American team? I’m talking about Dino Ferranti, your admirer, remember? What d’you want to drink?”
“Oh, poor, poor Dino,” said Helen, shaking like a leaf at the terrible gaffe she’d nearly committed.
Rupert and Suzy were having drinks by the pool when Jake, Malise, and Ivor arrived. Several other handsome, golden-tanned Californian couples had also turned up. A splendid blonde was gamboling in the blue-green water. Helen was lying in a hammock, still in her bikini. She wanted Jake to see how good she looked.
“Hi, Ivor.” She got out of the hammock and kissed him. “How was the flight?”
Ivor went scarlet and mumbled something about it being “Joost fine.” Then Helen kissed Malise, which gave her the perfect excuse to kiss Jake, too. Putting her face against his cheek on the side away from Rupert, she whispered “I love you” in his ear. The smell of hot flesh, suntan oil, and Femme sent his senses reeling.
He was astonished afresh by her amazing beauty. All his doubts fled. How could he ever live without her? He felt as if he was walking straight through the celluloid of a Hollywood soap opera and plucking out the heroine. He had little time to talk to her, however. Malise, who wanted to quash a romance which he had grimly suspected was developing in Dublin, sat down on the hammock and proceeded to monopolize Helen. Ivor was soon frolicking in the pool and roaring his head off, playing with the blonde and a large yellow rubber duck. Jake was saved by his host, Albie, an English expatriate mad about show jumping, who seemed to know every horse Jake had ever owned.
More people arrived, all very beautiful. Jake wished Californians weren’t so tall; they made him feel like a midget. Rupert, not drinking, was working off his excess energy in a mixed four on the floodlit tennis court.
“You are horribly unchivalrous,” grumbled the brunette playing against him, as she leapt out of the way of one of his thunderbolt serves. “Gentlemen are supposed to ease up when they serve to a lady.”
Jake would like to have swum but he felt far too pale and puny to take his shirt off in this company, let alone display his scarred and wasted legs. Helen was still trapped by Malise and now, as well, by some film director.
“Must go and check everything’s okay in the kitchen,” said Albie. “Come and meet Paul and Meryl. He writes screenplays. She acts in them.”
Paul and Meryl were polite, but obviously much more interested in ensuring Meryl got the biggest part and Paul’s screenplay was not tampered with. Others joined them. Jake felt gauche and out of place. This lotusland depressed him utterly, knowing he could never conjure up paradises like it for Helen.
Wandering into the drawing room, he picked up the latest copy of
“Is the heat getting to you?” said Suzy Erikson, curling up beside him on the leather sofa.
“A little.”
“Why don’t you swim?”
“I’d rather watch.”
“You would, wouldn’t you? You’re the stillest man I’ve ever met.”
“Besides,” he added wryly, “I’ve got a lousy physique.”
Suzy ran her eyes over him. “I wouldn’t say that. You’ve certainly got something.”
“An empty glass for a start.”
“Let me freshen it.”
“No, thanks, I’ve got to get up at four o’clock tomorrow morning to work my horse.”
“What d’you do after that?”
“Our time is pretty much our own.”
“Then I’ll come and pick you up and drive you into the mountains.”
“The entire team?”
“No, just you,” she said softly.
“You’re making a pass at me?”
“Right. Haven’t you heard how up front Californian women are? And I find you very attractive…”
“I’m married,” said Jake.
“Your wife can’t be very smart letting you come over here on your own.”
“She would have come if we could have afforded it.”
“Feeling homesick, huh?”
Jake shrugged. “A little.”
“I’m real good at curing that. I’d really like to spend some time with you.”
With a glorious feeling of irresponsibility, Jake looked at the depraved little face with its gleaming catlike eyes, and long, dark hair as coarse and shiny as Macaulay’s mane. She had changed out of her bikini and beneath the pale beige string vest the curvy body, with its high full breasts, was perfectly visible. He suddenly thought how nice it would be to take off into the mountains with her, over the hills and far away, and junk all his problems.
“That,” he said, “is one of the nicest offers I’ve ever had, but I’ve actually come to L.A. to jump fences, not into bed with beautiful ladies. That’s my chef d’equipe out there and he’s very hot on abstinence.”
Suzy laughed. “He hasn’t had much success with Rupe.”
“Rupert’s different. He doesn’t suffer from nerves. I’ve got to distance myself.”
“I’ve got a marvelous shrink, if you’ve got anxiety problems. He claims you’ve got to be filled with both anger and calm.”
“He should start with Hardy, my horse,” said Jake.
“Suzy,” said a sharp voice, “Annunciata wants to know whether you want to start with the Gambetta?”
It was Helen.
“Oh, you tell her. You’re so good at that sort of thing.”
“No, you tell her,” snapped Helen. “People are starving.”
When Suzy had left the room Helen brought Jake another whisky: “Lousy hostess. Can’t even freshen people’s drinks. That woman’s a nympho.”
“Shame,” said Jake. “I thought it was my personal magnetism.”
“What did she want?” said Helen, quickly.
“To take me to the mountains.”
Helen went white.
“And I refused very politely,” Jake went on, “because there’s only one woman I want to take anywhere. You look so beautiful, it’s a shame to spoil it by sulking.”
“You were flirting with her.”
“I was putting Malise and Rupert off the scent, and you weren’t doing so badly on the hammock.”
“Where’s Fen?”
“Shattered about Dino.”
Helen then told Jake about mistaking Dino for him.
“You can’t imagine how I overreacted. It was awful. I so nearly gave us away.”
“How did Rupert react?”
“I’m not sure. If anything, I guess he thinks I’m upset because Dino’s not coming.”
“Well let him go on thinking that. All the same, we must be careful.” He told her about the possibility of the Boyson sponsorship. “It would go halfway to solving all our problems. But I must keep my nose clean until the contracts are signed.”
“But we can meet during the day. Rupert’s out so much.”
He shook his head. “Too risky. Everyone knows your face over here. The place is swarming with press, desperate for a new angle. I don’t want it to be us. You’ve just got to hack it until after the Games.”
Helen’s lip quivered. “I don’t think I’ll survive.”
“You’ve got to,” he said more sharply than he intended. “There’s too much at stake — our whole future.”
A shadow fell across them. It was Rupert. Before either of them could say anything he shouted down the hall, “For Christ’s sake, Suzy, can’t we have dinner? I’m going to pass out.”
“If you want instant guacamole, go jump on an avocado in the garden,” said Suzy, wandering in, waving a three-pronged fork. “There’s steak, swordfish, salmon, smoked chicken, and red snapper, so you won’t go hungry. It’ll be ready in two minutes.”
“I suppose we could always barbecue Jake,” said Rupert.
Jake got to his feet. “You did that once already,” he said in a voice that made Helen shiver. “At St.
