`What dreams?' he asked, looking at her curiously.
`Why, that you would make an honest woman of me. We are already living here as man and wife, and you know how I adore you. If you have ever doubted that, I proved it last night. I took a great risk in leaving that note for you saying I felt sure that Lacost would not harm me. He very well might have, but I preferred to chance it rather than let you risk your life by going on board the Pigalle.'
Gregory had noticed that on a small table beside Manon there was a bottle of champagne and two glasses, one of which was full of wine. Walking forward he gave a twisted smile and said:
`I suppose you thought that if I got the better of Lacost my triumphant return would be just the moment to ask me to become engaged to you; and you raided James's cellar for this bottle, with a view to celebrating.' As he spoke, he stretched out a hand to take the full glass of wine.
`No!… No!' Her eyes widened and she quickly pushed his hand aside. `I hadn't counted my chickens that far. I got up and opened this bottle only for medicinal purposes. But don't take that glass. Fill the other, and I'll get another for myself.'
`What's wrong with the full one? he asked, eyeing her intently.
Manon shrugged. `As I've told you, I fetched it from James' cellar only to serve as a medicine; although I'll admit I meant to have a glass myself. I was just about to take the full one to the Witch and leave it by her bedside, so that when she rouses and becomes fully conscious she'll drink it. I've put a couple of sleeping pills in it and sleep is what the poor woman needs.'
Taking a step forward, Gregory seized Manon's wrist. The thumb and first finger of his other hand closed upon the big Borgia ring. He pressed the secret spring. The jewel slid back. The cavity that it normally concealed was empty. `
Giving a scream of rage and fear, she wrenched her arm away from him.
He was smiling. But it was so grim a smile that it filled her with terror. His voice was hard, cold, scathing, as he lashed her with his tongue.
`Murderess! Liar! Whore! Did you think you could fool a man like me indefinitely? I've been on to you for a long time. But you are a gay companion and marvellous to go to bed with. So, cynic that I am, I decided to let you continue to play your treacherous game. I got quite a lot of fun out of watching you at it and speculating how you would manage to wriggle out of tight corners.'
With a harsh laugh, he went on, `I learned that Pierre Lacost was your lover months ago back in Antigua. You will recall that, on our first night there, he paid me a midnight visit. The following night I decided to pay him one, in order to find out a bit more about him. When I reached the door of his room I could hear that he had a woman with him. I felt that it might prove useful to find out who she was, so I concealed myself nearby and waited very patiently. I was well rewarded, for it was you who came out of his room.'
The blood had drained from Manon's cheeks. In a hoarse voice she whispered,. `I admit that I knew him. But… but…:
Ignoring her, Gregory went on, `After I had given the matter a little thought the pieces began to fall into place. The old Macumba priest had said that you were about to take on a new lover. Myself, of course. He also said that you had one already, with whom you were involved in a financial venture. Him I discovered while in Antigua to be Lacost. Far from making a secret of it, he informed me of his intention to salvage the gold from the Reina Maria Amalia and threatened me with dire consequences should I attempt to contend with him in that venture?
`Nothing could have rung a louder bell for me, as far as you were concerned. The same threat aimed at freezing out Competition over the same major project had been made to le Carvalho and by a woman. His description of the woman who had threatened him was somewhat vague, but not too vague to fit you. And, seeing that you had no friends in Rio, nor the money to travel so far from Fiji only for a holiday, what reason could there have been for your going there other than as a partner of Lacost's, to protect the interests you had in common?'
`It's not true! It's not true!' Manon protested.
`Had I needed further confirmation of my theory, you gave it to me yourself,' Gregory retorted. `You did your damnedst to convince me that the treasure was not worth going after and, time and again, endeavoured to persuade me to accompany you instead to your island and remain there with you, lotus eating.
`You knew that I was very rich, and I soon tumbled to it that you hoped to induce me to marry you. That being so, I, can well imagine in what a difficult position you must have found yourself with Lacost, who wanted to kill me. But it was in your interests that I should continue to live. That is why you did your best to prevent me from going up to Lake Atitlan. That, too, is the reason why you left that note last tight warning me not to go aboard the Pigalle.'
'No! No! No!' Manon cried, violently shaking her head. It was because I loved you.'
`Love!' sneered Gregory. 'You don't know the meaning of he word. It is greed that inspires your every action. And what a shock it must have been for you when I turned up again so unexpectedly in Suva. Having just learned about the Brutal murder of de Carvalho by your friends, I was in half a mind to have a showdown with you then. That you had lent your island to Lacost and his pals was beyond doubt. But I had no proof that you were aware of what they intended to do there, so I gave you the benefit of the doubt about that. Although I knew you were lying, I even had a peaking admiration for the way you put up a very plausible story, to the effect that you had no idea that the Colons to whom you had lent your island had any connection with Lacost.
`You have played it both ways hoping to get your share of the treasure by helping Lacost, and also hoping to hook me so that you could get your claws on my money. Lacost is now down, out and finished; and so are you.'
`Please!' she began to plead desperately. `Please! Seeing all we've been to each other, you can't turn me adrift. Now that Lacost is finished and has lost the treasure, I'm ruined. I mortgaged my house to finance him. I'll be left penniless and starve.'
He shrugged, and his eyes were as hard as agates. `In recognition of the pleasure that you have given me, I might still have forgiven you, and given you enough money to keep you going for a year or two. But for one thing. You have revealed yourself tonight as not just an adventures but true spawn of the Devil, utterly evil and unscrupulous.
`You admitted to the Macumba priest that you had killed a man. I never asked you why, but assumed that you had been in a spot during those troubled times in Algeria, and had been justified in doing so. But the old priest told you that, in due course, you would come into contact with a White Witch and that if you failed to kill her when you had the chance you would lose everything.
`Well The White Witch is here. She has done you no injury, but you intended to give her poison in that wine. Presumably because you believed that if you did not kill her she would, in some way, prevent me from marrying you. But you were acting on false premises. You make an admirable mistress, but that is one thing and taking a wife is quite another. Even before I knew you to be a liar and a cheat I wouldn't have considered it for one moment.'
The tears were now running down Manon's cheeks. After pausing for a moment, he went on harshly, `And now I will answer your question why I was so concerned about the White Witch. It was not only because what the Macumba priest had said to you came back to my mind an hour or so ago and I suspected your truly evil nature. It was because when I broke into her cage tonight, as soon as I saw her face. I recognised her. She is the love of my life. My beloved Erika, whom I had believed to have been long since drowned: