To Play With Fire

by Flora Kidd

  Tory was trying to control an urge to fling herself against him, to hug and kiss him, but he looked and sounded so very unforgiving that she didn't think that such a move on her part would be welcomed by him at that moment.

  'Where did you meet him?' she asked.

  'At , Lilac Avenue, where he lives,' he replied

  dryly. Where do you think? Tory, why are you so thin?'

  'I've been ill—I had pneumonia. That's why I didn't return to Airouna when I should have. Mum sent a letter to you, explaining. Didn't you get it?'

  'No. It must have arrived after I left and it hasn't caught up with me yet.'

  'When did you leave?' she demanded.

  'A few days before you were due to arrive. I sailed in Ariel to Antigua to meet you. I thought we'd have a good time sailing back, but you didn't get off the plane, so I decided you'd run out on me and I didn't bother to go back to Airouna. I went on to St Thomas and handed in my resignation as manager of the Airouna marina. While I was there I received a message from my brother. He'd phoned me at Airouna and Josh had told him where I'd gone. My grandmother was very ill and asking for me. So I left Ariel in St Thomas and flew to London. I arrived in Cornwall in time to see Gran die; I was there until last Tuesday, then I had to go to Manchester on business for my brother. It seemed a good idea to call on you and find out what had happened to you.'

  His terse, coldly-spoken sentences gave her no hope. He hadn't come to England to see her, and wouldn't have come if his grandmother hadn't died. That was very clear. And he wouldn't be here in the cottage if his brother hadn't wanted him to go to Manchester on business.

  'I ... I'm sorry about your grandmother,' she said weakly, and sat down on the old love seat that her mother had bought for a few pounds at a local auction sale and had re-upholstered in red plush herself.

  He didn't sit down beside her but stood with one arm resting on the mantelshelf of the old stone fireplace, looking down at the flames which flickered there. The

  crackle of the fire and the occasional flop of ash in the hearth were the only sounds in the room.

  'Denzil, I didn't run out on you,' Tory said suddenly.

  'But the thought crossed your mind,' he shot back at her.

  'Only because of what Wanda said.'

  'Which you didn't give me a chance to refute.'

  Oh, he was hard all the way through, she thought, like the rock of Gibraltar to which she had compared him at their first meeting. How on earth could she get him to understand how she had felt the day she had left Airouna?

  'She said you were in love with her and not with me. She said that if you'd received her letter telling you she was divorced and free to marry you, you wouldn't have married me,' she said steadily, keeping her gaze steady on Denzil, expecting him to turn and tell her that what she had said was true,

  'I did receive her letter before I married you,' he replied quietly, and continued to watch the flames.

  'Oh I' It was all very puzzling. 'Then why did you marry me?'

  He turned at last to look at her, but the expression in his eyes hadn't changed; they were still as hard and clear as an eagle's.

  'I seem to have spent the last few months answering that question,' he said with a touch of exasperation. 'I married you because I wanted you to live with me.'

  'But not because you loved me.'

  'It amounts to the same thing.'

  'No, it doesn't. Loving means sharing, helping, cherishing, accepting the other person's failings ...'

  'And what the hell do you think I've been doing ever since I set eyes on you but helping you, protecting you, accepting your silly female wilfulness, sharing

  all I had with you? Good God, Tory, what else do I have to do to prove to you that I love you?'

  He spoke harshly, but her heart bounded in her

  breast and was no longer a dead weight, and it seemed

  that the colours of the room grew brighter and warmer.

  'All you ever had to do was tell me,' she said imply.

  'Well, I'm telling you now,' he growled. How was I to know you'd believe a frivolous shallow woman like Wanda more than you'd believe me?' he added bitterly. 'You even believed her story that I tried to steal her from her husband.'

  'Didn't you?'

  'No, she just made it appear that way to clear herself with him. Oh, I admit I was fascinated by her for a while, in the same way you were fascinated by Magnus Jarrold. She's a few years older than I am, but when I first met her that only made her more fascinating. She was pretty, charming, experienced and fun to be with. I thought the was a widow and was sorry for her because she had been widowed so young. I was shocked when Trelawney appeared that night at her house and said he was her husband. You see, she'd told me he was her father-in-law.'

  'Oh, how naughty of her!' Tory found she could not help being amused by the trick the mischievous Wanda had played. But how awful for you, I expect your feelings were very hurt,' she added, thinking how she had felt when she had found out about Rita Jarrold.

  'It was my self-esteem that took the worst blow,' he said, and the slightest of smiles tugged at one corner of his mouth. 'Especially when I discovered I hadn't been the only young man she had entertained in her "father-in-law's" house. But I soon got over it.'

  'She told me she was the reason you left England!' exclaimed Tory.

  'Did she?' Denzil laughed rather scornfully. 'She

  must have sized you up pretty well then. She guessed you'd fall for a romantic angle like that. No, my leaving at that time was just coincidence; I'd been planning to sail across the Atlantic for some time. Just after I'd found out about Wanda I had a row with my uncle about the business management of the pottery.' His mouth curved sardonically. 'As usual he won, and I decided I was wasting my time trying to fight his old-fashioned notions of business, so I left on the next high tide.'

  'Pottery?' she queried. 'Whose pottery?'

  ' Hallam's Pottery.' He glanced round at the wooden plate rack which ran round three walls of the room and on which Pamela Latham displayed pieces of antique pottery and china and glass, which she had either inherited or had picked up at saes. His roving glance came to rest on a dinner plate an which there was a design in blue. He crossed the room, reached up and lifted it down and studied it.

  'I was right,' he said complacently. 'It's one of my great-grandfather's most popular designs, called Bluebell Mist.'

  'Oh, let me look, please.'

  He came over and sat beside her handing her the plate. She admired the delicately-painted design of bluebells round the edge of the plate and handed it back to him.

  'Mum is going to be very thrilled when she learns you're related to that Hallam,' she said.

  'Makes me respectable, does it?' he scoffed, placing the plate on a side table. 'One of the reasons why I left home the way I did was that I was tired of being made up to by people like Wanda because I'm, a Hallam. You see, in my part of the country the name carries weight, and is always associated with money.'

  'But I don't understand why you stayed and managed the marina in Airouna,' she complained.

  'I'm the youngest of the family. I could have stayed at the pottery as a hanger-on, with a position but no real work, no power, never getting a chance to prove that I could do more. My uncle Trevor managed the business side. My brother Garth was, and still is, in charge of design. There was no opportunity for me to do anything until my uncle retired. So I had to find something else to do. Sailing across the ocean alone helped to satisfy some of the urge, but when I'd done it I had to find something else. Developing the marina, building up the chartering business offered a challenge ... for a while. I was thinking of packing it in and going on another long-distance voyage when you turned up.'

  'I wish you'd told me all this before,' she said. 'You could have told me on Christmas night when I asked you about Wanda. Why didn't you?'

  He leaned forward, his arms resting on his knees, his hands clasped loosely together as he stared at the fi
fe.

  'I suppose I didn't because I was unsure of you,' he said gruffly.

  'Why?' Tory was amazed at his confession.

  'We were married in rather peculiar circumstances and I could never be sure whether you'd married me because you liked me or whether it was because you wanted to keep your job. I didn't tell you about Wanda in case you were disgusted by my youthful foolishness. I wasn't sure you'd understand about her. And I was right, you didn't understand, and you wouldn't even let me explain why I hadn't been able to get back the night before you left for England.'

  His voice was hard again, unforgiving.

  'I was upset,' Tory said in a low voice. 'You see, I was unsure of you too. You'd been so restless and I thought you were regretting having married me ...'

  'It wasn't that. It was the marina.,The place was running smoothly and had lost its challenge,' Denzil explained quickly. 'God, Tory, if you knew how I felt when you didn't get off the plane at Antigua you wouldn't doubt my love for you. I was convinced you weren't coming back to me.'

  Was it her imagination, or had his voice cracked a little under the pressure of his feelings? The longing to touch and hold him was too much for her. Reaching forward, she ran her fingers under the thick hair clustering at the nape of his neck. Slowly Denzil turned his head to look at her, and leaning towards him she kissed him on the mouth. As soon as they touched passion exploded between them, and they leaned against the back of the love seat, their hands caressing each apear other gently as if each were afraid the other might dis

  'Tory, Mum says to tell you tea's ready,' Robin's high voice came clearly through the panels of the door and Tory broke the kiss to answer.

  'We're coming!' she called back, and turned to Denzil again. 'I was coming back to you,' she whispered, 'but I couldn't help being ill. I ... I'm going to have a baby.'

  The clear hazel eyes, so close to her own, blinked once, twice, then widened slowly.

  'Mine?' he whispered incredulously.

  'Of course,' she snapped. 'Surely you don't think ...'

  'Hell, no l I didn't mean it that way. I'm just a little shaken. I've never imagined myself as a father.'

  'You don't mind, do you?' she asked, suddenly anxious. It had never occurred to her that he might resent having a child.

  `No, I don't mind because it will be ours. But what about you? Do you mind? You're the one who has to have the child, not me.'

  'I'll be all right as long as you're there. You will be there, won't you, when it's born? You won't go away?'

  'I'll be there. No one is going to stop me from seeing our son born.'

  'Daughter,' she argued promptly.

  'Why is it you love to disagree with me?' Denzil taunted, his mouth hovering threateningly above hers.

  'Tory, Mum says the meal will spoil if you don't come at once,' Robin called again. 'Come on, you two. I can guess what you're doing. Break it up, break it up

  'We'd better go,' muttered Tory, sitting up and smoothing her hair back.

  'Not yet,' he said autocratically, pulling her back beside him. 'First things first. Where are you and I going to sleep tonight?'

  'Here, I suppose.'

  'Your mother was saying something to me about being cramped for space and that she'd have to put me in the same room as your brother because there are only three bedrooms, and the girl he brought will have to sleep in yours. It's just not good enough, Tory. I'm sleeping with you.'

  'Oh, you can't. Robin and I share a bed and Priscilla will be on the folding bed.'

  'Then we're leaving. We'll find a room in the hotel I noticed at the head of the lake. Is it any good?'

  'First class, but it's very expensive and select.'

  'So what? At least we'll get some privacy. And that brings me to the second matter we have to settle. Would you mind if the child is born in Cornwall?'

  'Is that where we're going to live?' she asked.

  'That's what I hoped you'd say, lover,' he retorted with a grin. 'That's where I'm going to live, and I hope ' you'll be living there with me. My uncle has decided to retire at last, and since I've inherited most of my

  grandmother's loot, which included a substantial number of shares in the pottery, Garth has asked me to take over the management of the business side. Being an artistic type he has no head for that sort of thing.'

  'And you've agreed because you never could resist a challenge,' Tory teased.

  'No more than you could ever resist playing with fire,' he retorted, standing up and pulling her to her feet so that he could take her in his arms and press her long length against him 'Can we leave as soon as tea is over?' he whispered in her ear. Then she felt his lips against her throat and their passionate touch sent shivers down her spine, causing desire which had lain dormant all these weeks to uncoil itself.

  'I don't think so They're going to be very hurt as it is when we tell them we're not staying the night,' she replied, leaning against him and rubbing her cheek against his.

  'I can't help that,' Denzil retorted roughly, tipping his head back to look at her. 'I have to have you to myself soon, without interruptions. Five weeks without you is too long.'

  'Too long for me to be without you, too. Oh, Denzil, I've been so worried not hearing from you, thinking that you hadn't forgiven me for not coming back and maybe if your grandmother hadn't been ill, if you hadn't had to come to England, you wouldn't have come at all, wouldn't be here now,' she whispered, voicing the fear which was uppermost.

  Strong fingers curved round her head, forcing it back so that he could look into her eyes.

  'I was angry, I'll not deny it, but not with you; with myself for having allowed any woman to mean so much to me. My initial reaction was to go off on another voyage telling myself that you weren't worth so much anguish. But I'd been telling myself that ever since you

  collided with me on that ferryboat. Every time I made some approach to you and you brushed me off I'd tell myself that the next time we met would be different and I wouldn't let you in to take over all my thoughts and feelings. But we'd meet and I'd find myself relenting, finding some excuse for you, forgiving you. This time isn't any different from the others. When I'd simmered down I'd have come looking for you because you've got to me where it hurts, lover, and I can't do without you.'

  Again his voice shook a little with the intensity of his feelings, and overwhelmed by his confession, Tory wound her arms about him and pulled his head down close so she could whisper,

  'And that's how I feel about you too, lover.'

  He began to kiss her on the mouth, on the cheek, on the eyes on the throat, a rain of short, sharp, shocking kisses which soon had her flushed and breathless and reeling with desire.

  'Denzil, please, not here! ' she was gasping laughingly, when the door opened and Pamela said sharply,

  'Now, look here, you two, you're keeping us all ... oh, I see you're busy.' Her voice softened with amusement.

  Denzil raised his head and looked at her.

  'Has this daughter of yours told you you're going to be a grandmother?' he demanded.

  'Tory! Really?' Pamela was now smiling rather foolishly.

  Tory nodded as she tried to smooth her dishevelled hair and cool her hot face with her cooler hands.

  'Then I must go and tell Jack at once,' said Pamela, and went from the room leaving the door open.

  Denzil, triumphant because his ruse to get rid of her mother had worked, pulled Tory back into his arms, but she held him off, her hands against his chest.

  'Please don't think I'm brushing you off,' she teased gently, 'but haven't you realised that the sooner we have tea the sooner we can leave and go to the hotel?'

  She watched the twinkle of devilry begin to dance in his eyes as he smiled at her.

  'Now you're getting the idea, my darling,' he retorted softly, and hand in hand they left the room to go and join the rest of the family at the tea table.