Substitute Engagement

‘Not intentionally, but as you appear to have taken advantage of the impression I set out to create, at least to the extent of refraining from saying or doing anything to contradict it, it seems that I was in fact rescuing you,’ he observed mockingly. ‘But let’s leave and get your luggage before your current mood leads you to shatter the illusion and waste all the effort you’ve put in.’

‘Thereby upsetting “dear” Nadine,’ Lucia added tartly, her hostility leaping in response to the insight which enabled him to recognise the present fragility of her control.

‘Listen to yourself, Lucia,’ Rob advised her on an iron note of warning. ‘Come on, let’s go—What is it?’

She had made a small sound of exasperated realisation, and now she hesitated, trying to work out if the little money she still had available to her would stretch to the sort of prices that she guessed most of the new hotels would charge.

‘Chester Watson was called away before he could tell me what he has in mind for me, so I’m not actually employed here yet, when bed and board will be available to me. I’ll need to book a room for tonight if there’s a vacancy,’ she admitted, trying to sound casual about it.

‘We’ll organise something if there isn’t But it can wait until we get back from the Olivier place.’

‘This thing really is full of holes,’ Lucia accused resentfully a few minutes later, when she was seated beside him in the sort of up-market French car which would have been a rarity on the island not so many years ago. ‘The housekeeper could give everything away.’

Rob slanted her a calculating look. ‘D’you think she can be persuaded or bribed not to?’

Lucia shrugged. ‘It’s possible, if she thinks she’s doing Beth down in some way. Beth has never been exactly popular with any of her housekeepers. That’s why they change so often.’

At least she didn’t have to worry about sounding disloyal now that Beth was no longer destined to be her mother-in-law, she reflected drily.

‘I understand she’s planning to go and live in South Africa once she’s seen her son safely married to Nadine,’ Rob commented.

Her brief laugh had a brittle sound. ‘She wouldn’t even consider it when I was the one he was marrying.’

‘Because she saw the damage you were doing him, and she’s a devoted mother,’ he suggestesd brutally. ‘It’s obvious that she dislikes you, but Nadine really will suit him better than you.’

‘Nadine can hardly know him yet,’ she claimed furiously. ‘And how well does she understand him? He’s a passive man for a start—the kind who turns the other cheek, if you know what I mean.’

‘Yes, and that passivity was becoming a weakness when he had a character like you willing to run his life for him. I sensed both resentment and shame in his attitude while he was busy hedging about his relationship with you. With Nadine he’ll be able to feel like a man again. You were obviously emasculating him,’ Rob asserted contemptuously.

‘What do you know about any of it?’ Lucia demanded tempestuously. ‘You can barely know Thierry either, and you’ve only just met me.’

‘I know you haven’t put him first. You left him for most of three years, didn’t you?’ he prompted derisively.

‘I had to get my degree—’ she began.

‘Of course you did,’ he agreed sardonically. ‘Naturally that came first. You’re a career woman.’

‘I don’t believe this! Do you really have some kind of reactionary prejudice against women with careers?’ Lucia taunted, genuinely startled.

‘No prejudice at all, Lucia,’ he corrected her smoothly. ‘How can I when so many key positions within the Ballard Group are occupied by your sex? But Thierry Olivier doesn’t need a career-orientated woman for his personal partner anymore than I do.’

‘You? You’re the complete opposite of Thierry.’ Sheer astonishment provoked the spontaneous protest, but then she caught herself up. ‘For one thing, you’re utterly insensitive.’

‘And he’s so sensitive, leaving you to learn that you’ve been replaced from whoever might tell you? But add possessiveness to whatever other faults you’ve decided I have and you’ll know why I’d hate to be personally involved with someone who doesn’t put me first.’

‘I’d call that egotistical,’ she argued.

‘That too. Whatever, I like warm, generous, emotional women who give all of themselves to a relationship, not just the part that isn’t reserved for the pursuit of ambition.’

‘I’m really not very interested in knowing what sort of women you like,’ Lucia told him dismissively, although just for a moment she had found herself intrigued.

But the exchange had been too personal—an attack on her, in essence—and if he really thought that she was career-obsessed to the exclusion of love then it just showed how little he knew about the whole situation, and she ought to be indifferent to his opinion—as she was!

‘And I already know what sort of men you like—when you can be bothered with them at all,’ Rob returned amusedly.

‘The same kind dear Nadine likes, obviously—and isn’t she going to find it a little difficult to believe you’re interested in me?’ Lucia added curiously as the question occurred to her. ‘She’s your sister, so she must know what your tastes are.’

‘We’ll appear to drift apart in due course.’ He was unperturbed. ‘Yes, as you’ve said, the thing has holes in it, but it was the best I could come up with in the necessity of the moment.’

‘You’re going to find it inconvenient if I insist on maintaining this fiction you’ve devised,’ she ventured maliciously.

‘Unfortunately for you, fortunately for me, I won’t be around for very long.’

‘Then, believe me, I consider myself equally fortunate!’

Said feelingly, it made him laugh, but he didn’t take it up. Initially Lucia was relieved to be left to her thoughts, but she swiftly discovered that it had been the challenge he’d presented and the consequent need to keep arguing with him that had kept her strong. Allowed to dwell on what Thierry had done to her, her hold on herself loosened and she weakened rapidly, in danger of breaking down.

Behind the dark lenses, she blinked furiously, and it required an effort to make her lips stop trembling.

‘Wait here,’ Rob instructed her when they drew up outside the house on the estate that Thierry had inherited from his father. It was a typically French Colonial building, only to be expected as the islands had been French before three of the four had opted for independence in the form of a Federal Islamic Republic, and Thierry’s father had been French. ‘I’ll get your things and talk to the housekeeper. How many pieces of luggage are there?’

She told him jerkily, hating herself for letting him do this without her offering even a token protest; hating herself for having let him take charge in the first place and continue to control the situation, but terrified of all that she might betray if she attempted to speak now.

So she sat there in the car with the window open, a little soothed by the island scents carried on the tropical afternoon breeze, for these were the Perfumed Isles to those who lacked the sense of evolution that made another sobriquet, that of the Coelacanth Isles, equally romantic.

The estate produced ylang-ylang, the base for most perfumes, and from here she could see a small plantation of the trees with their strange, twisted shapes but exotic blooms. Precious woods, vanilla pods, which were an offshoot of the orchid, and the spices for which the islands were famous—cloves, coriander, saffron and more—all played their part in giving Grande Comore its uniquely characteristic fragrance.

From where she was she could also see part of the lower slopes of Mount Karthala, the volcano dominat-ing the island, its past eruptions responsible for the stretches of black rock which alternated with white sands at certain points along the coast and extended beneath the ocean to be visible through the clear turquoise water. The emissions periodically issuing from vents in the mountain’s sides were a reminder that it was still active.

Rob Ballard’s reappearance distracted her. Lucia watched him striding towards the car, carrying her luggage as effortlessly as if it were weightless. So tall and lithe, he had a loose, easy way of moving that was utterly self-confident, and she felt a surge of hostile emotion that was mostly resentment. It was galling to have to accept help from him, especially under circumstances as embarrassing as these.

She supposed it could be said that she was actually using him, since his assistance wasn’t really aimed at her at all, but she could take no comfort from the thought. Too much shame was attached to the mere fact that she should need to make use of him.

He was smiling sardonically as he got into the car after placing her luggage in the boot.

‘You were right; the housekeeper was amenable to forgetting you and your luggage had ever been here. She really entered into the spirit of things, especially after I hinted that you and Madame Olivier are mortal enemies. I gather she’s on the verge of seeking employment elsewhere.’

He paused, treating her to brief, raking assessment. ‘I also implied that it was me you’d really been looking for, but because we’re both Ballard you’d somehow got my whereabouts confused with my sister’s.’

‘Like a typical dumb blonde,’ Lucia supplemented caustically, disgusted with herself for feeling relieved on hearing him.

‘You’re not exactly blonde,’ he observed dismissively as he started the car.

‘Give me a few days! I’ve hardly seen the sun these last few weeks because of my exams.’

‘Scarcely the greatest of the sacrifices you’ve made to your future career,’ Rob mocked, the reminder unkind because just for a second or two she had forgotten Thierry, revelling in the awareness that she was at last free of the pressures attendant on keeping her promise to her father.

‘As it turns out! How old is this precious sister of yours?’ she demanded abruptly.