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was his words which brought the first thread of sanity.
'Liane I can't believe it's true, can't believe that
you love me.'
'Love!' Her glance was both startled and dismayed.
'Flint you've  '
'Yes, love,' he interrupted softly, his adoring gaze
fixing hers. 'Your kisses are like a heady wine  '
'Flint,' she broke in urgently, full sanity rapidly re-
turning, to bring with it both shame and regret. 'You
don't understand.' She stopped, wondering how she
could possibly explain her conduct. It was clear that
Flint loved her ... and because of her eager reciproca-
tion, he had taken it for granted that his love was
returned.
'I do understand, my sweet.' Flint's soft and tender
voice came to her before she could find anything to say.
'You love me, and not this man you work for  '
'Richard?' she frowned. 'How do you know about
my loving him?' Embarrassment brought the colour
flooding into her cheeks and she turned aside.
'You inadvertently betrayed your feelings for him
on that day when you were telling me about your life
in England, and your job.' Flint paused and gently
turned her face round again. She looked into his eyes,
saw the expression they held and she knew that if
she had seen that expression in Richard's eyes she
would have been deliriously happy. 'On our very first
meeting I strongly suspected that you were going to
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have a vital effect on my life,' Flint was continuing,
and although Liane knew an urgent desire to stop him
she could not speak for the terrible blockage in her
throat, caused both by her own misery and by the know-
ledge that, for the first time in her life, she was going to
subject another human being to pain and humiliation.
'However, when I learned of your feelings for this
Richard I decided there was no hope for me, even
though the man was now engaged to someone else.
Your reason for coming on this holiday was that of
escapism and that in itself was a bar to my chances of
winning you. But every time your departure from here
was mentioned I felt I must speak to you before it was
too late, but no opportunity presented itself.' He
stopped and a glimmer of amusement entered his eyes.
'I could scarcely say, right out of the blue, that I loved
you and wanted you for my wife. However, fate took a
hand and my chance came tonight. Darling Liane, will
you  ?'
'Flint!' The word came swiftly, forced from her
parched lips by the urgency of preventing him from
asking a question to which she must answer no. 'I I
don't know wh-what to say to you.' He was still hold-
ing her arms, but she was scarcely conscious of the fact.
His touch no longer excited her; the ecstatic interlude
was over. This is so so sudden.' Not very original,
but she was again lost for words, her mind having
switched to the passionate scene in which she had
played so willing a part. Automatically she twisted from
Flint's hold, shame and self-disgust enveloping her like
a deluge. To have succumbed both to Flint's passion
and her own, and without one word of protest leaving
her lips! She was no better than a wanton. Her cheeks
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 burned as her thoughts remorselessly brought back
every incident. Side by side with this was her awareness
of disloyalty to the man she loved. How could she have
allowed another man to embrace her, to kiss her with
such unrestrained ardour as Flint had done? More and
more blood rushed to her cheeks, and her whole body
quivered under the weight of her own self-reproach.
'Liane, dear ...' Flint's voice reached her as from
a great distance, 'what's wrong?'
She had moved away and she now felt the cooling
spray of the waterfall on her face and arms.
'I feel so ashamed,' she managed at last, her eyes
appealing and apologetic. 'I wish I'd never come here
tonight.' The reason why she had come was that for
the whole of the day Richard had been in her thoughts
and her little glade seemed to beckon her, a haven of
peace where she could relax her mind and body. Men-
tioning to Mark and Kirsty that she would like to go
there, she had then asked for the loan of her cousin's
bicycle. Mark had immediately offered her the loan of
the runabout, which she had driven several times when
she and Kirsty had gone into Ravensville. The run-
about was at this moment in a corner of the Sunset
Club car park, but evidently it had escaped Flint's
notice when he parked his own vehicle.
'Ashamed?' repeated Flint as if he did not under-
stand. 'Ashamed of what?'
She shook her head dumbly. She was almost in tears,
thinking how different it would have been were it
Richard standing there, in this lovely moonlit glade.
; But it was not Richard; it was a man she could never
love because her heart was already given to her em-
ployer. Yet suddenly it was Flint that mattered for he
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was the one who shortly would be hurt. His sincerity [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]