Authors: Unknown
“Really?” Jamie eyed her in mock innocence, his blue eyes bland as a child’s. “I wonder who you can have been thinking about.”
Fran, sensing her discomfort, came across and sat herself on a stool by Jamie’s feet, her long fair hair hanging straight and silky down her back as she swung it away from her face. “Is Jamie being horrible?” she asked, giving her cousin a reproachful look. “If he is I’ll poison his next cup of coffee!”
Katie shook her head, laughing at the other girl’s expression of ferocity, and Jamie took a handful of the silky hair and pulled. “Threats, infant?” he asked softly, pulling her head back against his knee.
“Jamie!” his grandfather reprimanded him; but Fran merely poked the tip of her pink tongue out at him and continued drinking her coffee.
John Dennison chuckled quietly and Katie wondered just how much he interpreted of the byplay that went on around him; he was not, she suspected, as unworldly as his family thought him. She raised her eyes, aware that she was under observation, and met the scrutiny of Eleanor Barlow’s tilted amber eyes that looked, like those of a cat, slightly malicious.
JAMIE arrived promptly at seven for their dinner date and Katie heard Mrs. Hard, Aunt Cora’s cook-housekeeper, admit him to the crescendo of Bridie’s barking. Katie gave a last glimpse at her reflection in the full-length mirror and went downstairs to greet him. She had put on a pale pink dress that she particularly liked, and Jamie’s eyes complimented her choice as she came into the room, the pale softness of the dress swirling around her.
“You look gorgeous,” he told her; taking her hand and eyeing her with a warmth that brought a flush to her cheeks. “All pink and floaty.”
Aunt Cora smiled her approval as, with Bridie tucked firmly under one arm, she saw them out herself and watched until the powerful snarl of Jamie’s car took them out of her sight.
Sea Bar was not a large town by some standards, but it was what its town council liked to describe as ‘go-ahead’, and its newer amenities included a gambling club and restaurant, rather lushly decorated in the style of a Moroccan palace. Katie eyed its rather gaudy exterior apprehensively as Jamie drove into the car park and was greeted by a huge Negro wearing a white uniform, presumably the car park attendant.
“What do you think of it?” Jamie asked, as he took her arm and guided her towards the entrance. He looked up at the banks of coloured lights outlining the domed roof and minarets, with the name ‘Kismet’ executed-in curved lettering, also lit with hundreds of tiny red lights. “It looks a bit garish,” he admitted as she smiled non-committally, “but they serve the most marvellous food in the restaurant.”
“Good,” she said. “I’m hungry, so hungry I could eat a roast peacock or whatever it is they serve in this pleasure palace.”
“You name it, they serve it,” said Jamie, urging her through the wide open doors, guarded by another Negro in white uniform. For all the ostentation Katie was relieved to find that the food and service were excellent, and after a time something of the brightness of her exotic surroundings infected her and she felt a lilt of excitement in her heart that lent a sparkle to her eyes.
“It’s a good thing this isn’t really a Moroccan palace,” Jamie said as they sat after dinner, watching the noisy, excited bustle of the restaurant, “or I would never be able to take you out again—the sultan would kidnap you for his harem!”
Katie laughed softly, her black-fringed grey eyes looking round the dim lit, curved archways and slim pillars, at the dusky-skinned waiters speeding soft-footed between the tables, her pulse grown excitingly rapid with the wine at dinner. “It
is
rather exotic,” she said, “but rather fun. I have a feeling I’m taking part in a film, one of those Hollywood type sultan and slave girl epics.”
‘You would be the leading lady if it was.” He lifted her right hand and pressed his lips to her palm. “It brings out the sheik in me, this palace of pleasure and you.” He’d leaned even closer, his eyes watching her. “You’re very beautiful, Katie, but you know that, don’t you?” She was thankful for the dim lighting as he kissed her hand again, his eyes glittering bright with the heady wine they had drunk and, she noticed irrelevantly, almost as blue as his brother’s.
An efficient but blank-eyed young Negro presented their bill and departed, apparently unmoved by the enormous tip he received. “Would you like a little flutter at the table?” Jamie asked as they left the restaurant.
Katie hesitated, not because she had never gambled before but because she felt that the gambling here would bear little or no resemblance at all to the small occasional flutters to which she was accustomed.
“I don’t know, Jamie,” she felt uncomfortably aware of the watching eyes of the man at the entrance of the casino, as if he knew her doubts and despised her for them.
“You haven’t been to a casino before.” Jamie took her hands, smiling teasingly. “I’ll show you what to do, Katie, don’t worry. Come on,” he urged her, “try your luck, who knows, you may win a fortune.”
“It’s not winning that worries me,” she retorted, “it’s losing!” She looked around her at the lush, carpeted no-man’s-land between the restaurant and the casino at the faces of the people moving across from dinner to gambling without a second thought. Aunt Cora made her a more than generous allowance and never questioned how much she spent on anything, but the thought of using what was after all her aunt’s money for gambling she felt was not right. “No, I couldn’t, Jamie.” She felt suddenly vulnerable and a little foolish as she saw him frown impatiently.
Raising her eyes to try and explain her reluctance she caught sight of a familiar fair head just leaving the restaurant and coming their way. Eleanor Barlow might have seen them too, but she would have ignored their presence had not her escort steered her inexorably towards them, and Katie felt a surge of relief that she found hard to explain. Jamie, who had his back towards them, knew nothing until his brother spoke.
“Hello, Jamie, Katie,” the impatient voice was quiet enough to be discreet, but the blue eyes looked at his brother with a hard, icy stare. Jamie spun round obviously displeased to see him and prepared to be unfriendly.
“Well, well,” he said, his glance dark with warning. “If it isn’t big brother, and the fair Eleanor, too!” He made a half mocking bow in the older girl’s direction, which she ignored. “Are you about to fritter away your hard-earned shekels?” He flicked a glance at Katie. “Katie has turned pious, she
won't
gamble.”
Katie felt her cheeks flush under the scornful gaze of the other woman’s amber eyes and wished the floor would open up and swallow her. John Miller was looking at her queryingly. “Don’t you want, to gamble, Katie?” There was none of the usual impatience in the question, but a certain sympathy, as if he understood her reasons.
She raised her eyes, dark with worry for the trouble she was making, and shook her head. “No,” she said, feeling smaller every minute. “It’s—it’s difficult to explain!”
“You don’t
have
to explain,” he said quietly. “It’s your own concern whether you want to gamble or not. It’s not everyone,” he turned his gaze on his brother, “who’s prepared, or able, to throw money around like water.”
“Don’t lecture me!” Jamie’s voice was dangerously quiet and he spoke the words between his clenched teeth. “Stop playing big brother, John, I’m old enough to do as I please.”
“But
not,
it seems, as Katie pleases!” The retort brought a tinge of colour to Jamie’s face and he had the grace to look rather shamefaced, rather as he had, Katie thought, at Fran’s party when his brother had talked to him in the garden.
“I’m sorry, Katie.” He looked so genuinely contrite that she felt pity for him and put a hand on his arm in understanding. “Would you rather go dancing instead?” John Miller seemed to relax a little at his brother’s capitulation, and Katie turned her grey eyes to him, smiling gratefully, but wise enough to say nothing.
Eleanor Barlow heaved an exaggerated sigh as she slid a possessive hand under his arm.
“Having settled the children’s quarrels, shall we find the action?” she asked in her cool, brittle voice, the amber eyes narrowed maliciously. Her escort, apparently satisfied at the outcome, crooked his straight mouth into a ghost of a smile and looked at his brother.
“We’ll go dancing,” said Jamie, his temper forgotten. “Actually it’s a far better idea to have a beautiful girl in my arms, rather than stand by her at the tables.” He flashed an impudent smile at his brother. “Have fun, John, and don’t lose the family fortunes!”
John made no reply, but the look of understanding in his eyes as he glanced for a brief second at Katie before turning away made her heart skip like an excited child’s, and she watched him walk across the rest of the way with the sleek, blonde model clinging to his arm, past the man still standing at the door and into the casino.
“Ready?” Jamie’s voice asked jauntily, and she nodded, putting a hand on his arm as they left the lush, carpeted entrance hall of the ‘Kismet’.
In Jamie’s arms later that evening, Katie felt more lighthearted than she ever remembered and danced happily, her thoughts far away as she moved to the music. “Shall we go outside for a while?” Jamie asked presently, bringing her out of her reverie, and she nodded, following him on to the balcony. It was a wide, curved balcony that overhung the sea, railed in with wrought iron and beautifully cool after the heat of the dance floor.
“It’s lovely,” Katie sighed, leaning on the curved railing. “It’s a beautiful spot here, much quieter than in Sea Bar itself.”
Jamie half sat on the railing, drawing at a cigarette, the glowing tip of it like a tiny light in the semi-dark. “Very romantic,” he teased her. “There are even some palm trees down there on the terrace, tubbed ones, but palm trees just the same.”
Katie watched the smooth, rippling sea whisper up to the terrace below them, as placid and calm as a tropical sea, with an almost full moon splashing silver over the sinuous waves like the veil of an exotic dancer. She smiled at the fanciful thought, her mouth curving softly as she shook back her hair from her face.
Jamie watched her in turn, from his perch on the balcony rail, his eyes dark in the moonlight, seeing the ethereal beauty of her features and the black, cloudy frame of her hair as it stirred softly in the breeze from the sea.
“Daydreaming again?” he asked, and she turned her head to look at him, the wide grey eyes glistening in the moonlight.
“It isn’t daytime,” she pointed out with a smile, and moved nearer to him. “Did I spoil your evening, Jamie, not wanting to go to the casino? I’m sorry if I did.”
“No,” he shook his head, his smile reassuring. “As I told John, I prefer holding a beautiful girl in my arms to having to merely stand by her all evening.” He tilted his impudent eyebrows at her. “I’m surprised I didn’t think of it before.”
“You’re sure you didn’t mind too much?” She seemed uncertain of his reassurance and he rose to stand nearer to her.
“Do I demonstrate my preference?” he asked softly, lifting her chin with one hand so that she looked at him. “I’m not as bad as big brother tried to make me sound,” he said. “Honestly, Katie, I’m not a bad type once you know me.”
“I never suggested you were,” she said. “You can be very sweet and considerate.”
The cigarette made a wide arc of red as it dropped into the sea and his hands slid round her waist, pulling her close to him until she could feel the warmth of his breath on her cheek as he spoke. ‘You’re an enchanting little creature, Katie Roberts, but I don’t always understand you.” His mouth was warm and gentle and had none of the hard ruthlessness he had shown the night of Fran’s party, and for a moment she responded, her heart throbbing excitedly. “Like now,” he murmured against her ear, his face nestling against her soft hair. “You like me to kiss you, but you’re not happy about it. I wonder why.”
He held her at arm’s length, his eyebrows tilted quizzically. “There’s some dark secret about you, sweet Kate, that I don’t know about.”
“Oh, Jamie,” she sighed, and moved away from him and he made no move to follow her, but leaned back against the railing and watched her.
“Oh, Jamie,” he mocked softly, smiling at her. “You would never play false with anyone, would you, Katie? When you fall in love you’ll go head over heels, hook, line and sinker.”
“You’re mixing your metaphors,” she told him, her grey eyes shining as she faced him, “but you’re a very nice person anyway.” She turned her head towards the sound of the music and the dance floor. “Shall we go back and dance again?”
It was a little after one o’clock when Jamie brought her home and walked with her up the neat little path to her front door. She guessed that Aunt Cora would have taken Bridie up to her bedroom with her, as she had been doing since Katie had come to live with her, because of the noise the little dog made whenever Katie came in late.
“Did you enjoy yourself?” Jamie asked, his voice barely above a whisper as they stood by the tiny porch over the door.
“I had a lovely time,” she said, “thank you, Jamie.”
He raised questioning eyebrows. “Even if I did behave like a boor at the casino?”
“You didn’t,” she protested. “You were being reasonable as you saw it; I suppose it did seem rather priggish to you, but I had a good reason.”
“Which seemingly big brother was aware of and I wasn’t,” he said ruefully. “I have a knack of putting my foot in it, haven’t I?”
“No,” she said, “you have no such thing; you’re impulsive, but that’s hardly a vice,” she smiled, “at least I hope it isn’t, I’m impulsive myself quite often.”
“You’re adorable,” he brushed back the thickness of her hair and caressed her neck with His fingers. “I could fall in love with you, my sweet, with no trouble at all.”
“You just like girls,” she laughed softly at him as he drew her to him.
“Correction,” he said, and kissed her, “I like beautiful girls.”
The low growl of a car engine broke the stillness and Katie turned her head as headlights beamed along the road and flicked among the shrubs and trees as they turned into the drive next door. “Hello,” Jamie said softly, watching the lights until they switched off suddenly, “big brother’s been on the town, the fair Eleanor
must
have worked her magic to keep him out this late!”