Read Online No Other Haven by Kathryn Blair - Free Book Online Page B

sundried tidbits, give me bread and cheese in the shade of a date palm. She hadn’t met one person she’d like to see again, except perhaps Tony. Although he fooled and flattered the women, there were moments when he looked weary of them. Adrienne was utterly at ease and never alone. The background of smoke and strong drink became her. “Adrienne, I’m going now,” said Lindsey.
    “Going? The party’s just beginning. Tony, you can’t allow a prospective customer to give you the slip like this.”
    He came over, bending an agreeable smile on Lindsey. “I would like to take a portrait of you—just for the pleasure of it. But I’d rather be friends. You’re such a refreshing change from what I’m used to.”
    “Did I fluff the introduction?” murmured Adrienne. “She wears a wedding ring, Tony.”
    “All the nice ones do,” he complained; “except you, my pet, and you’re only a cousin. If you must go, Lindsey, promise to come out to the Country Club one evening when your husband leaves you at a loose end.”
    She nodded, edging away. “You needn’t come, Adrienne. I’ll walk into town and get the bus back.”
    “You can’t do that!” The other woman rose, a guarded hostility in her expression . “What will Mrs. Conlowe think if I keep the car and let you use a bus?”
    “I ’ll do the explaining. Please! I’d rather go alone.” From that instant, when she demonstrated to Adrienne Cadell that she, too, had a will of her own, Lindsey knew they were enemies. She fled through a gallery of photographs and down those red steps. Purposefully, lest she was being watched from that teeming veranda, she walked to the Esplanade and turned left, towards the town. The road curled away from the sea, the elegant houses and hotels gave way to small shops, and then came an odd-shaped Market Square, with a central lily pond surrounded by young palms, before the main shopping district began.
    For nearly two hours she window gazed, and then, to lend an authentic air to the escape from Adrienne, she paid her subscription at the library and chose two books.
    It was a quarter to four. She must return to “Komana.” Discovering where the Esplanade buses started from and queuing for one ate up a further twenty-five minutes. When she arrived at the house Stuart was pacing the drive. He faced her, unsmiling.
    “Thank heaven you’re back. Where’s the sense in my leaving you here for company if you chase off alone as soon as I’m gone? My mother and Adrienne have been very perturbed.”
    Before he had finished speaking she was conscious of being overlooked from the sun lounge. Her eyelids down, she twisted to walk beside him. “I thought Adrienne would have told you. Apparently, my coming here today was a little inconvenient. Your mother didn’t say, but ... ”
    Oh, what was the use! She felt herself trembling, and wanting with all her being to turn her face into his jacket and know that his strength was the shield between herself and the intangible dangers that awaited her up there over the tea table.
    “Steady,” he said, low toned. “It doesn’t matter, now you’re back. You had us worried—going off for so long in a strange town. Sure you’re all right?”
    Mrs. Conlowe leaned over the veranda rail. “Did you lose yourself, Lindsey?”
    Stuart laughed, drew the two books from under Lindsey’s arm and held them up.
    “She did—in a book, the brat. Started reading and forgot the time. Pour the tea, darling. I’m as dry as the Karroo.”
    Stuart got her through. His lunch companions had been amusing, or he made them seem so, and he had arranged to inspect a couple of sites down at the industrial end tomorrow. He’d take an option on the most suitable and go into design and building costs.
    “You’re serious about this?” Mrs. Conlowe begged. “Stuart, I do hope you are.”
    “I’ve been here just four days. All this is preliminary work. We can’t invest thousands on plant and buildings until