For His Little Girl

On the bed lay a robe of pure silk, multi-colored in shades of olive-green, tan, orange, pale-yellow. It was the most exquisite thing Pippa had ever seen.

'It's an old Spanish custom to make a gift when someone stays in your house,' Claudia said. 'This is my gift. It's for lying around by the pool.'

She held it up, and it looked so perfect that Pippa gasped with pleasure. 'It looks fantastic with your coloring,' Claudia said. 'I'm rather conceited with myself for getting that so right.'

'Claudia it's-it's-'

'Oh, hush, it's nothing. Just enjoy it.' Then abruptly the gaiety faded from her face, and she spoke quietly. 'You probably wonder why I brought you here, when you and Luke could simply have returned to his house. But I thought you needed to get away completely. It's all been about Luke and Josie, but what about Luke and you?''

'I'm not sure that there can be a Luke and me.'

'Now you can find out. And I want you to take this.'' She handed Pippa a scrap of paper on which a name and address were written. 'He's my own doctor here and he knows how to be discreet.'

'I don't know what you-'' Pippa began quickly, but her protests died under the gentle honesty on Claudia's face.

'I don't know what it is exactly,' Claudia said. 'But I know there's something, and you haven't told Luke. Maybe you'll tell him while you're here. I think it should be soon.'

Pippa looked down at the paper in her hand. 'Thank you,' she said quietly. 'You won't-'

'No, I won't interfere. Besides, I'll be gone in a few minutes.'

Impulsively she put her hands on Pippa's shoulder and kissed her on the cheek. Pippa clung to her for a moment, smiling. Suddenly she felt full of courage. She would tell Luke without delay.

Chapter Nine

Claudia whisked herself out of the house with very little fuss. She stopped briefly with Luke to tell him, 'If I'm not back to drive you home, just take something from the garage.' Then she gave him a hug, said, 'Bye, both of you. Don't bother to be good.'

'We won't,' Luke promised her fervently. And

Claudia was gone.

Then an odd thing happened. As Luke and Pippa turned to look at each other a constraint seemed to fall over them. Pippa understood it in herself. She had something momentous to tell him. But Luke seemed actually embarrassed.

Sonia saved them by waddling from the kitchen yodeling, 'Food! You come and eat little snacks while I cook big dinner.'

'Great,' Luke said with evident relief. 'Let's have them by the pool.'

He vanished upstairs at once, leaving Pippa feeling puzzled. She returned to Claudia's room and put through a call to England.

'Mark, hi! Yes, I know I should be on the plane by now, but we're staying over a few more days. I called so that you'd know not to meet us at the airport.' She saw a shadow slip past her half-open door. It was Luke on his way down to the pool. On the other end of the line Mark sounded troubled.

'Pippa, you've got major surgery scheduled for next week-''

'I know, but I can have a few extra days here and still be back in time. I'll call Frank and-'

'No need, he's here. He was going to come to the airport with me. You'd better talk to him.'

She heard the mutter of voices, and the next moment there was Frank, sounding outraged and fearful. 'You must be out of your mind.'

'Frank, I'm feeling really well. Please try to understand.'

'Fine, it's plainly useless for me to talk sense to you. I'd like to speak to Josie, please.'

'She's not here. She's staying with Luke's parents.'

She heard his sharp intake of breath. 'So that you can be with him, I suppose. He broke your heart once and he'll do it again, but don't you care about that! Don't you care about anything but your fancy man!' He slammed down the phone.

Such violence of feeling was so unlike Frank that she could only sigh, pitying him. In many ways she knew he was right. She ought to be strong and say goodbye to Luke. But the happiness that possessed her now was so sweet, and there had been so little of it in her life, that no power on earth could have prevented her claiming just a little more, perhaps the last she would ever know.

She called Luke's parents. Zak answered and said they'd taken Josie to the zoo. He promised to tell Josie that she'd arrived safely, and get her to call when she arrived home.

When she went down, dressed for swimming, with the silk robe over her costume, Luke was already in the water. Sonia was setting out the snacks and wine by the pool.

'Champagne,' she said. 'Miss Claudia's orders.'

'Miss Claudia's really organizing things,' Pippa murmured.

'She's like a big sister to Mr. Luke,' Sonia confided. 'She knows what's good for him.'

She poured a champagne into a tall, fluted glass, handed it to Pippa and put the bottle back on ice. Pippa sipped and found herself drinking vintage Krug, chilled to perfection. She slipped off her robe and sat on the side, dangling one foot in the water. It was deliciously cool, and glinted in the sun as though the very water was made of champagne.

'Come on,' Luke called from the water. 'It's great.''

'So's the champagne,' she called back.

He swam over to her, threw his head back, mouth open wide. Laughing she poured champagne directly into it. 'More! More!' She filled the glass again, but this time she emptied it over his head. 'Hey!' he spluttered, and vanished beneath the water.

Pippa peered down at him, but the next moment a hand had encircled her ankle and she was in the water with him. He released her at once and carried her to the surface, spluttering and struggling. Pippa found herself pressed against his bare torso, feeling the flesh warm despite the cool water, and suddenly very, very conscious of how much of her own body was uncovered.

'You let me go, right now,' she said breathlessly.

To her surprise, he did so, and swam away, leaving her startled.

He shouldn't have left her like that, even if she'd told him to. His hands seemed to have made imprints in her waist where he'd held her, and the sensation of his body against hers was still alive. But he had gone. He was up at the far end of the huge pool, splashing and frolicking as though nothing had happened between them.

She swam lazily, crossing the pool at the width rather than risking the length. She was feeling good, but she knew how quickly that could evaporate.

At last they climbed out and dried themselves off. Luke held up the robe for her to put her arms in. 'Pretty,' he said. 'I haven't seen it before.'

'Claudia gave it to me. I feel a fraud, it's such perfect silk, and I'm not really a silk kind of person.'

'Why shouldn't you wear the best?' He briefly kissed her cheek and settled down on his own recliner. 'Let's eat. It looks good.'

The snacks were Spanish tapas, small portions of fish, meat and salad, and Sonia, whose family came from Andalucia, had turned them into an art form.

They both enjoyed them with gusto, until Luke said, 'Pippa, we have to talk.'

'What about?' she asked, puzzled by an edgy note in his voice.

'There's something we should have discussed days ago, but I guess I lost my nerve. You, too, maybe.'

'Me… too?'

'Lost your nerve. Because it's something you really should have told me at the start, not let me blunder on, thinking that you-that we-''

He floundered to a halt, and in the silence Pippa felt herself drowning in horror. Luke had guessed the truth about her illness. What else could this mean?