скачать книгу бесплатно
He raised his brows in cold amusement. ‘That sounds interesting. Tell me about it.’
She glared at him, then sighed. ‘Listen…Is all this really necessary?’ The deep growl from his throat decided her that it was and she explained hastily, ‘We worked for the same company. I got an idea for processing the paperwork more efficiently and I told him about it. That very same day he took my idea to one of the directors and pretended it was his. It ended up with him getting the credit and the promotion. Needless to say I told him what I thought of him and walked out in disgust.’
He shook his head. ‘That was stupid. You should have stayed and waited for your chance to get even.’
Yes, she felt like saying. But we’re not all as cold-blooded as you, are we?
‘Did you ever sleep with him or are you still a virgin?’
The bluntness of his question rocked her and her face went red. ‘That’s none of your damn business.’
He growled like an angry bear again. ‘I’m making it my business. You’d better give me an answer or I’ll find out for myself right here and now.’
She glared back at him but the defiance in her eyes turned to horror as he begun unbuckling the belt around his waist. Backing away from him, she gasped, ‘You…you wouldn’t dare.’ But as soon as she’d said the words she knew that she was wrong. This cretin was ruthless enough to do anything. This was his land and he was the lord and master here. Even if there had been anyone around to hear her screaming for help, they’d make sure to keep well out of the way.
‘I—I’ve never slept with any man,’ she said breathlessly. ‘That’s the honest truth. I swear it. Now, don’t you dare touch me.’
He eyed her darkly for a moment then reluctantly he fastened his belt. ‘It had better be the truth,’ he warned her. ‘Because if I do decide to take you as my wife and I find out on our wedding night that you’ve been lying to me you’ll live to regret it.’
‘Well, you’ve got no worries on that score,’ she grated. ‘I’ve no intention of marrying you. In fact, if you were the only man left on this planet I’d stay as far away from you as possible. You’re the most detestable, arrogant—’
‘I don’t think you’ve got any choice in the matter, Miss Rivers,’ he broke in coldly. ‘Your fate is entirely in my hands and you’re going to stay here until I’ve made up my mind whether you’re worthy or not to become First Lady of this Clan.’
She put her hands on her hips, tossed her head and scoffed at him, ‘Is that a fact? And what’s to stop me leaving here right now? If I walk far enough I’ll be bound to reach a main road and get a lift south. Or perhaps you’re hoping that your fairies will turn me into a frog or something?’
A thin smile twisted his lips. ‘Nothing quite as drastic as that. But it’s forty miles of single-track road before you’d ever have a chance of getting a lift. Perhaps two cars a week use the road out of here. The only other way is by boat and since I own all the boats here I merely have to give orders that you’re not to be allowed aboard in any circumstances.’
Filled with a sense of outrage, she spluttered at him, ‘You can’t do that! You can’t keep me here a prisoner against my will!’
His blue eyes mocked her. ‘I can do anything I like with you, my dear girl,’ he said softly. ‘Who’s going to stop me? Your friends from the Caprice?’ He saw her bite her lip and he laughed. ‘I don’t think we need worry about them coming here. Anyway, we’ll talk about them later. At the moment it’s you I’m interested in.’
She shivered and looked at him helplessly. ‘Look—I’m freezing. Are we going to stand here all day?’
‘Yes, if necessary.’ He leaned into the Land Rover, then took out a travelling-rug and handed it to her. ‘Put this around your shoulders.’
She wrapped herself up then wondered if it would do any good appealing to his better nature—always assuming that he had such a thing. ‘Look,’ she said quietly, ‘there isn’t any sense in this, is there? If you want a wife why don’t you choose a local girl? I mean—apart from needing a personality transplant—I’m sure most women find you attractive. But you and I? We don’t even like each other, do we? And please don’t give me all that rubbish about legends and magic fires and fairies. I wasn’t born yesterday.’
The blue eyes measured her coldly, sending another shiver through her in spite of the rug around her shoulders. ‘Kirsty is the one who believes in fairies,’ he snapped. ‘I believe in hard facts. Nevertheless, I respect Kirsty. Everyone here does. That’s why I’ve promised her that I’ll look after you.’
‘Until you’ve made up your mind whether I’m worth marrying or not,’ she observed drily. ‘My feelings don’t even matter to you, do they?’
‘You’ve only got yourself to blame for the position you’re in,’ he said coldly. ‘No one invited you here. I’ve got better things to do than play nursemaid to a bad-tempered little teenager. Your presence here is going to cause me considerable problems.’
‘Well, I’m sorry. If I’d known I was going to be all this trouble I’d have just let myself drown instead of swimming.’
He ignored her sarcasm. ‘One fact I can’t ignore is that Kirsty seems to like you. Whatever it is she sees in you eludes me for the moment, but I’m going to find out.’
She challenged him again, indignantly. I’m sure there are plenty of women here who’d jump at the chance of being your wife. Why pick on me? I’m entitled to know that, at least.’
‘You’re still a stranger,’ he told her bluntly. ‘All a stranger is entitled to here is food, shelter and hospitality—which you’ve been given.’
She glared at him in silent exasperation, then tried a new idea. ‘I don’t know anything about you, this part of the country, or the people. I wouldn’t fit in here and I’m certainly not worthy enough to be the First Lady of anything. I was shunted from one foster home to another when I was a kid. I’ve got no breeding whatsoever. You’re just wasting your time with me.’
Those damned eyes of his mocked her again and he growled, ‘Aye. I suspect you’re right. But I’m the one who decides, not you. So from now on, Miss Rivers, you’ll answer my questions without resorting to lies or evasion. Is that clear?’
‘I’m not in the habit of telling lies,’ she retorted angrily. ‘And I object to the way you—’
His voice cut through her protestation like a blade of cold steel. ‘Like you, I wasn’t born yesterday. If a boat has only got five crew and one of them suddenly disappears the others are bound to notice sooner or later, wouldn’t you agree? First thing this morning I contacted the nearest coastguard station to find out if any ship had reported a missing crew member. Well, no such report had been made. How do you account for that, Miss Rivers?’
‘Perhaps they…they haven’t got round to reporting it yet,’ she said evasively.
Suddenly her shoulder was grabbed in a vice-like grip and he thrust his face closer to hers. ‘They didn’t make any report because they didn’t want to draw attention to themselves. That’s the truth, isn’t it, Miss Rivers?’
She ran her tongue nervously over her lips. The man’s anger was like an icy blast from the polar wastes, chilling her to the marrow. ‘L-look,’ she stammered. ‘I—I—’
‘Save your breath,’ he grated. ‘Two hours after you were found on this beach last night a motor-cruiser called Caprice tied up at a deserted pier fifteen miles north of here. The police and Customs were waiting and your friends are now in custody.’
Her feeling of relief that Smith and his confederates had been caught was short-lived at the realisation that she was now being accused of being part of the gang. In wide-eyed consternation she blurted, ‘You…you’ve got it all wrong.’
‘Have I?’ he asked, with harsh scepticism. ‘By your own admission you were a member of the crew. And if you hadn’t “accidentally” fallen overboard you, too, would be in custody.’
She winced at the pressure of his hand. ‘Let go my shoulder, damn you. You’re hurting me.’
When he let her go she glared up at him. ‘All right! So I did lie to you. But I was just the cook on that damned boat. I didn’t know what they were up to. And I didn’t fall overboard. I jumped.’ She paused and gave a bitter sigh. ‘It’s a long story and you probably wouldn’t believe a word of it, anyway.’
He studied her shrewdly, then growled, ‘I might. But no more lies. Understand? If you aren’t part of that gang then what were you doing on the boat in the first place?’
‘I told you,’ she muttered. ‘I was just the cook.’ ‘So you say,’ he derided. ‘But you’ll have to do better than that.’
‘Dammit! I’m telling you the truth.’
‘How long had you been working for them?’
She sighed. ‘Only a few days. I met them in Portugal. My hotel room—’
‘What were you doing in Portugal?’
It was obvious that he wasn’t going to be satisfied until he’d wrung every last detail from her so she began again. ‘After the row with my ex-boyfriend I quit my job and decided to take a holiday.’
‘To mend your broken heart, no doubt.’
She ignored the sarcastic interruption and went on. ‘I drew all my savings from the bank, locked up my flat and caught the first available plane. Anyway, I spent the next two weeks swimming and lazing around on the beach and vowing that no man would ever use me or make a fool of me again.’ She paused and eyed him bitterly. ‘Of course I was wrong, as usual, wasn’t I?’
His face was unreadable and she continued reluctantly, ‘It was the day before I was due to come home when someone broke into my hotel apartment and I lost everything. Money, passport, clothes…’
She had hardly been able to believe her eyes at first when she’d seen the empty drawers and overturned mattress. She’d only been gone for ten minutes and her room had been ransacked! Whoever had done it must have climbed up on to the balcony and entered through the open window.
In a fury she had run downstairs to the reception desk and reported the break-in to the manager.
He was sympathetic but adamant that she had no claim against the hotel. ‘Madam should have made sure that the window was securely latched before she went out,’ he said. They would inform the police, of course, but there was little hope of catching the culprit and recovering her property. Surely madam had taken out insurance against this sort of thing happening?
Madam hadn’t, and she turned from the desk in dismay. With the loose change in her pocket she had barely enough left to buy lunch. And how was she going to get home tomorrow without a plane ticket? She couldn’t even think of anyone in London who could forward her a loan. With her spirits at zero she made her way outside and stood on the broad tree-lined pavement completely at a loss as to what to do now.
‘They weren’t much help, were they? I couldn’t help overhearing.’
She turned at the sound of the voice and looked at the middle-aged man who’d followed her out Instinctively on her guard, she took in his appearance. He seemed harmless enough, but you never could tell. At least he was well-dressed and groomed. The typical English gentleman abroad. Dark blazer and flannels and some sort of regimental tie over an immaculately white shirt. He had a clipped moustache and a friendly smile on his rather bland face.
‘No, they weren’t,’ she answered at last. ‘But it was my own stupid fault.’
‘Damned awkward being stranded in a foreign country,’ he sympathised. He held out his hand. ‘I’m Roger Smith. Here with my wife and a couple of friends.’
She shook hands and gave him a polite smile. ‘Avalon Rivers.’
He looked at her sadly. ‘Did they actually take everything?’
She gave a resigned nod. ‘I don’t know how I’m going to get home now. My hotel room is paid for tonight but tomorrow I’ll have to sleep on the beach then try to get a job somewhere.’
He shook his head doubtfully. ‘I think you might need a work permit. As for sleeping on the beach, I wouldn’t recommend it. Far too many odd-looking characters going around.’ He paused as if he’d had a sudden inspiration. ‘Look here, Miss Rivers…I don’t know if the idea will appeal to you or not but there is a way I can help you out of your predicament. It’s entirely up to you, of course.’
Experience had taught her to be wary of unsolicited offers of help. There were usually strings attached.
As if sensing her reluctance he went on quickly, ‘The truth of the matter is that you’d be doing both my wife and me a great favour. We’re sailing back to England tonight but the girl who was doing our cooking has decided to stay on. She seems to have formed some kind of attachment to a local boy and is quite devastated at the thought of leaving him. Anyway, the position is yours if you want it.’
It sounded almost too good to be true and she said cautiously, ‘It’s a wonderful offer, Mr Smith, and I’m grateful, but I’m afraid I’m not much of a cook.’
He laughed and brushed her objection aside. ‘I admire your honesty, but you’ve nothing to worry about. We don’t go in for haute cuisine aboard the Caprice. Just plain, simple cooking. I’m sure you can manage that.’
A voice in her head was telling her to be careful. All this seemed like too much of a coincidence to sit comfortably, but she stifled it. She was in danger of becoming a distrustful cynic. Anyway, the offer and Mr Smith seemed genuine enough. If she passed up this chance she’d still be left with the problem of how to get back to England.
‘The trip shouldn’t take too long,’ he went on persuasively. ‘And of course I’ll see that you’re well paid at the end of it.’
That was enough to settle the matter and she smiled at him. ‘All right, Mr Smith. When would you like me to start?’
He rubbed his hands together briskly. ‘Good show. I’ll take you to the boat now and show you around.’
They went by taxi to the harbour where he led her down the gangway on to the deck of a motor-cruiser. She knew nothing about boats but she could tell affluence when she saw it. Beneath the bridge there was a hatchway and once they were down the short flight of steps he proudly showed her the layout. There were two large and luxuriously furnished cabins at the front. The main lounge and dining-room was amidships, and to the rear of that was the galley where the meals were prepared. A door led from the rear of the galley and he pushed it open. ‘This will be your own cabin. It’s small but I’m sure you’ll find it comfortable enough.’
She showed her appreciation with a smile. ‘It’s very nice.’
He beamed with pleasure. ‘Now, then…My wife and my friends are shopping at the moment. I’ve to meet them for lunch back at the hotel. We’ll be gone for most of the day and don’t expect to be back until late this evening.’ He fished a sheet of paper from his inside pocket and handed it to her. ‘This is a list of provisions we need. I was going to fetch them myself but this can be your first job.’ Next he handed her a card. ‘This is the name and address of the supplier. Everything has already been paid for. I’ll give you money for a taxi and you can go and collect them some time this afternoon.’
She stopped telling her tale and looked at Fraser resentfully. ‘You don’t believe a word of this, do you? You think I’m making it up as I go along.’
‘Get on with it,’ he growled impatiently. ‘At the moment I’m keeping an open mind on the matter.’
She glared at him in angry silence for a moment longer then went on, ‘Well, there were a lot of provisions. Four medium-sized crates, in fact, and I wondered why they needed so much stuff for a short trip to England. The taxi driver just left me and the crates on the quayside and I had to manhandle them aboard myself.
‘Anyway, Mr Smith and his party came back about nine-thirty. He introduced me to his wife and the other couple then he went to the bridge and I heard the engines start up. When we were clear of the harbour he came down and examined the crates. Three of them were filled with cans of peaches and he told me to lay them aside because they were a present for someone back in England. I thought it odd at the time. Whoever heard of giving tinned peaches as a present?
‘Well, everything went well until last night. I’d been keeping out of the way as much as possible and just doing my job. I wasn’t keen on the two women, anyway. In spite of their airs and graces you could tell they were a pair of hard-bitten good-time girls. They wore flash jewellery and—’
‘Never mind the women,’ snapped Fraser. ‘I’m only interested in what happened last night’
She pouted at him. ‘I’m doing my best.’ She took a deep breath then went on…
It had been the sticky patch on the galley floor that had caught her attention and she had traced the source to one of the cans of peaches. Rather than let them go to waste she had pulled the leaking can from the crate, opened it with a tin-opener and emptied the contents into a bowl. She had looked at the result and frowned. A big can and so little an amount of peaches? She had peered into the empty can and found that it had been split into two separate compartments. Turning the can over, she had attacked the bottom with the opener and spilled the contents on to the worktop. White powder? My God! It had been cocaine or something very like it!
‘How did you know it was drugs?’ Fraser asked her.
She eyed him scornfully. ‘Well, I’m pretty sure it wasn’t talcum powder. Not after the trouble someone had taken to hide it.’
His mouth twitched and he nodded. ‘Go on.’
‘Well, I opened another tin and that was the same. And then it suddenly dawned on me that I was the one who’d brought it aboard. If Customs had stopped and searched the boat before we left Portugal Smith could have denied all knowledge of it. He could have said that I applied for the job as cook then used the opportunity to smuggle the drugs myself. It would have been his word against mine. Anyway, that was when Mr Smith came through and caught me. To cut a long story short, he pulled out a gun then locked me in my cabin and said he’d deal with me later.’
‘I’d prefer to hear all the details,’ Fraser said curtly. ‘Everything!’
She shrugged. ‘At first he tried to deny that it was drugs, then when he saw that I didn’t believe him he tried to bribe me. I told him what I thought of drug dealers and that when we got ashore I was going straight to the police. That’s when he got nasty and pulled the gun.’
A shiver ran down her spine. It was probably delayed shock, she told herself. She’d be having nightmares for the next six months and peach melbas would never taste the same. ‘He…He was going to kill me,’ she said in a subdued voice. ‘I could see it in his eyes. He only needed to wait until we were further out to sea then he could dump me overboard and watch me drown.’
She closed her eyes and shivered again and suddenly she found herself being supported in Fraser’s arms. He held her tightly for a moment and the world stopped swaying.
‘I…I’m all right now,’ she muttered. ‘You can let
go.’ He led her to a rock and made her sit down then he went to the Land Rover and returned with a flask. ‘Take a sip of this. You’ll feel better.’
She raised it to her lips and drank, then coughed and spluttered, ‘What…what was that?’
‘Whisky and honey. A well-known remedy around here for everything from depression to pneumonia.’
A warm glow spread throughout her and she breathed deeply at the sweet, clean air. God, it was so good to be alive. Even in a place like this.
As she got to her feet he eyed her closely then, apparently satisfied that she wasn’t going to keel over again, he said, ‘How did you manage to escape from the locked cabin?’
‘I climbed out through the porthole,’ she said mat-ter-of-factly. ‘It was dark but I knew we were close to the shore. Then I saw the light and I knew there must be people so I jumped.’ She shivered again. ‘What I didn’t bargain for was how cold the water would be. I was frozen stiff and getting cramp. I remember a big wave…and crashing down on a rock…Then waking up in Kirsty’s cottage.’
He studied her in silence, his eyes betraying nothing, then he remarked drily, ‘That’s a pretty farfetched story.’
She made a sound of disgust ‘I knew you wouldn’t believe me.’
‘I find it hard to believe that anyone could squeeze themselves through a motor-cruiser porthole. Even someone as slim as you.’
‘Well, I did,’ she retorted. ‘It wasn’t easy. I got stuck but managed it in the end.’
‘Hmm…’ His blue eyes surveyed her again, then he said quietly, ‘Take down your jeans.’
Her mouth fell open. ‘What…?’
