Those In Peril Part 17

Without seeming to rush him, Hazel extricated him from the circle of his fellow directors and drove him back to the ranch in her Maserati.

'It's terrible!' she lamented as soon as they were on the highway. 'I just never seem to have you alone to talk to. I haven't even told you about my trip to Was.h.i.+ngton. I saw the President. I told him that I had paid a ransom for Cayla's release. He tut-tutted and gave me a lecture on dealing with terrorists. Then he told me how happy he was for me and Cayla. Obviously he was relieved to have me off his back.'

'Didn't he want to know who the villains were?'

'Of course. Roberts and a gang of heavyweights from the CIA grilled me. But I told them that the negotiations had been done by telephone. The payment was made electronically. I knew nothing.'

'Did they believe you?'

'Probably not. But they didn't torture me to get the truth.'

'They're brave, but not stupid. They know a tough cookie when they meet one,' Hector laughed.

When she parked in the underground garage she consulted her watch.

'You ran over time at the meeting. We have just an hour and forty minutes before we must leave for the country club,' she warned him. 'I want to introduce you to some of the people who really matter in Texas.'

'So, we have just enough time for a little bit of TLC. What do you think?' he asked her seriously.

'You are really terrible, Hector Cross,' she told him sternly. 'Well, okay then. I suppose we can always find time for a little bit of that.' She grabbed his hand and they ran to the private elevator that took them up to the bedroom wing. An hour later he was waiting for her in their sitting room when she emerged from her dressing room. They stood at opposite ends of the room and looked at each other in awe.

'Not bad.' She gave her opinion at last. 'Not bad at all.'

'Turn around!' he ordered and she pirouetted for him, the skirts of her ball gown billowing out around her long athletic legs. Her feet were clad in diamante-encrusted black velvet slippers.

'I am trying to find the words to describe your beauty,' he said, 'but it's ineffable. All I can say is that you are the loveliest woman on this earth.'

'I'll accept that,' she said, laughing.

'But hold on!' His expression changed. 'Aren't those the Barbara Hutton diamonds that you're wearing?' She nodded and laughed again.

'Of course, my darling. Only the very best for my man.' He looked mystified.

'But ... but ...' he protested, 'you lost that necklace when the Amorous Dolphin Amorous Dolphin went down.' She shook her head, still smiling at his confusion. went down.' She shook her head, still smiling at his confusion.

'That necklace was a replica.'

'A replica?' He was stunned. 'What about the one you're wearing now. Is that the original?'

'Of course not. The original is in a bank vault in Switzerland. Do you have any idea what the insurance premiums would be on it if I wore the original on every odd occasion that I went shopping in the mall or dancing at the club?' His eyes left her face and darted to the Gauguin painting on the wall behind her. It was a magnificent Tahitian landscape, with naked island women in the foreground swimming in a blue river pool.

'What is the insurance premium on that one?' She turned to see what he was looking at, and she smiled again.

'Oh, it isn't worth insuring.'

'It's another fake?'

'Fake is too pejorative a word. Let's rather say it's a representation of the original, which is in a secure vault in London wherein the temperature, humidity and exposure to light are all strictly controlled.'

'What about those paintings that disappeared with the Amorous Dolphin Amorous Dolphin ... ?' ... ?'

'Yes, indeed. Those were also representations. Apart from the danger of theft, imagine the damage that a constantly changing maritime climate could wreak on such fragile pieces. All my copying is done for me by a gifted husband-and-wife team in Tel Aviv whose work is almost indistinguishable from the real thing. At the very first opportunity I intend to take you to view the originals. You will be the only one who has ever had that privilege, apart from Henry and me.'

He burst out in delighted laughter. 'You are a cunning vixen, Hazel my heart!'

'You don't know the half of it. However, that's enough chit-chat for now. Take me dancing, please.' She paused, and then went on diffidently, 'I thought we might take Cayla with us. I don't want to leave her alone yet.'

'What a splendid idea. I'll be escorting the two loveliest girls in Texas, no less.'

Sat.u.r.day night and the club was full, every seat in the bar and every table in the dining room taken. Hazel knew everyone. At her side Hector moved easily through the throng, charming the ladies of all ages, and impressing the men with his forthright manner and his straight sensible talking. He and Hazel had never danced together before, but they were both natural athletes and they adjusted to each other effortlessly. Most eyes were upon them as they glided around the floor.

A little before midnight she led Hector out onto the terrace. 'Darling, Cayla has not danced all evening. Some of the nicest boys in all the state of Texas are here. She hasn't looked at one of them. I want to have a chat to Sarah Longworth. Be a darling and take Cayla onto the floor, won't you? Try to get her to enjoy herself.'

'Okay, I'll see what I can do.'

Cayla accepted his invitation to dance with alacrity. 'Thank you for saving my life again, Heck. I was shrivelling up with boredom.'

Once they were on the floor he discovered that she was as supple and light on her feet as her mother, but she was still so thin that her collarbones were standing out, and he could feel her ribs under the bodice of her Tom Ford gown. Even the professionally applied makeup could not disguise her pallor. He could see the blue shades of pain deep in her lovely eyes.

'There are some good-looking boys here tonight. I saw more than one of them trying to charm you into a dance. What's up?' he asked her.

'I am off boys. All except for you of course, Heck. For your ears only, I am seriously considering becoming a lesbian, only I don't know how to get started.'

'Don't look to me for guidance.' He laughed. 'It sounds like fun, but I have never tried it.'

'Aren't you shocked by the idea? I hoped you might be.'

'I know that's what you hoped. But it didn't work. I am getting to know your wicked ways well enough.'

'Then let's drop the subject of my s.e.xual orientation, shall we? Did you know that Mummy has promised to take you and me up to the Colorado ranch this coming weekend?'

'I am looking forward to it.'

'I know you're going to love it there. We've got horses in the paddocks, moose and bear in the forest and enormous rainbow trout in the lake. Of course, best of all, that's where Daddy is.' She spoke of her father as though he were still alive. He wasn't sure if that was healthy, so he did not follow up on the remark.

'Tell me about the trout fis.h.i.+ng. Is it catch and release?'

'Good Lordy, no!' She was shocked. 'We eat them. Mummy and I are true hunter gatherers.'

'But you catch them on the fly?'

'Of course we do, we're not total barbarians. I'm the family casting champion. How about you? Can you cast a fly?'

'I don't have much of a clue,' Hector admitted. 'You'll have to give me lessons.'

On the flight into Steam Boat Springs airport they diverted to overfly the Bannock Ranch. All three of them crowded together at one window to peer down at the magnificent wilderness of snow-clad mountains, green forests, sparkling rivers and lakes. Hazel pointed out the boundaries.

'The spread is four and a half thousand acres. That's Guitar Lake. You can see how its shape gave it the name. All of it is on our property, and that's the homestead at the top end of the guitar's neck.' It appeared to be a large rambling building with a roof of redwood tiles and many different planes and gables. Numerous stone chimneys rose above it, most of them oozing woodsmoke. There were half a dozen ba.s.s boats moored in front of the wide wooden deck and rows of stables and outbuildings along the forest edge.

'Look there, Heck, on top of Spygla.s.s Mountain.' Excitedly Cayla pointed out the glistening white marble edifice perched on the brow of the hilltop overlooking the homestead. Its tall double doors were guarded on each side by Corinthian columns that supported the neo-cla.s.sical pitched roof. 'That's Daddy's mausoleum. Isn't it magnificent? I hope that one day I'll be interred there next to him.'

'Don't be so morbid, baby,' Hazel admonished her. 'It's much too lovely a day, and you are too young and lovely to think about death and dying.'

When they landed d.i.c.kie Munro, the ranch manager, was at the airport to meet them with a Chevy Suburban to carry all the Bannock females' luggage. It was getting late by the time they reached the ranch. There was just an hour before sunset for the three of them to hurry down to the deck with the fly rods. d.i.c.kie had ground-baited the water and wherever they looked big trout were rising.

'As the guest of honour, you are invited to make the first cast, Heck.' Cayla gave him a pretty little curtsy. He stepped up to the edge of the deck, stripped thirty yards of fly line off the reel and then shot all of it out over the water in a tight loop that unfolded gently. The fly settled like gossamer on the surface. It lay there for only a few seconds before there was a powerful swirl under it and the split cane rod arched over almost double as a ten-pound trout crashed through the surface.

'Lordy! Lordy!' Hector cried. 'There seems to be something on the end of the line. What should I do to get it off, Cay?'

'You should tell the truth once in a while. I really believed you when you said you hadn't got a clue.' Cayla shook her head sadly.

At half-past five the next morning Cayla banged on their bedroom door and shouted through the keyhole. 'Come on you two lazy bones. I am taking you for a ride before breakfast. I'll meet you at the stables in twenty minutes. Don't be late.'

Hazel groaned as she sat up in the big bed and with a flick of her head tossed her hair out of her face.

'That horrid child! Won't you take her down to the lake and drown her?'

Beside her Hector rolled onto his back, yawned and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. 'That's too easy a death for any little barbarian who violates the sanct.i.ty of the Fatherland.'

Cayla was already mounted up on her golden palomino stallion when, forty minutes later, Hector and Hazel followed the path up to the stables. She was taking the horse around the jumps in the main paddock. Although she appeared very small on the back of the great animal, she melded so perfectly with it that horse and rider seemed to move as a single ent.i.ty. The expression on her face was enraptured, transported with an almost palpable ecstasy. Her cheeks were high in colour. Her hands on the reins were quick and strong. Her abused body seemed whole again.

'She is totally transformed,' Hector whispered. 'Look at her, Hazel; this is what will be her salvation.'

'I realize I have been blind. Now I am seeing her through your eyes for the first time,' Hazel said quietly. 'I had my vision of what was good for her, and I tried to force her into a mould that she did not fit.' At that moment Cayla looked across and saw them.

'Oh, you've crawled out of bed at last,' she called to them. 'd.i.c.kie has your horses saddled up. Let's go!' They rode together around the lake and Cayla told Hector, 'You have quite a good seat on a horse, but it's not as good as your fly-casting. Where did you learn all these things?'

'I was raised on a cattle ranch in Kenya. We did all our work from horseback and we had a trout stream in the mountains.'

They galloped back along the forest path, startling a big bull moose from his bed and sending him lumbering in panic up the mountain side.

'Heck, I am taking you to meet Daddy,' Cayla called to him. Without waiting for her mother to forbid it she led them at a gallop up the steep winding path. They came out of the forest suddenly. The mausoleum stood above them on the very top of the mountain with the early morning sun glittering on the marble walls. It was smaller than Hector had thought when he had first seen it from the air, but its elegant lines made it seem grand and imposing. There was an elderly black man with s.h.i.+ning silver hair waiting for them in front of the tall double doors. He came forward to salute Hazel and Cayla and hold the horses' heads while they dismounted.

'This is Tom. He is a family stalwart,' Hazel told Hector. 'He was Henry's chauffeur, but now he is the guardian of his tomb. Look how beautifully he keeps everything.'

Beaming at the compliment, Tom swung the doors open and Cayla took their hands and led them into the interment hall. The floor was composed of chequered black-and-white marble slabs. In the centre of it was a raised marble platform and on this stood an enormous sarcophagus of red granite. Hector saw at once that it had been copied from the tomb of Napoleon Bonaparte in Les Invalides in Paris. Hazel went forward and knelt on the blue velvet cus.h.i.+ons which Tom had placed at the foot of the sarcophagus. She bowed her head silently. Cayla and Hector waited just inside the door until she raised her head again and stood up. Then Cayla ran forward and scrambled up onto the lid of the sarcophagus. She spread her arms over it and kissed the polished granite.

'h.e.l.lo, Daddy. I've missed you so much.' Then she sat up, and perched cross-legged on the top of the sarcophagus. She beckoned Hector to come forward. 'Daddy, I have brought somebody to visit you,' she said. 'This is Heck. He's the one I told you about that saved my life. I know you are going to like each other. Say h.e.l.lo to my father, Heck!' Unembarra.s.sed, Hector stepped forward and placed his hand on the casket.

'h.e.l.lo, Henry. We met before, as you will recall. You signed on my company Cross Bow. I am going to try to look after your girls for you as well as you did while you were here with them.'

'That's so sweet of you, Heck,' Cayla told him seriously. 'It's exactly what Daddy would want to know.'

They stayed at the tomb for nearly an hour. Tom brought bunches of fresh cut flowers and the girls helped him to arrange them in the silver vases at the head and the foot of the sarcophagus. At last Cayla and her mother said goodbye to Henry Bannock and Cayla promised him she would return soon. Then they went out onto the front steps and down onto the lawn. A shadow pa.s.sed over them and all three of them instinctively looked up. A blue goose flew low over their heads. The wind whistled softly over its great wings as they beat the air. It honked once and Cayla danced and waved up at the bird.

'It's Daddy! He likes you. He has come to welcome you into our family.' When the goose dwindled to a distant speck against the clouds Hazel explained.

'Henry's family nickname was Goose. For twenty years he was president of the Texas Goose Hunters Club. So you see, that's where Cayla gets the notion. I have the sneaky feeling she may be right; that bird may well have been Henry's shade coming to check up on us.' They went to the stone bench set on the lawn looking down on the lake and the homestead. They sat quietly, reflectively, moved by all that they had experienced together. Cayla broke the silence at last.

'Mummy, this is probably not the right time to discuss this with you. I don't think there could ever be a right time. So I'll just blurt it out and hope for the best.' She drew a deep breath. 'I am not going back to the Beaux-Arts. I tried so hard but I never really liked the study of art and I wasn't much good at it - was I?' She did not wait for an answer but went on quickly. 'And after all that happened to me in that city, I hate Paris.' Hector sensed Hazel's deep disappointment and he squeezed her hand.

After a moment Hazel looked up at her daughter and smiled. 'It's your life, baby. I know that I interfered, and I'm sorry. Just tell me what you want to do, and I'll do everything I can to help you.'

'I have already enrolled at Colorado State University College of Veterinary Medicine, and later on I will specialize in large animals.'

'Horses?' asked Hector.

'What else is there?' She laughed. Hazel did not laugh with her.

'You have already enrolled and been accepted?' Hazel looked stunned. Hector had never seen her so completely taken aback. He squeezed her hand again as she opened her mouth to protest and she closed it. For a moment she looked forlorn and bereft, then she rallied and smiled shakily.

'Okay, darling. If they have already accepted you, we'd better fly down to Denver City first thing on Monday.'

'Mummy, you're not going to see the Dean, are you?'

'Of course I am.'

'But this is me, this is my thing. I'm not a baby any more. It's probably the first time in my life that I have done what I want. Don't you understand?' The two women stared at each other. Hector saw that this was a situation that was about to explode violently. He coughed softly, and they both looked at him.

'Tell her, Heck. She doesn't understand,' said Cayla.

'Of course she understands, Cay. Your mother is the most perceptive human being, man or woman, I've ever known. She knows what it's like to go out on your own, just as she once did when she was your age. As you want to do now, she left everything to follow her dream. She knows, Cay. Believe me, she knows.' Both women subsided visibly. He let them think about it for a while.

'You're the one who's made the decision, Cay,' he went on gently. 'You're d.a.m.ned right, you are not a baby any more. Your mother knows that, and now she is offering you her total support. You cannot be so cruel as to shut her out of your life completely, can you?' Cayla's expression became one of utter dismay. She jumped and ran to Hazel.

'My darling mother, that's not what I wanted at all.' She began to weep. 'That was so unkind of me. You will always be at the very centre of my life.'

'Thank you, my darling daughter.' Hazel choked off and they hugged each other fiercely, both of them sobbing bitterly.

Well! Hector told himself, trying to hide his grin. Hector told himself, trying to hide his grin. At least it's no longer Mummy and her baby. I think we're off to a brave new start. At least it's no longer Mummy and her baby. I think we're off to a brave new start.

They had forgotten his existence. He stood up and left them. He walked down to where the horses were hitched to the post. He leaned on the stallion's shoulder and patted his neck. He had seldom felt so pleased with himself. The two women followed him down half an hour later and they were walking hand in hand.

'We're all going down to Denver on Monday morning to tour my new college and meet the Dean,' Cayla cried happily. 'You too, Heck!' She ran to her horse and sprang into the saddle. She raced away down the forest path, letting out a succession of shrill cowboy yells.

Hazel came to Hector. She looked up at him and said quietly, 'You are a b.l.o.o.d.y genius, but I suspect you are well aware of that fact.'

'I am forced to admit that I did have an inkling,' he said, and she kissed him.

Cayla went up to the Vet School in Denver at the beginning of the first semester of the new year, while Hector took on his new role at Bannock Oil as Hazel's vice-president. At first he played no active part in the company affairs. Instead he looked on and he listened. And he and Hazel sat up late most nights, studying and discussing together the mountains of information that covered the company's activities over the previous five years. His questions were perceptive and thought-provoking. Hazel found them so stimulating that she saw again through his eyes what she had done right, and where her judgement had been at fault. She came to understand that the years of being completely on her own, without a kindred soul to turn to for solace and counsel, had taken their toll. Without realizing it, she had been losing impetus. It had been a long lonely race for her and she was flagging. Now, once again, she had somebody whose judgement she could trust beside her and it was like a jolt of electricity. She no longer woke up in the morning dreading the day ahead. Once again she relished the prospect of conflict and challenge, of being stretched to the utmost.

'It's like that final set at the Aussie Open on the day I won the t.i.tle. My G.o.d, it's all fun again.' To add to her joy of life, Hector was at last ready to go forward beside her. For months he had been sitting so quietly at the boardroom table that the other directors had almost forgotten his existence, but now he began to speak out. When they got over the initial shock, they began to listen to what he had to say.