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Jas was suddenly very still.
He brought up the hand, gently uncurled her fingers, and revealed their
treasure. It lay on her palm between them, satin-smooth, beautiful.
"Is that what you came back for?" he asked abruptly.
"Yes," she whispered. Her eyes were huge pools in a pale face.
"Why?"
"Well, I - I thought I had it with me, you see. I took the box and then,
after we'd been at Billoola for a while, I discovered that it - wasn't
there."
"So you came all the way back here for it?"
"Yes."
"Why ?" he asked again.
"I - don't know. I just did, that's all." Ginny was temporarily witless.
Jas picked up the pretty thing and turned it over slowly. It looked
milky-white and pure against the blackness of his hands.
"Does it mean so much to you, Virginia?" he questioned her softly.
Ginny nodded, utterly miserable at this unlooked- for catechism.
"Because it replaced the one your mother wore? Because it served to
awaken those old memories?" he pursued gravely.
Ginny nodded again. Tears trembled like dew- drops on her long, dark
lashes.
"Partly," she admitted grudgingly.
"And what's the other part of it? Come on, Virginia, this isn't the time
to play around with half-truths."
Jas's shrewd gaze was probing and insistent. Ginny felt mesmerized by
it. A magic thread was there again, pulling her towards him. She
couldn't speak, in case the spell somehow got broken.
"Is it - could it be, just partly, because it was I who gave it to you?"
persisted Jas, with unaccustomed gentleness.
Ginny nodded dazedly. It wasn't done of her own volition. It must have
been the magic thread that caused her head to go up, then down, just
once.
"Ah h!" Jas expelled his breath on a sigh of satisfaction.
He slipped the clasp into his shirt pocket, buttoned the khaki button,
and took up her hands again, enveloping them in a strong, warm grasp.
"Virginia," he said, on an oddly tender notfe, "will it help you to say it,
if I say it first ? I love you, darling. Do you understand ? I love you,
and I want you to be my wife."
"Oh, Jas!" The magic thread had drawn them into each other's arms.
Jas was holding her to him and kissing her with a mastery and passion
that left her breathless."My God!" He stopped, holding her away a
little His voice was rough and slightly reckless. "How much does it
take to wring an admission from you, my sweet, independent little
Ginny ?"
Ginny laughed, shakily.
"I love you, Jas - I always have," she told him, obedient at last. "Oh,
Jas, do you realize what you called me ? You called me Ginny!"
"I'll call you that if I please," he replied with a return of his old
arrogance. "Dammit, you're the woman I love, after all! Ginny,
sweetheart, darling, little love - I'll call you the lot of them."
He was kissing her again, and Ginny's arms crept over his tattered shirt
and fastened themselves around his neck. It was some time before Jas
straightened, and gently disengaged her clasp, although he still kept a
firm hold on one hand.
"Come here and sit down for a minute," he ordered. "All this on top of
a fire is almost too much. We've got it under control, but I'll have to get
back, Ginny. I spotted the Holden leaving Billoola again, and I hoped
something hadn't gone wrong."
He pulled her down beside him, and searched her face sternly.
"Virginia, there's an aspect of this whole affair that doesn't please me
one little bit."
She looked at him in alarm. Jas proceeded.
"Do you mean to tell me that, feeling the way you actually do, you'd
have gone away from Noosa without a word or a sign, allowing me to
think you were going to walk straight into that artist fellow's arms?"
"He's not an artist fellow, Jas darling. His name's Clive Barratt, and
he's very nice, as I once told you.
Look at the good turn he's done, Mona."
Jas brushed that aside impatiently.
"That's all very well," he growled. "But he nearly did me a devilish bad
one. Why did you allow me to think you were head over heels in love
with him? It's been utter torture, do you know that, my sadistic little
darling?"
Ginny shrugged helplessly.
"I - I suppose it was stupid of me, but it helped to salvage a little of my
pride, and you must admit you always seemed to turn up at the most
awkward times. Anyway, I - I thought all along you were going to
marry Rosana."
"Rosana!" Jas's heavy black brows shot up incredulously. "Good grief!
You're not serious? Whatever gave you that idea? Such a thought has
never entered my mind at any time."
"I  I just thought so. It was simply an idea."
Jas was watching her intently.
"Did Rosana say something to you, perhaps?" he asked, with sudden
unnerving perspicacity.
"A little," she admitted evasively.
"I see." Jas regarded her soberly. "Ginny, I'm going to have to tell you
a little bit about Rosana. You see, in her own odd way she was very
much in love with my brother, and when he died, she was on the verge
of nervous hysteria. I think she knew within herself that she was
partly, if not wholly, to blame, and the knowledge almost defeated her.
I've felt intensely sorry for her. Regrets are always difficult to live
with."
He paused, took her hand in his, and rubbed her wrist with his thumb,
searching for the best means of explanation.
"You won't know this, but Gideon and I happened to look very much
alike, incredibly so, in fact. When we were small, we were even
mistaken for twins I think it was this purely physical likeness which
caused Rosana, after his sudden death, to transfer the affection she had
for him to me. I've been aware of it all along, and although I've done
nothing to encourage it, I haven't negated it altogether, because it has
been helping her. Rather, let's say I've admitted its existence, and
gradually I've watched her become stronger, healthier, and better able
to cope. All the while this rehabilitation has been taking place, the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]