A Girl Called Tegi (5 page)

At the long elaborately set table, she was seated next to her father who would, no doubt, be talking shop to the veteran rider on his other side. This left her to the mercy of the person sitting on her right, an elderly man whose face she felt she ought to know but could not place for the life of her.

He smiled. ‘How lucky I am to be sitting next to the most beautiful girl in the room tonight,’ he said.

Tegi glanced at him in surprise. She said with perfect aplomb, ‘I take it I’m addressing another of the species whose sideboard positively groans with trophies from the racing game, like my father.’

He raised a grey brow. ‘I have a few,’ he murmured modestly.

‘Do you know many of the people here?’ she asked formally.

He looked around the room. ‘A few.’

Tegi laughed, a quiet tinkling laugh, and he arched an eyebrow.

‘I was wondering,’ she said. ‘Just trying to figure out if you’re a master of the understatement or just being polite.’

‘Probably feeling overwhelmed,’ he commented. His whole attitude hinted at things she could not know about and, feeling out of her depth, she gave her attention to the delicious concoction being placed before her; slices of avocado pear decorated with prawns.

‘Cheers,’ she said desperately as she held up the glass of dry sherry by her plate.

‘Cheers,’ he answered with the lift of a grey eyebrow which made Tegi wish that she had kept silent.

Her father was engaged with his companion on his far side, so she looked down the table to observe the other guests and to speculate upon who they were.

Then she saw him. He was sitting between two of the most depressingly gorgeous girls she had ever seen. One, a blonde, had on a beautiful evening dress of black and silver. The other, a brunette, wore red velvet.

Tegi stared in surprised delight at the beautiful profile, his wide intelligent brow, the black springy hair, the clear-cut features showing the firmness of his chin and firm brown throat. Her gaze became transfixed as her heartbeats quickened and a fiery heat crept over her face and neck. He was breathtakingly handsome in his expensive,
well-tailored
evening suit.

His chin was tilted now as he laughed at something his two companions had said. Tegi stared as though fascinated at his long brown fingers curling around his wine glass as his careless arrogance set him apart from the other men at the table.

Tony Mastroni, the ladykiller who wore his charm like a badge, and she was staring at him as only a girl on the island would who had never seen anyone like him before. She was still staring when he looked right at her.

Immediately Tegi dropped her gaze to concentrate on the next course, fresh salmon accompanied by sparkling white wine. So intent was she on the food that her father’s voice remained unheard.

‘I was asking if you were enjoying it?’ he was saying.

She nodded. No need to ask if he was enjoying himself. He was in his element among old friends. The next course was turkey served with fresh young vegetables and a delicious sauce. At last she was
brave enough to take another look at Tony—and wished she had not, for the blonde girl’s scarlet-nailed hand was on his shoulder as she whispered something in his ear.

His white teeth flashed as he spoke to someone facing him across the table. Tegi could not see who it was but guessed they were the two men who had brought him to see her father.

She said, ‘I can’t see your friends here, Dad.’

He gestured sideways along the table. ‘They’re sitting on this side of the table lower down. We shall all be together later on in the bar.’

‘Then you can count me out of the hearty laughter and back-slapping,’ she whispered fiercely. ‘I’m not going to spend the rest of the evening in the bar.’

‘Then how about joining in the dancing in the ballroom?’

‘On my own? Big deal
!’

‘You’ll soon find a partner with your looks. You know you will,’ he said reassuringly.

Tegi said acidly, ‘What about the competition, those two glamour girls stroking Tony Mastroni, for instance?’

Her father glanced at them and grinned. ‘They aren’t a patch on you.’ He winked. ‘You have class.’

Black cherries were served in kirsch with white wine to drink. There was also all kinds of cheeses, pineapple and melon slices. Tegi chose the pineapple and when a glance down the table told her that Tony had chosen it too, she was idiotically pleased.

His two glamorous companions had chosen the black cherries in kirsch with cream. At the moment it was not their own delectable figures they had in mind but Tony’s virile, masculine one, she thought wryly.

It had never occurred to her during the rush in coming to the dinner that she might see Tony there. They would be coming nearer to a meeting when dinner was over. She knew it had been rude to ignore him, but she hated to see the blank stare of nonrecognition in those dark eyes.

How would he greet her if they happened to come face to face? With mocking silence or the frozen mitt? She would have to be prepared. With a sinking of her heart she knew that she would always have to be prepared when meeting him.

When they all finally rose from the table she was wishing hard that the evening was at an end. She kept her father by her side as they all made for a bar for liqueurs, brandy, whisky or port.

It was quite easy for her to slip away unobserved to find the dancing. The music led the way and she paused in the doorway of a room bathed in muted light
.
The dance band was at the far end beating out the rhythm.

‘Excuse me, but have you seen a rather tall girl in a dress of black and silver? She’s dining here.’

Tegi looked up at the pleasant features of a tall fair young man who was smiling at her expectantly.

‘Ex-beauty queen?’ she queried. ‘She happens to be in the bar on this floor. The dinner guests are taking their final drinks.’

A fleeting picture of Tony’s dinner table companion fitted his description aptly. Lucky girl, she thought, this young man was quite something.

He hesitated, looked undecided. ‘I don’t want to butt in too soon. What do you think?’

She laughed, said frankly, ‘You can never butt in too soon where a pretty girl is concerned.’

He grinned. ‘I see your point.’ He looked her over with appraisal. ‘It works both ways,’ he added on a chuckle.

It was some time before she realised he was paying her a compliment.

‘Are you waiting for someone?’ he asked.

She shook her head. ‘No.’

‘Then shall we dance?’

Movement was what Tegi had been wanting. The music was throbbing with an irresistible beat and they melted in the crowd. Coloured lights flashed overhead and her slim lissom body was one with the beat. Her companion was a bit stiff at first but he soon relaxed and moved with her.

Tegi twirled, swayed and gave everything she had to happy relaxed moments; Most of the dancers were young like herself and there were no inhibitions in sight.
At last, breathless and laughing, they spun to a halt. ‘That was great,’ he said. ‘Thanks a lot. I must be going now. Thanks again.’

Tegi turned to watch him go, and froze. Tony was standing with his dinner companion at the entrance to the room. He had come with her, presumably to look for her dancing partner.

There was a mocking smile on Tony’s lips as he flung a remark at his companion before advancing into the room towards her.

For some unknown reason that she could not explain, Tegi panicked. Turning swiftly, she cannoned violently into a young man and as he caught her he asked her to dance.

‘I’ve been watching you,’ he told her as they got into the swing. ‘You have a lovely figure and you move fantastically well to the music.’

She laughed and the lights overheard sprayed colours into the dark copper of her hair. Her eyes were very bright.

‘I’m not mad on da
nc
ing,’ she confessed. ‘But it’s a great way of working off tension after working for your living all day.’

He agreed. He worked at the airport and had a flat in Douglas, he told her. He could not appear to be able to take his eyes off her sparkling face.

‘That fair young man you were dancing with just now,’ he said. ‘Is he your regular date?’

Tegi shook her head. ‘I don’t even know his name.’

‘Well, my name is Tom Bourne,’ he volunteered.

‘Mine is Tegi. Nice to meet you.’

The next moment someone had twirled her round and round until she had to clutch at him to get her breath.

‘What’s the idea?’ she gasped, glaring up into Tony’s dark face. ‘How rude can you get?’

He said, ‘You should know. You gave a good demonstration at the dinner just now and not long ago right here by ignoring me.’

‘Maybe I thought that was what you wanted. You seemed to be busy with your companion.’

His dark eyes glittered. He said softly, dangerously, ‘You can’t have everything your own way, you know. How is your mother?’

‘She’s fine.’ Tegi’s smooth young forehead drew into a frown. ‘Now wait a moment. You don’t think I asked to come in her place, do you, because the great Tony Mastroni was here?’

Her eyes had darkened as she searched his face in an effort to get at his thoughts.

‘You do, don’t you?’ she cried in a voice hardly recognisable as her own. ‘How dare you?’ She drew in a breath that hurt. ‘What fun has it been for me, dining among a lot of silly motorbike fanatics? You should have seen the man I had sitting next to me
—
he was about as genial as a snow-capped mountain peak. Besides, how did
I
know you’d be here? Not that it matters to me whether you would be or not.’

He said coldly, ‘You were enjoying yourself just now.’

‘So what? Do you object?’

Tegi lifted her chin and glared at him; she wanted to shout at him angrily, demand to be left alone. She was giving him no explanation as to why she was there in place of her mother. It was no business of his.

He shrugged wide shoulders. ‘You appear to have a surfeit of men friends. I saw you in Douglas this lunchtime gazing into your companion’s eyes on the sea-front.’

‘At least I wasn’t kissing him in the main street
.
There was nothing improper about it. I’ve known Colin for years. We often have lunch together,’ she cried indignantly.

Tony straightened. His nostrils thinned slightly and his face set.

‘And that fair young man you were dancing with? Also the one I have taken you away from. I suppose
you have known them all your life too?’ he said sardonically.

Tegi’s heart was a cold slab of pain. ‘No. I don’t even know what the fair young man’s name is, but it’s this kind of social mayhem which makes our day. There aren’t many places to go on the island for young people. Some of us are even grateful when someone asks us for a dance. You wouldn’t understand that.’

She bit her lip in an effort to stop her working mouth and the tears which threatened. It occurred to her then to bless her unwary tongue, for she had made it seem that she had taken her mother’s place at the dinner because good times were hard to come by. Well, she did not care. Let Tony think what he chose!

What a day it had been, and it could not end too soon for her. She turned away and looked around for her new friend, Tom Bourne. She saw him among the dancers looking around for her and she lifted a hand. The next moment Tegi was threading her way through the dancers without a backward look at Tony.

Outwardly she appeared to be enjoying herself. Tom was fun even if she had the feeling that he was the good-time sort. She forgot about her father and continued to dance each number throughout the evening.

Tom was not her only partner. Other young men came and took her hand to twirl her around the floor. Tegi came down to earth long after the interval and decided to go in search of her father.

He was not in the bar and none of his friends ap
peared to be there either. Tony was there, leaning indolently against the bar talking to a young couple who were strangers to her. Before she could turn away he had seen her.

Straightening lazily, he stubbed out the cigarette on an ashtray on the bar counter and came towards her.

‘Ready?’ he asked politely.

Tegi looked up at him with a startled glance. ‘Is my father waiting for me?’

‘Your father left some time ago. He wanted you to stay and enjoy yourself,’ he said.

‘But what about transport home? It was he who suggested I join in the dancing.’

His regard was a trifle ironic. ‘He has made arrangements for you.’

Tegi gasped with dismay. ‘Surely not a taxi? Why, they charge the earth to go to Ramsey
!’
She glanced at her watch and sighed hopelessly. ‘The last bus went hours ago.’

He said coolly, ‘I’m ready when you are.’

‘Oh no! You don’t mean you...?’

‘That’s right.’

Tegi Was stung by his mocking gaze. For the umpteenth time that evening she asked herself why she had allowed her parents to push her into coming. She was already too much in Tony’s debt. She had her pride.

‘Anything wrong?’ he asked quietly, his eyes resting blandly on her face. Did he read in her expression the distaste she felt at continually accepting his help?

‘I don’t want to spoil your evening,’ she replied stiffly.

‘You are not,’ he replied, unperturbed.

He walked with her to collect her lace stole which she draped around her hair, throwing the free end over one shoulder. The scalloped edge of the lace gave her face an ethereal beauty as she moved gracefully beside him to the car.

Normally Tegi would have enjoyed that drive home along silent country roads with little or no traffic. But her companion was too near. It seemed that every nerve in her body was tingling. She pushed back in her corner, knowing that her facial expressions betrayed her too easily to his experienced eyes.

‘Quite a good dinner,’ he observed at last, keeping his gaze on the road ahead as he increased speed.

‘Yes. I enjoyed it.’

‘Even though it was not your scene?’

‘I enjoyed the meal and the dancing.’

He cast her a quick glance, but she felt secure in the muted light of her corner. His voice had an edge on it that told her he had not approved.

‘I noticed how much you were in demand on the dance floor. Do you like dancing?’

‘Yes ... I’m not crazy about it.’

His smile at her was sudden, a little mocking. ‘Your father told me how sporting you had been to come with him at short notice this evening.’

‘Three cheers for
d
ad,’ she answered, and changed the subject. ‘Are you looking forward to the races next week?’