Alison drew near the fire and sat down. She pulled off her hat and ran her hand over her hair. She wished very much now that she had insisted on starting for home much sooner. It would be so terribly awkward having to explain to Julian. Almost impossible to do it without going into the whole miserable question of himself and Rosalie, and she felt utterly incapable of doing that to-night.
Suppose that scene with Rosalie had been only an irrepressible impulse of which he was now ashamed. Oh, it wasn’t likely, of course-but just suppose-
Alison gazed into the fire that was beginning to glow warmly now, and the light on her face made her look a little less strained.
Simon came back, carrying a tray with two steaming glasses.
‘Here you are.’ He handed her one of them.
‘What is it?’ She sniffed it doubtfully.
‘Never mind. Drink it up. It will do you good.’
Alison drank it obediently. It seemed to make the blood run more easily in her veins and to melt a little of the frozen despair round her heart.
‘Thank you. That’s much better.’
She looked up with a little smile at Simon… And suddenly he was kneeling beside her, his arm lightly round her waist.
‘Oh, Alison, I’ve thought of you so often like this. Sitting here smiling at me, with the firelight on your face.’
‘Simon, please-’ She moved nervously. But he went on as though she had not spoken.
‘I was a fool last time, I know. I thought Julian was so unimportant that it scarcely mattered his being here. I was wrong, of course. It was just plain hell having him near you in the place I love so much. But it’s different now. There’s no Julian to spoil things this time. Just ourselves-alone.’
Alison drew back as far as his arm would allow her.
‘You mustn’t talk to me like that, Simon. I don’t want it. Won’t you understand? Please, please let’s go now. It’s so late already, and we’re still a long way from home.’
And at that Simon raised his face to hers with a smile. For the first time, she saw, his eyes were brilliant and sparkling; that strange opaque quality was gone. He spoke quite gently, with a little under-current of amusement in his voice.
‘But you don’t really suppose I’m going to let you go away from here to-night, do you?’ he said.
CHAPTER X
IN one quick movement Alison was on her feet, all the vague, half-defined misery of the last hours swamped by the present crisis.
‘I suppose you’re trying to frighten me,’ she said breathlessly. ‘It’s not very kind of you, Simon, especially just now, when you know I’m so worried.’
‘I’m not trying to frighten you.’ He too, got to his feet, and towered over her as she backed against the wall. ‘I’m simply taking matters out of your hands-making the decision for you.’
‘But you can’t.’ She spoke sharply because she was so much afraid.
‘On the contrary, my dear, I can. That is exactly why you are here.’
‘You mean you arranged this? You did it on purpose?’
Simon smiled faintly.
‘It would have been asking a little too much of chance that I should have it all done for me,’ he said.
‘But it’s ridiculous.’ Alison was trying desperately to hold off the full realisation of her position. ‘It’s too-too utterly melodramatic’
‘Melodrama and fact are quite often the same thing,’ Simon said drily. I’m sorry if I seem to be playing the part of the villain. But I’ve been patient, Alison, for quite a long time-and I am not a patient man by nature.’
‘No,’ she said bitterly. ‘No, I’ve gathered that, You think that to want a thing is the best possible reason for taking it.’
‘It’s a very good reason, Alison, in this imperfect world.’
‘Simon,’ she said appealingly, ‘you don’t really mean the dreadful things you’re saying, do you? Think again.’ She put out her hand and took his for a moment, but, at the way his expression changed when she touched him, she drew back again quickly.
He put his hands behind him, and she saw from the sudden tensing of his muscles how hard he was gripping them together. Somehow, that effort to put some sort of curb on his passion frightened her as much as everything else.
‘Please, please don’t prolong this hateful scene,’ she begged. ‘Take me back home, Simon. I-’’
‘No!’
The monosyllable was curt, rude, and final. It drove the words of protest from Alison’s lips, so that she stood there staring at him in scared silence.
‘Think what you’re asking me to do,’ he said roughly. ‘I’ve thought of you here, dreamt of you here, longed for you here, until I believed I should go mad. Now I have you here-and you ask me to let you go. Now, when we’re alone together and there’s nobody in the whole world to say no-except you yourself. And I trunk I shall know how to turn your "no" into "yes".’
‘You will not!’ With a sudden desperate movement she tried to pass him. But he had her at once, catching her against him in an access of emotion that found vent in a triumphant little laugh.
‘It isn’t any good, you know. You’re mine by every right, and you can’t get away from me.’
She didn’t say anything, only struggled silently, while he held her lightly but irresistibly. She didn’t know whether it were her heart or his that was beating in those slow, heavy thuds, but it seemed to her the only sound in the world just then.
There was silence in the rest of the house, silence outside. Miles and miles of silence-and she and Simon alone in the midst of it.
She had been a fool ever to come with him, an utter fool. And now she had only herself to thank. She ought to have remembered that instinct which had warned her right from the beginning that there was danger in being alone with him.
Now it was too late.
Suddenly she stopped struggling, and lay there quite still against him, staring up into his face.
‘Simon, you wouldn’t do-that to me-by force?’ she whispered.
‘It won’t be force in the end,’ he said softly, and he kissed her, whether she wanted it or no.
‘Please-’
‘No, don’t struggle again.’ He spoke quite quietly. ‘Listen to me instead.’
‘I don’t want to.’
‘But you must’ He turned her face gently so that she had to look at him, ‘What is this life of yours with Julian really worth? Nothing. He makes you comfortable and gives you money: well, I will make you comfortable and you can have every penny I possess. He gives you a sort of mild, bloodless affection; I will love you, worship you with every bit of my soul. His mind is with another woman three-quarters of the time; I’ll give you, every thought and word, and you shall do with me what you please.’
‘But I don’t love you.’ It came in weary, unvarnished protest, and, though it was only a whisper, it shook him a little.
‘I’ll make you love me,’ he exclaimed vehemently. ‘God knows, I have more than enough for us both. I’ll give you time, darling. You shall learn to love me, as and when you please.’
‘Time,’ she said bitterly. ‘You’ve given me plenty of time to-night, haven’t you?’
‘Oh, that!’ He made an impatient movement, ‘I had to do things that way if they were to be done at all. But if you will stay here with me now, you shall make your own terms. Oh, yes’-as he saw a scornful little smile just touch her lips-’I can control myself. I know; you think I cannot, But you’re wrong. If you’ll stay here now, you shall do what you please-sleep where you please, since you want it in so many words. Only Julian must know that you spent the night here-and he must be allowed to draw the obvious conclusion. It’s the way out. Can’t you see that it’s the only way out? And so utterly simple.’