'The—Dial House?'

  'Done up faithfully to period—your period as you would have known it before you left Laraye—even to disputed clock in end-gable, because you claimed it had been there.'

  Donna drew a long breath. 'You did that to please me? Oh, darling— '

  'Otherwise I could have patched up its walls, slapped a flat roof on it and pleased my architect instead. Do you realise, my girl, that I had to track down that sundial in a mason's yard in Grenada; have it shipped and set it up with my own bare hands? And since we're on the subject of my silent service and forbearance, what about my allowing you to assume I went all the way with Irma's scheme to hoodwink your uncle into selling Louvet, when I could have floored you with a word of denial?'

  'Then why didn't you?'

  'Because you were enjoying your indignation too much, and it seemed a pity to spoil your fun.'

  Donna thought back. 'You did tell me later you admired me for standing up to you.

  'And so I did., It made me like you as well as love you, and liking's just as important in its own way as love. That's the huge-difference,' he mused. 'Margot and I have never liked each other—'

  'You must have done once!'

  Elyot shook his head. `No, never. There was always this thread of near-rivalry between us;' this hostility, her need to score off me and my urge to score off her. I'd give her full marks for business flair, and I've considered more than one financial partnership with her. But we couldn't have built a good marriage on the kind of armed neutrality which was all our personal relationship was.'

  'She has always implied it was more than that,' Donna pointed out.

  `Again, probably, because she can't bear to have it thought she isn't on top of every situation—in my case, that she could marry me at any time she wanted. And she has always been so sure of herself that I'd have

  said jealousy was beneath her, until she showed she was jealous of you.'

  'Of me? How did she show it?'

  'In various ways. Losing no chance to make a snide remark about you. Referring to you as my "little protégée". And once, in a moment of rare candour, admitting that she knew Melford Drinan was engaged all along, and had rather enjoyed your discomfiture when you found out.'

  Donna nodded slowly. 'Yes, Bran had heard her boasting of it to Mrs Tours one night, and though I faced her with it, I did my best to help her to deny it. She did, and though I knew Bran couldn't have made it up, I couldn't imagine then why she should resent me, even hate me, as I realised she must.'

  'With good reason, sweetheart, once she saw you as a rival. And don't pretend,' Elyot chided, 'that you're 'way above jealousy yourself. I can't. I was jealous as hell over Drinan. And you too—over Margot?'

  Donna smiled. ' "I cannot tell a lie,"' she quoted. 'And so—ever since, I think, the. night when I watched you dancing with her in her way, and later you taunted me with being a Blue Danube type. But I didn't know why I cared at the time.'

  'But now you do?'

  'Yes:

  'Then say it. Tell me—'

  'I suppose—because even then I'd begun to fall in love with you,' she admitted.

  'Then if that was when it began for you, I beat you to it by aeons and leagues,' he triumphed. 'Flowers, theatre tickets, a promise to show you my etchings—tell me, have I ever paid court to you with any of them?'

  'Not that I remember.'

  'Exactly. Pretty old hat, the lot. But to woo a girl

  with an aerosol of mosquito-spray, can a man come any more original than that?'

  Donna bubbled with laughter. 'You weren't courting me as early as that, so don't pretend you were ! '

  'And if I weren't, why didn't I leave our allegedly nonexistent mosquitoes to do their worst?' Elyot handed her drink back to her and took up his own. 'Anyway, let's finish these, and I'll escort you into dinner on my arm.'

  Donna protested, 'But we can't! We must wait for Irma to come back!'

  'But she isn't coming back for hours.'

  'How do you know?'

  'She said so when she gave me my instructions. Told me she was taking herself on the town for a cinema show and supper after it, giving me a clear run with you until midnight, and that dinner would be laid ready for us on the table.'

  'Which it is,' Donna confirmed. 'Places laid for two.'

  'Well, there you are. Irma didn't mean to play gooseberry as well as matchmaker. She did her bit, and then relied on our self-help.'

  'How did she know we should want to eat together? She assumed a lot. And to think I believed her story of a sick friend ! '

  'Only a very pale grey lie; just an extension of "All's fair ",' Elyot countered. 'Besides, she's probably hoping we shall do as much for her when she steps up her campaign to get Wilmot.'

  'I didn't know you knew about that,' Donna said. 'Who could help it—the unfortunate man!'

  Donna laughed. 'Does that mean you think she'll

  win in the end?'

  Elyot shrugged. 'I shouldn't like to say. Up to date it's been a case of irresistible force against the immovable

  object, but once Louvet is off both their backs. they may come to terms.'

  Donna tucked her arm into his as he moved towards the house. 'And you'll be taking on Louvet?' she asked.

  'Just as soon as your Company will make a deal with me. I can hardly wait,' he said.

  They found cups of Vichyssoise soup, a cold fowl, salad and a chocolate mousse in the refrigerator and pretended, at Elyot's suggestion, that they were eating their first meal at Marquise., 'This is how it will be every night, once we're married,' he said. 'You there; I here. But no, not so far away. Near enough to be kissed between courses if I feel so disposed. As I do now, even before we begin.'

  Afterwards they debated how they could thank Irma, and decided to leave her a posy, though it had to be of her own flowers. They wandered round the garden in the darkness, gathering some golden allamandas here, long chenille tails there; sprays of pink crape myrtle, short-lived hibiscus, with a cluster of passion flowers for the heart of the posy. Donna arranged it deftly and they left it at the base of a table-lamp where Irma could not fail to' see it.

  Then they turned out all the lights but that one lamp, and Elyot insisted on driving Donna home in his car. He would return for Wilmot's later.

  They talked intermittently on the way—'Do you remember?' and 'This reminds me of—' and 'Supposing—?' and 'I never thought— happy, cosy chat, sure of eager response. When they reached Louvet they took a long time to say goodnight, and when at last Elyot agreed that they must part, he asked idly, 'How did you know I'd gone to Barbados?'

  Donna told him.

  'So does the breach-bridging invitation to dinner with Uncle-in-law-to-be still stand?' he asked.

  'Of course.'

  'And what do you suppose he's going to say about Us?'

  'Perhaps,' said Donna, 'you'd better come to dinner and see.'