Passage by Night - Jack Higgins [49]
'Manning here,' he said in a low voice.
'Reception, Mr Manning. There's a young lady to see you. A Miss Melos.'
'Tell her I'll be right down.'
Orlov still slept steadily and Manning pulled on a linen jacket and left the room, closing the door quietly behind him.
Anna was sitting on a divan near the door, leafing through a magazine. She was wearing a sleeveless linen dress that fitted her perfectly and her long black hair hung in a pigtail over one shoulder.
'Hello, Anna,' he said.
She stood up and smiled shyly, obviously at a loss for words. 'Hello, Harry.'
The band started to play in the dining room and he grinned. 'Eaten yet?'
She shook her head. 'I don't believe I have. I slept for a few hours. When I awoke, the only thing I was sure of was that I had to see you.'
'The food here's marvellous. Anything you've got to say can wait till you've sampled it.'
Although it was early, several couples were already dining and the head waiter moved across with a smile. 'Booth or ringside, Mr Manning?'
'We'll take a booth, I think,' Manning said and they followed him between the tables.
When they were seated, he waved the menu away. 'I don't need to see that. We'll have green turtle soup, salt pork with herbs, followed by baked bananas in brandy. Two iced vodkas to start with.'
Anna smiled and shook her head. 'You know what you want in everything, don't you?'
'Good Nassavian cooking, that's all. How's your father?'
'Much better. He wanted to come himself, but I wouldn't let him.'
'If it's about the boat, you're wasting your time. I'll have the papers drawn up, first chance I get.'
She shook her head. 'We can't take her, Harry. In the first place, she's five times the boat the Cretan Lover ever was and I've been talking to Seth. He told me a lot of things. The Grace Abounding is all you've got left in the world.'
'Which puts me in the same position as your father, except for one important difference. He's an old man, I've still got a few years left.'
She shook her head. 'I know my father. He has pride. He won't take the boat. He likes you too much.'
'You blasted Greeks are all the same,' he said. 'From Odysseus down. That boat's going to Harmon Springs whether he likes it or not. After tonight, it'll be his and that's an end to it.'
'After tonight?' she said with a slight frown. 'What do you mean?'
'I'm going on a little trip with Viner. Couple of hours there, couple of hours back. Nothing much.'
She leaned across, her face quite pale. 'You're running your head into a noose again.'
He grinned wryly. 'What have I got to lose?'
At that moment, the soup arrived and he deliberately altered the whole trend of the conversation. She had a healthy appetite and he found himself watching her covertly at every opportunity.
He ordered coffee, excused himself and went upstairs to Morrison's room. The door was locked. He knocked softly, but got no reply. When he went downstairs again, he paused beside the reception desk to light a cigarette, and glanced at the board. Morrison's key was on its hook and he returned to the dining room.
The band had started to play again and as he approached the table, he held out his hand and smiled. 'How about it?'
She stood up and they moved on to the small dance floor. She slipped an arm around his neck and danced with her head on his shoulder, her firm young body so closely pressed against him that he could feel the line from breast to thigh.
When the music stopped, they stayed together for a brief moment and then she pulled gently away. 'It's hot in here.'
'Cooler outside,' he said.
A path through the gardens at the rear took them out of town through casuarinas and a grove of palm trees planted by some early settler years before. They came out on the edge of a cliff that dropped to a white strip of beach.
The sea was black with depth, purple and gray near the shore and the sun was a ball