Paradise Island Hilary Wilde

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ing back, feeling her shoulder-length hair swing-
ing gently. "Yes, I am. I teach children ballet,
you know, Mr. Harvey."
He was staring at her, his dark glasses hiding
his expression. "So I understand. Miss Roubin.
Deborah enjoys her lessons."
She wondered why he was staring at her so
intently, and had a moment of panic as she won-
dered if she had washed all the green rinse out
of her hair. But it seemed as though it must be
all right, for they went on to talk about dancing,
and how it gave Deborah self-confidence, and then
he persuaded Deborah to stop dancing around
them, for she was showing off a little to him,
and asked her to arrange her precious shells into
a pattern.
"No, tell me a stowy," Deborah insisted, curl-
ing up by his side.
Roland Harvey smiled a little apologetically
at Lauren,,
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"We'll get no peace if I don't" he murmured.
He told Deborah that when he was a little boy,
his parents had gone to a faraway land where
children could not live, and so he had lived with
his uncle.
"Uncle Horace was very kind to me," he said
thoughtfully, "and I've often realized since that
I didn't appreciate all he did for me. I'm afraid
children are often selfish without realizing it. .."
He talked of his childhood in Cornwall, of his
interest in stories about smugglers. "I think I
always was a rebel," he said with a half smile.
"I decided there and then that when I was a
man I would be an explorer. All my work at
school and at university was headed in that direc-
tion, and as soon as I could, I went off on different
expeditions. I was rarely at home. I'm afraid
I never thought that my uncle might need me.
It must have been all of eight years since I last
saw him," he said ruefully, "when I heard he
was dead. Uncle Horace had a big heart he left
me all his money and this hotel."
- Deborah was leaning against him, her eyes
drowsy and her cheeks flushed. "Is that why
you're so very wich?" she asked sleepily.
Lauren watched the way the big man smiled
at the child. How he loved her! How gentle and
kind and loving he was with her. It seemed a
strange trait in a hard, cold brusque sort of man
but was Roland Harvey really all those things?
Wasn't this relaxed man the real Roland Harvey?
Wasn't his hardness a facade behind which he
hid?
"Yes, darling, that's why I'm rich,' he said
gently, and stared at the peaceful Jagoon. They
were at the most deserted end of the long beach
arid it was very quiet. "That money means a lot
to me," he went on quietly, almost as if talking
to himself. "It means freedom it opens the way
for many expeditions. It means that now I can
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plan things my way and not the way of those who
raise the money for us." He turned to Lauren
and for a moment his face was that of an eager
boy. "It's like being given a fairy wand," he said.
Now so many of my dreams can come true "
"You will sell the hotel?" she asked idly, fas-
cinated by this new side of him.
She was startled .when he frowned, for his.
whole face seemed to change, to become hard and
suspicious. "Who have you been talking to?"
he demanded.
She was confused by his abrupt change of
mood. "No one no one at all. It was just that^-
that you said now your dreams would come true,
and I thought... well, I didn't think that running
a hotel could be one of your dreams, so so I
thought you would be selling it and going off on
another expedition."
His face relaxed. "I see. Of course you're
right^-in a way. That is-what I would like to do,
but one of the -terms of the will was that I should
run this hotel for a year before I made any de-
cision to sell it or keep it. It seems that it was
a dream come true for my u'ncle and he wanted
to make it one of the finest hotels in the world."
His voice was dry. "Apparently it wasn't'. .- ."
it isn't! Uncle Horce was getting old, and to-
wards the end he left everything in the hands
of his assistants. They were very efficient but
. . ." He frowned. Looking down, he saw that
Deborah was asleep. He glanced at Lauren with
a half-smile. "I'm afraid I bored her. I expect
I'm boring you, too?"
"Oh, no, you're not," Lauren said eagerly. "I'm
most interested. I imagine it must be terribly
hard to run a hotel successfully especially one of
this size and reputation when you've had no ex-
perience at all."
"It is," Roland Harvey agreed. He eased the
sleeping child, who lay against his arm, into a
53
more comfortable position. "You know," he went
on thoughtfully, "the thing that puzzled me most
here and still does, for it hasn't changed is the
constant staff changes. I can't understand it, for
I pay excellent salaries and I have a very good
manager in Miss Hunter. She really does know .
her job. Yet there's something wrong here. Some-
" thing seems to be festering, like a concealed sore."
He frowned. "Do I sound absurdly fanciful? I
just don't feel the staff are happy."
There was a pause. Lauren hunted wildly in
her mind for an intelligent remark. In the end,
she said unhappily: "I wish I could help you, but
I've never talked to any of the staff."
Roland Harvey's face showed plainly his dis-
pleasure. Again! It was as if everything she
said today was wrong.
"I certainly don't want you to discuss the posi-
tion with the staff," he said sharply. "It's not
your affair. You're here to enjoy yourself. I
hope you are?"
"Oh, I am," she said quickly. "I think this is
a lovely place."
She wondered if he was surprised .to think that
she could afford a holiday like this. Perhaps he
thought ballet teachers earned large salaries? If
he only knew! He probably knew very little about
how the world lived he was probably so wrapped
up in his precious expeditions. Or perhaps he
didn't think about her at all.
They were silent for a while, and then Roland
Harvey looked at his watch and at the angelic
face of the sleeping child. "She's a sweet child,"
he said softly, "but I gather from her mother
that she's a bit of a handful."
Lauren turned to him, her eyes flashing. "What
young child isn't?" she asked indignantly. "When
a child is meek and quiet, it's time to start wor-
rying about her. Deborah is just a normal healthy
child for her age, very intelligent, rather un . .."
54
She stopped herself in time. She looked at him.
"I'm sure you were a handful at her age," she
finished lamely.
He'put back his head and laughed. "Touche! I
most certainly was."
"You're very fond of children, and yet . . " !"
Lauren hesitated. "Yet you've never married?"
She found courage enough to say it, and then
held her breath. Had she said the wrong thing
again? Angered him?
But he did not seem annoyed. He merely smiled
and asked: "Have you never heard that hoary
old cliche, 'He travels fastest who travels alone'?
Besides, I'm not an ordinary man. I mean, I
don't lead a normal life. I don't think it's right
to ask any woman to shoulder the burden of hav-
ing to adapt herself to my way of living, for I
certainly couldn't adapt myself."
Or wouldn't, Lauren thought to herself.
"You've never been in love?" she asked, and won-
dered how she had the courage to say such a
thing.
He laughed. "Of course I've been' in love. And
out 'of it, pretty sharply, too, several times.
There's nothing quite so disillusioning as finding
that your adored angel has feet of clay. Look,
Miss Roubin," he went on, smiling at her, "I'm
thirty-six, is it likely I could live in a world of
such beautiful women and walk unscathed? There
was one girl, and I was very young about twen-
ty-five. She was . . . well, very lovely. She told
me frankly that I must give up my mad exploring [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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