Lovers' Lies
Daphne Clair
The price of deceit…It has been twelve years since they met - Felicia had been only a child - no wonder Joshua Tagget doesn't recognize her. But Felicia remembers him and how he betrayed her stepsister. And now, by making his attraction to Felicia more than clear, Joshua has unwittingly given her the means to pay him back in kind for his deceit… .But Felicia isn't immune to Joshua's charms, and she could find it's herself she's deceiving if she things she can walk away from him with her heart intact… .
Letter to Reader (#u7abddf7d-02ba-5bea-9a83-90e30d4fdcee)Title Page (#u9991a7b6-c9f6-5ef1-bf62-c62effe69a84)CHAPTER ONE (#u98f9b2e2-cc9d-5628-accf-599fa66fe37b)CHAPTER TWO (#u7127f16a-8cb2-5884-bf06-f50510ff0c01)CHAPTER THREE (#u92a21eb5-c4da-55d7-bb65-3b8c9d967af4)CHAPTER FOUR (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER FIVE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SIX (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER SEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER EIGHT (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER NINE (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER TEN (#litres_trial_promo)CHAPTER ELEVEN (#litres_trial_promo)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Dear Reader,
What a pleasure and privilege it is to be part of Harlequin Presents
twenty-fifth birthday celebration. For twenty-one of those years I have been a Harlequin author, and my fiftieth book is due in North America later this year. I hope that Harlequin and I will still be around for a long time yet, giving pleasure to millions of women around the world. Please write and tell me if you enjoy Lovers’ Lies, and ask for a newsletter so you won’t miss my next Harlequin Presents
. Box 18240, Glen Innes, Auckland, New Zealand.
Daphne Clair
Lovers’ Lies
Daphne Clair
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
CHAPTER ONE
BEIJING was the last place Felicia expected to meet Joshua Tagget again.
She had landed in China the night before, jet-lagged and in dire need of sleep following the eighteen-hour journey from New Zealand. After breakfasting in her room and coming down to the hotel lobby to meet her tour guide and the other members of her party, she still felt glassy-eyed and woolly-headed.
When her gaze lit on the well-remembered dark amber eyes under black brows, she was sure she must be hallucinating. The dreams in which Joshua Tagget used to feature had stopped, thank heaven, a few years after the events that had shattered her childhood.
His brows twitched upward in interrogation, and it dawned on her that he was dismayingly real, and also that her instant recognition wasn’t mutual. She was twenty-five years old and any resemblance to the impressionable, romantic thirteen-year-old he had briefly known had long since vanished.
Joshua had been the epitome of her ideal man, the fantasy figure that had woken her first immature stirrings of sexuality, and as unattainable to her as any pop star or film idol. Thank heaven she’d at least had the sense to hide her palpitating interest in him, hugging it to her like a delicious secret until her fragile feelings were cruelly shattered in heartbreak and disillusion.
He had barely altered; perhaps his shoulders were a shade broader, but otherwise he looked as lithe and lean as a panther. A small crease in his cheek emphasised the slight, enquiring lift at one corner of a chiselled mouth, and the tiny fanned lines by his eyes added an attractive maturity to his classic good looks. Even so, he appeared considerably younger than... She calculated rapidly that he must be thirty-seven or thereabouts.
‘Miss Felicia Stevens?’ the guide said, looking round the loose group of two dozen or so.
‘Yes.’ Felicia stepped forward. Now Joshua would surely recognise her. She could still feel his gaze—alert, amused, intrigued. Putting a totally wrong interpretation on her shocked stare.
The guide was a slim Chinese woman with smooth, pretty features and glossy bobbed hair, who invited the tour party to call her Jen or Jenny. She gave Felicia a dazzling smile and handed her a name tag, encased in plastic, and a linen carry-bag identical to those most of the group now held, before consulting her list again. ‘Mr Jo-sua Tagget?’
‘Here.’ Joshua took the plastic label and the bag the woman held out to him, his gaze sliding reluctantly away from Felicia. One of the other women spoke to him, and he bent his head slightly to listen, then threw it back in laughter.
Felicia heard the blood pounding in her head, felt the need to take an extra deep breath. He didn’t know her. Only two feet away from her, he hadn’t recognised her at all. Even her name had rung no bell of memory.
She ought to have been relieved, but her chief emotions was overwhelming anger. It was as if he had wiped all recollection of that hideous summer from his mind. Something she could never do. Never in a million years.
Shaking, she clutched the bag in her hand, her fingers clenching tightly on the limp straps. A middle-aged, dumpy woman standing nearby said in an unmistakably American accent, ‘Are you OK, honey?’
She must look pale. Mustering a smile, Felicia said, ‘Yes, thank you. It’s a bit hot.’
‘Oh, yeah,’ the woman agreed. ‘I hope the bus is air-conditioned.’
Jen was gathering her charges, hurrying them towards the door where a blue and white bus had pulled up a few minutes ago. ‘Miss Stevens?’ She had noticed that Felicia wasn’t moving along with the others. ‘Come,’ she said, flapping a hand with quick, anxious little movements, ‘please?’
Felicia hesitated. She could say she was unwell, that she couldn’t make the trip today after all. Then she’d contact her travel agent, see if she could transfer to another tour...
‘Miss Stevens?’ The guide was looking puzzled. ‘You have forgotten something?’
No, she wanted to say. I’ve forgotten nothing. If only I could... Joshua Tagget seems to have successfully forgotten. He didn’t even blink an eyelid when you said my name.
She’d prepaid in New Zealand for this tour. Three weeks, all expenses included. It had cost her a lot of money and, realistically, she didn’t suppose there’d be any chance of changing the arrangements at this late hour. The tour company wouldn’t look kindly on a request for a refund. ‘No,’ she said. ‘It’s all right.’ She walked forward as if moving through water, and followed the guide outside.
The bus was filling up. Joshua had got himself a window seat. That didn’t surprise Felicia. Nor was she surprised that the best-looking woman in the party, a fresh-faced brunette with long hair waving to her shoulders and green eyes accentuated by thickly applied mascara and eyeliner, sat beside him. Joshua was looking out the window while the woman settled herself, tucking her bag under the seat. Passing them, Felicia wondered if they were together, or if the woman was just hopeful.
A group of young women occupied the rear bench seat, three fit-looking young men nearby eyeing them with covert interest. Middle-aged couples, a family with two children, and a few apparently unattached singles of both sexes made up the rest of the tour party. The small American woman, with a seat to herself, beckoned Felicia. ‘You can sit here if you like. I’m all alone.’
‘Thank you.’ Me too, Felicia thought. It had been that way for years, and usually she didn’t mind. Perhaps it was being in a strange country, among strangers, that caused a sudden wave of melancholy.
‘I’m Maggie,’ the American woman said. ‘Maggie Price. And you’re Felicia. Such a pretty name. It suits you.’
‘Thank you.’ Felicia smiled, brushing back from her cheek an ear-level strand of hair the colour of dark manuka honey.
The door closed smoothly with an airy sigh as the driver pulled out from the hotel and veered around one of dozens of yellow taxis weaving through the bicycles thronging the broad road.
‘I hope we can go shopping here later,’ Maggie remarked as they roared past market stalls set out under spreading shade trees on the pavements.
At a street corner a group of elderly men squatted around a card game. The woman sitting beside Joshua Tagget stood up, put a camera to her eye, and leaned across him to take a picture of them. Her colourful low-necked sunfrock must have allowed him an enjoyable view of a fairly spectacular cleavage.
Cat, Felicia scolded herself. She’d long since given up wishing for a more generous endowment in that department, or for shiny black hair and sea-green eyes, a smaller nose and larger hips.
She didn’t regret having had her over-prominent teeth straightened, even though it had meant two years with a mouthful of metal, and by now she knew that the long legs that had made her gawky and self-consciously taller than her classmates at twelve were an asset rather than a liability. The figure she’d finally developed as a late-blooming teenager was adequate if not sensational, the envy of many of her friends who constantly battled with their weight.
She’d dyed her hair once and it made her look like something out of The Munsters. These days she contented herself with an occasional strawberry rinse to give it extra life in winter. Some people professed to find her emphatically blue eyes beautiful, and she used eye-shadow sparingly to intensify their colour, as well as mascara to darken and lengthen her lashes.
The engine throbbed warningly and Joshua’s seat companion sat down again as they shot off round the corner, the driver blasting his horn with little visible effect on the massed cyclists.
Maggie put a hand to her chest and inhaled sharply as the bus narrowly missed an oblivious rider pulling a cart piled high with woven baskets. But she soon recovered.
‘Oh, look!’ she said, pointing. A teenage girl in a bright red regional costume stood hawking embroidered goods outside a building that combined twentieth-century business architecture with the distinctive curved roof lines of the Orient.
Felicia was grateful for the novelty of the passing scene, and the need to respond to Maggie’s excited comments. She couldn’t push Joshua Tagget entirely out of her mind, but at least he could be relegated to the fringes.
Eventually they drew up outside the looming pink wall of the Forbidden City. Emerging into blinding sun, Felicia put on dark glasses and the wide-brimmed hat she’d been advised to bring. She’d used sunscreen before leaving the hotel, and dropped the tube into her bag. She hoped the brunette now standing alongside Joshua while the guide waited for the rest of the party to alight had done the same. The woman had very fair skin, contrasting with Joshua’s tan. They made a striking couple.
Pain twisted inside Felicia, translating into anger as fierce as it was illogical. She could hardly expect the man to spend the rest of his life mourning the events of twelve years ago. But, she thought bitterly, watching the sunlight catch the surprising russet lights in the darkness of his hair as he bent his head and smiled at the woman beside him, he needn’t look so damned untouched, so impervious.
As if he’d felt the intensity of her gaze, he turned his head in her direction, and she hastily looked away, following the guide through the Tiananmen Gate, opposite the vast, famous square.
In the enormous cobbled courtyards, black-clad gardeners were painstakingly removing weeds and grass in the continuing work of restoration. As the tour party crossed the baking hot stones Felicia mentally clothed the crowds of Chinese sightseers in the sumptuous, graceful fashion of the courtiers and servants who had once lived and worked here.
Leaning on the barrier at the doorway of The Palace of Heavenly Purity to photograph a wonderful dragon screen behind the high throne, she found herself standing next to Joshua Tagget, his arm brushing briefly against hers.
Felicia stepped hastily back, and he turned his head. ‘Sorry,’ he murmured. His eyes lingered on her—not too blatantly, but in the manner of a man appreciating a good-looking woman, and with a hint of interested enquiry.
Felicia managed a tight smile before she walked away, ostensibly to photograph one of the bronze cranes on the terrace, and heard Joshua’s deep voice ask Jen a question about the intricate carved ceiling of the throne room. She felt her hands clench, and with a sense of rising panic wondered how she was going to stand three weeks of his proximity
There was some comfort at least in knowing he had no idea who she was. She would just keep out of his way as much as possible and pretend they had never met. There was no reason to let his presence destroy her enjoyment.
By the time the party had passed through the Gate of Earthly Tranquillity to the Imperial Garden where plants and trees gave an illusion of coolness, they were relieved to take a rest.
The guide pointed out two intertwined old trees. They are called “the love trees”.
Joshua laughed quietly, and Felicia thought with unaccustomed viciousness, Yes, you can laugh at love—it was always a game to you.
But it hadn’t been a game to poor Genevieve. Genevieve had died for it, while Joshua walked away unscathed.
They left the Forbidden City for the Summer Palace and lunch at the Ting Li Guan restaurant. ‘This means in English, the Pavilion for Listening to the Orioles Sing,’ Jen informed them.
‘Oh, isn’t that charming!’ Maggie exclaimed.
‘Lovely,’ Felicia agreed, manoeuvring herself into a chair as far from Joshua Tagget as possible before taking off her hat and sunglasses. She was surprised to find that she was hungry as well as thirsty. Tucking into prawns, rice and something deep-fried that was unfamiliar but delicious, she almost managed to forget the man she’d been carefully avoiding all morning.
The restaurant lay on a lake shore, and after eating they were taken across the water in a canopied boat with a dragon’s head at the bow. Seated at one side of the boat between Maggie and a young couple holding hands, Felicia removed her sunglasses to focus her camera on a series of glittering curved roofs gracing the steep, wooded hillside above the lake. She felt a breeze tug at her hat, and was too late to save it from being whisked off her head.
It didn’t fly straight to the water, but instead skimmed a few yards along the boat, where a tanned, masculine hand stretched out and captured it.
A few people laughed and applauded, and Felicia stood up—just as Joshua did the same, her hat still held in his hand.
He stepped towards her and, her hair whipping about her face, she reached for the hat. ‘Thank you.’
‘My pleasure.’ He was smiling, but with a faint frown between his brows as if he was trying to place her. His gaze dropped momentarily to her name tag. ‘I’d hang onto the headgear if I were you.’
‘Yes,’ she said, and returned to her seat.
Instead of reclaiming his own he followed her, placing a hand on one of the posts supporting the canopy above them as he looked down at her.
Felicia turned her face away, studying the hired canoes and other small ferries dotting the ruffled waters of the lake.
‘I know it’s an old line,’ Joshua said, ‘but do I know you from somewhere?’
Felicia swallowed before turning an indifferent, clear blue gaze on him. ‘You’re right,’ she said coolly, not bothering to lower her voice, then paused. ‘It is an old line.’
She turned again to contemplate the view. Maggie made a small, protesting sound. The male half of the young couple cast Joshua a sympathetic glance, and the girl smothered a giggle.
Felicia couldn’t see the expression on Joshua’s face as he received the very public snub, but after a moment she heard him laugh softly, and then he removed his hand from the post and strolled away.
A few seconds later Maggie said tentatively, ‘He seems quite a nice young man.’
‘I’m sure he is,’ Felicia agreed, lying in her teeth. Joshua Taggett was far from being nice, and she had cause to know it. She withdrew her aching eyes from the view and smiled at the American woman.
‘Do you have someone back home?’ Maggie asked curiously.
Felicia shook her head. ‘No. I’m just not interested.’
‘Oh.’ Maggie looked over at Joshua, standing with his back to them now near the bow. ‘Well, let me tell you, I think you’re picky. If I were ten years younger...maybe make that fifteen...’
Felicia laughed, and saw Joshua quickly turn his head, his eyes homing in on her. He probably thought they were laughing at him. Well, let him think it. She dragged her gaze away.
After peeking at some of the jade and ivory treasures in the buildings near the foreshore, Maggie and most of the older members of the party elected to stroll along the broad winding paths seeking both beauty and shade, while others climbed the steep flights of steps to the Pavilion of Precious Clouds.
The pavilion seemed to have grown from the uneven grey rocks, they were so perfectly blended. Children scrambled happily about among the rocks and the several flights of stairs, watched fondly by their parents. In the gatehouse a small girl in a white frilly dress, white socks and shiny patent leather shoes gazed with awe at two huge ceramic statues with beetling eyebrows and fearsome snarls.
As Felicia stopped beside her the little girl regarded her with as much interest as she had the guardians of the gateway, and said carefully, ‘Hello.’
‘Hello,’ Felicia returned, ‘little princess.’
The child’s parents arrived, panting with exertion. The father picked his daughter up, smoothing her black hair away from her eyes. As Felicia made to turn away the man with signs and smiles urged her to pose with his wife and daughter while he took a picture. Felicia obliged, and then the family posed for her.
She began to make her way down again to the lakeside, only to dodge back into the shadow of the gatehouse as she caught sight of Joshua Tagget ascending the steps.
She hurried back through the gateway and took the nearest flight of steps, arriving in a small square tower. Miraculously, the narrow room was empty. An arched opening down to floor level framed a view across tiled rooftops to the vast plain below. Just beyond the opening a low stone wall hardly impeded the eye. Felicia raised her camera for the obligatory picture.
Moving to just inside the archway, she stooped for a shot of an intriguing orange-tiled roof angle, and as she straightened and turned to the doorway the space was filled by the shadowy figure of a man.
Joshua. Instinctively she stepped backwards, forgetting the open archway. Her feet struck the low barrier and she gasped and threw out a hand towards the wall, her heart plunging in fright.
With a sharp exclamation Joshua lunged forward and grabbed her arm, dragging her towards him so that she came up hard against his chest.
She inhaled the smell of soap and fresh sweat, and her cheek was momentarily pressed against his cotton shirt, warm from the sun and his body.
Then his hands were on both her arms, holding her away from him. And his voice, harsh with shock, demanded, ‘What the hell is the matter with you?’
‘You startled me,’ Felicia said. ‘I...didn’t hear anyone come in.’
His hands dropped. ‘Sorry.’ But his clipped voice told her he thought she was a fool. ‘I wasn’t following you. The message on the boat was loud and clear.’
And he wouldn’t bother pursuing a woman who had made her lack of interest plain. Felicia wondered where the buxom brunette had got to. ‘Thank you,’ she said stiffly. ‘Although I wasn’t really likely to fall. I just got a fright.’
A Chinese family appeared in the doorway and politely hung back.
‘It’s OK, I’m leaving,’ Felicia said, gesturing them to come in as she slipped through the opening.
Joshua pointedly remained standing at the top of the steps as she descended them. She could feel his eyes boring into her back until she made the shelter of the dim, shaded gateway.
Some meals were included in the tour, but Jen recommended several Beijing restaurants for those who wanted to try them. Maggie suggested she and Felicia have a drink in the hotel bar on their return from the Summer Palace and plan their evening.
Others had the same idea. The three young men had joined the party of young women in one corner of the crowded bar, and two middle-aged couples from the tour group called to Maggie and Felicia to join them.
One couple was Australian, the other American, and in the course of the day they had already established a rapport. After enquiring which part of the world she came from, the American man said, ‘There’s another New Zealander on the tour. Joshua—you know him?’
‘We met this morning.’
A waitress came to take their orders. Her English was earnest but limited, and there was much laughter and international sign language.
While Felicia was talking to the Australian couple the American man hailed someone coming in and began pulling up more chairs. It wasn’t until the newcomers sat down that Felicia turned, the smile freezing on her face when she saw who had joined them. Joshua, with the brunette beauty—now wearing loose, cool white trousers and a red figure-hugging top—back at his side.
His mouth turned down at one corner as he acknowledged her presence, his eyes holding a wry amusement. He knew she didn’t want to be anywhere near him, and thought it was funny.
Introductions were made all round, and Felicia smiled nicely at the dark-haired girl whose name was given as Suzette. Perfect for her, Felicia thought, and looked away to watch the waitress fill a tray at the bar.
She drank the mineral water she had ordered, taking no part in the plans for dinner at an outside restaurant. They all seemed happy to stick together, and she decided that if Joshua was going to join them she was bowing out.
Felicia had emptied her glass and was formulating the words to leave when someone ordered another round of drinks, and she found a second glass placed before her.
But when there was a general move to leave she said quietly to Maggie, ‘I’d really rather have a snack and go to bed. I haven’t recovered from the flight. Enjoy your evening.’ At least Maggie wouldn’t lack for company.
The other woman looked disappointed but didn’t argue. ‘Well... see you in the morning, then.’
Unlike Suzette, Felicia hadn’t been to her room to change. Thinking she would freshen up before having a light meal, she made for the elevators.
Two arrived at the same time, and she let the other people who were waiting fill the first, stepping into the second. The doors were already closing after her when a strong male hand made them re-open and Joshua entered.
She thought he almost stepped out again, but changed his mind, allowing the doors to slide to and shut them in.
Startled, Felicia said, ‘Aren’t you going to dinner?’ He turned to lean on the wall beside him as the car started upwards. ‘Not with that crowd.’ After a short pause, he added, ‘I thought you were going with them.’
‘They’re all very nice people.’
His eyebrows twitched. ‘Sure. So why aren’t you with them?’
She could say that she’d been trying to avoid him. But studied rudeness wasn’t natural to her and besides, if she made an issue of this he’d begin to wonder why. ‘My plane was delayed for twelve hours at Auckland,’ she said, ‘and my connection in Hong Kong had to be rescheduled. I need an early night.’
The elevator slid to a halt and the doors opened, but the two people waiting gestured that they wanted to go down, not up.
As the doors closed again Joshua said, ‘I really did wonder if we’d met somewhere. The way you looked at me in the lobby this morning...perhaps I misinterpreted?’
‘You remind me of someone I used to know,’ Felicia prevaricated. “That’s all.
He nodded, his eyes uncomfortably alert and assessing. If he asked who, she was going to have to chance a direct lie. But when he spoke he said mildly, ‘If I’d been trying to pick you up I’d have thought of something slightly more original. Like—if you’re going to eat before this early night you say you need, would you care to join me?’ His mouth curved invitingly, and his inquiring eyes gleamed with humour.
‘That’s original?’ Felicia asked dryly before she could stop herself.
He laughed. ‘At least it’s less hackneyed than “Haven’t we met before?” The Bamboo Grove on the ground floor serves a buffet of mixed western and Chinese food. I thought I’d try it tonight.’
The elevator halted at her floor, and as the doors glided apart he said, ‘So, may I meet you there?’
‘I’m really not very hungry.’ She stepped out into the corridor.
He held the door. ‘If you change your mind I’ll be there at seven-thirty.’
By the time she turned to tell him she wouldn’t be, the doors were closing again.
CHAPTER TWO
FELICIA showered in lukewarm water to cool herself, then dressed in fresh undies and a loose, short-skirted dress. Her excuse of being in more need of sleep than food hadn’t been entirely specious, but by the time she’d unpacked a few things that she hadn’t had time earlier to take from her suitcase, and studied the material provided about the hotel services and the city of Beijing, she was surprised to find herself feeling both wide awake and hungry.
She could order from room service.
Menu in hand, she glanced out the window at the tree-lined street, still full of bicycles and people. An old couple wearing woven peasant hats and comfortable pyjama-like garments exchanged greetings with a group of young women in colourful cotton dresses. Rickshaw cyclists cruised by, their vehicles sporting fringed canopies and cushioned interiors.
She was in an exciting, mysterious, ancient country—and here she was contemplating spending the evening sitting in her hotel room because she was reluctant to face a man who had disappeared from her life when she was no more than a child.
Ridiculous, she said to herself. She’d have a quick meal downstairs and venture forth for a little exploration on her own.
It wasn’t until she was approaching the restaurant that she looked at her watch and saw with surprise that the time was just after seven-thirty.
‘Miss Stevens?’ A smiling waiter greeted her at the door, his dark eyes gleaming.
‘Yes,’ she said hesitantly. Service at the hotel was excellent, but surely the staff couldn’t memorise all the guests’ names?
‘This way.’ He beamed at her and led her round the tall circular buffet topped with its own poroelain-tiled roof, and ushered her to a table for two. Joshua rose from his seat as the waiter pulled out a chair for her.
‘Glad you changed your mind,’ Joshua said.
Felicia had stopped dead. The waiter looked at her expectantly. She cast a glance around, saw the dining room appeared to be full, and reluctantly sank into the seat.
‘I will bring a wine list now,’ the waiter promised in faultless English, and bustled gracefully away as Joshua resumed his seat.
‘I thought I’d better grab a table,’ Joshua explained.
Felicia sat stiffly. ‘You told the waiter you were expecting me?’
‘I tipped him well to watch out for you.’
‘I thought tipping wasn’t acceptable here.’
‘In hotels that deal with western tourists it’s probably not uncommon.’
‘I appreciate your keeping a seat for me,’ she said, ‘but... if you don’t mind I’ll ask for a separate check.’
Joshua regarded her thoughtfully. ‘And if I do mind?’ he enquired. ‘After all, I did invite you to eat with me.’
‘I prefer to pay my own way.’
He shrugged. ‘If you insist. Is it necessary to tell you that I don’t think buying you a meal will entitle me to any privileges?’
‘It isn’t necessary at all,’ Felicia assured him coolly, ‘since you’re not buying it.’
‘Hmm.’ He leaned back in his chair, his eyes speculative as they rested on her. The waiter brought the wine list and Joshua took it and murmured thanks without shifting his gaze from Felicia. ‘I hope you’ll share a bottle of wine with me, all the same,’ he said. ‘My treat. Or do you only drink mineral water?’
She was surprised he’d noticed what she was drinking earlier. She’d thought Suzette had been claiming most of his attention. ‘I drink wine,’ she said, ‘sometimes.’ This afternoon she’d felt slightly dehydrated and cool water was the most sensible thing to drink. But a glass of wine with her meal was a decidedly pleasant prospect. The fact that Joshua’s very presence across the table was causing her skin to prickle with antagonism was beside the point.
‘What would you like? White or red?’
‘White—if that’s OK with you.’
He flashed her a smile. ‘Fine. Medium or dry?’
‘Usually I prefer dry, but I’d like to sample something local.’
‘Good. We have something in common after all. Now, let’s see...’
He drew her into the choosing process, making it a discussion, and they settled on a bottle of Huadong Chardonnay. When the waiter offered a menu both opted for the buffet. ‘Miss Stevens would like a separate check,’ Joshua added without a blink.
The buffet was laden with such a variety that Felicia found herself eating more than she had meant to, supplementing delicious Chinese dishes with a small bowl of fluffy white rice and a crisp salad.
And of course it was impossible not to talk. Joshua asked where she lived, what she did. ‘Auckland,’ she said. ‘I’m a partner in a boutique-style shop specialising in bedroom and bathroom furnishings and accessories.’
She kept her voice crisp and emotionless, with no hint of defensiveness. Some men made suggestive remarks when she told them what her business was about, but Joshua just nodded interestedly and asked questions about her target market, type of stock, and supplier base.
‘I’ve been to a trade fair here,’ he said, ‘hoping to open doors for the agricultural machinery my company makes. We’ve been using a middleman in Hong Kong, but I wanted to see something of the country for myself and follow up a few contacts.’
‘Your company? You own it?’ She tried to keep the surprise from her voice, make it a casual query.
“That’s right.
She schooled her face to indifference and bit her tongue on the questions hovering at its tip—how, since when, where had a young handyman with a lawn-mowing round acquired an international business? She said, “There are special tours for business groups.
‘None of them were quite what I wanted, and this one seems a good introduction to the country. Being an independent traveller can be pretty frustrating when you don’t know the language and have limited time.’
They talked for a while of what they’d seen that day, and swapped random knowledge of Chinese history and culture.
‘I’ve read a couple of books,’ Joshua said, ‘but the more I learn, the more I know there is to learn.’
Felicia smiled, surprising herself. The food and wine must have had a mellowing effect. ‘It’s a huge country, with a long, long history. I started reading about it months ago, but it would take a lifetime to learn it all.’
A flare of warmth and masculine interest in his eyes as he returned the smile told her that he wasn’t unaware of her as a female. From Joshua Tagget she found that faintly shocking, and had to remind herself that not only was she a grown woman now, he had no idea who she was, no memory of the teenage girl he had once known. But it was startling to find her cheeks heating slightly under the veiled curiosity in his gaze, and a disturbing sexual reaction to him tingling along her veins.
They skipped dessert, and Felicia declined coffee, instead asking for her bill.
‘And mine,’ Joshua said. As the waiter went to get them he turned to Felicia. ‘Do you have plans for the rest of the evening?’
‘I... was thinking of walking a bit before I turn in.’
‘I wouldn’t mind walking off that meal. A lone woman shouldn’t wander round on her own at night,’ Joshua said.
‘I believe China is pretty safe, actually.’
‘Maybe, but you’d be even safer with me.’
Something must have quivered in her expression. He queried, ‘You don’t believe that?’
‘You think I should take your word for it?’
He turned up his palms in a gesture of defeat. ‘You want references?’
‘Do you have any on you?’
Joshua grinned. ‘As a matter of fact I have a couple of quite impressive letters of introduction—they came in useful at the trade fair—but I’ve left them in my room.’
The waiter brought the bills and laid them on the table. Felicia signed her name and room number and picked up her bag.
As she stood up, Joshua followed. ‘So,’ he said, ‘do I have to go and fetch my references?’
‘Of course not.’
Felicia was pretty sure that if she went off by herself he would follow her anyway. Discreetly, perhaps at a distance, but—ironically—he was the sort of man who couldn’t knowingly let a woman walk alone down dark streets in a strange city.
The air was warm and heavy. The shops and street stalls had closed up but there were still people sitting on low stools outside their homes, playing cards or chess. Passing under an overhanging tree that cast a deep shadow on the pavement, Felicia stumbled a little on an uneven flagstone and Joshua took her arm to steady her.
‘OK?’ he said.
‘Yes.’ She pulled away slightly and he released his hold. Felicia hoped he hadn’t discerned the small shiver that his brief grip on her arm had evoked.
A black-clad elderly woman approached accompanied by a boy of about twelve years old, already taller than she was. ‘Hello,’ the young boy said. ‘How are you?’ The old woman smiled proudly as Felicia and Joshua returned the greeting. Cooking smells wafted onto the street from a rattling air-conditioning unit set in a nearby wall. The city had a hot, heavy, alien aroma. The weight of centuries and the burden of a teeming population seemed to scent the very air.
They skirted a high corrugated iron fence with silent cranes inside it towering against the fading sky. The pavement was strewn with heaps of dirt and broken bits of wood and plaster.
‘Rebuilding,’ Joshua said, pausing briefly to peer through a peephole in the fence. ‘Whatever it is, it’s going to be big.’ He straightened and came back to her side.
‘I wonder how the others are enjoying their dinner,’ she said, making a random effort at conversation to divert her own attention from her stupid sensitivity to his nearness.
‘Sorry you didn’t join them?’ he asked.
‘No, of course not.’ Her denial was probably too quick, too emphatic. ‘The hotel food is very good—don’t you agree?’
‘Very,’ he assented gravely. Obviously he didn’t think much of her conversational powers. He wasn’t alone in that. Apart from anything else, now that she was sure he had no notion who she was it seemed simplest to keep things that way. She had no desire to discuss the past with Joshua Tagget, and ruin her holiday.
They reached the corner and Joshua said, ‘Round the block?’
‘Yes, OK.’
They walked in silence for a while. Felicia wondered if Joshua was wishing he’d joined the others. Suzette would miss him. ‘I’m not very good company,’ she said, despising herself for making excuses to him. But the silence had become too fraught for her, loaded with old memories and the new, unsettling reactions she was experiencing, too strong to ignore but too contradictory and perilous to make sense of.
‘Why do you say that?’
‘I’m too...tired to make conversation.’
‘If I’d wanted conversation I’d have gone to dinner with the crowd. I’ve had a very pleasant evening.’
They came to another corner and Felicia blindly changed direction, heading—she hoped—towards the hotel. Simple courtesy demanded that she say she had also enjoyed the evening. But for her it had been too emotionally charged.
She quickened her pace, and suddenly the road disappeared into an unlit alleyway. She stopped abruptly, and felt Joshua’s presence at her back, not quite touching her. ‘We’ve taken a wrong turning,’ she said.
‘Maybe.’
‘We’ll have to go back to the main road.’
As she made to retrace their steps, he stopped her with a hand on her arm. ‘But there’s light through there, and another road, see?’
She peered into the dimness, and saw at the end of the alley people passing back and forth, and a road with traffic, bicycles.
‘Never go back,’ Joshua suggested, ‘unless there’s no other way out.’
Felicia shrugged. There was something to be said, she grudgingly supposed, for having a male companion. Sensible women automatically avoided lonely, dark streets. She let him lead her forward.
One side of the alley was lined with dozens of bicycles standing silent and gleaming side by side in the gloom. On the other side were closed back doors.
Then quite quickly the alleyway emerged into a broad street, and she recognised that they were close to the hotel.
When they reentered the lobby a few minutes later it seemed very bright and spacious.
‘A nightcap?’ Joshua suggested. ‘The bar’s still open.’
‘Not for me,’ Felicia decided. ‘Thank you for your company.’ She had to get away from him to sort out the confusion of her feelings.
Joshua ignored the hand she held out. ‘I don’t want to drink alone. I’ll be going up to bed too. Tomorrow it’s the Great Wall, isn’t it? Stamina may be required.’
There weren’t many people about and they had the elevator to themselves. When the doors slid open at Felicia’s floor, Joshua surprised her by taking her shoulders and turning her gently but firmly to face him.
She hardly had time to register the taut, questioning look on his face, the deep light in his tigerish eyes, before he bent his head and pressed a warm, insistent, exploratory kiss against her mouth.
Taken unawares, she felt her lips quiver and part under his before she could stop herself.
Then she was free, and he had raised a hand to hold the door for her. She stepped back, staring at him, and heard him say, ‘Good night, Felicia,’ before the doors closed and she was left blinking at the bright red arrow above her.
‘... the only man-made structure visible from outer space.’
Felicia stood on the Great Wall, only half listening to the rapid-fire statistics Jen was giving the group huddled around her. ‘Two thousand, one hundred and fifty miles long... three hundred thousand workers...’
Hundreds of tourists of various nationalities milled about, climbing the worn steps and squinting at the farther reaches of the wall where a shifting tide of people thinned as it receded into the distance.
A hand on the hard stone parapet, Felicia gazed at the desolate, rock-strewn countryside. She’d read the figure, but none of them had prepared her for the feeling of actually being here—for the sense of the toiling of time, of generations that had lived and died and loved and been forgotten since the building of the wall had begun.
‘And this is only a remnant,’ Joshua’s voice said beside her. ‘Pretty impressive, isn’t it?’
‘Awesome,’ Felicia agreed. She had to force herself to look at him, the sound of his voice bringing back a vivid memory of that brief, unexpected kiss last night.
Not quite meeting his eyes, she gave him a quick smile and moved to merge into the group following Jen along the top of the wall.
She had the feeling that he remained staring after her for a few seconds before he joined them, but by that time she was walking with Maggie, successfully ignoring him.
Suzette unwittingly assisted her to do so for the rest of the day, attaching herself to Joshua’s side and making sure that whatever attention he could spare from sightseeing was directed to her. Felicia ought to have been grateful. Instead she found herself harbouring uncharitable thoughts about both of them—Suzette for her blatant man-chasing, and Joshua because of his air of amused tolerance. Patronising, she labelled it caustically.
It occurred to her that she was being a dog in the manger, and the thought only made her more irritated. Her muddled feelings were a hangover, she had decided last night, gazing into the sleepless darkness of her room, residual emotion from her early adolescence, when she’d thought Joshua was the handsomest, most romantic man on earth.
Face it, she told herself brutally as she changed for dinner back at the hotel after their return from the Great Wall. He was your first crush, your puppy-love, and despite everything that happened, somewhere deep down traces of those feelings are still buried in your subconscious.
That was why she had found his casual kiss last night so disturbing. At thirteen she’d at least had enough sense to know that a grown man like Joshua Tagget wasn’t going to be interested in a barely pubescent girl. She had been happy to abet his love affair with Genevieve—a form of transference, she now supposed.
Had he ever divined her own feelings—that excruciating blend of half-understood, heavily romanticised sexual awakening and blind hero-worship? God, she hoped not! She grew hot at the thought, suddenly reverting to uncomfortable adolescent self-consciousness.
Tonight everyone was dining in the hotel because they were scheduled to attend a performance of acrobatics afterwards in the city. Safety in numbers, Felicia promised herself. She needn’t share a table with Joshua again.
Dead wrong, as it turned out. When she entered the dining room it was to find nearly all her tour companions gathered around two large tables, and Maggie saving her a seat. Which left two at Felicia’s other side empty. Those were the only chairs available when Joshua and Suzette entered together a little later, and Felicia watched with a sense of inevitability as he seated his companion and then took the chair next to hers.
‘Hi,’ he said in her ear.
Felicia half turned her head. ‘Hi,’ she acknowledged, and returned to studying the menu in front of her.
‘Why don’t we order a selection of dishes for the table?’ someone suggested. ‘We can all share, and have a taste of everything.’
After a minimum of discussion the plan was approved, and the menus removed.
The meal became a friendly free-for-all of passing, tasting, dipping and enthusiastic recommendations. Chopsticks were wielded with varying degrees of expertise and success, and as Felicia dexterously transferred a few pork balls from the serving dish to her plate Joshua commented, ‘You’re pretty damn good at that.’ It had taken him several attempts to get a firm grip on one of the sauce-covered morsels.
‘I often eat in Chinese restaurants.’ She turned to Maggie. ‘Would you like some of these?’
‘If you’ll kindly get them for me,’ Maggie replied, waving her own chopsticks. ‘I still haven’t got the hang of these danged things.’
One of the children in the party, sitting on the other side of Maggie, piped up, ‘You’re holding them wrong. See, try like this!’
It was all very relaxed and sometimes hilarious. ‘Group bonding,’ Joshua murmured once, slanting a glance towards Felicia. ‘How about it?’
‘What?’ She had to look at him, finding his eyes darker than usual, questioning her. Curious, perhaps.
‘There was more than one wall out there today,’ he said quietly, his voice covered by a burst of laughter from across the table as someone accidentally dropped a prawn into their drink. ‘And this one’s still intact.’
‘I’m not sure what you mean.’ Felicia looked down at her plate, toying with a grey, semi-transparent slice of sea cucumber and wondering if she really needed to eat it.
‘We’re all going to be together for a while, and a friendly atmosphere can help things along considerably. I thought last night...’
‘What did you think?’ she asked, more sharply than she meant to.
He was looking at her with a baffled expression. ‘Was it the kiss?’ he asked bluntly. ‘Should I apologise?’
It had hardly been anything to make a fuss about, except for its unexpected effect on her. ‘That’s not necessary,’ she said hastily. ‘As kisses go, it scarcely rated, after all.’
A tight grin came and went on his mouth. ‘Is that meant to be an insult?’
‘I don’t go around insulting perfect strangers.’
His brows twitched. ‘Yow! A double whammy.’ He glanced round the table. ‘Look, it was an impulse, a nice way to end the evening, I thought. And...’
‘And?’ She looked up at him in challenge.
‘And... I wanted to know whether you’d reciprocate. It seemed to me I had reason to hope for it. If I offended you, I’m sorry.’
‘I’d forgotten all about it,’ she assured him with spurious earnestness. ‘It was totally unmemorable.’ And she turned away to speak to Maggie.
She could feel him seething beside her, even as his deep voice answered something that Suzette said. Well, OK, she thought defiantly. He’d asked for it, and he’d got it—in spades. That should ensure that he stayed away from her for the rest of the trip. Only she wished she didn’t feel so sick, as if she’d just done something peculiarly horrible.
Within days the tour group had developed a camaraderie that boded well for the rest of their time together. They’d visited temples and gardens, and most of them had ventured to the Chinese department stores and the street markets.
Joshua seemed popular, although when the group was taken to the Friendship Store where foreigners were encouraged to buy souvenirs, he had instead gone off somewhere on his own. Even Suzette didn’t know where.
They were flown to Xian to visit the famous terracotta army and other archaeological sites, and travelled by rail and road to Qingdao on the Yellow Sea, through vast areas of cultivations and scattered pink-walled villages. Water buffalo plodded patiently along dusty raised roads by narrow canals, and in some places it seemed that the countryside had been unchanged for centuries.
Qingdao dispelled that feeling. A sleepy fishing village until only a hundred years ago, it was now a sprawling, traffic-ridden, skyscraping metropolis that Jen called ‘... a small city... only seven million people.’
Coming from a country that boasted a population of three and a half million or so overall, Felicia was unable to suppress a choked little laugh. Turning away to try and hide it, she caught Joshua’s eyes, and an answering grin.
The first morning the group divided into those who wished to visit the Hi-Tech and Industrial Park and those who preferred a tour of specialty shops.
Relieved to find that Joshua had gone with the industrial tour, Felicia spent a relaxed morning with the bulk of the women browsing among a tempting array of embroidered silks, carved jade and cloisonné. It was difficult to limit her buying to a few irresistible pieces.
In the afternoon Maggie and several of the others declared they intended to spend the free time napping. Felicia welcomed the opportunity to take a walk on her own.
Strolling along the seaside promenade, where hundreds of Chinese holidaymakers and Japanese tourists enjoyed the broad beach a few feet below, she stopped to lean on the safety barrier, watching the swimmers and ball-players, and lifting a hand to her eyes to squint along the pier at the double-pagoda of the Rebounding Waves Pavilion.
Someone came to lean alongside her, and she felt the tightening of her skin that invariably told her when Joshua was near.
‘Isn’t this a bit silly?’ he said mildly.
‘What?’ She lowered her hand but didn’t take her eyes from the pavilion with the waves breaking gently around the rock on which it stood.
‘Not speaking,’ he said bluntly.
‘I am speaking to you.’
‘You avoid me at every opportunity.’
‘Actually there aren’t that many opportunities—’
The word fortunately hung in the air between them.
His hand on the rail beside her tightened. Then unexpectedly he laughed. Really laughed, with his head thrown back in genuine enjoyment. Watching him, she felt something clutch at her heart, and bit her lip, not wanting to recognise what had caused it.
The laughter was still in his eyes as he looked at her, shaking his head. ‘You never miss a chance, do you? Why do I keep asking for it?’
‘I’ve no idea.’ Felicia straightened away from the railing and turned to resume her stroll.
‘I don’t believe that.’ He was walking beside her. ‘You strike me as a fairly intelligent woman.’
“Thank you. What does that have to do with anything?
‘Do I seem to you like the sort of man who enjoys hitting his head against a brick wall for the fun of it?’
‘Since you ask...’ Felicia allowed her voice to trail off delicately as she stopped to look at a display of freshwater pearls. Joshua shifted to stand half facing her.
The stall-holder smiled eagerly at Felicia. ‘Hello, hello! Real pearl, very nice.’
‘Very nice,’ she assented, lifting a strand of the small, oddly shaped beads.
Joshua remained at her side. ‘You want me to spell it out?’ he asked.
‘Are you a good speller?’ Felicia asked coolly.
‘Cheap,’ the stall-holder said anxiously as Felicia let the strand of pearls drop from her fingers.
‘Agreed,’ Joshua commented, shooting him a brief glance. To Felicia he said quietly, ‘I find you madly attractive, and I want to spend time with you. Now I’m wide open for the coup de grâce.’
‘Only t’ree hun‘red yuan!’ the stall-holder offered, adding with hardly a pause, ‘Two hun’red seven-five OK?
Felicia said, ‘I’m sorry, I’m not interested.’
‘Two hun’red fifty!
the man offered as she began to move away. She smiled and shook her head.
‘Not interested?’ Joshua repeated softly. ‘You were tempted, though.’
‘Yes. I may change my mind later.’
‘I live in hope.’ There was laughter in his voice.
‘I was talking about the pearls.’
‘I wasn’t, and you know it.’
She looked up, ready to deliver a stinging retort, let him know once and for all that she wanted nothing from him but to be left alone. With any other man it would have been easy. She’d have been polite, firm, unequivocal, trying to leave his ego intact while giving him a clear message that his advances were unwelcome.
But then she met Joshua’s eyes and the words died on her tongue. He looked quite serious now, intense and determined, and she couldn’t look away from the glowing amber depths. Her own eyes dilated, she could feel it.
He halted, moving half in front of her, oblivious of the people walking around them. ‘What is it?’ he asked her. ‘You’re not married, are you? Is there a man back home? Or has someone hurt you, made you afraid to step into the dark again?’
‘None of the above.’ With an effort she pulled herself together, forced herself to detachment. Perhaps she ought to claim a lover, a commitment. But instinct told her it wouldn’t make any difference. ‘I’m deeply flattered, of course, but—’ She shrugged, not quite apologetically.
‘You admitted you were tempted.’
‘The pearls—’
‘The hell with the pearls! You were sparring with me, and enjoying it, Felicia. Just as you enjoyed that kiss the other night.’
‘You don’t suffer from false modesty, do you?’
‘You did reciprocate,’ he reminded her. ‘I wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t fully expected you to.’
Unfair. And arrogant. He had no right to take her response for granted. But she could hardly deny that she had given it. ‘A reflex. I was taken by surprise.’
Someone bumped against her, and Joshua took her arm and steered her away from the centre of the path to the side overlooking the beach. ‘If you hadn’t liked it your reflex would have been to pull away and slap my face.’
‘Next time—’ She stopped as a wicked grin curved his mouth. Fighting a shocking urge to laugh with him, she said, ‘I thought you were telling me earlier that you’re not a masochist.’
‘Maybe I could learn. I’ve always enjoyed new experienoes. A touch of vinegar can be quite refreshing after a diet of honey and sugar.’
‘Suzette seems a nice girl.’
His eyes gleamed. ‘Very.’
Genevieve had been nice—extraordinarily so. Had he found her cloying, become tired of her sweetness?
A shaft of pain and anger made her abruptly turn away, staring unseeingly at the tall buildings rising from the flat promontory at one end of the beach. ‘I thought you were together.’
‘No.’
‘Suzette would like you to be.’
‘Maybe. And maybe she deserves someone nicer than me,’ he said.
‘And I don’t?’ A dry note entered her voice.
‘Probably.’
She turned to regard him curiously. ‘So why should I be interested?’
‘I haven’t any idea, but I’m not imagining the signs.’
‘Signs?’ Her voice was frosty. He was so cocky, so convinced that she was attracted to him, when her feelings were much more complicated and much less complimentary than he had any idea of.
‘I swear,’ he said, ‘that you know when I come into a room—even when you’ve got your back to the door. Your chin goes up and you get a little flush on your cheeks, no matter how carefully you’re not looking at me. It has to mean something.’
It means I hate you. She wanted to shout it at him, right here in public, and walk away. Gripping the sun-heated railing, she looked away from him so that he wouldn’t see that her eyes were hot with rage. He remembered nothing of that long-ago summer. Nothing about her, anyway. He couldn’t, surely, have totally forgotten Genevieve?
‘You watch me all the time when you think I’m not looking,’ he said. ‘The same way I watch you.’ He paused. ‘If you say so I’ll walk away and not bother you again. But if you’re going to do that I wish you’d tell me what it is you’re afraid of.’
‘I’m not afraid!’ Her denial was instant and vehement.
‘Well... that’s a start.’
‘I’m not afraid,’ she reiterated, more to herself than to him.
She could tell him, get it all out in the open, watch his face when she revealed to him who she was. See him realise why she despised him.
Remember Genevieve? she’d say to him. Remember her little stepsister? The one who carried messages between you all summer? Remember me?
CHAPTER THREE
“THEN what is it?
Joshua was saying. ’Do you have some deep, dark secret in your past?
He was smiling; it was a joke. No, she could have said, but you do.
She wondered how many other Genevieves had crossed his path, how many of them he’d loved and left. Now he was bored with women who fell at his feet too easily and was after more challenging game. Trying to avoid contact with him, Felicia had unwittingly piqued his jaded interest.
At least she’d have the petty triumph of turning him down flat. A small revenge for Genevieve.
Even as she opened her mouth to do it, the thought expanded, flowered in all its poisonous beauty.
Why settle for a small revenge? Why not play Joshua Tagget at his own game? String him along for a while and then dump him.
One part of her was appalled, but the idea was seductively simple. Her heartbeat increased, adrenaline fizzing under her skin.
In the extravagance of teenage grief she’d wanted to kill Joshua Tagget. Felicia knew now she was no murderer, but a more subtle vengeance was at hand. Didn’t she owe it to Genevieve to reach out and take it?
‘Felicia?’ Joshua smiled, the same dazzling, irresistible smile she’d seen him direct at Genevieve all those years ago.
Surely she could make a pretence at liking him, at returning his interest, for a couple of weeks. For Genevieve’s sake.
She smiled back at him, slow and mysterious. ‘Of course I have secrets. Don’t you?’
‘None that matter.’
She kept the smile on her lips even as her blood simmered. None that mattered.
He deserved everything she intended to do to him. Everything. ‘No wife tucked away in New Zealand?’ she asked him.
‘No wife, no ties.’
Leading a man on was dangerous, cruel and downright despicable. Usually. But this was different. This was for Genevieve, a belated reparation...
‘What about Suzette?’ she demurred with a twinge of compunction. The other woman had not exactly hidden her penchant for Joshua’s company.
‘I’m certainly not married to Suzette,’ he said dryly. Momentarily he pursed his lips, as though searching for the right words. ‘We found each other the night before the tour began, and had a couple of drinks together. She’s very... friendly, and I try to be polite. I’ve never kissed her in the elevator—or anywhere else.’
‘I see.’ The relief she felt was absurd, and certainly inappropriate. For a moment her resolve wavered. What was she getting into here?
But she could handle it. She knew enough about him and was mature enough not to be misled again by shallow, facile charm and surface good looks. Deliberately, she flashed him a smile, and turned to walk on, tacitly inviting him to accompany her.
They strolled to the end of the promenade, and through a small park to a covered pavilion where they sat for a while enjoying the sea breeze, then retraced their steps back into the city.
Taking a different route to the hotel, they found themselves in the fish market near the old abandoned Catholic church. The smell was overpowering, but there was no doubt about the freshness of the produce. A good deal of it was still alive, including tanks full of hand-sized turtles or dark green frogs, and even a basin piled with soya bean worms.
‘I expect they’re delicious.’ Felicia pulled out her camera and bent over to snap the fat, wriggling things.
‘I’ll buy you some if you like,’ Joshua offered, digging a hand into his pocket.
‘Thanks so much, but I wouldn’t be able to cook them,’ Felicia said regretfully. ‘There are rules about that sort of thing in the hotel. Didn’t you read the list of instructions from the Public Security Bureau?’
‘Yes, I did. All guests should come back to the hotel by 11 p.m.’
‘Be courteous and civilised and keep the room c/ean,’ Felicia quoted, stopping to peer into a tank containing an enormous spotted sea snake. ‘I think it’s charming.’
‘What, that fellow?’ Joshua bent to examine the sluggish, sinuously coiled beast.
‘The rules for guests.’
‘Mmm, I’ve been in a few hotels around the world where I’d have liked someone to remind the guests about being courteous and civilised,’ Joshua agreed. ‘I was particularly taken with the one that says, Hotel guests should live in the designated rooms and beds.’ Straightening, he walked on a little further. ‘What on earth are those?’
‘Crabs,’ Felicia decided as she moved closer to the deep containers. Each crab was tied with something that looked like twists of flax or rough twine, she supposed to stop them crawling away. ‘Poor things.’
‘You could say that about any creature destined for the pot. Do you like prawns?’ Joshua gestured to a basket full of large pink crustaceans.
‘I love them,’ Felicia admitted. ‘You’re more of a white fish man, aren’t you?’
‘How do you know that?’
Her mind went blank, totally. She couldn’t even recall how she knew, but the knowledge went back to the time when everything about him had seemed fascinating to her. She said, ‘I... I remember you tucking into the fish at dinner the other night.’
‘You do?’ He looked surprised, then a smile tugged at his mouth. He thought she’d been watching him that closely.
‘Yes. Oh, look—there’s a shark. A small one.’
‘It might be small, but I wouldn’t care to encounter it in the water. Those are pretty impressive teeth!’
She’d been saved by his own conviction that she was attracted to him, Felicia thought. But she would have to be more careful.
Eventually they found their way back to the hotel, to find most of their party in the bar. Joshua got chairs for Felicia and himself and ordered drinks, casually throwing an arm over the back of her chair as they talked with the Australian couple and some other people. Suzette was at another table where some of the younger contingent had gathered. Felicia saw her direct a searching glance towards Joshua and note the position of his arm before turning away to talk to someone else.
You’re better off without him, believe me, she mentally told the other girl. You don’t know what bad news Joshua Tagget is.
Perhaps she should remind herself of that. At the fish market it had been fun bantering with him, and she’d almost forgotten that she was playing a part. Still, as long as she didn’t lose sight of the main objective, that might not be a bad thing. She’d seem more natural and find the charade less of a strain.
As people began to drift off Joshua said quietly to Felicia, ‘One of the contacts I met at the trade fair lives here. I’m having dinner with him and some other people, and he suggested I might bring a friend. Will you come?’
She would like to meet some Chinese people. And she ought to act eager to accompany him anywhere he wanted her to. ‘Are you sure it will be all right?’
‘Mr Lin was quite insistent that I was welcome to bring someone along. He’s sending a car for me at six. Can you be ready then? I’ll phone him and tell him there’ll be two of us.’
She gave him her room number and he knocked on her door just before six, casting an approving glance over her short-sleeved blue dress. He was wearing a shirt and tie with dark trousers, and had a matching jacket slung over his shoulder.
‘Is it formal?’ she asked, wondering if the dress and the high-heeled sandals were too casual.
‘I figured I’d best be on the safe side. If everyone is wearing suits I’ll put on the jacket. You look fine,’ he added, divining her concern. ‘Cool and elegant.’
Their host arrived, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt worn loose over trousers. Joshua introduced them, and Mr Lin said, ‘My wife is waiting for us at the restaurant. She will like to meet you, Miss Stevens. She is a teacher of English language at the university. She likes very much to practise her English.’
‘Yours is very good,’ she complimented him as he ushered them into his car, seating himself beside the informally dressed chauffeur. ‘Did your wife teach you?’
‘Some I already learn,’ he said. ‘But she...corrects my mistakes. So I get better.’
Mr Lin was a district inspector of agriculture, she learned. At the restaurant they were greeted by his wife, a pretty, round-faced woman, and introduced to three other men—two district officials and the manager of a peanut-packing plant.
The meal was served in a private room, and Felicia lost count of the dishes that were placed one after the other in the centre of the table. Mr Lin’s wife occasionally dropped a special morsel onto Felicia’s plate. Joshua slanted her an understanding grin as she concealed a fried insect of some kind beneath a little heap of leftover rice, unable to overcome her cultural bias even in the cause of good manners.
Their host got up to switch on the video player in one corner of the room, and the screen soon showed a man and woman wandering along a beach hand in hand, while Chinese words danced across the lower part of the picture.
‘Do you like Karaoke?’ their hostess asked Felicia as her husband picked up a microphone and began to sing in a tuneful baritone, soon joined by his wife’s pretty soprano.
Hosts and guests took turns between courses to sing along to the video music. The factory manager performed a graceful regional dance, and before the end of the evening Joshua and Felicia were persuaded to perform, choosing a couple of pop songs and the New Zealand classics ‘Pokarekare Ana’ and ‘Now is the Hour’.
The chauffeur dropped them back at the hotel before ten-thirty, and as the car drove away Joshua said, ‘I don’t know about you, but I need to shake that meal down. How about a walk?’
Gratefully, Felicia agreed. She was not only overfull, she also felt slightly muzzy from the pale local beer that had been liberally dispensed. Joshua had stood up well to the number of toasts that had been drunk, even though he had been expected to down an entire glass at each one, and there had been some hilarity and teasing among the men that easily breached the barrier of language.
People sat in lighted doorways playing card games or preparing food for the next day. On the corner a melon seller slept on a cot behind his piled wares, protected by a canvas awning.
‘I hope you enjoyed your evening,’ Joshua said.
‘Very much.’ Being with other people had made it easier, dissipating a little her consciousness of him sitting next to her. ‘I liked Mrs Lin. She sings beautifully too.’
Joshua gave a small laugh. ‘We didn’t do too badly, ourselves, for an impromptu performance.’
‘You carried me along. Experience counts.’
‘Experience?’
She’d spoken without thinking again. She wasn’t very good at this. ‘Someone said you used to be in a pop group. Isn’t it true?’
‘In my misspent youth I played guitar in a band and did a bit of singing. The group only lasted for about a year before we broke up. We all had other interests to pursue.’ He looked at her curiously. ‘I don’t recall mentioning it to anyone on the tour.’
‘Not to Suzette?’ Surely the woman had fished for some information about his past.
‘Definitely not to Suzette. Who told you?’
Felicia shrugged. ‘I can’t remember. Did you make any recordings?’ As if she didn’t know.
‘Only one. The uncle of one of the boys in the group arranged for us to record a few of our songs. The tape had a few airings on radio and then died.’
Genevieve had bought it though, and played it all summer, and she and Felicia had sung along to it. Felicia still knew all the words by heart. ‘You weren’t really famous?’ she asked innocently.
Joshua shook his head and grinned. ‘Yellow Fever was hardly a cultural icon.’
Felicia laughed. ‘With a name like that, I’m not surprised.’
Joshua grinned. ‘It’s no worse than Pink Floyd. We thought it was pretty damn good, let me tell you.’
‘You can tell me all you like. I don’t have to believe you.’
‘You think I’d lie to you?’
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