Dark Pirate

by Devine, Angela

  Rose stood as if she were glued to the floor. For a moment she felt a treacherous rush of joy at the realisation that Greg had come looking for her.

  Then her joy was swept away with a rush of resentment. What if he had? It didn't change anything, did it? He probably just wanted to tell her another lot

  of lies, so that he could ensnare her all over again. Well, this time she was not going to be tricked. She must leave Cornwall and leave quickly before Greg could catch up with her. There was a train from Looe this afternoon at four twenty-three. If she hurried, she could still catch that.

  'Thanks for telling me, Jim,' she said in a strained voice. 'Look, I must get home. If Greg comes back, don't mention that you've seen me.'

  She retreated towards the door. Jim shook his head regretfully. 'Mad, the pair of them!' he announced to the glass he was drying. He called after Rose.

  'Won't you even stop for lunch, my dear? I can do you a nice Cornish pasty.'

  'Sorry!' cried Rose and then fled.

  She hurried back to the car park so fast that her breath was coming in long, heaving gulps and her chest was burning as she reached it. If Greg had been to her home once already, surely he wouldn't go back there a second time? It should be safe for her to go home, shouldn't it? Her brain reeled with the thought of all the things she must do. Pack her bag, write a note to her mother, drive to Looe in time for the afternoon train and find somewhere safe to leave the car... She was in her bedroom, cramming her second suitcase shut when she heard the sound of the car in the driveway. An ominous sense of misgiving gripped her, then the back door opened. Rose ran to the head of the stairs.

  'Mum? Is that you?' she called.

  'No, it's me,' said a harsh masculine voice from down the stairs. 'And I want to know what's going on here.'

  Rose's heart skipped a beat at the sight of Greg's thick, dark hair as he came striding up the stairs. Part of her mind registered that he was formally dressed in a houndstooth jacket, white shirt, red tie and grey trousers. Then she retreated to the bedroom and made a wild attempt to shut the door, but Greg thrust his foot in the gap.

  'Go away!' she cried unsteadily.

  'Not until you explain the meaning of this.' As he spoke he drew her crumpled letter out of the breast pocket of his jacket and waved it under her nose.

  'It's obvious, isn't it?' she demanded. 'I found out you were sleeping with Ingrid and I didn't like being deceived.'

  'I've never slept with Ingrid in my life!' snapped Greg. 'And you insult me by believing that I have.'

  His denial was so heated that Rose almost believed him. His eyes were blazing feverishly and his unshaven face looked haggard and angry. For a moment she stood biting her lip in doubt but then the evidence came rushing back to torment her.

  'Oh, come off it!' she cried bitterly. 'I saw her sports car outside your cottage at four o'clock in the morning last Saturday.'

  'What of it?' he rasped.

  'I suppose you have some innocent explanation for that, do you?' she demanded sarcastically.

  'As a matter of fact, I do,' he snarled. 'Ingrid was at my place early on Saturday morning because of a crisis on one of the ships that I'd sold to her father's shipping company. There had been trouble with the steering mechanism earlier in the week, which is why I was delayed coming down to Cornwall in the first place. I thought everything was fixed up and then matters got worse. Because I didn't have a phone, Ingrid drove down to inform me. Then we both went up to London together and flew to Copenhagen to sort matters out.'

  'What?' breathed Rose.

  Greg paced stormily round the bedroom. 'I arrived back this morning from Denmark totally exhausted to find this,' he announced, brandishing the letter as if it were a deadly weapon. 'Accusing me of every kind of treachery imaginable. How could you believe such rubbish, Rose?'

  She was taken aback, but after a moment she rallied. 'I didn't want to believe it, Greg,' she cried. 'But what else could I believe? Even if what you say this time is true, I know for certain that you've lied to me in the past, so how can I trust anything you say now? Besides, I happen to know you had an affair with Ingrid only a few months ago. I had proof of it.'

  'That's clever of you, seeing that it never happened!' sneered Greg. 'What kind of proof did you have?'

  'I found a prescription for contraceptive pills in Ingrid's name inside the bathroom cabinet of your bedroom,' Rose whipped back. 'I think it was reasonable to suppose that it was there because she was having an affair with you.'

  Greg's face was suddenly ashen. 'You mean Ingrid really did get a prescription for the Pill?' he breathed. 'I thought it was all just bluff.'

  'Greg, you're not making sense,' protested Rose. 'What do you mean, bluff?

  Anyway, one thing's obvious—you did sleep with her, didn't you?'

  'No, I bloody didn't,' shouted Greg. 'Although it wasn't for want of trying on her part. I didn't want to tell you about it before because it was Ingrid's secret as much as mine.'

  'She's already told me,' muttered Rose bitterly.

  'Told you what?' asked Greg in a low, dangerous voice.

  'That she stayed with you at your house, slept with you there. She told me you said you loved her and then turned against her and threw her out.'

  'Damn her!' roared Greg. 'That girl is the biggest troublemaker in Western Europe.'

  'What do you mean?' demanded Rose.

  Greg unrolled the crumpled letter which he had crushed in his hands and read aloud from it. '"Poor, vulnerable young girl"!' he snorted. 'I could wring her vulnerable little neck!'

  'Why, what's she done, apart from being exploited by you?' cried Rose.

  'I'll tell you what she's done! She threw herself at me from the moment she arrived in England. Her father Erik is an old friend of mine and he asked me to have her over here as a favour so that she could learn about the shipbuilding. Apart from being my friend's daughter, she's only nineteen yeas old, so it's hardly likely I'd be callous enough to seduce her, is it? In any case, I had a housekeeper in my home as a chaperone so I thought she'd be safe enough. Well, it was safe enough for her, but I never thought about my own safety. Before she'd been in the house a week she convinced herself that she was madly in love with me and tried every trick in the book to get me to fall for her. When I didn't respond, she decided that perhaps fear of pregnancy was the reason for my lack of interest. She told me she'd go to a doctor and get herself fixed up. I warned her there and then that I'd send her back to Denmark on the next flight if I heard any more of it. Then I came home late one night and found her stark naked, sitting up in my bed. That was the end of it. I went to a hotel for the night and the next day I threw her out. I originally intended to make good my threat and send her back to Denmark, and I wish to heaven I had, but she talked me into letting her stay on here in England. I found her a flat in Plymouth and she's been living there ever since. Now do you see why I didn't want you to know of this? Can you imagine how embarrassed Ingrid would be in a few years' time if anyone apart from me hears about it?'

  Rose winced. 'Yes,' she admitted slowly. 'If she really did go to those lengths to try to get you, she'll cringe over it once she meets a man she really does care about. All the same, it's hard to believe she could ever have been so foolish.'

  A muscle twitched in Greg's check. 'Hard to believe,' he muttered under his breath. 'Yes, and if I don't do something to convince you, you never will fully believe it, will you? The shadow of doubt will always he between us and ruin things for sure. Well, I'm not going to put up with it. Ingrid is going to have to tell you the truth herself.' He strode purposefully across the room.

  'What are you going to do?' asked Rose.

  'Phone Ingrid and demand that she tell you herself what really happened.

  With luck she might actually do so. While we were in Denmark she met a young engineer called Karl Svensen on board the ship we were inspecting and the atmosphere between them was getting positively steamy. As a matter of fact, I wouldn't be
surprised if she decided to stay on in Copenhagen with him permanently. I suspect dear Ingrid is beginning to see me as a geriatric has-been.'

  Picking up the phone with a murderous expression, he punched in the number and waited impatiently.

  'Ingrid? This is Greg. Would you be good enough to tell Rose the whole truth about your relationship with me? I might add that I am deeply in love with her, so it's very important to me that she knows what really between us.

  Here she is now.'

  There was a nervous giggle at the other end of the line. 'Oops! Rose, is that you? I suppose I'd better admit right now that what I told you in Plymouth wasn't exactly the truth. You see, I wanted Greg to sleep with me and I thought maybe he was afraid of being a daddy and that was why he wouldn't, so I went to the doctor and got those pills. It was just a waste of time, though, because Greg only shouted at me and threw me out. .. but he did let me get dressed first. I went in such a hurry that I left the prescription form behind. When you found it, that gave me a great idea. I could see Greg was already falling in love with you and I was very jealous of you. I thought maybe if I could make you sorry for me, you wouldn't go to bed with him.

  So I told you a few little white lies.'

  'Little white lies,' breathed Rose, raising her eyes to the ceiling.

  'Are you very cross with me?' asked Ingrid fearfully.

  'If you weren't several hundred miles away, I'd murder you,' vowed Rose.

  'There's no need!' carolled Ingrid with a sudden giggle. 'I've lost interest in Greg now anyway. He's awfully old, isn't he? And there's an engineer who

  works for my father called Karl—tall, blond, utterly yummy! I don't think I'll let you meet him, Rose; maybe you'll tear all your clothes off and jump in his bed. No, only joking. Listen, do you forgive me?'

  Rose gave a groan of laughter. 'I suppose so.'

  'Good. Then give me back to Greg.' There was the sound of a large, juicy kiss and a tinny voice coming down the line. 'Bye, Greg. Make sure you invite Karl and me to the wedding!'

  'Well?' said Greg sternly as he hung up the phone. 'Are you convinced?'

  Rose heaved a long, shaky sigh of mingled embarrassment and relief. 'Yes,'

  she admitted. 'I'm sorry I ever doubted you, Greg.'

  'So you should be,' he growled. 'Seeing I fell in love with you the first moment I saw you.'

  Rose let out a soft gasp. 'I don't believe you,' she murmured uncertainly, but there was a rising note of hope in her voice.

  'It's true,' insisted Greg. 'Well, almost true. Let's say I was intrigued from the first moment I met you. At first you could have been any pretty woman with big blue eyes and an appealing smile. But there was something in your manner that I found irresistible. Perhaps it was the way you darted about like a worried little bird and that mixture of shyness and sophistication. Anyway, once I'd spent an evening in your company, I knew that you attracted me more than any woman I had ever met. I wanted you so badly I couldn't think about anything else, and it wasn't only physical, either. I was drawn to you emotionally. When you confided in me about what Martin had done to you I was so furious that I wanted to flatten the swine. I hated to think of anybody hurting you and deceiving you like that.'

  'And yet you lied to me yourself,' Rose reminded him.

  Greg looked uncomfortable. 'I know, and I've regretted it ever since because of the way it came between us. But I never intended to hurt you with it, Rose. At first it was just a joke to go along with the assumptions you'd made

  about me. I meant to tell you the truth that same evening and I thought you would probably find it funny too. Then, after you confided in me about Martin, I couldn't bring myself to do it. Somehow the whole atmosphere had changed, had become terribly tense and emotional, and it would have seemed like a slap in the face to you. Besides, you were so vehement about your hatred for rich men that I didn't dare do it for fear of losing you. I thought if we could spend some more time together you could get to know me and like me. Perhaps you'd even begin to feel the same unsettling, roller-coaster ride of emotions that I experienced with you.'

  'I did,' admitted Rose unwillingly. 'From the first moment I met you.'

  'Did you?' asked Greg urgently. 'I thought you did, but I wasn't sure. You were so cool, so adept at hiding your feelings, and yet something was lurking in your eyes that made me suspect it was the same for you as it was for me. I probably should have told you the truth about myself that day at Talland Bay, but it was so magical just being there with you that I didn't want to spoil it by risking a row. And then Hugh came over to my house and split the beans anyway.'

  'Would you really have slept with me if he hadn't?' asked Rose.

  Greg sighed. 'I honestly don't know. I don't think so; I can't believe that I would have gone to such lengths without having matters clear between us.

  But you must understand this, Rose: I didn't take you back to my cottage with the intention of going to bed with you that night anyway. But things got out of hand, I was swept along by the force of my need for you. And it wasn't just a physical need, either, although I won't deny the power of that, my love. When I think of the softness of your body, your voice, the smell of your skin that night... But it wasn't only that. By that time I was half crazy with wanting you as a person too. I liked your funny mixture of prissiness and daring, your intelligence, your dry sense of humour, the way you were so earnest about providing for your mother and paying back your bank loan and keeping your head held high. I was more than half in love with you, although I'd barely known you a week and I was up to my eyes in trouble of my own making with you. Then old Hugh blundered in and livered my death blow by telling you the truth!'

  Rose snorted. 'Well, you returned from the dead pretty smartly! All those bunches of flow ers.. . and booking into our cottage as a paying guest! I had idea it was going to be you. My mother told me it a mysterious stranger who'd suffered some terrible crisis in love.'

  'Well, I had,' insisted Greg plaintively.

  Rose tried hard to maintain her severe expression, but suddenly her lips began to twitch. 'Oh, Greg, you are a wretch!' she cried. 'I don't know how you ever persuaded me to give you a second chance.'

  Never one to miss a promising opportunity, Greg put his arms around her and drew her hard against him. Her heart gave a wild lurch and began to hammer furiously at the intoxicating masculine strength of his hands, at the spicy aroma of his skin, at the urgency she saw glinting in his dark, stormy eyes.

  'Perhaps it was because you realised that I had fallen deeply and hopelessly in love with you and wouldn't rest until I made you my wife,' he replied with unaccustomed earnestness.

  Her breath caught in her throat. 'Oh, Greg,' she whispered uncertainly. 'You can't mean--'

  'I do mean it, Rose. I knew that day on the cliff-top when we agreed to be friends that friendship would never be enough for me. I wanted you, body and soul, as my wife, my companion, the mother of my children, the centre of my existence.'

  'But you were always so scathing about marriage. That day in the churchyard at Talland, you said you didn't think you'd ever marry.'

  'So did you,' he reminded her. 'It made me furious and I couldn't work out why. Then I realised how serious my feelings towards you must be.'

  'Then why didn't you tell me sooner?' she burst out.

  'I was afraid that you would think that I was leading you on exactly the way Martin had done just so I could get you into bed with me,' he replied. "Then when Martin himself showed up, I suffered agonies of jealousy. I was afraid you were still in love with him, but you weren't, were you?'

  'You know I wasn't,' exclaimed Rose. 'I would never have made love with you if I had been.'

  His hands sought hers and gripped them hard. 'I know, I know,' he agreed exultantly. 'And when you did I was walking on air. At last it looked as if everything was going right for me. I intended to come down and propose to you the following weekend, until all that trouble with the ship blew up. I still can't believe that
you thought I'd stoop so low as to seduce Ingrid when I had already told you I loved you.'

  'Greg, I'm sorry!' cried Rose remorsefully. 'Will you ever forgive me?'

  Greg looked doubtful. His black eyebrows met in a scowl, his eyes narrowed sternly and his mouth set in a forbidding line. 'I might,' he growled. 'On one condition.'

  'What's that?' asked Rose, torn between hope and misgiving.

  'That you promise to marry me as soon as possible and never, ever doubt again that I love you.'

  Rose gave a gasp of joy and hurled herself at him. 'Oh, Greg. Yes, yes!'

  There was a long silence, punctuated only by sighs and murmurs, till at last Rose lifted her head and gazed at Greg, her eyes brimming with joy. 'Can we be married in Talland church?' she asked.

  'Yes. And afterwards a long cruise might be fun. The Mediterranean, perhaps, or Florida. Or we could go to Hong Kong.' 'Anywhere,' said Rose fervently. 'As long as I'm with you.'

  'And after that,' said Greg, 'it'll be back to work in Plymouth with our weekends here in Polperro. You can work or not as you please, my love, but I hope you'll want to have my children and have them soon.'

  'I will,' whispered Rose huskily, her eyes shining. 'Greg, darling, I will.'

  'It's all settled, then, isn't it?' he demanded.

  There was more ecstatic kissing and sighing until at last Rose nestled against his shoulder. 'Nearly,' she agreed dreamily. 'Greg, when do you want to get married?'

  'Tomorrow.'

  She pinched him. 'Seriously.'

  'June would be nice,' said Greg reflectively.

  Rose's eyes widened. That was exactly what her mother had suggested!

  'Just as a matter of interest, what do you think I should wear at the wedding?'

  she asked.