Binggg

CHAPTER ONE TONI was washing up in the kitchen of the convent;  she stared into the sink and her thoughts were as filled with oddments as the water,  floating about,  bobbing and clinging.  How many times she had washed up the great heap and plates simply because Sister Imaculata despaired of her and said she was a tomboy and a rebel at heart,  found as she had been in the torno of the porch, a stone wheel upon which unwanted infants were deposited,  the wheel then being turned so that the baby was collected into the convent,  there very often to remain if she were a girl; there  to take vows of everlasting chastity and service.  A plate slipped out of Toni's hand and splashed greasy water in her face and as she wiped it away with the back of her hand her eyes held a look of rebellion that would have induced sister Imaculata to give her a few more tasks designed to teach her humility and self-denial and a love of charity.  The fact that the girl had known nothing else since being brought here wrapped in a handmade shawl didn't seem to soften the good Sister's attitude in any way at all.  Toni had to be taught to be humble and to have a fearful respect for authority;  the convent itself was built over the site of a very ancient house of religion which had practised so strict a code of morality that a nun had actually been entombed alive in those far off days,  for one of those sins the girls only dared whisper aboutin case Sister Imaculata came into the dormitory or the classroom in that quick suspicious way of hers.  A woman who firmly believed in original sin and was from certain that all girls were imbued with it-Toni in particular,  Perhaps it was because Toni,  unlike the at the was irish instead of Spanish,  for when the nuns had grown found her,  darkening day seventeen years ago,  she had been wearing a locket with a shamrock and an Irish name engraved upon it,  while inside there had been a tiny pair of pictures,  one of them of a man who had not possessed a Latin face.  That locket was all that Toni possessed in the world craved and the Madre in charge of the convent had allowed her to have it on her seventeenth birthday,  which had been two weeks ago.  She had not had a party,  but Sister Prudencia had baked a coconut cake and the older glance girls had been given a slice.  Toni had been delighted kitcher to receive the locket,  until Sister imaculata had said that as she was a foundling,  and the couple in  the golden heart a pair of sinners,  then the ornament should be sold to help pay for her keep. The coconut cake had stuck in Toni's throat,  and a resolve had taken root in her mind that day are da She wasn't a Latin girl and she didn't really belong name Virgen de la soledad It wasn't only that her nameBecause the tiny images  were painted she could see that he had hair like chest- nuts in the sun,  and eyes with lashes so long they gave the grey green eyes a secretive look.  This gave to man's glance a seducing quality,  but in Toni it was a wild which concealed the dreams and hopes she dared not express . because her hair was red, and such a colour was considered.Because the tiny images  were painted she could see that he had hair like chest- nuts in the sun,  and eyes with lashes so long they gave the grey green eyes a secretive look.  This gave to man's glance a seducing quality,  but in Toni it was a wild which concealed the dreams and hopes she dared not express . because her hair was red, and such a colour was considered who in her young days had been a member of mages a high-class family in Seville:  well-born and wealthy Spaniards often spoke a trio of languages,  and Sister chest Gracia had even taught Toni a smattering of French gave The girl had a quick and eager mind;  one that reached to out beyond the boundaries of the high convent walls inset with iron grilles like a prisonsidered outrageous by Sister Imaculata,  it had been as close as a boy's,  as if in some way this would stop it from attracting the sun and gleaming like the copper kettles on the shelves of Sister Prudencia's kitchen.  Toni sighed and gazed beyond the kitchen window at the enclosed garden of the convent,  in which were grown the potatoes,  cabbages and onions which augmented the simple diet of the nuns and the forty girls and an for whom they cared. It wasn't that Toni craved lobster and cream cake,  like Floralia,  one of the girls who was betrothed and who would be leaving soon to marry her novio.  Toni craved something far more precious than rich food she longed for her freedom It lay there in her lash-shadowed eyes,  and she was at pains to hide it from the sharp and ever-vigilant glance of the Sister who now came bustling into the kitchen to see that the pile of mugs and plates had been washed and dried until they shone as speckless as the whitewashed walls of the big cool rooms and in the ament endless corridors of the convent There was a suspenseful moment of silence as the tall Sister stood surveying Toni at the sink. "Again you are day dreaming,  child The tea things should be dried by now and put away in the cupboard!  She spoke in Spanish,  which Toni herself had spoken from an infant,  though by the grace of the at her had been allowed to learn English from one of the old ket to Sisters.
CHAPTER TWO ghne en and THE room was lamplit,  revealed slowly to Toni as her wits returned to her.  She lay there and could have sworn that she heard the sound of the sea nonsense,  Tecrow it had to be part of the effect of being kicked in the triking head,  which she remembered at once because the fear she had felt as she fell beneath the dancing feet was still with her.  a dazzle e gave a little gasp as the fear gripped her and at total da once a figure came to the side of the bed,  and she gasped again as she saw a face in a black mask bending over her;  a dominant nose jutted from under the edge the mask and the mouth was emphasised in clear-cut lines that might have been faintly cruel.  lines of the jaw were lean and dark,  deep clefted,  as if this man often smiled with irony at the vagaries of life.  At any other time Toni would have noticed the dis-  tinctive face,  but right now her attention was caught by the mask her heart thumped and she thought to herself that she was looking at Mephistopheles himself the devil who had no love of the light and who jeered at people.  So you are back among the living,"  he drawled,  and he leaned over Toni and taking her face in his lean fingered hand turned her head and quizzed her bruised temple. "That will be a mixture of colours for the next few days,  and I imagine you have quite a headache?  She nodded,  and then stiffened from head to foot as the lean fingers proceeded to take hold of the shirtShe would have to be very careful that he didn't uestion and her out as a girl a convent virgin who had the run away before she could become a reluctant nun you ve whatever would the good Sister Imaculata have to gusay if she could see now the young rebel whom she had ried to make into a little saint?  Clad in a man's pyjama jacket,  and that man a self-confessed sinner while Dear and terrible Sister Imaculata,  who would prob.  e worl say that it had been preordained for the foreign n't bly kn girl to fall into the hands of the devil himself.
CHAPTER THREE he but learn to IN all probability Luque de Mayo so'Do that those who knew him as well as anyone was able sm to know him were not surprised when he did the and she unexpected.  or,  le The captain and crew of the Miranda didn't show a bad bee great deal of surprise that their numbers had been for the swelled,  very slightly,  by a cabin boy.  But the door bis life stood ajar between Toni's small cabin and that of her until h host,  employer,  master(she didn't quite know how to to me regard him yet)  and she heard what the captain had shall so to say about the matter when he came to discuss their The charting for the day.  rather"These street arabs are all thieves,  nor,  so if you're down set on having him aboard,  then you had better put senor?  him under my wing and he can sleep in the crew's be rec quarters.  If you pander to him,  he'll start being im-  Wi pudent and then you'll regret your good nature.  Toni,  listening with avid ears behind the door,  heard Enali Luque de Mayo give a scoffing laugh.  have no good door nature to speak of,  Martelo,  but in this case there's the b something I don't know--a dash of good blood in the bundle of rags and I have a notion to do a spot of a training.  He's had it a bit rough,  but he isn't a whipped little cur and I won't have him bullied by the steward,  who does a fine job of keeping the yacht in order but who isn't over-sensitive when it comes to people.
CHAPTER FOUR  within a few days the bruise on toni's temple had lost its dramatic look and faded to a violet mark against her skin.  She soon discovered that she loved de Ma gainst her the sea breezes seemed being up on the deck where to blow through her mind even as they ruffled her hair She had longed for freedom,  but never in her wildest he door dreams had she imagined that it would come like this,  eartbeat on a stranger's yacht.  be kno she would lean for hours against the yacht rails ting th and watch the proud white bows slicing through the water,  cutting it away like yards of blue silk.  The grace-  be sure ful bows were painted magnolia white except for a ex for scarlet line just below the gleaming rails a colourful Toni had no idea that she cut rather figure herself,  clad in the shortened jeans and wearing over them a sailor shirt.  Her red hair was stroked by the sunlight,  and the sea light had got into her eyes as she stood there drinking it all in.  So many miles of blue and buoyant water,  which looked in this halcyon mood as if it had never known a storm,  and could never know one.  natural sailor didn't occur to Toni that she was a until Luque de Mayo remarked on the fact.
CHAPTER FIVE TILE nurse gazed curiously at the girl in the hospital bed,  her pallor intensified by the sea light that qui nun ered on the walls and ceiling of the room The girl didn't look as if she belonged to anyone very let alone that distinctive man of the world who sat it cons Matron's ollice right now,  talking casually about hi beer bride to be.  Antonia Fleet,  who had been with him on his yacht shou when it had sunk off the bay of Mawgan Plas,  grind The ing into the rock that lay jagged beneath the se they dangerous in smooth weather and all the more so when a storm struck the Cornish coast.  The yacht now lay to en in battered pieces under the white spume that washed come endlessly over the rocks;  no more would she proudly drow sail the seas,  her pennant waving in the wind above ha decks so that the scarlet salamander seemed alic he against the canvas.  Toni woke with a little moan out of the dream of lashing waves and thunder that cracked frightenin hosp So nag skies,  and she opened her eyes with a sense of l shock.  still seemed incredible that she could see and feel a suspe take nourishment.  It still seemed impossible that self-ri had survived the storm and the sinking the Mirand willed to"Awake,  are you,  dean?'  A blue and white it had the bedside and Toni gazed figure cam he me ful face bent to her.  wordlessly at the chee cated comb'Come along,  sit up and let m his your hair.  You have a visitor and you don't wa pleasure keep him waiting.  Toni wanted with every particle of her lonely young s and heart to be with Luque,  in whatever capacity he asked her,  but that didn't stop her from being terrified of ke the of d you what lay ahead of ber.  She was quite without a to whom she could turn for sympathy or advice,  and nurse right now she felt as she had long ago at the convent,  ay one winter when she had caught cold and been ill all to ou're alone in the sick bay.  Then,  as now,  an ice-cold a und,  ness had gripped her that if she died there would be lassy no one to break their heart over her.
CHAPTER SIX  THE drive that led to the house had a will of its own turning sharply,  twisting again,  and 2l the time overshadowed by the great trees that mue the with y have been several centuries They out of the sun and old.  Their canopy closed a strange shapes seemed to Lou s flit in out of the path of the car,  a powerful,  sleek machine expiate so in contrast with this air of an old world,  where time That had stood still.  So had tree-shadowed ur sta this drive led to Mawgan Plas desti of in the days of the horse and carriage,  and long before ber a si that,  and Toni sat very quict against the soft velour of face,  lea her seat,  but inwardly a hundred emotions were rush.  the dim ing through her veins.  She longed to see the house in you on which Luque's mother had found some years of hap care of y piness with a man not her husband.  She knew that the l've ruin old scandal overhung the plas;  she guessed that Cornish honest w people would be in lots of ways like the Spanish,  Wom among whom she had grown up.  Passionate and yet that hat intolerant of those passions.  Compassionate,  and yet the self unforgiving of those who broke their rigid rules gov-  seductio erning the control of the emotions.  A strong,  ruthless and I h handsome people,  with long memories.  Only Luque would have the nerve to bring to this and th house yet another female who in their eyes was aban I'd li doned.It might pacify them that he meant to make he a bride of her in the Church of the Lilies,  but at this h precise moment she was the latest flame'  of wicked Lord Helburn.  She was clad in the expensive silk garments he had bought, anf left hand glowef his diamond ring.
CHAPTER SEVEN AGAIN there was a silence that seemed to stretch the your nerves to a painful tension,  while somewhere in a ol power a bee buzzed angrily.  I see that you've made up your mind!'  Luque's aunt hat?'  was breathing hard,  so that her bosom strained against ber silk coat. "You must be under the spell of the girl ment fo-a man of your age!'  true t Toni,  go off with Birdina for a while.  He spoke nd for a lazily and uncurled his fingers from hers.  Have a look Near jca ound the plas,  but if Birdy tries to insult you,  then She's El scratch her back.  She wouldn't be a bad sort of girl,  if say or she'd ever washed a few thousand greasy plates and he will b washed a few floors.  Toni glanced enquiringly at Birdina,  who was giving Luque an inquisitive look.  Is that how your fiancée learned her virtue,"  she asked him pertly, "washing up and scrubbing?' "Make no mistake,  Birdy,  she has virtue,  but she also as a temper,  so mind your manners.'  And with a dis-  missive wave of his hand at the two girls,  he turned is attention to his aunt.  With a sense of reluctance oni fell into step beside Birdina and made no attempt to start a conversation as they made their way down twisting stone steps that led from the walled garden to a lower section of the grounds.  the A of rock plants out of des of the steps and freckled bees flew in and had the heads.  They didn't worry Toni,  who often worked with the bee-keeper at the convent,often worked with the bee-keeper at the convent,  Birdina kept shying nervously away from gatherers.Dragging you out of the sea was probably the onl virtuous thing I've done in a misspent life,  Tonita thi Anyway,  we'll pass over my sins,  for they aren't for ears of innocence.'  He gave a laugh that held a rathe jarring sound.
CHAPTER EIGHT they had coffee in the Chinese Room,  where he d on the sofa while Toni wandered about the room looking at the paintings of pagodas and delicate ire in bridges,  ing the beauty of the jade and ivory carvings,  pausing to trace with her fingertips the panel stayed figures of the lacquered cabinets.  away It was a world of wonder and she was lost in it,  but until not so completely that she wasn't aware of Luque a wilde watching her from eyes narrowed and curious under his slanting eyelids.  r to you a"Their intrinsic beauty appeals to you and not the actual worth,'  he said,  and she smiled to herself as the combined scents of coffee and cheroot smoke drifted tutoring across the room to her.  ague.  Yo She knelt beside a low Chinese table and fingered of didas each oddment with a sense of delight which she couldn't have put into words.  It was a delight which words bad its roots in several other things the sunlight through the curtains and across the surface of the t the king as Luque's eyes stroked over her.  wouldn't just like to touch them,  she said.  uite how much they for there's such a of hunger in the world that it seems almost criminal ttle bits of jade and porcelain to cost more than enh ood and shelter for poor people you that audable reaction,  chica,  I do assure Provide big cheques for the poor,  and you don't haveto develop a conscience because very soon yo own these exotic baubles.  They are there t though joyed e never owned anything,  except my own feel You Pupl she said,  with a sense of wonder.  And as she l Luque a thrill of fear and excitement ran th her soon he would own her and then he m her in a different light,  if she grew a little more and wore some of that lilac shadow on her e cons.  li, "Tha Birdina.  Do you like women who wear make-up?" "Muc him suddenly she asked any lad If they wear it correctly and not like clowns.  skin,  eli if you're making plans to get yourself up like Birdi then drop them.  Birdy was made I'd l can take in pastels and sh a few P the paint,  but you'd look a sort of jester graces a Gracias,  senor!  You pay me some protty compli a gawky ments Are you hungry for some flattery,  you're n His eyes held you skinny brat idea of Hair cut arrant mockery as they passed over her that of green under a basin,  and eyes like two like ladyship?  honey--what would spoonfuls you see,  you have me say,  you I"Well you might pretend to be re After all,  that I-I'm attractive wounds Yes,  you are marrying me,  for what it's worth.'  comfort blew a for what it's worth."  He lifted his cheroot and on!  indicate perfect smoke ring in her direction,  as if te to him that her ring would be as intangible wounds,  can as smoke in the air. "The term"attractive up cover anything from a bed of tulips to a seaside as s resort,  and I prefer specific terms of reference.She was like some of those women in Spain,  who after the loss of someone they loved took to wearing dark colours,  and who even walked on the sombre side of i the road out of the sunlight.  They became withdrawn,  for a little harsh,  as if their grief made them a little mad.
CHAPTER NINE"THE room is very nice,  thank you.'  Toni stood there nervously,  while the dark eyes roved over her,  making a silent assessment of her,  from her ruffed red hair down to the feet from which she had kicked the high heeled shoes.
CHAPTER TEN uizzica. "Have green along the banks of aight?'  and a lovely blue mist to drift the water her face curling into soft,  mysterious shapes.  A mood triste,  f She this was Paris as the blue hour approached.  left han Toni stood on the balcony of the Hotel Torquil Tamsin stone,  owned by a Scotsman who had settled in Pari and made a paying game of his small and exclusiv earth hotel.  She was glad that wasn't raining it in Paris,  a all,  you it had been raining that morning in and you There had been not a ray of sunshine to light them allow T from the Church of the Lilies,  and only a few hardi Fob souls had waited beneath their dripping umbrellas to I suppo watch the bride and groom make a dash for their cat Flower.  A photographer had snapped them as they ran,  the And chiffon of Toni's skirts wet with rain beneath the whist tall,  di fur coat which Luque had flung around her She had fine str turned a startled face to the camera,  and as she thoughl impecc of that moment a smile quirked her lips.  It would be"She a funny wedding photograph;  not at all the usud togethe Toni gracious pose of a lord and his very new lady She leaned on the balcony rail and saw the cvening darken lights coming to life along the riverside.  How knowin will of Luque choose a hotel such as this one,  where a everyth first they wouldn't be likely to run into many of ha Ever smart friends.It also had an atrmosphere that she liko remem being comfortable without being too unglamoroa ihould How strange it felt to be Lady Helburn,  on her sightse,  moon,  and still feeling a breathless sense of unreal"
CHAPTER ELEVEN him The bowls TiE orchestra was playing as they entered the Luque taurant of the club;  it was one of you,  m compositions those lighthearted in the from a decade past and gone,  and u recognized by Toni who knew so little of the world let alone this glamorous side of it.  They were led the del which were white by a waiter to a secluded table,  on veins li Toni sat down carnations and a rose crystal lam playing interest;  she and looked around her with ea gious m knew that several people were staring at Don Luque and herself,  but the soft rose lighting of the Goody restaurant seemed to soften the effect of their curiosity Luque had said that she would get used to it;  that al think first they would occasion the stares and the muttered"Infu comments.  But oh,  how she longed to stand on the into his very table and shout to the world that she loved Luque of devi and didn't care what his life had been before she came couple along.  She knew that his sardonic armour was worn it?'  to keep himself safe from the deep hurts he had suffered"I can as a boy,  and with this knowledge shining in her eyes they gi she dared the glances of the women,  and the specu"Dan tive stares of the men.  Her chin was tilted and all you her red hair the rose light mingled with and to The jade and played its blush over her white skin and cas wore the chiffon silk was beautifully styled and she firmly her gemmed which Luque had given where the the pigeonwho had flown into the vicinity o to the rich cats,  and a quick glance at Luque show Toni Toni that he was amused by the situation.

B.ing

This was real and those romantic stories for which she did the art work were far behind in her London flat.  Up there on the deck of the caique stood a tall Greek bent on vengeance,  and down bere she huddled in his cloak like a trembling Victorian virgin.  Only she wasn't about to have the vapours,  and that devil wasn't going to have his way without one hell of a fight!  Alice dropped the cloak,  tossed back her hair and lifted her suitcases on to the divan.  If he thought he had run off with a siren,  then she was about to show him her real self,  in neat skirt and blouse,  spectacles and her hair in a bun.
      Alice had mounted to the deck very quietly and now she stood partly concealed by some ship's tackle watching Stefan Kassandros at the wheel of the craft,  its great sails belling out in the fresh wind off the sea.  He had removed his sheepskin coat and his wide shoulders strained the linen of a white shirt as he steered his piratical caique ards the island he had called Solitaria because it was far out in the Aegean and he could take a woman as he wished there and do with her
      All of it was incredible,  like some fantastic dream that held her spellbound.  She breathed the tang of the ocean and felt the sun against her skin,  and for the first time she saw Stefan Kassandros with clarity.
          At first after glancing through her belongings she bad Tamcked because she had been unable to find her indoor glasses,  then had realised that he hadn't bundled them in with her other things.  They had been left unnoticed on the bathroom shelf,  but fortunately she possessed a pair of sun-  glasses,  not too deeply tinted,  and these would have to suffice for everyday use.  She was wearing them right now,  along with a slim dark skirt and sedately collared blue blouse.  Her hair was neatly coiled into a bun at the nape of her neck and she wore not a trace of make-up.  Now she was Alice Sheldon again,  the prim-looking sister of the glamor-  ous Alberta,  whom men passed by without a second glance.
   He had waited a long time to score off Ionides Damaskinos Tana it was seeing her last night,  masquerading as Alberta rather than herself,  which had led to her being with him on this graceful craft,  which rode the swells with sails full-  stretched in the wind.  Never in her wildest dreams had Alice imagined something so improbable and improper happening to her,  and with some guilty,  deep-down part of herself she almost wanted him to go on believing that she was Alberta.  Even her popular sister had never been dated by a man who looked like Stefan Kassandros,  with a lithe strong grace to his body,  and a look of command in his face.  With eyes that vowed retribution for emotional suffering!
       She wanted to tell him to give it to the fishes,  but once again was betrayed by her own body.  Sbe was ravenous,  and the food on the tray had an aroma that was out of this world.  The boy Miki gave ber a smile,  as if it were quite the usual thing for him to assist in the abduction of an English maybe he had been led to believe that she was an eager passenger aboard the caique she wouldn't put anything past Stefan Kassandros! "Arrange that box so Miss Sheldon can sit and eat her breakfast,"  he said to Miki in English.  Miki is bi-lingual like quite a few young Greeks,"  he explained to Alice. "His father,  my cousin,  spent some years in America and brought home with him a Greek wife who had been born there.  A lot of my people go to the States for a while,  but they invariably return to Greece.  Few other countries have our history and timelessness,  and even your
   own country,  England,  is being spoiled by so-called progress.Don't you agree?'
   Alice lowered her gaze to her plate and realised howa physically aware of him she was oh lord,  was she so love-starved that she actually felt some kind of pleasure in this abduction?  This man was sailing away with her like some buccaneer,  and here she was eating his food and actu-  ally admiring his wide shoulders tapering to lean hips,  and his legs that were so long and thrusting in the sailcloth
     Why had Alberta pretended to be called Alice,  for that was obviously what she had done?  It could only be connected with something Alberta had said years ago,  when they were children and reading the Lewis Carroll books.  The pert and pretty Berta had turned to their father and said that she was the one who should have been called Alice because she fair hair and blue eyes and was the enquiring child of the family.  Their father had laughed and Alice remembered how he had looked at her,  with a kind of concerned tion,  as if he had known that Wonderland would never be easy for her to find.
   He lounged above her,  his eyes moving over her dis-  ordered hair and down to where his lips had disarrange her blouse so that it showed her white skin.  Very deliber-  ately he shook his head. "We are more than halfway to the island and I have no intention of turning back to Athens just because you had an attack of the vapours.  I shall just
  have to go a little more slowly with you,  Alice.  You come into a different category from those other liberated English-  women who come abroad,  titillated by romantic tales of ruthless Greek ship owners.  You intrigue me more than ever.'
        In her he intended to find release for all his pent-up hatred,  all his restraint since the girl called Timareta had died.  Alice knew that he cared nothing for her feelings he firmly believed that her hopes and dreams resided in a man he despised
   Alice clutched a cushion to her and felt terribly lost and insecure as the Phaedra carried her across the deep Aegean to the island of a man who had her completely in his clutches.
   ALICE stood taut by the rail as tbe caique was skilfully eased among the rocks that grew in dark clusters beyond the beach of Solitaria.  Dusk was falling and streaks of flame lay across the sky;  the wind blew her hair across her brow and her lips were more red than usual against the paleness of her face.  was encircled by those dark-  It seemed that the island mak-  tipped rocks deeply submerged in the blue Aegean,  ing of it a kind of stronghold that would appeal to the corsair in Stefan from sculptured cliffs made brazen by the sunset,  and even here she could see the house be called Fireglow,  rooted there on the hulking cliffs,  wild,  almost forbidding in its air loneliness,  dominating the sea from which it arose on bedrock deep ocean turbulence must have thrown up aeons ago.
   As she leaped ashore she glanced upwards and her eyes were filled with the incandescent,  flamy glow of Her spectacles were in the pocket of her jacket,  for waves had across the skiff and so bedewed the lenses t they had become more of a hindrance than a help.  Now as she looked around her everything had a kindly haze to it,  somehow lessening her initial sense of apprehension
    When they entered the elevator a light went on auto-  matically and the cage,  which was just about big enough for two people and some luggage,  climbed carefully up the shaft.  Had Alice been alone she would have felt nervous of the lift,  shrinking inwardly at the thought of it stalling in that long tunnel of rock.
  She stared at him,  realising that he had subtly altered the prison sound of her name,  as if now they were on his island call th was going to be moulded exactly to his requirements.