'Dr Abbot!' Sally almost screamed his name, releasing her frantic grip on Laura for the first time and quite literally throwing herself at the man who approached the bed.
'There now, young Sally,' he said lightly, lowering her on to the bed, and placing the back of his fingers against the child's burning cheeks. 'I think you and I should have a quiet little chat… hm?'
'We'll wait downstairs,' Anton announced and, taking Laura's arm, he marched her firmly from the room.
She tried to shake off his hand, but his fingers merely tightened about her arm as he led her down the stairs and across the hall into the living-room.
'Do you think she'll be all right?' she asked when they were no longer able to hear Sally's weeping.
'Graham Abbot brought Sally into this world,' Anton informed her in clipped tones. 'He's my neighbour, and he's an excellent doctor.'
This explained his quick arrival at Bellavista, but as time passed Laura's anxiety did not lessen. She accepted a cigarette from Anton and smoked it in agitated silence, but long after she had put it out there was still no sign of Dr Abbot.
'What's he doing up there that's taking up so much time?' she demanded eventually, glancing at the clock above the mantelshelf. 'It's been forty-five minutes!'
'Stop worrying,' Anton ordered, lighting his third cigarette. 'Sally's in good hands.'
'But what if—'
'Ah, here you are,' Dr Abbot's pleasant voice interrupted her, and they both swung round to face him as he entered the living-room.
'How is she?' Anton asked before Laura could formulate the words, and she was surprised at the hint of anxiety in his voice.
'She's quite calm now,' the doctor explained, placing his bag on the floor beside a chair and making himself comfortable. 'I've given her a light sedative, but it won't necessarily make her sleep.'
Relief swept through Laura, and, following the doctor's example, she lowered herself shakily into a chair.
'Graham, this is Sally's aunt, Laura Hoffmeyer,' Anton introduced her.
'Glad to know you, Miss Hoffmeyer,' Graham Abbot said absently. 'Most distressing business, the accident. Most distressing.'
'Gould I pour you a drink, Graham?' Anton offered, turning towards the ornately carved oak cabinet in the corner.
Graham Abbot shook his grey head. 'No, thank you, but I suggest you pour one for yourself and for Miss Hoffmeyer. You're both going to need it before I'm finished with you.'
Laura's throat tightened in alarm, but it was Anton who said: 'That doesn't sound very good at all.'
'Depends on how you look at it,' the doctor shrugged thoughtfully.
A glass of wine was placed into Laura's hand, and Anton swallowed down a mouthful of his whisky before he seated himself in the vacant chair beside Laura's.
'Well, let's hear it,' he said abruptly.
Graham Abbot offered Anton a cigar, but Anton declined, and Laura watched nervously as the doctor rolled the cigar appreciatively between his fingers before he clipped off the end and lit it. 'There's nothing physically wrong with Sally, but we had quite a lengthy chat.'
'It lasted forty-five minutes,' Anton announced mockingly. 'Laura counted every second.'
Laura flashed him an angry glance, but the doctor continued speaking as if there had been no interruption.
'I don't think either of you realise what a shock it's been to Sally to lose both her parents at the same time,' he said, filling the room with the heavy aroma of his cigar. 'Heaven knows she didn't have much of a home life with Robert and Liz away most of the time, but she was happy enough, and now the only world she has known has been ripped from under her feet, so to speak. From her hysterical ramblings I gathered that she needs you, Anton, because you're familiar to the world she's known.' Graham Abbot paused momentarily, his grey glance resting on Laura as if he were summing her up for some or other reason. 'She needs you as well, Miss Hoffmeyer, because you're the only blood link she has left with her mother. There's no doubt in my mind that she's extremely fond of both you and Anton, and to part from either of you at this crucial time might unbalance her completely, I'm afraid.'
There was a brief, strained silence while they digested this news, then Anton asked, 'What do you suggest we do, Graham?'
Graham Abbot studied the ash on the tip of his cigar, and frowned. 'What you do is entirely up to yourselves, but I would like to add this last bit of advice.' He looked up then, and Laura felt an odd tightening about her chest which she could not explain to herself even if she tried. 'Sally is in desperate need of a stable home life, which is something she's never really known. It's my opinion that she needs the love and care of a mother and a father, and I suggest you both think very seriously about that.'
Another frightening little silence prevailed, and as she glanced quickly at Anton, Laura noticed that his eyes were narrowed to angry slits in his taut face.
'Do you realise what you're suggesting, Graham?' he demanded with a calmness that had an ominous ring to it, and Laura somehow did not dare to analyse the conversation.
'There comes a time in most people's lives when they're forced to consider someone else's interests instead of their own,' Graham Abbot announced in that unperturbed fashion as he rose from his chair and picked up his medical bag. 'I'll call in again tomorrow.'
Seated alone in the living-room while Anton saw Graham Abbot to the door, Laura swallowed down a mouthful of her half-forgotten wine, and, as she felt the steadying warmth of the liquid surging into her veins, she drained her glass and placed it carefully on the low table beside her chair. She had the oddest feeling that something was about to happen; something which would affect her personal life, and when Anton finally re-entered the living-room, she was filled with an incredible wariness.
She refused his offer of another glass of wine, but she rose to her feet and stood about restlessly while she watched him pour a double whisky for himself.
'What are we going to do?' she asked with a feeling of trepidation spiralling through her.
'There's only one thing we can do, it seems,' he replied harshly, splashing soda into his glass. 'We shall have to provide her with the home she needs.'
Laura digested this carefully, rejecting several thoughts which leapt into her mind before she found the courage to ask, 'And how do you suppose we'll manage that?'
Anton swallowed down almost half his drink before he turned to face her, and there was a tightness about his ruthless mouth that made her quiver inwardly with something close to fear. He did not answer her at once, but his narrowed, piercing glance seemed to dissect her from head to toe where she stood waiting tensely for him to speak. She withstood his glance for what seemed an eternity, and then, when she had almost reached the limit of her endurance, he said tersely:
'You'll have to marry me.'
CHAPTER THREE
Each tick of the clock on the mantelshelf sounded like the reverberating beat of a bass drum as Laura stared at Anton in stunned disbelief, but it was not the ticking of the clock she was listening to, she discovered at length, it was the thundering beat of her own frightened heart.
'You must be out of your mind!' she cried hoarsely, clutching at the back of a nearby chair when her trembling legs threatened to cave in beneath her. 'You can't seriously be suggesting marriage?'
His mouth twisted derisively. 'Can you think of a better solution?'
'There must be some other way to satisfy Sally's needs,' she argued in frantic desperation, refusing to accept the unthinkable solution he had suggested.
'If there was, do you think I wouldn't jump at it?' he demanded with a biting harshness that made her flinch, then he swallowed down the remainder of his drink and set his glass aside with a violence that nearly shattered it. 'Let's take the situation step by step. Sally needs a home with a mother and father thrown in for good measure. That immediately suggests placing her with foster-parents, but she also happens to need both you and me to the extent where it might unbalance her mentally to part from us.
' He thrust his clenched fists into his pockets and strode towards the fireplace to stare broodingly down into the empty grate. 'Can you come up with a better solution than the one I've suggested?'
'I…' She shook her head in helpless confusion. 'No— but marriage is so—so binding.'
'Naturally it's binding,' he stated with remarkable tolerance as he turned to face her, but his eyes narrowed to slits of anger when he saw her frightened blue gaze resting on him. 'Dammit, Laura, do you think I want this any more than you do? I enjoy my life the way it is without a wife to clutter up the place, but, as Graham suggested, we should forget about ourselves and consider Sally's happiness instead.'
'Do you mean to say that Dr Abbot was actually suggesting marriage when he passed that remark?' Laura asked incredulously, unable to believe that anyone in their right mind would suggest marriage between two people who were almost complete strangers to each other.
'Indirectly, yes,' Anton replied tersely. 'When Robert asked me to be Sally's guardian, I agreed, but I never imagined that I would one day be needed in that capacity. I find it a nuisance, quite frankly, but she's my responsibility now, and I intend to do the best I can for her.'
'Even to the extent of marrying someone you don't— don't care for?' she asked haltingly, his resolute expression driving the remaining colour from her cheeks to leave her white and shaken.
'Yes,' he admitted with a determination that chilled her blood in her veins. 'As you pointed out earlier, Sally is nearing the age where she'll need the advice and guidance of a woman, and that's where you come in.'
'I see,' she murmured, her lips so stiff that she had found difficulty in moving them. She tried telling herself that she was living through a nightmare from which she would soon awaken, but she knew despairingly that this was not so.
'There's another reason, of course, why it might be wise for you to marry me,' Anton continued blandly. 'Graham warned me that people have begun to speculate about your presence here in my home.'
Laura felt the blood surge painfully back into her cheeks. 'You mean they think—'
'That you've not only slept under my roof, but in my bed,' he finished for her with characteristic ruthlessness when she faltered with embarrassment.
'But that's ridiculous!' she protested angrily.
'You and I know that,' he said, crossing the room to her side, 'but who will believe us?'
'But we haven't been alone. Sally has been here in the house with us,' Laura argued indignantly as she found herself staring a long way up at him.
'If you were an outsider, would you consider a child of ten as an adequate chaperon?' he asked with a hint of mockery in his deep-set eyes.
'I suppose not,' she admitted grudgingly, 'but nothing like that ever crossed my mind.'
'Not everyone possesses a mind as pure and chaste as yours,' he laughed harshly.
'Don't mock me!' she retorted angrily, her cheeks flaming once more. 'I value my reputation even if you don't value yours.'
The atmosphere between them was suddenly electrifying. 'What makes you think that I have a reputation?'
She turned away from him, unable to sustain his piercing glance, but determined not to be intimidated. 'People wouldn't have been so quick to jump to the wrong conclusion if you hadn't built up a reputation for yourself with women.'
'Laura, you're an attractive, healthy young woman in your mid-twenties, and despite the fact that I'm nearing forty, I'm still considered an active, virile man,' he assured her with that hint of mockery still present in his voice. 'Put two elements like that together in one house for any length of time, and people are bound to consider the outcome as inevitable.'
'Dear heaven!' she exclaimed, burying her hot face in her hands.
'Heaven comes later when you've given me an answer to my proposal,' he stated with harsh cynicism as he forced the issue.
She swung round to face him, an unconscious plea in her eyes, and cold fear clutching at her insides. 'I can't marry you!'
'Can't? Or won't?' he demanded, his mouth drawing into a hard, thin line as he stared down at her from his imposing height.
'I need time to think it over,' she hedged desperately.
He glanced at his wrist watch. 'I'll give you five minutes.'
'Five minutes?' she echoed, her voice croaking in despair. 'Do you realise that you're asking me to decide in five minutes about something which will affect the rest of my life?'
The unrelenting lines of his jaw hardened considerably. 'It shouldn't take you long to decide whether your own happiness is more important to you than Sally's.'
His words implied that she did not care as much about the child as she had wanted him to believe and, like well-aimed arrows, they struck her most vulnerable spot with an agonising accuracy.
'Naturally Sally's happiness is of importance to me,' she stated emphatically, choking back the futile tears which threatened to overwhelm her. 'I want her to have all the love and attention which I've always felt Elizabeth had denied her by being away from her so often, and I want to see Sally grow into a healthy-minded young woman, but—' She faltered and gestured helplessly, pleadingly, but Anton was like an immovable concrete wall. 'Anton… what kind of a marriage do you imagine it will be when we've entered into it for these reasons?'
'A healthy, normal marriage.'
Laura swallowed convulsively. 'You mean——'
'A sham marriage would never convince Sally of its security and stability, and I don't intend spending the rest of my life sharing my home with a woman who denies me access to her bed.' The colour came and went in her cheeks at the crudeness of his statement, but Anton seemed quite unperturbed as he glanced at his watch, almost as if he were concluding a business deal. 'Your five minutes are up.'
'Is there absolutely no other way?'
His eyes, like flints of steel, raked her mercilessly. 'You know the answer to that question as well as I do.'
Laura closed her eyes and leaned heavily against the back of the chair with her hands while her mind, like a computer, accepted and rejected every avenue of escape she could think of, until she was left with only one answer that mattered vitally. 'I would never forgive myself if I took my own happiness at Sally's expense.'
'Am I to understand, then, that you're agreeing to marry me?'
She raised her startled glance to his and, realising that she had sealed her fate by speaking her thoughts aloud, nodded slowly, her eyes filling with helpless tears as she resigned herself to the inevitable.
'Let's go upstairs and set Sally's mind at rest by telling her what we've decided.'
Laura felt certain that, had it not been for Anton's supporting hand beneath her elbow, she would not have managed to climb those shallow steps up to Sally's room where they found her propped up against the pillows, considerably calmer, but still wide awake, and she observed them warily as they approached her bed and seated themselves on either side of her.
Anton obviously did not believe in dilly-dallying and came straight to the point. 'What would you say if I told you that Laura has agreed to marry me, and that Bellavista will be your home in future?'
Sally looked from one to the other, her red-rimmed eyes wide and questioning in her pale face, but it was on Anton whom she finally fixed her intent gaze. 'You mean Aunty Laura won't be going away?'
'Just for a while, perhaps, to settle whatever she has to in Johannesburg,' he replied evenly. 'But we'll be married as soon as she returns.'
'Aunty Laura, is it true?' Dark eyes probed hers relentlessly for confirmation. 'You will come back? Promise?'
Just for one brief moment Laura shrank from replying. There was still time to change her mind, but once she had given Sally her promise there would be no turning back. She felt Anton's eyes on her, and saw the growing anxiety in Sally's glance, then her heart dictated the answer.
'I promise,' she whispered.
The change in the child's expression was so dramatic that Laura was left in no doubt about whether she had ma
de the right decision.
'Oh, I think that's absolutely super!' Sally exclaimed exuberantly, leaping up from beneath the blankets to hug them both profusely. 'I'm so happy, happy, happy!'
'That's enough of that, young lady,' Anton ordered at last. 'It's time you went to sleep.'
Sally settled down obediently, but her eyes glowed with a new-found contentment as she looked up at them. 'Kiss me goodnight… please.'
They complied with her wish, but Sally was not yet satisfied. 'Now kiss each other like Mummy and Daddy used to do to make the circle complete.'
'It will be a pleasure,' Anton replied, and before Laura could retreat in startled surprise, she felt his warm, strong fingers at the nape of her neck, and the hard pressure of his mouth against her own. The duration of that kiss was brief, but something had happened to her; something which she was still trying to define when he released her and turned his attention to the child who had observed them with obvious delight. 'Satisfied?' he asked with a faint smile.
'Yes,' Sally nodded happily. 'Goodnight.'
They put out the light and left the room, but when they stood facing each other in the dimly lit passage, Laura found that she could not look at Anton—not without her heart behaving in the oddest manner—and she kept her eyes firmly lowered to the wine-coloured carpet at her feet. Her skin still tingled at the nape of her neck where his fingers had lain, and she could still feel the touch of his lips against her own. The memory of his kiss awakened sensations which she found difficult to analyse, but it sent a tell-tale warmth rushing into her cheeks.
'You'll become accustomed to my kisses,' Anton assured her mockingly as if he had read her thoughts, and her colour deepened, evoking his soft, deep-throated laughter.
Laura suddenly felt choked and horrifyingly close to tears. Her head was spinning in an effort to take in the events of that evening, and Anton's mocking remark had made her realise with shocking clarity that this nightmare was reality. For Sally's sake she had agreed to marry this autocratic man with the cold grey eyes and cruel mouth. For the rest of her life she would be at his mercy, and she shuddered at the thought of it.
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