Dark Summer Dawn (12 page)

'Of course you did, love.' Her voice was soothing. 'And now it's all over and you'll never have to see any of them again.'

She got Julie into the warm water and made her relax and later helped her get dry as if she had been a small child again, and into her pyjamas. Julie looked very small against her pillows, and very flushed, her eyes filling with that hysterical brightness, Lisa noted with a sinking heart.

She said, 'Try to get some rest, darling. It's nearly dawn, you know. I'll leave my door open and you can call me if you want anything.'

'I do want something.' Julie's hand clutched at hers feverishly. 'I want my shoes, Lisa. Please—you must go and get my shoes!'

'Of course I will. I'll get them tomorrow.'

'No, now. Please go now.' Julie's head began to thresh around on the pillow. 'If you leave them until tomorrow someone else might find them. Someone might bring them here and Dane would find out and he'd tell Daddy. Please, Lisa, please get them for me!'

Lisa detached herself gently. She was frowning a little. The storm had passed over, and the rain seemed to have stopped, but the prospect of going out into the wet darkness to search for a pair of dropped shoes was not one that had the slightest appeal. Julie was being thoroughly unreasonable, but then when she worked herself up into one of her hysterical states, there was no reasoning with her, as Lisa knew only too well.

She said reluctantly, 'All right, love, I'll go now.'

She went back to her own room and put on the dress she had been wearing earlier and a pair of thonged sandals on her bare feet. She found a torch and put Julie's still damp raincoat round her shoulders before venturing downstairs again.

This time, to her surprise, the side door was not only shut but bolted, and Lisa knew this was not her doing. She had been too concerned to get Julie upstairs to bother much with security. She drew back the bolts carefully and went out leaving the door unlatched. She would make a token search, she told herself, and have a proper hunt for the shoes in daylight.

But as it was, she found them without too much difficulty, just beyond the gate which led from their paddock into the shrubbery. Lisa shook the surplus water from them, then tucked them into the pockets of the raincoat and started to walk back to the house. She let herself in quietly, re-locked and bolted the side door and put the raincoat and shoes in the downstairs cloakroom before wearily climbing the stairs.

She had only taken two steps along the gallery leading back to her room when a hand fell on her shoulder.

Dane said bitingly, 'Welcome home.'

He was very angry, she realised at once, but commingled with the anger there was some other element, some other emotion she could not so easily analyse, but it disturbed her and she tried to back away, but his grip tightened until she winced.

He was wearing a towelling bathrobe, and nothing else as far as she could judge, and his hair was wet as if he had just been taking a shower.

He said slowly, 'I wondered when I found the side door unbolted, but I thought perhaps Mrs Arkwright might have slipped up for once. I suppose I should have realised— after that phone call this evening. Did you enjoy the party. Lisa? Rumour has it that they're quite something, but all the same I didn't think that you—even you wouldn't stoop so low.'

She wanted to deny it, to scream her denial at him, but the bitter contemptuous words 'even you' held her silent. Nothing had changed, she thought wretchedly.

She had lain awake for hours thinking about Dane, and about his lovemaking, wondering and hoping, asking herself what difference it would have made if they had not been interrupted at that particular moment. He had desired her. He had shown her so with the utmost frankness, but there had been tenderness too, or so she had thought…

Looking at him now, though, it was impossible to believe that he had even been capable of such emotion. There was no gentleness about him now. Just a cold bitterness which was almost tangible and made the summer dawn dark.

'Trying to think of a convincing story?' His voice went on remorselessly. 'Forget it, Lisa. I can see the paddock from my window, if you remember, and I saw your torchlight bobbing about. Why didn't you stay the night—or has your lover got tired of you already?'

She felt every word as if it was a blow, and she was reeling under them.

She said, 'I have no lover.'

'No?' His mouth curled. 'Amazing—because you're not exactly unwilling, are you, sweetness? You don't even like me, and yet I could have had you earlier tonight. And do you know what stopped me—apart from Mary Arkwright's sudden appearance? I thought you were innocent —that you didn't really know what you were doing. And I didn't want to damage that innocence.' He gave a swift savage laugh. 'God, what a fool—what a blind, stupid fool! I couldn't sleep tonight, so I went walking. All I could see was your face, your body. I was like a starving man watching a banquet from a distance. And all the time you were with that scum, letting him make a meal of you.'

He was gripping her by both shoulders now. Lisa thought her very bones would be bruised, but she wouldn't, let herself cry out.

She said, 'I can take care of myself.'

His voice softened, but there was a note in it which made her blood run cold.

'I'm sure you can. So let's begin again, shall we, Lisa, my lovely Lisa with the limpid innocent eyes? Only we won't bother with the innocence this time. Let's see what other tricks you have in your repertoire.'

She protested on a little moan of sheer terror, 'Dane—no! It isn't what you think. Really…'

He laughed jeeringly. 'No? But then it never has been what I thought. So we won't bother thinking—either of us, sweetness. We have enough going for us without that.'

He jerked her forward, his mouth suddenly brutally possessive on hers. She began to struggle, her hands beating against the hard wall of his chest, but to no avail.

When he released her his breathing was uneven and his eyes glittered. He said thickly, 'What are you wearing under that dress—anything? How very convenient. I don't think I'll bother with those bloody little buttons this time.

He wrenched at the neckline and it tore like paper. Lisa gave a little agonised cry and tried to snatch at the material, to hold it against her, but Dane was too strong, too determined.

He said on a snarl, 'Don't look so stricken, my lovely one. You've let other people see you like this—kiss you— touch you. Now it's my turn.'

He picked her up in his arms and carried her to his room, kicking the door shut behind them. She was struggling like a wild thing, biting and scratching, but he didn't even seem to notice.

As he threw her across the bed, she sobbed out, 'Dane— no! Please—no!'

His mocking smile made him look like a devil as he tossed the dressing gown aside and bent over her. 'Yes, Lisa, please, yes.' His voice altered and roughened. 'Sluts don't have a choice, darling. And you've forfeited yours.'

Forfeits, she thought wildly. Julie had been talking about forfeits. She'd been frightened, and she'd run away. Lisa was frightened too, more frightened than she had ever been in her life, only there was nowhere to run to.

Somewhere there were birds singing, acclaiming the birth of the new day. She had dreamed of a dawn and Dane's arms round her—only not like this—never like this. This was a night mare.

He said harshly, 'Relax, damn you, or you're going to get hurt.'

She was hurt already. She had never imagined such pain, such bitterness of mind and body. She buried her teeth in her lower lip to prevent herself from whimpering. Outside, in the western sky, there would be pale streaks of light, but inside the room there was darkness, only darkness, and it rose up around her, engulfing her, and she slid submissively into its depths.

CHAPTER SIX

Lisa sat bolt upright in bed, both hands pressed against her mouth. She was shaking like a leaf. This was what she had been afraid of. This was why she had not wanted to come back to this house. Because she had always known that if she did come back she would have to think about what had happened, to remember every detail.

For two years, she had been able to pretend, to block it out of her mind, but now she had no reserves of pretence to fall back on. She had to remember everything.

Afterwards, when it was over, she had lain there quietly beside Dane, waiting, hoping that he would fall asleep. At last she had moved, softly, tentatively easing her aching body towards the edge of the bed, away from him, only to hear him laugh softly in the darkness.

'Tired of me already?' he'd jibed. 'Don't I turn you on like Hammond does? Well, you were rather a disappointment yourself, sweetness. Where's all the passion you let me taste earlier?'

'I hate you,' she'd whispered. 'God, how I hate you!'

She had felt rather than seen him shrug. 'Hate me all you want,' he said coldly. 'But you're not leaving. I haven't finished with you yet, Lisa.' His hand cupped her breast, then slid downwards, exploring the swell of her hip. He said, 'You wanted me earlier tonight, and you'll want me again. It's as simple as that, Lisa. It has nothing to do with love or hate, or even right or wrong. It's purely chemistry.' He bent his head, brushing his lips softly across the tautened peaks of her breasts. 'Let me show you.'

'No!' She had stiffened in rejection and alarm, trying to push away the hand which was gentling her as if she was a frightened animal.

'Hush,' he said. He kissed her mouth, but with none of the earlier brutality, parting her lips sensuously, caressing the flesh with intimate gentleness. 'Don't fight me, Lisa.' His voice deepened, roughened slightly. 'Don't fight yourself.'

With bewildered shame she had known he was right. That it was only her stubborn, bruised mind that was still resisting. He had taken her without gentleness, without respect for an innocence he was still not prepared to acknowledge, yet in spite of his ruthlessness he had awakened some dormant spark, set new fire to her inborn yearning for fulfilment.

He had used her quite cynically for his own gratification, but her instinct told her that next time—this time it would not be like that.

Only there would not be a next time, Lisa thought, shutting her ears to the clamouring of her senses. She would not accompany him down this dark, mindless path to pleasure. She would not deliver herself body and soul into his thrall. If she didn't fight him now, then her surrender would be unconditional. She knew that. He had the power to make her his slave, his thing.

Oh God, she thought, the bitterness rising in her throat. Didn't he despise her enough already? She had to get away from him, away from Stoniscliffe, before he guessed how complete his savage victory had been.

She looked up at him, into the dark face that was studying hers with such intentness, as if he was trying to read the thoughts behind her shuttered eyes, and she smiled, her lips curving in derisive amusement.

She even managed a little rueful laugh. 'Sorry, Dane. I'm sure you meant it to be terribly punitive and instructive— and it was, but that's all it was.' She lifted one shoulder in a shrug. 'You can't win them all.'

She felt him tense, felt the caressing hand halt its sensuous exploration, and closed her eyes instinctively against the sudden blaze in his. She was afraid he would strike her. The anger in him was almost tangible. But after a second's pause she felt him lift himself away from her.