by Anne Hampson
‘A woman’s curiosity, eh? Why don’t you ask me outright who she is?’
Colour tinted Dominie’s cheeks and she gave a small, deprecating laugh.
‘All right, then. Who is she?’
‘I believe she was once keen on Jake. Doreen, Jake’s wife, didn’t like the idea of her visiting them. I seem to recall that she had a fit of the sulks after Mrs. Edgley had left.’
‘Mrs. Edgley’s husband—is he not living with her?’
‘He died about three years after their marriage.’
Dominie frowned, and glanced at the woman again. ‘That was hard luck.’
‘I don’t think it was a love match,’ Rohan shrugged carelessly. ‘Jake said something, at the time, about the man being old enough to be her father, and that she had married him for security.’
‘I feel sorry for her, somehow,’ said Dominie after a pause. ‘She looks lonely.’
Rohan smiled and said,
‘What a silly girl you are—troubling your lovely head about a woman you don’t even know.’
‘If she was in love with Jake, and then lost him to someone else...’ Dominie’s eyes shadowed as once again she glanced at the woman. ‘It—it must be crucifying,’ She stopped suddenly. The last sentence had come without her thinking beforehand, and a warm flush of embarrassment began to rise in her cheeks as Rohan’s eyes took on a faintly amused expression. But his voice was grave as he said,
‘I notice you didn’t speak in the past tense. Were you thinking of yourself, Dominie?’
Her flush deepened. This was plain speaking indeed. How must she answer him?
At length she found herself saying, her eyes frank and wide as they looked into his across the table.
‘I admit I was thinking aloud, Rohan. If—if I were to fall in love, and then lose the man to another woman, I think I should die...’ She allowed her voice to fade into silence, for her innermost hopes and desires had now been revealed, put into words that could not possibly be taken to mean anything but the truth ... that she was in love with Rohan. She felt hot inside, would have given anything to be able to withdraw those words, to go back in time just a few short moments.
Rohan was silent, watching her fluctuating colour, noting the spasmodic movement of her fingers as they fumbled with the pastry fork lying close to her plate. She lowered her eyes, avoiding his gaze, wondering what his thoughts were, and if he were regretting her confession because he himself could not reciprocate. The silence lasted so long that she raised her eyes at last, and he saw the tears glistening on her lashes. His hand went across the table and covered hers, gripping her fingers so that they were stilled.
‘I love you, Dominie,’ he said simply, and as she stared at him in wonderment, the tears being allowed to fall, then swept surreptitiously away, he added with a tender smile not untinged with amusement, ‘I had different ideas about telling you, my darling ... a romantic setting with all the exotic island flavour of flowers and a moon and stars, but you’re forced it from me, for I can’t bear to see you unhappy. We know very little about one another,’ he continued after she had offered him a tremulous little smile in place of words that just would not come, ‘but we’ll catch up. This afternoon we’ll go home to Windward Crest and sit in the garden exchanging confidences. I want to know everything about you—everything, my dearest love.’
Her eyes, still moist, glowed with happiness. Moving her fingers as his grip slackened, she allowed them to curl round his, oblivious of any interested spectator who might be watching.
‘I d-don’t know what to say,’ she murmured huskily, pulling her hand away at last.
‘Just say you love me,’ he returned with tender accents, and Dominie willingly obliged, though with shy hesitancy at first, and in tones almost inaudible which brought from Rohan the rather imperative request for a repetition. She laughed then and said obediently,
‘I love you, Rohan.’
‘Prettily spoken,’ he teased, and then, glancing at her plate, ‘Eat, my child. You might at this moment have other ideas but I assure you it’s impossible to live on love alone.’
She laughed again and looked down at her plate. Eat. Impossible when she was still so acutely affected by the miracle that had just occurred. Apologetically she glanced at him, shaking her head.
‘I’m not hungry any more,’ she began when a lift of his finger cut her short.
‘Finish your sweet,’ he ordered, but gently, and added that she might as well begin right away getting used to obeying her husband.
‘Husband—’ The word slipped out and she went red. ‘It s-sounds w-wonderful,’ she added shakily, avoiding his laughing regard.
‘I wonder what Jake will think,’ Dominie was saying an hour later as they were driving to Windward Crest, Rohan at the wheel of his car.
‘He’ll probably be mad at the idea of losing you so soon,’ was the unconcerned reply as he turned on to the Hull Bay Road and the whole vista of islets and sea were spread out before them. ‘He’ll be having to look round for another nanny for the children.’
‘He once said that you should be married, and have children of your own, since you like them so much.’ Dominie spoke with a tinge of shyness, but only a tinge. She felt she and Rohan had known each other for a long time and now that she was no longer tormented by the uncertainty of his feelings for her, she was at complete ease with him, which was how it should be.
‘So you’ve been talking about me behind my back, have you?’
‘Susie mentioned you, on the ship, and as she called you uncle I naturally thought that Jake had a brother. He explained that you were just a friend.’
Rohan said nothing; they were almost at his home and Dominie sat back, taking in the lovely views. Bougainvillaea hedges grew beneath the flowering trees, which covered the hillsides, while in the other direction shone the dark blue Atlantic Ocean, with the islands of St. John and the British Virgins in the background. Along the mountain road itself were distanced out the magnificent house of the wealthy Americans who had settled on the island of St. Thomas, escaping from the rat race and the keeping up with the Joneses and such things as bumper-to-bumper driving. Here was peace and slow tempo, with the world’s most ideal climate thrown in for good measure. Tropical gardens surrounded almost every villa, and swimming-pools could be glimpsed now and then, shining through the trees. Every entrance was a picture, with ornamental gates and stonework and lamps on pillars. An incongruous note was struck in each instance by the rather ramshackle letter-box perched on a post on the verge outside the gate. No one had bothered to make these look pretty; they were made out of what appeared to be rough wooden boxes, with a piece of tin perched on top as protection against the rain.
‘Here we are, my love ... home,’ Rohan turned to throw her a slanting glance and her heart seemed to ache with happiness, for no man had ever looked with more tenderness at his beloved.
The car slid to a halt outside the house and a native servant came at once and drove it off, to the garage which was well away, out of sight of the house. Dominie looked up at Rohan and shook her head faintly. ‘I can’t believe it’s true,’ she said, but to herself.
She had talked about herself for over half an hour, answering the questions Rohan several times put to her, and now she had fallen silent, her face sad as she thought of Jerry and wished so much that he too could be appreciating the beauty of this island. Rohan leant forward in his garden chair and took her hand.
‘I know just how you feel at the loss,’ he said, and she saw his mouth tighten into an ugly line, revealing to her that the man she was to marry possessed an altogether different side to his nature than the most attractive one she had seen. ‘I lost my sister in a road accident—’ He stopped, then added, ‘Perhaps Jake mentioned this to you?’
She nodded.
‘Yes, he did. She was killed about the same time as Jerry, I believe?’
‘The same day, it would seem. But it was in the evening when my accident occurred and the
refore quite dark. The woman driver who caused the accident was drunk, and although she stopped momentarily, she then drove off and we never found out who she was.’
‘Drunk...’ Dominie shook her head, her big blue eyes sad still, but compassionate too, for she knew a deep sympathy for him. ‘It’s criminal the way people drink and drive. I expect she’d been to some party or other.’ She paused, reflecting on the questions Rohan had asked about Jerry, and wondering if she should ask Rohan to talk about his sister. She said at length, hesitantly, ‘Do you want to tell me about Alicia?’ Bitterness fell like a mask on his features. He seemed all at once to be frozen inside.
‘She was a lovely girl,’ he said at last, broodingly and quietly, as if totally absorbed in a mood of reflection. ‘And she had the most charming personality—I’m not just saying this, Dominie. She really was exceptional in every way. One can never understand why a young person like that should fall victim to a wretch who would get herself into a drunken state and then take a car on to the road.’ The ugly twist marred his features again and involuntarily Dominie shivered. She recalled Jake’s saying that Rohan would have killed the woman, could he have found her, and, looking at him now, with his handsome face twisted almost evilly, and one hand, resting on the arm of his chair, opening and closing with the sort of movement that conjured up pictures of strangulation, Dominie sent up a fervent prayer that fate would never bring about a meeting between the two.
Rohan was speaking again, recounting to Dominie what had happened on that fateful evening—how the car had come from a side road into the main road without even slowing down, how Rohan had hit the lamp standard in his endeavour to avoid a collision.
‘Alicia hit the side of the door with her head and died instantly. She knew nothing, but that’s little consolation to me. A young life was lost through the criminal action of that woman, and she got away with it—she’s free to do the same again, to kill someone else.’ The bitterness in his voice was terrible to hear, and Dominie could not speak while he was so encompassed in the retrospection from which that bitterness was born. She felt miserable and it showed in the shadows which filled her eyes. Time passed and Rohan continued to brood, but suddenly he seemed to become aware of her presence and jerked himself from his unhappy reverie.
‘Darling—’ He took her hand again, and lifted it to his lips. ‘I’m sorry. It isn’t often that I dwell on the tragedy these days—’ He stopped again and spread his hand. ‘It’s past, and best forgotten—yet it’s hard sometimes to forget, the circumstances being what they were.’
She nodded and after a thoughtful moment admitted that it was not quite so bad for her. The accident which killed Jerry had been unavoidable on the lorry driver’s part, since he skidded on a very icy road and although he had made a desperate effort to regain control of his vehicle he had found it impossible.
‘Unlike you, darling,’ she added, putting his hand to her cheek in a little tender gesture, ‘I don’t have to live with the knowledge that the accident was caused by a criminal act on the part of the other driver.’
Rohan changed the subject, beginning to talk about his mother, and Dominie listened, not mentioning that Jake had already told her a little about the affair.
‘The girl was half Mother’s age,’ Rohan added, a harsh note creeping into his voice. ‘What she and a man of fifty could have in common I don’t know. She was a strumpet if ever there was one!’
‘I expect these occurrences turned you against women.’ Dominie wondered if he would mention Nina, the girl whom everyone expected him to marry.
‘They did.’ Rohan’s brow cleared of the slight frown that had settled on it; he produced his very attractive smile, and his amber eyes twinkled. ‘Then you came along and swept away all my intentions of remaining a bachelor.’
Her eyes met his. She couldn’t help saying,
‘Sylvia ... you seemed to like her very much.’
His smile faded. He seemed lost for a moment in thought. Dominie felt that if he spoke what was in his mind she would hear that he considered Sylvia to be merely a spoiled child who fully intended marrying for money. Instead, she heard him say, casually and with the sort of firm inflection that conveyed to Dominie that it was not his intention to discuss Sylvia at any length,
‘I got to know her through her father, with whom I’ve recently done a good deal of business. One day she’ll make a pretty addition to some rich man’s home, but for myself I want more than what satisfies the eye—for a wife, that is.’
Dominie flushed adorably and lowered her lashes. She was recalling the conversation she had overhead and now knew for sure that Rohan’s interest in the girl had gone no deeper than that which was physical. An affair he would have enjoyed; marriage had never for one moment entered his mind. She looked at him, noting the clearly-defined features, arrogant even when they were softened by his smile, as they were at this moment. She took in the straight, aristocratic shoulders, the leanness of his body which denoted a hidden strength. She caught her breath, all her mind and body being affected by his unfailing charm. How had she, a little nobody whose life’s routine had been the office from nine till five and then household chores, come to attract a man like this? For one rather frightening moment she felt it could not be true, that she would awake suddenly from a beautiful dream, to find herself back in the old mundane surroundings where the odd visit to a friend was the only diversion.
Rohan said, rather sharply,
‘What are you thinking, Dominie? You look far from happy.’
Her head jerked. She hesitated momentarily, then was honest with him.
‘I felt I might awake from this lovely dream and—and find you gone.’
His tender, reassuring voice answered her.
‘You and I won’t ever lose each other very easily. I’ve been a long time meeting up with the girl I want for my wife, but now that I have, it’s for always.’ And then she was in his arms, surrendering her lips gladly to his, while all around them the soft tropical breeze wafted delicious perfumes over the air. Flower jewels like the Bird of Paradise with its brilliant orange sepals flickering like flames, or the Snow Pillow—that breathtaking white poinsettia—or the passion flowers with their bursts of blue and white and purple filaments, made provocative pictures whose settings were the palms and the breadfruit trees which themselves were framed against a sapphire sky lightly flecked with the fleecy clouds that shone like silver, touched as they were by the sun’s clear rays. Far down below the calm blue waters of the Atlantic invaded the beautiful sweeping curve of Magens Bay which, forming an almost symmetrical ‘U’, terminated in Tropaco Point at one end and Picara Point at the other. Islands glistened in the sun—Hans Lollik and Jost Van Dyck, St. John and the British Virgins.
Released at last from her lover’s embrace, Dominie scanned the dazzling vista for a long moment before bringing her eyes to the more immediate scene of a lawn cut by parterres, of high clipped hibiscus hedges, and luxuriant flowering trees sweeping away to the rise which was in effect a semi-wild garden of ‘planned design’. She closed her eyes suddenly and pressed close to Rohan.
His words had had meaning; his embrace was reassuringly hard and possessive ... and yet a shiver passed through her ... a shiver of apprehension and foreboding.
CHAPTER SIX
It had been Dominie’s intention to inform Jake of her engagement immediately on his return, and at the same time ask him to find someone to replace her. But the moment he arrived she took one look at his drawn pinched face and said,
‘Are you ill, Jake? You look as if you should be in bed.’
Even the children were quiet, both looking up at their father through wide anxious eyes. ‘What’s wrong? You’ve lost a lot of weight.’
He nodded listlessly.
‘I caught some sort of a bug over there and my sister called the doctor. He wanted me to enter hospital, but I decided to try and get home. My sister also got the bug, but was not so ill as I. However, it prevented her makin
g too much fuss when I decided to come away. I expect it’s something we ate—although the doctor was baffled by our condition.’ He gave a shuddering sigh and it was obvious to Dominie that he felt cold. ‘I’m going to bed, dear, and I expect I shall be right again in a day or two.’
‘I must ring your doctor,’ she returned in firm decisive tones. ‘Don’t worry about a thing, Jake. Just get into bed and relax.’
‘I haven’t asked how you’ve gone on while I’ve been away,’ he murmured apologetically. ‘Rohan took you out a great deal, I suppose?’
‘Yes, Jake, he did,’ She had no intention of mentioning anything else at this time, as Jake must be spared any unnecessary anxiety while he was so ill. ‘Now,’ she added briskly, ‘off you go. I’ll come up when you’re in bed and see if there’s anything you want. Meanwhile, I’ll ring the doctor.’
She rang Rohan as well, and he appeared on the scene within ten minutes, having come by car.
‘Is it serious?’ he asked, scanning her face. ‘You sounded greatly perturbed just now.’
‘I feel it, Rohan,’ she frowned. ‘He looks awful.’
‘I’ll go up—’ He turned on his way to the door.
‘The doctor’s coming?’
‘He was out, but I was assured he would come to Jake immediately on his return.’
Rohan’s mouth tightened, then relaxed.
‘There’s nothing else we can do. I don’t expect it will be too long before he arrives.’
‘Uncle Rohan,’ interrupted Susie in a voice edged with tears, ‘is my daddy very ill?’
Rohan patted her fair head, then, with her small face in his hand, he pressed her to him for a second.
‘He’ll be all right, Susie, so there’s no need for tears. All you have to do is be good, and on no account must you worry your father, understand?’
She nodded vigorously.
‘We won’t go up to his bedroom unless Auntie Dominie tells us we can, will we, Geoffrey?’