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'So I lied.'
He shook his head. 'You had no reason to do that.'
She had a very good one—she had wanted to hurt him, to get some sort of reaction out of him. It simply hadn't been the reaction she had wanted, 'Does it bother you that you started me on the road to permissiveness?' she asked.
His blue eyes were chillingly cold, almost glacial. 'I didn't do that, Hazel. You brought the situation upon yourself. A man can only resist so much, and I'd resisted enough where you were concerned. You were always flaunting yourself in front of me. Your behaviour that evening was the end as far as I was concerned, I'm afraid.'
It had been the end for her too, the end of her ever being able to love anyone but him. No other man's kisses or touch had ever brought her anywhere near wanting a physical relationship with them. No matter what Rafe chose to believe, she had never given herself to anyone else.
She pretended an interest in the letter she was typing. 'Don't make such a big thing of it, Rafe. Every girl has to start somewhere. I should feel grateful that you were so experienced.' She gave a shrill laugh. 'Think how disastrous it would have been with someone as innocent as myself!’
Rafe's look was grim. 'Stop acting like this, Hazel,' he ordered.
She looked up at him with hard eyes. 'Then stop making a federal case out of something that happened three years ago! Let's just be thankful that we had no lasting repercussions from the experience.'
'Lasting reper------?' He broke off, understanding dawning. 'I made sure of that before I let you go to America.
'And if I had been pregnant? What then?'
He moved off the desk. 'Then I would have married you.'
That was what she had thought, why she had hoped and prayed to be pregnant. But it was not to be, and Rafe had sent her away.
She swallowed hard, giving Rafe a bright smile.
'Then we should be grateful. Can you imagine anything more disastrous than the two of us marrying?'
'No, I guess not.' He looked at the work already finished on the desk. 'There's no need for you to do this today, even I stop on a Sunday. You should be taking things easy, you've done far too much in the last couple of days. A flight of that duration is not to be taken lightly. Pack up now and go down to the beach.'
'Still as autocratic as ever I see,' she said sarcastically. 'I'm not suffering from the effects of the flight at all You seem to forget that I'm a lot younger than you are, Rafe,' she added bitchily.
'Eighteen years,' he said distantly. 'Oh well, if you'll excuse me, I'm going out for lunch.'
'To Miss Clarke's?'
'She's a Mrs, actually. And yes, that's where I'm going.'
Hazel's eyes were wide. 'She's married?'
'Divorced.'
'Oh,' she said dully.
'I haven't stooped that low, Hazel. Janine has been divorced for five years.'
'Have you known her long?’ she asked casually.
'Long enough.'
Long enough for what? She couldn't have expected the same fidelity from Rafe as she herself had felt, but she didn't like actually knowing one of his women either. 'She seems—very nice,' she commented.
'She is. I think it better if we keep out of each other's private life, Hazel. Whether Janine is nice or otherwise can't possibly be of any interest to you.'
But it was! She didn't want her to be nice, she wanted her to be someone she could dislike. ‘If that's what you want.'
He nodded. 'I think it best.'
She sighed. 'Have a nice time.'
'I will.'
Lunch was a lonely affair Celia having disappeared somewhere too. Hazel would rather have eaten her lunch in the kitchen if she had realised, as she had yesterday, instead of sitting in lonely silence in the large dining-room. And Sara would keep fussing around her, chatting incessantly. It wasn't the chatter she minded, it was the subject.
Sara was hovering over her as she ate her sweet. 'Perhaps Mr Rafe will settle down at last,' she said with satisfaction.
Hazel licked her lips and put her spoon down in the dish. 'What do you mean?'
'Why, Mrs Clarke,' Sara smiled. 'She's such a lovely lady, and Mr Rafe seems to like her. He visits her quite often.'
This piece of news didn't exactly please Hazel. 'He does?' she asked softly.
Sara beamed. 'Oh yes. She was a tremendous help to him after his accident, the only person he would allow to visit him. Quite a regular visitor, is Miss Janine.,' she added.
'I believe she and Celia were at school together.'
'Oh yes. In fact Miss Janine visited her a couple of times when she was younger.'
Hazel frowned. 'I don't remember.'
Sara shook her head. 'No, you wouldn't, it was before you came here. She and Miss Celia seemed to drift apart when they reached their teens.'
Probably because the nicer Janine was beginning to realise that her friend wasn't quite so nice, Hazel thought bitchily. 'That often happens,' she answered vaguely, and stood up. 'I've finished now, thank you, Sara.'
'No coffee?'
'No, thank you. I still have some things to sort out in the study, letters to put in envelopes and so forth.'
'Couldn't it wait until tomorrow? The post won't go until then anyway. And it's such a nice day,' Sara added enticingly.
Hazel looked ruefully out of the window; the sun shone brightly in the clear blue sky. 'It is nice out,' she admitted grudgingly, pushing the hair off the nape of her neck. 'I could do with a swim.'
The housekeeper looked at her in alarm. 'Not after that meal, I hope?’
Hazel grinned at her. 'Of course not, silly. I'll go down to the club and laze by the pool for an hour or so before going into the water.'
'That's all right, then.'
‘But I'll be in the study for the next half an hour or so if anyone wants me.’
A call came through to her from Trisha ten minutes later and Hazel assured her friend that she would meet her at the club in fifteen minutes. It didn't take her long to collect her bathing things and walk the short distance.
Trisha was already beside the pool, 'Finished your work?' she smiled up at her, feeling quite cool in her peach-coloured bikini.
Hazel grimaced. 'Not quite, but it can wait until the morning. Where's Mark?'
'In the pool. Er—Carl's here too,'
Hazel raised her eyebrows. 'Is he?'
'Yes. And sporting the most magnificent black eye,' she giggled.
Hazel laughed. 'Well, if he will go to the defence of insulted ladies!'
'No doubt Celia deserved the insult,' Trisha muttered. 'Are you going to change?' She indicated Hazel's tee-shirt and Levis.
'I suppose so. I won't be long.'
She wasn't quite sure how she was going to face Carl again, but it had to be done. Besides, she had had to face Rafe after much more embarrassment than Carl going off with Celia. If she could face Rafe after what they had shared together she could certainly face Carl.
In fact their meeting wasn't quite so momentous after all. He had joined his brother and Trisha on the loungers by the time she returned. She couldn't help but smile at the bruised purple-blackness of his eye. . 'All right, all right,' he grinned ruefully at her amused expression. 'Laugh if you must, but you should see the other guy.'
She lay down on an adjoining lounger. 'Rafe told me.'
'Your guardian did? Oh,' he nodded understandingly, 'I suppose Celia told him.'
'No, he—well, sufficient to say he found out. Where is Celia?'
'She said she would be down later.'
'Oh. Do you feel like a swim?' she invited, standing up.
'Love to!'
The water was warm and refreshing and Carl could still be good company, even if he preferred Celia. Hazel was laughing at his antics when she saw Rafe and Janine strolling around the side of the pool, Rate's hand on Janine's elbow as he guided her to a seat.
Carl noticed her suddenly pale face. 'Hey, anything wrong?'
'No,' her breath caught on a laugh. ‘I—er—I think I've had enough now.'
'Are you feeling all right?—you look ill.'
'It's nothing.' She pushed back her hair. 'Are you coming out or staying in?
'I think I'll stay here a little while longer.' 'See you later.' She swam slowly to the side and pulled herself out on to the side of the pool. She did feel rather strange, her head light and floaty. Perhaps Rafe was right and she had been overdoing it.
Rafe and Janine were sitting at one of the tables, long cool drinks in front of them. As Hazel stood up to go back to her lounger she saw Janine bend forward and put her hand on Rafe's arm, and watched in total misery as Rafe gave her that long slow smile of his, putting his hand over the long slender one that rested on his arm before lifting it to his mouth and kissing the palm-To Hazel it seemed like the final twisting of the knife and she turned away, tears filling her eyes. She didn't see the lounger in front of her and stumbled over it in clumsy confusion. Her head hit solid concrete as she made contact with the ground. She was aware of screaming as the pain shot through her head and then blackness.
CHAPTER SIX
She came round to the sound of chattering voices and opened her eyes to see a sea of faces looming over her. Tears filled her eyes as she seemed to recognise no one.
'Get out of the way!' she heard a deep voice demanding. 'For God's sake get out of the way!'
The crowd parted to reveal Rafe, a furious Rafe who looked demonic as he bent over her. 'Are you all right?' he asked gently, kneeling down beside her.
'Oh, Rafe!' she came up into his arms with a cry. 'Hold me, Rafe,' she pleaded, her face buried in his throat.
He held her savagely to him, uncaring of the people still standing around watching them. 'What on earth happened to you?' he groaned into her hair. 'You just suddenly keeled over.'
‘I fell over the lounger.'
He moved back to smooth her hair away from her temple. 'We'll have to get you to the hospital,' he said as he saw the dark discolouration already beginning to appear under her skin.
