men being torn apart? Tell.’
‘Why do men always think we have nothing else to talk about but them?’ I asked. ‘We weren’t even thinking about you. Go away.’
‘Come in and swim with me,’ he said. ‘The water’s fantastic.’
Selina immediately slipped off her stool and swam towards him, leaving him no choice but to look pleased and glide away with her.
I wasn’t alone for long. Derek Lamming immediately took her place on one side, and Selina’s father popped up on the other. After a while they were joined by Raymond. Even Harry Oxton swam over and took a stool. He was Grace’s beau, according to Jack, and from the way her mouth tightened I guess she felt a bit proprietorial.
So there I was, surrounded by men and flirting like mad-especially with Derek and Harry. I don’t know how long this went on, but it ended abruptly with me being yanked off my stool from behind. The next moment I was underwater, with Jack’s arm about my waist.
‘What are you playing at?’ he asked me as our heads broke water.
‘I’m trying to do a really good job for you,’ I said.
‘Giving Derek and poor old Harry the glad eye?’
‘Of course. It’ll warn Selina and Grace not to take them for granted. Look, Selina’s already reclaiming her property.’
Sure enough, Selina had taken my vacated stool and was smiling at Derek.
‘You’re wicked,’ Jack told me.
‘No, just a good employee who thinks of everything.’
‘Hmm. You seem to have forgotten that you’re supposed to be mad about me. Now you’ve made eyes at the others, when is it my turn?’
He still had his arms about me, holding me close in the water. I had one arm round his neck and was looking up at him.
‘But I
‘And that’s all I get?’
This was becoming dangerous. I could see us heading up the same cul-de-sac as before. But duty must come first, so I slipped a hand around the back of his head and drew it down to me.
His mouth seemed to fit so naturally over mine, and everything was easy. I tried to remember that we were performing for spectators, but there was a thin line between that and burning up, and we’d crossed it the first evening.
Even treading water, he knew just how to tease and incite, so that I found myself doing the same to him, using skills that I hadn’t known I possessed. Perhaps nobody had inspired me to use them before.
I felt his tongue against my lips-not commanding, just suggesting, retreating, returning. He was clever. He didn’t give me time to make up my mind before he’d moved on to my neck, just below the ear. Some devil must have told him about that place, because it’s just where I like to be kissed.
I ran my hands over the heavy muscles of his neck, his shoulders, then into his hair, and through the contact of our skin I could feel him almost losing control. But not quite.
Then I forgot everything else, including treading water. The same must have happened to Jack, because gradually we slid under the surface.
It didn’t make any difference, because by then we weren’t breathing anyway. We actually ran out of air before we discovered where we were, and had to shoot up to the surface, gasping and spluttering.
Charles and Jenny applauded. ‘We were taking bets on how long you’d be down there,’ Charles called.
Jack’s eyes met mine, and we knew we’d made the same decision. In a moment we’d vanished below the water again, making it last as long as possible. We were laughing when we came up.
It was a good way to live if you didn’t let yourself think of anything else. So I decided to go with it and have fun.
We spent that night at sea. One of the staff doubled as a DJ, so there was going to be a dance when dinner was over. I’d already developed a light tan, so I wore a long white dress to show it off and Jack nodded approval.
The last thing I did was take out my little diamond penguin. I’ve always been crazy about penguins, and whoever had designed this brooch had managed to catch their quirky daftness.
‘I’m going to wear Charlie,’ I told Jack, holding up the brooch.
That startled him. ‘You call a brooch Charlie?’
‘No, the penguin’s called Charlie.’
He grinned. ‘If you say so.’
‘I love him to bits. Can you pin him on for me? Careful!’
He’d dropped Charlie and slightly lost his balance at the same time. When he retrieved the brooch from the carpet the pin was slightly bent, where it had been trodden on.
‘Oh, no!’ I said in dismay. ‘Does that mean it’s un-wearable?’
‘No, I think I can do it,’ Jack said, squeezing hard.
Luckily he had strong fingers, and the metal was soon almost right, with just a tiny kink left to show that anything had happened.
He pinned it onto my left shoulder and smiled at the effect.
‘Charlie,’ he said. ‘Fancy calling a penguin Charlie!’
‘He’s my penguin; I’ll call him what I like.’
He kissed the end of my nose. ‘Whatever you want. You look fantastic, and you’re doing a great job. But if Raymond or the others want to dance with you-’
‘I’ll dance with them,’ I said.
I’m not sure that was the answer he wanted.
‘As long as you know that you don’t have to,’ he said at last. ‘You do what you feel like. Nothing else. There’s no need to put up with any funny business. This isn’t
‘I know,’ I said, warmed by his consideration. ‘But I should act as if everything is normal, and on a trip like this everyone dances with everyone.’
‘They don’t give everyone the come-on, as you were in the pool this morning,’ he observed, sounding slightly testy.
‘But they do. On a cruise there’s no other way to pass the time except giving people the come-on.’
‘Just don’t overdo it,’ he said darkly, tucking my hand through his arm. ‘Let’s go.’
Even Jack had to admit that my methods were effective. Neither Derek nor Harry was allowed near me by their possessive womenfolk. They were in heaven. I don’t think either of them had ever received so much attention before.
The one who really hovered over me was Raymond. During a dance he insisted on telling me all about himself- how he expected to take over Consolidated, how much business he and Jack did, how rich he was, how rich he expected to be. I could have sat an exam on Raymond Keller.
The more he talked, the more my brief liking for him faded. Heavens, but he was a bore! Give me Jack any day, with his lightness of touch and refusal to take himself seriously.
When Jack and I were dancing he said, ‘Raymond’s very taken with you.’
‘Don’t I know it,’ I said grumpily. ‘My ears are aching. Doesn’t he ever talk about anyone except himself?’
‘I don’t think he knows there
We laughed together and it was like being back at the Hotel de Paris, when we’d chatted for hours and known each other better in that short time than some people do in a lifetime.
The music was smoochy. He drew me close, so that my head rested on his shoulder, and dropped his own head, turning it slightly into my neck so that his lips brushed my skin.
It was physically exciting, and added to my frustration that I couldn’t have him. But it was also strangely cosy. The warmth that swept me was contentment. I could gladly nestle against him like this for ever.
Only it wasn’t going to be for ever. Another week. Perhaps less. Already I felt more in tune with him than was wise, but I knew I couldn’t be wise. Not with Jack. There was all the rest of my life for wisdom.
And sadness. And loneliness. And being grey and dreary, and knowing that the best and loveliest was behind me.
