by Anne Mather
'I see.' Beth nodded compassionately, even finding it in her heart to pity the other girl. It must have been a terrible shock to learn that she had a brother, apart from anything else. 'But what happened last night?'
Raoul stretched out a hand and she held it in both of hers. 'Last night—at the party—she wouldn't leave me alone. I daren't say too much in case she began to suspect there was something between us, and persuaded her father to get rid of me. I knew if I left the island, you would marry him—'
'No!' Beth pressed his hand to her cheek. 'No, I wouldn't!'
'But you were wearing his ring 1'
'Let me explain about that. I—after I was with you on the beach, things began to go bad, really bad, do you know what I mean? And that night, the night of the dinner party, I wanted to tell him it was all over, but he came to my room with the ring, and I—I couldn't! But after he'd given me the ring, he—he tried to—well, he
kissed me, and—and—' She shook her head, staring at
him miserably. 'I—I hated it. I just wanted him to stop, but he wouldn't, and then—then when I managed to get away from him he said he was sorry. But he wasn't.'
'Oh, Beth!' Raoul's eyes were dark and passionate, as he leant towards her. 'You didn't have to explain yourself to me.'
She clung to his hand. 'I wanted to,' she whispered, and he allowed his lips to caress hers lingeringly before drawing back again.
'So ...' he said, endeavouring to think coherently, 'I left early, but Barbara followed me. Willard must have seen her leave because he came after her, and that was when he told her—so callously—that we were related. It broke her up, it really did. But she hid it well. Until afterwards...'
'Afterwards?' Beth was puzzled. 'Do you mean—after I left the house?'
Raoul nodded. 'Did Isabelle tell you Willie was still alive when I got to the house tbis morning?' Beth nodded, and went on: 'He was dying.' He cleared his throat, obviously finding this harder to tell her. 'Well, he had the will in his hand, and he was insistent that I should keep it and not let Barbara see it. I—had to agree. He was desperate. He said she had said some unforgivable things to him, and that he had told her he had only asked Templeton here because he wanted to change his will. I believe he was going to change it in your favour.'
'Thank God he didn't,' murmured Beth fervently, and he shrugged.
'I don't know. Maybe he should have done. But anyway, your running out on him had changed his mind again.'
'But Barbara must have known he might do something ...'
'No.' Raoul shook his head. 'He told me that she had taunted him with the fact that he couldn't do anything now. She had threatened him with selling the island, mean, spiteful things, and he had taken his revenge.'
'How awful!'
Raoul nodded. 'I was sick. Sick to my stomach. I felt like tearing the will up. No one except Jonas would have been any the wiser. But he made me swear on my mother's life that I wouldn't, and I think if I hadn't agreed, he'd have forced Jonas to fetch Charles or Gilbert or somebody else.'
Beth absorbed this compassionately. 'Poor Raoul. What a position to be in f
'Not improved when you told me you were leaving,' he reminded her harshly.
'You know why.'
'I do now. Thanks to Isabelle.'
'Isabelle?' Beth stiffened. Was the other woman always to be there in the background, ready to pick up the pieces if anything went wrong between them?
'Yes, Isabelle. You'd spoken to her, hadn't you? Asked her some hypothetical questions about me leaving the island?'
'Well... yes ..
'Yes, she told me. That was what made me suspicious.'
Beth was amazed. In Isabelle's place she would not have done as much for her. 'Did you speak to Barbara?'
'Yes.' He shook his head. 'I don't want to talk about that now.'
'But she told you what she had told me?'
'Eventually,' he agreed. 'After venting her wrath for life's injustices! Oh, let's not think of Barbara at the moment. We'll have to sooner or later, but we'll work something out. I have the feeling she'll find living in the States more appealing after we're married.'
'After—we're—married...' she echoed faintly, and he stared at her.
'You are going to marry me, aren't you?' he demanded, and she saw the tormented look that invaded his eyes as he waited for her answer.
'If—if you want me,' she breathed, an immense gratitude towards Isabelle overflowing inside her.
'If I want you—' He hauled her up against him,
bruising her mouth with his own. 'God, what did you think I wanted?' 'I—I didn't know...' she stammered, when he let her speak. 'You seemed to know—that is—there were other women...'
'What other women?' he growled.
'Well... well, Diane ...'
'I never had anything to do with her.'
'Andre Pecares's sister, then. Louise!'
'How do you know about her?'
'He—he told me.'
Raoul shook his head. 'I like Louise, sure. I've always been made welcome in her home. But after you came to the island...' he smiled. 'I cursed myself for a fool, but there were no other women.'
'But—Isabelle ...'
'Isabelle?' He stared at her incredulously. 'My God, don't you know? Didn't she tell you? Isabelle is my mother!'
'Your mother!'
Beth could hardly believe it, and Raoul's low laugh broke the tension between them. 'God, what must you have been thinking?'
Beth put up a confused hand to her head. 'So—so that was why she wanted to see your—your father. But...' her eyes grew troubled, 'she can't have been very old when you were born.'
'She was fifteen,' declared Raoul flatly. Then he sighed. 'Her father used to run the school, just as she does now. He was part Creole, I think.' He waited for her reaction, and when there was none, he went on: 'My father wouldn't leave her alone. She was so—so much more desirable, I suppose, than Agnes. In any event, I was conceived, and he bribed my grandfather not to tell anyone that the child was his.'
'Oh, Raoul!'
He nodded in bitter reminiscence. 'Anyway, I grew up on the island, as you know, but when I was old enough Willard paid for me to go to school in England. I hated it, but I knew it was the only way I stood a chance of getting a decent education. Afterwards, he realised my potential, and took me on here as overseer.' He shrugged. 'I didn't have to take the job, but I guess I thought Isabelle deserved to see something of her son, and I care about her very much. Besides, I was human enough to want to make Willie squirm, although I guess I grew out of that.' He paused. 'And then you came.'
Beth licked her lips. 'Barbara said you didn't want me here any more than she did.'
'I didn't. And initially for the same reasons. I didn't want you marrying Willie, usurping the place that I guess I still feel should have been my mother's.'
'Raoul...'
He shook his head, stroking her cheek. 'That was before I met you. Before you started to get under my skin..
'And then?'
'Then I didn't want you to marry him because I wanted you myself.'
Beth quivered. 'Willard did behave peculiarly that first time I met Isabelle,' she mused wonderingly. 'The day you brought me back. He was so angry to begin with, but when I said I'd been to the school, he changed.' She frowned. 'I remember, he asked me what you had told me. I didn't understand.'
'I guess he was in a hot sweat,' agreed Raoul dryly. 'That's probably why he came to the house later. He needed to make sure.'
'But your name's Valerian, and Isabella's is Signy,' she exclaimed suddenly.
'My mother married—about ten years ago. He was a missionary, visiting Father Negresco in Ste Germaine. Unfortunately, he was killed in South America only eighteen months after their wedding.'
'I see.' Beth sighed. 'I'm sorry.'
'Don't be. I don't think Isabelle really wanted to get married.' He shook his head. 'I really think the only man she had ever cared about in that
way was my father.'
Beth's eyes widened. 'And yet she wasn't unfriendly towards me—not like Barbara.'
'She didn't blame you, you see,' Raoul told her softly, smoothing the hair behind her ears. 'She knew his weaknesses, just as you know mine.'
'Do I?' she breathed.
'Oh, yes.' His lips caressed her eyelids. 'You're my weakness, damn you!'
'Damn me?' she gasped, and his lips slid down to her ear.
'Yes,' he said unsteadily. 'Damn you for making me need you more than life itself.'
'Oh, Raoul!'
'You'll never know what I want through after that scene on the beach,' he muttered. 'God, I wanted to come to the house and expose you to Willie and make him throw you out! But I stayed away because I hadn't the guts to hurt you!'
Her arms slipped round his neck. 'I was afraid you would come,' she confessed. 'But I thought you hated me.'
'Hated you?' He groaned. 'Well, maybe I did at that. Certainly there were times when I came close to it.'
'You still think I was marrying—marrying Willard for his money, don't you?'
Raoul considered this seriously. 'I believe you don't . think you were. But I also believe that the romantic aspect of living in the Caribbean played some part in persuading you.'
Beth sighed. 'Perhaps you're right. But...' she hesitated, 'if you ever want to leave here, I'll live with you wherever you like. In a cave, if necessary.'
'And that's how it should be,' he said teasingly. 'Oh, Beth, let's get married soon. I want all the ends tying up properly this time.'
'Whenever you like,' she whispered huskily, and he kissed her more passionately.
'Soon,' he said thickly. 'As soon as it can be arranged. Hell, I never thought I'd have anything to thank my father for, but without him I would never have met you and I'm so grateful to him for that. Whether or not he would approve.'
Beth tugged anxiously at the bronze medallion. 'You don't think he would?'
Raoul shrugged. 'He must have known where you were last night, yet he still left Sans Souci to me. He was no fool.'
'Did—did I—was I to blame for his attack, do you think?' she faltered, voicing the question that had troubled her all day, and Raoul shook her gently.
'Beth, no one was to blame for his attack. He brought it on himself. But so many things happened—the party, his over-indulgence, that upset over the beds, and finally Barbara...' He sighed. 'His heart couldn't take it. You heard what Marin said.'
'Yes,' Beth nodded. 'But people will talk all the same.'
'Do you care?'
'Do you?'
He shook his head. 'I know this island. I know its people. They respected Willard, but it was only a veneer, I know that.'
'He gave them all land to live off.'
'Which they bartered amongst themselves,' retorted Raoul laconically.
'You mean ...'
'I mean they'll forget Willie as they'll forget me eventually.'
'Oh, Raoul!'
'Stop it,' he ordered gently. 'Now, where do you want to live? At the Big House?'
Beth hesitated. 'Do we have to?'
'No.' Raoul shook his head again. 'I'm thinking of offering it to Jacques. He could do with a bigger hospital, and I could build us a new house with fewer rooms that would be easier to manage.'
Beth's eyes lit up. 'That sounds marvellous! But what about Clarrie—and Jonas?'
'Naturally, they'll remain with us.'
'And Marya?'
He grinned. 'That's up to you.'
'She can stay,' said Beth, her lips twitching irrepressibly, and Raoul laughed.
'Oh, Beth, we're going to be so happy,' he said, lifting her on to his knees, and she made no argument to that.
THE END
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