To Deceive Is To Love (Romantic suspense) (9 page)

David’s voice greeted her, his tone impatient. “Chantelle, we need to talk. Can I come up?”

“What now?” She glanced down at her unflattering dressing gown. If he wanted to see her at her worst, he couldn’t have picked a better moment, especially with her nose looking like she had leprosy.

“Well, I’m hardly banging on your door to make an appointment for next week, now am I?”

Ignoring the sarcasm, Chantelle racked her brain for an excuse. “Look, I’m not well at the moment. In fact, I’m highly contagious. What’s this about, David?”

“I need to tell you something and I can’t do it out here on the street.”

Chantelle had humiliated herself enough where David was concerned. First, she had made it blatantly obvious she wanted him, had changed her mind, gotten drunk and then been introduced to his girlfriend. She couldn’t stop thinking about him and now had the added complication of unintentionally causing a further rift between two warring brothers.

Paul raised his eyebrows. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but don’t you think your personal life is becoming complicated? Two brothers is what I would call being greedy.”

“Oh, Paul, thank you for your wonderful support. Remind me never to confide in you again.” Chantelle sighed. “But you’re right. Ever since David Bishop came into my life, everything has gone wrong.”

“Chantelle, are you going to open this door or not?”

David’s impatient voice forced her to a decision. “No, David. I happen to have a friend here at the moment and three would be a crowd. I’m sure Catherine -- or whatever her name is -- would agree on that.”

For a moment, deadly silence greeted her. Finally, he responded abruptly, “Fine. Maybe I’ll catch you at a time more convenient. Obviously what you have isn’t that contagious.”

“Chantelle, what the hell was all that about?” Paul asked.

“I don’t know what you mean.” Going into the kitchen, she picked up the glass of wine and started sipping from it. The taste certainly didn’t take away the sourness of what she had done. Whatever he had come to say, she had made it quite clear she wasn’t interested. If only that was true. But it was done now. He wouldn’t be making any more unannounced house calls; that was for sure.

Going over to the window, she felt Paul come and stand by her side, placing his arm around her shoulder. When she looked out, there was no sign of David’s car parked on the street below.

“You were right. He’s dangerous. A risk I’m not prepared to take. My mother went down that road, gave everything to a man who only gave part of himself and broke her heart in the process. I loved my father, but he was a selfish, weak man who carried around too many secrets.”

“But you told me David wasn’t married,” Paul interrupted.

“He might as well be, because there’s a part of him I’m never going to see and maybe I don’t want to.”

Chapter 6

“It’s no good, Danny. I’ve thought long and hard about this and I need to establish a proper career. Strapped to the wings of a plane just isn’t it. It was great fun and I’ve no regrets, but it’s time I moved on.” Chantelle felt she owed it to Danny to break the news personally before she told Don and the rest of the team. She had invited him over to her flat and by the look on his face, this was not what he had expected.

“What exactly do you plan to do?”

“I’ve had a permanent post offered to me at a good school and I’m thinking of accepting it.” She stood facing him, sucking nervously on her bottom lip.

His tone lifted as if he had the ideal answer. “You could do both.”

“That’s not practical when the posting is in France.” She gave a disappointed shrug.

“France! Have you gone crazy?” He turned up his nose as if appalled. “They’re crying out for teachers here and you want to be stuck in a classroom full of frogs?”

That did it. “In case you’ve forgotten, I happen to have a French mother who I miss a great deal and relatives in France. I have no one here.”

He moved forward, his face full of apology. “I’m sorry, Chantelle. I don’t want to see you go and it has me thinking this is my fault. I should not have made that pass at you and messed things up between us.”

“That has nothing to do with it.” Turning her back on Danny, she went to the window and stared down at the street below. How could she explain the disillusionment and loneliness she’d felt of late, especially when she had never felt the need for lasting bonds? Friends had always come and gone along with boyfriends. It was what she wanted and she’d always felt happy with this kind of selfish independence. So why, all of a sudden, did she have a desire to be around her mother and return to the familiarity of teaching and in return hope to gain that feeling of being needed?

Her strange, pensive mood hadn’t gone unnoticed by Danny. “For someone who claims nothing happened with David, you’ve changed. Are you in love with him?”

“Don’t be stupid.” She rounded on him, her eyes glistening. “I hardly know him. This is about me. I don’t expect you to understand, just don’t make it more difficult than it is.”

Danny gave a disappointed sigh. “Okay, you win, but I’m going to miss you and our fun nights together.” He gave a mischievous smile as he approached her and took hold of her hands.

For a moment, Chantelle froze. She relaxed as he leaned forward and kissed her on each cheek.

Releasing her, he turned to walk out of the door, when the shrill ring of his BlackBerry sounded. Taking it out of his jacket pocket, he answered and began shaking his head. “Steve, I can’t get down tomorrow, that’s impossible. Can’t you fit it in another day? Hell! It’s not a great problem.”

Chantelle realized Danny was talking to Steve about the maintenance check needed on his biplane. The radio had been acting up since their last display and Steve had shown concern that Danny hadn’t been down to Manston as he promised for a thorough overhaul on the plane. Steve was a brilliant mechanic who always had work lined up. If he was ringing Danny asking to check his plane out, it was because he was concerned and tomorrow might be the only day he had free.

“Look, I’ll ring you back on this.” Danny pressed the off button on his phone. “That’s all I need, some jumped-up mechanic ordering me around.”

“You’re not being fair to Steve. He’s been good to the team and could charge a fortune for the work he does,” Chantelle snapped.

“Yeah, well he gets paid enough and I’m sick and tired of being told what my plane does and does not need.”

She let out an exasperated sigh. Some things she wasn’t going to miss and that included Danny’s selfish and arrogant behavior.

“Blast it, nothing is going right. First you quit on me and then this. I’m meant to race tomorrow at Brand’s hatch, not be stuck in some hangar watching my plane taken apart by some mechanic who wants to justify his existence.”

“Do you want me to fly your plane down to Manston?”

He seemed undecided, his fingers playing with his chin as if it was a big dilemma.

“Look, I offered as a favor. I’m flying down to Dover anyway to tell Don and the others. But believe me, I much prefer a plane that offers some protection, not one that leaves me exposed to every damn seagull and rain cloud.” It was a small fib. In truth, she had always wanted to get behind its controls; not that it had many. A lot relied on the skill of the pilot in the days that it was built for. Don had allowed her to fly his, but Danny had always made excuses. It was his precious toy that no one got to fly except him. She could see his reluctance and loved every minute. “Of course, there’s always another race in a fortnight’s time or whenever they hold such events. But isn’t it the trials for the British championship being raced this weekend?”

“All right, but straight down to Manston, no deviation.” Danny’s voice was still full of doubt.

“Of course,” she replied sweetly, all the while thinking, like hell she would. Once in that plane she would make the most of the exhilarating experience, spend hours up there. No harm would be done since Danny would be none the wiser.

****

The following day, Chantelle rose early. She had told Steve not to expect her until midday, thus allowing several hours of flying. Before getting into her car, she glanced up at the sky. The weather report hadn’t been very encouraging, but at the moment it was fair weather. Cumulus, puffy white clouds floated across a clear azure sky. She couldn’t ask for better this time of year.

There was only one small thing marring her enthusiasm and that was the thought of running into David. It was highly unlikely, since she and Danny had kept their planes at the private airstrip for nearly a year now and only twice had their paths crossed with David. She really couldn’t understand how she had allowed one man to get to her like this.

Thankfully, David’s car wasn’t in the car parking area and Chantelle strolled ahead to the prefabricated building.

The young girl seated behind the desk beamed a smile at her. “Hi. Tony, my boss, tells me you are not renewing your lease. Have you found somewhere else or are you selling your plane?”

Chantelle didn’t take offence at the girl’s questioning. She was always this friendly and seemed to take a great interest in the display team, asking questions about how she’d started out and what it was like. “I’m going to live in France for a while and no, I won’t ever sell my plane. She’s coming with me.” She thought of the girl’s interest and added, “Julie, isn’t it?”

The girl nodded.

“I’m leaving the display team, so if you’re interested, I’ll put a word in for you. No promises. Don, the team leader, will want to interview you.”

“That would be great.” Enthusiasm lit up her face.

Chantelle smiled. At least it would make breaking the news to Don a little easier if she could suggest someone to take her place when she left at the end of the month.

As she was turning to leave, the door opened and in stepped David. Avoiding eye contact, Chantelle nodded a curt, “Hi”. She tried to walk past, but David’s arm reached out across the doorframe, preventing her exit. Pausing, she looked at the arm and then up into his face, shooting him a glare like he had just assaulted her.

Quickly removing the arm, he muttered, “I’m sorry.”

She expected him to follow it up with some kind of explanation, but instead he glanced pointedly over at Julie. The girl took the hint and said she had to go into Tony’s office to do some filing.

As the door closed behind her, David turned back to Chantelle. “Chantelle, we need to talk. I don’t like it ending the way it did. That’s why I turned up at your flat, only we weren’t alone and what I need to tell you is private.”

“David, there was nothing to end. But next time, try mentioning the girlfriend first. At least then I’ll know exactly what you mean by no strings.” She glanced at her watch. “Look, David, I’m in a hurry to be airborne before that bad weather front comes. I’m leaving for France permanently at the end of the month, so let’s say goodbye and leave it at that.”

Before he could reply, the door opened again and in stepped Tony with several others. The interruption was a relief. As Chantelle hurried out of the building, a glance over her shoulder confirmed David hadn’t followed.

Chantelle rushed through the necessary external checks before climbing in to do the internal ones. She was surprised to find Danny had left her with over half a tank of fuel. Plenty of air time to forget David and lose herself up in the clouds.

She radioed through to Julie and the transmission was clear, confirming what Danny had told her about it being farther from the control towers that the radio transmission broke up. Then, she was up in the air.

Piloting a biplane was as close as one could get to being naked like a bird. The wind whipping against her cheeks, the air fresh, no hint of exhaust fumes or pollution. Slipping through large gaps in the candyfloss clouds, she marveled at how autumn with its changing colors could bring such enchantment. Spread below her was an array of golden brown leaves, their last defiant show before the wind whipped them from the branches, leaving barrenness until spring.

It wasn’t the clearest of days, but all around her, everything was so real. There were no windows, no roof, just her safety harness preventing her from plummeting to the ground. Smiling at her own romanticism of what could be either an enemy or a friend, she checked the time. The morning had flashed by, so enraptured had she been with the ride.

Realizing Steve would be expecting her, she banked the plane bringing it along the Hastings coastline. Then, she spotted the swell of cumulonimbus, anvil-shaped clouds gathering on the horizon. The storm was quite a way out to sea, but the foretaste could be hitting the Dover coastline at about the same time she did.

Every experienced pilot knew never to enter deteriorating weather if it could be avoided. Being in a biplane gave no protection if the heavens opened up, but the leather helmet and goggles being her only covering was not what worried her. It was the lack of visibility.

Deciding to head inland and hopefully beat the storm, she tried at the same time to get a weather update on the radio. There was nothing but crackling as she twisted the tuner frantically. It was a race against nature as she tried to spot recognizable landmarks below without allowing the plane to drop. The steeple of Canterbury Cathedral told her she was heading in the right direction.

The plane started rocking as the wind direction changed and darkness enveloped her from behind, turning a beautiful skyline into dark, consuming boulders that raced in front of her and threatened to suck her into their depths. She felt the drop in temperature and knew any moment now those clouds were going to burst.

Can one drown in a biplane? She smiled to herself in an attempt to fend off her anxiety. Not far now. Steve would put her up for the night if the weather didn’t improve.

Suddenly, without warning, the engine died. For a brief second, she couldn’t comprehend what was happening. Everything she had been taught raced through her mind without clarity, a jumbled assortment with no direction.

Grabbing the microphone, she gave the distress call, “Mayday, Mayday, Mayday; transmitting blind.” Adding her call sign, she then stated her position details from what she could tell by the dials and that she was making a forced landing. She was greeted by crackling and then deadly silence.

Throwing the microphone down, she scanned the instruments. The fuel gage read a quarter of a tank. Chantelle’s gaze then locked onto the airspeed. She knew what had to be done. Whatever happened, she had to fly the plane. If she allowed the airspeed to decrease, she would drop from the sky like a stone. So, she had to turn the plane into a glider.

Switching everything off, she searched frantically the path ahead, filled with houses and roads full of cars; it was an impossible terrain to land in. She would end up killing not only herself, but innocent people as well. Perspiration had broken out on her forehead, fear of panic taking hold as she tried to think. There was no time to think about dying, it would be true enough if she didn’t hold it together.