Sally Wentworth - Set the Stars on Fire Read online

  'He was,' Lori acknowledged. But I wasn't ready and told him to go ahead.'

  No point in telling the man that she hadn't been going to come at all. That she had no heart to join in the wind-up party that the producer was throwing for the crew, various local dignitaries, and several members of the British and American Press who were in Rhodes to do stories on the making of the film, now that The Siege was finally finished. She had been going to spend her last night in Rhodes quietly packing and getting ready for the journey home, but she had been filled with a great restlessness, so that in the end she had changed into a black evening dress with shoestring shoulder straps, that fell in loosely swathed layers to her elegantly sandalled feet. Her hair she had swept back and added a chignon hairpiece, impulsively tucking in a blood-red hibiscus bloom picked on her way down through the hotel harden. She looked slim, sophisticated and beautiful, a picture of youth and vitality, until one looked closely and saw the haunting sadness in the depths of her green eyes, emeralds that had lost their brilliance.

  The whole of the ground floor of the palace had been given over to the crew for the party and the big double doors stood wide open, ablaze with light. Almost reluctantly Lori went through them, ready even now to turn and run back to the sanctuary of the hotel, but she was late and there was no one in the ante-room leading to the main salon, so she was able to go and stand near the doorway and look in without being observed. At one side of the room three Greeks in traditional dress were singing and playing bouzouki music, and Lori smiled slightly as she saw a great many of the crew trying to emulate some Greek dancers who were demonstrating a linked-arm folk dance. The music was loud and tuneful, the people happy and laughing, having partaken liberally of the amply food and drink provided in a further room opening off the main one. Everyone was in the throes of letting their hair down, although the party was nowhere near as wild as it would become once the Rhodian visitors had left and the crew really started to drink and enjoy themselves.

  Dean was in. one of the dancing groups and when he caught sight of her he waved and pointed towards one of the tables at the side, indicating that he'd saved her a seat. Lori nodded and smiled, but hesitated for several minutes before deciding to stay for a while longer. She waited until the dance had ended and everyone was going back to their tables before she moved forward. But as she stepped through into the main room she suddenly found her way blocked and glanced up to find Lewis deliberately standing in front of her, a grim, angry look on his face. Catching her arm, he jerked her round and hurried' her back into the empty ante-room out of sight.

  'Do you mind?' Lori said indignantly. She tried to free herself, but he kept hold of her arm. 'How dare you…

  But she couldn't finish because Lewis swung her round to face him and said harshly, 'I'm not going to let you do it, do you hear me? I'm not going to let you go out there and create a scene in front of the Press and everyone else just to get your own back on your ex-lover!'

  Lori stared at him in bewilderment. 'I don't know what you're talking about. Let go of me!' She tried to break free, but she might as well have tried to bend a steel bar.

  Her answer only seemed to infuriate him more and he gave her an angry shake. 'Stop lying! I've seen through that innocent facade of yours, remember? You know damn well that Nicholas Hayman is here, although why the man should be fool enough to come here after he…'

  Astonishment made her still and she said incredulously, 'He's here? Now?'

  Sneeringly Lewis said, 'As if you didn't know!' But Lori hardly heard him, her face had lit up at the news and she swung round eagerly towards the main salon, but Lewis pulled her back.

  'You heard me. I'm not going to let you go to him.'

  'Oh, don't be so ridiculous,' Lori said impatiently. 'I'm not going to have a row with him.'

  ‘No?’ He took hold of her other wrist and looked into her face. `My God, I don't believe you were. You were going to go in there and try to get him back, weren't you? After all he did to you! Don't you have any pride in yourself? You let a man treat you like dirt, throw you aside like a piece of rubbish, and still go running to grovel at his feet! He hurt you before, do you really think he wouldn't do the same again the minute it suited him, even if he did take you back? Do you?'

  His voice had risen and he began to shake her again.

  Savagely he said, `Can't you see what you're doing to yourself? Living with a man old enough to be your father. Throwing your youth and beauty away on any man who wants it!'

  He shook her so hard that her teeth rattled, but with a sudden violent jerk Lori broke away from him and stood trembling, her eyes fixed on his. As angry now as he, she said fiercely, `What does it matter to you what

  I do? What the hell do you care about me?' He stared back at her, his lips twisted into a thin bitter line. `It matters,' he said heavily. `Because I care. God help me, you're everything I despise in a woman, and yet I still care! '

  She had automatically begun to rub her bruised wrists, but now she grew very still and gazed into his face. The noise from the party seemed to fade away and she felt as if there was no one there but the two of them, facing each other in the sudden stillness.

  `Lori!’ The spell was shattered as someone called her name and swinging round she saw her godfather emerge from the other room and walk quickly towards her. `Lori, I've been looking all over for you. How are you, my dear?' Coming up to her, he put a familiar arm round her and kissed her on the cheek. She heard Lewis make an involuntary sound and turned to see a bleak look in his eyes before he turned abruptly to leave.

  'No, don't go.' Lori put out a hand and caught his sleeve. Steadily she said, 'I don't know whether you've met Nicholas Hayman?'

  His face a taut mask, Lewis nodded briefly. 'I believe we met fleetingly some time ago when we were looking for sponsors for The Siege.'

  'That's right, I remember.' Uncle Nick held out his hand, but Lewis didn't appear to see it. 'I must congratulate you on finishing the film to time, and from the early reports I've had of it, it seems certain that it will be a great success.' He turned to Lori and Lewis would have gone away, but she kept a tight hold of his sleeve. 'I've got some news that you're going to be the first to hear. I'm getting married.'

  She felt Lewis give a jerk of surprise, but Lori smiled. 'Now I wonder who that could be to,' adding deliberately, 'Daddy.'

  Nicholas Haymen laughed delightedly. 'Now you've spoiled my surprise! Yes, your mother's agreed to marry me at last. Just as soon as she's recovered from her operation.'

  Lori let go of Lewis's sleeve and moved forward to kiss her godfather. 'I couldn't be more pleased. I know you'll both be very happy.'

  For several minutes they talked together about her mother while Lewis stood silently by, but then Lewis said slowly, 'Your mother has been ill?'

  'Yes.' It was Uncle Nick who answered.

  'But surely you knew that when you gave Lori permission to fly home?'

  `No,' he answered unevenly, `She didn't say why she wanted to go back to England.'

  Quickly Lori turned to her godfather and said, `Uncle Nick, I think you owe Lewis an apology. He feels that I got the part in this film because of your influence and that's partly true, but I-well, I'd like him to know what really happened.' And then, without looking at Lewis, she turned and hurried out of the building, leaving the two men alone.

  The courtyard was almost as well lit as the inside of the palace and Lori instinctively turned towards the iron gate that led on to the ramparts of the old city.

  To her relief she saw that it was open and she quickly ran up the steps, through the gate and along the top of the old walls until she was out of sight of the palace, only then slowing to a walk. The moon shone brilliantly out of a clear sky and lit the ancient buildings far more kindly than any floodlight, mellowing the ancient stone and turning it from grey to gold. When she came to the part where Lewis had brought her once before Lori stopped and looked around. Behind her the outlines of the Turkish mosques and pan
tiled roofs of the houses were thrown into dark silhouette against the sky and in front the surf broke endlessly on the shore. It was very quiet, the soft sound of the waves fading into the background and no human noises reaching to break the peace and silence of the place.

  She didn't know how long she stood there, gazing out to sea, but presently she heard footsteps hurrying towards her and she turned expectantly.

  Lewis stopped as soon as he saw her. `I hoped I might find you here.' He sounded out of breath as if he had been running. Slowly he climbed the steps and came nearer. 'Aren't you afraid of snakes?'

  'I-I didn't even think about them.'

  He stood a few paces away, looking at her intently. He seemed to be at a loss for words, to be searching for the right ones. He opened his arms in a helpless gesture. 'Lori, I…' And then suddenly he was close beside her. 'Oh, my darling, I love you so much!' With a little sob she went into his arms, let him crush her to him as if he couldn't get close enough, as if he'd never let her go.

  'Oh, Lori, I've been such a damn fool. How can you ever forgive me after the things I've said to you, the way I treated you…'

  Her fingers went up to cover his lips and quieten him. 'It doesn't matter, not any more.'

  But he wasn't so easily silenced. 'We could have been so happy these last weeks if I hadn't jumped to the wrong conclusions. Why didn't you tell me then that he was your godfather?'

  Slowly Lori answered, 'Just because you jumped to the wrong conclusion so easily, were so quick to believe the worst of me, I suppose. If you had so little trust in me, then there didn't seen any point in-in…' Her voice broke and she turned her head away. 'Oh, my poor little love!' Lewis put a hand under her chin and gently turned her to face him. 'I've made it hell of a mess of things, haven't I? I fell in love with you the first time I saw you. I turned round to meet this cheap little actress who'd blackmailed her way into my film and it was as if I'd been kicked in the stomach. You looked so lovely, without any make-up and your hair dishevelled. My first thought was that the reports I'd heard about you must be wrong, totally wrong. But then I'm afraid cynicism took over and made me feel hitter that the one girl I'd waited for all these years should be the type I most abhor.' He paused and then said roughly, `And I was brute enough to take that bitterness out on you.' He let go of her suddenly and thrust his hands into the pockets of his dinner jacket, staring moodily out to sea. `Then when you, and the way you always behaved, convinced me that you were telling the truth,

  I was so thankful that I could scarcely believe that I'd found happiness at last, had it really within my grasp. But when Nicholas Hayman came it seemed that there could be no other explanation for his wanting to see you, especially when he refused to give one himself, and then the bitterness came back, only far worse, because I thought you'd made a fool of me.' His hands bunched into fists in his pockets. `These last weeks have been hell, wanting you, loving you, and yet thinking all the time that you…

  `Stop it!' Lori caught his arm and pulled him round to face her. `It's over, it doesn't matter. Not now.' She reached up to put her arms round his neck and said huskily,

  `Oh, Lewis, hold me. Hold me close.' He did so, burying his face in her hair, and for several minutes she stood still within the circle of his arms, just letting the sheer joy of being there engulf her. This was the hour she had waited for for so long, had wanted so badly. To feel his arms round her, his strength and warmth enfolding and protecting her, and to know that he loved her, that even when he thought her cheap he had been unable to deny his love for her.

  She stirred and reached up to touch his face, gently tracing the outline of his jaw and then his lips. Softly she said, `Lewis, there's never been anyone else. Even though, that day you came to my room… You see, I-I loved you so much that I would have… I thought you wanted me.' She floundered in embarrassment as she remembered, and looked away.

  'Lori, are you trying to tell me-are you saying that it would have been the first time for you?' he asked incredulously.

  'Yes.' Still she couldn't look at him.

  'Oh, my darling girl! ' It was said on a note of wonder, almost of awe. 'And you would have given yourself to me, even in those circumstances?'

  Lori laughed a little. 'By then I'd lost all power to resist.'

  He smiled in return and said, 'If you only knew the effort it cost me not to make love to you. You looked so lovely lying there, holding out your arms to me. And I wanted you so much that it was like wounding myself to be cruel to you. And then, when we came to shoot the love scene, it was all for nothing; when I saw you cry and realised that it really mattered to you, I suddenly knew that I couldn't bear to let the world see you as I had seen you-as I've kept seeing you and wanting you in my every waking moment ever since,' he added softly. 'And I'm afraid you're going to have to marry me very soon, my darling, because if we should even happen to find ourselves alone together for any length of time in the proximity of a large double bed, flied I just won't be answerable for the consequences.' He bent his head and began to kiss her throat, the lobe of her ear, her cheek. 'Now that I come to think of it,' he said insinuatingly, 'there's a very large bed in my hotel room.'

  Lori gurgled with laughter and pushed him away.

  `Oh, no! I want to be properly engaged first. I'll marry you as soon as you finish work on The Siege and not before,' she said firmly.

  `So you'll just have to work hard and get it done quickly.'

  `Slave driver,' he said in mock despair. Then he smiled down at her, the look that was hers alone back in his eyes. `Did I happen to tell you that I love you?' he asked softly.

  `I believe you did mention it,' Lori replied, her voice uneven.

  `Nell, you'd better get used to it, because I intend to say it again-often.' And then he drew her to him and kissed her, gently at first but with a rising tide of passion that flamed like a forest fire and left them both trembling with emotion when at last they drew apart.

  It was some time before they moved to leave the ramparts, but before they returned to the palace, Lori looked back along the line of the ancient walls and said wistfully, `We will come back here, won't we?' `Of course,' Lewis assured her. `Just as often as we can.'

  Lori turned to him with a smile. `All my life I’ve waited for a knight in shining armour, but I never thought I'd have to come to their island to find one.' He frowned a little. `Don't put me up on any pedestal, Lori. I'm just a man who has a very interesting job, that's all.'

  Seriously she answered, `I know. I've grown up a lot since I came here. I think I was too naive, too sheltered before.' Then she gave a smile of pure happiness.

  `So instead I'll settle for a director in a dinner suit.'

  Lewis grinned. `Well, perhaps I might be able to manage the knight as well. When I edit the film I'll let Sir Richard go with you instead of the Knights of St John.'

  Lori tucked her arm into his. 'I'd like that,' she said sincerely.

  They turned to walk away, and behind them the first faint rays of dawn began to spread their triumphant aubade across the sky, carrying the haunting songs of long-forgotten battle-cries and the memories of ancient glories on the breeze.