This time she succeeded in driving a hundred yards at fifteen miles an hour, dead in the centre of the road.
‘That’s the idea,’ I said. ‘That’s fine. Keep going like that and you’ll get the feel of the thing.’
Then I saw, coming towards us, the headlights of a fast-moving car.
‘Pull over to your right,’ I said, ‘and go slow. Watch the road.’
She pulled in too sharply and too far, and the off-side wheels mounted the grass verge. The approaching car dipped its headlights and kept coming. I was sure she was going to pull the car off the verge and that would take her right into the path of the other car, so I stamped on the brake pedal and brought the Cadillac to a jerking stop. The other car swept past and went roaring on into the darkness.
‘I wish you would let me do it,’ she said a little impatiently. ‘I could have managed.’
‘Yeah, but it’s the only car I’ve got.’
She turned to me and laughed.
‘This is fun. I’m loving it. I know in a little while I’ll be able to drive. Will you lend me your car sometimes if Roger won’t let me use any of his?’
‘You’ll have to have a few more lessons before you go solo.’
‘But when I can—will you lend me this car?’
‘All right, but it will be difficult to fit in a time. I take it to work every day.’
‘Perhaps when I want it, you could take the bus.’
‘That’s a thought, but I’m not wild about taking a bus. Besides, I use the car quite a lot when I’m at work.’
‘On very special occasions, you could take a taxi, couldn’t you?’
‘I suppose I could.’
She peered at me.
‘What you are trying to say is you don’t want to lend me the car,’ she said quietly. ‘That’s the truth, isn’t it?’
If she had but known it, I would have given her the car if she had asked me for it: that’s how far gone I was.
‘It’s not that,’ I said. ‘I’m just scared you’ll hit something or someone will hit you. You will want a lot more practice before you can go out alone. Anyway, where do you want to go to on your own?’
‘No particular place. I just want to drive. I want to feel the wind rushing by and to move fast. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do.’
‘Well, okay, when you can handle this car safely, you can borrow it.’
She put her hands on mine. The touch of her cool flesh really got me going.
‘Do you mean that?’
‘Yes, I mean it.’
‘I can have the car when I want? All I have to do is to telephone and tell you when I want it and you’ll let me have it?’
‘That’s all you have to do.’
‘Honest?’
‘Yes—honest.’
She sat staring at me for a long moment, then she gently patted my hand.
‘I think you’re the nicest man I have ever met.’
‘I wouldn’t say that,’ I said, and my voice was husky. ‘If you want the car you can have it. Now let’s have another try at driving. Let’s see if you can handle her better than last time.’
‘Yes,’ she said and turned on the ignition.
We drove along the road, and this time she was really pretty good, and even when two fast-moving cars snarled past her, she managed to keep the Cadillac on a straight course.
‘I’ve got the hang of it now,’ she said. ‘I feel it,’ and she increased speed.
I shifted a little closer to her so I could grab the wheel if I had to. My foot moved near the brake pedal, but she was keeping a straight course, and after a few moments, she really gunned the engine. The speedometer needle moved into the eighties.
‘Better ease off,’ I said. ‘You’re going too fast.’
‘It’s wonderful,’ she exclaimed. ‘I’ve always wanted to drive like this. What a car! What a beauty!’
‘Ease off now!’ I said sharply and put my foot gently on the brake pedal.
A car came out of the night with blazing headlights and stormed towards us. We were bang in the centre of the road. I trod on the brake.
‘Get to your right!’
She swung the car to the right too sharply. If I hadn’t trod down hard on the brake we would have hit the grass verge and we could have turned over. I grabbed the wheel and straightened the car as the other car stormed past us with a loud blast of its horn.
I stopped the Cadillac.
‘Did you have to do that?’ she asked, looking at me. ‘I was going fine.’
‘You certainly were.’ I had had enough for one night. My nerves were sticking out of my skin. ‘All you want is practice. That’ll do for tonight. I’ll take over now.’
‘Well, all right.’ She peered at the clock on the dashboard. ‘Goodness! I must get back. He’ll be
wondering where I am.’
Those words made a conspiracy out of our association. They gave me a queer, bitter-sweet sensation.
‘Will you drive really fast?’ she went on as we changed places. ‘Really fast?’
I pressed down on the gas pedal. In a few seconds, the Cadillac was tearing along at ninety miles an hour.
She hugged her knees and stared through the wind-shield at the two big blobs of light from the headlamps as they raced ahead of us. I had an idea she was surrendering herself to the sensation of speed and was revelling in it.
We reached the gates of the Gables at twenty minutes to eleven.
As I pulled up, she let out a long, deep sigh.
‘You can drive,’ she said. ‘You really can. I loved that. I could have gone on at that speed forever. When am I going to have my second lesson?’
I hesitated for a brief moment. At the back of my mind, I knew this could be dangerous.
‘Now look,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to get you into trouble. If your husband really doesn’t want you to drive…’
She put her cool fingers on my wrist.
‘He won’t ever know—how could he know?’
Feeling her flesh on my flesh made me light-headed and utterly reckless.
‘I’ll be here at eight tomorrow night,’ I said. ‘I should be through just after nine.’
‘I’ll wait in the car.’ She opened the door and got out. ‘You don’t know how much I’ve enjoyed this. I get so bored, but this has been the nicest and most exciting evening I’ve ever spent. I’ve really loved it.’
The hard white light of the moon showed me she was wearing lemon-coloured slacks and a bottlegreen sweater. She had a shape on her under that sweater that made me catch my breath.
‘My name is Lucille,’ she said. ‘Will you remember that?’
I said I would remember it.
She smiled at me.
‘Then we meet tomorrow. Good night.’
She waved to me and then started to walk up the long drive towards the house.
I watched her go, my hands gripping the steering wheel, my knuckles white. I sat there, breathing unevenly and quickly, watching her until I lost sight of her.
She was now in my blood like a virus: as deadly and as dangerous as that.
I didn’t remember the drive back to the bungalow. I didn’t remember getting into bed.
All I know of that night was I didn’t sleep.
How could I sleep when my mind was on fire and the hours that separated our next meeting seemed like a hundred years?
CHAPTER THREE
I
The next three days followed a systematic pattern. I reached the office at nine o’clock every morning, left at seven, had a snack supper at an Italian restaurant on the highway that led past the Gables, and arrived at the big house at eight o’clock. I remained with Aitken for an hour and a half, discussing the business of the day and going through any letters that usually he would have dealt with, then I went down to the Cadillac, where Lucille waited for me.