by Lucy Gillen
CHAPTER SIX
'You don't have to look quite so much as if you suspect I'm going to throw you to the lions,' Scott told her as they waited in the car to be admitted to the Scayswich Safari Park, and Charlotte looked at him through her lashes. ' wouldn't put it past you,' she said darkly, and he laughed, 'You &re a suspicious little devil, aren't you?' 'Maybe,' Charlotte admitted cautiously. 'But you can't really be surprised if I see an ulterior motive behind everything you do.' 'Why should you, for heaven's sake?' 'Because I think you'd stop at nothing to get what you want,' she retorted, and again he laughed at her frankness. 'Well, if you really think I'd go so far as to feed a beathiful woman to the lions, you're way out in your essimate of me, Charlie Brown. Ask anybody who "really knows me.' Charlotte studied him for a moment from beneath her lashes, taking advantage of his preoccupation with paying for their entrance and receiving instructions about staying in the car while they were ! 108 in lion country. It would not be easy to understand the man behind those rugged brown features, she thought. When his face looked stern,,as it sometimes did, it was difficult to imagine it smiling as it was now, when he turned briefly to look at her. 'Does anyone really know you?' she asked, and he glanced at her again briefly. 'Huh-huh, a few people. A lot more think they do.' Including me?' He smiled at her again. 'Maybe,' he said. 'Now look at the lions, not me that's what we've come for.' The whole thing was even more fascinating than Charlotte had anticipated and she was thrilled to see that there really were some lion cubs. They were so irresistible that she felt like getting out of the car and playing with them. 'They're adorable,' she cried delightedly. 'Ooh, I could hug them!' You'd come off worst if you did,' Scott teased, but the taunt was without malice, and he watched her with as much interest as he did the animals outside so that Charlotte, feeling his gaze on her, turned at last and looked at him. You told me to look at the lions,' she reminded him, feeling horribly self-conscious, especially in such close proximity as the closed car enforced. 'Why don't you look at them too?' He laughed, a soft, deep sound that stirred her 109 pulses. 'You enjoy your view. I'll enjoy mine,' he said, and spared a hand from the steering wheel to run a gentle finger down her cheek and into her neck a caress that sent a shiver down her spine and made her turn hastily away. 'Scott, please don't.' 'You know,' he said quietly, after a moment's consideration, 'this is an ideal situation from my point of view.' 'Oh?' She eyed him suspiciously, thankful that at least they were obliged by the rules to keep driving along. He laughed softly, just keeping them moving, and experiencing no difficulty in using only one hand while the other lay on the seat between them. 'A beautiful girl trapped in my car with me, and unable to run away no matter what I do, because we're surrounded by lions.' 'There's also a car in front and two more behind us,' Charlotte retorted, a pulse hammering wildly at her temple as she clenched her hands together. 'And if it came to the point I don't know that I wouldn't choose the lions!' 'Oh, would you?' He put on a little more speed, though still staying within the specified limits. 'Also,' Charlotte went on, feeling she had the upper hand for once, 'you can't do much while you're driving a car, can you?' The hazel eyes regarded her steadily for as long as he could safely take his attention from the quiet road. 'If you'd care to make that a challenge,' he no said softly, 'I'll accept it willingly.' Charlotte could feel the rapid and uneasy flutter of her heartbeat and the slightly dizzy sensation in her head as she looked at him before hastily lowering her eyes. 'I came to see lions and giraffes,' she told him. 'There was no mention of wolves.' He laughed, as she might have guessed he would, then pointed ahead to where a house showed briefly among surrounding trees. 'All right, Charlie Brown,' he said good humouredly. 'We'll look at lions and giraffes, then go and have some tea in that stately pile up ahead.' 'That Charlotte told him fervently, 'sounds like the best idea yet!' It was in fact quite a lot later when they finally got their tea, for Charlotte was reluctant to leave the animals and they drove over every inch that was allowed before going out through more gates and into the section of the estate that was laid out with gardens and lawns, like Wainscote was. There was the inevitable souvenir shop near the gates, and she chose a small china model of a lion that seemed to her to be inordinately expensive, but for which her escort paid without hesitation or comment. She must, she told herself as she walked beside him carrying her gift, get used to ignoring the price of things and choose things instead by then appeal. Tea was served in what had once been a large orangery, and Charlotte was thankful that, as it was 'the end of the season, there were very few people ill there. She enjoyed the feeling of luxury it gave her to sit there surrounded by glass walls and potted trees with a smoothly polite waitress serving them. From Scott's smile as he watched her, he might have guessed at her feelings, and she felt the colour in her cheeks when she looked up and caught his gaze on her. 'I wish you wouldn't watch me,' she complained, albeit mildly, for she was feeling quite relaxed, almost lethargic in the warmth of the orangery. He leaned his elbows on the small table, a movement which brought him much too discomfitingly close, and smiled at her. 'Don't you like being watched?' he asked softly. 'I'd have thought you were used to it.' 'Not the way you look,' she retorted, feeling her hands trembling and wishing he would not be so observant when he reached out one of his own and covered them. 'How do I look, Charlie Brown?* 'Don't use that silly name,' Charlotte said breathlessly. 'You know I don't like it!' 'Charlotte.' He lifted her fingers and put them briefly to his lips, speaking softly, his eyes half serious, half amused. 'You don't like the way I look at you, you don't like the name I call you, you suspect me of an ulterior motive because I ask you to come out with me.' His lips brushed her fingers again lightly. 'Why did you come with me, beautiful Charlotte?' She gazed at him for a moment, disturbed to find 112 that she could not answer such a simple question, then she withdrew her hand from his and picked up the spoon from her saucer to give her something to steady her hand. 'I don't quite know,' she admitted frankly. 'Except that I'd never been to one of these safari parks, and I wanted to see one.' 'I see.' He was smiling in a way that set her pulses racing and sent her gaze hastily downwards again. 'Then why didn't you turn me down and ask Noel Chartres to bring you? I'm sure he'd have been only too willing to.' So he would, Charlotte realised. He had suggested that she might change her mind and she had had her chance then, but she had not taken it. 'He's he's been once,' she explained, hoping it sounded like a good reason. 'He wasn't very impressed.' 'Oh, I see. And what about you. Charlotte? Aren't you impressed either?' 'Oh, Scott, you know I've loved it!' She was so anxious to assure him on that point that she reached out and touched his hand softly with her fingertips. Then I'm ' She glanced at him curiously when he stopped in mid-sentence and saw that he was looking across the glass-walled room to somewhere behind her. Before she could turn her head to see what was drawing his-interest, however,, the object of it came across to their table and he got to his feet. She was a tall, dark-haired girl, several years older ! than Charlotte, and not quite pretty but with a I li3 definite air about her that gave the impression of almost magnetic attraction. Blue eyes regarded Scott for a moment as if she could hardly believe what she saw, then she smiled and held out a welcoming hand. 'Scott! I don't believe it!' 'Hello, Caroline.' His fingers closed round the proffered hand while Charlotte's eyes widened in surprise. It could be only one person, she felt sure. Caroline Biythe, the woman that Noel had told her Scott was probably going to marry and yet the greeting was hardly that of lovers. It was a friendly smile that looked down at Charlotte, and Scott hastened to introduce them. 'Charlotte, this is a years old friend of mine, Caroline Biythe Caro, my new neighbour. Charlotte Brown.' The friendly blue eyes were curious but not malicious. 'Ah yes, I heard poor old Ezra Blackwell was dead. You're his family, I presume, are you. Miss Brown?' 'I'm all he had,' Charlotte told her, quite willing to be friendly. 'I wish I'd know about him sooner.' 'Sit down and join us, why don't you?' Scott invited, and she cast a hasty glance at the other end of the room before sitting down. 'I shall be ac
cused of slacking if John sees me,' she told him. 'Ann's away and I'm helping out this week.' 'John is the owner of this stately pile,' Scott explained for Charlotte's benefit. 'Caroline's his cousin 114 in this lark everybody gets raked in to help, eh, Caro?' H The other girl laughed to hear it put so plainly, but nodded agreement for all that. 'You're so right,' she said. 'Don't ever be tempted to join the commercial stakes. Miss Brown, it's nothing but hard work right, Scott?' ' I 'Right,' he agreed, then looked at the girl for a moment as if he was unsure whether or not to ask the next question. 'When's the wedding to be, Caro?' he then asked quietly, and Charlotte held her breath. Caroline Biythe's friendly blue eyes were hidden for a moment by lowered lashes, then she reached out with long, slim fingers and pleated the edge of the white tablecloth, as if she found the question as difficult to answer as he had to ask. 'As soon as Peter gets-back from Germany,' she .told him quietly. 'Next month.' 'I haven't had a chance before,' he told her, 'but you know I wish you both every happiness, Caro.' 'Thank you.' She looked up at him then, and in : those few seconds Charlotte felt herself horribly superfluous. 'I'm very happy, Scott, and very lucky. I appreciate that most of all and I'm grateful. It's a blessing one of us at least had some common sense.' Scott's strong fingers covered her restless ones, and he smiled. "We both did,' he said softly. They were almost back home, much later than they had originally intended, because Charlotte had seen ii5 an old inn as they drove home and thought it looked interesting. The result was that Scott insisted on stopping and having a drink and a sandwich there. Consequently it was already dark as they drove along that same twisting, starlit road she had walked with Noel a few nights ago. The moon had dwindled to a slimmer form now, and there were fewer stars visible than on that night, but it was still a clear and lovely evening, and she felt something of the same enchantment, except that now the attractive, friendly face of Caroline Biythe kept coming before her. Her curiosity about the other girl was boundless, but she thought there was little chance of it being satisfied. Despite his matter-of-fact handling of the meeting. Charlotte suspected that seeing Caroline Biythe again had been both unexpected and disturbing to him. As they drove along the last half mile, Scott suddenly turned his head briefly and glanced at her face with its preoccupied expression. 'You're curious,' he said softly, and with dismaying accuracy. 'What makes you think I'm curious about anything?' she asked, and he laughed shortly. 'Oh, come on, Charlie Brown, you can do better than that! Ever since we left Scayswich you've been wondering about Caroline, haven't you?' It made her uneasy to be faced with admitting her curiosity and she shook her head. "I don't have to wonder about her,' she said. 'The the situation spoke for itself.' 116 He was smiling, she could see when she turned her head, it was evident even in the dim interior of (the car. 'I suppose it did,' he allowed. 'But I didn't I. expect to see her there. Charlotte, I promise I -didn't.' His insistence surprised her, but she was gratified to hear it. 'I don't imagine you did,' she told him. "But I have been wondering about her for a long time, ever since ' She bit her lip hastily when she realised her slip. Oh yes, of course,' Scott said quietly. after a moment's pause I�d forgotten you ready '.'-new about Caroline ' 'I only he be'- an. I forgot, Noel Chartres have 'ou the lowdow- , didn't he?' he weren�t on, ignoring her attempted denial. 'Just how much did he tell you. Charlotte?' 'I haven't admitted Noel told me anything,' she insisted, and he laughed again, the same short, humourless sound. 'You didn't actually deny it either,' he told her. 'And I know Noel Chartres as well, or better than you do. He had his own ideas about Caroline at one time too, but I don't imagine he told you that, did he?' 'Scott ' 'He just intended you should cold-shoulder me, like you did that day last week.' he went on relentlessly. 'And it damned nearly worked too, didn't it? You were riding such a high horse you nearly threw me out for no reason at-all.' 117 I ve always got a reason for throwing you out,' she was stung to retort. I suppose he told you I was having an affair with Caroline and you took it as a personal affront to yourself. Well, you can see now that he was wrong.' 'I didn't care either way,' she said, unsure just what she was feeling at the moment. 'I am I am sorry, though, Scott.' She was not certain whether she was apologising or expressing sympathy, and neither, apparently, was he. 'Why?' he asked quietly. She tried to see him more clearly in the dim light, but the moon was temporarily hidden and the interior of the car was dark. 'I mean,' she said slowly and with infinite care, 'that it was obvious, even to me, that there was had been something ' She used one hand to convey a meaning she could not quite put in to words. 'I've known Caro ever since the first time I stayed at Wainscote, about fifteen years ago,' he told her. 'She's a nice girl, a friendly girl, as you saw for yourself.' He seemed to be seeking just the right words as he drove along the road towards home and Charlotte made no attempt to interrupt him. 'We saw quite a lot of each other during the last two years while Peter was away, and I suppose we I let things get a little out of hand for a while.' 'She was engaged?' Charlotte ventured, and he nodded. 'Caro has been going to marry Peter, ever since the year dot. It's always been that way between 118 them ever since school. But he's abroad a lot in connection with the family business, and Caro was are so was I. Need I say more?' Charlotte shook her head, seeing Caroline predicament all too easily. With Scott Lingrove to console her in her fianc� absence, any girl was likely to be carried away by the situation and probably make a fool of herself. Scott, she focussed, would be the one to see the danger of it (before it was too late. Scott would always sense That sort of danger I 'She's very nice,' she said, and he nodded slowly. 'Yes, she is,' he agreed quietly, and she was left 'wondering if their version* of nice were the same. It was not possible from the car to see the old tree on top of the ridge. The handful of stars, as she had rather fancifully named it the other night, but she could imagine it out there, its gnarled fingers spread to encompass the bright glitter of stars, and she smiled. 'There are stars again,' she said, almost to herself, and Scott turned, his head briefly to look at her, smiling, she thought. 'There are,' he agreed. 'Do you go star-gazing, Charlotte?' 'Sometimes.' She made the admission cautiously. .'One seems so much closer to them here, somehow.' i. He laughed softly. 'It's the wide open spaces,' he told her. 'No chimneypots in the way, or sky119 scrapers.' 'Only a big, ugly old hand,' she said, and saw him turn his head again curiously. It's an old tree up on the top of the ridge out there,' she told him. 'It looks exactly like a big hand holding the stars in its palm.' 'Very poetic,' he said. 'You must snow me this handful of stars.' He was, she realised with a start, already pulling the car into the side of the road, under the rocky overhang. 'Now?' 'Why not now?' he asked, and opened his own door. 'Corns on, show me your miracle.' With a trance, . and completely inexplicable lilt in her near Charlotte got out of the car, his hand under her arm turnned to look back the way they had come, feeing ne oid tree, not quite so clear as it had been on the night of the full moon, ! but still visible and still giving the same impression. I There ' she said, pointing upwards. 'You see it?' He looked upwards and across at the gnarled tree , and ?.he knew immediately that he was seeing it ! with her eyes. He turned his head and looked down I at her and she could distinguish a smile touching his mouth as he spoke, s 'It is a handful of stars,' he said softly. 'Maybe we should wish or something, hmm?' It was so unlike her impression of him that she could only stare at him for a moment, then she (urged softly, feeling a warm glow of pleasure that was ready to share her flight of fancy to such an tent. 'Why not?' she said, and closed her eyes to just that. She opened them again swiftly when his lips pushed gently against her closed lids, and her heart s thudding like a wild thing seeking to escape. was looking at her in a way she found both exing and disturbing, and she moved away from a. after a second or two and walked back down to car. Did you wish?' he asked when, after a moment, joined her, and she nodded. It's been a lovely day,' she ventured as he started, the car again and drove down the steep hill 'forwards home. He turned his head and she thought he smiled, I Although she could not be absolutely sure. 'I've ena
yed it,' he said. 'I'm glad you did, despite your suspicion of me.' 'I-I wasn't really suspicious,' she told him, and he laughed softly. 'That's a fib, Charlie Brown, and you know it.' After such a pleasant day and then that few fanciil moments on the road just now, she felt disapointed that he was reverting to more or less armal, and she frowned her disappointment, even lough he could not see it. g ' still don't like being called Charlie Brown,' she gold him, and he laughed again, the sound of it grating on her sensitive nerves. . 121 He turned the car into Blanestock's overgrown drive and she looked down at the house in darkness, ' and for the first time slightly nervous of venturing in there on her own. 'Isn't it time you got a man out here to do something to this driveway?' he asked as the tyres crunched over the weed-strewn gravel, and Charlotte turned her head and looked at him re- ! sent fully. I 'I will if you give me time,' she told him. S I 'You've been here almost a month now,' he told her, unperturbed by her resentment. 'That's time enough to have got something sorted out in the I garden.' 'I'll do it when I'm good and ready,' Charlotte informed him. 'I don't see why you should bother I about it.' I 'Oh, but I do,' he insisted with a laugh. 'I don't I S want it looking too much like a jungle when I get H it - Charlotte drew a deep breath, seeing her earlier i enjoyment banished for good by his raising the one ! subject they were bound to quarrel about. 'You're ' not getting it, Scott,' she told him quietly. 'I've told you over and over, and I mean it.' He laughed, a soft, disturbing sound in the inti- mate confines of the car. 'I shall still keep trying,' he told her, and braked the car to a halt in front of the old house. 'Come on, I'll see you safely in.' i Charlotte did not wait for him to come round and give her a hand from the car, however, but swung the door open and scrambled out on her own, s ? 122 inarching up to the front door with her key gripped n one hand, her chin set at a defiant angle to let him see that she was not to be easily pacified. 'I can manage on my own, thanks,' she told him. I He stood beside her on the top step while she tried in vain to insert the key in the lock, and Saughed when her shaking hands made a hopeless hash of it. 'Give it to me,' he told her, giving her no chance to refuse, but taking the key from her and opening the door with annoying ease. 'I'm more used to it than you are.' I She glared at him and snatched the key back, Breaching in to turn on the hall light. 'You think you already own it, don't you?' she stormed at him, more )or less standing where she could block any move on his part to come inside. 'Well, you don't, Scott, and you never will ' Big, dark violet blue eyes looked at Shim reproachfully for spoiling her lovely day, and ?she stood there in the yellow light with the key clutched in one hand and her handbag in the other. The knuckles of both hands showing bone white as he fought for self-control. I He sighed deeply as he looked down at her. 'Here we go again,' he mourned. 'Back to normal.' 'Well, it's your fault,' Charlotte declared. 'You could have to start on about the house.' 'You're too sensitive about the wretched house,' he retorted. I was only teasing you, it's time you were used to it by now.' I- Charlotte shrugged. 'I don't care. You've you've spoiled everything,' she accused. I . T don't see howl' 'You have I had a lovely time and now you've gone and spoiled it all by being so nasty about' the house.' ' He leaned easily against the frame of the door, one hand supporting his head, his eyes glinting in the light from the hall as he regarded her steadily. 'The only thing spoiled as far as I can see,' he said g quietly, 'is you.' 'Oh, you ' She stared at him with brilliant, S I indignant eyes. Then she dropped the key into her i handbag and fumbled for a second or two among the contents, at last bringing out the china lion he had bought for her. 'You're not having Blanestock,' she declared breathlessly, 'and you're not bribing me with this or anything else. Take it!' She gave him no opportunity to take it, but hurled the trinket as far away from her as she could, seeing it arc away into the darkness, then she turned swiftly before he could speak or move, and slammed the door shut on him. She did not know what he would do, and told } herself she did not care. She was through being harassed by Scott Lingrove, and from now on she would not even ask him into the house. She would ' ! certainly never, ever go out with him again any-' i where. i" It was nearly two hours since Charlotte had I slammed the door on Scott, without even stopping to thank him for taking her on what had been a 124 enjoyable outing until the last few moments. She would have been the first to admit that she pad simply lost her temper and allowed it to make per behave with a regrettable lack of good manners. A good hot meal and a time curled up by the fire, however, had mellowed her and she was feeling much less murderously inclined towards him. It was when she was ready for- bed some time that she thought of the lion again and she at the foot of-the stairs. The thought of that exquisite little figure lying out there on the path made her frown, and she sighed at the prospect of searching for it. She was not yet prepared to face Scott and apologise but he need not know that she had gone out and rescued the model. He had been deliberately annoying and, even if she had misjudged him about Caroline Biythe, it was no excuse for his subsequent behaviour. thinking about Caroline Biythe, she wondered if Noel had really been in ignorance of the true about her and Scott, or if he had deliberately inisled Charlotte for his own reasons. Next time she him, she would tackle him with it, and find gout. She yawned as she looked at the front door, and glanced at her watch. She was always ready for bed much earlier here, and never had any difficulty in falling asleep, but she did not like leaving that little china lion out there all night. It could not have gone very far, for she had been 125 standing only just inside the front door, and she had never been a very good thrower. Shrugging off- the voice of lethargy, she went across to the door and opened it, staring out at the darkness without. enthusiasm. She almost had second thoughts too, when something moved out there, and made a soft, rustling sound in the wind-tirred bushes on the other side of the drive. ' Shrugging off cowardice, however, she walked down the steps and across the crunchy gravel. It was' difficult to even guess where it would have fallen, for she had not even bothered to see it land, but hastily slammed the door before its donor had time to realise her intention. ! After several minutes' searching she stood back, shivering in the chill, sharp wind and feeling a ' sense of hopelessness when she looked at the thick, tangled mass of shrubbery. It was like searching for I a needle in a haystack and she might as well resign herself to losing it for ever, or else to looking again ! in the daylight. Turning to go back into the house again, she put a hand to her mouth suddenly and her heart lurched crazily in fear when she saw a tall, dark figure standing in the lighted doorway. For a moment neither of them spoke or moved, then the intruder extended one hand, holding the small, shiny object she had no difficulty in recognising. TVs this what you're looking for?' Scott asked quietly, i For several seconds she could only stand and stare. 126 then she closed her eyes in relief, and moved , with her heart once more thudding wildly against her ribs and a strange tingling sensation sing through her veins. He stood leaning on the frame, his pose nonchalant and incredibly re i considering the hour and the circumstances, she wondered dizzily if anything ever disturbed land self-confidence. e reached for the figure of the lion, but he did immediately relinquish his hold on it and in moved his fingers to enclose hers in the same g grasp as the figure. thank you.' sounded rather ridiculously formal, but there little else she could say that would either ease disturbing tension between them or sound as yiaiier-of-fact as she wished it to. 'You did want it?' he asked, still quietly, and she nodded, glancing up at him. 'I was looking for it,' she admitted, and then suddenly wondered why he had been there. She could not see his car, but it was too dark to see any much further along the drive, because the moon had again hidden itself behind a heavy bank p)f cloud. 'I thought you might be.' 'What are you doing here ?' she asked, and he smiled. I 'I got half way down the drive,' he told her, 'and suddenly thought you might have second thoughts about slinging your little lion away, so I went home I, , 227 and had a supper, then came back and picked it up off the grass where you'd thrown it.' 'Oh!' She could, she realised, have asked him to have supper with her. It
was the least she could have done in return for his frequent hospitality towards her, and for her outing. 'I'm I'm sorry I didn't ask you in for supper,' she told him. 'I should have done.' 'Oh, I didn't expect you to do that,' he told her, with a solemnity that was belied by the gleam in I his eyes. *A young girl living alone has to guard her reputation. Especially when she has no guardian angel in the form of a housekeeper.' I suppose so,' Charlotte admitted. I For a moment neither of them spoke or moved, then he smiled slowly and lifted a stray wisp of hair with 'a finger that managed to make a caress of the . gesture. His gaze was fixed on her mouth with an intensity that stirred her blood and made her feel slightly breathless. 'Would you have asked me in. Charlotte?' he asked softly. She half shook her head, uncertain what she j should say, but wondering at the sensation of light- headedness that possessed her. ' I don't know,' i she confessed at last. 'I suppose I shouldn't really, not while I'm on my own.' 'People do gossip,' he said, and reminded her of Noel's gossip about him and Caroline Biythe. 'They do,' she agreed, and looked up then with a small, provocative smile just touching her mouth. 128 I 'But since there was no one here to see, I could have given you a supper. Who would know?' I. He stood-for a moment, his lean tanned face shadowed by the yellow light from the hall, the lltfaick thatch of fair hair roughed by the brisk wind, then he lifted her chin with his finger and gazed at her mouth with that- same intense way as before. He fatefully set the little china lion down on the sill just inside the door and smiled: I 'Who Would know?' he echoed softly, and his hands drew her closer, one spread out to cradle her IF head, the other holding her tight against him while his mouth came down on hers with a fierce Urgency that was almost a hunger. 129