Night of the Condor (18 page)

She was in the act of wading back slowly to the bank, when she glanced up and saw Rourke, still as a statue, watching her.

How long had he been there? she wondered, her heart thudding painfully. For a moment she almost faltered, then she lifted her head proudly, and continued to walk towards him, her hands nervously flicking the damp tendrils of hair back from her shoulders.

He said hoarsely, 'I'm sorry. I did not realise…' and turned, his back rigid and uncompromising, as Leigh pulled herself out of the water and reached for her towel.

As she began to dry herself, she said tightly, 'You have actually seen it all before.'

'I do not need any such reminder,' he threw back at her curtly. 'Under the present circumstances, I would be grateful if you would cover yourself.'

'I'm not putting on damp clothes to appease any sudden rush of prudishness from you,' Leigh said angrily. 'May I ask why you chose to follow me here?'

Rourke said coldly, 'I did not follow you. I was on my way back to camp, when I noticed you in the distance walking alone, in the foolhardy manner which is typical of you.'

'And instead, I'm just taking a foolhardy bath. How disappointing for you!' Leigh wrapped the towel round her, sarong-style, tucking the fold in securely. 'There, I'm decent, if it matters so much.'

He said between his teeth, 'Of course it matters! Doesn't it occur to you that anyone might have come here—might have seen you? Or don't you care? The women usually bathe as a group. Why didn't you ask Consuelo to accompany you?'

Hands shaking, Leigh rearranged some of her laundry. She said, 'As it happens, June guaranteed me some privacy here. As for Consuelo—' She paused, head bent so that her hair obscured her face. 'Do you really think we would choose each other's company?'

There was a tense silence, then he said, 'So you know—I'm sorry.'

'There's really no need to apologise. It was over between us before I even arrived here. I accepted that.'

'Then why do you stay here? Why don't you go back to England before you are hurt again?' He took a step towards her, his face taut and drawn. 'Believe me, Leigh, it would be better if you went now.'

She lifted her chin. 'I'm sorry my presence is so inconvenient for you. Why can't you just go on pretending I don't exist? It's worked very well so far.'

He closed his eyes for a moment. 'It hasn't worked at all, and you know it.'

Leigh said wearily, 'I don't think I know anything any more.' She bit her lip. 'But if I'm an embarrassment, I'll leave. And I'll take Evan with me.' She gave a choked little laugh. 'There—two thorns out of your flesh at once!'

He shook his head slowly, his eyes fixed on her face. 'That—won't be possible.'

She stared at him. 'But that's ridiculous! You don't want him here, and he doesn't want to stay. He's been plaguing me to leave with him ever since I arrived.'

'I wish it were that simple.'

'Why can't it be?' She grabbed a comb out of her bag and began to drag it through her hair, with angry, jerky movements. 'Oh, I see. Evan has to do penance for taking the mule and vanishing like that. Isn't that rather petty?'

'If that were the reason—yes. But it is not.' Rourke's voice was bitter. 'Don't you understand, Leigh? The matter is no longer in our hands. It is not a question of internal discipline. Now, the police authorities are involved.'

A little wail of distress broke from her. 'Oh, no! But surely you could do something for him—or Doctor Willard? I know he's been a fool, but if he gives back whatever it is he's found, surely they won't be too hard on him?'

He expelled a harsh breath. 'Can you still be so naive? Can you honestly care for a man who has demonstrated he is worthless in every way?'

Leigh shook her head. 'You're very hard on him…'

He said quietly, 'I would like to take him apart with my bare hands. Not just because of the foul trade he has become part of, but because he has put Peruvian Quest in jeopardy. We exist here, Leigh, not merely because of money from Fraziers and other corporations, but with the goodwill of the authorities. Evan Gilchrist has damaged that goodwill badly. Our whole operation will be regarded with suspicion from now on, because of his activities.'

'I didn't realise they were so protective—and I'm sure Evan didn't either. Rourke, he's learned his lesson, I'm sure of it. And he's scared. Don't turn your back on him—please! You could help him.'

'He is beyond anyone's help,' he said harshly. 'It is not just the police, you little fool. He has angered powerful men. Worse things could happen to him than being sent to jail. You wish to see him live out his life, perhaps, without hands or feet?'

'Oh God!' Bile rose in her throat, and she gagged, clammy perspiration breaking out all over her body.

'
Dios, querida
!' His voice was remorseful, his arms strong, drawing her against the hard shelter of his body. 'I should not have frightened you—but I have to make you see…'

She leaned against him, taking comfort from his strength until the sick trembling began to subside, to be replaced by an even more disturbing sensation. She pressed her face into his shoulder, breathing the warm, male scent, remembering, as slow excitement began to uncurl inside her, how he had taught her, during their night of lovemaking, to use and enjoy every sense she possessed.

His shirt was unfastened almost to the waist, and she lifted her hands, pushing the edges of the deep vee of material even further apart before flattening her palms against his bare chest, testing for herself the mad hurry of his heartbeat which matched her own.

Swiftly, his hands captured her wrists, tugging them away. 'No,
alma mia
.' His voice sounded tortured, his skin drawn tautly over his cheekbones.

But he wanted her. Wickedly Leigh moved her hips sinuously against him, enjoying the physical proof of his urgency that he could neither disguise nor deny. She bent her head, and flicked her small pink tongue provocatively over each flat male nipple in turn.

Rourke groaned, the sound torn from his throat. 'Leigh, you don't know what you're doing!'

'Oh, but I do,' she said softly. 'I had a very good teacher, remember?'

'How could I forget?' he muttered thickly. 'But,
querida
, this is wrong…'

'Ah, but it feels so right.' She ran her hands down his back, and over his flanks, revelling in the touch, in the strength of bone, and clenching of muscle. 'Are you going to send me away from you, without even— saying
adi
ó
s
?'

'I should.' His voice shook. 'But—oh God, Leigh—I cannot.'

The discarded towel made a bed for them as, both naked now, they sank on to it, mouths locked, limbs entwined, conscious of nothing but each other, and the shared hunger which so desperately needed assuagement.

Yet by some paradox, there was no longer any need to hurry. They could, she found, linger, prolonging the delicious torment, as his hands and mouth rediscovered the trembling delight of her body.

She felt the tug of his lips on her tumescent breasts, the caress of his fingers against the moist centre of her being, and moaned, softly, aroused beyond words.

Rourke turned suddenly on to his back, lifting her over him, guiding her down to him. She gasped, her eyes dilating as she experienced this new sensation, her eyes questioning as they looked into his, gleaming like Inca gold.

He said huskily, 'I want to watch you, my beautiful one. I want this to remember when you are gone from me.'

Leigh began to move on him, subtly and delicately, discovering to her surprise that she could control their pleasure, in turn enjoying the unrestricted play of his hands worshipping her body. She bent over him, veiling them both in her hair, letting the proud tips of her breasts brush against him, while she kissed the smile that she still thought of as hers alone, her tongue stroking along the curve of his lower lip.

She was aware of the urgency in him mounting until it threatened to overwhelm them both, and abandoned all control, sheer animal instinct taking over. She was all woman, pleasuring her man, her body twisting in a sweet, driving frenzy, shuddering in delight as the first ecstatic spasms of their culmination wrenched her body apart, and flung her headlong into some nameless sunlit void.

Afterwards, they were very quiet together. Rourke held her closely, his lips brushing her half-closed eyelids. Then he led her back into the pool, and washed her gently, drying her on his shirt before helping her back into her clothes as if she had been a child.

You can't send me away, her heart cried out to him. You can't!

But he was no longer smiling, his face absorbed, almost grim as he buttoned her shirt, as if he had already detached himself in spirit as well as physically.

When he had completed his task, he took her hands and raised first one and then the other to his lips in farewell, before turning away.

Leigh said imploringly, 'Rourke…' and saw his dark face grow stark.

'No,' he said quietly. 'No,
querida
, don't ask me for what I cannot give.'

She watched him walk away from her. And for the first time thought with pity of the girl from Washington, who had also asked too much.

Leigh stayed by herself for a long time, staring up at the high jagged peaks which closed in the valley, wondering how long it would take her to forget.

She couldn't let herself think about Rourke. It was like pressing on a raw wound to know that, once she left here, she would never see him again.

She turned her mind instead to all the other lesser things that she would miss, which had so swiftly become an integral part of her life.

For the first time in her life, she thought, she had been part of a team, even if her role had been a small and insignificant one. She wanted the Quechua baby she had seen born that morning to grow up strong and well, and she wanted to be there to watch it happen.

She wanted to see Atayahuanco grow and prosper, the small herds of llama and alpaca which Peruvian Quest had brought in to provide subsistence for the Quechua thriving and increasing in number. She wanted to see the flocks' wool woven into the bright traditional ponchos and blankets.

She could, she supposed, come back one day. If essential communications could be radically improved, there were plans once the excavations had been completed to provide some tourist facilities. But it won't be the same, she thought. I'll be a visitor— no longer part of it. And how can I bear it? How can I bear any of it?

She walked back to the camp. As she reached her tent, she heard her name called, and saw Fergus Willard making his way towards her.

'Rourke tells me you're leaving us.' His face was kind, and rather anxious. 'It's entirely for the best, you know. The immediate future is going to be very difficult, very distressing for us all. But Rourke has managed to convince the authorities that you, at least, are completely innocent of any involvement— that you were in total ignorance of Gilchrist's activities.'

She remembered the men who had visited her in Cuzco, the dark, shrewd, considering eyes, and shivered. 'That was—good of him.'

'We shall be sorry to lose you,' he went on, patting her shoulder. 'To be honest, we had misgivings when we heard you planned to come here, but you've fitted in surprisingly well.'

Leigh said steadily, 'That's one of the nicest things anyone's ever said to me.' And meant it. She paused. ' About leaving—if someone could be spared to get me back on to one of the main tourist tracks…'

'Oh, there's no question of that.' Fergus sounded almost shocked. He was silent for a moment, his expression tired and rather strained. 'As a matter of fact, a helicopter will be arriving here some time in the next twenty-four hours, and you'll fly down to Cuzco in that—with Gilchrist, I'm afraid, but there's no other way.'

Her lips parted in a soundless gasp. 'You mean— he's really going to be arrested?'

'Yes, it's quite inevitable.' He shook his head. 'I wish you could have been spared this. You being his fiancée, this must be a shattering blow for you. But perhaps you should ask yourself whether a young man so fatally attracted to the prospect of easy money could possibly have made you happy.'

'I think I know the answer to that already.'

He nodded, patted her awkwardly again, and moved off. Leigh went into the tent, and sank down on the edge of her cot, her brain whirling. The police were coming for Evan! It was like a nightmare. A nightmare for which she was partly responsible, because it was due to her that he was at Atayahuanco. If he had stayed in England, other temptations more easily resisted might have come his way, but he wouldn't have been drawn to steal valuable antiquities, she was sure.

She gave a trembling sigh. Well, she had got him into this mess, and she owed it to him to try and get him out. Their love for each other might not have survived their enforced separation, but she couldn't altogether desert him when he needed her. And at Atayahuanco, she was his only friend.

He had vanished before. He could vanish again, she told herself.

She left the tent and strolled as casually as possible towards the men's sleeping quarters. Evan rarely moved far away from his tent these days, not even pretending to play an active part in the project any more.

He was asleep under his mosquito netting when she found him, a luridly jacketed paperback novel face downwards on the floor beside him.

'Evan.' Gently she shook him to wakefulness, and he sat up, blinking wearily at her.

'An unexpected visitor,' he remarked, not altogether pleasantly. 'Is it the pleasure of my company you're after, or are you just sick of playing the little friend to all the world, after all?'

'Neither,' Leigh said curtly, needled by his tone. 'I came to warn you that the police are on their way.'

She saw the colour drain out of his face, leaving a sickly greenish tinge behind. He swayed a little, and for a moment she thought he was going to faint, but he recovered himself.

'What am I going to do?' he whispered. 'Oh, God, what am I going to do?'

'There's only one thing you can do.' She put her hand on his arm. 'You've got to disappear again, into the
puna
. Just as you did before. And you've got to do it fast.'