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SEA FEVER
Anne Weale
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Angel was grateful to him
Charles Thetford had come to her rescue when Evangeline Dorset
desperately needed a friend. Now, settling in to her new life in
London, she was conscious of stronger feelings for him.
Of course, there was no denying Charles was etremely attractive!
rich, successful and a highly sought"after matrimonial pri#e. $ut
Angel %new little a&out the way of the world. 'erhaps she was
confusing gratitude with love.
And Charles""how did he view her( As an attractive woman""or asan irritating disruption to his ordered life.
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T)E L*NE+ -O Sea Fever A-E -E'-*NTED /*T) T)E 0*ND
'E-*++*ON O T)E +OC*ET1 O A2T)O-+ A+ T)E L*TE-A-1
-E'-E+ENTAT*3E O T)E E+TATE O 4O)N A+E*ELD
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CHAPTER ONE
THE girl &eached the inflata&le dinghy, then straightened and stood
for some moments, &arefoot on the pale sand, loo%ing &ac% at the
moonlit sloop at anchor in the deep water &eyond the sharp,
dangerous corals.
Sea Fever. )er home for as long as she could remem&er.
A riding light hung from the fore"stay, &ut no lights showed
&etween dec%s.
rom the house at the &ac% of the &each came a &urst of laughter!the &aritone laughter of men and the higher"pitched sounds made
&y women. The girl turned and, with a resolute &racing of her
shoulders, crossed the wide &each towards the garden surrounding
the house.
*t was the only ha&itation on this stretch of the coast of $ali. Therewas a small fishing village on the other side of the headland, &ut
here, in this &ay, only this one large house surrounded &y well"%ept
grounds at which she had loo%ed through &inoculars &efore
deciding to row ashore and as% for help.
/here the garden met the &each there was a wall with steps
leading up to an opening in a coral stone &alustrade. *nside thisentrance, on &oth sides, were small shallow pools of water. The
girl understood their purpose. Once or twice, out of curiosity, she
had wandered through the grounds and pu&lic rooms of large
hotels where rich Europeans and Australians spent winter holidays.
+he had seen notices re5uesting the hotels6 patrons to rinse the
sand from their feet as they left the &each rather than in their
&athrooms.
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There was no such notice here, &ut she paddled in one of the pools
to remove the powdering of coral from her straight toes and thin
&rown an%les. )ad she &een wearing a piece of &ati%"patterned
cotton wrapped round her narrow hips, as she often did, she could
have stood on one foot to dry the other on the hem of her sarong.
$ut tonight she had put on 7eans and a clean shirt8her &est
clothes. +he had once had a dress. There was a photograph of her
wearing it on &oard Sea Fever, a snap ta%en with her parents when
she was five. +he couldn6t remem&er them or the dress. /hile she
was growing up she had always worn shorts or sarongs, with 7eans
on the rare occasions when something more formal was called for.
Tall palms towered over the flowering shru&s planted on the lawns
of coarse springy grass on either side of the path leading up to the
house. /anting to see the people on the terrace &efore they saw
her, she avoided the path and approached silently on the grass,
%eeping to the patches of dense shadow cast &y the shru&s.
There were five of them! two middle"aged men and three dressed"
up women. They all had drin%s in their hands and, &eyond them,
inside the house, &eneath the swirling &lades of two ceiling fans,
was a ta&le laid for a dinner party. The girl had seen dinner parties
ta%ing place on the dec%s of large, luurious yachts.
The first person to notice her was one of the women, who said in astartled American voice, 6Oh... where did you spring from(6
The girl advanced to the edge of the terrace. 69ood evening. *6m
sorry to distur& you, &ut * need some advice... some help.6 +he
loo%ed at the older of the two men. 6*s this your house(6
$efore he could reply, a sith person appeared, a very tall, deeply
tanned man who, at the sight of her, raised an en5uiring eye&row.
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6/ho are you(6 )is accent was English.
6*6m Angel...6 she corrected herself, 6Evangeline Dorset. *6ve come
from the sloop Sea Fever. /e put in here late last night8you may
have noticed us this morning. * wanted to come for help then, &ut
Ludo wouldn6t let me. )e didn6t &elieve in doctors and hospitals.)e said there was nothing they could do for him. )e.. .he died
a&out an hour ago. )e wants... wanted to &e &uried at sea, &ut *
can6t manage that &y myself, and also * thin% * may need
permission from the Consul or someone.6
*t was only &y an effort of will that she managed to %eep her voicesteady and unemotional. +he couldn6t show her true feelings in
front of these strangers to whom her intrusion upon a festive
occasion must come as a nuisance.
6/ho was Ludo( 1our father(6 as%ed a red"haired woman, the most
glamorous of the three.
6y grandfather.6
6/ere you alone with him( *s there no one else on &oard with you(6
This 5uestion came from the man she had spo%en to first.
Angel shoo% her head. 64ust the two of us.6
69ood lord... poor child:6 he said, loo%ing concerned. 6/hat a
distressing situation:6
)is sympathetic tone made her throat tighten, her eyes pric%le with
tears. +he was glad when the tall man said &ris%ly, 61ou6d &etter
come to my office and *6ll find out what has to &e done.6
As she followed him past the ta&le laid for dinner and across the
large room to another leading off it, she heard the woman with red
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hair say, 6/hat a &ore: * hope Charles can sort it out 5uic%ly. One
feels sorry for her, of course, &ut it is a &it much...6
+he left the remar% unfinished and perhaps the man called Charles,
now several strides ahead of Angel, hadn6t heard it. /as she his
wife( she wondered.
$y the time she reached his office he had switched on a des% light
and another overhead fan. )e sat down &ehind the large des%,
indicating with one hand that she should sit down in front of the
des% and pic%ing up a pen with the other.
6/as your grandfather6s surname the same as yours(6
61es... Ludovic Dorset.6
+he watched him 7ot it down, the ni& of the gold"&anded
tortoiseshell pen moving swiftly over the notepad, leaving a line of
flowing &lac% writing.
)is hands, li%e his face, were very &rown and not, she noticed,
those of what Ludo would have called a des%"wallah. /hatever
this man did in his office8there was a computer screen and
%ey&oard on a smaller des% and other pieces of e5uipment she
didn6t recognise8he didn6t loo% li%e a sedentary person. )is
shoulders were in proportion to his height and his &ody was leanand muscular, as powerful as Ludo6s had &een when she was small
and he had swung her up to ride on his shoulders. )e had &een
seventy then, &ut still a formida&le man. *t was only in the past
year that he had &ecome old and frail.
6And the &oat... Sea Fever, yes( /here6s she registered(6
6+he6s out of $riham in Devon, &ut that was a long time ago...
&efore * was &orn. *6ve never &een to England.6
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6$ut that6s where your family come from.. .where your other
relations are(6
)e loo%ed up from the pad and gave her a searching stare with his
curiously cold grey eyes. +he was used to Ludo6s %ind &lue eyes
which had loo%ed at the world with good"humoured tolerance.Those were not the characteristics suggested &y the handsome face
on the other side of the des%. +he recognised his good loo%s &ut
couldn6t define the 5ualities she saw in his face. +he %new only
that he was a type of man she had never encountered &efore and
wasn6t certain she li%ed.
6* have no other relations... or none that * %now of.6
6* see. )ow old are you, Angel(6
)e missed nothing, she thought, remem&ering how swiftly she had
su&stituted her rather old"fashioned first name for the pet name
first used &y her parents and then &y her grandfather. +he had &eennamed after his wife who, li%e her namesa%e, had never &een
called &y her full name &ut always Eva.
6*6m eighteen... almost.6
Again his right eye&row shot up, this time in patent scepticism.
6Are you sure( 1ou don6t loo% more than fifteen.6
6;uite sure,6 she answered firmly. 6* have a &irth certificate to prove
it. *6ll &e eighteen in arch.6
The chair in which she was sitting was far enough from the des%
for him to &e a&le to flash an appraising glance from her nec% to
her &lue"7eaned %nees, ta%ing in the &oyishly slim lines of the &ody &etween those points.
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No dou&t it was her etreme slenderness which made him say,
6/hen did you last eat(6
+he couldn6t remem&er. Normally she had a good appetite, &ut the
past twenty"four hours had &een too fraught for her to thin% a&out
food.
6*8* don6t %now, &ut *6m not hungry.6
6Do you %now the cause of your grandfather6s death( 1ou6re certain
he is dead( Not comatose(6
6*6m certain. )is heart gave out. )e6d &een ta%ing pills for a heartcondition, &ut they weren6t wor%ing any more. )e felt poorly all
yesterday and this morning, he didn6t get up. )e 7ust lay in his
&un%, tal%ing sometimes... &ut very wea%. )e %new he was dying.
)e... he even said good&ye.6
*n spite of her resolve not to show the anguish she felt, her eyesfilled with tears. +he tried to &lin% them &ac%, &ut two overflowed
and &egan to tric%le down her chee%s.
6*6m sorry,6 she muttered hus%ily, striving to recover control, wiping
the tears away with her fingertips.
At this moment a $alinese man in a dar% &rown sil% tunic wornwith a sarong appeared in the doorway.
+pea%ing the lingua franca of *ndonesia, the man &ehind the des%
said to him, 6$ring a light supper on a tray, please. The meal for
my guests may proceed without me. This young woman is in
trou&le. )er grandfather has died on the &oat which came
yesterday.6
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/hile he was spea%ing, he produced a folded, unused
hand%erchief which he handed across the des% to Angel.
As his servant &owed and disappeared, he too% the receiver from
the telephone and dialled a num&er. As he waited for it to answer,
he loo%ed, not at her, &ut at a large $alinese painting on the wall.
A few moments later, he said, 6Charles Thetford here. +orry to
trou&le you out of office hours, &ut * thought you were the &est
person to advise me on the proper procedure when a yachtsman
dies on &oard his &oat. Natural causes, and he epressed a wish to
&e &uried at sea.6
Angel could hear the voice at the other end of the line, &ut not
clearly enough to follow what was &eing said. +he wiped her eyes
and &lew her nose, reluctant to use the fine white linen
hand%erchief &ut having no option as, foolishly, she had failed to
&ring one with her.
'resently Charles Thetford put his hand over the mouthpiece and
as%ed, 6/as your grandfather a religious man( /ould he wish for a
priest or a clergyman to officiate at his &urial(6
+he shoo% her head. 6)e had his own religion. )e as%ed me to read
his favourite poem over him. That was all he wanted.6
+he epected to see his eye&row lift disapprovingly, &ut he only
nodded and told the man on the line that none of the conventional
funeral rites would &e re5uired.
)e was still on the telephone when the manservant came &ac%,
carrying a tray on which was a covered dish, a tall glass of fruit
7uice, a small &as%et of &read and a pot of &utter.
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At his employer6s signal, he placed the tray on Angel6s side of the
des% &efore indicating that, if she stood up, he would move the
chair forward for her. /hen she was seated again, he whipped the
cover off the dish, revealing a lightly coo%ed omelette.
The sight of it made Angel realise that it was twenty"four hourssince last she had eaten. Today she had had nothing &ut coffee to
%eep her going. +he still wasn6t hungry &ut, presented with the
omelette, she %new that she ought to eat something. +he stretched
out her hand for the glass and, lifting it to her lips, sipped. *t was
the most delicious 7uice she had ever tasted, ice"cold and
wonderfully refreshing.
+omething had gone wrong with the refrigerator on Sea Fever
while they were island"hopping in the lores +ea to the east of
$ali. Ludo hadn6t &een a&le to repair the fault and it was several
wee%s since they had en7oyed cold drin%s. The chilled 7uice was so
good the sip &ecame a long swallow, followed &y another. +he
could easily have drained the glass, &ut forced herself to replace iton the tray, half full.
Conscious that r Thetford was no longer loo%ing at the painting
&ut now had his eyes on her, she unfolded the starched cotton
nap%in, folded li%e the petals of a lotus flower on the side plate,
and spread it across her lap in the way Ludo had taught her.
)e had not always &een a sea"gypsy, roving from island to island
across the 'acific Ocean and then up through the seas surrounding
the vast archipelago of *ndonesian islands as far north as the 9ulf
of +iam. 2ntil the death of his wife he had &een a wee%end sailor,
spending the rest of his time in London, one of the leading
&arristers of his day. $ut there must always have &een a strea% of restlessness in him, for at fifty, desolated &y the death of his
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adored Eva, he had thrown his career aside for a life of travel and
adventure.
2nfortunately, thirty years of inflation, and some unsuccessful
speculations, had steadily reduced his financial resources. *n recent
years he had &een hard pressed to ma%e ends meet.
6/hen * go you6ll have to sell her and find yourself a shore &erth,
my darling,6 he had told Angel, many times.
Now he had gone, leaving her completely alone in the world, with
only the tiny income8nothing li%e enough to live on8from his
remaining investments, and the sloop, long overdue for refit and
not li%ely to fetch much of a price since she wasn6t the type of
vessel to appeal to people with money. They went in for wide"
&eamed motor yachts with powerful tur&o"diesel engines and
opulent fittings. Even sailing vessels were re5uired to have
aluminium masts, self"furling sails, electric winches and air"
conditioning &etween dec%s.
Sea Fever needed s%ill and muscle"power to sail her. +he had an
auiliary engine &ut was &uilt to &e driven &y the four winds of
heaven. The thought of parting with the sloop, the only home she
had ever had or wanted to have, sent a thrust of panic through
Angel. )er hand shoo% as she pic%ed up the for% and forced
herself to cut off a corner of the omelette.
+he was wo%en out of a deep sleep &y someone sha%ing her
shoulder and opened her eyes to find a $alinese woman &ending
over her.
61ou get up now... have &ath... put clothes on. * put water in &ath.
1ou get up, please.6
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/ith no clear idea where she was, still more than half asleep,
Angel let herself &e led to a &athroom where the woman helped
her to undress and then &undled her long sun"strea%ed hair inside a
plastic shower cap.
6* come &ac% in five minutes... &ring clean clothes. Tuan Thetfordnot li%e &eing %ept waiting,6 she informed Angel gravely.
At first, su&merging herself in the lu%ewarm scented water, Angel
still felt confused and disorientated. Then she &egan to remem&er
the events of the previous evening, &ut with no recollection of how
she had come to spend the night in Charles Thetford6s houseinstead of returning to the sloop.
The last thing she remem&ered was the small, soft"footed
manservant removing the first tray and &ringing another with
coffee on it while the owner of the house made some more
telephone calls.
Could she have fallen asleep in his office( *t wasn6t impossi&le.
+he had &een awa%e, worrying, most of the previous night, and
yesterday, %nowing that Ludo was leaving her, had &een the worst
day of her life.
Tears filled her eyes as she thought of him holding her hand in a
clasp which had suddenly &ecome pitia&ly fee&le compared withhis former strong grip.
6* shouldn6t have let it come to this,6 he had murmured. 6* should
have let you go long ago. $ut * couldn6t &ear to part with you.
1ou6re so li%e her...so li%e my Eva. *6ve &een a selfish old man... it
was wrong of me to %eep you with me. 1ou should have &een
training for a career. /omen need to stand on their own feet... not
to rely on a man. *t6s all changed since * was young.6
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And then he had started to ram&le a&out the world in his youth and
the girl he had fallen in love with, the most &eautiful de&utante of
<=>?, Evangeline Chesterfield, whose suitors had included two
aristocrats &ut who had turned them all down to marry him.
The $alinese woman came &ac% and saw Angel lying in the &athwith tears streaming down her face.
+he &ent over her and gently stro%ed Angel6s hair, saying in the
language common to all the islands of *ndonesia, 61es, weep, &ut
weep for yourself, not for the venera&le man whose spirit has gone
elsewhere. Death is a 7oyful release for those who have lived goodlives.6
+he straightened and used a corner of the towel folded over her
arm to dry the girl6s chee%s &efore opening it out and holding it
ready to enfold Angel when she stood up.
@ @ @
An hour later, wearing white, the colour of mourning in $ali,
Angel stood on the dec% of Sea Fever as the sloop headed into the
dawn of a new day.
)er sails were furled and she was propelled &y her engine, with a
$alinese man at the helm. There were a num&er of men on &oard!the doctor who had signed Ludovic Dorset6s death certificate, the
official who had given permission for him to &e &uried at sea and
two strong young fishermen from the near&y village who %new a
place where the sea was many fathoms deep and would lower him
over the side there.
/hile Angel was sleeping, the rites of death had &een performed
&y others, and now her grandfather6s long form, shrouded in stout
cloth and weighted, lay on the dec%, strewn with flowers.
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$eside her stood the $alinese maid, whose name was Lila, with a
sil% sash round her waist, the sash all $alinese wore when they
entered a temple or followed a funeral procession on the way to
the colourful pu&lic cremations which were an essential part of
their culture.
Angel guessed that Charles Thetford had as%ed Lila to come with
them in case she &ro%e down. $ut she felt calm and composed
now, and deeply grateful to him for ma%ing himself responsi&le for
all the arrangements needed to carry out her grandfather6s wishes.
*n spite of a certain hardness a&out the set of his mouth, he must &e
a %ind"hearted man.
)e had even remem&ered the poem which was to &e Ludo6s
valediction, and as%ed if she needed to read it and, if so, where the
&oo% containing it was to &e found.
6* %now it &y heart,6 she had told him. 6*t6s 4ohn asefield6s Sea
Fever. Ludo learnt it at school and * learned it from him when *was a little girl.6
They were several miles off the coast of $ali when they came to
the place where his &ody would &e given to the ocean. The
helmsmen cut the motor and the sloop glided over the calm surface
of the sea, now tinged with red as the sun rose a&ove the hori#on.
Angel, who had &een facing the &ows with her &ac% to the others,
now turned towards the stern. +he loo%ed at Charles Thetford.
/ith his dar% hair ruffled &y the &ree#e, he loo%ed rather less
intimidating than her initial impression of him. )e gave a slight
nod of the head, at the same time unfolding his arms which had
&een crossed over his chest and clasping his hands &ehind him in amore formal posture. /hereas some tall men she had seen were
inclined to stoop or to slouch, r Thetford was li%e her
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grandfather, whose &earing, even in his eighties, had always &een
upright, giving him8as it did the younger man8an air of innate
authority.
+he loo%ed down at the old man6s remains and wondered if his
long life had really come to an end or if, as $uddhists &elieved, hisspirit was setting out on a new stage of the long path to
enlightenment.
Lifting her chin and raising her eyes to the s%y8 now a&la#e with
fiery strea%s8she &egan to recite the poem she had learned at
Ludo6s %nee.
6* must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the s%y, And
all * as% is a tall ship and a star to steer her &y...6
As the great glowing or& of the sun cleared the line of the hori#on,
the dar% outline of $ali &ecame &athed in golden light. emories
of all the landfalls they had made together flitted through Angel6smind as she came to the poem6s last lines.
6...And all * as% is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow"rover, And
5uiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long tric%6s over.6
At a signal from Charles Thetford, the fishermen stepped forward,
raised the &oard on which the shrouded form lay and carried it tothe rails. Angel loo%ed up at the s%y again and remem&ered a line
from another of 4ohn asefield6s poems8 'Death opens unknown
doors'.
A few moments later there was a splash and it was over. /hen she
went to the side and loo%ed down, all that remained were the
flowers, floating on the sunlit sea.
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6* don6t %now how to than% you for your %indness, r Thetford,6
she said, loo%ing up at him as the sloop returned to her anchorage
near the &each in front of his house. +he was tall herself, &ut her
head &arely reached his shoulder.
6* was glad to &e of service,6 he said courteously. Sea Fever'sdinghy was still on the &each where Angel had left it. +he and the
rest of the funeral party had come a&oard in a power launch used
&y Charles Thetford and his guests for water"s%iing.
Angel would have li%ed to say good&ye and watch them go ashore
while she stayed on the sloop and &egan to come to terms with &eing on her own. )owever, &ecause she had to recover her clothes
8 the white &louse and s%irt she was wearing had &een loaned &y
one of the three women she had seen on the terrace last night8and
also the sloop6s tender, she was o&liged to go ashore with them.
Later in the day she would have to ma%e one &rief final trip ashore
to return r Thetford6s washed and ironed hand%erchief to him.
There was no sign of any of his guests when they returned to the
house. uch to Angel6s relief, &oth the doctor and the Consular
official declined an invitation to stay for &rea%fast. Their
deferential manner towards him seemed to confirm her intuitive
feeling that he was someone of great power and influence. 1et he
was many years younger than the two men staying with him.
6* must change &ac% into my own clothes,6 she said, when the
doctor and the Consul had gone.
6They won6t &e ready for you yet. The sun hasn6t &een up long
enough to dry this morning6s laundry,6 said her host. 6/e6ll have
&rea%fast in the ga#e&o where our conversation won6t distur& mylate"rising friends. *6ve told them they6re missing the &est hour of
the day &ut have failed to persuade them to change their ha&its.6
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The ga#e&o was a %ind of summer"house &uilt at one end of the
long &alustraded wall &etween his grounds and the &each. *t had a
roof supported &y four corner pillars. *ts low walls were a
continuation of the &alustrade with a &ench &uilt round three sides
and a ta&le in the middle. The &ench had &een made comforta&le
for them with indigo and white &ati% s5ua&s and cushions and the
ta&le was &eing laid &y the manservant, who this morning was
wearing a starched cotton tunic with his sarong which was tied in
the $alinese way with a fish"tail effect at the front.
)e had five or si other servants under his command, and they
came &ac% and forth from wherever the food was prepared to thega#e&o at the unhurried pace of people &red in a climate where,
within an hour of sunrise, the temperature &egan to soar and metal
left in the sun soon &ecame too hot to handle.
6Do you li%e tea or coffee for &rea%fast(6 Charles Thetford
en5uired.
6Tea, please.6 The 5uestion reminded Angel of the coffee she had
drun% last night &efore falling asleep where she sat.
6*6m sorry a&out last night.. .going to sleep in your office, * mean. *
can6t understand why * didn6t wa%e up when they hauled me off to
&ed.6 +he assumed that two of the servants must have carried her to
the room where she6d slept.
61ou didn6t wa%e up &ecause you were sedated. There was a her& in
your coffee which helps people to &lac% out for a few hours when
that6s what they need. * use it myself occasionally. *t6s not li%e a
chemical sleeping pill and has none of their side effects.6
61ou mean you drugged me(6 she eclaimed.
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*t was her first intimation that he was not only rich and influential
&ut ruthless as well. 'erhaps it was only men with a ruthless strea%
who achieved power at his age, or indeed any age.
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CHAPTER TWO
6* THOUGHT you needed a rest. * made sure you had one,6 Charles
Thetford answered calmly.
Angel ni&&led her full lower lip, a ha&it of hers when in dou&t. *tseemed impolite to reprove someone who had &een so helpful. At
the same time she felt she must say what she thought of his
ar&itrary action.
6* realise your intention was %ind, &ut * don6t thin% you should have
done that without my %nowledge. Ludo says... Ludo used to say
that good ends never 7ustify &ad means.6
6*n general your grandfather was right, &ut there are eceptions to
every rule. /ill you have some of this rice(6
)e had removed the cover from a dish of lightly fried rice mied
with &its of chic%en and vegeta&les.
Angel found she was hungry. 61es, please.6 +he helped herself.
As she handed the serving spoon to him their fingertips &rushed
and she felt a curious sensation 5uite different from any ordinary
casual physical contact. *t would have &een an eaggeration to
descri&e it as li%e touching a live wire, and indeed she had never had that eperience. $ut it was the comparison which came into
her mind. The sensation startled and pu##led her. As she waited for
him to finish serving himself &efore she &egan to eat, she
wondered if it could have &een an after"effect of the her& he had
given her. The drug, whatever it was, might have no side effects on
him &ut perhaps could produce some strange reactions in other
people. This was the only eplanation she could thin% of for the
very odd feeling, li%e a charge of electric power, which had shot
up her arm as the spoon changed hands.
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They ate in silence for some minutes until he said, 6Tell me
something a&out yourself, Angel.6
6There6s not much to tell. $oth my parents were %illed in an
accident when * was five, so Ludo too% charge of me. *6ve lived
with him ever since.6
'On board +ea ever(6
61es.6
6/hat a&out schooling(6
6/hen * was twelve Ludo thought a&out sending me away to
&oarding school. $ut it would have &een very epensive...the fees
and flying &ac% and forth to wherever he was for the holidays.
)e6d &een teaching me himself up to then and he felt that * %new as
much as most girls of my age, so he decided to go on giving me
lessons. )e didn6t thin% much of the curricula at schools he madeen5uiries a&out. )e felt they were all geared to passing eams, not
to the development of girls6 individual talents.6
6/hat are your particular talents(6
6* don6t thin% * have any. * can6t draw and although * li%e music *6ve
never wanted to learn to play an instrument. y a&ilities aremostly practical. * can do all the things one needs to live on a &oat.6
6Can you navigate(6
6Of course. * could do that &y the time * was eight. *t6s rather
essential %nowledge if there are only two of you on &oard. *f Ludo
had ever &een ta%en ill at sea, or had some sort of accident, *should have had to ta%e over as s%ipper.6
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6y %nowledge of sailing is confined to much smaller &oats than
your grandfather6s sloop. $ut * should have thought Sea Fever
needed at least two people to sail her.6
6*deally, yes. $efore * was old enough to &e useful, Ludo generally
had someone to crew for him, although he did sail her single"handed at times. * shall have to find someone to crew for me. *s
there a &us service along this road(6 she as%ed.
61es, two or three &uses a day, * &elieve. /hy do you as%(6
6Tomorrow * might go to 0uta and see if * can find an Aussie who
%nows how to sail and fancies a few months at sea. Once or twice,
when our funds were a &it low, we did some chartering, and that6s
how *6ll have to earn my living from now on. There are always
&ac%"pac%ers stopping off in 0uta on their way to Europe or *ndia.
*6ll go to ade6s waning. They might let me put up a notice
advertising for a crew.6
*t occurred to her that he might not %now a&out ade6s, an open"
fronted eating place on one of the main streets in 0uta, where she
and Ludo had often had a meal and watched the world go &y. $ut it
wasn6t the sort of place that rich people patronised.
6ade6s is where young people, hard"up people, eat,6 she eplained.
6* %now ade6s... and the clientele includes a sprin%ling of people *
wouldn6t trust further than * could throw them,6 he added drily.
61ou can say that a&out any cheap eating place, and pro&a&ly a&out
epensive restaurants too.6 Angel dran% from a glass of the same
miture of fruit 7uices she had had the night &efore. 6*6m 5uite a
good 7udge of character. Ludo taught me. )e was a lawyer when
he was young and he %new a lot a&out dishonest people.6
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Charles Thetford finished his rice. 61our plan isn6t practical,6 he
told her. 6A girl of your age can6t charter for a living. Even if you
were older.. .in your middle twenties... it would &e a dodgy
underta%ing. At seventeen it would &e folly.6
6Almost eighteen...and * haven6t any choice. *t6s the only thing * cando.6
6* realise that you don6t want to sell a &oat which has &een your
home since you were a little girl, &ut *6m afraid that6s what you6ll
have to do,6 he said firmly. 6*t loo%s to me as if the sloop could do
with a refit, so you won6t get a very good price for her, &ut youshould ma%e enough to tide you over until you can earn your
living in a more suita&le way.6
6* wouldn6t dream of selling Sea Fever' she said, shoc%ed at the
suggestion. 6*6d &e li%e a cra& without its shell. /here would * live(
/here would * go(6
+he had &een spea%ing rhetorically, &ut he answered as if she had
&een as%ing his advice.
6/hy not try England first( *t6s where your grandfather practised
law, * presume( 1ou6re $ritish &y &irth, aren6t you(6
61es, * was &orn in London, &ut *6ve never wanted to go &ac% there.The only cities which appeal to me are 'aris and 3enice and New
1or%.6
61ou wouldn6t &e allowed to wor% in America without a permit, and
in rance and *taly you6d have a language pro&lem. England would
&e the easiest place for you to ma%e a start.6
Angel shoo% her head. 6* don6t want to go to England. * prefer it
here... not necessarily here in $ali &ut in this part of the world. *6d
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li%e to visit Europe one of these days, &ut *6d rather live
somewhere in south"east Asia or the 'acific. * feel this is where *
&elong.6
)e was a&out to reply when his attention was distracted. )e rose to
his feet. 69ood morning.6
Turning to loo% over her shoulder, Angel saw the woman with red
hair strolling towards them. +he was wearing a &rilliantly"coloured
%imono and didn6t appear to have anything on underneath it. )er
&reasts, which were moving slightly as she wal%ed, were clearly
outlined &y the thin sil%.
69ood morning, darling.6 As she entered the ga#e&o she lifted her
chee% for a %iss and Charles stooped to &rush it lightly with his
lips.
6Come and sit &etween us,6 he said, standing aside for her to seat
herself facing the sea. 6* don6t thin% you two have &een properlyintroduced,6 he added. 6This is Leonora 1or%, Angel.6
6)ow do you do,6 said Angel. +o she wasn6t his wife, or not yet.
'erhaps they were engaged. 6*s it you * have to than% for lending
me these clothes for the funeral(6
6No, they &elong to Amy. *6m so sorry a&out your grandfather.6
*f she hadn6t overheard the remar% Leonora had made the night
&efore, Angel would have thought her sympathy was genuine. As it
was, she couldn6t help wondering if Charles had also overheard
and had remonstrated with his fiancBe or girlfriend, which was
why she was &eing nicer this morning.
6Than% you. Of course * shall miss him dreadfully, &ut he was
eighty"two and he wasn6t ill for very long. )e would have loathed
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ending his days as an invalid,6 she said, striving to sound if not
cheerful at least philosophical. +he %new that her grief could only
&e an em&arrassment to these people who didn6t %now her and had
never met Ludo.
6/e6ve 7ust &een discussing Angel6s future,6 said Charles. 6+he will pro&a&ly ta%e your advice more seriously than mine, Leonora.
/ouldn6t you agree with my view that her plan to employ someone
to crew for her and try to ma%e a living chartering is out of the
5uestion(6
6* really wouldn6t %now,6 said Leonora. 6y %nowledge of theyachting world wouldn6t cover the head of a pin.6
6$ut you %now what it6s li%e to &e a girl of seventeen... going on
eighteen,6 he amended, catching Angel6s eye, a hint of amusement
in his own. 6/ould you have wanted to &e alone at sea with some
guy you6d pic%ed up in 0uta on the strength of his claim to &e a
competent crew(6
6* wouldn6t have wanted to &e alone at sea with anyone,6 said
Leonora. 61achting isn6t my idea of fun, ecept possi&ly on
something the si#e of 0hashoggi6s floating palace. * shouldn6t mind
a cruise on that. Tal%ing of 0uta, *6d li%e to go &ac% to the shop
where * &ought my &ati% s%irt and get them to ta%e in the waist a
couple of inches. Could we do that today(6
6/hy don6t you and Amy and aureen go together( 1ou don6t need
me to help you shop.6
6* hate shopping with other women. *6d rather go on my own... &ut
it would &e more fun with you.6
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*gnoring the rider, Charles said, 6*n that case ta%e the car and go &y
yourself. Last night the others were planning to spend today
relaing and * shall &e &usy most of the day.6
61ou6re supposed to &e relaing as well,6 she reminded him, laying
a &eautifully manicured hand on his muscular forearm.
6* am relaing. erely &eing here relaes me.6 )is ga#e swept from
the pro7ecting headland to the point where the island6s coastline
curved away out of sight. Then his eyes came &ac% to the anchored
sloop. 6/hen was Sea Fever &uilt(6 he as%ed Angel.
-eluctant to admit how old the sloop was, she said, 6+he was &uilt
7ust &efore /orld /ar ** for a man who went into the Navy and
was %illed in action. +o she was laid up for years and was virtually
new when Ludo &ought her in <=. Not long ago we read a&out a
si"&erth cruising yacht, &uilt in <=>, selling for three"5uarters of
a million dollars. +he was much larger than Sea Fever, with a
fireplace in the saloon, &ut it does show that age isn6t necessarily adisadvantage if the &oat was well &uilt in the first place.6
6$ut nowadays cedar hulls, tea% dec%s and mahogany fittings have
to &e com&ined with the latest developments in marine electronics
and hydraulics to fetch the sort of price you6ve mentioned,6 said
Charles. 6The latest thing is satellite navigation. * have an interest
in a $ritish company ma%ing that e5uipment. *t can fi a yacht6s position to within a couple of metres, *6m told.6
61es, and it can &rea% down. All that new stuff can and does &rea%
down and then where are you(6 said Angel. 6*6d rather rely on old"
fashioned seamanship.6
)e smiled at her. *t was the first time she had seen him smile and it
wrought an etraordinary change on features which in repose and
when his epression was serious suggested a forceful &ut
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somewhat stern personality. +uddenly charm was evidentF a great
deal of charm.
6* agree,6 he said unepectedly. 6* shouldn6t care to put my trust in a
s%ipper without the old s%ills of hand and eye as a &ac%"up to the
latest gadgets.6 )e turned to loo% at the sloop again. 6A few yearsago, on a trip to America, * was ta%en to see the classic yacht
regatta off Newport, -hode *sland. The Coup d6Elegance was won
&y a %etch &uilt at ife in +cotland way &ac% in <=G=. Sea Fever
has the same &eautiful lines. *6d li%e to see her under sail.6
/armed &y his praise, she said, 61ou pro&a&ly will... when * leave.6
6/here were you heading for &efore you stopped off here(6 as%ed
Leonora.
)er hand was no longer on Charles6s arm. /ithin seconds of her
placing it there, he had put his hand over hers, patted it and put it
aside in a manner which suggested that, however intimate their private relationship might &e, he disli%ed possessive caresses &eing
&estowed on him in pu&lic.
6/e were going to 4ava and from there to the east coast of
alaysia, &ut our plans were always fairly elastic.6
6*6m going for my swim,6 said Charles. 6As% Leonora what shewould do in your position, Angel. +he might not loo% li%e a career
woman at the moment, &ut in fact she6s a partner in a very
successful pu&lic relations agency and is therefore an ecellent
person to advise you a&out your future.6
)e rose to his feet and strode away.
)er tawny eyes following his tall figure, Leonora said, 6Charles6s
idea of a swim is a thirty"minute thrash which * find ehausting to
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watch. )e has incredi&le energy, &oth physical and mental. 1ou
were luc%y to have him on hand when you needed help. )e doesn6t
spend much time in $ali, &ut it6s typical of him to learn the
language and to have the necessary contacts to handle any
emergency.6
6Oh, * thought he lived here... wor%ed here.6
69ood heavens, no: This is 7ust a holiday house where he spends a
few wee%s in winter and entertains people with whom he has
&usiness involvements. 2nfortunately * get lum&ered with the
wives who, more often than not, are as &oring as the two who arehere at the moment. Not a thought in their heads which isn6t related
to their hus&ands, their children, their houses or their clothes,6 said
Leonora, with a shrug.
To Angel these seemed the natural preoccupations of middle"aged
women. )er grandmother had married at nineteen and devoted the
rest of her life to &eing a wife and mother. Angel6s mother had &een a pro&ationer in the London teaching hospital where her
father had &een a medical student. +he had continued nursing for a
short time after their marriage &ut had given up when she was
pregnant and never resumed her career.
6/here is r Thetford6s &ase(6 she as%ed.
6/e live in London,6 said Leonora.
*t sounded as if they lived together, a couple in all &ut name. Angel
wondered why they didn6t ma%e it official. +he could thin% of a
num&er of possi&le reasons. They might thin% marriage archaic.
Leonora was a&out the same age as CharlesF one or &oth of them
might have &een married &efore and still have a partner in the
&ac%ground, or a divorce which put them off marrying again. Or
may&e one of them wanted to marry &ut the other didn6t. *n which
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case pro&a&ly it was Leonora who did and Charles who didn6t.
rom what she had seen of him so far, Angel felt that he was a man
who, if he wanted something, would move heaven and earth to get
it.
+he was a&out to as% a&out the pu&lic relations agency when themanservant came to en5uire if there was anything more he could
get for them.
6+ome more coffee, please,6 said Leonora. 6* have &rea%fast in &ed
when *6m here,6 she added, when he had gone. 6Charles always gets
up at si wherever he is, &ut he tries not to distur& me. There hegoes now... and 9il&ert with him. 9od, imagine going to &ed with
that &arrel of lard:6
+he was spea%ing of the Englishman who had sympathised with
Angel the night &efore. Now, clad only in &athing trun%s, he did
not loo% his &est, especially when his portly &ody, too white"
fleshed to ac5uire a sun"tan easily and 5uic%ly, was seen net toCharles6s long &rown lim&s and flat midriff as the two men
continued down the &each after discarding their thongs and
dropping their towels &eside them.
Charles entered the water at a run, flinging himself forward in a
plunge"dive from which he surfaced seconds later, sha%ing his
head and ra%ing &ac% his wet hair, his raised arm gleaming li%e &ron#e. 9il&ert waded to waist"depth &efore starting a leisurely
&reast stro%e.
6+ee you later:6 they heard Charles call &efore he rolled li%e a seal
and struc% out in the direction of the headland, his head low in the
water, his arms rising and falling in the effortless rhythm of a &ornswimmer.
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+eeing him made Angel aware that &oth yesterday and the day
&efore she had missed her morning and evening swims. Normally
they were as much a part of her daily routine as &rushing her teeth
and com&ing the long sun"&leached hair which fell in a heavy
swathe down her &ac% almost down to her waist. /hen,
sometimes, she wore it plaited, it could &e seen that the colour, in a
temperate climate, would have &een medium &rown. )er eye&rows
and lashes were dar% &rown, the lashes fringing a pair of large,
wide"apart eyes with irises of the deep, vivid &lue which Ludovic
Dorset6s eyes must have &een when he was a young man.
The coffee came and with it another pot of fragrant $alinese teafor Angel.
6r Thetford thin%s * should sell up and go to England, &ut * don6t
%now anyone there and * thin% *6d &e a fish out of water,6 she said.
Leonora as%ed her much the same 5uestions he had as%ed. After
hearing the answers, she said, 6Australia would &e more your scenethan Europe, * should thin%. *f you6ve lived out here virtually all
your life, you6d shrivel in an English winter. Also, with no
5ualifications, you6d have a hard time getting a 7o&. *t seems to me
a more practical idea is to sell the &oat, spend some of the money
on a training course and invest the rest to give you a small &asic
income. *6m sure Charles could give you some introductions to
people in +ydney. )e has contacts all over the world.6
6)e mentioned an interest in satellite navigation. /hat6s his
principal interest(6 as%ed Angel.
6)e6s a corporate consultant with Cornwall Chester, the most
aggressive merchant &an%ers in the City...the City of London,6Leonora added eplanatorily, 6Do you %now what a merchant &an%
is( $asically, instead of handling money and loans for ordinary
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people and small firms li%e the high street &an%s, merchant &an%s
deal with millionaires6 money, large corporations and institutions,
even governments. They handle ta%eover &ids and arrange issues
of shares... in other words, high finance.6
6)e doesn6t loo% li%e a &an%er... or not my idea of a &an%er,6 saidAngel, her eyes on the man who, having swum to the headland,
was now re"crossing the &ay, slicing through the water as if power"
driven.
6No, 9il&ert is more in line with most people6s image of a &an%er,
&ut in fact a lot of the younger financiers ta%e fitness seriously...they have to, to stand the pace,6 said Leonora. 6*t6s a tough life,
wheeling and dealing...which is why Charles needs to rela when
he6s here and not get too involved in other people6s pro&lems,6 she
added meaningly.
6Don6t worry, iss 1or%. * have no intention of as%ing r Thetford
for any more help than he6s already given me. As soon as myclothes are ready8 which they may &e &y now8*6ll move on.6
Angel hadn6t intended to leave today, &ut in view of the pointed
hint it seemed &est to depart forthwith.
6There6s no need for that,6 said Leonora. 6+tay for lunch... tal% to the
others... as% their advice. $ut * thin% Charles pro&a&lyunderestimates your a&ility to do your own thing. After %noc%ing
a&out the East with your grandfather for years, you have to &e a lot
more canny than most girls of eighteen. 'erhaps you can find
another girl to crew for you. 'lenty of girls learn to sail these days.
Loo% at the num&er of women who6ve done long voyages single"
handed.6
6*t6s a possi&ility,6 Angel agreed. 6*f you6ll ecuse me, *6ll go and see
a&out my clothes.6
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+he left the ga#e&o and wal%ed purposefully &ac% to the house. *t
was o&vious that Leonora didn6t want her around, although why
she should feel that way was ineplica&le. 'erhaps it was that she
only li%ed men and was &ored not merely &y the two wives staying
here &ut &y the entire female se. Angel had read a&out women
who prided themselves on &eing 6men6s women6. $ut it seemed a
curious attitude in someone who had chosen pu&lic relations as a
career. Not that Angel was very clear what pu&lic relations
involved.
+he had %nown a&out merchant &an%s, &ecause Ludo had acted for
some of them in cases &efore the )igh Court in his years as a &arrister. +he had rather resented the patronising tone of Leonora6s
eplanation. The fact was that she and Charles6s girlfriend had
instinctively disli%ed each other on sight, &ut why that should &e
so perpleed her.
*n the house she met Lila, who said her own clothes weren6t ready
yet. As they were her &est clothes anyway, Angel decided to rowout to the sloop, change into her &i%ini, have a 5uic% swim, then
put on a T"shirt and shorts and come &ac% ashore with the
&orrowed clothes. $y that time Charles would have finished his
swim and she could say good&ye and &e on her way to an
anchorage closer to 0uta. On that side of the island the sea wasn6t
calm as it was hereF it swept ashore in huge com&ers, ideal for surfing. +he would pro&a&ly &erth off +anur, another of the main
tourist areas, and go to 0uta &y mini"&us. Transport was no
pro&lem in the more populated parts of the island.
-eturning to where she had &eached the ru&&er dinghy, she was
pu##led to find the oars missing. /ho could have ta%en them(
Anywhere else she might have thought they had &een stolen, &utnot here on what was virtually a private &each. Could they have
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&een removed to a place of safe %eeping &y an over"cautious
servant(
69ood morning, iss Dorset. /e met &riefly last night. *6m 9il&ert
/interton.6 )is stout &ody swathed in a towelling &each ro&e, the
Englishman offered his hand. A dou&le line of footprints in thedamp sand at the sea6s edge showed that after his swim he had
&een for a stroll.
69ood morning,6 she said. 6y oars have vanished. * hope they
haven6t &een pinched.6
6No, no, Charles has them somewhere,6 he told her. 6)e was
carrying them when * met him in the garden this morning. 'erhaps
he thought it unwise to leave them lying a&out. * don6t %now what
he did with them. 9ave them to one of the staff, * epect. )e was
only gone a few moments and then he came &ac% and we wal%ed
down here together. 9loriously warm, the sea here. *6m a &it li%e a
hippopotamus ... en7oy a nice wallow &ut never was much of aswimmer. $ut, my word, you should see Thetford go: )e6s still out
there somewhere.6 )e shaded his eyes with his hand, scanning the
sea. 6/here6s he got to( Can you spot him(6
Angel was accustomed to s5uinting at the sea through narrowed
eyes, &ut she couldn6t see any sign of Charles.
6/here the devil has he got to(6 said 9il&ert, with a hint of aniety.
6+eems to have vanished, li%e your oars. * say * hope he6s all right.
Even strong swimmers can get cramp.6
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CHAPTER THREE
'THERE aren6t shar%s in these waters, are there(6 was 9il&ert6s net
5uestion.
There was definite alarm in his voice now. Angel guessed that hewas a man who, deep down, was afraid of the sea and whose
su&conscious fears were 5uic%ly &rought to the surface in
circumstances such as this.
+he also felt some misgivings, &ut not &ecause she thought
anything &ad had happened to Charles.
6Don6t worry, r /interton. Loo%, there he is... on &oard our &oat.6
*t came as no great surprise to her to see Charles stepping on to the
dec% from the main hatchway. +he hadn6t loc%ed up when they
came ashore after her grandfather6s &urial. +he had gone &elow for
a moment to replace the %ey without which the engine couldn6t &estarted on the hoo% in the saloon where it was %ept when not in
use. *t had always &een Ludo who had poc%eted the sloop6s %eys
when they went ashore togetherF and this morning, upset and
preoccupied, she hadn6t thought it necessary to loc% up for the
short time she had epected to &e ashore.
Charles didn6t linger on Sea Fever's dec% &ut swung long legs over her rails and dived neatly into the sea, his ta%e"off causing the
sloop to roc% gently at her moorings.
6/ell, that6s a relief,6 said 9il&ert. 6or a moment he had me
worried, disappearing li%e that.6 )e turned to her. 61ou6re going to
&e staying with us for a &it, * gather, iss Dorset... getting your
&earings after this sad event.6
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6Did r Thetford tell you that(6 she as%ed, her misgivings
increasing.
)e nodded. 6No dou&t it would have &een a great relief to your
grandfather had he %nown that, &y a fortunate chance, his... er...
demise occurred at a place where the help and support of compatriots was not far to see%.6
Angel said nothing. +he was &eginning to find r /interton
irritating. )ow Ludo would have snorted at that euphemistic
6demise6: And what made this overweight &an%er suppose that
compatriots were necessarily the &est people to help her(
Lila, who had wiped her tears away so tenderly in the &athroom
this morning, would never have said what Leonora had said on the
terrace last night. *f Angel had &een o&liged to go to the village for
aid, dou&tless they would have &een 7ust as helpful. 0indness and
sympathy were not the prerogative of Europeans, as his tone
seemed to imply.
+he watched Charles swim &ac% to the &each. As he stood up and
waded ashore, water streaming from his powerful shoulders, she
saw that against his &ron#ed chest lay a small tu&e"shaped
container on a cord, a container in which he might, on occasion,
carry a car %ey and money. As he couldn6t possi&ly need either of
those things here, the tu&e must contain something else8her %eys.
/hile his girlfriend was anious to see the &ac% of her as soon as
possi&le, was Charles proposing to %eep her here &y force(
6/hy have you ta%en my oars away(6 she as%ed, as he 7oined them.
6Do you want them(6
61es, please. *6d li%e to swim and my &athing suit6s on &oard.6
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6/hy not &orrow a &i%ini from my wife8she6s &rought at least
half a do#en8and * %now she6d &e happy to lend you one. +ave
you rowing out to the &oat,6 suggested the older man.
6Than% you, &ut *6d rather not &other her.6 Angel loo%ed up at
Charles. 6/here are the oars(6
6*6ll fetch them for you. *t won6t ta%e long.6 )e moved away to pic%
up his towel and ru&&er thongs.
/atching him rinse his feet in the pool inside the &alustrade, she
wondered if she might &e mista%en and he hadn6t ta%en her %eys.
$ut what other reason could he have had for &oarding the sloop(
+he had dragged the light dinghy to the water6s edge &y the time he
returned, his wet trun%s replaced &y cotton shorts, his &road chest
still &are, the tu&e no longer hanging from his nec%.
Angel hitched up her &orrowed s%irt so that it wouldn6t get wet andtogether they floated the dinghy.
6)op in,6 said Charles. )e still had the short, lightweight oars
&alanced on his shoulder.
+he o&eyed, thin%ing he would hand them to her one &y one. $ut
the net moment he was in the dinghy with her and o&viouslyintending to do the rowing.
As she opened her mouth to protest that this wasn6t necessary, he
said, 6/hile * was swimming * was thin%ing things over. * have a
suggestion to ma%e. $y the way, it occurred to me that you hadn6t
loc%ed up, so * came a&oard, as you saw, found the %eys and
loc%ed the door to the hatchway. At times we6ve had three or four cruising yachts in this &ay and on one occasion a guest of mine had
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a pair of epensive sunglasses stolen from the &each, so one can6t
&e too careful.6
-elieved that it was only security"consciousness which had made
him remove the oars and the %eys, she said, 6* should have loc%ed
up myself, &ut *6m still... a &it off course. /hat6s your suggestion(6
6)ave your swim first. /hile you6re doing that *6ll ma%e some
coffee and then we6ll discuss my idea.6
6All right,6 she agreed.
Sea Fever had more accommodation &etween dec%s than theslee%ness her hull suggested. There were two dou&le ca&ins, two
singles, heads and showers fore and aft with a roomy saloon
amidships and a well"designed galley. *n addition there was plenty
of loc%er space and an alcove fitted with a chart ta&le.
/ithin a few minutes of &oarding, Angel was in her &i%ini, divinginto water as clear and shining as a fine a5uamarine held under a
strong light. +he had not showed Charles where things were %ept
in the galley &ut left him to loo% for himself. *t would &e
interesting to see if a man accustomed to dealing with vast sums of
money could cope with something as simple as ma%ing coffee in
unfamiliar surroundings.
Long ago, while teaching her to gut and fillet a fish, her
grandfather had descri&ed his discovery, in middle age, that he
couldn6t perform the simple tas%s of washing, ironing and mending
his clothing and coo%ing appetising meals. All his life, up to that
time, he had &een waited on &y women and never realised how
helpless he was without them.
6And it too% me 5uite a long time to learn how to loo% after
myself,6 he had added. 6*f Eva hadn6t died * might have gone to my
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grave not %nowing how to sew on a &utton or %noc% up a decent
omelette.6
*n his seventies his s%ill with a needle was such that often he
would pass the evenings doing needlepoint while Angel read
aloud. The wife of an American yachtsman had introduced him tocushions, or pillows as she had called them, with succinct slogans
em&roidered on them. Ludo6s last piece of canvaswor% had &een a
cushion cover with the slogan I fight poverty—I work.
-emem&ering, as she swam, their evenings together8good coffee,
a good cigar and a glass of good &randy after the main meal of theday were three things which Ludo had retained from his previous
way of life8 Angel felt as if the &ottom had dropped out of her
world. To com&at the pain of loss, she flung herself into a fast
racing crawl.
+he felt &etter for the vigorous swim. The fragrance of freshly
ground, newly percolated coffee was wafting from &elow when sheswung herself up the &oarding ladder. Charles came on dec% at the
same moment that she gathered her streaming hair into a han% to
s5uee#e some of the water from it.
)er &ody wasn6t as &rown as his &ecause in a temperate climate
her s%in would have &een paler than the naturally olive
pigmentation which went with his almost &lac% hair. Nor did sheever lie in the sun li%e people who lived in colder parts of the
world and wanted to soa% up as much sun as possi&le. Not while
they had &een at sea &ut whenever they were moored, Ludo had
rigged up an awning to shade the afterdec%. +o although she had
lived in the sun for thirteen years and had only small areas of flesh
which had never &een eposed to it, her tan was a deep goldencolour, not the leather"&rown loo% ac5uired &y tourists who came
to the East for two or three wee%s of dedicated sun"worship.
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/hen Charles loo%ed at her, for the first time in her life she was
aware of &eing almost na%ed. )is appraisal was &rief and
impersonal, which in itself made her conscious that her figure left
a lot to &e desired. 2p to now she had never minded having small
&reasts and no other curves to spea% of. +uddenly she longed to &e
more rounded and less leggy. A twenty"inch waist was an asset
only if it were com&ined with full &reasts and hips, which in her
case it wasn6t.
/hile he returned to the galley to &ring the coffee on dec%, she
wrapped a sarong round herself. /hen Charles came &ac%, the two
parts of her &i%ini were draped over the rails to dry and from chestto %nee she was swathed in indigo"on"pale"ochre cotton, li%e a
$alinese girl going to the river for a &ath.
)e had even found the &iscuit tin, she noticed, with a tightening of
the throat. +he and her grandfather had ta%en it in turns to &a%e
&read, &ut he had %ept the &iscuit tin filled &ecause he had a sweet
tooth. Angel6s mother had wanted her to have &eautiful teeth and asa small child she had &een given pieces of carrot and apple in place
of sweets. $y the time she had come to live with Ludo her taste
had &een formed. +he loved fruit, especially ripe papaya with its
&eautiful dawn"s%y flesh, &ut anything made with refined sugar
tasted sic%ly to her. At eleven and four, while her grandfather ate
&iscuits or ca%e, she had had a small sweet &anana or a slice of pineapple.
/hile she was in the water, Charles had not only made coffee, he
had set up the two dec%chairs which, at sea, were %ept lashed to
the hatch cover. 'erhaps, unli%e Ludo in his younger days, Charles
had not &een waited on hand and foot &y women. Angel wondered
if he were what her grandfather had termed a self"made man, or if he had started life from a privileged position. )e had certainly
&een &orn with every physical advantage, she thought, watching
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the play of muscle from &road shoulder to shapely hand as he
poured out the coffee he6d made.
6*6ve &een thin%ing for some time that *6d li%e to have a &oat,6 he
said. 6There6s something a&out this one which appeals to me. *f a
survey shows she6s &asically sound, *6m prepared to &uy a half"share in her and to finance a refit. That would ena&le you to %eep
her and ta%e a training course of some %ind. /hat * should want in
return for my investment would &e the use of her for myself and
my guests from Novem&er to e&ruary. )ow does that stri%e you(6
As she %new roughly what a refit would &e li%ely to cost, it struc% her as ama#ingly generous8too generous.
6* should have to thin% a&out it,6 she said cautiously.
6Naturally. /hat *6ve given you is only the outline of the
arrangement. /e should have to thrash out the details. And the
whole thing is contingent on a 5ualified marine surveyor givingher a thorough chec%, &ut that shouldn6t &e difficult to arrange.6
)e leaned &ac% in his chair, his long legs stretched out in front of
him and crossed at the an%le, giving her time to thin% a&out it
while he watched with narrowed eyes a triangular"sailed $alinese
fishing &oat with outriggers heading out to sea.
6*6m not too happy a&out the idea of selling a half"share,6 said
Angel, after some reflection. 6* thin% sity"forty, in my favour,
would &e more accepta&le. After all, you %now nothing a&out
&oats...or not much. *t ma%es sense for the person who %nows how
to sail her to have the final say if a difference of opinion arises.6
)e loo%ed at her thoughtfully. +he wondered what was in his
mind. +he and Ludo had shared an almost telepathic understanding
of each other6s thought processes. ay&e it was &ecause they had
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only 7ust met that Charles seemed enigmatic, no hint of his
thoughts showing in his epression.
6All right, *6ll agree to that on condition that you agree to come to
England for a year,6 was his unepected reply. 6*t will ta%e at least
that long to spruce her up, * should imagine, and it will &e a goodopportunity for you to see how the other half of the world lives. *
have an aunt with a house in London which is far too &ig for her.
*6m sure she6ll &e pleased to put you up while you find your feet.6
6* don6t understand your concern for my welfare, r Thetford,6 she
&egan. 6* "6
6Call me Charles,6 he cut in. 6And my concern for your welfare is
no more than any responsi&le person would feel for a young girl
left in your circumstances. *t6s o&vious that your life with your
grandfather has to some etent %ept you isolated from the
pressures and influences on most girls of your age group. 1ou6re in
a vulnera&le position and there are men who would try to ta%eadvantage of that. $ut *6m not one of them. Disa&use yourself of
the idea that * have any sinister designs on you.6
Angel flushed. 6*6m sure you haven6t. * wasn6t suggesting that you
had. *t6s 7ust that most people are so &usy with their own lives that
they haven6t time to &other with other people6s difficulties. And
your life sounds &usier than most.6
Charles arched an eye&row. 6/hat do you %now a&out my life(6
6Only what * can see and what iss 1or% mentioned. 1ou6re
o&viously very rich and...and high"powered.6
)e gave a short laugh. 6-ich is a relative term, and what does high"
powered mean( * wor% harder than most people. * don6t have a
wife or children or any a&sor&ing interests other than my wor%. To
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&e successful in my world8which is very different from your
world8it6s only necessary to put one6s whole heart and &ac% into
something, &ut not many people do that. They prefer to fritter their
energies on half a do#en things. $usiness, li%e art, demands total
dedication.6
6And is it as satisfying as art, do you thin%(6
6* find it etremely satisfying. *f * didn6t * should do something
else.6 As he spo%e he glanced at his watch and uncrossed his
an%les, drawing in his legs and rising to his feet in the manner of
someone who has idled long enough.
6* have things to do. * suggest you spend the rest of the morning
thin%ing over my proposition. *f you decide to go for it, after
lunch, while the others are resting, we6ll wor% out the details.6
As he had &efore they too% off from $ali, earlier this morning, on
the first lap of the flight, the first"class ca&in steward came round
again with a &as%et of small hand towels which had &een plunged
in &oiling water and wrung out. They were still hot, damp and
refreshing. Net came the stewardess with crystal go&lets of ice"
cold orange 7uice.
Angel, who had the window seat on the star&oard side of the aisle
with the ad7oining seat empty, wondered if the economy"class
passengers were also &eing given hot towels and cold 7uice.
)aving seen them, a short time ago, crowded into a large pu&lic
lounge while the first"class passengers had an air"conditioned
private lounge, she was inclined to dou&t it.
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They were at the airport of 4a%arta, the capital of *ndonesia, and
very soon would &e ta%ing off for $ang%o% where they would &e
staying for two nights &ecause Charles had &usiness there.
)e and Leonora were occupying the pair of seats on the opposite
side of the aisle. Leonora was trying on a pair of earrings she had &ought, or he had &ought for her, in the 7eweller6s shop in the
airport.
Eploring the small shopping comple, Angel had noticed that
everything on sale seemed to &e much more epensive than in
ordinary shops. +he had seen nothing she wanted to &uy.
*t had surprised her that Amy and aureen, who had done a lot of
shopping in $ali, should want to add to their purchases at this
airport. They and their hus&ands were still in the glass"walled first"
class lounge, waiting for their flights to Los Angeles and )ong
0ong to &e called. +hopping seemed to &e a passion with them.
Angel had &een astonished when she6d seen the num&er of suitcases they had &rought for their holiday at Charles6s house.
Two porters with trolleys had &een needed to handle all the
&aggage. Only she and Charles travelled light, he with a thing
called a suit &ag and an. epensive"loo%ing flight &ag, and she with
one medium"si#ed case stamped with Ludo6s initials and
containing her few clothes and her favourite &oo%s.
Leonora, on seeing the case, had said it should &e thrown out and
replaced with a new one. Angel had argued that although it loo%ed
a &it &attered it was still servicea&le. At that time she hadn6t
realised that they would &e flying first"class and her case would
loo% out of place amid piles of luurious matched luggage. *t didn6t
matter to her and she didn6t thin% it &othered Charles, &ut perhapsit was an em&arrassment to the others, especially Leonora who,
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plainly, wouldn6t have &een pleased to have Angel travelling with
them even with a &rand new suitcase.
On Charles6s advice, Angel6s most precious possessions, the
photograph of her parents, an al&um of snaps ta%en during the
years with her grandfather, and his private logs as distinct fromSea Fever's log &oo%s, were pac%ed in the smart flight &ag issued
&y the airline and now stowed in an overhead loc%er &y one of the
attentive stewardesses.
+uspecting that one paid a great deal of money for all this
deferential cosseting, she would have &een perfectly happy totravel in the cheaper part of the plane and re7oin the others on
arrival at their destination. $ut Charles had &oo%ed her flight
without consulting her, and o&viously as far as he was concerned
there was only one class8first.
Listening to Leonora and the other two women chatting while his
party went through the formalities of departure, Angel had theimpression they found travelling &y air a great &ore, having done it
so often &efore.
or herself, having little or no memory of the flight she had made
with Ludo when he had &een summoned to Europe to ta%e charge
of her, this 7ourney was, in effect, her first view of the world from
the air and as such tremendously eciting. Today it would ta%eonly hours to reach the 9ulf of +iam, instead of the wee%s they
had once spent getting there &y sea.
+he had &een eleven that year, poised on the &rin% of adolescence.
Tim, their crew, had &een eighteen, a man in some ways, a youth in
others. +he had almost forgotten a&out him until loo%ing throughthe photograph al&um for the first time in a long while she had
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come across a snap Ludo had ta%en from the dec% while Tim was
rowing her ashore to &uy some supplies they needed.
Tim was also mentioned several times in the detailed record of
events %ept &y her grandfather in addition to the factual logs.
Tim $olton, great"nephew of my old friend and colleague,
4ohn $olton, came a&oard. A well"&uilt, well"mannered
youngster &ut not happy, according to 4ohn who as%ed me to
give him a &erth for a couple of months. 'arents divorced.
ather seriously displeased that the &oy has failed to 5ualify
for +andhurst.
A couple of wee%s later, Ludo had written!
Tim has settled down well and does more than pull his
weight. )e6s intelligent, relia&le, has a strong sense of
humour and would, in my opinion, have made a first"rate
officer. )owever, if O and A levels are more important than5ualities of character in the modern Army, that6s their loss. *
feel sure he6ll do well when he finds his metier. Angel,
du&ious of him at first, now shows every sign of developing
a crush.
)ad she had a crush on Tim( Angel wondered, as the aircraft
taied out to the main runway. *f so it must have worn off very5uic%ly after he had gone &ac% to Europe. )e would &e twenty"
five now. +he wondered if he had found his metier. )e hadn6t %ept
in touch and shortly after his voyage with them his great"uncle
4ohn, a 7udge who had once &een in cham&ers with Ludo, had died.
Ludo had only found that out &y chance, coming across a reference
to 6the late +ir 4ohn $olton ;.C.6 in an out"of"date periodical in ayacht clu&. /hat had &ecome of Tim they.. .she would never %now.
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)ow hard it was to stop the ha&it of thin%ing of herself as half of a
partnership, she thought, with a sigh. This was how widows must
feel... &ereft. +he didn6t remem&er grieving for her parents,
although she must have missed them deeply at the time. $ut now,
after losing Ludo, every so often a great wave of pain and
loneliness would sweep over her, ma%ing her want to hide in a
corner and cry.
The steward and stewardess reappeared, this time with glasses of
champagne to sip while the plane was ta%ing off and a large silver
tray of delicious"loo%ing tit&its served, when each passenger had
made their selection, on a gold"rimmed plate decorated with anorchid and accompanied &y a linen nap%in.
Angel remem&ered an adage she had once read, something a&out
money not &uying happiness &ut ena&ling one to &e misera&le in
comfort:
+he glanced across the aisle at the other two. Leonora was flic%ingthrough a fashion maga#ine &ought at the airport. Charles was
studying some %ind of report which had come through on his Tele
machine and 7otting notes in the margins.
+he wondered if she had done the right thing in agreeing to his
proposition and selling him a su&stantial share in Sea Fever.
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CHAPTER FOUR
ALTHOUGH she had visited the southern part of Thailand &efore,
Angel had never &een to $ang%o%, or indeed to any large city.
Ludo had avoided them, preferring small fishing ports to the
crowded and epensive marinas of large ones.
6The Thai name for $ang%o% is 0rung Thep8 City of Angels,6
Charles told her, as a large air"conditioned limousine swept them
away from the airport some way outside the city. 6At first sight the
downtown area isn6t attractive. *6m told it was in the old days,
&efore the canals were filled in. Everything went &y waterwaythen. Now $ang%o% is cho%ed &y road traffic and the noise and the
fumes are hellish. $ut if you %now where to loo%, the old charm
still lingers in places.6
To Angel, the crowded streets were fascinating and she actually
en7oyed a succession of traffic 7ams &ecause they gave her more
chance to loo% at the &uildings and the people. $ut Leonora tappedimpatient fingers on the cover of her glossy maga#ine and visi&ly
fumed with annoyance when a man in a dilapidated van peered at
the occupants of the &ig car stopped alongside him as if they were
unusual animals in a cage at the #oo. )is uninhi&ited interest made
Angel repress a grin, and she was glad to see Charles6s mouth
twitch slightly.
'oor Leonora, she thought. *t was rather hard on her if she had
epected to come to $ang%o% alone with him and now found
herself saddled with an unwanted third party. Angel could
understand the older woman6s feelings even if, in her place, out of
politeness and %indness she would have tried not to show how
unwelcome an interloper was.
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'erhaps Leonora6s lac% of sensitivity to Angel6s feelings was
caused &y her own deep unhappiness &ecause she suspected that
Charles was never going to marry her. At least, he hadn6t sounded
as if marriage was on his agenda the day he had tal%ed a&out
&usiness demanding total dedication.
6Do you have a dress in your case, Angel(6 he as%ed suddenly.
6No, * haven6t,6 she answered. 6*6ve never really needed one. The
only parties *6ve &een to have always &een on &oats, where my
7eans were O0.6
6Not all restaurants loo% favoura&ly on 7eans. 1ou6d &etter &uy a
dress for dinner tonight. Leonora will help you choose something
suita&le.6
6* shan6t have time, Charles,6 said Leonora. 6As soon as we arrive *
want to have my hair and my nails done. Angel doesn6t have to eat
in the restaurant tonight. +he can have dinner in her room andwatch a video movie on television. That will &e far more of a treat
for her, won6t it, Angel(6
As an affirmative answer was clearly what was re5uired of ha ",
Angel was a&out to agree when Charles said, 6* should thin% it
would &ore her witless. +he hasn6t &een reared on a diet of soap
operas and second"rate movies. *f you6re too &usy, *6ll go shoppingwith her. *t won6t ta%e more than half an hour.6
or an instant Leonora loo%ed furious. 6+he might prefer to go
shopping on her own. +he6s not a child.6
Charles made no response to this and Angel 7udged it &est to hold
her tongue. *t made her uncomforta&le to &e the cause of strife
&etween them. Although it was possi&le there had &een some latent
discord &efore she appeared on the scene.
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ortunately it wasn6t long &efore the car arrived at their hotel. At
the reception des% in the enormous lo&&y Charles was greeted as if
he had stayed there many times &efore. +oon they .ere &eing
ushered into a lift &y someone who loo%ed as if he might &e the
manager of this super"de"lue place or, if not the manager, his
deputy.
6/e6ve given you your usual suite, r Thetford, and iss Dorset6s
room is on the floor &elow,6 said this personage.
/hen the lift stopped and the &ell&oy accompanying them stepped
out to ta%e Angel to her room, Charles said to the manager, 6iss1or% has some urgent appointments and wants to unpac% as soon
as possi&le. *6ll stop off here and ma%e sure iss Dorset
understands how everything wor%s.6
The door unloc%ed &y the &ell&oy led into a &edroom which made
Angel6s eyes widen at its opulence. An open door gave a glimpse
of an e5ually luurious private &athroom. $ut it was the viewthrough the epanse of glass that formed the outer wall of the
room which really too% her &reath away. The large window loo%ed
down on a &road river which she %new must &e the Chao 'hraya,
where on special occasions the golden royal &arges with their
crews of scarlet"uniformed oarsmen rowed past.
6/hat a fa&ulous view:6 she said eagerly. 6/ho needs televisionwith an. outloo% li%e this( *6ll &e perfectly happy having my supper
on a tray and watching the river traffic.6
61ou will eat with us,6 said Charles firmly. )e showed her how to
control the air"conditioning and chec%ed that the shower over the
&ath was simple to operate.
6These ro&es are for guests to wear going to and from the
swimming pool in the garden,6 he eplained. The room had twin
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&eds, enough towels for si people, it seemed to Angel, and two
terry ro&es hanging on the &ac% of the &athroom door. 6As soon as
they &ring your case up, why don6t you get out your &i%ini and go
down and have a swim. *6ll meet you in the lo&&y in an hour and
we6ll go shopping.6
6Charles, it really isn6t necessary for you to come with "6 she &egan.
6'ossi&ly not,6 he cut in. 61ou may have an instinctively good dress
sense, or you may need to learn it. $e downstairs in an hour.6
/aiting for Charles in the lo&&y8she was there &efore the
appointed time8reminded Angel of the man who had gaw%ed at
them in the traffic 7am. Although she ga#ed more discreetly, she
was no less fascinated &y the hotel guests coming and going
through the lo&&y with its shining mar&le floor, cascading
chandeliers and ela&orate arrangements of flowers.
The glass doors were opened for them &y a white"gloved young
doorman who was also wearing white stoc%ings with the panung, a
garment not unli%e a sarong &ut drawn up &etween the legs to give
a resem&lance to %nic%er&oc%ers. +he %new its name &ecause
among the &oo%s she was ta%ing with her to Europe was one on the
traditional costumes of the peoples of +outh"East Asia which had &een her fourteenth &irthday present from her grandfather.
Darling Ludo: Each time she thought of him, it was with that
sin%ing sense of loss. To stop herself lapsing into unhappiness, she
&egan to play a game he had taught her when she was small.
+he had &een playing it for some minutes when she sensed that
someone was watching her and loo%ed round to find Charles
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standing a few yards away, his hands in the poc%ets of a pair of the
lightweight trousers Americans called chinos.
9oing towards him, she said, 6*6m sorry...* didn6t see you there.
/hy didn6t you spea%(6
6* was trying to wor% out what was going on in your mind,6 he
answered. 6or several minutes your epression has &een
alternating &etween a slight smile and a slight frown.6
6)as it( )ow idiotic * must have loo%ed: * was playing Ludo6s
game,6 Angel eplained. 6*t6s &etter to play it with someone else and
score points, &ut you can play it &y yourself. 1ou have to predict
what people will do. /hat language they will spea% if they6re
foreigners. /hat they6ll choose from the menu. /hat they6ll drin%
in a &ar. /hether they6re smo%ers or non"smo%ers8that sort of
thing.6
6* see. /hat were you predicting a&out the people arriving(6 heas%ed.
6Three thingsF whether they6d smile at the doorman, say than% you,
or ignore him.6
6* see, and how was your score(6
6Not good. * epected people staying in a place li%e this to have
&etter manners than they seem to have8at least 7udging &y that
sample. 'erhaps the net ten people to come through the door will
&e more courteous,6 she said hopefully.
6* dou&t it.6 )is tone was cynical. 6*6ve held doors open myself8in
London, New 1or% and adrid8 and could have remained thereall day for all the notice anyone too%. *6ve no dou&t professional
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doormen get used to &eing ignored and aren6t &othered &y it as
much as you are.6
6'erhaps not, &ut who can tell what effects small rudenesses have(
'erhaps it6s an apocryphal story, &ut they say that )o Chi inh
&ecame a Communist, defeating the rench and later supportingthe 3iet"Cong, &ecause he was treated with contempt when he
lived in England and rance as a young man.6
6There may &e an element of truth in it. +hall we go(6
/hen the doorman opened the door for her, Angel smiled and said,
'Khawp, khun,' part of the &asic Thai which she and Tim $olton
had pic%ed up long ago. According to her grandfather, any
civilised person learnt to say please and than% you in the language
of the country they were visiting.
The doorman6s impassive epression changed to a grin. 61ou6re
welcome.6
Evidently he too% them for Americans:
6Did you have a swim(6 Charles en5uired, as they crossed the
hotel6s forecourt where several uniformed drivers were waiting
&eside gleaming cars li%e the one which &rought them from the
airport.
61es, * did8and used the dryer in the &athroom to dry my hair.
Tonight *6m going to have a long lying"down &ath. There6s even a
little pillow, with suc%ers, to rest one6s head on... and a face cloth...
and wonderful thick towels, as good as the towels at your house. *
didn6t realise how thin and scratchy our towels were until * used
yours and the hotel6s. )ow much does a room here cost(6
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6Less than it would in London, &ecause wages are lower here. No,
than% you, we6re wal%ing "6 this to a hopeful tai"driver.
Not far from the hotel they came to a ma7or thoroughfare where
Charles too% her &y the arm and hurried her across the road during
a gap in the traffic. Angel concluded, from his purposeful stride,that he %new where he was going. 'erhaps on a previous visit he
had shopped with Leonora. *t wasn6t yet clear from their
conversation how long they had &een together.
A few minutes later they clim&ed the steps of an epensive"
loo%ing shop called Design Thai.
6ay * help you(6 A small, slender girl, her lustrous &lac% hair cut
in the page&oy style worn, Angel had noticed, &y many Thai girls,
smiled en5uiringly at them.
6/e6re loo%ing for a simple dress to wear in the evening. The
plainer the &etter,6 said Charles.
6/hat si#e(6 the salesgirl as%ed, loo%ing at Angel.
6*6m not sure.6
The assistant cast an eperienced eye over her figure. 6* show you
what we have. This way, please.6
+he led them to a rail of sil% dresses. 6* thin% this your si#e.6 +he
selected a pale pin% froc% with em&roidery on the sleeves and
round the hem.
$efore Angel could ma%e any comment, Charles said decisively,
6Too fussy. /hat a&out the &lue one(6
6That one also right si#e... very nice,6 the salesgirl agreed.
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/hen she too% it from the rail to display it, he gave a nod of
approval.
69o and try it on.6
+omewhat stung &y his authoritative manner, as if he were tal%ingto a child, Angel did as she was told. $ut once the &lue dress was
on, she %new that his 7udgement was right. The sil% matched the
&lue of her eyes and the style with its full s%irt and tight waist
suited her coltish figure. The nec%line was modestly low at the
front and more daring at the &ac%, &ut a short matching 7ac%et
fastened &y loops and Tur%6s head %nots turned it into an outfitwhich could &e worn during the day for a formal occasion. $ut her
life had never included formal occasions, and would it ever(
6Ecellent,6 was Charles6s verdict, when she emerged from the
fitting"room and showed herself to him. *n her a&sence he had cast
his eye over the rest of the shop6s stoc% and pic%ed out a s%irt and
two &louses which were &eing held &y another assistant. 6Now goand try these on.6
The s%irt was made of navy &lue cotton, &oth &louses were white,
one with a sailor6s collar trimmed with navy &lue &raid and the
other with a rounded collar and tuc%s down the front. $oth made
her loo% very young, li%e a schoolgirl, she thought.
Charles didn6t as% her opinion. )e said &ris%ly, 6/e6ll ta%e them.6
$y the time she re"emerged from the fitting"room, the clothes had
&een pac%ed in a carrier and he was paying for them.
6Now you need shoes,6 he said, as they left the shop and continued
along the &usy street. 6The girl who served us has recommended a
place which isn6t far.6
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6*6m sure * could manage to &uy some shoes &y myself if you only
have half an hour to spare.6
6*6ve rearranged my appointments. *6m in no hurry. *n England it
will &e cold and you6ll need warmer clothes, &ut the summer isn6t
far off, so we may as well get you %itted out with some lighter things. 1ou may have filled out &y then, &ut * don6t thin% you6re
ever going to suffer from puppy fat,6 he remar%ed, with a
downward glance at her slender figure.
*n the shoe shop, the assistant &rought high heels for her to try, &ut
Charles frowned and shoo% his head.
61ou have pretty feet. Don6t spoil them &y cramming them into
tight shoes and tottering around on stilt heels,6 he told her. 6/hen *
notice a woman wal%ing gracefully, invaria&ly she6s &arefoot or
net to &arefoot8never in fashiona&le shoes.6
Angel didn6t mind his prohi&ition on high heels, &ut she 5ueriedhis insistence on a colour called taupe which turned out to &e what
she would have descri&ed as muddy river water.
6/hy this colour( /hy not &lue to match the dress(6 she as%ed, as
the assistant gave her a nylon stoc%ing to put on her &are &rown
foot &efore trying on the plain low"heeled style which Charles had
specified.
6$ecause a woman who travels the world and always loo%s elegant
told me that if there6s only room for one pair of shoes in a suitcase
this is what they should &e, taupe pumps... what in England are
called court shoes.6
6Did she eplain why(6
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6NoF &ut having seen how little &aggage she ta%es around with her,
and how good she loo%s, * ta%e her word for it. +he has more claim
to &e on the list of the world6s &est"dressed women than anyone
with closets full of clothes which are only worn a few times,6 he
said drily.
Angel wondered who she was and how close their relationship had
&een. +urely a woman would only tal% a&out clothes to a man with
a strong interest in her( Otherwise she would &e afraid of &oring
him.
After &uying the shoes and a small taupe leather &ag with adetacha&le leather strap which made it suita&le for day or evening
use, they wal%ed &ac% towards the river.
61ou6ll have to deduct what all these things cost from the price of
your share of Sea Fever' said Angel.
The sloop had &een surveyed &efore they left $ali and he hadmade her an offer which she had accepted.
Near the hotel there was a shop with nightdresses and underwear
in the window. 'erhaps guessing that she slept in a sarong, Charles
said, 61ou6d &etter &uy yourself some night things. *6ll leave the
choice of them to you.6
)aving paid for everything else with a &an% card, he opened his
&illfold and gave her some five"hundred"&aht notes.
6*6ll have these parcels sent to your room. Come up to the suite
a&out seven.6
@ @ @
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/hen Angel returned to her &edroom with another large carrier
containing peach sil% py7amas piped with a5uamarine and an
a5uamarine man6s"style dressing gown piped with peach, the rest
of the shopping was already there, with the addition of a pac%age
she hadn6t seen &efore.
'u##led, she removed the wrapping from a long narrow &o which
contained a string of small pearls and a pair of pearl earrings.
There was also a card with a message in writing she recognised.
6An advance present for your eighteenth &irthday.6
+he was ready &y a 5uarter to seven. As she loo%ed at herself in the
full"length mirror, she could see that she loo%ed nice. $ut was this
demure young person in &lue sil% and pearls the real Angel Dorset,
or was she Charles6s idea of how a girl of her age ought to loo%(
'erhaps it was only &ecause she wasn6t used to wearing a dress that
she didn6t feel herself, she thought, studying her reflection. Or may&e it was her hair which wasn6t right. Long loose hair loo%ed
all right with cotton, &ut not with this lustrous Thai sil%, which
called for something more formal. +he gathered her hair into a
&unch, twisted it, coiled it high at the &ac% of her head and
surveyed the effect. $etter. uch &etter. $ut she had neither the
time nor the hairpins to put it up tonight. Tomorrow, if there was a
chance, she would &uy some pins and also some ma%e"up. +he hadonce had a lipstic%, &ought on impulse in a mar%et and used for a
few days until, left in the sun, it had melted into a gooey mess. +he
hadn6t &othered to replace it.
*t was a few seconds to seven when she pressed the &ell &eside the
door of Charles6s suite. *t was only as she chec%ed the time that sherealised the man6s watch she had automatically replaced on her
wrist after her &ath wasn6t in %eeping with the rest of her
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appearance. $ut as she hadn6t &rought the new &ag with her, and
the dress had no poc%ets, she had nowhere to put it if she too% it
off.
Charles opened the door. 6+pot on time,6 he said, with a smile.
)e was wearing a pale grey suit of some tropic"weight cloth, with
a pin% shirt and a grey tie striped diagonally with pin%. As he stood
aside for her to enter a mirrored lo&&y, she caught a faint spicy
scent which might &e his soap, shampoo or aftershave.
The lo&&y led into a large and luurious sitting"room with two
long, deep"cushioned sofas covered in pale green Thai sil% to
match the large celadon vases used as lamp"&ases on the glass end"
ta&les. There was no sign of Leonora.
6/hat would you li%e to drin%( Orange 7uice... Co%e... fresh lime
7uice(6 Charles suggested.
Angel thought a&out as%ing for a Campari and soda, a deep pin%
drin% she had heard &eing ordered &y a girl a year or two older
than herself while she was at the pool earlier in the day. $ut she
didn6t %now how strong it was, so she decided to play safe. 6Lime
7uice, please.6
As he moved across the room to an ela&orate gilt side"ta&le with atray of drin%s and glasses and a large ice &uc%et on it, she said,
6Than% you very much for the pearls. *t6s very %ind and generous of
you.6
6* noticed you had pierced ears. *n America it6s the custom, in
traditionalist families, to give pearls to girls of eighteen.6
6Do you spend a lot of time in America(6
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6Enough to find it worthwhile to %eep a pied"a"terre there.6 )e
handed her a tall glass and turned his cuff &ac% from his watch.
+he saw his dar% &rows contract slightly &efore he pic%ed up his
own glass of what loo%ed li%e gin and tonic. 6Come and sit down.6
They sat on opposite sofas. )ad she &een alone in the room, Angelwould have slipped her feet out of her new shoes to delve her toes
into the dense pile of the Chinese sil% rug overlying the cream
fitted carpet.
6)ow luurious to have all this space,6 she said, with a glance
round the room. 6* was wor%ing out earlier on how many times myca&in on Sea Fever would fit into my &edroom here. Even the
&athroom is larger.6
6)ow was your lying"down &ath(6 he as%ed, with a smile in his
eyes.
6*t was lovely. * might have another later on. A shower is fine for getting dean, &ut lying in a &ath is &etter for thin%ing.6
6)ave you &een thin%ing a&out what to do with your time while the
sloop is &eing refur&ished(6
61es, and *6ve had two good ideas. irst, * thin% * should "6
+he stopped short as the sound of a door opening &ehind her
distracted Charles6s attention and made him rise to his feet.
A few minutes earlier she had sensed that he was annoyed &ecause
Leonora wasn6t ready. No displeasure showed in his face now. )e
was loo%ing over Angel6s head with an epression which was as
clear to her as his previous irritation! the epression of a manseeing a woman whose attractions outweigh her shortcomings.
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Leonora closed the door &ehind her and strolled across to the
sofas. +he was wearing a %nife"pleated s%irt of dull &lac% satin
with &uttons all down one side, most of them undone. A &lac% satin
7ac%et was draped over her shoulders. A glittering, gleaming gold
halter top clung to her opulent &reasts and was cinched at the waist
&y a wide and shiny &lac% &elt. *n $ali she had &een an
outstandingly good"loo%ing woman. )ere in $ang%o%, after
several hours in a &eauty parlour, she was a %noc%out.
6)ello, Angel. Don6t you loo% sweet(6 she said %indly. +he turned to
Charles. 6Am * going to &e reprimanded for &eing five minutes
late(6 she as%ed, her tawny eyes teasing.
The net day Angel6s lunch consisted of hot fritters and other tasty
tit&its from coo%ing stalls in the street. +he actually found these
cheap snac%s, served on stic%s or in paper cones, more en7oya&le
than last night6s grand meal in the hotel restaurant.
Today she was supposed to &e sightseeing and shopping with
Leonora. That had &een the plan settled last night, &efore Leonora
had persuaded Charles to ta%e her to a nightclu&. $ut this morning,
after he had left for the first of his meetings, Leonora had
telephoned Angel and said, 6* have a migraine, so you6ll have to
loo% after yourself today. Ta%e a guided tour round the temples8 you can get details at the des%. *6m going to stay in &ed. No,
than%s, there6s nothing you can do.6
A tour with a group of other tourists didn6t appeal to Angel. +he
too% a tuktuk, a three"wheeled open"sided vehicle with a noisy
motor and room for two &ehind the driver, to the 9rand 'alace, acity within a city. After spending most of the morning there, she
too% another tuktuk to the heart of the Chinese 5uarter where she
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planned to spend the afternoon wandering around the crowded
alleys and mar%ets.
*t was here that she had her lunch, confident that anything coo%ed
in &oiling fat must &e as safe if not safer than the sauces and
creamy puddings she had seen &eing served in the restaurant.
+he had &ought herself various cosmetics, some ri&&ons and
com&s for her hair and a pair of em&roidered sil% mules to wear
with her new dressing"gown, when a voice said, 69ood afternoon.6
or a moment or two she didn6t recognise the young Thai who was
smiling at her. Then she realised it was the doorman who had said,
61ou6re welcome,6 yesterday.
61ou have &een shopping, * see. )ave you &ought some nice
things(6 he as%ed. 61ou6re a long way from the hotel. Can you find
your way &ac% there( 'erhaps you would li%e me to show you(6
+urprised at his ecellent English, which she thought would have
5ualified him for a more interesting 7o& than opening a door all
day, Angel said, 6Are you on your way &ac% to wor%(6
6No, not until later this evening, &ut * should &e pleased to wal%
with you. * have nothing to do for the net hour, and tal%ing to you
would help to improve my English.6
61our English seems perfect already.6
6No, no, it is very &ad. 1ou would &e doing me a favour.6
6/here the hell have you &een(6
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Angel wasn6t the only person who recoiled as Charles stepped out
of the lift at lo&&y level where she was waiting to go up to her
room.
Two other women flinched as the tall, angry man glared down at
the startled girl.
6/hat was that all a&out, * wonder(6 one of them said to her
hus&and, after he had steered her round the palpa&ly irate
Englishman and the lift was on its way up again.
The white"haired American shrugged. 6Don6t as% me, &ut *6d say
she6s in trou&le. That guy sure was in a temper a&out something:6
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C)A'TE- *3E
)is strong fingers &iting into her arm, Charles hustled Angel away
from the &usy area &y the lifts.
6/here have you &een(6 he repeated, in a 5uieter part of the lo&&y.6Leonora6s &een frantic: +he was epecting you for lunch. /hen
you didn6t show up she didn6t %now what to do. $y the time * came
&ac% at four she was going up the wall with worry.6
6*6m s"sorry,6 Angel stammered. 6* meant to &e &ac% an hour ago,
&ut *8* was delayed. Leonora and * must have got our wires
crossed. * didn6t realise she was epecting me &ac% here for lunch.
* thought if * came &ac% at teatime it would &e 5uite soon enough.6
6*f she hadn6t had one of her migraines, she wouldn6t have let you
out of her sight this morning,6 he said curtly.
6* don6t %now why not... * can cross the street &y myself. *6ve &eendoing it for years.6
6Not in $ang%o% you haven6t. This town is famous for its &rothels...
thinly disguised as massage parlours. There6s more prostitution
here than in any city in the East.6
6+o there may &e,6 Angel retorted. 6$ut *6ve never heard that theya&duct female tourists. The only man who6s touched me today is
you8and you6re hurting my arm.6
6*6m sorry.6 )e released his grip. +till loo%ing seriously displeased
&ut no longer &oiling over, he said curtly, 6The first thing to do is to
let Leo %now you6re all right.6
They had the lift to themselves, &ut neither of them spo%e. Angel
%new she was at fault for arriving &ac% after Charles instead of
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&efore him. *n similar circumstances Ludo would have &een
annoyed with her. $ut he wouldn6t have &la#ed at her in pu&lic, or
gra&&ed her arm roughly enough to &ruise it. )e had never &een a
hot"tempered man, or never within her memory. $ut of course he
had &een old, half a century older than the tall tight"lipped man
&eside her.
$y the time they stepped out of the lift into the luuriously
appointed corridor leading to the suites, she had pulled herself
together and, &ut for one thing, would have &een ready to eplain
and apologise. /hat stopped her saying she was sorry was
Leonora6s part in this upset. +he had lied to Charles. +he hadn6t &een epecting Angel to return at lunchtime, and nor had she &een
distraught with aniety, or only to the etent that he would have
&lamed her if something &ad had happened. *n her heart she
wouldn6t have cared. To Charles6s flam&oyant girlfriend, Angel
%new she was nothing &ut a nuisance.
The older woman was not in the sitting"room when they enteredthe suite. $ut the &edroom door was open, and Charles called out,
6*t6s all right.. .she6s &ac%. End of panic:6
)e was on his way to the &edroom when Leonora appeared in the
doorway. +he was wearing a clinging green ro&e and no lipstic%,
which altered her appearance enough to ma%e a man thin% she was
pale and distraught. $ut her eyes were made up, Angel noticed. At
dinner last night she had studied the way Leonora did her eyes and
she could see that an e5ually s%ilful com&ination of shadows had
&een applied &etween her eye&rows and upper lashes today, with
some shading under her lower lashes.
6Oh, what a relief: 1ou6re O0,6 Leonora eclaimed. 6/here haveyou &een, for 9od6s sa%e( *6ve &een &iting my nails to the 5uic%,
imagining all %inds of horrors. *t6s really too &ad of you, Angel: *f
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you wanted to stay out all day, why didn6t you leave a message(
1ou must %now how to use a pay"phone, don6t you(6
Angel saw that she had two choices and must ma%e a 5uic%
decision &etween them. +he could contest Leonora6s story a&out
epecting her &ac% for lunch, or she could let her get away with it./hat would &e gained &y showing her up as a liar( Nothing.
Charles might not &elieve the truth and having her veracity
challenged would only ma%e Leonora even more hostile. *t was
&etter to say nothing.
6*6m sorry if you were worried... &ut glad to see that your nail" &iting was only metaphorical. *t would have &een a pity to spoil
your nails on my account,6 she said, with a glance at the long coral"
varnished nails spread on Leonora6s upper arms as she stood with
her arms folded, a posture which also made the most of the eye"
catching cleavage displayed in the 3 of the green ro&e.
Leonora6s mouth thinned and her fingers curled, ma%ing her pointed nails loo% even more li%e shiny claws. 61ou don6t give a
damn, you little "6
6Leo:6 Charles cut in sharply.
or an instant the glare which had &een focused on Angel was
swivelled in his direction. Then she turned and stal%ed &ac% to the &edroom, slamming the door.
Charles loo%ed pained. 61ou6d &etter go to your room,6 he said,
loo%ing coldly at Angel. 6'erhaps when you 7oin us for dinner
tonight you6ll have the grace to apologise properly.6
)e didn6t follow Leonora into the &edroom &ut crossed the room to
the glass doors giving on to the suite6s private terrace. Angel
watched him go to the &alustrade and stand with his hands on the
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top rail. +he wondered if he was regretting ta%ing her under his
wing.
/hen, at a few minutes to seven, she made her way &ac% to thesuite, the mirrored walls of the lift showed several changes in the
demure appearance they had reflected the night &efore.
Tonight she loo%ed at least two years older, Angel thought, with
satisfaction. )er hair was up, with a silver ri&&on threaded through
its coils. *n place of the discreet pearl studs, silver earrings li%e
crescent moons swung from the lo&es of her ears, and her eyes and
lips were carefully made up. +he hadn6t used as much paint as
Leonora did &ecause she %new it would loo% wrong on her. This
time the lipstic% she had &ought wasn6t a &right, hard red &ut a soft
papaya"toned pin%, and instead of choosing the &lue shadow from
the palette of si colours in her new eye ma%e"up %it, she had used
the merest dusting of green powder"shadow on her lids with dar% &lue mascara8&ut not much8 &rushed on her upper lashes. The
idea for &lueing her lashes had come from a close"up photograph
of the 'rincess of /ales on the cover of a maga#ine someone had
thrown away a couple of years ago and she had %ept.
As she was wal%ing along the corridor to Charles6s suite,
wondering how he and Leonora would react to her new loo%, shemet an elderly couple leaving one of the other suites.
*t seemed polite to smile and say good evening. A few moments
later she was astonished to hear the woman say to her hus&and,
6*sn6t that girl the image of 'rincess Di: or a moment * thought it
was her.6
*t had never occurred to Angel &efore, &ut perhaps, &eing tall and
slender, with a similar &ump on the &ridge of her nose and chee%s
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which formed dimples when she grinned, she did &ear a slight
resem&lance to the 'rincess. Especially now that her hair was up.
Cheered that someone could mista%e her, even for a second, for the
glamorous Diana, she pressed the door"&ell.
This time it was Leonora who opened the door, &ut she didn6t show
any reaction to Angel6s new loo% &ecause she opened it without
even chec%ing that it was Angel who had rung.
Nor did Charles, who was fiing drin%s, loo% round when Angel
followed Leonora into the sitting"room.
*t was only when she said, 6Charles has told me to apologise
properly for upsetting you, Leonora,6 that they &oth turned to loo%
at her. 6*f * really did worry you, then * &eg your pardon,6 she went
on. 6* had no intention of &eing late. * was tal%ing to someone
interesting and didn6t notice the time passing.6
Leonora6s eye&rows had risen at the sight of the upswept hairdo
and the earrings. )er epression as she too% in the changes wasn6t
approving. /hat Charles thought it was impossi&le to tell.
6/ho were you tal%ing to(6 he as%ed.
6One of the doormen... the young one. /e met in a mar%et in theChinese 5uarter. )is name is Cham. )e grew up in a slum called
0long Toey. )e was telling me a&out it, and also eplaining the
tones used in spea%ing Thai. )e says it6s difficult for /esterners to
learn the correct tones &ecause we put feelings8such as dou&t or
disli%e8into our words. To spea% Thai properly you must never
allow any emotion to enter your voice.6
6And later on he offered to ta%e you to a factory selling gemstones
at wholesale prices, * suppose(6 said Leonora.
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6)e never mentioned gemstones. /hy should he(6
6$ecause that6s the usual reason for Thais &eing friendly to
foreigners. They6re touting for 7ewellery wor%shops who give them
a small commission on whatever is &ought.6
6Cham wasn6t touting. )e thought * might have lost my &earings
and offered to wal% me &ac% to the hotel. On the way we stopped
for a cold drin%, and that6s when he gave me a language lesson
which was so interesting that * forgot the time.6
6)e may thin% you6re here for several days and &elieve in ta%ing his
time to get to the o&7ect of the eercise. 1ou can &et your life there
is one,6 was Leonora6s cynical reply.
Tonight she was wearing the pleated evening s%irt with a vivid
green se5uinned top. Convinced that Cham6s friendliness had had
no ulterior motive, &ut not wishing to argue with her, Angel said
politely, 6/hat a lovely colour your top is.6
6Than% you.6 Leonora6s response was mechanical and she didn6t
reciprocate with a favoura&le remar% on Angel6s appearance. *f it
hadn6t &een for the comment of the woman in the corridor, Angel
would have &egun to feel that instead of improving her loo%s she
had only succeeded in ma%ing a guy of herself.
)owever, when they went to the restaurant, she sensed from the
way other people loo%ed at her that, even if Charles and Leonora
were unimpressed, she did loo% &etter tonight.
*t was after they had decided what to eat and Charles had chosen
the wine that he said, 61ou have a new watch, * see.6
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61es, * realised last night that my everyday watch loo%s wrong with
this dress. This watch * &ought today was very cheap from a stall
in the street.6
6*t6s a copy of an epensive Cartier watch,6 he told her. 6*f this were
London, * dou&t if anyone would guess it wasn6t the real thing. A 7eweller would %now as soon as he opened it, of course. *t will &e
interesting to see how well the gold"plating wears.6
6* thought you disapproved of &uying pirated things, Charles,6 said
Leonora. 61ou wouldn6t let me &uy those cassettes * wanted last
time we were here.6
61ou %new they were pirated &y the price &eing as%ed for them.
Angel chose this watch &ecause it appealed to her, not &ecause she
recognised it as a clever copy of one of the current status sym&ols.
$y the way, you said you had two good ideas for what to do when
you get to England, Angel. /hat are they(6
6Oh, yes8well, the first thing * want to do is to get my
yachtmaster6s certificate, which shouldn6t &e difficult. And then *
thought *6d ta%e a course in coo%ing. * can do all the &asic stuff, &ut
*6d li%e to %now how to ma%e some of the fancy dishes they serve
in places li%e this.6
6/ith what o&7ect(6
6$etter catering if * go in for chartering seriously. 1our guests will
want good food, won6t they( Even if you ta%e them ashore to eat a
lot of the time, they6ll still need some meals on &oard, and they
might as well &e good ones.6
6* agree, and * thin% those are &oth very sensi&le suggestions,6 said
Charles. 6Do you %now how to go a&out getting your yachtmaster6s
certificate( Did your grandfather have one(6
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6)e got his years ago, &efore his first long voyage. * thin% * may
have to wait for my eighteenth &irthday to get mine8*6m not sure
a&out that.6
61ou could pass for nineteen tonight,6 he said, with a smile. 6/here
did you have your hair done( *n the salon downstairs(6
6Oh, no, * did it myself.6
6-eally( Turn your head a moment. Let me see the &ac%.6
Angel o&eyed.
6*t loo%s most professional to me. Don6t you thin% so, Leo(6
61es, it does,6 Leonora agreed. 6$ut * epect Angel has put it up
&efore. 9irls of her age spend hours eperimenting with hair and
ma%e"up. * did myself in my teens.6 +he smiled across the ta&le.
6Living alone with your grandfather, inevita&ly you6ve missed a lot
of the fun that6s normal and right for your age group8pop music,
discos, discussing Life with your peers, first dates. Never mind,
you6ll &e a&le to catch up when you get to England.6
Angel was a&out to reply that she had heard plenty of pop on other
people6s radios and it didn6t appeal to her as much as the classical
music she had grown up with, &ut Charles spo%e first.
6* thin% Angel has &ypassed that stage of life. Not everyone goes
through it. At eighteen * didn6t spend my evenings at discos. * was
studying.6
61ou were eceptionally clever and serious"minded. 1ou can6t
compare yourself with ordinary people. *6m sure, if she6s truthful,Angel will admit that she would have li%ed to come nightclu&&ing
with us last night8or, &etter still, gone to a disco with the young
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man who chatted her up this afternoon. * %now more a&out teenage
girls than you do, Charles. *6ve &een one.6 Another smile with a
hint of conspiracy in it flashed across the ta&le at Angel. 6All this
etra glamour tonight8the hairdo, the earrings, the &lue mascara
8are for Cham6s &enefit, not ours. And perhaps also for the
handsome young +wiss at -eception.6
Angel had noticed that there was a tall fair"haired man among the
Thais who staffed the des% in the lo&&y. *t would have &een
impossi&le not to. $ut the idea that she had put up her hair to
impress him or Cham was so far"fetched that it too% her &reath
away. +he had put it up for Charles. As the truth of the matter struc% her8a truth she had not &een aware of until this moment8
a rush of warmth flooded her face.
6There, you see, she6s &lushing,6 said Leonora. 6*6ve only noticed the
+wiss &oy, &ut * epect the hotel is full of attractive young men
who would li%e to ma%e a date with Angel if only she were here
longer. Never mind, when we get to London *6ll ma%e a point of introducing you to aggie, Angel. +he6s a 7unior girl in my office
who really has a &all in her spare time. Once you6re in her set you
won6t have a minute to spare8or a dull one:6
Angel clim&ed into &ed and turned out the lights. $ut she didn6t liedown. +he sat with her %nees pulled up and her arms clasped round
them, loo%ing out at the moonlit river flowing endlessly seawards,
reminding her of the untrou&led life she had led &efore her
grandfather6s &rief illness.
*f it had happened a day earlier or a day later, they would have &een somewhere else when he died and she wouldn6t &e here now.
)er life would &e going in a different direction towards a
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completely different future. +he wouldn6t %now that a man called
Charles Thetford eisted.
*nstead of which she was sitting up in &ed, watching the flow of
the Chao 'hraya and facing the fact that she had fallen headlong in
love with a man who was forever out of reach. )e was older. )ewas a financial genius. )e had a 7ealous mistress.
/hy Leonora should &e 7ealous of someone who had no hope of
stealing Charles from her was a pu##le. 'erhaps she had foreseen
that Angel would fall for him and that alone was enough to ma%e
her hostile. Tonight, at dinner, she had done her &est to ma%eAngel loo% gauche, and she had succeeded.
The net night was spent flying to London, leaving $ang%o% at
one minute to midnight on a non"stop flight to )eathrow which
would land at five minutes past si the following morning, localtime, after twelve hours in the air.
Leonora had ta%en a sleeping pill, and as soon as the plane was
air&orne she put plugs in her ears, covered her eyes with a &lac%
sil% mas% and settled down under a soft vicuna &lan%et, having
instructed the stewardess that she wasn6t to &e distur&ed until
&rea%fast was served.
+he had had dinner at the hotel, &ut Charles preferred to dine in
flight, and while Leonora was having a normal dinner he and
Angel had eaten only a small omelette and a side salad to stave off
hunger until their Thai Airways dinner was served &etween
midnight and one.
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As on the flight from $ali, Angel had a free seat &eside her, and to
give Leonora as little distur&ance as possi&le, Charles came and sat
net to Angel for dinner and stayed &eside her to watch the movie.
+he must have fallen asleep &efore it was over. /hen she wo%e
she was covered &y a &lan%et and Charles had gone &ac% to theother side of the aisle and was reading &y a thin &eam of light from
a&ove his head. All the main lights had &een turned off, leaving
7ust enough illumination for people to find their way to the heads if
necessary.
Angel turned on her side and watched him, thin%ing that he loo%eda lot li%e photographs of Ludo as a young man when his hair had
&een &lac% instead of white, and his s%in still taut over high
chee%&ones and a strongly"mar%ed 7awline.
Ludo had &een twenty"nine when he met Eva at a &all during her
first season as a de&utante. )e had married her the following year,
soon after her nineteenth &irthday. *n spite of the difference in their ages, they had &een perfect for each other. /asn6t it possi&le that
&y the time she was nineteen she, Angel, could have made herself
into someone worthy of Charles( Leonora wasn6t right for him.
There was a core of hardness in her. -elaed in sleep, her mouth
had a petulant droop. And how could Charles li%e &eing caressed
&y those too"long, too"pointed nails( Talons, Ludo would have
called them.
Charles turned his head and caught her watching him. )e leaned
out of his seat, his long &ody ena&ling him to spea% to her without
distur&ing those around them.
6Can6t you sleep( /ould you li%e a glass of water(6
+he shoo% her head. 6No, than% you.6
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)e smiled at her, the warm smile which transformed his face and
made her insides turn over.
61ou6re not worrying a&out things, are you( There6s no need to, *
promise you.6
The net time she wo%e he was sleeping, his arms folded across
his chest, his head leaning sideways.
*n sleep his mouth didn6t ta%e on an unpleasant line. Angel found
herself wondering what it would &e li%e to &e %issed &y thatmouth. +he had no direct eperience of %issing, %nowing only
what she had read a&out it.
'utting aside the soft &lan%et which Charles or the stewardess had
tuc%ed round her last night, she found her wet pac% and went
5uietly to the washroom.
)er watch, still on $ang%o% time, showed it was a few minutes to
si. They were a&out halfway there, somewhere over the iddle
East. )ow ama#ing really, to &e &rushing one6s teeth in midair:
The others too% it for granted, &ut to her it was a miracle that all
these people and all their &aggage could &e transported in the
space of a night over mountains and deserts and oceans from oneside of the world to the other.
As she returned to the ca&in, a man rose from his seat and then
waited to let her pass. )e loo%ed tired and in need of a shave.
6* wish * loo%ed li%e you after four hours6 sleep, young lady,6 he
said, as she smiled at him.
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Ten minutes later Charles wo%e, fleed his shoulders and arms, ran
a hand over his stu&&le"shadowed 7aw and stood up.
69ood morning,6 he mouthed at Angel, &efore disappearing in the
direction she had come from.
)e came &ac% ten minutes later, his chin with its slight centre dent
now smooth again, his hair &rushed and the shirt he had slept in
replaced with a clean one.
6*6ll sit &y you, if you don6t mind( They won6t serve &rea%fast till
eight. /ould you li%e some fruit 7uice or coffee(6 )e pressed the
&ell to summon a steward or stewardess.
)ad they &een flying in the opposite direction, it would have &een
day&rea% &y now with a &eautiful eastern dawn to watch as they
dran% their coffee. $ecause they were travelling west, the s%y
outside was still dar% when the &rea%fast menus were &rought
round and a stewardess gently roused Leonora.
To Angel6s surprise she didn6t spea% to Charles nor he to her &efore
she went to the washroom. They said good morning when she
reappeared, freshly made up and &ringing with her an aura of some
heavy scent which wasn6t as pleasant to Angel6s nostrils as the light
spicy lotion he used.
A low cloud &ase prevented her seeing the lights of 9reater
London as they came in to land at )eathrow. A tai too% them to
the centre of the city. *t was raining, and the wet lamplit streets
seemed strangely deserted compared with the &ustle of $ang%o%.
6/e must &e mad to live here,6 said Leonora morosely, loo%ing out
at the early wor%ers scurrying along with hunched shoulders and
um&rellas. 6And no dou&t * shall find a stac% of pro&lems on my
des% when * get to the office.6
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Angel had heard Charles give two addresses to the driver, the first
&eing Leonora6s flat and the second his aunt6s house. +he was
&eginning to feel apprehensive that his aunt might not li%e having
an un%nown girl foisted on to her.
/hen the tai stopped for the first time, Charles sprang out,carrying Leonora6s flight &ag and offering a hand to help her
alight.
)er farewell to Angel was a casual, 69ood&ye6, offhand to the point
of rudeness.
/hile the tai driver unloaded the &ul% of the luggage and dumped
it on the step of the house to &e carried inside &y Charles, Angel
huddled in her corner of the &ac% seat, inclined to agree with
Leonora that anyone who had a choice must &e mad to live in this
land of cold, dar%, wet winter mornings.
+he wasn6t physically cold &ecause the tai was heated and &eforethey left the airport Charles had made her put on a sweater he had
o&viously intended to wear himself, a sweater made of wool even
softer than the vicuna &lan%et. *t was nervousness which made her
shiver as she waited for him to re7oin her. +he wished he was
ta%ing her to his house. Already, after less than a wee% in his
company, she dreaded &eing separated from him. /hat if his aunt
turned out to &e li%e Leonora and too% an instant disli%e to her(
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C)A'TE- +*H
'CHARLES, my dear &oy: *t6s always a pleasure to see you8even
at half"past seven on a fiendish morning.6
As the woman who had opened the door greeted her nephew,Angel6s first thought a&out her was that she could have &een
Ludo6s sister.
Tall, thin, white"haired and weather&eaten, she was wearing 7eans
and a navy &lue seaman6s sweater over a mannish chec% shirt. $ut
her &ony wrists 7ingled with feminine silver &racelets as she lifted
her arms to hug Charles and %iss him on &oth chee%s, and a long
deep pin% *ndian sil% scarf was wound round her nec% with a
spar%ling &rooch pinned to the %not of the &ow in which it was tied
at the front.
6And this is your protBgBe,6 she said, turning to smile at Angel.
6Evangeline, shortened to Angel,6 said Charles. 6Angel, this is my
Aunt Dorothea...iss Thetford.6
6Never mind the iss Thetford. Call me Dorothea, dear child. Oh,
how young you are8 and how &eautiful:6 *nstead of sha%ing
hands, his aunt stro%ed Angel6s chee% with a gentle fingertip.
61ou6ll never &elieve it, &ut once * had chee%s li%e yours. 'eacheslong since turned to prunes. Never mind, it6s not so &ad &eing
ancient if one has one6s health and a consuming passion to %eep
one lively. Come inside out of the cold.6
+he ushered them inside and led the way down a long hall to the
&ac% of the house.
6This is my %itchen"cum"living"room"cum"studio"cum"garden"
room... the heart of the house,6 she eplained to Angel, as they
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6/hat lovely cups,6 she said, lifting a large red"rimmed cup of
mil%y coffee to her lips.
6* &ought them in rance,6 said iss Thetford. 6The rench ma%e
the world6s &est &rea%fast cups, and this ta&lecloth comes from a
shop in Aries in the south. As you see, *6m a magpie...a compulsivecollector. y house is full of souvenirs of my travelsF &ut * never
&uy things made for the souvenir trade. Those are invaria&ly
hideous, as * dare say you6ve noticed. * can6t a&ide %nic%"%nac%s.6
Angel had heard %ippers etolled &y Ludo, &ut had never tasted
one &efore &ecause, according to him, a %ipper out of a tin was ana&omination not to &e compared with the genuine article straight
from the smo%e"house.
The %ippers grilled &y iss Thetford, and served on heagonal
plates of deep green earthenware, a perfect foil for the coppery
colour of the fish, were indeed delicious. $ut they made Angel
thin% of her grandfather and of Sea Fever, now so far away.
After &rea%fast Charles called another tai.
6+hall we see you tonight(6 as%ed his aunt.
)e shoo% his head. 6No, &ut *6ll try to loo% in tomorrow.6
After he had gone, iss Thetford showed Angel the room she was
to occupy. *t was at the top of the house and there was a large
&lac% cat asleep on the &ed.
This is 4aco&. Turn him out if you don6t li%e cats. There are plenty
of other places for him to snoo#e.6
6Oh, &ut * do,6 said Angel. 6iss Thetford, it6s terri&ly %ind of you
to ta%e me in li%e this. *6m not at all happy a&out imposing on you.6
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6y dear, it6s no imposition. *6m delighted to have you. * don6t see
enough of young people. $eing unmarried, *6m in danger of miing
only with my own generation. /hen Charles was at university and
living with me in the vacations, * used to en7oy entertaining his
friends.6
6/hy did he live with you(6
6)e has never got on with his stepmother whom he suspected, *
thin% with 7ustification, of marrying his father for money. Charles6s
mother died when he was &orn. Two years later my younger
&rother, who is dead now, married again, &ut +ylvia couldn6t havechildren and she wasn6t interested in her predecessor6s child.
Charles was loo%ed after &y a nanny and sent away to school at the
earliest possi&le age. any of his holidays were spent with me. *
should have li%ed to have children, &ut unfortunately the man *
was engaged to marry was %illed in the 0orean /ar in the early
fifties. A woman with a strong mother has to &e madly in love to
give up her independence. * only felt that way once. +o Charleshas &een more li%e a son to me than a nephew.6
6$ut he doesn6t live here any more(6 said Angel, who was curious
to %now where he did live.
6No, no, he hasn6t for years. )e has a flat in the $ar&ican which is
close to the &an% where he wor%s. /e don6t see a lot of each other./e6re &oth &usy people. * suppose we meet a&out once a month.
Either he comes to one of my parties8* en7oy entertaining8or he
as%s me out to dinner. )e ta%es care of my financial affairs. /hen
* was young, * hardly made enough to live on. Lately *6ve &ecome
rather fashiona&le and can charge etremely large fees for &usts of
important men8*6ve got a Ca&inet inister coming to sit for methis morning. As you haven6t"had a proper night6s rest, why don6t
you hop into &ed for a couple of hours8read if you find you can6t
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sleep8and this afternoon we6ll see a&out %itting you out with
some cold weather clothes(6
*t seemed strange to go to &ed at nine o6cloc% in the morning, after
two lots of &rea%fast, &ut Angel felt that she ought to do as her
hostess suggested. Once she had settled under the &ag of downwhich too% the place of &lan%ets, and 4aco& had rearranged himself
and was curled against her on the outside of the 5uilt, she found
she was sleepier than she had realised. +he closed her eyes,
listening to the cat6s rhythmic purring, and wondering if Charles
had slept here when he was an undergraduate.
On the morning of her eighteenth &irthday, Angel was wo%en &y
the familiar sensation of 4aco&6s paws %neading her stomach. +he
opened her eyes and for a moment they stared at each other &efore
he &lin%ed and loo%ed away. *f he found her lying on her &ac%
when he came to her room after his nocturnal prowls, he always 7umped on to the &ed and stepped lightly on to her tummy.
'reviously a cat who held aloof from humans &ut who had lodged
with iss Thetford since turning up as a %itten, from the day of
Angel6s arrival 4aco& had adopted her as the person around whose
an%les he would sometimes twine himself and on whose lap he
would sit when in a lap"sitting mood.
6Tonight we6re having a party, 4aco&,6 she told him. 61ou6ll have to
stay out of the way or people will stro%e you and pet you, and you
don6t li%e that, do you(6
As she spo%e, she ru&&ed under his chin, ma%ing him purr. rom
the caresses of strangers he would wal% away, &ut hers he would
usually accept. No one, not even she, could pic% him up. )e would
s5uirm free and scamper off.
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6That cat is li%e a man who6s terrified of marriage,6 Dorothea had
once remar%ed. 6The merest hint of possessiveness and he6s off li%e
a flash.6
Angel loved the &lac% torn, &ut she didn6t intend to let him %now it.
No sooner had he folded his paws and settled down than she said,6*6m sorry, dear &oy,6 and tilted her pelvis, tipping him off her &ody.
4aco& opened his green eyes wide in a loo% of pained surprise, &ut
5uic%ly made himself comforta&le on the warm place where she
had &een lying.
Laughing, Angel went to the &athroom. Today, at last, she was a
grown"up person with all sorts of rights she hadn6t had yesterday.
And tonight, for the first time in three wee%s, she would &e seeing
Charles and wearing her &eautiful new outfit.
)e was the first to arrive. +he heard the door&ell ring as she was
stepping into her shoes.
)e had said he would come early. Angel hurried on to the landing
to catch a glimpse of him &efore he saw her. Leaning over the
&anisters, she watched Dorothea passing the curl of polished
mahogany in which the &anister rail ended three floors &elow. Afew moments later she heard them greeting each other. The tim&re
of Charles6s voice sent a little shiver through her.
6Come and have a 5uiet drin% &efore the others arrive. Angel isn6t
down yet.6
Dorothea came into view again, wearing a s%irt made from an*ndian sari with a &order of glittering threads and a plain dar% sil%
shirt which she had adorned with Tur%ish and African &eads.
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Then Charles appeared close &ehind her, his hair as thic% and
glossy as 4aco&6s fur, and as inviting to the touch. 0nowing that
she shouldn6t &e having these thoughts a&out him when he
&elonged to someone else, Angel wondered where Leonora was.
)eld up at her office and coming later, perhaps. )ow much nicer the party would &e if she weren6t coming at all: Dorothea didn6t
li%e her either. +he had never said so, &ut Angel could tell. )is
aunt was perfectly polite to Leonora whenever Charles &rought her
to the house, &ut Angel had never seen her touch her, and iss
Thetford was a person who welcomed most regular visitors if not
with a hug then with &oth hands.
Angel went &ac% to her &edroom to ta%e a final loo% at herself in
the full"length mirror. +he hoped Charles wouldn6t &e offended that
she wasn6t wearing his pearls, &ut they didn6t go with her loo% for
tonight. $ecause clothes in England were very epensive
compared with prices in *ndonesia and its neigh&ouring countries,
she had had the idea of trying to ma%e what she wanted. Dorotheaowned one of the early electric sewing machines, a heavy &lac%
and gold +inger with a polished wooden cover. Although it
wouldn6t do any fancy stitches, it was ideal for Angel6s first
attempts at dressma%ing.
Tonight6s outfit had &een inspired &y a fashion photograph in
!arpers " #ueen, an epensive maga#ine which Dorothea didn6t
&uy regularly &ut of which she had this one issue &ecause it
contained photographs of the private view of her most recent
ehi&ition.
The short8very short:8evening s%irt which had caught Angel6s
eye as she loo%ed through the rest of the maga#ine had &een madein the wor%rooms of an *talian designer and cost nearly a thousand
pounds.
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The s%irt she had made for the party had cost the price of a $ogue
paper pattern and a reel of sil% thread to match the material, which
had started life as an evening 7ac%et worn &y Charles6s
grandmother in the Thirties. Dorothea had %ept it after her mother
died &ecause it was made of &eautiful damson and gold &rocade.
)aving worn it herself several times, she had offered it to Angel
for her party s%irt.
/ith the s%irt, which had a wide tight waist&and and pleats to mid"
thigh, she was wearing a &lac% leotard, &lac% tights and a pair of
inepensive &lac% suede shoes, with low Louis heels, to which she
had added &ows made from the damson &rocade with an iron"onstiffener. The leotard had a scooped"out nec%line which had called
for some sort of filling, &ut not Charles6s pearls. *n the end,
inspired &y a portrait of an eighteenth"century rench &eauty in a
low"cut dress with a frilled sil% cho%er, Angel had made a dou&le
frill of &lac% lace attached to a &lac% velvet ri&&on which tied in a
&ow at the &ac%.
/ith her hair, washed that afternoon, piled on top of her head, she
felt she had achieved the effect she wanted8young, a %a &ode,
and su&tly sey. $ut whether Charles would approve remained to
&e seen.
)er heart &eating faster than usual, she ran down the stairs to find
out.
)e and his aunt were in the conservatory. /ith the chairs removed
and the plants grouped more closely together, it provided enough
space for dancing to taped music and tonight loo%ed especially
pretty with the roof lit &y strings of tiny green lights li%e fireflies.
6Ah, here she is. 1ou loo% delightful, Angel,6 said Dorothea, as she
7oined them.
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Did Charles agree( *t was hard to tell. )is enigmatic grey ga#e
too% in the frill, the long"sleeved, low"nec%ed leotard, the short
s%irt, the sheer &lac% tights. $ut he made no comment, saying only,
6any happy returns of the day.6
6Than% you.6
)e too% from his inside poc%et an envelope and handed it to her.
On it was written, 6To Angel from Charles. )appy &irthday.6
+he had wondered if he would give her another present and had
thought that he pro&a&ly would. $ut what could this &e( A che5ue(
A &oo% to%en(
*t turned out to &e a voucher for a course of driving lessons. +he
loo%ed up at him, her eyes shining with pleasure.
6)ow %ind and generous you are:6
*mpulsively she reached up to %iss him and Charles inclined his
tall head to receive the 5uic% &rush of her lips on his lean chee%.
6Everyone should %now how to drive. )ow are your coo%ery
classes going(6
61ou6ll find that out later. +he6s prepared tonight6s &uffet almostsingle"handed,6 said his aunt. 6And she made that very fetching
s%irt. +he6s a clever girl who seems to &e a&le to turn her hand to
anything. 9ive her some &u&&ly, Charles.6
At this point the door&ell rang and Dorothea went to answer it.
6/e thought of starting the &uffet at half past eight. /hat time willLeonora &e here(6 as%ed Angel, as he handed her a glass of
champagne.
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saying, 6Ladies and gentlemen, shall we drin% a toast to the girl
whose &irthday we6re cele&rating( +ome of you have met Angel
for the first time tonight, &ut those of us who have %nown her
longer feel that she6s a rather special person, partly &ecause of her
unusual up&ringing &ut also &ecause of certain innate 5ualities. *
%now you will want to 7oin me in wishing her a long and happy
life.6
)e loo%ed across the room to where she was standing and raised
his glass. 6To Angel... may all your dreams come true.6
*f only he %new what her most important dream was: she thought,as they dran% to her.
Clearing her throat, she said shyly, 6Than% you very much...
everyone. And than% you also for your presents. All the &irthdays *
can remem&er have &een happy days, &ut *6ve never had so many
presents or a large party &efore. *6d li%e to say a special than% you
to Dorothea for ta%ing me into her house and ma%ing me sowelcome and comforta&le, and to Charles for &ringing me to
England. They6ve &oth &een incredi&ly %ind, and if all my dreams
do come true it will &e largely due to them for helping me.6 +he
raised her own glass which at the moment contained &itter lemon.
6To Dorothea and Charles8my two %ind &enefactors.6
+he smiled first at iss Thetford and then at her nephew,wondering if it were possi&le that, one day, he would ma%e that
most important dream come true &y returning her love for him.
6That was a charming little speech you made in reply to Charles6s
toast,6 said Dorothea, some hours later when the last guests,
including Charles, had gone home and the two of them weredrin%ing hot chocolate as a nightcap. 6/as it entirely impromptu,
or had you rehearsed it(6
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Angel shoo% her head. 6* didn6t %now he was going to propose a
toast. )e6s told you a&out Leonora(6
61es, and * can6t say *6m sorry their liaison has come to an end. *6ve
always suspected that her chief interest in Charles was the same as
+ylvia6s in his father. +ylvia wasn6t a career"woman, &ut 7ust &ecause a woman has achieved success on her own, it doesn6t
mean she wouldn6t rather have a man to pic% up the &ills. * may &e
doing her an in7ustice, &ut *6ve always felt that Leonora was a ta%er
rather than a giver, and what Charles needs is someone who will
love him for himself, not for the luurious life he can provide. All
the clearing up can wait till the morning. Off you go to your &ed,dear child. * must stop calling you that now you6re eighteen,
mustn6t *(6
6* li%e it,6 said Angel. 6* should li%e you calling me dear child if *
were twenty"five.6
6*t6s a pity "6 iss Thetford stopped short and left the remar% unfinished. 6* shall set my alarm for an hour later in the morning.
*6m getting too old to &urn the candle at &oth ends.6
/hat had she intended to say( Angel wondered, as she undressed.
It's a pity you're not could that have &een the thought she had
chosen not to epress( /as it possi&le Dorothea guessed how she
felt a&out Charles(
/ithout Leonora in his life, Charles came to see them more often
than he had &efore. +everal times, as the spring advanced, he drove
them into the country for lunch on +unday.
)e also too% them to the theatre where, during the intervals, Angel
saw girls and women eyeing him with interest. +he felt it could
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only &e a matter of time &efore Leonora6s successor crossed his
path.
rom what she had read, and the range of her reading had widened
since coming to London, a man accustomed to having a regular
partner wouldn6t find it easy to give up se and since Charles, shefelt sure, was too fastidious to engage in casual relations, sooner or
later he would find another semi"permanent girlfriend.
Or he might even fall in love. The thought terrified her. +he was
more or less resigned to the fact that she was too young to attract
him at present. *n a way it might have &een &etter if hisrelationship with Leonora had continued as a stopgap until Angel
had learned enough a&out life and men to arouse and hold his
interest.
Late one afternoon towards the end of April, when they were due
to meet him at seven at a concert hall, Dorothea announced that
she wasn6t feeling up to going.
6*6ve a pain in my &ac%,6 she eplained. 6* thin% * strained it this
morning when * was heaving pots around in the garden. *t6s a pity,
&ut * %now * shan6t en7oy a concert tonight. *6d rather go to &ed
early.6
Angel was torn &etween concern for Dorothea and delight at the prospect of an evening a deu( with Charles.
6/hy don6t you go to &ed now... at once,6 she suggested. *t was five
o6cloc%. 6*6ll run up and put your electric &lan%et on for you
"warmth is good for &ad &ac%s. And then *6ll ma%e you a nice
supper on a tray so that you don6t have to come downstairs again.6
6That sounds lovely,6 said Dorothea. 6* epect &y tomorrow *6ll &e as
right as rain.6
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Angel made a pan of soup, some to %eep for tomorrow and some
to put in a vacuum flas%. Then she coo%ed a small +panish
omelette which would &e good cold with a mied salad. inally
she arranged a tray which she would carry upstairs &efore she left
the house.
+he arrived at the concert hall in good time. /hen Charles 7oined
her, she eplained what had happened.
6/e rang your office in case there was someone else who could
have had Dorothea6s seat, &ut your secretary said she didn6t thin%
you6d wish to &e distur&ed.6
6No, * was in an important meeting which * particularly didn6t want
interrupted. +he gave me your message later, &ut * couldn6t thin% of
anyone * could as% to 7oin us at such short notice. 'oor Aunt D., is
she in a great deal of pain(6
6ore than she6s let on, * epect, &ut she insisted on my comingwithout her.6
6;uite rightly. +he also insisted on your coming &y tai, * hope.6
)e had told her when they first came to London that he would
prefer her to travel &y &us rather than 2nderground, and that she
was never in any circumstances to use the Tu&e late at night. $ut a5uarter to seven wasn6t late at night, and when she failed to get a
tai after five or si minutes of trying, there had seemed no harm
in using the Tu&e for a short 7ourney at an hour when it would &e
full of other people going out for the evening.
6No, * came &y Tu&e,6 she admitted.
To her dismay, Charles was furious.
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61ou %now my feelings a&out that. * don6t want you eposed to the
%ind of unpleasant incidents which could happen to a girl of your
age on her own:6
6Oh, Charles, that6s silly,6 she protested. 6Of course * wouldn6t use it
late at night, &ut what could possi&ly happen at this time of theevening(6
6Anything could happen,6 he said curtly. 6*6m not %een on your
using the 2nderground at any time of day, &ut certainly not outside
office hours. *t6s neither advisa&le nor necessary. +ome people
have to travel &y Tu&e8you don6t.6
6* had no choice. * couldn6t get a tai. A&out twenty passed me... all
full.6
61ou should have telephoned for one to pic% you up from the
house. *6m seriously annoyed with you,6 he told her sternly.
A heated retort sprang to her lips, &ut she &it it &ac%, not wanting
to ma%e matters worse. /hat had promised to &e a specially
en7oya&le evening was in danger of going awry. 'erhaps if she
accepted his censure mee%ly, his anger would pass off.
After leaving their coats in the cloa%rooms, they entered the
auditorium and were shown to their seats.
Angel was reading the notes in the programme Charles had &ought
for her when someone in the row &ehind touched her on the
shoulder. +he loo%ed round and saw a vaguely familiar face
loo%ing en5uiringly down at her from the higher level seats in that
row.
6*s your name Angel Dorset(6 the fair"haired man as%ed.
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61es, it is,6 she agreed. Then Charles6s wrath, of which she had still
&een conscious while reading the notes, was driven from her mind
as she recognised who had spo%en to her.
69ood lord, it6s Tim... )i& $olton:6
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C)A'TE- +E3EN
6* WAS fairly sure it was you, &ut you weren6t as pretty at eleven as
you are now,6 said Tim.
Then he flic%ered a glance at the man in the seat net to hers,o&viously wondering if the compliment had &een a gaffe.
Angel laughed and said, 6Than% you,6 adding, deli&erately, 6And
you weren6t as handsome. /hat fun to meet you again, Tim: Do
you live in London now(6
6Not all the time. * move around a good deal.6
+he thought it was time to introduce him to Charles. $ut &efore
she could do so, the house lights were dimmed and an epectant
hush fell over the audience.
6/e6ll tal% later,6 Tim whispered.
+he nodded and turned to face forwardF stealing a sideways glance
at Charles whose epression, in profile, loo%ed etremely
for&idding. +he was not yet forgiven for diso&eying his edict.
)ad iss Thetford &een sitting &etween them, insulating her from
the dominant male aura which always emanated from her nephew,Angel would have &een a&le to give her whole attention to the
music.
El&ow to el&ow with Charles, and with a sailing companion from
her childhood sitting immediately &ehind her, she found it
impossi&le to concentrate on the $ach concerto for two violins
&eing performed on the lighted stage.
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'resently another covert glance at Charles showed that his mouth
was less tight. The music had calmed and relaed him. According
to his aunt, it had never &een ear"&lasting deci&els of pop music
which she had had to as% him to turn down when he stayed with
her in his teens. /hat had, at times, threatened to lift the roof and
deafen the neigh&ours had &een the thunderous crescendos of $ach
and $eethoven. Classical music had poured through the house li%e
a flood tide, and so&eti&es Dorothea had gone up to the top floor
to deliver a telephone message and found her nephew conducting
the symphony which was playing.
6)e never wanted to &e a musician,6 she had told Angel. 6$ut themovement involved in vigorous conducting was another outlet for
his etraordinary energy. )e never wal%ed in those days. )e too%
the stairs four at a time8up and down8and he went everywhere
at a sprint. )e couldn6t wait to start con5uering the world and, to
an etent, he has done that, &ut * suspect that he isn6t really
satisfied with his achievements. )e wants something more and he
hasn6t yet found out what it is.6
'erhaps, thought Angel, he &lew up a&out my coming &y Tu&e
&ecause his important meeting didn6t go as well as he hoped. *t was
easy to forget that Charles was involved in deals worth millions of
pounds, regularly ma%ing decisions as vital, in a different way, as
the life"and"death decisions of surgeons. +he %new that very oftenthe 7o&s, investments and savings of thousands of people depended
on his 7udgement and he was a man who would &e conscious of
that, not one who manipulated other people6s lives without caring
a&out the effects on them.
/hen the concerto came to an end and the conductor and soloists
too% their &ows to enthusiastic applause, Angel 7oined in theclapping, &ut %new that she might as well have &een listening to
&ac%ground music on the radio.
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As the lights went up and the applause died down, she said to
Charles, 6The man who spo%e to me from the row &ehind us
crewed for my grandfather years ago. ay * introduce him(6
6$y all means.6 Charles rose from his seat and turned to appraise
Tim, who was also on his feet.
6This is Tim $olton, who sailed with us when * was eleven,6 she
said. 6Tim, this is Charles Thetford, who now owns a share of Sea
Fever.'
The two men said how do you do and shoo% hands. *t was evident
that Tim was alone as the people on either side of him were now
on their way to the &ar.
6Let6s go and have a drin%,6 Charles suggested. 6Do you crew for a
living(6 he as%ed Tim, as they moved towards the aisle.
6No, * only sail for fun,6 said Tim. 6*6m a photographer &y trade.6
6Oh, really( /hat %ind of photographer(6
6* ta%e pictures of interiors for house and garden glossies. *f you
remem&er, * was 5uite %een on photography when your
grandfather too% me on, Angel. $ut at that time it didn6t occur to
me that * might ma%e a career of it. )ow is Ludo(6
6)e died a few months ago...heart trou&le.6
6Oh, dear, *6m sorry to hear that. )e was a wonderful old guy. *6d
have li%ed to meet him again. Those si wee%s * spent with the two
of you had a &ig influence on me8you could say they changed my
life. * owe Ludo a lot.6
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$y this time they had reached the entrance to the &ar. Charles said,
6/hite wine for you, Angel( /hat can * get for you, $olton(6
6A gin and tonic, please. Can you manage three drin%s( +hall *
come with you(6
6No, no, stay and tal% to Angel.6
6*s he a relation of yours(6 as%ed Tim, when Charles had left them.
6* met him the night Ludo died when * went ashore for help.
Charles has a holiday house in $ali and luc%ily for me he
happened to &e there with some guests. Now *6m living with hisaunt in London and Sea Fever is &eing completely renovated at his
epense. The plan is for him to use her for entertaining for four
months a year and the rest of the time * shall charter.6
6* see... and what6s his line of country( +omething very rewarding
financially, &y the sound of it.6
6)e6s a consultant with Cornwall Chester. )ave you heard of
them(6
6The merchant &an%ers( /ho hasn6t( They6re a &ig noise in the
city. )e must &e seriously rich.6
61es, and seriously %ind and nice with it... and his aunt is a darling.
1ou must come and meet her. +he has the most fascinating house
*6ve ever seen8 perhaps she6d let you photograph it.6
Tim laughed. 6* can see you %now nothing a&out my sphere of
operations: 'eople 5ueue up to have their houses photographed for
the top glossies li%e )he *or%d of Interiors, +rchitectura% Digest,and !ouse and arden. +ome go to ama#ing lengths to get their
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places in. *t6s a status sym&ol. Others, of course, wouldn6t allow us
in at any price. They regard it as an invitation to &e &urgled.6
Charles returned. *t was typical of him that instead of 7uggling
with three glasses, he was carrying them on a small tray which he
had &alanced on one palm as epertly as a waiter.
61ou can ta%e this &ac%, if you would(6 he said pleasantly to Tim.
6*6ll hold your 9 and T for you.6
6Of course, sir.6
As Tim went to return the tray, Charles pulled down his mouth in ahalf"amused grimace. 6* don6t much care for that sir. a%es me
sound fifty at least:6
6* thin% it was more in deference to your importance than your age,6
said Angel. 6)e as%ed what you did and * told him.6
6)ow old is he(6
6Twenty"five.6
)er ga#e shifted to Tim coming &ac% from the &ar. )e was not
greatly changed from the way she remem&ered him. 2nli%e
Charles, who was wearing a suit, Tim was in 7eans and a sweater, &ut the 7eans were epensive and immaculately clean and the
sweater and the shirt underneath it were &oth of ecellent 5uality.
The overall effect was casual &ut far from scruffy.
6+o what are you doing with yourself while you6re in London(6 he
as%ed her, as he re7oined than.
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+he eplained a&out the catering course, to &e followed &y a wee%
studying navigation in Devon &efore sitting for her yachtmaster6s
certificate,
6/hat a&out you, Tim( 1ou said you were only in London part of
the time. /here else are you &ased(6
6* share a flat with two other guys in Chelsea and * also have a
sta%e in an apartment in New 1or%. *t6s a slightly cra#y set"upF ten
of us paying a percentage of the rent of what6s called a loft. $ut a
lot of the time *6m on location anyway. Last month * was in the
south of +pain, ta%ing pictures of a millionaire6s pad at +otogrande,and net month *6m going to Nantuc%et, the island off Cape Cod,
for a feature on the houses &uilt &y whaling captains.6
6*t sounds an interesting life,6 said Charles.
61es, &ut it has its draw&ac%s. * can never say where *6ll &e this
time net month, and sometimes not this time net wee%. There area lot of freelance photographers competing for the choice
assignments. 1ou have to &e ready to go when and where you6re
wanted. *t can complicate life,6 Tim said wryly. 69irls don6t li%e
having dates cancelled. *6m on my own tonight &ecause the girl
who was to have come with me told me to get lost after * had to
cancel our last date.6
6)ow unfair:6 said Angel. 61ou can6t help it if your 7o& means
you6re more or less permanently on call. The Nantuc%et
assignment sounds fascinating. *t6s one of my hundred islands.
Ludo and * once made a list of a hundred islands we6d li%e to visit,
and Nantuc%et was one of them. *t came &etween usti5ue and
Oahu.6
61ou must have crossed off at least half the list already, haven6t
you(6 said Tim.
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+he nodded. 6A&out that, &ut none &etween the 9reenwich
meridian and longitude ninety west, and that6s where a lot of my
dream islands lie.6
6+uch as(6
6Oh ... To&ago ... 9renada ... the 9renadines ... all the Leewards
and /indwards, really.6
6* thin% you might find the /est *ndies less romantic than the East
*ndies,6 said Tim. 6*6ve &een to the Cari&&ean, and the islands with
the 7et airstrips li%e Antigua and $ar&ados have &een pretty heavily
commercialised in the past few years. They6re fine for people from
Europe and the northern states of the 2+ who want two wee%s in
the sun in the middle of winter. $ut they6re not li%e, for instance,
the islands in the south of Thailand which are still undeveloped, or
were when you and * and Ludo were there.6
6* agree that parts of the Cari&&ean have &een over"commercialised,6 Charles put in. 6$ut * feel there must still &e
&eaches on the smaller, more remote islands where one can play
-o&inson Crusoe and loo% out to sea half epecting to see a
galleon on the hori#on or a great fleet of turtles passing &y. /hen *
was nine or ten, +ir )enry organ, who started out as a &uccaneer
and wound up as governor of 4amaica, was what is called now my
role model.6
6-eally(6 said Angel, surprised. 6* wouldn6t have epected you to
have those sort of daydreams, Charles, even as a small &oy.6
6Other people6s daydreams are often surprising,6 he said drily. 6Even
more so when they6re adults.6
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4ust then the first &ell rang. There was only one interval and Tim
said, 6*n case you want to get away 5uic%ly afterwards, may * have
your telephone num&er, Angel( *6d li%e to %eep in touch this time.6
6Of course, &ut * haven6t anything to write it on.6
6* have.6 rom the &ac% poc%et of his 7eans, Tim produced a
&illfold. )e too% from it a card which he gave to her. 6That6s my
num&er, and if r Thetford has a pen * can &orrow, *6ll 7ot down
yours.6
Charles put his hand inside his coat and &rought out his
tortoiseshell pen. +oon after Tim had returned it to him, the second
&ell rang and they returned to the auditorium.
2sually, when Charles too% his aunt and Angel out, the evening
ended with a meal in a restaurant or supper at iss Thetford6s
house. Tonight, when the concert was over, they didn6t 5ueue for a
tai li%e many of the other concert"goers. Charles had a car waiting to pic% them up.
)aving given iss Thetford6s address to the driver, dashing
Angel6s hope that the evening would end with supper a deu(, he
settled himself on the seat &eside her, stretching out his legs which
must have &een somewhat cramped during the concert.
*t was a cool night, and Angel was wearing the long straight navy
&lue cashmere and wool miture coat which iss Thetford had
advised her was the classic all"purpose coat for girls of her age to
wear as they dashed a&out London. As she crossed her legs it fell
open, revealing her opa5ue dar% tights and the hem of her 7ersey"
%nit mini"s%irt which tonight she was wearing with a matching
lam&s"wool turtlenec% and Charles6s pearls.
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+he had dressed to please him, not herself. +ince coming to
London she had realised that her legs were pro&a&ly her main
attraction from a masculine point of view. $ut, 7udging &y
Leonora6s figure, Charles6s preference was for other parts of the
female anatomy, and although she had filled out a &it lately, Angel
felt that her &reasts and hips still left much to &e desired.
'resently Charles leaned forward and closed the glass partition
&etween them and the driver.
)e said, 6* epect Tim will as% you out. Did you ever have a date
with a &oy while your grandfather was alive(6
6No, * didn6t.6
6+o *6m right in thin%ing you6re a virgin.6
Angel felt herself starting to &lush. 61es... yes.6 The first yes came
out too softly and the second too loudly.
6There was a time8&efore my time8when most girls of eighteen
were virgins, &ut now they6re not,6 said Charles. 6* read somewhere
recently that of eighty"five sith"form girls 5uestioned a&out se,
fifty"three per cent had had se &efore they were seventeen, twenty
per cent thought of se as recreational and only si per cent
thought it should &e saved for marriage. /hether such5uestionnaires are relia&le is, in my view, de&ata&le. 3ery few girls
in that age group have sufficient strength of character to give
answers which might ma%e them seem an oddity. /hat6s your
impression of the se lives of your contemporaries(6
6* don6t really %now,6 said Angel. 6ost of the girls on my course,
some of whom are older than * am, have steady &oyfriends.
/hether they sleep with them or not, * wouldn6t %now. *t6s
coo%ing, not se, we tal% a&out.6
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6* imagine so. $ut if you go out with Tim, se is something which
is &ound to crop up. ost young men of his age have the idea that
a pass is epected of them. And they don6t epect much resistance,
if any. +o it might &e a good idea to sort out your thoughts on the
matter.6
6* already have,6 said Angel. 6* thin% people should only ma%e love
with people they really care a&out. *6m not going to 7ump into &ed
with anyone unless * love them. +o you don6t have to worry a&out
me and Tim...if you were worried(6 she added 5uestioningly.
6* wouldn6t say that,6 he answered. 6$ut * do thin% your unusual &ac%ground ma%es you rather more vulnera&le to hurts and
disappointments than girls who6ve grown up in the /est. *t might
&e a good idea to ma%e your ideas clear to Tim from the outset.6
6)ow can * do that(6 she as%ed.
6Don6t let him ta%e you &ac% to the flat he shares. Don6t as% him tothe house when Aunt D.6s not around. 0eep things on a friendly
&asis. 1ou don6t have to let him even %iss you goodnight merely
&ecause he crewed for your grandfather.6
6* might en7oy it,6 she said. 6Even years ago, when nice girls didn6t
do other things, they6d &een %issed at my age. )ow long am *
supposed to wait( *t could &e years &efore my true love turns up.6
)e made no reply to that, and presently the car drew up outside
iss Thetford6s house. Charles sprang out and loo%ed up to her
windows on the second floor &efore helping Angel step out.
6No lights on. +he must &e asleep.6 )e leaned down to spea% to the
driver. 6/ait for me, will you( * won6t &e more than five minutes.6
)e straightened and loo%ed down at Angel. 69ive me your %ey.6
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*t too% her some moments to find it and then he unloc%ed the front
door and reached in to switch on the light. +tanding aside for her
to precede him into the house, he said, 6*6ll come through to the
&ac% and chec% that everything6s in order.6
Angel %new that he felt his aunt didn6t ta%e enough precautionsagainst &rea%"ins. iss Thetford6s view was that she didn6t want to
live with her windows &arred &y security grilles li%e those of some
of her neigh&ours.
As Charles led the way through to the &ig room, switching on
lights as he went, she said, 6Can6t * fi you some supper(6
6No, than%s. * have wor% to do. There6ll &e something to eat in my
fridge.6
)is flat, which she had yet to see, was %ept in order &y a daily, his
refrigerator and food cup&oards stoc%ed &y the woman who
organised the directors6 lunches at the &an%.
)aving satisfied himself that the ground floor was as she had left
it, he said, 6Now come and see me out. *6ll give Aunt D. a call in
the morning.6
On the way &ac% to the front door Angel than%ed him for the
concert.
6y pleasure,6 said Charles.
/ith his hand on the door%no&, he turned and gave her the
thoughtful loo% she could never fathom.
69oodnight, Angel. +leep well.6
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this morning and with whom * am a&out to start my honeymoon.
Come up here and ta%e a &ow, darling.6
or some moments after wa%ing, Angel remained aglow with the
7oy she had felt at his announcement. Then, as the reality of the
dream faded, she remem&ered what had happened in the hall and &egan to ponder whether Charles had %issed her solely for the
reason he had given or partly &ecause he had wanted to.
The net evening Tim rang up.
6There wasn6t enough time to tal% last night. * wondered if you6d
li%e to come out for a meal tonight(6
6*6m sorry, Tim, *6m &usy tonight.6
6* %new it was pretty short notice. /hen do you have a night free(6
6Er.. .not this wee%, *6m afraid. /hen is your trip to Nantuc%et(6
)e gave her the dates.
Angel said, 6/hy not ring me when you come &ac%(6
6*6ll do that. 0eep a night free for me.6
+he avoided committing herself. +he could have gone out with him
tonight, &ut she had the feeling that it might &e &etter, if Charles
said, 6)as Tim called you yet(6 to &e a&le to say, 61es, and he as%ed
me out, &ut * said * was &usy.6
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CHAPTER EIGHT
'MM ... this is de%icious-' said Angel, after her first taste of the
pi##a she and Tim were sharing in a &ooth of Chelsea6s newest
pi##eria.
+he cut off another chun% with the edge of her for% and put it in
her mouth, closing her eyes the &etter to savour the inspired
com&ination of crispy dough, melted cheese and hot, her&y
Neapolitan sauce.
A sudden flash of &right light made her give a startled &lin%.
6* couldn6t resist snapping the ecstatic loo% on your face,6 said Tim,
grinning and putting down his camera.
)e carried it with him at all times. Everywhere he went he too%
photographs of people, of &uildings, of interesting details which
Angel, although she was o&servant, wouldn6t have noticed if hehadn6t drawn her attention to them.
This was the third time she had &een out with him. The first time
they had gone to a movie and had a Chinese meal afterwards. The
second time they had spent a whole +unday together, Tim showing
her parts of London she would not have discovered &y herself,
with lunch at a pu& and, in the evening, a ta%eaway curry supper for three at iss Thetford6s house.
Dorothea had li%ed Tim. 63ery nice manners and a good sense of
humour,6 had &een her opinion of him, reminding Angel that her
grandfather had made a similar comment long ago.
6The night we met, at the concert, you said that crewing for Ludohad changed your life. /hat did you mean(6 she as%ed.
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+o far they had tal%ed mainly a&out the present and future and not
done much reminiscing a&out the voyage on Sea Fever. 'erhaps
Tim had hesitated to spea% of it in case memories of her
grandfather were still un&eara&ly painful to her. At times it did hurt
to realise she would never see him again, &ut in general the happy
memories salved the aching sense of loss.
62p to that point * hadn6t &een sure that my father wasn6t right to &e
furious with me for slac%ing at school and not getting the Os and
As * needed for a +ervice commission. $ut Ludo could see life
from &oth sides. )e6d &een a worldly success and he6d thrown all
that up for a roving life a&oard Sea Fever. )e told me that if he hadhis life over again, he wouldn6t have gone in for law. That was his
father6s influence. /hen he left school what he secretly wanted to
do was to wor% his passage round the world.6
6*f he6d done that, he wouldn6t have met my grandmother or, if he
had, he would never have got her parents6 permission to marry her,6
said Angel.
6)e6d have met someone else,6 said Tim. 61ou don6t &elieve there6s
only one person in the world to &e happy with, do you(6
6*6m not sure. Dorothea never met anyone else she wanted to marry
after her fiancB was %illed.6
6ay&e she saw that it would &e &etter for her, as an artist, not to
&e &othered with a hus&and and children. 9etting married isn6t
o&ligatory8it6s a choice people ma%e. That6s what Ludo made me
see. That life is a matter of choices and you don6t have to do what
everyone else does or what other people thin% you should do. 1ou
have to sit down and decide what you want for yourself.6
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6$ut people can6t always have what they want. *t6s no use wanting
to &e a &allet dancer if you6re too tall, or a champion s%ier if you
grow up in i7i.6
6That6s right,6 Tim agreed. 6The first thing is to distinguish &etween
cra#y pipe"dreams and practical possi&ilities.6
Angel sipped the glass of red wine he had ordered to go with the
pi##a. or several days after Charles had %issed her goodnight,
wanting to spend the rest of her life with him had seemed a
practical possi&ility. Tonight it seemed a cra#y pipe"dream.
As Tim wal%ed her home she wondered if, when they got there, he
would give her a goodnight %iss. +o far he had shown no sign of
feeling that a pass was epected of him. +he wondered if he might
have &een seriously fond of the girl who had cut him out of her life
and he wasn6t ready for another relationship yet. +o far his manner
towards Angel had &een that of an older &rother.
6*6ll see you on riday, right(6 he said, when they came to her door.
And that, with a friendly pat on the shoulder, was how he said
goodnight.
Dorothea was ma%ing pastry. +he did things when the mood too%
her and 5uite often started coo%ing for the free#er late at night. +he
was not on her own. Charles was sitting at the other end of the%itchen ta&le. )e stood up as Angel came into the room. /asn6t it
7ust her luc% that he should finally show up on a night when she
was out with Tim, she thought veedly.
6)ello,6 he said. 6)ow are you(6
6ine, than%s. )ow are you(6
6*6m 7ust &ac% from $arcelona.6
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6$earing gifts,6 said his aunt. 6Loo% at what he6s &rought me. *sn6t it
lovely(6
)er hands &eing floury, she nodded her head at the &ench on which
lay a stylish &louson of dar% red leather.
6*t6s gorgeous,6 said Angel, feeling the soft, supple teture.
6* chose some trousers for you. * hope they fit,6 said Charles. )e
handed her a shiny carrier &ag with the name oewe on it. *nside,
folded in tissue, were a pair of greige suede trousers.
6Oh, Charles, they6re gorgeous: )ow %ind of you.6
69o and try them on. *f they don6t fit, there6s a &ranch of oewe in
$ond +treet where *6m assured you can change them.6
+he ran up to her room and came down a few minutes later
wearing the trousers with a cream sweater.
6They fit perfectly. * feel li%e a million dollars in them. Than%
you... than% you very much.6
'De nada, as they say in +pain. * hear you6ve &een out with Tim
$olton. )ad a good time(6
61es, than% you. /hat were you doing in +pain, apart from
shopping for us(6
6*t was a &usiness trip. y travels aren6t as interesting as young
$olton6s,6 Charles said dismissively. 6* must go. 9oodnight, Aunt
D.6 )e %issed his aunt on the chee% and gave Angel an unsmiling
nod. 69oodnight.6
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6*6ll see you out.6 As they wal%ed along the hall, the only thing she
could thin% of to say was, 6Don6t you want to ring for a tai(6
6No, *6ll pic% one up later, &ut * want to wal% part of the way. *
haven6t had enough eercise recently.6
6Charles loo%s tired,6 said his aunt, when Angel returned to the
%itchen. 6* suppose he6ll go &ac% to that soulless flat he calls home
and wor% till two in the morning. *t6s not my idea of a rich full life.
)e needs a companion, someone to ma%e him rela and do
something more rewarding than merely ma%ing money for himself
and other people.6
6'erhaps he has a companion that we don6t %now a&out yet. +he
may have helped him to choose your 7ac%et and my trousers,6
suggested Angel.
6* dou&t that. Charles isn6t the sort of man who needs a woman to
go shopping with him, and if he had found another girlfriend hewouldn6t &e so irrita&le.6 Dorothea gave her a %een loo%. 61ou
weren6t very forthcoming a&out your date with Tim. Did you en7oy
yourself(6
6/e had a terrific pi##a.6
$ut not so terrific that it was worth not &eing here when Charlescame, thought Angel forlornly.
On Thursday Tim rang up to postpone their date &ecause he had
&een given an unepected assignment to photograph a village in
southern *taly.
6Never mind,6 Angel said philosophically.
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The truth was that she was relieved. uch as she en7oyed Tim6s
company, she would rather sit at home every night for a year than
&e out the net time Charles called.
+he was still waiting for that longed"for eventuality when she ran
into Leonora.
*t was on a +aturday morning that they came face to face in a street
near iss Thetford6s house. *t was one of those streets to &e found
all over London which are much the same as a village high street,
with a chemist, a newsagent, a florist and various other small
shops. This particular street also had two restaurants, a furrier, afashiona&le hair"dressing salon and two epensive dress shops, one
of which attracted customers from far &eyond the immediate
neigh&ourhood.
Angel had &een to the paper shop to pay Dorothea6s monthly &ill
when she saw Leonora emerging from the dress shop with a carrier
&ag and the pleased face of a woman who had 7ust &oughtsomething etremely &ecoming. $ut that epression changed when
she saw who was wal%ing towards her.
6)ello, Leonora,6 Angel said politely.
Even though Charles6s e"mistress was loo%ing daggers at her, she
felt o&liged to stop and echange a few words.
At first she thought the older woman was going to cut her dead.
$ut then Leonora6s mouth formed a patently insincere smile and
she said, 6Oh, hello, Angel... how are you(6
63ery well, than%s. And you(6
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6*6m surviving. 1ou wouldn6t epect me to &e on top of the world,
would you( Not after having my friendship with Charles wrec%ed
&y your arrival on the scene.6
6* don6t thin% * had anything to do with the ending of your
relationship,6 Angel said uncomforta&ly.
61ou don6t( * do. * thin% you had everything to do with it. /e
weren6t a&out to &rea% up before you &urst into our lives with your
&ig &lue eyes and your helpless loo%. /e6d &een together for two
years and would &e together still if it weren6t for you.6
At first Angel didn6t %now what to say. +he didn6t &elieve the
accusation was true. )ow could it &e( /hatever had &rought an
end to Charles6s liaison with this woman, it couldn6t have &een her
doing. )ow could she have wrec%ed an affair which was sound
and strong( O&viously it had &een starting to &rea% up some time
&efore that anguished night at $ali.
6* thin% you6re deceiving yourself,6 she said 5uietly.
6And you6re deceiving yourself if you thin% that Charles will ever
fall for you,6 was Leonora6s angry retort. 6* don6t suppose you %now
it yet, &ut what you are is a guinea"pig. Charles has never found a
real woman to match up to his ideal. /hen you came along he
realised he could mould you any way he wanted. That6s your attraction, my dear. 1ou6re mallea&le. )e can ma%e you fit his
&lueprint.6
6$ut * hardly ever see him,6 Angel countered.
Leonora loo%ed surprised at that. *t too% the wind out of her sails
for a moment.
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-ecovering herself, she said, 6*6ve no dou&t you eat out of his hand
when you do see him. *t was o&vious you were da##led &y him
from day one. Do you thin% * didn6t %now what that attempt to
upstage me on our second night at $ang%o% was all a&out( Of
course * did. And *6ll tell you the reason why it wor%ed. 1ou
pro&a&ly thought you loo%ed ama#ingly glamorous. /ell, you
didn6t, my dear. 1ou loo%ed li%e a little girl who6s &een trying out
her mother6s cosmetics, and Charles saw that and li%ed it.6
+he loo%ed Angel up and down and then shrugged her shoulders.
6*t may &e that, having grown up under a man6s thum&, you won6t
mind conforming to the pattern of perfection Charles has in mind.$ut 7ust ma%e sure that you never step out of line, never answer
&ac%, never argue, never want to do your own thing. $ecause if
you do, dear sweet little innocent virgin, you will find yourself
dropped the way * was.6
+he un#ipped her small shoulder &ag and rummaged inside it.
Angel thought she might &e on the verge of tears and loo%ing for atissue, &ut it was a small &unch of %eys which Leonora had
wanted.
69ive my regards to 'ygmalion when net you see him,6 she said,
in a sarcastic tone, &efore turning away to unloc% a car par%ed at
one of the meters.
Dorothea was out when Angel got &ac% to the house. +he loo%ed
up 'ygmalion in the encyclopaedia.
A legendary %ing of Cyprus who made an ivory statue
I%nown as 9alatea in modern versions of the storyJ and fell
in love with it. /hen he prayed for a wife who would &e as
&eautiful as the statue, Aphrodite Iin 9ree% mythology the
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goddess of loveJ gave the statue life and 'ygmalion married
her.
Angel closed the heavy volume and put it &ac% on the shelf. +he
didn6t %now what to thin% a&out Leonora6s em&ittered allegations.
/as there an element of truth in them( /as Charles attracted toher &ecause of her ineperience( /as he, at heart, an old"fashioned
seist who thought men and women should live &y different rules
and regretted the days when women had &een dependent and
su&servient(
+he was still wondering and worrying a&out the unpleasantencounter outside the dress shop when Dorothea returned.
6+hortly after you went out, Charles telephoned to as% us to have
dinner with him,6 said his aunt. 6* told him < was already
committed tonight &ut that you were free. )e6ll call for you at half"
past seven.6
6Did he say where we6d &e eating and what * should wear(6 Angel
as%ed, trying to sound casual.
6At some new trattoria in $ayswater. *nformal, * gathered.6
After lunch they went for an energetic wal% in )yde 'ar%. Later
Angel did her nails and washed her hair. +he decided to wear the+panish suede trousers with a soft angora sweater with padded
shoulders and pieces of sil% appli5ued in an a&stract design,
em&ellished with &eads, on the front. A wide imitation tortoiseshell
&angle and matching hoop earrings were the finishing touches.
iss Thetford left the house &y tai at a 5uarter"past seven and
Angel spent the net fifteen minutes wondering if tonight she had
too little ma%e"up on.
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Leonora6s 7i&e a&out her attempt to loo% more sophisticated in
$ang%o% had made her nervous of repeating that mista%e8if in
fact she had overdone it that night. ay&e there had &een more
cattiness than truth in the &ar&ed comment.
The door&ell rang while she was staring aniously at her reflectionin the huge loo%ing"glass fied to one wall in the hall. +he hurried
to open the door. *t was raining slightlyF Charles was holding an
open um&rella to protect her from the dri##le and there was a tai
with its engine running at the %er&.
6)ello, Charles. * wasn6t sure if you6d &e coming in for a drin%. *shan6t &e a sec. y &ag and mac are right here.6
)er latch%ey was already in her poc%et, &ecause, li%e that of many
houses in London, the door had two loc%s. *t too% only seconds to
shrug on her raincoat and 7oin him on the doorstep, closing the
door &ehind her and 5uic%ly inserting and turning the %ey in the
lower loc%. oments later she was settling herself in the &ac% of the tai and her second evening alone with him had &egun. /ould
it end the same way as the first one( she wondered, her pulses
fluttering at the memory of his goodnight %isses.
6/hy are you smiling(6 she as%ed, an hour later.
6* was comparing your plate with the one on the ta&le opposite,6
said Charles.
Angel glanced at the couple dining on the other side of the room.
The girl had chosen the same main course as she had and had also
finished eating. $ut 7udging &y what was left on her plate, she
could only have swallowed a few mouthfuls. On Angel6s all that
remained was a neat pile of small empty shells. Every morsel of
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the spaghetti and sauce which had accompanied them had
disappeared.
6* thin% it6s wrong to waste food,6 she said, in a lowered voice. 6*f
she6s worried a&out her weight, why not order a salad( *f * were a
man, * wouldn6t date a girl twice if she chose an epensive dishand left most of it. /ould you(6
6* wouldn6t myself, &ut it may &e that her host epects a different
return on his investment than the pleasure it6s given me to watch
you eat with relish while his companion merely rearranged her
food,6 Charles replied drily. 6)ave you room for a pudding(6
61es, please.6 Angel had seen some delicious"loo%ing confections
passing &y on the pudding trolley. 6$ut perhaps we could have a
little pause first.6
6$y all means. *6ve &een thin%ing over something you said the last
time we went out together.6
)e paused as the *talian waiter came to remove their plates and
replenish their glasses with the wine Charles had ordered. Angel
thought &ac% to the night of the concert, wondering what she could
have said to interest him to the etent of thin%ing a&out it
afterwards.
61ou would li%e a sweet(6 the waiter en5uired.
6Not immediately.6 /hen he had gone, Charles went on, 61ou were
tal%ing a&out your list of islands... most of your dream islands
&eing, li%e mine, in the Cari&&ean. That &eing so, * feel it would &e
a good idea to have Sea Fever moved there. /hat do you thin%(6
6* thin% that would &e fine, &ut it6s a long way from $ali to the
Cari&&ean and886
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6* wasn6t suggesting she should &e sailed there. /hen her refit is
completed, she can &e transported on the dec% of a freighter. *t
happens all the time. )ow do you thin% international ocean racers
get a&out the world( Not under sail.6
6* suppose not, &ut wouldn6t it cost an awful lot of money to haveher transported...and where to(6
6*6m advised that English )ar&our, Antigua, would &e an ecellent
&ase for her. * &rought some details to show you.6 Charles un#ipped
the leather document case which was lying on the &an5uette &eside
him. Angel had wondered why he had it with him and assumed hemust have collected her straight from the &an%.
Later, when they had &oth had some lemon cheeseca%e and were
finishing the meal with coffee and candied figs, Angel de&ated
mentioning her meeting with Leonora and seeing how Charles
reacted, especially if she reported the angry redhead6s parting shot.
$ut the evening had gone so well that she didn6t want to ris% spoiling it.
6/hen6s your net date with Tim $olton(6 Charles en5uired
suddenly.
6* don6t %now when *6ll &e seeing him again, and our meetings
aren6t really dates in the usual sense. /e6re 7ust friends who are notthe same se. That is possi&le, you %now.6
6*s it( Not in my eperience.6
6/ell, *6m sure your eperience is etensive, &ut perhaps that6s one
you6ve missed out on.6
6Not the only one.6 )is grey eyes were som&re as he made this
remar%.
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)e was having a li5ueur with his coffee and his right wrist was
resting on the edge of the ta&le while his long fingers toyed with
the stem of the glass. Angel had a strong impulse to lay her hand
on his arm and give it an affectionate s5uee#e. $ut she didn6t.
)e switched his ga#e from the glass to her face. ;uic%ly sheloo%ed away, afraid he would see in her eyes what she felt for him.
6Dorothea is going to miss you when you go &ac% to sea,6 he said.
6+he told me this morning how much she en7oys having you with
her.6
6* love &eing there. * epect the &oat will seem terri&ly cramped
now that *6m used to more space.6
61ou aren6t tempted to change your life and come ashore
permanently(6
6)ow can *( * have to earn my living, and the sea is the only placewhere * can do that.6
6Not necessarily. The other girls on your course are going to &e
catering on land. +o could you.6
6$ut the sea has &een my life. * should miss it terri&ly8unless *
had something very special to replace it.6 After a slight pauseAngel added, 6Or someone very special.6
6/hat you need,6 said Charles, 6is a younger version of your
grandfather. +omeone who %nows the sea as well as he did.6
6Not necessarily. The man in my life will have to &e someone with
Ludo6s personal characteristics8 %indness, tolerance, a marvelloussense of humour8&ut he may not have the same s%ills. All the
world6s nicest men aren6t sailors,6 she said, with a smile.
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)e didn6t respond to her 7o%e. 6The man in your life will come
later. 1ou6re too young to &e thin%ing of marriage. 4ust don6t let
yourself &e em&roiled in pointless affairs. +tic% to your guns and
don6t go 7umping into &ed until you %now what you feel is for
%eeps,6 he advised her.
6*6m as old as my grandmother when she fell in love with Ludo.
+he too% one loo% at him and %new she would never loo% at
anyone else, and she didn6t. Nor did he.6
6)ow old were they when they married(6
6+he was nineteen. )e was thirty.6
6A year older than you. Three years younger than *. *t6s a &ig age
gap.6
/as he only referring to Eva and Ludo, or also to herself and him(
she wondered.
+he said, 6* don6t thin% age matters particularly if people are on the
same wavelength. * mean, loo% at the age gap &etween Ludo and
me, &ut we got on &rilliantly.6
61es, it sounds as if you did.6
The waiter came to refill their coffee"cups. Afterwards Charles
started a new line of conversation &y as%ing her opinion of a
controversial issue reported in the morning papers.
*t wasn6t late when he too% her home. No light showed through the
fanlight a&ove the front door, which meant that his aunt was still
out.
6*6ll wait till she gets &ac%,6 he said.
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6/ould you li%e some more coffee(6 as%ed Angel, un&uttoning her
raincoat.
61es, as long as it6s decaffeinated.6 Charles helped her to ta%e it off
and then tossed it over the newel post.
6Does strong coffee %eep you awa%e(6
6Among other things.6
)e followed her through to the &ig room where, as she put the
lights on, 4aco& sat up and stretched, showing the rose"pin% roof of
his mouth as he opened it wide in a yawn.
Allo, onsieur iaow. 6Ow are you #is evening(6 Angel had got
into the ha&it of chatting to him in a stage rench accent and spo%e
to him thus without thin%ing, realising too late that Charles might
consider it silly.
To her surprise, he said, 61ou6ve seen 'eter 2stinov playing
)ercule 'oirot, * ta%e it(6
+he shoo% her head. 6/hy do you as%(6
6The cat reminds one of 2stinov in that part. )e6s a splendid actor
and an even &etter raconteur. * have some tapes of interviews he6sgiven on television. * must play them to you some time8you6ll &e
on the floor.6
6*6ll remind you.6
/ould Charles also &e on the floor with laughter( she wondered.
That was something she would li%e to see.
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They had coffee in the conservatory %ept, all year round, at a
temperature which would allow his aunt to grow plants which
wouldn6t survive even under glass without some heating.
6Dorothea told me you gave her this room for her sitieth
&irthday... something she6d always wanted &ut felt she couldn6tafford,6 said Angel. 6That was a nice thing to do.6
)e shrugged. 6* could afford it easily and * %new it was something
she wanted.6
6$ut another man might not have thought of it or, having thought
of it, done it.6
They were sitting in old Lloyd Loom chairs which had &een
resprayed a soft green to merge with the greenery around them.
Charles replaced his cup and saucer on the cane and glass ta&le
&etween their chairs.
6Don6t thin% too highly of me. y faults are legion,6 he said, at his
most sardonic.
As she put her cup aside, he rose to his feet and, ta%ing her hands,
drew her up to stand in front of him.
6*f * were a &etter man * shouldn6t &e doing this,6 he said, loo%ingdown at her.
There was a gleam in his eyes she had seen &efore, &ut only in
films. The desire she saw in Charles6s face was real and a little
frightening in its intensity.
+he held her &reath as he placed her hands against his chest and put his arms round her.
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C)A'TE- N*NE
THIS time his first %iss was li%e the second %iss last time. After
some seconds Angel &egan to %iss &ac%, her lips instinctively
responding to the soft movements of his.
*t was rather li%e dancing, she found. The %ind of dancing called
6nightclu& shuffle6F not a matter of %nowing any steps &ut going
with the flow of the music.
Almost at once she %new that it would &e &etter if her arms were
not trapped &etween them &ut were round his nec%. /hen she did
something a&out this Charles seemed to thin% for a moment that
she was trying to &rea% free. )is hold on her slac%ened. $ut when,
standing on tiptoe, she loc%ed her arms round his nec% and pressed
herself lovingly against him, he gave a strange smothered groan
and crushed her to him, ma%ing her feel the latent strength she had
%nown he had since seeing him swimming off $ali.
To &e powerless in a man6s arms was a strange sensation which she
%new she wouldn6t have li%ed with anyone else. /ith him it was
eciting. )er whole &ody seemed to &e melting as if she were
made of wa. $ut, unli%e a candle which had its flame outside it,
hers was an internal flame, a fire which flic%ered and &urned along
every nerve.
The %iss was going really wild when suddenly he &ro%e it off.
They had &oth heard the sound of the front door &eing opened, &ut
Angel had &een too far gone to come down to earth as 5uic%ly as
he did.
6* epect Angel is in the %itchen, or she may have gone up to &ed.
No, her raincoat is over the &anisters. +he must still &e downstairs.6
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Da#edly aware that Dorothea must have &rought someone home
with her, Angel watched Charles ta%e the hand%erchief from his
&reast poc%et. irst he used it to remove lipstic% smears from
around her mouth. Then, 5uic%ly, he ru&&ed traces of colour from
his own. )e was &reathing more deeply than usual, as if he had
7ust stopped running.
$y the time iss Thetford entered the %itchen, followed &y a man
Angel had never seen &efore, Charles6s hand%erchief was &ac% in
his poc%et and he was in full control of himself.
6Oh, you6re here too, Charles. )ow nice,6 said his aunt, when shesaw them in the conservatory.
)e had made Angel sit down, pushing her into her chair with
gentle force &ecause, as dou&tless he could tell, she was still in a
da#e.
iss Thetford turned to the grey"haired man who must haveoffered to run her home from the dinner party.
6'rofessor, let me introduce Angel Dorset who lives with me, and
my nephew, Charles Thetford. This is 'rofessor 0ingsland, one of
our most distinguished surgeons.6
Angel stood up to sha%e hands. +he wondered if the surgeon couldtell that her heart was still racing and her nerves 5uivering.
/hile the two men were sha%ing hands, she said to Dorothea,
6+hall * ma%e some more coffee(6
6-alph prefers China tea. *6ll share a pot with him. Than% you,
dear.6
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)alf an hour later, &y which time Angel had calmed down, Charles
got up to go. 6Come and see me out, will you(6 he said to her.
After he had said good&ye to the surgeon, Angel also said
goodnight to the two older people. *f Charles meant to %iss her
again in the hall, she wanted to &e a&le to recover in private in her &edroom.
$ut Charles didn6t %iss her again. At the door, he said, 6* thin% it6s
7ust as well Lesson Two was &rought to that a&rupt conclusion.
1ou have a natural aptitude which too% us further than *6d
intended.6
Ta%ing the tip of her nose &etween the %nuc%les of his first two
fingers and giving it a little s5uee#e8 a caress she had seen given
to small children8he said, 69oodnight.6
+he was awa%e until three, reliving those heavenly all"too"&rief
minutes in his arms, longing for Lesson Three.
/as he awa%e too( /anting to ma%e love to her( There could no
longer &e any dou&t that he desired her. The way he had %issed her
had proved that. $ut desire and love were not always concomitant.
)e had wanted Leonora6s &ody &ut hadn6t loved her.
*f she hadn6t met Leonora, Angel would have lain awa%e happier
than she had ever &een in her life. $ut her memory of the
morning6s encounter %ept intruding on and spoiling her en7oyment
in reliving the evening. Try as she might, she couldn6t rid herself of
the uneasy feeling that for Charles to have fallen in love with her
was too good to &e true. ay&e Leonora was right. ay&e he
wasn6t in love with her, &ut with an ideal which he thought he
could ma%e her match.
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/hat was his ideal woman li%e( 'erhaps, the net6 time they met,
in a rounda&out way she could as% him.
At &rea%fast the following morning Angel wouldn6t have &eensurprised if Dorothea had made some o&li5ue, gently teasing
reference to what had &een happening in the conservatory when
she and 'rofessor 0ingsland had entered the house. iss Thetford
had very sharp eyes which missed nothing. +he was 5uic% to pic%
up every nuance in other6 people6s conversation. +urely she must
have felt the vi&rations in the garden room(
*f she had, she chose to ignore them. *n fact she was noticea&ly
withdrawn, saying little a&out the dinner party and not as%ing
a&out Angel6s evening.
Angel &egan to wonder if she had pic%ed up the vi&rations and
wasn6t pleased. +he had disapproved of Charles6s relationship withLeonoraF she might &e strongly opposed to him starting something
with someone as young as Angel.
or several days this new and mar%ed reserve continued until
Angel felt she could &ear it no longer. .
One evening, during supper, she said, 6Dorothea...are you annoyedwith me(6
iss Thetford loo%ed surprised. 6Of course not, dear child. /hy
should * &e annoyed with you(6
61ou haven6t tal%ed to me much for the last few days. * felt * might
have displeased you.6
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The older woman put down her %nife and for% and reached a hand
across the ta&le to pat Angel6s arm,
6*6m sorry, my dear...have * &een as a&stracted as that( * didn6t
realise it was showing. The fact is "6 +he paused uncertainly. 61ou6ll
thin% *6ve gone mad, * epect, &ut the fact is *6ve lost my heart to-alph 0ingsland. * can6t stop thin%ing a&out him ... wishing he6d
ring me. )e said he was going to, &ut he hasn6t. 'erhaps it was 7ust
one of those things people say without really meaning them.6
Angel was ama#ed and greatly relieved &y this confession.
6*6m sure it wasn6t,6 she said. 6)e wouldn6t have &rought you home
if he hadn6t li%ed you, &ut he6s pro&a&ly terri&ly &usy. 'erhaps
several emergency operations have cropped up. *s he a &achelor or
a widower(6
6Oh, not a &achelor. * should &e very wary of a man of his age who
had never &een married. )e6s a widower with four grown"upchildren who are scattered all over the world, so he only sees them
occasionally.6
The net day Dorothea got her call from 'rofessor 0ingsland and
an invitation to go to the theatre with him. Angel got a postcardfrom *taly.
The picture side of the card showed a cera&ista at wor% on a tall
earthenware pot with twin handles. On the reverse was the
message86+hould &e &ac% soon after this reaches you. *nteresting
trip. Lots to tell. Love, Tim.6
Angel felt sure the 6love6 wasn6t meant to &e ta%en for more than
friendly affection. +he wished that, li%e Dorothea, she had a date
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with her love. /hen would she see Charles again( Every day
seemed li%e a year while she waited to hear from him, yet
whenever they were together hours seemed to flash past li%e
minutes.
+he didn6t see him or hear from him until Dorothea gave one of her +unday lunch parties to which she invited 'rofessor 0ingsland and
Charles and a couple of artists who were not married &ut had lived
together for twenty years and hyphenated their surnames. *an and
9ina had met while &ac%pac%ing in the East with companions of
their own se.
6*f we6d &een on our own, we6d have 7oined forces straight away,
&ut we couldn6t leave our friends in the lurch, so we only had two
wee%s together &efore we had to separate. *t was the longest si
months of my life &efore * saw *an again,6 said 9ina, during lunch.
6ine too,6 said her partner.
Clearly they were still very happy together.
After lunch Charles said to Angel, 6Come for a turn round the
garden.6
Leaving the others relaing in the conservatory, they wal%ed down
the long narrow garden which was starting to show signs of spring.
6*6m flying to 4apan tomorrow. *6ll &e away for two wee%s, coming
&ac% via Canada,6 he told her.
6)ow * wish * could come with you: *6d love to go to 4apan.6
6*t6s an interesting country and in parts very &eautiful. y schedulenever allows enough time to en7oy it.6
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6Can6t you ma%e time(6
6Not on this trip.6
6Ludo would have 5uoted /ordsworth to you. 9etting and
spending, we lay waste our powers. Do you %now that poem(6
)e nodded. 6And * plan to emulate your grandfather and give up
the sordid &oon, perhaps rather younger than he did. $ut not for
a few years yet.6 )e smiled at her. 6Not until * have enough in my
piggy"&an% to ensure that * and those in my care have the means to
%eep us in comfort in perpetuity, as the lawyers say.6
6* thin% your idea of comfort is my idea of luury,6 she said. 6And
how do you %now that you6ve got enough years ahead of you to put
off the time for en7oying life(6
69ood 9od: *6m not that old,6 he said almost &rus5uely.
6That6s not what * meant. 'eople die or get %illed at my age. /ho
was it wrote Loo% thy last on all things lovely every hour(6
6*t was /alter de la are, and that6s what *6m doing at this
moment... loo%ing at a lovely face * shan6t see again for two
wee%s.6
Angel caught her &reath. )is grey eyes held the same glint she had
seen in them &efore he %issed her. /as he going to %iss her again,
here in full view of the others(
Charles thrust &oth hands into the poc%ets of his trousers in a
movement which gave the impression that, if he hadn6t, he might
have reached out and pulled her to him. Or was she only imaginingit(
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6*8* shall miss you,6 she said.
6* hope so.6
or a moment longer he loo%ed down into her eyes and then he
&egan to wal% &ac% in the direction of the house, and shortlyafterwards he left, saying good&ye to her with a handsha%e as if
she meant no more to him than 9ina did.
$ut although she couldn6t &e sure he had wanted to %iss her in the
garden, she had one heartening fact to hug to her during his
a&sence. )e had said she had a lovely face.
6)i: *6m &ac% and *6ve got some great news. Tony +heringham
wants to meet you:6
Tim6s voice on the telephone sounded as if he were announcing
that she had won some fantastic pri#e in a competition.
6/ho6s Tony +heringham(6 as%ed Angel.
6Oh, come on, you must have heard of him. )e6s the top fashion
photographer. The glossies are full of his pictures.6
6/hy does he want to meet me(6 she said, mystified.
6$ecause * showed him a folder of pictures * too% of you and he6s
impressed. )e %nows potential when he sees it. Loo%, can * come
round right away( Tony6s still got the folder, &ut *6ve got a
duplicate set. /hen you see them you6ll understand. 1ou6re
seriously photogenic, Angel. 1ou6re one of those luc%y people thecamera loves.6
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)alf an hour later he was with her, spreading a do#en large prints
on the %itchen ta&le.
6Now...d6you see what * mean...you loo% great from every angle...
even with your mouth full of pi##a:6
Angel had forgotten the flash photo he had ta%en of her in the
pi##eria. +he did remem&er &eing snapped while she was playing
with a puppy in the par%, &ut she hadn6t %nown she was having her
&ac% view photographed while she was stretched over the top of a
wide stone &alustrade, upended li%e a school&oy awaiting a caning,
all mini"s%irted &ottom and long navy &lue legs.
6Tony said that reminded him of a classic shot of 4ean +hrimpton,
one of the +ities6 top models, in a pair of wool stoc%ings,6 said
Tim. 6)e6s a lot older than we are, forty.. .may&e forty"five. )e6s
&een in the &usiness a long time. )e remem&ers when Twiggy got
started. )e thin%s you could &e as &ig a hit as she was.6
6Twiggy( /hat a funny name.6 Angel was still studying the prints.
6+he6s an actress now. * %eep forgetting you haven6t heard of people
who are household names to everyone else.6
Angel for&ore to point out that many names which were famous in
Asia were virtually un%nown in Europe. +he had noticed on thecatering course that most of her fellow students %new little or
nothing a&out the part of the world she came from, although some
of them wanted to travel and as%ed her a&out it. Charles had an
international outloo%F he was truly a man of the world. $ut Tim,
although he had travelled, was curiously insular in some of his
attitudes. 'erhaps he had inherited them from his father.
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6* don6t thin% you6ve got the message... with Tony &ehind you, you
could go straight to the top, and top models earn &ig &uc%s,6 he
said.
To Angel it sounded as unli%ely as winning the foot&all pools or
&rea%ing the &an% at onte Carlo, which she %new a&out from acatchy music"hall song which Ludo had taught her when she was
small.
6/hy with him &ehind me(6 she as%ed. 6/hy not with you &ehind
me( 1ou too% these pictures(6
61es, &ut only to get him interested. ashion6s not my line of
country, it6s a different &all game. Tony %nows everyone who6s
anyone on all the fashion glossies. 1ou6re to meet him on
/ednesday morning. )e6ll lay on a hair stylist and ma%e"up
person, and the pictures he6ll ta%e will ma%e these loo% li%e
amateur night.6
6$ut *6m &usy on /ednesday8you %now that.6
6Angel dear, this is your &ig chance,6 said Tim, with eaggerated
patience. 61ou6ll have to ma%e some ecuse to s%ip your classes
that morning. This is far more important. A successful model earns
more in an hour than most girls earn in a month. *n two or three
years, with Charles to help you invest the money you6d earn, youcould &e seriously rich.6
6* don6t thin% Charles would approve. *6m sure he wouldn6t.6
6Are you cra#y( A &an%er disapprove of ma%ing money( Anyway,
it6s not up to Charles. *t6s up to you. Don6t you want to &e
independent( Don6t you want to &e successful( * %new the minute *
saw you it was a possi&ility, &ut * didn6t want to raise your hopes
until *6d got Tony6s opinion.6
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+eeing she was still unconvinced he said, with a trace of anger,
6Loo%, if * wal%ed down Oford +treet and as%ed fifty girls if
they6d li%e to do a test with Tony +heringham, *6d have all fifty
lined up li%e that.6 )e snapped his fingers. 6*t6s the chance of a
lifetime:6
Angel didn6t want to annoy him when clearly he had gone to a lot
of trou&le on her &ehalf. 6All right! *6ll &e there,6 she agreed.
Tim rolled his eyes upwards. 6+he6ll do it: This &lasB young lady
will %indly condescend to accept an opportunity which anyone else
would %ill for,6 he said sarcastically. Then his enthusiasm overcamehis easperation and he sei#ed her in a &oisterous hug. 61ou6re
going to &e a name8* feel it in my &ones: 1ou6re going to &e as
&ig as arie )elvin was, and 4erry )all. $ut they were Eighties
names. 1ou6re the face of the Nineties.6
There was no sign of Tony +heringham when Angel arrived at the
rented studio where she was to meet him. $ut the people who were
going to prepare her for the photographic session were waiting for
her in a changing"room with whitewashed &ric% walls and a long
mirror and counter.
The girl stylist had already plugged in a set of rollers, and thema%e"up man8who loo%ed decidedly effeminate, Angel thought
8was unpac%ing a case of cosmetics. Evidently they had wor%ed
together &efore and, after saying hello to her and introducing
themselves, they continued the conversation they6d &een having
&efore she arrived.
irst the stylist, Li#, wound Angel6s hair on the rollers, and then
she moved away to unpac% a &o of clothes and hang them on a
porta&le clothes rail while her colleague, arty, set to wor%.
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'erched on a high stool, Angel watched him apply a &asic
foundation and then add lighter and dar%er shades to emphasise the
modelling of her features. )e did everything 5uic%ly and deftly,
&ut there were so many stages that it still too% a long time.
Although she had naturally long eyelashes, he seemed to consider
it necessary to apply etra lashes, one &y one, to the outer sides of
her eyelids. )e also changed and enlarged the shape of her mouth
with a &ric%"coloured pencil &efore filling in the new outline with
lipstic% followed &y a coat of gloss.
/hen, at last, he had finished, Li#, who had interrupted arty6s
wor% to ta%e off the rollers some time ago, continued thetransformation of Angel6s hair from her own straight and simple
style into a tur&ulent cloud of what Dorothea called 9orgon6s
loc%s, her name for hairstyles which reminded her of the hissing
serpents on the heads of the three mythological sisters, edusa,
Euryale and +theno.
Angel didn6t li%e the way she loo%ed when they had finished withher, and she %new Dorothea wouldn6t approve and Charles would
&e horrified. )e would never have called her face 6lovely6 loo%ing
as it did now. $ut Li# and arty seemed delighted with their
handiwor%.
arty had gone to get a coffee and Li# was helping her to put on
one of the dresses from the rail when there was a perfunctory tap
on the door and a man wal%ed in and loo%ed her up and down.
)e didn6t smile and say hello or tell her who he was. )e said, 6As
soon as you6re ready, we6ll start.6
6That was the great Tony +heringham, * presume(6 Angel said toLi# when he had turned and wal%ed out.
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61es... in one of his grumpy moods, &y the loo% of him. 1ou6d
&etter watch your step,6 said the stylist. +he gave a finishing twea%
to some of the wisps round Angel6s ears. 6-ight, off you go, love.6
/hen Angel wal%ed into the studio, one end was a&la#e with light
and an assistant was rearranging some white paper screens inaccordance with Tony6s instruction.
Angel wal%ed up to him. 69ood morning. *6m Evangeline Dorset.
)ow do you do(6 +he held out her hand.
Loo%ing surprised, he too% it, and she gave him her firmest clasp
which, after years of crewing, had a good deal of more muscle
&ehind it than most girls6 handsha%es.
6Tim said your name was Angel.6
6That6s what my close friends call me. To everyone else *6m
Evangeline, r. +heringham. *6m ready when you are.6
Two days &efore he was due &ac%, Angel posted a letter to Charles
at his flat.
After saying she hoped his trip had &een successful, and that sherealised he would have a lot to do immediately after his return, she
wrote! 6+omething has happened which *6d li%e to discuss with you.
As soon as you have an evening free, could you come to supper(6
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C)A'TE- TEN
HE CAME within hours of his return to London, ringing the
door&ell while Angel and Dorothea were washing up their supper
dishes.
Opening the door to him, Angel eclaimed, 6Charles: $ut * thought
you only got &ac% this morning(6
6* did.6
+he stepped &ac%wards to let him come in. 6/elcome home8&ut *
hope it wasn6t my note which has &rought you round here so5uic%ly. *t isn6t anything urgent and you must &e ehausted, aren6t
you(6
)e shoo% his head. 6* slept pretty well on the flight. /hen we
landed * went straight to the &an% to deal with one or two top
priority matters, after which * went home and slept for three or four hours. Then * had a long shower and a shave and *6m more or
less &ac% to normal. )ow are you(6
6*6m fine.6
+he put her hand into his, &ut instead of sha%ing it he surprised her
&y lifting it to his lips and %issing the &ac%s of her fingers.
61ou certainly loo% it. *s Dorothea in(6
61es, we6ve 7ust finished supper. )ave you eaten since you landed(
Can * ma%e you something(6
6No, than%s, not hungry. y appetite thin%s it6s the early hours of the morning. $ut *6ll have a cup of coffee, if * may(6
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6Of course. /hile you6re saying hello to your aunt, *6ll fetch some
things from my room which * want to show you. * shan6t &e long.6
As she raced up the three flights of stairs to her eyrie on the top
floor, her heart was &ursting with 7oy &ecause Charles cared
enough a&out her to come round as soon as this. *t was wonderfulto have him &ac%. Although so many eciting things had &een
happening to her since he left, London wasn6t the same place
without him. Even when she wo%e up in the morning %nowing
there was little li%elihood that she would see him, she felt &etter
%nowing he was only a pigeon6s flight from her than when the
distance &etween them was a long 7um&o 7et flight.
/hen, carrying a card"stiffened manilla envelope, she 7oined the
others, Charles said, 6O&viously *6m a &it 7et"lagged. *6ve forgotten
the presents * &rought &ac% for you &oth8*6m sorry a&out that. *6ll
&ring them round tomorrow.6
6/e6re flattered that you found time to shop for us, dear &oy,6 saidhis aunt. 6/as it a successful trip(6
63ery, &ut * won6t &ore you with the details. *6m impatient to hear
what it is that Angel wants to discuss. +he6s already tal%ed it over
with you, presuma&ly(6
6No, * haven6t told Dorothea yet,6 said Angel. 6* thought *6d &rea% itto you &oth at the same time. $ut first *6ll get your coffee
organised, Charles.6
6*6ve thought for some days that you had an air of suppressed
ecitement a&out you,6 said iss Thetford. 6$ut how did you %now
she had something to tell us, Charles(6
6There was a letter from Angel waiting for me at the flat... a
summons to come round post"haste.6
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6Not a summons...a re5uest,6 she corrected. 6And * didn6t epect to
see you as soon as this. *t would have %ept until the end of the
wee%.6
6$ut my curiosity wouldn6t,6 he said, smiling. 6Don6t %eep us in
suspense. /hat6s happened( *t has to &e something to do with your course, * imagine(6
6Only in the sense that it6s a career opportunity, &ut nothing to do
with catering. )ave a loo% at these photographs.6
+he opened the envelope and too% out a selection of prints made
from the do#ens of shots Tony +heringham had ta%en of her. +he
handed several to Dorothea and the rest to Charles, %nowing that
their first reaction was &ound to &e astonishment and wondering
what their secondary reactions would &e.
*t was iss Thetford who spo%e first. 69ood heavens, for a
moment or two * almost didn6t recognise you,6 she said. 6*t6s you...and yet it6s not you. Did Tim $olton ta%e these, Angel(6
6No, they were ta%en &y a man called Tony +heringham. * shouldn6t
thin% you6ve ever heard of him, &ut he6s a top fashion
photographer. Tim introduced me to him. Tony thin%s * could &e a
successful model for maga#ines li%e $ogue and !arpers'
6No:6
Charles6s eclamation was short, sharp and decisive. *t &roo%ed no
discussion or argument. *t was finalF the first and last word.
6No(6 his aunt echoed mildly, with a slight lift of her eye&rows.
6That6s a very snap 7udgement, Charles. Don6t you thin% you shouldhear more a&out it &efore giving your opinion(6
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6* don6t need to hear more a&out it. * don6t li%e these pictures and
from what * %now a&out modelling it6s not a suita&le 7o& for
Angel,6 he said, in his most adamant tone of voice.
6/hy not(6 as%ed Angel. +he hadn6t epected him to &e in favour of
it, &ut nor had she epected his opposition to &e so immediate andar&itrary.
64ust ta%e my word for it8it6s not.6 )e tossed the prints on the
ta&le. 6As Aunt D. says, that6s not you. *t6s some idiot6s idea of
glamour.. .ma%e"up an inch thic%... hair li%e a &ird6s nest... even the
clothes are grotes5ue:6
6*t6s isn6t the way * should want to loo% out of wor%ing hours, &ut if
that6s what the maga#ines want "6 she &egan.
6/hen were those photographs ta%en(6 he interrupted.
6One morning last wee%, and since then they6ve &een seen &yvarious art directors and fashion directors, and Tony says * can
start wor%ing right away. $ut * wanted to tal% to you first &ecause
it will ma%e a difference to our plans for Sea Fever .'
6*t won6t ma%e a difference to our plans &ecause you won6t &e doing
it,6 Charles said flatly. 6* don6t %now why you allowed yourself to
&e persuaded to ta%e part in this nonsense.6
6Charles... Charles... you6re &eing far too scathing,6 his aunt
intervened, on a soothing note. 6/hat girl would need as%ing twice
to have pictures ta%en &y a well"%nown fashion photographer( *
thin% it6s very natural that Angel should have agreed to it. +he
photographs terri&ly well, if you relate these pictures to the sort of
thing one sees in the glossies.6
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that they smile and loo% happy. *t was 7ust the same when * was a
girl. The haughty loo% was in then, with pluc%ed eye&rows and
long gloves.6
Dorothea was trying to defuse an eplosive situation, Angel
realised. $ut instead of feeling grateful for the older woman6sdiplomatic intervention, she found herself irritated &y it. /hat
gave Charles the right to condemn the idea out of hand( /hy
should she %owtow to him( $y all rational standards it was he who
should &e apologising for epressing himself too impulsively and
forcefully. /hy should she &e denied an interesting opportunity
merely &ecause he disapproved of it(
6*6m sorry you6re against it,6 she said. 6$ut perhaps you6ll change
your mind when you6ve had as much time as * have to weigh up
the pros and cons. y conclusion8after a lot more thought than
you6ve given it8is that it6s a very eciting opportunity which *6d
&e cra#y to turn down.6
)ow Charles might have answered or acted had they &een on their
own she would never %now. At that moment he loo%ed capa&le of
anything from tearing the prints to pieces to gra&&ing hold of her
and sha%ing her.
-estrained &y the presence of his aunt, he said coldly, 6*n that case
there wasn6t much point in as%ing me to come round, was there(6
)is arctic glare made her chin lift defiantly. 6*t was a matter of
courtesy. * thought you6d &e interested... pleased for me... not
throw cold water on it. /ell, *6m sorry you disapprove, &ecause
you6ve &een very %ind to me. $ut that doesn6t give you the right to
run my whole life for me, Charles. *6m going to have a crac% atthis... whether you li%e it or not.6
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or a moment longer he stared at her. Then, with . a movement of
the head and shoulders which was a miture of indifference and
ac5uiescence, he said, 6Do whatever you wish. As you6ve pointed
out, * have no right to interfere. 1ou must ma%e your own
decisions. *6ll see myself out.6
64et lag,6 said Dorothea, after they had heard the front door close.
6)e said he was 7et lagged, and clearly he is. Laying down the law
in that aggressive fashion isn6t Charles6s normal &ehaviour. *
shouldn6t let it worry you. )e6ll see your point of view when he6s
had a proper night6s rest.6
'*i%% he/' +nge% said doubtfu%%y. She was re&e&bering eonora's
warning. a%e sure you never step out of line, never answer &ac%,
never argue. *f you do, you6ll find yourself dropped the way * was.
6)e may never approve of your ta%ing up fashion modelling, &ut
*6m sure he6ll concede that it6s an opportunity very few if any girls
would turn down,6 said his aunt. 6* wouldn6t myself8were * your age and had your loo%s.6
6The girl he mentioned... the model... did you %now her(6 as%ed
Angel.
6)er name was 9enia Camp&ell. One of her grandmothers was a
-ussian aristocrat whose family had escaped &eing %illed in the-evolution. 9enia always reminded me of a &or#oi, a -ussian
wolfhound. +he gave up modelling to marry a man old enough to
&e her father...a +wiss &an%er. Charles introduced them.6
6/as Charles in love with her(6
6Not seriously. *t was a long time ago. They were &oth *n their
early twenties. * should thin% it6s years since he last gave her a
thought. $ut these68with a gesture at the photographs86would
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naturally remind him of her. *t6s true that she was always
complaining how tiring and &oring her wor% was. +he only did it
for the money, &ut of course that applies to most people6s attitudes
to their 7o&s. To en7oy your way of ma%ing a living, as * do, is one
of life6s &est and rarest gifts.6
Angel gathered the prints together and put them &ac% in the
envelope, trying not to show how deeply sha%en she was &y
Charles6s irate departure.
/as iss Thetford right in thin%ing it was only &ecause he was 7et
lagged that he had &een so disagreea&le(
At the navigation school in Devon where she too% a wee%6s
refresher course &efore having her competence as a yachtmaster
tested and certified, Angel met a man who seemed the ideal person
to ta%e charge of Sea Fever for her.
)er grandfather had &een fifty when he had thrown up his career at
the $ar. $ill orston, the son and grandson of country solicitors,
had decided to change his lifestyle at twenty"eight. )e had learnt
to sail on an estuary near the small mar%et town where for four
generations the firm of orston K Lynn had, handled the legal
affairs of the largely agricultural community.
To please his parents, $ill had followed in his father6s footsteps,
&ut had always spent every spare moment messing a&out in &oats,
latterly crewing for the owner of an ocean racer. /hen his younger
sister had decided to 5ualify as a lawyer, he had realised that this
released him from an o&ligation which he found increasingly
tedious.
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$ill and Angel met soon after his decision to pac% up &eing a
solicitor and ma%e sailing his life, prefera&ly in a part of the world
where the sea was warmer and &luer than in the east coast estuary
where, as a small &oy in an orange life"7ac%et over a thic% navy
7ersey, he had learned to handle an eight"foot dinghy.
$ill reminded Angel of her grandfather. )is eyes were a paler &lue
and he wasn6t as tall as Ludo, &ut he had the same easy"going,
tolerant personality. +he couldn6t imagine him ever losing his
temper. Of the group ta%ing the course he was &y far the most
relaed and good"humoured. )e had also managed to pac% a lot of
eperience into the long wee%ends and holidays his position as a 7unior partner in a family firm had allowed him.
At iss Thetford6s suggestion, $ill was invited to lunch on a
+unday convenient for Charles, whose share in the sloop entitled
him to some say in who was put in charge of her.
The luncheon would &e the first time Angel had seen Charles sincehe had stormed out of the house, and she was etremely tense and
nervous a&out his attitude to her and to $ill. +he had written to
Charles, eplaining $ill6s &ac%ground and his 5ualifications, &ut
had received no ac%nowledgment. The date for the two men to
meet had &een arranged &y his aunt on the telephone.
$oth men were due to arrive at the house at half"past twelve and inthe preceding hour Angel changed her clothes three times, starting
with an outfit which she decided was too trendy and might put his
&ac% up. +he followed that with a sweater and the +panish suede
trousers, &ut later came to the conclusion that they were too
o&vious an attempt to please him.
inally she settled for the navy &lue s%irt he had pic%ed out for her
at Design Thai in $ang%o% and a 'aisley"printed shirt she had run
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up on Dorothea6s machine. +he dou&ted if he would recognise the
s%irt. )ow un&elieva&le it would have seemed, that day he had
ta%en her shopping, that within si months she would &e starting a
highly paid career as a photographic model, her first cover picture
to appear on the net issue of $ogue.
On the stro%e of twelve"thirty, someone rang the door&ell.
6* epect that6s Charles... invaria&ly punctual to the second. +hall *
let him in or will you(6 as%ed iss Thetford, o&viously aware that
Angel was on edge a&out meeting him.
6*6ll go,6 said Angel, &racing herself.
+he had &een awa%e half the night8or so it had seemed8
visualising the confrontation and rehearsing things to say. $ut as
she approached the front door she could hear him spea%ing to
someone, and she opened it to find that $ill had also arrived on
time and the two men had &een standing face to face on the step &ut now were &oth turning towards her.
6)ello, Angel. As you see, we6ve met,6 said Charles, with a gesture
inviting the shorter man to precede him across the threshold.
6)ello, Angel. )ow are you(6 $ill shoo% hands, his amia&le grin in
mar%ed contrast to the enigmatic epression on the face of the tallman &ehind him.
Leaving Charles to close the door, she led the way down the hall to
introduce $ill to Dorothea, who greeted him warmly &efore lifting
her chee% for her nephew6s %iss.
To Angel6s surprise and relief, it was soon apparent that he and $illwere going to get on with each other. +he had never had any dou&t
of $ill6s friendliness towards Charles, &ut had worried that her co"
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owner might respond with at &est reserve and at worst with
palpa&le antipathy.
)owever although, during lunch, Charles as%ed $ill a num&er of
searching and unepectedly %nowledgea&le 5uestions, his manner
was always affa&le, as it was towards her.
'ressed &y his hostess to stay past the conventional time of
departure from a lunch party, $ill didn6t leave until after they had
had tea and walnut ca%e in the garden. )e was spending the night
with a friend who lived in 'utney, south of the river.
61ou6ll want to tal% it over &efore deciding whether *6m the man for
the 7o&. $ut *6d &e grateful if you6d let me %now as soon as you
can,6 he said, &efore ta%ing his leave.
/hile Charles saw him to the door, Angel collected the tea things.
$ut when she would have carried the tray to the %itchen, iss
Thetford too% it from her, saying, 6*6ll deal with this while you andCharles have your discussion. 1ou don6t want to %eep that nice
young man in suspense a moment longer than necessary.6
They had &een sitting at the far end of the long narrow London
garden, and halfway to the house she met her nephew coming &ac%
and surrendered the tray to him. A few minutes later he reappeared
and, with a sudden revival of apprehension, Angel watched himcoming to 7oin her for a tte"M"tte.
6As far as $ill is concerned, * don6t thin% there6s much to &e said,6
were his first words as he re7oined her. 61ou o&viously thin% highly
of him and *6m e5ually favoura&ly impressed. *t was a fortunate
chance that he was in Devon at the same time as you were.6 )e had
already congratulated her on her yachtmaster6s certificate.
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6*6m glad you agree. *n that case *6ll ring him this evening at his
friend6s house,6 said Angel.
$ecause he had no previous eperience of chartering, and would
have to pic% up the necessary %now"how as he went along, $ill
was willing, for a couple of years, to s%ipper the sloop in return for no more than his %eep and a modest personal allowance.
There followed a silence in which Charles watched 4aco& padding
along the top of one of the high &ric% walls which divided the
garden from those net to it, and Angel watched him, feasting her
eyes on the forceful profile and the mouth which, twice, had %issedhers.
/hen Charles turned his head to loo% at her, she flic%ed her ga#e
away 5uic%ly, refocusing it on the &lac% cat, who now was almost
motionless, only the end of his tail &eginning to lash to and fro as
he loo%ed down at something in the garden net door.
6* don6t intend,6 Charles said 5uietly, 6to reiterate the views *
epressed8perhaps rather too vigorously8the last time * was
here. *6ll only say that my en5uiries a&out this man +heringham
aren6t reassuring. )e6s given two wives grounds for divorce and a
few years ago he mied with a group of people whose parties
made news when, at one of them, a girl died from a com&ination of
drin% and drugs. )is professional reputation may &e high, &ut thesame can6t &e said of his personal standing.6
6)ow did you find out all this( rom your e"girlfriend, 9enia
Camp&ell(6
6+he6s 9enia 0eller now and, yes, * did give her a call to as% if she
wor%ed with +heringham when she was modelling. +he did, and
never li%ed him. a%ing a pass at every good"loo%ing girl who
comes his way is routine with him, according to 9enia.6
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Angel didn6t much li%e the sound of 9enia 0eller. Anyone who
could have had Charles &ut had preferred to marry a rich older
man saw life from a different perspective.
+he said, 6'erhaps Tony +heringham isn6t as randy as he used to &e.
$ut forewarned is forearmed. *6ll &e ready to dodge if he loo%s li%e pouncing in my direction.6
6Do you %now how(6 as%ed Charles. 6Avoiding a determined pass
isn6t easy. *6m not sure you6d see it coming.6
+he opened her mouth to tell him she wasn6t as half"&a%ed as he
appeared to thin%, &ut the words were lost in a startled indrawing
of &reath as, with a single lithe movement, he rose from his chair,
pulling her out of hers and into his arms.
61ou see( *t can happen when you least epect it. *f * were Tony
+heringham how would you get out of this(6 he said, holding her
round the waist with one arm, the fingers of his other hand easilycircling her right wrist.
6*6d pro&a&ly %ic% you... him on the shin,6 she said &reathlessly, the
unepected close contact with his tall &ody ma%ing her heart
&ehave li%e a trapped &ird.
6Clumsy.. .and not necessarily effective. *f you don6t want anaw%ward showdown, never let things get to this stage.6
Angel loo%ed into his eyes and smiled. 6/ith any other man *
wouldn6t.6
)is fingers tightened on her wrist, communicating a tension she
hadn6t felt seconds earlier.
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6Don6t try flirting with me, Angel. 1ou might get more than you
&argained for.6
+uddenly rec%less, she ran her free hand up his chest to his
shoulder, feeling the latent power of well"eercised muscle under
her eploring fingers.
6* might en7oy it,6 she murmured, copying the mischievous glance
and the play of eyelashes she had seen other girls use on men &ut
had never tried out herself.
)is arm tightened round her waist. 61ou as%ed for this,6 he said
thic%ly, &ending his head.
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C)A'TE- ELE3EN
IT WAS li%e &eing caught in a flash"flood, a sudden s5uall or the
violent &ursting of a dam. *f he hadn6t %issed her &efore, she would
have &een devastated.
/hat had happened the last time, in the conservatory, had prepared
her a little, &ut it was still a shoc% to &e %issed li%e this in a place
which, although not precisely pu&lic, was far from &eing private.
or it was an etremely private %issF the sort of %iss she had often
imagined receiving, &ut never in a garden overloo%ed &y many
windows, to which Dorothea might return at any moment.
$ut Charles who, last time, had stopped %issing her the instant he
realised they wouldn6t &e alone for much longer, seemed now not
to give a damn who might &e watching their em&race.
)e clasped her to his hard &ody with almost painful strength,%issing her slowly and hungrily, leaving no dou&t that what he
would li%e to do would &e to ta%e her to &ed. That message was
une5uivocal and Angel hoped that her response was e5ually clear.
*t was something she wanted as much as he did. *f not here and
now8which was manifestly impossi&le8as6 soon as it could &e
arranged.
+he was panting and trem&ling and Charles, too, was &reathing
hard when they finally drew apart. $ut the loo% in his eyes wasn6t
the one she had hoped to see. Almost at once his epression &egan
to suggest that anger rather than pleasure was replacing passion as
his dominant emotion.
6'erhaps after that you6ll ta%e my advice more seriously,6 he said
&rus5uely.
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urgent things to say, even though Angel told her this wasn6t a
convenient moment for a long gossip.
+hort of ringing off while the other girl was in mid"sentence, there
was nothing Angel could do &ut stem the flow as soon as possi&le.
$ut &y that time Charles had gone, his farewell &eing an avuncular pat on her shoulder in passing, as if the heart"churning em&race in
the garden had never happened.
+he found it hard to sleep that night. Charles had aroused deep
longings which no dou&t would die down eventually &ut tonight
would not let her rest. +he tossed and turned, aching to &e in his
arms, in his &ed. )e was the only man she wanted to ma%e love to
her, ever. $ut clearly he had scruples a&out &ecoming her lover.
/hich could only mean that, although he found her physically
desira&le, he didn6t love her in the way she loved him8wholly,
completely, forever.
/hy should he( +he wasn6t old enough, didn6t %now enough, to &e
worthy of him. 1et Leonora had implied that it was her immaturity,
her mallea&ility, which appealed to him.
Two nights later she went to his flat.
Dorothea had gone to a concert with -alph 0ingsland, thin%ing
Angel intended to watch a film a&out *ndonesia on television. $ut
soon after they had left the house, she programmed iss
Thetford6s video to record the film for her and too% a tai to the
$ar&ican. There was every possi&ility that Charles would &e out
when she got there, &ut at least she would %now where he lived
and the colour of his front door.
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6Angel: /hat are you doing here(6 were his first words, when he
opened it.
6Are you &usy( ay * come in(6
)e stepped &ac% to allow her to enter. or a second8&ut only asecond8he had seemed to &e pleased to see her. Now his face had
resumed the epression she was never a&le to read.
6/hat &rings you to this end of town(6 he demanded.
6An impulse. Dorothea is out with -alph, and * was feeling lonely.
* thought *6d come and see you. 1ou don6t mind, * hope(6
)e avoided a direct answer &y saying, 6* might have &een out. 1ou
could have saved a wasted 7ourney &y ringing up first.6
Angel un&uttoned her windcheater. 6*f * had, you6d have put me
off... wouldn6t you(6
)e didn6t answer that either. )elping her ta%e off the 7ac%et, he
said, 6)ave you ever tried apple tea( The woman who stoc%s my
free#er came &ac% from Tur%ey last wee% and she &rought me a 7ar
of Oralet. * was 7ust going to ma%e a cup of the stuff.6
Tossing her 7ac%et on a chair, he led the way to his %itchen which,compared with his aunt6s, was a place of soulless efficiency, more
li%e an operating theatre than the heart of a home.
The electric %ettle switched itself off as they entered. Charles
produced a second mug, tipped in spoonfuls of pale grains and
added hot water.
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6The taste is a &it synthetic, &ut it ma%es a change from instant
coffee.6 )e carried the mugs to a &rea%fast counter and, having
placed them on top, drew out two tall chrome stools.
$efore perching on one, Angel said, 6Am * not to &e allowed to see
your sitting"room(6
*t crossed her mind that he might already have a visitorF one he
didn6t want her to meet, or to meet her. *t was agony to wonder if,
so soon after %issing her, he was entertaining someone who would
&e spending the night here.
$ut there was no hesitation or em&arrassment in his reply, 6Of
course, if you want to.6
A few moments later, loo%ing round his large, comforta&le,
modern sitting"room, she regretted her suspicions. Clearly he had
&een spending the evening wor%ing. Through the open door of an
ad7oining study, she could see the monitor of a computer with acomplicated chart showing on the screen.
6Oh, dear, you were wor%ing. *6ve distur&ed you. /hy didn6t you
say so(6
6*6m usually wor%ing. *t isn6t anything urgent. +it down and tell me
why you were lonely. * thought you had several girl friends if youneeded company. /hat a&out the girl who rang up on +unday...
Carol, was it(6
61es, Carol8what an ecellent memory you have:8&ut * wasn6t in
the mood for a natter with her this evening. * wanted to tal% to
you... a&out +unday.6
At his suggestion Angel had seated herself, &ut Charles was still on
his feet and now wal%ed away towards the window which, his flat"
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&eing a penthouse, had a wide view of London6s old and new
rooftops.
6/hat a&out +unday(6 he as%ed, standing with his &ac% to her.
+he moistened her lips with a sip of the hot apple tea. 6Charles,that6s the third time you6ve %issed me... which suggests that you
rather li%e doing it. * li%e it too.. .very much. *6d li%e to.. .to go all
the way.6
)e swung round, visi&ly staggered. +he had never epected to see
him flummoed &y anyone, least of all &y her.
+ei#ing her momentary advantage, she said, 61ou said you didn6t
want me to change. $ut * can6t stay a virgin much longer. /ouldn6t
it &e &etter for you to ma%e love to me than, say, someone li%e Tim
who may not &e very good at it(6
Charles had recovered himself. )e said, with an incisive snap, 6*twould &e &etter if you stuc% to your original plan to stay out of
men6s &eds until you find someone you want to share everything
with. *s Tim trying to persuade you to have an affair with him(6
6No, he isn6t. No&ody is. $ut *6m ready for love...ripe for it. *n the
East girls much younger than * am are married with children.6
6$ecause it6s their only option. *n the /est, if they have any sense,
girls mature &efore they get married.6
6$ut they don6t wait until they marry to find out a&out ma%ing love.
/hy must *( *6m curious ... longing to %now if it6s all it6s crac%ed
up to &e. /hy can6t you show me(6
6or 9od6s sa%e, Angel "6 he &egan. Then words seemed to fail him
and he put down his mug and strode past her into the net room.
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rom where she was sitting she could see him remove a dis% from
a slot under the screen and put it away in a case. Then he touched a
switch and the screen went &lan%.
-eturning to the sitting"room, he said, 6Come on! *6m ta%ing you
home.6
6$ut * don6t want to go home.6
6And how do you thin% Aunt D. would feel if she came home and
found you missing( Or haven6t you thought a&out that(6
+he hadn6t, for the simple reason that when she set out it hadn6t &een her intention to offer herself to him.
6O&viously not,6 said Charles. 6Clearly you haven6t thought this
cra#y idea through at all. 1ou can try apple tea another time.6 )e
too% the mug from her hand, set it down and yan%ed her ungently
to her feet, &efore hustling her &ac% to the hall. There he &undledher into her 7ac%et &efore ta%ing a light raincoat from a cup&oard
and his latch"%ey from the hall ta&le. oments later they were on
their way down to ground level.
Angel had thought he might put her into a tai, give her address tothe driver and send her home &y herself. $ut he came with her.
As the tai sped along )igh )ol&orn, at this hour clear of its heavy
daytime traffic, Angel sat in her corner and wondered what had
possessed her to ma%e such a fool of herself. At the time it had
seemed a good idea to ta%e the initiative. Now it seemed an act of
madness.
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*nwardly cringing with em&arrassment, &ut determined not to let
him %now it, she gathered the rags of her self"possession around
her, saying, 6The way you rushed me out of your flat was almost
panic"stric%en, Charles. One wouldn6t epect you to flap at &eing
propositioned.6
)e leaned forward to close the sliding glass panel &ehind the
driver6s seat. $ut all he said was, 6*6m not superhuman, Angel.6
/hat did that mean( That he had &een tempted( That he wanted
her so &adly that he couldn6t trust himself to &e alone with her( +he
wished she could &elieve it, &ut a more li%ely eplanation was thatsince he had8as far as they %new8no regular girlfriend at
present, any willing woman was a temptation to him.
+uddenly he stretched out his hand and too% hers, holding it
loosely on the leather seat &etween them.
6*f you were a little older... twenty... twenty"one ... * wouldn6t &eta%ing you home,6 he said. 6Or if * were ten years younger and
women were still playthings to me. $ut that6s over.. .that stage of
my life. One grows out of light love affairs. They6re li%e discos,
they lose their appeal8ecept to people who suffer from arrested
development,6 he added drily.
Angel thought! * shall remem&er this moment for the rest of mylife. The feel of Charles6s hand holding mine.
+he said, 6* thin% my pro&lem is accelerated developmentF perhaps
&ecause of growing up with Ludo. * generally feel more
comforta&le with older people than with my contemporaries. They
often seem childish to me.6
6*n some ways you are more mature than most people of your age,6
he agreed. 6$ut life is full of wonderful eperiences, Angel. 1ou
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don6t have to try them all at once. +ave ma%ing love for later. *f
you try it merely out of curiosity, you6ll &e disappointed.6
+he nerved herself to say, 6Not with you. * %now that &y what
happens to me when you %iss me. 'lease, Charles... won6t you
reconsider(6
or a moment his fingers tightened in a grip which made her
%nuc%le"&ones crunch. )e said a&ruptly, 6There6s only one
circumstance in which * would ma%e love to you.. .if we were
married. *s your curiosity so great that you6ll commit the rest of
your life to me to satisfy it(6
/as he serious( /as this a proposal( Or was it a sardonic 7o%e(
Confused and uncertain, she searched his face for the meaning
&ehind his etraordinary statement.
+till unsure of her ground, her heart pounding with nervous
ecitement, she answered him with a 5uestion. 6/hat would youdo if * said yes(6
or an instant she saw in his eyes8or thought she saw8the loo%
which had &een there &efore he %issed her in the garden a few days
ago. $ut this time it wasn6t followed &y a ravenous %iss. *nstead he
let go of her hand and folded his arms across his chest, perhaps to
stop himself reaching for her or perhaps &ecause it was one of hismost characteristic postures.
6* should suggest that we tal% a&out this again in, say, a year6s time.6
6-alph has as%ed me to marry him and *6ve said * will,6 issThetford announced at &rea%fast the following morning.
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6Oh, that6s wonderful... *6m so glad:6 Angel 7umped up to dart round
the ta&le and hug her.
6Than% you, my dear... so am *,6 said the older woman, &eaming. 6*
didn6t thin% it was possi&le to fall in love at my age, &ut it seems
that it is. * lay awa%e half the night, thin%ing a&out him and howluc%y * am to have met him.6
Angel had also lain awa%e, &ut for reasons very different from the
happy cause of Dorothea6s insomnia. )ad Charles proposed to her
or hadn6t he( +he still wasn6t sure. $ut even if he had &een serious,
there was no way his offer could &e construed as a declaration of love.
6Don6t worry. This doesn6t mean that you6ll have nowhere to live,6
said iss Thetford. 6/e6re going to &e married almost
immediately, &ut * shan6t &e moving to -alph6s house in )arley
+treet. That6s really only a &achelor flat a&ove the consulting"
rooms he shares with another specialist. /hen his first wife wasalive, he spent every wee%end at their country house, &ut it was
sold after she died8he found it too large and too lonely without
her, so he6s going to come and live here and let his children have
his flat as a pied"a"terre.6
6$ut you won6t want me playing goose&erry,6 said Angel, using one
of the old"fashioned epressions learnt from Ludo whichsometimes pu##led people of her own age. 6* must find a pad of my
own.6
6No, no, -alph would &e most upset if he felt he6d driven you out.
)e %nows * regard you as my adopted granddaughter and he6s very
fond of you too. The thing is, shall you mind &eing here alonewhile we6re on our honeymoon( /e6re going round the world for
si months. Although we6ve &oth travelled fairly widely, there are
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lots of places we haven6t seen and we want to visit them together,
&efore we get old and infirm.6
As she spo%e, Dorothea6s happiness and ecitement made her loo%
years younger than her actual age. Angel felt deeply enviousF she
couldn6t imagine anything more &lissful than a si"month 7ourneyto faraway places with Charles. $ut somehow she couldn6t see him
ta%ing a long &rea% from &an%ing to go on an etended
honeymoon. )e had told her that one day, when he had enough
money, he would get out of the rat race, &ut would that day ever
come( /ould he &e happy without the power and influence he
wielded at present( *t didn6t seem li%ely.
After their mid"morning register office wedding, 'rofessor and
rs -alph 0ingsland gave a lunch party at the +avoy )otel &efore
flying to 'aris for a few days, their long wedding trip &eing
postponed until later in the year when they would have fulfilledvarious eisting commitments.
$efore they set out on their travels it was arranged that, while they
were away, Angel would share the house with )ilary, a
schoolfriend of -alph6s elder daughter. )ilary was thirty"eight, had
recently left her hus&and and wanted to wor% in London where she
had lived &efore her marriage to a enland farmer. *t appeared tohave &een a case of a consuming attraction which for a time had
o&scured the fact that they had nothing else in common. )ilary had
&een unhappy in the flat, windswept emptiness of the ens and her
hus&and had &een disappointed when they failed to have the
children he wanted.
$y the time )ilary moved in, Angel6s career as a photographic
model had already &egun to ta%e off. The money which Charles
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had paid for his share of Sea Fever 8which had seemed a lot at the
time8might, it seemed, soon &e eceeded &y her own startling
earnings.
-alph and Dorothea had &een overseas for three months, and were
planning to spend Christmas in New ealand, when her career too% on a new dimension. An appearance on an early"morning chat
show led to an invitation to stand in, at the last moment, for a well"
%nown actress who was one of the regulars on a panel game.
Angel6s role, she suspected, was to loo% decorative and leave most
of the tal%ing to the two males on the team, one an egghead, theother a wit. )owever, it happened that the first 5uestion she was
as%ed was on a su&7ect connected with one of Ludo6s &est 7o%es.
+he told it, and &rought the house down. The studio audience
roared and the two men on either side of her, whose manner &efore
the show started had &een faintly patronising, 7oined in the
laughter and loo%ed at her with more respect.
The show was screened a wee% later and the following night
)ilary, who still had many friends in London, gave a party. As the
women on her guest list outnum&ered the men, she had turned to
Angel for help with &alancing the num&ers. Angel had as%ed Tim
$olton, Tony +heringham and Charles, all of whom had said they
would come.
6+aw you on T3 last night. 1ou were terrific,6 said Tim, when he
arrived. 6)ave they as%ed you to go on again(6
6As a matter of fact they have. $ut it was only luc% that * %new the
answers. Net time * may not %now any.6
6Doesn6t matter, if you can ma%e people laugh.6
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6* can6t. Those were Ludo6s 7o%es... don6t you remem&er( *6m sure
he must have told them while you were with us.6
6ay&e... it6s a long time ago. Anyway, you had everyone on the
floor last night, or whenever it was the show was recorded.6
Tony, who had also watched the screening, was more guarded in
his approval. 61ou were a hit, &ut T36s a tric%y medium. *t doesn6t
ta%e long to &uild someone into a nationally"%nown personality,
&ut there6s always a danger of over%ill, and once that happens
you6re finished forever,6 he warned. 6*f * were you *6d stay off the
small screen until you6ve run out of mileage as a model.6
)e loo%ed round the room, noticed )ilary and as%ed, 6/ho6s that(6
Angel too% him across and introduced him. Contrary to Charles6s
forecast, Tony had never made advances to her. )e used language
which made her wince and had no manners to spea% of, &ut
whatever he had &een li%e in 9enia6s time as a model, he no longer made passes at random. $ut the way he was loo%ing at )ilary
when Angel left them together, it seemed pro&a&le he might try
one later.
0nowing, &ecause she had said so, that )ilary was loo%ing for an
unattached man who would give her a good time in and out of &ed
without any of the penalties she associated with marriage, Angelhoped her co"hostess wouldn6t let Tony stay the night. +he felt
certain that -alph and Dorothea would disapprove, not only
&ecause they had the moral standards of their generation &ut
&ecause Tony was a chain"smo%er and, if he spent much time here,
would soon have every room in the house ree%ing of cigarettes.
Charles was the last to arrive. )e had come to the house for the
0ingslands6 farewell party, and &een introduced to )ilary, &ut since
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then Angel hadn6t seen him, although they had tal%ed on the
telephone a&out the investment of her modelling fees.
*t was a cold night, and when she opened the front door, he was
standing on the step &eginning to un&utton a navy &lue overcoat. A
long scarf, cashmere on one side and dar% 'aisley sil% on the other,was tied round his nec%. The rims of his ears and his chee%&ones
had &een reddened &y the cold, &ut she %new he had &een &ac% to
$ali a few wee%s earlier and his s%in had its usual tan, ma%ing
everyone else, including herself, loo% winter"pale &y comparison.
6* was &eginning to thin% you couldn6t ma%e it,6 she said, offeringher hand &ut not her chee%.
)e stepped into the house. *n spite of the free#ing air outside, his
ungloved fingers were warm as they closed over hers.
6+orry *6m late8got held up at the office. Congratulations on your
performance last night. As )he )i&es critic said this morning, youlit up that rather stale show li%e a spar%ler on a party pudding.6
61ou watched it(6 said Angel, pleased. +he had told him she was
going to &e on, &ut she hadn6t felt sure he would watch.
6* was out last night, so * taped it and saw it this morning. * clipped
)he )i&es' notice for you in case you hadn6t seen it.6 )e handed her an envelope.
6Than% you.6 +he put it in the poc%et of her full &lac% taffeta s%irt.
6Let me ta%e your coat.6
6Don6t you want to read it now(6
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6irst things first.. .you must need a reviver after a long &usy day.
Come and have a rum punch and a hot mince pie to %eep you
going until supper is served.6
As she hung his coat on a peg, Charles as%ed, 6)ave you made any
plans for Christmas(6
Angel6s heart leapt, then plummeted. )ilary was spending
Christmas with her &rother and his wife. Thin%ing it a vain hope
that Charles would want to include her in his arrangements, Angel
had accepted an invitation to spend the holiday with Carol and her
family. Now she wished she hadn6t. *t would have &een &etter toris% spending Christmas alone than to miss the chance to &e with
him. 2nfortunately the principles Ludo had drummed into her
from early childhood made it impossi&le to deny that she had any
plans.
All she could do was say, 6Carol6s parents %eep open house for
anyone who6s on their own. * said *6d go there, &ut "6
6That6s fine,6 Charles cut in &ris%ly. 6*6m going to &e in America, &ut
* would have fied you up with friends of mine if you6d had none
of your own to spend the festivities with. Now lead me to that rum
punch:6
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C)A'TE- T/EL3E
SEEING Sea Fever lying at anchor off To&ago, Angel6s eyes filled
with tears.
*t seemed such a long, long time since she had last seen the sloop.ar longer than two years.
*n some ways those years had sped as the pace of her career had
accelerated. $ut always, deep in her heart, there had &een an
aching longing for the life she had lived with LudoF the unhurried,
carefree days and 5uiet nights of the time &efore fame and fortune
had come upon her.
+he still went to &ed at an hour which would have surprised those
who visualised her private life as a succession of parties or dinners
a deu( at fashiona&le restaurants. $ut early nights were almost the
only resem&lance &etween her past and her present. Early nightsF
and the fact that she always went to &ed alone, still saving herself for Charles, who didn6t appear to want her.
$ill orston, who had met her at the airport, said, 6+he loo%s good,
doesn6t she( $etter than the new sloops without &owsprits and
topsails.6
6+he loo%s wonderful,6 Angel said hus%ily.
+he had flown from London to Trinidad the wee% &efore on a
modelling assignment, her first one in the Cari&&ean and also her
first opportunity to spend a few days on Sea Fever while no one
else was on &oard ecept $ill and his crew, a girl called 4osie who
also coo%ed for the charter parties.
This morning, her assignment completed, Angel had flown the
short distance from Trinidad to To&ago, where a &ron#ed and fit"
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loo%ing $ill had &een waiting to ta%e the roll"&ag which was her
only luggage.
6* thought you would have changed a lot, &ut you seem 7ust the
same,6 he remar%ed, as they clim&ed into the sloop6s tender.
61ou should have seen me yesterday, flouncing around the Trinidad
)ilton in the latest resort wear with a ton of ma%e"up on my face:6
said Angel, with a grin.
Now she was wearing pale &lue 7eans, white loafers and a plain
white T"shirt and her long hair was plaited for coolness. /ithout
ma%e"up or 7ewellery, she was hardly recognisa&le as the
sophisticated model8soon to turn T3 presenter8of yesterday.
'hotographs of Sea Fever's refit had prepared her for the changes
she would find &etween dec%s. $ut &efore $ill too% her &elow to
see the luurious alterations which had &rought the sloop up to the
standard demanded &y the rich people who chartered her for their holidays, he introduced 4osie, a small &ut sturdy &runette with
short hair and a gap &etween her front teeth.
One of the draw&ac%s of her 7o&, Angel had found out, was that
she often received hostile vi&es from other women, particularly
those who were self"conscious a&out their physical shortcomings.
$ut although 4osie was rather plain with short legs and solid hips,there was nothing unfriendly in her manner. +he euded good
humour and capa&ility.
6/e6ve put you in one of the dou&le ca&ins,6 she said. 6/ould you
li%e a swim &efore lunch(6
6Oh, yes, please8that would &e heaven,6 Angel said eagerly.
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+he followed 4osie &elow to a ca&in no longer recognisa&le as the
sha&&y one her grandfather had occupied.
They had lunch on dec%, under the smart new awning at a ta&le
laid in the style %nown as -ustic Chic with food to matchF the
chilled +panish soup called ga0pacho, which 4osie had learned toma%e while crewing in the editerranean, followed &y a
decorative salad, followed &y fruit.
)alf a &ottle of champagne, shared with 4osie while $ill dran%
lager, made Angel feel drowsy afterwards. +he didn6t drin% much
as a rule, &ut $ill had opened the champagne to cele&rate her return to her former home and she hadn6t demurred when he had
twice refilled her glass.
6/hy don6t you ta%e a nap(6 4osie suggested, when Angel
suppressed her third yawn.
6Do you %now, * thin% < will. * epect it6s partly the heat which isma%ing me tired8* haven6t got acclimatised yet. $ut don6t let me
sleep too long. *6m only here for five days, * don6t want to waste
time snoo#ing.6
/hen she wo%e, she %new &y the much lower angle of the sun thatit was past the time when 4osie had promised to call her.
*n the saloon, she found a note on the ta&le.
69one ashore. Not sure when we6ll &e &ac% &ut no dou&t you6ll &e
glad to have + to yourself for a while. $.6
Angel was pleased to &e on her own for a time, &ut she thought it
odd they hadn6t mentioned having to go ashore again. Neither of
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)aving made fast the dinghy, Charles turned to her and said
calmly, 6They6ll &e spending the night at -ichmond 9reat )ouse, a
two"hundred"year"old plantation house on the Atlantic side of the
island. *t &elongs to a To&agonian who6s a professor at Colum&ia
2niversity, New 1or%. /hen he6s not using the house, he lets
visitors use it. $ill and 4osie are spending the second wee% of their
honeymoon there. They were married last /ednesday morning &ut
agreed to stay on &oard until you and * arrived.6
6They6re married: /hy didn6t they tell me(6
6* as%ed them not to. * wanted to surprise you.6
61ou can say that again:6 Angel retorted. 6* hope, during this
conspiracy, you also arranged for a helmsman and coo% to replace
them. *6m here to ta%e it easy.6
6+o you shall. $ut would it &e too much to as% you to fi me a
long cold drin% while * ta%e a 5uic% shower( They6ve put you inthe green ca&in and me in the &lue, * &elieve.6 Charles headed for
the hatchway, saying over his shoulder, 6And a slug of rum in my
drin%, please.6
)is a&sence gave Angel a chance to pull herself together and
consider the implications of the arrangements he and $ill had
made &ehind her &ac%. $ut her mind was still in a state of considera&le confusion when he reappeared.
6*8* wasn6t sure how long you6d &e and * didn6t want the ice to
have melted &efore you were ready,6 she said, to eplain why so far
all she had done was to locate the tall, heavy"&ottomed glasses
intended for long drin%s.
6)aving &een out here &efore, * ma%e a pretty good rum punch.
/ill you 7oin me(6 he as%ed.
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61es, &ut don6t ma%e it too strong. *6ve already had half a &ottle of
champagne with my lunch.6
6Then perhaps you6d &etter stic% to mineral water. * don6t want you
to nod off again. /hen they met me at the airport, 4osie said they6d
left you in a deep sleep and you might not &e awa%e when * gothere.6
6*6d &een up for some time. Than% you.6 Angel too% the glass of
iced water he handed her, and sipped it while he poured some dar%
rum into his own glass. 6Do you mind telling me how we6re going
to manage without them(6
6* have another surprise for you. Now * have a yachtmaster6s
certificate. )elped &y a lad who6ll &e coming on &oard when we go
ashore for dinner, * shall sail Sea Fever. All you have to do is to
ma%e your own &rea%fast.6
6/ho6s going to coo% all the other meals(6
6Don6t worry, it won6t &e you. ost of the time we6ll eat out at the
island6s hotels. Let6s go on dec% again, shall we... watch the sun go
down(6
6Are you serious a&out &eing a certified yachtmaster(6 she as%ed,
when they were &oth reclining on the comforta&ly padded fold"uploungers which $ill had put out &efore he left.
6Of course. * wouldn6t &e here if * weren6t... or not without $ill as
s%ipper. *6ve never &een the rec%less type. *f *6m going to ta%e
charge of a valua&le &oat and a girl who6s &een offered a headline"
ma%ing T3 contract, * need to %now what *6m doing. And * do. As
well as %nowing all the theory, *6ve pic%ed up a lot of eperience,
some of it in 5uite hairy conditions. Every spare day *6ve had has
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&een spent on dec% off the south coast, or in the North +ea or
somewhere. /ee%ends and holidays as well.6
61ou6ve %ept it very 5uiet,6 she said. 6Even your aunt has no idea all
this has &een going on.6
6*6ve always %ept my cards close to my chest,6 he answered. 6+o do
you, for that matter. * didn6t %now you6d &een offered the 7o& of
presenter of a new pea%"hour show until * read it in the paper. *
ta%e it you won6t resist an offer as tempting as that(8 or were the
'ress eaggerating the si#e of the salary(6
6No, they weren6t. *t6s a lot of money...&ut * haven6t made up my
mind yet. That6s why * wanted this &rea%. To thin% things out...
decide where my future lies.6
Charles tilted his glass to ta%e a long swig of his drin%. )is hair,
still wet from the shower, was stic%ing together in strands which as
they dried would separate and &ecome a thic%, soft, dense mass.Angel felt an impulse to touch the parts of his chee%s now faintly
shadowed and pro&a&ly due to &e shaved &efore they went out to
dinner.
)e said, 61ou may not remem&er, &ut a long time ago we were
tal%ing in Aunt D6s garden and you 5uoted /ordsworth to me.
9etting and spending, we lay waste our powers. *6ve decided themoment has come when *6ve had enough getting and spending. *t6s
time for a simpler life. +o where my own future lies is here, on
&oard Sea Fever...unless you have some o&7ection(6
Not wholly clear what he meant, Angel said, 6/hat a&out $ill and
4osie(6
6They6d li%e to set up on their own and *6m prepared to finance
them at a less swingeing rate of interest than they6d have to pay on
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a &an% loan. $ill6s seen a &oat he fancies at a price he considers
reasona&le. As soon as it6s fit for service, * shall ta%e over here. *6ve
already drafted my letter of resignation from Cornwall Chester. *t6s
on my computer, waiting to &e printed and signed.6
6Are you planning to carry on chartering(6
6That depends. 'ossi&ly... if * can find a coo%"cum"crew as good as
4osie.6 As the sun san% &elow the hori#on he peered at his watch.
6Time we were getting ready. On $ill6s recommendation, *6ve
&oo%ed a ta&le at the 0ariwa% 3illage.6
Angel went &elow and had a shower and washed her hair. As she
dried it, she thought a&out all the men who had &een interested in
her &ut whom she had always discouraged &ecause from the day
they had met she had cared only for this man. $ut now her delight
at Charles6s arrival was mied with anger and resentment &ecause
of the pain he had caused her.
)ad she &een dining on &oard, she would have left her hair loose
and put on 7eans and a shirt. Not %nowing how glamorous a place
the 0ariwa% would &e, she decided to put her hair up and to wear a
simple &lac% and white shift. +he had &ought it at the &outi5ue in
the Trinidad )ilton where she and the rest of the !arpers " #ueen
party had &een staying as guests of the management for whom the
feature on resort clothes would &e a good advertisement.
6Ama#ing,6 said Charles, when she 7oined him in the saloon and he
scanned the hairdo, the dress and the high"heeled sandals she was
dangling &y their sling"&ac%s.
6/hat6s ama#ing(6
6The speed of your transformation.6
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6*t would have &een 5uic%er, &ut * had to wash the salt out of my
hair.6
Evidently the place where they were dining didn6t have too strict a
dress code. Charles was wearing white denim trousers and loafers
with a short"sleeved navy &lue shirt with the collar &utton undone.
)e was ru&&ing some li5uid from a &ottle on to his sinewy, lightly
haired forearms. 6)ave you anti"mo##ed your legs(6 he as%ed.
6According to 4osie they6re the most vulnera&le parts. os5uitoes
lur% under ta&les, especially out"of"doors ta&les.6
Two years in a temperate climate hadn6t made Angel forget the
precautions necessary in the tropics. +he had already used an
insect repellent in stic% form, li%e solid cologne. $ut he wasn6t to
%now that.
+he said, 6That stuff loo%s oily, * don6t want it on my hands. /ould
you put some on for me, please(6
+he lifted a long &are leg, resting her foot on the end of the C"
shaped &an5uette &ehind the oval ta&le. 1esterday her toenails had
&een dar% red, the colour chosen &y the fashion stylist. Now they
were painted with the natural varnish she preferred.
Charles dri&&led a little of the lotion on to her shin and ru&&ed itin.
6*t isn6t as stic%y as it loo%s. *n a few minutes6 time you won6t %now
it6s there.6
The feel of his palm stro%ing from the &ac% of her an%le, up her
calf to &ehind her %nee, made her trem&le inwardly. +he wanted toclose her eyes and revel in his touch, &ut she %ept them open and,
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when he had done one leg, lifted the other. Did touching her have
the same effect on him as it did on her( *t was impossi&le to tell.
)er dress was sleeveless, high at the front &ut low at the &ac%.
6$etter have some on your arms,6 he said.
+he had as%ed for this delicious torture, Angel thought, as he
ru&&ed the stuff on her arms. +he had never tried aromatherapy,
disli%ing the idea of &eing massaged &y another woman.
'erformed &y Charles, aromatherapy would &e heaven. The mere
thought of his strong, gentle hands on the covered parts of her
&ody made her sha%e and 5uiver inside. Even now, with him
stro%ing her spine, it too% all her self"control not to groan with
sheer sensuous pleasure.
6This stuff has a &itter taste if it gets on one6s lips. *6ll wash my
hands and then we6ll &e off.6
)is voice sounded slightly hus%y and he went to his ca&in rather
than into the galley, ma%ing her wonder if, had she thought to loo%,
she might have seen conclusive evidence that touching her had
aroused him as strongly as she was aroused.
/hen the dinghy arrived at the place where they were to meet the
crew $ill had hired to help Charles and mind the sloop in their
a&sence, waiting for them was a tai"driver and a tall /est *ndian
youth with a grin as white as his T"shirt in the moonlight, and a
pair of snea%ers slung round his nec% &y their laces.
Charles had already rolled up the legs of his trousers. /hen he hadcut the motor and tilted it in&oard, and after the dinghy had glided
&y its own momentum into shallow water, he threw his loafers on
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decided whether to start a new career as a T3 presenter. /hat6s
holding you &ac%(6
The ta&le was lit &y a candle inside an am&er storm"glass. Angel
loo%ed at the flame, not at him, as she answered, 6ainly the fact
that *6m not very happy in my present career. T3 would &e moreinteresting than modelling, * suppose, &ut &asically *6d &e
echanging one type of studio for another. The fashion scene and
television are &oth man"made worlds... totally artificial. * thin% *
&elong in the natural world of wind and water and sunlight.6 +he
raised her eyes to his face. 6/here do you thin% * &elong(6
/ithout hesitation, he said, 6* thin% you &elong on Sea Fever. *f
you hadn6t run into Tim $olton, you6d have come &ac% to her long
&efore this.6
6*f * hadn6t run into you, * might never have left her,6 she said. 6Or *
might have lost her forever.6
The waitress came &ac% with their first course and the &ottle of
wine Charles had ordered.
/hen she had gone, ignoring the food set &efore him, he said,
6'erhaps *6ve lost you. )ave *, Angel(6
+he &ro%e the home"made &rown roll on her side plate. 6* don6tunderstand that 5uestion. * was never yours to lose.6
61ou wanted to &e mine.6
+he made an airy gesture with her hand. 6That was ages ago.
-ather ungentlemanly of you to remind me of my youthful follies,
don6t you thin%(6
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+he was going to leave it at that, &ut suddenly changed her mind
and, leaning towards him, spea%ing in a lower voice, said, 6*t6s not
important any more, &ut have you any idea how much pain you
caused me at the time, Charles(6
6No more pain than * felt myself,6 he said, with a twisted smile. 6$utthe difference &etween love and desire is that love wants what6s
&est for the other person. 1ou were too young then. 1ou had to
have time to grow up and do your own thing. *f you6d 7umped at
the idea of marrying me, * would have wea%ened. $ut you didn6t.6
64umped at an offer of marriage with no mention of love: /hatwoman would(6 she retorted.
6The fact that * was ta%ing you home should have told you
something,6 he said drily.
The waitress hovered &eside them. 61ou don6t li%e the fish
mousse(6 she as%ed, her epression concerned.
6*6m sure it6s delicious. /e were so &usy tal%ing, we forgot to start
eating,6 eplained Angel. +he tried a mouthful. 6m... it6s
ecellent.6
6*t wasn6t a good idea to come here,6 said Charles, when the girl had
left them. 6/e should have had pot luc% on &oard and thrashed allthis out in private.6
+he made a pretence of eating the mousse with en7oyment.
6Thrashed what out(6
6The future... whether we6re going to spend it together. * didn6t spell
it out &efore, &ut * will now. * love you. * want to marry you. $utyou6re still very young to settle down. *f you want to try the T3
7o&, that would &e O0 &y me. * could carry on at C.C. until you6d
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got it out of your system. * %now *6ve sometimes laid down the law
in the past, &ut only &ecause you seemed so innocent and
vulnera&le. *f we were married, * would never want to cur& you.6
)e still hadn6t touched his mousse and although it was very good,
the thought of the main course and pudding made her say, 6Oh,Charles, let6s get out of here. *t really is 5uite impossi&le to discuss
our personal affairs with all these people around us. +ay you6re not
well or something. Tell them we6ll come &ac% another evening.6
@ @ @
The tai had not &rought them far, and wal%ing at this time of
night was not li%e wal%ing &y day when the heat of the sun was so
strong that it made the sand feel li%e a hot"plate.
Near the hotel was a main road and, &eyond it, a 5uiet &y"road
crossing some parched common land where a few scraggy cattle
were tethered.
Charles hadn6t spo%en since they had left the 0ariwa% and Angel
%new it was up to her to ma%e the net move. +he slipped her hand
into his.
6y feelings haven6t changed. * still feel the same as * did the night
* came to your flat,6 she told him.
)e had &een shortening his stride to match her pace in high heels.
Now, coming a&ruptly to a standstill, he swung to face her.
6Are you sure(6
6* was sure then... even &efore that. * was sure the first time wemet. * %new you were someone special.6
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)e must have &een holding his &reath. *t came out in a long, deep
sigh.
6+o was *... and * thought *6d gone mad. Oh, 9od, Angel... darling...
at last:6
An instant later she was loc%ed in his arms, &eing %issed with a
pent"up passion which felt li%e &eing swept over&oard &y a giant
wave, ecept that would have &een terrifying and this was
wonderful.
Laughter and lewd remar%s from a passing car reminded them
where they were. *n the shelter of Charles6s strong arms Angel felt
totally safe, &ut she did wonder for a moment if warnings a&out
Trinidad applied to its much smaller neigh&our. $ut from what she
had seen of To&ago it had a 5uiet, rural air, 5uite different from
'ort of +pain where wandering around after dar% was said to &e
as%ing for trou&le.
Anyway, Charles seemed unworried and, remem&ering his over"
anious attitude to her safety in London, she felt sure he wouldn6t
have suggested wal%ing &ac% to the &each if he hadn6t already
chec%ed out the situation here with $ill.
As they strolled on, she said, 6*f you want to %now the reason why
* didn6t 7ump at your first proposal, it was &ecause of Leonora.After you6d &ro%en up, she and * met in the street. +he guessed
how * felt a&out you, and she told me you would never find a
woman to match up to your ideal, &ut &ecause * was young and
mallea&le, you might try to ma%e me fit your &lueprint.6
6Never heard such ru&&ish:6 was his comment. 6+he was 7ealous of
you, and with reason. /e &ro%e up &ecause, for the first time in my
life, *6d discovered what love was all a&out. *ncidentally, in case
you6re wondering, there6s &een no one else since Leonora.6
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uncertainty now was whether her theoretical %nowledge of how to
ma%e love to a man would counter&alance her lac% of eperience.
+he wanted terri&ly to please him, to ma%e up for all the lonely
nights when he had needed her and she hadn6t &een there. +he
would never forget the &lea% loo% in his eyes when she had
accused him of causing her pain, and the wry grimace which had
accompanied his answer.
oonlight was flooding his star&oard ca&in, and silvery se5uin"
li%e patterns made &y reflections from the sea shimmered on the
dec%"head. )er ca&in, on the port side, would &e in shadow until
the tide changed. This was not why she had chosen his ca&in for their first night together, &ut it pleased her that she would &e a&le
to see as well as feel Charles ma%ing love to her.
)e drew her in and closed the door. As she felt for the pins which
anchored her upswept hair, Charles turned her round and un#ipped
the &ac% of her dress &efore sliding it off her shoulders. The dress
and her hair fell together, leaving her na%ed ecept for her s%impy &riefs.
+he felt his hands trem&le as they covered her &reasts and she
trem&led herself at the warm, unfamiliar contact.
6Darling girl... don6t let me rush you... it6s not an ideal
com&ination... a man who6s starving and a virgin.6
+he leaned &ac% against him, feeling the pounding of his heart
against her shoulder&lade, the urgent desire charging his tall
powerful &ody, and also the rigid control which was holding that
fierce force in chec%, %eeping his caresses gentle.
6Darling Charles... let me go a minute.6
*nstantly she was released.
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+he was already &arefoot and it too% her two seconds to whip off
her little sil% &riefs and toss them aside &efore starting to un&utton
his shirt.
6$ut not a shy, shrin%ing virgin,6 she said, as she tugged it out of his
trousers and ran her hands over his chest. 6They died out a longtime ago.6
+he turned and &ounced on to the &ed, happy, confident, eager,
holding out her arms to him.
)ours later, when the tide was on the turn and they had made love
three times, they put on white towelling ro&es with the monogram
S F on them, and went to the galley and made sandwiches which
they too% on dec% with a &ottle of ontrachet.
+haring a lounger, with a ta&le for their moonlight picnicalongside, they discussed and eplained all that had pu##led them
a&out each other6s &ehaviour in the past &efore turning their minds
to the future.
+nuggled in the croo% of Charles6s arm, Angel said, 6*f we have a
son *6d li%e, if you don6t mind, to call him Ludovic.6
)e gave her an affirmative s5uee#e. 6* wish *6d %nown your
grandfather. Although * thin% you6d have &een the way you are
whoever had &rought you up. * remem&er after your first
appearance on T3, * &rought you a newspaper cutting, and instead
of snatching it from me to read what they6d said a&out you, you
were more concerned a&out warming me up with mulled punch.6
)e gave her another hug. 6/hat a rotten Christmas that was: *
wanted to fill a stoc%ing for you... ta%e you to&ogganing
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somewhere... help you to decorate a tree. *nstead of which * %ic%ed
my heels at a glit#y Long *sland house party.6
6And * got the spinster6s thim&le in my slice of Carol6s mother6s
Christmas pud, and cried over the inscription in the &oo% you6d
given me. 4ust )o +nge% fro& 1har%es and the year.6
+he swung her feet to the dec% and turned round to face him.
6Never mind, that6s all in the past. Net Christmas, wherever we
are, we6ll fill stoc%ings for each other. Not epensive &oo%s from
)at"chards or solid gold trifles from Cartier paid for with plastic
money. /e6ll go to the local mar%et and find little %oving presents.Oh, Charles, it6s going to &e so much fun from now on:6
)e pulled her &ac% into his arms, and presently Angel do#ed with