Part 5 (1/2)
Her shoes were of the lace-up type that wos they looked almost frivolous
Her hair was drawn severely back to expose a long swan neck The hair was fine and silken, sun-bleached, in places, alh broad forehead to the colour of wheat and autumn leaves
Gareth recovered first ”Miss Camberwell, of course I know your work Your column is syndicated in the Observer” She looked at him without expression, remarkably immune to the celebrated Swales se green in colour, but shot with speckles of tawny gold
Jake's ers and he swore She turned to him and he stood up quickly
”I didn't expect a woman”
”You don't like women?” Her voice was pitched low and had a husky tone that raised goose bumps on Jake's forearms
”Some of my favourite people are wo almost to his shoulder, and that her body had a poised athletic carriage She held her head at a haughty angle which e independent line of mouth and jaw
”In fact, I can't think of anyone I likewarhtly uneven one pushed out of line with the other He stared at it fascinated for a reen eyes
”Do you drive a car?” he asked seriously, and her shter
”I do” said Vicky, laughing ”I also ride a horse and a bicycle, I can ski, pilot an aeroplane, play snooker and bridge, sing, dance and play the piano”
”That will do,” Jake laughed with her ”That will do just fine” Vicky turned back to the Prince ”What is all this about, Lij Mikhael?” she asked ”Just what do these two gentle purple hull of the Dunnottar Castle swung slowly across the back-drop of pales of cumulus cloud, as she pulled her anchors and came around for the harbour entrance
At the rail of the upper deck, the tall figure of the Prince was flanked by the white-robed figures of his staff, and as the shi+p increased speed and kicked up a white sparkling boave, he lifted an aresture of farewell
Swiftly, the shape of the liner dwindled away into the li northwards once ered after it had disappeared, staring out at the horizon whose long sas uninterrupted except by the tiny white triangular sails of the fishi+ng fleet co in off the banks
Jake spoke first ”We'll have to find digs for Miss Carab for her single battered portmanteau and the typewriter in its leather case
”Spin you for it,” suggested Gareth, and an East African shi+lling appeared in his hand
”Tails,”decided Jake
”Rough luck, old son,” Gareth commiserated, and returned the coin to his pocket ”I'll take care of Miss Ca for a shi+p to take us up coast In the est you have another look at those cars” As he spoke, he hailed a ricksha from the rohich waited at the head of the wharf
”Re theether different h two hundred miles of desert You'd best make sure we don't have to walk home, he advised, and handed Vicky Camberwell into the ricksha ”Driver, advance!” he called, and with a cheery wave they jogged away up town
”It looks as though we are on our own, sir,” said Gregorius, and Jake grunted, still staring after the departing ricksha ”I think I should also find acco, lad You can doss down in rinned ”I hope you won't be offended if I wish it was Miss Cahtedly ”I understand your feelings but perhaps she snores, sir”
”No girl who looks like that could possibly snore,” Jake told hi don't call me ”sir”, it 's bags ”We'll walk,” he said ”I have a horrible hollow feeling that it's going to be a long weary wait until next the eagle screae of the road
”You said you own a Morgan? ”Jake asked
”That's right, Jake” you knohat ine”
”Oh brother,” applauded Jake ”That is a flying start You have just been appointed second engineer get your sleeves rolled up” Gareth Swales had a theory about seduction which in twenty years he had never had reason to revise
ladies liked the company of aristocrats, they were all of them basically snobs and a coat of arms usually made the coldest of them swoon No sooner had they settled into the padded seats of the ricksha, than he turned upon Vicky Ca beam of his wit and charm
No one who had built up an international reputation in the hard field of journalise of twenty-nine could be expected to lack perception, or be naive in the wicked ways of the world Vicky Cae hiood looks and lint in the eye Rogue, she had decided and every second in his coood-looking rogue, and very funny rogue with the exaggerated accent and turn of speech which she had recognized ie put-on She listened with ae
”As the colonel used to say ays referred to my old man as the colonel” Gareth's father had indeed died a colonel, but not in an illustrious regiested He had worked his way up from the lowly rank of constable in the Indian police
”Of course, the family estates were frohter of an unsuccessful baker, and the faed preue, and moved with a wild crowd, you know Fast ladies and slow horses The estates went to the block, I' injustices of the British class syste their only son beyond that invisible barrier that divides the middle from the upper classes
”Of course, I was at Eton and he was ot to know the old devil better He must have been a wonderful character-” Entrance to the school had been assisted by the Commissioner of Police, hireater part of the father's salary went into the costly business of turning the son into a gentleman
”Killed in a duel, would you believe it Pistols at dawn
He was a romantic, too much fire in his veins” When the cholera took the mother, the father's salary was insufficient toman casually ran up when he mixed sociably with the sons of dukes In India, bribery was a convention, a way of living but the colonel was found out It was indeed pistols at dawn The colonel rode out into the dark Indian forest with his Webley service pistol, and his bay mare trotted back to the stables an hour later with an e
”Had to leave Eton, naturally” Under considerable duress
It was coincidence that Gareth's friendshi+p with the house hter took place at the same time as the colonel's last ride, but at least it allowed Gareth to leave in a blaze of glory, as Lij Mikhael remarked, rather than as a nobody whose fees had not been met
He went out into the world with the speech, the entleman but without thethis war at the ti too deeply into the private means of their new officers Eton was sufficient recouns, pros were back to normal and it required three thousand a year for an officer to support hii ever since
Vicky Camberwell listened to him, fascinated despite herself She knew that this was the cobra dance before the chicken, she knew herself well enough to realize that part of the attraction he held for her was the very devilry and roguishness she had so readily recognized
There had been others like this one Her job took her to the trouble spots of the world, and men of this breed were attracted to the same hot spots With these er, the thrill and the fun but inevitably there was also the sting and the pain in the end
She tried not to respond, wishi+ng the ride would end, but Gareth's sallies were too much for her and as the ricksha drew up in front of the Royal Hotel entrance, she could not resist the alh She threw back her head, shaking her shi+ning pale hair in the wind as she let it ring out
Gareth had learned also to use the calibre of a wohed with an unaffected gaiety, a straightforward physical response that he found reassuring, and he took her arm possessively as he helped her out of the ricksha
He showed her through the royal suite with a proprietorial air
”Only one suite in the place Balcony looks out over the gardens, and you get the sea breeze in the evening” And, ”Only private loo in the building, even one of those French jobs for sluicing the old privates, you know” And, ”The bed is quite extraordinary, like sleeping on a cloud and all that rot Never experienced anything like it”
”Is this where I airl innocence
”Well, I thought we could irl” And she was left with no doubts as to the type of arrangement Gareth Swales had in mind