The Eden Inheritance (56 page)

After a moment he released her, looking down at her tenderly, taking a strand of her hair and twisting it back behind her ear, and a part of her cried out for him to kiss her again whilst another part stood back and marvelled at the warmth and excitement she was feeling. She had known desire before, with Jorge, but never this wonderful sense of … rightness.

She withdrew the glass of champagne she was still holding from behind his back and sipped it, the bubbles tickling where his mouth had touched.

‘Well,' he said, ‘if that's what champagne can do, perhaps I should drink it more often.'

His tone was light, teasing, but with underlying depths. She laughed, a little tremulously.

‘Perhaps I should too.'

They were looking at one another as if seeing the other for the first time, and drinking in what they saw. Lilli thought that the world had come suddenly, miraculously, right – nothing mattered at that moment but being here with Guy.

And then the telephone began to ring.

The spell shattered. Lilli's first thought was for her father, that he was worse, had suffered some kind of crisis, and this must be Ingrid ringing to tell her to come home. It couldn't be, of course – how would Ingrid know she was here? But she couldn't dismiss the fear all the same and she stood frozen in an agony of waiting as Guy went to answer it, trying to hear what he was saying but learning nothing from the monosyllabic conversation.

After a few minutes he was back.

‘Sorry about that. My timing never was very good.'

‘Was it …? It wasn't anything to do with me?'

He looked surprised.

‘No. Just work, that's all. It was Manuel – a job I have to do tomorrow.'

‘Oh.' An initial flood of relief, but the sharp anxiety of a few moments ago left echoes she could not ignore. Suddenly Lilli, who had not wanted to go home, could not wait to be there to satisfy herself that her rather truly was all right and the telephone call had not been some sort of portent.

‘I think perhaps I should go,' she said.

‘Have your champagne first,' he suggested, ‘otherwise anyone wanting to track down Lilli would be able to find her by following the trail of half-finished drinks.'

She laughed, but even to her own ears it sounded hollow. Her happy mood had gone, fragmented by the harsh urgency of the telephone bell.

‘I'll see you home,' he said.

They walked with his arm about her shoulders and outside the villa he kissed her again, but this time her heart was not in it.

‘I'm sorry, I really do have to make sure he's all right. It's the reason I'm here, after all.'

‘You want me to come in with you?'

‘No. No, I'll be all right now. Thank you for the evening.'

She laid her hand on his arm, her fingers caressing the bare skin for a moment, and then she was gone, running towards the veranda.

He looked after her and saw that someone was sitting there, propped up on a lounger, looking put over the gardens. A man. Otto? He heard Lilli's voice, speaking to him, heard the low answering growl, and strained his eyes in the dark. Then a light on the veranda went on and he saw him quite clearly for an instant – a drawn, once-handsome face beneath a head of cropped white hair, and a scar, livid still, running the length of his cheek.

In that moment Guy's last remaining doubts melted away and he knew he had found Otto von Rheinhardt. But the only coherent thought in his brain was to marvel that a man like that had managed to father a daughter like Lilli. And to wonder what the hell he was going to do about it.

‘Daddy?' Lilli said. ‘ What are you doing still up? I thought you'd be in bed by now.'

‘Why? Are you trying to get rid of me, Lilli?'

‘You know I'm not!' She dropped to her knees beside his chair, taking his hand, wanting to share with him some of the warmth and happiness she had experienced earlier.

‘Did you have a good time? Is the new pilot nice?' he asked.

‘Yes, he is. Very nice.

‘Good. That's all right then. I couldn't help worrying about you. I do worry about you, you know.'

‘Yes, I know you do, but you mustn't. I'll be all right.'

‘Yes, I think you will, Lilli. Just as long as you remember what I told you.'

‘Hush, Daddy, I don't want to talk about it now.'

‘Very well. Very well.'

They sat together in the murmuring dark, close once more. For tonight, at any rate, the threats within the shadows had receded and Lilli felt at peace.

T
HE GLOW WAS
still with her when she woke. The morning sunshine was streaming in between the half-open shutters, bathing the room with bands of golden light, and for a moment Lilli could not remember why it was that she felt so happy. Then memory returned, the memory of closeness and safety and vibrant anticipation all rolled into one, and she lay hugging herself and imagining it was Guy's arms that held her, his hands on the curve of her hips through the clinging silk of her nightdress.

It was not possible, Lilli thought, that she should actually feel this way about someone other than Jorge. But she did, she did, and it was wonderful! In spite of everything the realisation was making her tight-headed, light-hearted. Whatever she had to face, with Guy there she could do it. Jorge had been exorcised. He had no power over her any more, and Lilli soared on the wings of freedom.

When would she see Guy again? They had made no plans, but she would see him, she was quite certain of it. Not today perhaps – he had to work, didn't he? – and perhaps not tonight. But tomorrow, or the next day … Lilli felt the excitement sparkle inside her. She couldn't wait! She couldn't bear to wait! But she had to, and whilst she did she would spend every moment she could with her father, sharing some of this new-found happiness, and letting him know that nothing of what he had told her made the slightest difference to their relationship.

She did not approve, could never approve, of what he had done, but she did not blame him. He had had no choice, she was certain of that. It was all Uncle Fernando and Jorge's doing. They had forced him into it. And she would do all she could to ensure that the repercussions did not blight his last days on this earth.

Lilli pushed aside the sheets and the mosquito net and climbed out of bed, stretching luxuriously. For the first time since she had received Josie's letter she felt rested, relieved of a burden. She still had to come to terms with the imminent loss of her father, but this morning she felt strong enough even to deal with that.

Little did she know what a short respite had been granted to her.

Lilli had just showered and washed her hair when she heard some kind of commotion going on downstairs.

It was mid-morning; she had eaten a lazy breakfast and sat drinking coffee on the veranda before bothering to get dressed. Now, as she turned off the tap, she caught Ingrid's voice, raised in anger. She twisted a towel round her wet hair and opened the bathroom door.

‘You're not welcome here! I thought we'd made that clear!'

Unusual enough to hear Ingrid so totally out of control; the words themselves made Lilli freeze. There was only one person Ingrid would order out of the house in that tone – Jorge.

Then, as she heard the low drawl of a man's voice replying, she knew she had been right. It was Jorge.

Lilli began to tremble with anger. How dare he come here again bothering her father – and her! Why couldn't he leave them alone? She grabbed her towelling robe from the hook on the door and pulled it on, fastening the tie tightly around her waist. She had no intention of skulking upstairs out of Jorge's way now – she had got him out of her system, hadn't she? She would go down and add her voice to Ingrid's, try to make Jorge see once and for all that she would not stand for him pestering her father when he was so ill.

She flounced down the stairs, barefooted. In the hall she met Ingrid, whose usually serene features were blanched with fury.

‘Jorge is here. The bastard!'

‘I know. I heard.'

‘I told him to go but he insisted on talking to your father – alone. And Otto has gone along with it. He asked me to leave the room. He won't have you in there!' she warned as Lilli tried to pass her.

‘Oh yes he will!' Lilli snapped. ‘I'd like to see either of them try to stop me!'

She marched towards the room her father used as a study and threw open the door.

Otto was sitting in the huge leather secretary's chair behind his desk, the vastness of it emphasising his frail and wasted frame. Jorge was sprawling elegantly against one of the bookcases which lined one wall from floor to ceiling, hands in the pockets of white linen jodphurs, booted ankles carelessly crossed.

‘Ah Lilli!' he drawled. ‘ Do come in.'

The remark fuelled her anger. How dare he invite her into her own father's study as if it belonged to him! But before she could retaliate Jorge continued lazily: ‘It was you I came to see, in any case.'

‘Won't you understand, Jorge, that I don't want to see you!' she flared.

He shrugged.

‘What you want or don't want, my dear, has nothing to do with it.'

‘It has everything to do with it! We're through, Jorge. And now …'

‘Lilli.' Otto's voice was weak, yet somehow it still retained echoes of authority. ‘
Liebchen
, please. This time you must listen to what he has to say.'

‘I don't have to listen to anything! Daddy, you know …'

‘Lilli, please! My God, when you lose your temper you are more like your mother than ever! But you must control yourself for a moment and hear Jorge out. What he has to say is important. It's about the man you were with last night – the new pilot.'

‘Guy? What about him? Oh, you don't like me seeing someone else, I suppose, Jorge. Well, that's too bad. It really is none of your business who I see.'

‘That's where you're wrong, Lilli.' Jorge drew a cigar from a packet in the breast pocket of his shirt and placed it between his lips, feeling for his lighter. ‘I'm afraid it is very much my business when the man in question has very doubtful motives for making your acquaintance.'

‘His motives are perfectly straightforward. He likes my company. Is that so hard to believe?'

The lighter flared; Jorge pulled on his cigar and the tip glowed, filling the room with sweet pungent smoke.

‘Oh Lilli, always the innocent. Perhaps if you were to explain things to her, Otto, she might understand.'

‘Understand what?'

‘
Liebchen
, you remember I told you about the business here?' Otto's tone was tender and regretful. ‘Our illicit business?'

‘The drug-trafficking, you mean. What has that to do with Guy?'

Otto stretched out his hand to her. She ignored it and he sighed.

‘Lilli – Jorge has reason to believe that this man may be an agent for the Drugs Enforcement Agency. He thinks he has come here to investigate our enterprises.'

Lilli's mouth dropped open.

‘Guy? But that's ridiculous! What on earth makes you think that?'

‘He has been acting very suspiciously,' Jorge said. He was smiling but it was not a pleasant smile. ‘He has been asking too many questions about things which don't concern him. He was seen poking about near our laboratories, spying on a truck which was unloading a shipment. And now, judging by what I saw last night, he is trying to worm his way into your confidence. Any one of those things is enough to make me wonder about him, taken all together I think they paint a pretty damning picture.'

‘I don't believe it. I won't believe it! You're jealous, Jorge. You don't like me seeing someone else and this is your way of trying to stop me. Well, it won't work!'

‘Lilli, you must listen!' Otto said urgently, struggling to pull himself into a more upright position. ‘What Jorge is saying makes sense. We know nothing at all about this man. He was taken on by Fabio on the recommendation of the former pilot, but for all we know he could have been working for the DEA too. They are beginning to be worried about the stuff that is getting into the USA – Jorge will tell you that they have been sniffing around trading companies like the one he runs in Miami. It's possible they have traced it back here through his connection with the island and put in an agent to get hard evidence.'

Lilli tossed her head defiantly.

‘And you really expect me to be upset about that? When I've seen the harm drugs can do? I'm sorry, Daddy, but I can't condone what's been going on here. I don't want to see you upset, but as for the rest of them …' She threw Jorge a look of pure hatred. ‘ If your nasty little empire falls to pieces, Jorge, it's no more than you deserve.'

‘That, my dear, is a very ill-advised attitude.' Jorge was still smiling but the muscles of his face seemed to have turned to alabaster and his eyes, behind the curling cigar smoke, were cold and hard. ‘I should warn you, I think, to reconsider the stance you are taking on this – unless of course you want to end up like your mother.'

Lilli's chin jerked up.

‘What has my mother to do with this?'

Jorge shrugged.

‘You don't know? Perhaps you father should enlighten you. But I don't want to go into that just now. Suffice it to say I would like to be assured of your support in this matter and leave it at that. Oh – and please don't mention to your friend the pilot that I have my eye on him. I don't want him to be warned off just yet. And for you to give him any hint of this would be most unwise, both in your interests and those of your father.' He leaned forward, stubbing out his half-smoked cigar in the crystal ashtray on Otto's desk. ‘I'll go now. But please think over what I have said and try to look at it sensibly.'

He turned for the door but as he passed Lilli he coolly and deliberately placed a hand on the nape of her neck and bent to kiss her. Cheeks flaming, she tried to pull away and he laughed.