Ash (44 page)

Ash couldn’t understand, but then something occurred to him. He raised himself on one elbow so he could look into her eyes. ‘Is it because of Nurse Krantz?’ He’d put the question bluntly, but gently, with no trace of anger or even distaste.

She averted her eyes, turning her face deep into the plump pillow.

He’d made a guess, based on suspicion, because of the way Rachael Krantz reacted to him whenever they met, especially when Delphine was with him – the spite in her eyes, the straight firmness of her mouth, the chill of the atmosphere between them. Of course. It was jealousy, hatred even. But had she and Delphine . . . ?

He laid his head on the pillow and gently pulled Delphine’s face round to his own. Ash was an excellent observer; he could easily read other people’s moods, usually guessing rightly anything that was worrying them. It was one of the reasons he was so good at his job: his ‘intuition’.

‘What was it that made you stop, Delphine? What did I do that was so wrong for you?’

‘Oh David.’ She tried to turn away from him, but he held her face with the soft palm of his hand. ‘If only I could make you understand . . .’ She left the sentence unfinished.

Afterwards, they lay naked beneath the bedsheets, pleasantly exhausted.

‘Delphine, I know it’s none of my business, but do you want to tell me about Nurse Krantz?’

He smiled, and kept his voice soothing so that she would understand nothing else mattered between them. ‘It’s obvious she hates me, and I have a good idea why. What I don’t know is what’s happened between you. But, believe me, nothing you can tell me will make me love you less.’

There, he’d said it. Now it was up to her.

Her eyes widened and brimmed with more tears that made the pupils sparkle. She blinked and the tears spilled over, but there were no sobs, just silent weeping. Ash sensed the latent fear behind it.

‘It’s okay,’ he told her. ‘I promise, whatever went on between you two makes no difference to me. None at all.’

‘It isn’t what you think. Rachael and me.’

‘You don’t know what I think.’ He gave a small laugh.

She went on apprehensively, still concerned at what his reaction would be. ‘My father died after a long battle with cancer over a year ago. I was distraught on the day Rachael Krantz came to tell me he was gone and, in fact, had been buried two days earlier. I was . . .’ Delphine shook her head, unable to find the right words. ‘I suppose my feelings – my distress, alone, angry – all of it was overwhelming. I collapsed to the floor in a kind of faint. Next thing, I found myself lying on my bed. Rachael had carried me there.’

Ash could easily believe the sturdy senior nurse capable of lifting Delphine’s slight figure.

‘I awoke crying, crying like I never had before. I’m sure I was in hysterics and, of course, as a nurse, Rachael knew how to calm me down. She held me, one hand stroking my hair, her other arm around my back rocking me gently as she soothed me with comforting words. And I clung on to her, the thought of having no one left in the world to return my love frightened me. Rachael kissed my cheek, not in a sexual way, but tenderly, like a sister, protective and caring, and I gave in to it. And I allowed her kisses to continue, until they slowly became anything but sisterly.

‘I didn’t resist, David. She kissed me and I kissed her back, hard, desperately,
passionately
, because I had no one else to turn to and my grief had made me weak, physically and emotionally weak, and I had no resolve, nothing left. I only wanted to be loved. By anyone. Even Rachael.

‘Soon her hand was inside my blouse and it felt like fire, but exquisite fire, as she touched my breast. For a moment I tried to stop her, but I was weak, drained. I had no strength left. Besides, I
wanted
her. Her hand moved to my waist and suddenly we were lying down, together, kissing . . .’

Delphine’s head was now downcast. A little shakily, he had to admit, Ash touched her chin with his fingertips and brought her face up so they could look each other in the eye.

‘Delphine, there’s no shame in what you’ve done,’ he said consolingly. ‘You were in grief, bereft, confused. You’d just heard you’d lost your father, so how could you not look for some comfort, friendship too? A shoulder to cry on. It was unfortunate that it was Krantz who first told you and you were both alone in this room. Hell, Delphine, you’re a psychologist – you should know. You’re crazy to beat yourself up over one incident.’

‘You don’t understand,’ she answered. ‘That night I went back to Rachael’s room, and we . . . we spent the night together. I was desperate – for company, or for something more, I don’t know. Anything to push my father’s death to the back of my mind.’

‘And she took advantage of it.’

Delphine shook her head firmly. ‘No, I can’t blame Rachael. I knew what I was doing. The difference was, though, I never wanted – never
want
– to do it again. Rachael couldn’t understand why I deliberately ignored her. She still doesn’t, that’s the problem.’

‘Sounds as if it’s Senior Nurse Krantz who’s got the problem.’ Ash grinned. ‘Delphine, forget about her. And please don’t worry, it makes no difference at all to me.’

And with that he drew her back towards him once again, one arm encircling her shoulders. He kissed her lightly at first, and when she responded more urgently, he kissed her with greater force, all thoughts of Krantz gone, vanquished. All he could think of at that moment was Delphine, not just her body in all its beautiful nakedness, but her mind, her very soul, and she was reaching for him, her hand running over his shoulders, fingers running down his spine, further, slipping her arm over his hip to reach between them, finding him again, so strong, so hardened that she could no longer wait.

Delphine rolled over onto her back, her hand still holding him, slipping him into her and he helped, his own fingers touching hers and sliding himself in.

She gasped with pleasure. This was so different from Rachael, this was an act that made her senses reel and her mind swirl, affecting her whole being, mind and body, her heart included, so that she was soon breathless with the joy of it, pulling him in more and more, groaning every time he deliberately drew back, then giving out a small cry of bliss when he returned, plunging in again, each time harder, each time deeper. Every part of her body was awash with sensation. She quivered in surrender, every tendon tight, a tingling joy, so that she was lost in the uproar of her elation, the sheer rapture of her wholeness. Soon she began to feel an even greater surge, aware that it was happening to him too, her senses rising, building, until she thought she could take no more, yet
wanting
so much more. Her body became rigid as she arched her back in the euphoria sweeping through her until eventually – too soon, too soon, almost unbearable until the climax broke and was so exquisite in its torrent that she clutched at his hips to make the climax last and she almost screamed with the exhilarating thrill of
his
release into her until she shuddered, and shuddered again, the pleasure gradually calming itself, bit by bit, piece by piece, until she was left floating, coming down from some great height to slowly sink into a well of indelible gratifying glory that would stay in her mind forever, perhaps to savour, to revel in that remembered thrill for days to come. Maybe years to come. Or just until the next time.

Now Ash, too, was satiated and weak with exhaustion. Part of his joy was that he had enraptured and satisfied this perfect, entrancing woman, with her liquid brown eyes and a body so perfectly proportioned it could only be relished.

Still clutching each other, Delphine’s head resting against Ash’s shoulder, they murmured words of love before gradually falling into a calming sleep. They never heard the eerie night sounds of more animal screeches that came from the distant woods, nor saw the incandescent sparks that flew from the electrified fencing as deer and other small creatures tried, in vain, to escape the compound and the vicious, crazed wildcats in their new hunting grounds.

Oblivious, Ash and Delphine slept peacefully, bodies entwined, for it had been a long, eventful day.

Ash and Delphine were woken at the same time by the crash of the bedroom door, but the psychologist reacted faster.

Ash’s bleary eyes opened to see Delphine next to him holding the bedsheets up to cover herself. She was wide-eyed at the furious nurse standing in front of the door she’d just slammed shut behind her.

‘
You bitch!
’ Senior Nurse Krantz shrieked. ‘
You bloody whore!
’

Ash pushed himself onto an elbow and looked at the white-uniformed nurse with alarm and bewilderment.
What the hell?
he thought, and then he recalled their conversation. Krantz must have got wind of their assignation from the smirking guard.

‘Rachael,’ Delphine said sharply, as if admonishing a recalcitrant patient, ‘please get out. Get out now!’

‘Can’t you see he’s using you?’ came Krantz’s shouted response. ‘He’s just a typical man who only wants one thing! Sex is all he’s after!’ She was pointing an accusing finger at Ash.

‘Now wait a minute . . .’ began the investigator, who had swiftly become perfectly clear-headed.

‘
You bastard! Why couldn’t you have left her alone? She’s not for you!
’

‘Krantz,’ Ash said calmly as he sat upright in the bed next to Delphine. ‘Delphine is not for
you
. No matter how much you might like to think so.’

‘
Bastard!
’ Another screech, but this time Krantz raced towards the bed, her arms flailing the air, headed for Ash.

He blocked the blows with his lower arms and had to admit, those blows
hurt
.

‘Leave him alone,’ Delphine cried out, leaning across him so that she took some of the wild punches on her arms. ‘I love him, Rachael! Not you – I love David!’

While this was music to Ash’s ears, he was getting a little irritated by the punishment he was taking as punches and slaps rained down. Finally, he’d had enough and he moved Delphine aside so that he could get out of bed, naked or not.

If Krantz was shocked, she didn’t show it, but continued to hit out at him. Ash caught both her wrists and pushed her back, surprised at the strength of the woman. The curses coming from her wide mouth were now obscene, but succeeded in goading him into anger. He pushed her back hard towards the wall, letting go of her wrists so that she felt the full impact. As she strived to pull herself together to make another strike, the wind temporarily knocked out of her, Ash quickly pulled the door to the corridor open wide and grabbed her again.

‘
Let me go, you bastard!
’ she managed to scream at last.

‘Sure,’ he replied more calmly than he felt.

He shoved her into the corridor so hard that she rebounded off the opposite wall. Ash was conscious of other curious faces peering out to see what was causing the fracas.

But Krantz was not quite finished with him yet. With a yowl of hatred, she rushed at him again. This time Ash acted in a way he never had before.

He made a fist with his right hand, pulled it back, then let go with a punch that landed squarely on the bridge of her nose. Without further sound, save for the
smack
of the punch itself, Krantz went flying backwards, her shoulders hitting the opposite wall again, then sagged down to the floor. And there she sat, white-stockinged legs splayed, her hands to her nose from where blood poured as it swelled, able only to groan.

Ash swiftly slammed the door shut, grabbed a ladder-backed chair and stuck the top bar under the door handle. All the while, Ash was puzzled by his own reaction, for he’d never even raised his hand to a woman before, let alone punched one squarely on the nose. But as he chided himself, it occurred to him suddenly that Comraich itself was to blame: there was something lurking here in the castle’s very ether, something malign that encouraged such violence. How else would he have gouged the Serbian’s eye out in the lift only yesterday? David Ash felt disgusted with himself, although lingering somewhere in his subconscious was a perverse satisfaction and relief.

He went back to the bed where Delphine sat, bedsheet still drawn up to cover her nakedness, a petrified expression on her face. He paused as they both heard movement outside in the corridor. Suddenly, there was a thump on the door, as if Krantz had smashed her hand against it.

‘
You bastard!
’ they heard again, muted this time, then footsteps marching down the corridor, fading into the distance.

Ash sat on the bed, ready to calm Delphine, but if he was honest, to calm himself too.

Delphine dropped the sheet, and pressed against him, kissing his cheek, first hugging, then clinging to him.

‘David, are you all right?’ Her voice was filled with concern.

‘Well, my knuckles feel a bit raw, but I think I’ll survive. Nurse Krantz is going to have a hell of a bend in her nose though.’ He grinned at her.

‘Don’t underestimate her, David. She can be a dangerous woman.’

‘She’ll fit in well with Comraich, then. I hardly need to state the obvious, but there’s something extremely odd about this place. I’m not just saying it’s haunted. I mean it’s full of powerfully malevolent spirits. I’ve got to tell you, I don’t want to be in this castle much longer.’

‘You’d leave?’ Delphine was dismayed and she drew back so she could look into his eyes.

He found her left hand and clutched it in both of his own. ‘Not without you,’ he told her simply.

She cast her eyes down and dark ringlets framed her cheeks. ‘I couldn’t leave here, David.’

He frowned. ‘Why not?’ he ducked his head so that he could see more of her downcast face. ‘There’s nothing here for you.’

‘You’re forgetting Lewis.’

Ash sat back.

‘You might be perfect, Delphine, but you’re not indispensable. Lewis would be taken care of.’

She shook her head sadly. ‘No one could ever know him as well as I do. He depends on me, David. I just don’t know how he would get by if I left. You see, you haven’t seen the other side of Comraich. Nobody’s free here, every one of our guests is monitored wherever they go.’