A Girl Called Tegi (15 page)

CHAPTER NINE

Tegi
awoke with a king-size headache. But it was not the headache that bothered her, though she seldom had one. It was the far greater pain gnawing at her heart for which there was no cure that was the trouble.

Was it only a fortnight ago that she had met Tony, and had meeting him been her punishment for her discontent with quite a pleasant way of life? After all, the island was really very beautiful, she had her health, a sound job and good parents.

But something cataclysmic had happened during the last fortnight. The Tegi Moore who had met Tony Mastroni that day a fortnight ago no longer existed. It was that fatal meeting with Tony that would eventually help to make up her mind whether to stay on the island or leave it altogether.

If he had really loved her would she have discovered a different Tony—a Tony who had for those brief ecstatic moments come into existence when the angry insolent demand of his kisses had melted to such tender passion as he held her in his arms?

But how could he love her when it was not in him to love any woman permanently? He was not the marrying type. She had to come to terms with that. It was no use torturing herself about the impossible. Much more sensible to come to terms with reality here and now, which meant meeting the day with her
chin up and putting all heartache behind her along
with her throbbing head. One could be related to the
other.

The morning wore on, with Gary going to Douglas on his Saturday jaunt with Mary Quale and her children. Joe Kelly came to take her father to Douglas to see his friends off, and to Tegi’s surprise taking her mother with him.

Left to her own devices, Tegi did chores aimlessly and prepared a solitary lunch for which she had little or no appetite.

She made a sandwich of cheese and lettuce and was munching an apple when she had a visitor.

‘Oh, come in, Colin,’ she said flatly.

He came in awkwardly and she wondered what had happened to their former free and easy friendship. Tony would have come in with an insolent grace which would have stood him in good stead, she thought unhappily. But she would not think of Tony who would be leaving the island for ever in a matter of hours.

‘Coffee?’ she asked brightly, welcoming his visit as taking her thoughts off other things.

He shook his head. ‘I came to ask you home for lunch. My parents are out for the day, and I wanted to talk to you.’

‘Sorry, I’ve already eaten, and you can say what you have to say here and now. I’m alone.’ Tegi smiled brightly. ‘How about a cheese and lettuce sandwich? You can top up with freshly made scones and lashings of butter. I did the weekend baking this morning, so there are plenty.’

Colin nodded. ‘That will be fine.’ He sat down on one of the kitchen chairs and stretched out his legs to gaze at them moodily. ‘Actually,’ he went on, ‘I have a suggestion to make to you concerning the holiday in Greece.’

Tegi paused in her task of preparing sandwiches and eyed him warily.

‘Yes?’ she said encouragingly.

He cleared his throat nervously. ‘I want to pay for your holiday to Greece,’ he said awkwardly. ‘I’d be very happy to do so.’

Mindful how careful he was with his money, Tegi was touched. But she had grown up considerably in the last two weeks and had learned painfully to keep her emotions at bay when making important decisions. They could be deadly to common sense.

She said gently, ‘That’s very kind of you, Colin, but you must see that I can’t accept.’

‘Why not?’ he demanded sulkily.

‘Because I would be beholden to you and that would be wrong. Besides, you’ve already fixed up with someone else. It wouldn’t be right.’

‘Nothing is settled,’ he replied. ‘I don’t know why I didn’t think of paying for you in the first place. After all, I did ask you to go with me.’

‘Now just a minute,’ Tegi said firmly. ‘Am I right in thinking that since you’re going to pay something towards your companion’s holiday you decided your companion might just as well be me?’

His face went a dull red and
h
e moved uneasily in his
chair.

‘Wh
a
t’s wrong in paying for your holiday? If you want to regard it as a loan, you can do so. Do what you like, only please come with me, Tegi,’ he begged.

She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry, Colin but I can’t. It would put me in an awkward position. I’ll explain. Suppose a situation arose when we found ourselves involved emotionally? I would feel compelled to comply with your advances since you’d paid for my holiday.’

‘That’s utter rot and you know it,’ he exclaimed indignantly. ‘When have I ever tried to take advantage of you?’

His face had gone a dull red and they both recalled the incident in his own home when Tegi had had to repel him. Fortunately Tegi had no fear of being able to repulse him if such an occasion would again arise, but she was adamant in her refusal.

‘The situation is sure to arise if we’re together all day, despite being with another couple,’ she said. ‘The answer is no, but thanks for asking.’

‘I see.’ Pale-faced and grim, Colin eyed her stonily. ‘You’ve never really liked me, have you? Not in the way I like you? I’ve been a kind of stopgap for you while you’ve been dreaming of a more glamorous life. Well, I hope you find it. Only don’t expect to find me waiting when you come back disillusioned. Goodbye.’

‘But aren’t you going to eat your sandwiches?’ she said. ‘You did say that you hadn’t had any lunch.’

‘I’d choke if I ate anything with you! I hope I never see you again. And don’t come to see me out.’

Tegi was some time regaining her breath when he had gone. Well, the break had finally come, she thought dazedly. It had to be, but she hated to think that they had parted on a quarrel. There was no doubt that Colin could be around again in a day or so. The
sensible thing to do would be not to see him again if he did.

Supposing he came back to see her? Determined that he should not find her if he did, Tegi decided to go out and keep out of his way until her parents were back.

It was a beautiful sunny day, but her thoughts were too occupied with her own problems to heed the loveliness of nature which lay all around her. She had been walking for some time aimlessly and despondently when a car passed her and Beryl waved.

Tegi waved back and turned into a glen, making her way across a rustic bridge and up on to a small plateau overlooking the sea. Sitting with her hands clasped about her knees, she tried to inhale some of the peace around her. There was no peace in her heart and it was doubtful whether there would be again.

She thought she had been unhappy before, but the boredom of the past years was nothing to the pain in her heart. Tony would be well on his way out of her life now and she had to forget him if she was not going to be miserable for the rest of her life. Tegi sighed and pushed back the bright windblown tendrils of auburn hair from across her eyes
that felt strangely moist.

Did the tears come too easily these days or was she becoming too maudlin for words? Hitherto her thoughts of the future, when she had thought about it, had been lighthearted. They all had something to do with sharing her joys and sorrows with someone who would have the same love of the fundamental things in life—a home, children, and everything else that made life worth living.

The murmur of the light breeze across the grass mingled with the gentle swish of the sea way down below. Traffic had little place here, although in the silence of sweet sounds one could hear it going by in the distance. Once there was the sound of the slamming of a car door, and muted though it was, Tegi’s nerves tightened.

Some minutes later she knew the cause of it. A figure was coming across the grass towards her. He walked with nonchalant easy grace; the sun gleamed on his crisp dark hair, the wide shoulders, and enhanced the golden tan of his lean clear-cut features.

Tegi stared as though hypnotised. The tears in her eyes had blurred her vision and she was seeing things, things which were not there. There was no other explanation, because already Tony was on his way out of her life. He could not be in two places at once. But the sun slanting across the uncovered dark head highlighted the eloquent dark eyes and the strength of purpose in his lean features, the grimness of his mouth.

It made her weak just to look at his beloved figure. It was no figment of her imagination, she knew with despair as she told herself how cruel and unfair he was to resort to a last farewell instead of going quietly away. Was it her imagination? Did he look tired and strained, or was it the day after a night of celebrating?

He had almost reached her when she leapt to her feet and immediately regretted the hasty action, for her legs were trembling beneath her. Then he was confronting her. With his hands thrust in his pockets he spoke as casually as though he had come across her quite accidentally.

‘I
was calling to see you and was told you were last seen heading in this direction. So here I am.’

Tegi continued to stare at him. Her hands were clenched against her sides.

No one had known where she was going. No one, that was, excepting Beryl, who had passed in her car.

Huskily, she said, ‘Who told you that I was here and why have you come?’

Tony smiled and gazed down at her as an artist would who wanted to memorise every detail of her appearance before he put it on canvas; the dark copper of her hair sparkling in the sun, the creamy texture of her skin, her dark eyes luminous between thick lashes, and the slenderness of her trim figure with its small pointed bust and tiny waist.

‘Shall we sit down and talk?’ he said at last, reaching out to take her arm in a gentle hold.

Tegi quivered with the knowledge of how deceptive his light grip could be as she allowed
him
to guide her footsteps to a seat in a secluded part of the plateau backed by a hedge and overlooking the water.

Feeling faint at his touch, she drew herself away from
him
as she sat down to cower in one corner of the seat. He lowered himself beside her, stretching out long legs and half turning her way.

For several moments there was a silence filled only by the twittering of birds and the occasional cry of a distant seagull hovering over the sunlit sea below. Tegi swallowed on a lump in her throat and quelled an urge to reach out and touch him. Her heart was dancing madly with joy. Tony was here. He had not gone out of her life yet.

Her lips trembled and the treacherous tears were not far away. It seemed that she had to be the first to speak.

She asked pleadingly, ‘Why did you come
?’

His expression did not change, giving the impression that her question was not important. His thoughts appeared to be elsewhere and he gazed at her until she felt like screaming at him to go away
.
At last he spoke.

He said quietly, ‘I never really left you, in my thoughts, I mean.’

‘Oh!’ she exclaimed. Her heart was quietening down and she was able to notice the tired lines around his eyes, his strained look. Something strange was in the air and her breath caught in her throat.

‘Is that all you can say?’ Tony demanded. ‘Aren’t you pleased to see me?’

Tegi stared down on two small ants exploring the path near to her feet.

‘To tell you the truth,’ she replied without lifting her head, ‘I’m shattered. I expected you to be miles away by now on your way home.’

He said abruptly, ‘Why didn’t you come to my party last night?’

She quivered. ‘You gave me no time at all to ... to accept. You ... sprang it on me all at once.’

‘Don’t lie!’ His voice rasped. ‘That wasn’t the reason at all, was it?’

Tegi bit hard on her lip. ‘I don’t think I was so important. There must have been lots of girls there, beautiful girls too. Surely you didn’t miss me? Unless it was because you had the unusual experience of being turned down by a girl.’

He smote the wooden seat between them with his fist.

‘Stop hedging! I’m no fool. I want to know the real reason why you refused to come to my party, a farewell one at that.’ His eyes had darkened further with anger and his nostrils had thinned. ‘Do you think I cared a damn for the other girls?’

‘I ... I ...
don’t know,’ she stammered. ‘After all,
I ...
I’m one of them.’

‘Why should you think that? Have I ever given you any reason to think that?’

‘You’ve never given me any reason to think otherwise.’

He raised a brow. ‘No? Why do you think I have cancelled my trip home?’

Tegi gasped and raised her head to regard him in astonishment.

‘You ... you’ve cancelled your trip home? But why?’ she asked.

‘For the same reason that I am here now.’

She stared at him in bewilderment. ‘And that is?’ she said in a trembling whisper.

‘This,’ he said. ‘And this ... and this.’

In a trice he had moved along the seat to seize her in his arms and hold her down across his knees as he claimed her lips in fierce kisses. It seemed to Tegi that a tidal wave of passion long denied carried her along with the pressure of his lips. She had neither the will nor the desire to struggle much. And when she finally gave up his kisses became more gentle.

The magic of it seeped through to her very bones, but gradually sanity came and with it the realisation that Tony could be punishing her for not saying goodbye to him in the way that he had intended.

When he finally released her, she was shaking and bemused with a bitter protest on her tongue. She had no breath for words as he let her go. But in the time that it took for her to swing her legs down and free herself by jumping to her feet, she found her voice.

‘Well?’ she gasped witheringly. ‘You got what you came for—to humiliate me for not falling in with your wishes. I hardly think it was worth cancelling your journey home for.’

He rose slowly to his feet and looked down at her sparkling anger in her dark eyes, her scarlet cheeks and quivering lips bruised by his kisses. Then he moved in to take her hands and imprison them in his own.

‘You have brought this on yourself,’ he told her in a voice that sounded strangely thick. ‘Since we met you have fought me every step of the way in my attempts to be friendly with you. For some reason you have labelled me the big bad wolf. I admit that there is the excuse of seeing me in the limelight of the racing world. But I told you that it was show business.’ His smile was oddly boyish and sad. ‘I’ve been partly to blame myself too since I got it in my head that I would not marry. I’ve always found life pretty good until now, leading it as I please. Then I met you.’ He gave a short laugh entirely without humour. ‘For the first time in my life two dark eyes got in the way of everything I did. At first I refused to heed the fact that I had changed in some way.’

Tegi looked at him pleadingly and tried to wriggle her hands free, without success.

‘Tell me honestly,’ she begged. ‘Would you have given me a second thought if I’d fallen into your arms like the rest of your admirers? Don’t you think that’s really why you came back, because you couldn’t bear to be snubbed?’

‘But you didn’t snub me at first. I don’t know what it is about you that makes me want you so much. But the need is very real and very painful, I can assure you,’ he said grimly. ‘I’m not putting this very well, am I?’

She shook her head. She said unsteadily, ‘Am I the only girl who’s ever repulsed you?’

He raised a dark protesting brow. ‘Oh, come now! I don’t go around accosting girls. Maybe some girl some time has given me the frozen mitt. So what? I was never interested enough to pursue them.’ He shook her gently as his grip tightened on her hands. ‘Don’t you see? I’m trying to tell you that I love you. Why else would I cancel my return home
?’

All Tegi’s colour went. Her mouth trembled, and she said wildly, ‘You might have had some other reason for cancelling your return home. How do I know? How can I believe you! It could be pity that made you seek me out again.’

‘Pity
!’
he scoffed. ‘It would take more than mere pity to make me give up my freedom, I can assure you. I am asking you to marry me. Tegi, I love you.’

Her eyes were bright with tears. ‘You’re only saying that because you know that I shall refuse you. For ... for some stupid reason you feel the need to make your peace with me before you leave the island. Well, you don’t have to go that far. You’ve made your peace with me. You can go with
my ...
my
blessing.’ Tears of hurt brimmed in her eyes as she increased
her struggles to free her hands, to no avail.

Tony said savagely, ‘I don’t want your blessing, I want you, and I want your love. What is more, I am not leaving this island without them, without the woman I want for my wife.’

Her eyes gradually lighted up with comprehension
.
Feverishly they searched his angry ones for further confirmation of what he had just said. His answer was to draw her closer and lower his head to her quiver
i
ng mouth.

It was some time before either of them were able to speak again. Tegi did not want to speak at all. She was content to be held against him, close and fiercely loving. The fact that he really loved her was still too new, too overwhelming to be true.

A shiver of delight shot through her as his lips moved to the side of her neck and she clung to him, wishing that time could stand still for ever.

She kissed the firm brown throat. ‘I’m sorry I was so beastly to you, Tony, but I was afraid of my love for you growing out of all sense of proportion. We’re
so
different, you and I, in our
upbringing and religion.’

He released her slightly to smile whimsically down into her flushed face.

‘Not so very different, my love,’ he said. ‘I, for one, am certainly not the same Tony Mastroni who came here a fortnight ago. Why, even my parents have sensed the difference in me when I have telephoned them after the races to say that I was fine. They will love you as I do. I just can’t wait to take you home with me.’

‘Not right away?’ she cried fearfully.