Plantation Doctor (21 page)

Swift agony rose to Lyn’s throat. Was Adrian suffering the tortures of disillusionment about Hazel? Couldn’t she think up something which would show him how petty and unimportant those lies were compared with Hazel’s inherent sincerity? Or would further argument worsen the matter?

He indicated the foolscap envelope which she had placed on the verandah wall. “Shall we go inside and get busy with that?” he said stiffly.

“No. I
...
I’m afraid I’ve lost the mood for it.” She stood up and turned away from them both. “I wish to heaven I hadn’t come this morning.”

“You mustn’t say such things,” said Mrs. Denton. “I’m very thankful you did come. I’d much rather learn that you were being kind to that boy in hospital than go on thinking you were having a wild time with Claud, even if my opinion of Hazel has been somewhat jolted. You see, I’m not really fond of Hazel. I have a liking for all young people, of course, and I do respect women with ambitions, but the truly ambitious woman is not endearing
.
Lyn,” her smile was sweet, “what would you have me do about Hazel?”

Adrian, standing now, broke
i
n brusquely. “She wants to keep the business between the three of us
—
let Hazel get away with it.”

A shadow entered the veranda, followed by Hazel in a coral bathrobe left behind by Marceline.

“Did I catch my name from your lips, Adrian?” she queried lightly.

After scarcely a second’s pause he answered, “We were debating whether to order tea for three or four.”

“Does it matter if I have mine in my room? I have to dress and try to make something of my hair. It got horribly wet.”

She had reached them, and rested with one hand on the round back of the rattan chair, her pose negligent. Her hair, drawn tightly and tied with a sodden ribbon, left the classic lines of her face exposed and the relentless morning sun slanted across skin which was smooth and pale.

“Do I look hideous?” she asked.

“Of course you don’t,” Lyn said quickly. “If we’re staring it’s because you’re so beautiful.”

“To be beautiful,” Hazel told her with a wide, embracing gesture and a mischievous smile, “is simply to be one-track and thoroughly happy about it. That’s at the root of Adrian’s good looks—isn’t it, Adrian?”

His eyes were cool, his mouth set. Lyn gave him no time to reply.

“Did you have a good swim?” she said hastily.

“Perfect. I had the pool to myself, so I floated and murmured poetry to the heavens. The men have arrived there now and the water’s as choppy as the Atlantic. I wonder why men always act like porpoises the moment they enter a swimming pool? To this she apparently expected no reply, for she went straight on
: “
I reek of antiseptic. Is it conv
e
nient for me to have a shower, Mrs. Denton?”

“Yes, dear. And don’t hurry about your dressing. You’ll only get hot again.”

Hazel flipped careless fingers at them. “See you at lunch, then,” she said, and walked into the house.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-
ONE

Her
departure could not help but leave a tension. Lyn stood very near the table, her glance intent upon the woven pattern of its surface and upon Mrs. Denton’s hands which were loosely clasped on the farther edge. The huge solitaire winked above a wide gold band.

“Well, you got your way, Lyn,” said the older woman quietly. “The episode may now be forgotten.”

“You mean
...
that Hazel will never hear of it?”

“She won’t from me; nor, I should say, from Adrian. We’ll let it all pass.”

“Nothing is altered?” Lyn persisted. “Will you take her home to England with you on the yacht?”

Adrian swung round from staring at the garden. “Is this something new? When was it planned that Hazel should accompany you?”

“I didn’t mention it to you, did I?” said his aunt, complacently leaning back in her cushions but regarding him with some shrewdness. “Hazel and I had a talk last night in my room, and I invited her to take Marceline’s cabin on the return journey. I thought it would be pleasant to have company on the voyage. No objection, have you?”

“Not one. It relieves me of the responsibility of finding another home for her.”

“I was sure you’d agree.” With an indifference that did not quite line up with the alertness in her eyes, she said, “Lyn, did Hazel make it clear that I’d love to have you come with us? There’s another cabin just as pretty as the one Hazel will use, and a long yacht trip is an experience most young folk enjoy.”

Adrian was at Lyn’s back, speaking over her shoulder to his aunt.

“Lyn’s staying on for Rollins’ wedding,” he said abruptly. Forestalling, in his determined fashion, further pertinent enquiries, he twisted and picked up the envelope from the wall. “We’ll go back to your place, Lyn. It can’t possibly be so restless there as it is here.”

“Couldn’t we leave those notes for a few days?”

“No,” he said in a clipped voice. “We couldn’t.”

Lyn looked appealingly at Mrs. Denton, saw the smile
which hovered about her mouth and felt Adrian’s imperative tug at her arm.

“If I were you, Lyn, my dear,” said Mrs. Denton, “I’d go with him. But I warn you—he’s in an unmanageable mood.”

He flung his aunt a taut smile, and stalked away at Lyn’s side. For a few minutes after they had disappeared round a bend in the path Mrs. Denton sat on, savouring a sensation of utter contentment and relief. Then she got up and went into the lounge to indulge in the delicious institution of morning tea.

Lyn’s living-room, just then, was dim and airy. The flowers were fresh, but scentless, and the light wood of table and cabinet shone dully. The pervading odour was the lavender of Melia’s moth-proofing powder but it was not too penetrating.

Adrian held open the screen door for Lyn, then latched it from the inside. On the point of stating politely that she would ask the boy to bring tea, Lyn’s speech seemed paralysed. She felt witless, totally incapable of co-operating sensibly upon the notes about Akasi. She couldn’t bear to see Adrian so dark-faced and leashed; nor could she connect the changes in him with anything but his disappointment in Hazel. Almost hysterically she thought, now
she’s
the most disappointing woman he’s ever known!

With a great effort she turned to him and said, “Adrian, I’d give anything if I could undo those words with Dick this morning.”

“I wouldn’t!”

“Please don’t let it make you bitter with Hazel.”

“My dear girl, I’m not bitter with Hazel. I’ll admit that but for you I’d have left her in no doubt about my views, but I take your word for it that the lies were the result of autocracy.”

“Can’t you be less austere about it?” she pleaded. “You sound
so
furious.”

“I am furio
us
,” he bit out, “and chiefly with you. Not only do you let people batten on you and use you but you cover up for them. Haven’t you any feelings of your own? M
ust
you live Claude’s love life with him and
plunge vicariously into Hazel’s existence?
Is
that enough?”

“You still don’t understand.”

“No, but I intend to—right now.” He was close and glaring at her, yes, glaring, and gripping her wrists. “I mean to have the truth. Did you at any time think yourself in love with Claud Merrick?”

“Never in my life!”

“Then why didn’t you refute it when I accused you of being infatuated with him?”

“Because
...
” Because her heart had been so wholly given to Adrian that it was balm to have him coupling her with someone else. It had made her feel secure, her secret safe. “I don’t have to answer that. You’ve no right to inquisition me,” she said unsteadily.

“There you’re wrong! I have the strongest right in the world. I happen to have committed the folly of falling in love with you.”

Lyn’s energy drained, her face whitened. “I ... I don’t believe it,” she breathed.

He gave a brief, strained laugh. “There are ways of proving it!”

And then, not very gently, he kissed her; took her tightly into his arms and found her mouth with a force that pressed back her head and painfully stretched her throat. The kiss ended, but Lyn clung to him, suffocated and nerveless. His arms slackened but still held her.

“That’s how it is,” he said, with rather less than his usual crispness. “Are you frightened?”

“Terribly,” she whispered. “You’re still angry.”

“The remedy for that is in your hands,” he said.

For a further minute or so she leaned against him, still trembling with excitement and incredulity. But soon she was able to raise her head, to look into his narrowed, leaping eyes, to hold his face in her hands and kiss his lips tenderly and warmly.

A flush replaced the pallor and her eyes shone up at him, blue and very deep.

“Say it, Lyn,” he begged. “Even if it isn’t true yet, say it.”

“I love you,” she said, “I love you—and it’s absolutely true.”

“I’
m almost convinced it is. Bless Dick Wilton.”

“Dick?”

“It wasn’t till this morning, that I had any hope at all of making you love me. While he was speaking I watched you, and I guessed your underlying reason for staying with him while he was so ill. You had the crazy conviction that it was your duty to keep him going till my return.”

“Was it so crazy?”

“Crazy and wonderful. It worked.” He laid his cheek against her hair. “More important to me was your anxiety to spare me a wretched homecoming. If only I’d known!”

“But you did come home to find your aunt distressed
—
over me.”

“Distres
sed! She was frantic.” H
e released her, sat back on the edge of the small dining-table, with his arms folded judicially. With a change of tone, he said, “She harped upon you and Claud till I turned on her in a rage. I met you that afternoon, walking with Melia, and it didn’t help to see you so fresh and blooming
—
typically the beloved young woman.”

“I didn’t feel beloved, only relieved. I liked helping to nurse Dick. It made me feel useful and wanted, and thankfulness that you’d arrived at Denton was quite enough to make me put on a sparkle. I knew you’d get him well.” She smiled at him questioningly. “It’s your aunt’s attitude that puzzles me. Why should she have been in such a fret over my seeing Claud—if I
had
seen him?”

He grinned. “Aunt Evelyn, I regret to confess, is not the harmless, middle-aged person she appears. There are deeps in the woman. You remember the party she gave on the yacht?”

Lyn nodded. “Do I not! You made me choke down neat whisky after it.”

“The way you neglect yourself has always given me the shivers,” he said. “When I’d taken you home and got back to my own house that night, my aunt took me to task. You weren’t Marceline or Hazel to be treated offhandedly; you were more sensitive and much too gentle-natured to stand my domineering ways. I didn’t listen to everything she said; I was recalling how sweet and drowsy you’d looked when I left you, how badly I’d wanted to kiss you and tell you I loved you. Then she came out with a remark that shook me. ‘You know, Adrian,’ she said, ‘if I weren’t certain that you’re too cold and ruthless, I’d be inclined to make something of the way you behaved with Lyn.’ I told her that her favourite pastime was making something of the way I behaved with women. But she’d hit on the truth and she knew it. Hence her sudden overpowering aversion to Claud.”

Lyn took in all this but it had not much real significance beside the wonder of being loved by him. The room, with the curtains blowing in the hot wind and the flowers stirring in the vase and shedding pollen, was a corner of heaven shared with the tall, vital Adrian. This small room on the torrid wet Coast—a corner of heaven.

“When,” she asked presently, in time-honoured fashion, “did you first love me?”

“It was one day in Cape Bandu,” he said teasingly. “I’d left you at the mission house and gone to the dispensary and there a queer thing happened. An African boy’s dark brown eyes suddenly turned harebell blue. I wasn’t aware of it at the time but I’d caught an incurable fever.”

“But when did you
know
?”

The mockery was gone. “When you moved to the Merricks’ bungalow while I was away on the other side of Palmas. It wouldn’t have been quite so hellish if I’d been sure you weren’t attracted to Claud. I was almost glad when you went down with fever, though I could have twisted his neck for ignoring the infested swamp in the garden.”

“But instead of twisting his neck you bought his plantation at ten times its value.”

Adrian pushed his hands into his pockets and looked down at her grimly. “Was I hateful to you while you were a patient at the hospital?”

“You weren’t very friendly.”

“I’ve never been through such a patch. I was sick with worry over you—it was your first dose and there was the hint of pneumonia—yet only too conscious that we were enemies. I went down to Merrick and
i
n a fury told him to name his price for his plantation. I knew that even if you couldn’t care for me, Claud was no good to you. If he had money he would get out and leave you alone. With a flourish he presented a new ledger, beautifully written up—by you.”

“I’d forgotten that. Did you mind?”

“I was so raw I minded everything. I saw you putting Claud to rights in his private life, too, fighting the weaknesses in his character, persuading yourself that he was your job.”

“So you told me to marry him and set about his salvation!” She held his shoulders. “Adrian, you’re nearly as much of a fool in love as I am.”

“I’m more of a brute than a fool.” He laughed suddenly and pulled, her close. “Hide your blush and tell me how long you’ve loved me.”

She kissed his chin. “I hated you, then I was jealous of Hazel, then I loved you. Simple, wasn’t it?”

“Jealous of Hazel,” he echoed. “I seem to recollect that you considered me an insufferable beast because I wouldn’t make love to her. Has she ever unloaded upon you that little trouble of hers with Rex Harper?”

“I heard it all last night.” Last night was a world away! “Before that I took it you were the man in her life, but that you were taking your time over making her the woman in yours. She’s so lovely that I didn’t see how you could help wanting her.”

“My darling girl, you’re lovelier than Hazel will ever be. You’re forgiving and compassionate and so sweet.” His voice roughened and deepened. “I must know about us, Lyn, our wedding. I want us to be married at once, but you’d prefer to
b
e married in England
with
all the trappings, wouldn’t you?”

“What’s the alternative?” she said, oddly breathless.

“A ceremony here or in Freetown within the next week, so that my aunt could be present.” Unconsciously persuasive, he went on, “You’d have Hazel and Melia and I’d promise to get you a white wedding-dress by air from France. It can be done.” When she did not reply he spoke more urgently. “My assistant will be here in a few weeks and once he’s settled we’ll leave for
E
n
gl
and.
If I were less selfish I’d send you home with my aunt, to await me, but why should we part and waste a couple of months? With you under my roof I could ensure that you come to no harm.”

“I’ll do whatever you wish,” she said at last, huskily. Gently, she drew away from him and moved to the door, so that she could view through the screen the shapely roof of the house among the palms. “I’ll be sorry to say good
-
bye to Denton but we’ll be coming back, won’t we?”

“Only for brief trips. I shall never again be the Denton doctor.”

“But, Adrian
...”

He had come to her side. “Laxton will be in charge and I’ll send him an assistant. I shall still go in for tropical medicine but on the research side. We’ll live at Wideacres.” He put an arm round her. “You’ll love the house and we’ll have a great time furnishing. I believe I must have known I’d marry someone with a flair for that sort of thing, and left it empty for your especial joy.”

“You say the dearest things.”

“We both do, darli
n
g,” he informed her mockingly. “It’s an infection called being in love. Are you still frightened?”

“Of course. Every bride-to-be is frightened, but she wouldn’t miss the sensation for anything in the world.”

He slipped back the screen latch. “Let’s go and spread the news. Aunt Evelyn will immediately begin to see herself with grandchildren.” Her swift access of new colour delighted him into another laugh. He bent and kissed her. “I’ve been waiting for you all my life,” he said. “All my life, my sweet love. From now on we’re one.”

L
yn gazed at him with her heart in her eyes. There are some moments which have to be left completely wordless.