Across the River of Yesterday (17 page)

“Very noble.” Julio’s gaze was shrewd as it searched Dane’s face. “And besides, you didn’t get in on the real action and you’re jealous as hell.”

Dane smiled. “Right.”

Julio turned to Serena. “The only way you’re going to keep him from going with me is to knock him out and hog-tie him.” His smile was faintly regretful. “I should know. I went through the same kind of madness when I was a youngster. Only I didn’t have to go looking for trouble. It always found me.”

“But Dane’s not like you,” Serena protested.

Gideon took a step nearer and touched her arm. “Isn’t he? Just look at them, Serena. They’re cut from the same cloth.”

Gideon was right, she realized gloomily. Gazing at them now was like looking at Siamese twins.
Dane and Julio’s expressions, their attitudes, the way they perceived life as a glorious game, were exactly the same. Julio might be older and more experienced, but he had the same daredevil eccentricity she recognized as her brother’s dominant trait.

“I’ll take care of him,” Julio promised. “And I’ll bring him back to you in one piece.”

“No one has to look out for me,” Dane said with indignation. “Who knows? Maybe I’ll be the one to have to take care of you.”

“Maybe,” Julio answered.

The two men exchanged smiles of perfect understanding.

Serena experienced a sudden twinge of sadness as if she’d lost something that would never be recovered. After all their years together, Dane wasn’t going to need her very much longer. He would move on to other companions, and form other attachments as he grew older. It was entirely natural and right that this should be true, but the realization still brought with it a touch of melancholy. This adventure might be the last she would share with her brother.

Gideon’s arm slid around her waist. “He’ll be safe, love. You can trust Julio.”

“I know.” She also knew she had to let him go, cut the loving strings that had been as much for her own benefit as Dane’s. She had never found it easy to let go of anyone she loved, and she loved Dane very much. She smiled with an effort. “Just promise me you’ll stay off scaffolds.”

Dane’s smile illuminated his face. “That was an exception. I told you I don’t do windows.” He turned
back toward the helicopter with barely leashed eagerness. “Come on, Julio, we’ll be late for the rendezvous.”

Julio’s lips twitched. “Yes,
sir.
”

Jeffrey Brenden came around the helicopter. “Be careful.” He clapped Julio on the shoulder. “Luck doesn’t last forever.”

“I haven’t noticed any signs of your luck fading away,” Julio drawled.

“Because I had more than luck,” Jeffrey said gruffly. “I had friends.”

“And so do I.” Julio’s expression softened. “So do I, Jeffrey.”

There was a silence more intimate than a hand-shake between them before Jeffrey turned jerkily away. “I’ll go check out the Cessna. See you on Santa Isabella.” He walked quickly toward the plane on the far side of the glade.

“You’ll be back on Santa Isabella within the hour,” Julio told Gideon. “And with any luck Dane and I will join you at the hotel for a midnight supper. Okay?”

“Okay,” Gideon said with deliberate lightness. “I’ll order a feast fit for Wellington’s return from Waterloo. See that you’re not late; I have a very temperamental chef.”

“I’ll instruct the junta it’s essential they topple from power right on schedule. We wouldn’t want to disrupt your plans.” Julio turned toward Dane and jerked his thumb in the direction of the helicopter. “Hop into the passenger seat, Dane. Time’s wasting.”

“I know,” Dane retorted caustically as he opened
the door. “I’ve been waiting for you to realize that. You’re the one who’s been holding up the works. I haven’t heard so many touching farewells since I saw
The Wizard of Oz.
Take off your ruby slippers and let’s get moving, Dorothy.”

Julio’s dark eyes were suddenly dancing. “Something tells me I may regret taking you with me. You don’t have a fitting appreciation for the traditions. Heroic good-byes are
de rigueur
before engagements of this nature.”

“Well, they seemed a little silly to me. It’s not as if anything’s going to happen to either of us.”

“Ah, the immortality of youth.” Julio shook his head with a sigh. “I can remember when I felt like that.”

“Get into the helicopter,” Dane said with a grin. “You’re aging before my eyes and, if you get much more ancient, I don’t know if I’m going to trust you to fly this thing. I hope you realize I don’t appreciate your avuncular attitude. You’re acting more like my father than—” He broke off, his expression sobering. “Oh damn, I forgot!” He turned away from the helicopter, his gaze on Serena. “With everything that’s been happening, I forgot to tell you. Mendino contacted my father before Gideon arranged for the hostage switch.”

Serena’s breath stopped in her throat. “What?”

Dane’s expression was troubled. “Lord, I’m sorry, Serena. I meant to tell you, but everything happened so fast. Mendino evidently thought he’d parlay his bets, so he hit my father with a ransom threat too. He told me my father was flying into Mariba this afternoon to discuss terms for my release.”

Serena moistened her lips. “I see.” She could feel Gideon’s gaze on her face, but she didn’t look at him. It wasn’t over for her, either, then. Dane had his battle and she was going to have her own confrontation.

“Ill handle it,” Dane said quickly. “You don’t even have to see him. I’ll just show him that his son and heir is no longer a prisoner and the Marlbrent line is in no immediately danger of being stomped into oblivion. That’s all he wants to know anyway. You go on back to Santa Isabella.”

She shook her head. “No, I’ll do it.” She turned to Julio. “Can you arrange for one of your men to pick him up at the airport and bring him here?” No, that wouldn’t do, not here in the rain forest. She wanted to get Gideon away as quickly as possible. “That fishing village that you mentioned. Is there a place we can meet there?”

Julio nodded. “It shouldn’t be a problem. This end of the island is practically uninhabited, and I have a friend who has a small cottage on the beach that should be safe.” His lips curled. “Manuel won’t be using it today. He’s Consuela’s brother, and you can bet he’s going to want to be in on the kill in Mariba. Jeffrey can show you where the cottage is.”

“Serena, I don’t want you to—” Dane stopped. “Dammit, you swore you’d never see him again. I know what he did to you, and there’s no reason why you should have to face him.”

“I can deal with it.’ Serena turned to Gideon. “You don’t have to stay with me. I can meet you on Santa Isabella.”

He slowly shook his head, his eyes narrowed on her face. “A bushwhacker?”

“The biggest bushwhacker of them all,” she said softly. “And you can’t help me with this one.”

“What about your promise? We were going to share everything, remember?”

“I’ll let you share and comfort.” She smiled with an effort. “Later. I’ve got to face the bogeyman and convince myself that he never existed, or, if he did, that I created him.”

“I’ll have him delivered to Consuela’s cottage.” Julio turned away. “What’s his name?”

“The Honorable Edwin Marlbrent.” Serena’s voice was laden with irony. “Or so
Burke’s Peerage
refers to him. Personally, I don’t agree with their opinion of my stepfather as ‘honorable’ in any way.”

“We could arrange to have him brought to Santa Isabella,” Gideon suggested.

“No. Santa Isabella is special for me. I don’t want him to set foot there. Let it end where it began, here on Castellano.” She glanced inquiringly at Julio. “If it won’t endanger Gideon or Jeffrey?”

“In a few hours there won’t be a
guardia
or a government,” Julio said with a shrug. “And then no one will care less what you’re doing here on Castellano.”

“Well, that puts everything in perspective,” Serena said wryly. “And it certainly deflates any idea I might have of my own importance in the scheme of things.” She stepped back and waved. “Go on, don’t let me keep you. We all have our own fish to fry.” She smiled involuntarily at the accidental
play on words. “And where could I choose a better spot to cook mine than your fishing village?”

Dane hesitated, and then climbed into the passenger seat, his expression still worried. “I’ll see you tonight.”

A few minutes later Gideon and Serena watched the helicopter lift off and then circle above the trees before turning toward Mariba.

The wind was warm and scented with salt as it brushed Serena’s cheeks in a soft caress. She kicked off her high-heeled sandals and padded barefoot down to the surf. Her footprints in the wet sand immediately filled with water and then disappeared as if they had never been. Time was like that, she thought, it rushed in, covering, healing, and, if you were very lucky, taking away the scar entirely.

Gideon was watching her, his eyes intent, yet gentle. He sat down on an overturned rowboat drawn up out of reach of the tides. “He should be here soon.”

“Yes.” She gazed far down the deserted beach toward the tiny palmetto-thatched cottage. “I asked Jeffrey to send him as soon as he could.” Her smile was bitter. “He won’t like it. He prefers people to come to him.”

He looked out over the horizon. “You hate him?”

“I did once. Now … I don’t know. He’s a terrible man, and I’ll never understand how he can do the things he does, but he has some qualities I admire. He’s brilliant, you know. He’s one of the foremost financial advisers and bankers in England and, as far as I know, his business deals
are entirely honest. It’s only in personal relationships that he’s completely ruthless. What he can’t control, he has to destroy. He has to own the people in his world.” She turned and came back to stand before him. “I cut the strings, but he made me pay the price. I didn’t know until I came back to you how high that price had been. I thought I’d shot my bushwhacker, but I hadn’t, I’d only run away from him.”

She sat on the beach at his feet, her bare toes digging in the sand. “I’d like to tell you all about it.” She smiled crookedly. “I know it’s a little late. Do you still want to hear it?”

“I want to hear it,” he murmured. “I think it’s important I know.”

“I think so too.” She picked up a handful of sand and let it sift slowly through her fingers. “For one thing, it will illustrate how wrong you were to think you had anything to learn from my friends or family, any polish to acquire from them. You’re so far ahead they’d never catch up in a hundred years.” She paused. “I guess I should start with my mother. There’s no real harm in her. She’s just weak and selfish and can only see as far as her checkbook. I think she may even have loved my father; she always spoke of him as if she did. He was a race car driver and after he died …” She trailed off. “She likes money. She needs money to complete herself. Edwin Marlbrent had a great deal of money and he wanted an heir. She married him and Dane was born eighteen months later. He divorced her less than six months after that.” Her lips twisted. “Oh, don’t make any mistake about it. My mother was perfectly willing
to give him the divorce. It was a very amicable arrangement. My stepfather gave her a generous allowance for life, and she gave him custody of Dane. As she wasn’t exactly the maternal type, the terms were exactly to her liking. A year later, she married someone else who suited her much better. Her French count had a lovely chateau in the wine country and no money so they dovetailed beautifully. The marriage suited my stepfather too. As long as she needed his money, he maintained full control over her and Dane.” She paused. “And me.”

“What were you doing while all this was going on?” Gideon asked. “Were you fond of Marlbrent while you were growing up?”

She shook her head. “He could be very charming, but he didn’t waste it on me. I was away at school during their short marriage, and only saw them on those few holidays during that brief time.” Her face softened. “But I was wild with joy when Dane was born. I’d always been a lonely child and I thought at last I’d have someone of my own to love. Of course, it didn’t work out that way.” Her face clouded. “No, I don’t think my stepfather knew I existed as a human being.” She paused. “Until he decided he could make use of me.”

Gideon reached down and took her hand, holding it without speaking.

“I was seventeen and attending a convent school in Switzerland. I was very naive, incredibly so.” She laughed mirthlessly. “You can’t imagine how stupid I was. My stepfather appeared at the convent one day and whisked me away on a holiday
to Italy. I was thrilled and happy and—I told you how charming he could be. I thought he actually
liked
me. I told myself that it was only children he had no use for, and now that I was almost grown up, he wanted to be my friend. He introduced me to Antonio del Montaldo in Florence, and Antonio traveled with us while we toured northern Italy. Antonio was handsome, charming, and a prince, and my stepfather heartily approved of him.” She laughed again. “How could I resist? It was a damn fairy tale. We were married in Rome two weeks after my stepfather had taken me away from the convent. He even took his yacht out of dry dock and treated the newlyweds to a honeymoon trip to the Caribbean.” Her lips curved in an ironic smile. “Just the three of us. I didn’t think it unusual. I was floating—no, drowning—in charm. They were both being so wonderfully kind and affectionate and I gobbled it up like a hungry orphan. Antonio wasn’t exactly passionate, but since I’d never had a lover, I didn’t realize.… I was living in a dream world.” She closed her eyes. “Until that night we docked at Mariba. I woke up and Antonio wasn’t in the cabin. I got out of bed and went looking for him.” She stopped and was silent a moment. “I found him. He was in my stepfather’s bed. My stepfather was making love to him.” She could feel Gideon’s hand tighten on her own, but she didn’t open her eyes. “I was stunned and almost hysterical. I can remember screaming at them, and the two of them looking at me as if I were a mosquito that had caused them a minor annoyance.” She ran her tongue over her lips to moisten them. “Then my stepfather sat up in bed and
began to speak to me. His voice was very cold and reasonable. He was in love with Antonio, and in his position any rumor of homosexuality was out of the question. It would have seriously compromised his social and business status in London. There had already been a few suspicions voiced regarding his lack of female companionship since the divorce from my mother. The sensible thing to do was to bring Antonio into the family.” Her lips curled bitterly. “That’s the very word he used. Sensible. Our marriage tie would throw a cloak of respectability on his association with Antonio. Now all I had to do was to be a good little girl and keep my mouth shut while they used me.” Her eyes opened to reveal eyes glittering with remembered pain. “I think that’s what threw me into a tail-spin. Neither one of them had ever cared about me. They were only
using
me. I guess I went a little crazy. I ran out of the cabin, and down the gangplank. I didn’t know where I was running, or—”