Page 43 of His Last Gamble

CHAPTER ELEVEN

Charmaine groped behind her for the chair and sank down abruptly. ‘Y-you’ve come back for . . .’ She almost said Payne’s name out loud but stopped herself just in time, remembering that, as far as Lucy was aware, her sister knew nothing about her doomed love affair.

‘The man I love, yes,’ Lucy said, with a defiant lift of her chin. ‘I know I never told you this, sis, but when I came here before, I met someone,’ Lucy said, still with a kind of stiff-necked pride that made Charmaine wonder why she was being so defensive.

Unless, of course, she was ashamed to be admitting that she was actually chasing after a man. Usually men chased Lucy. So Charmaine could imagine that she might be feeling a little humiliated to be confessing to her sister that a man had dumped her, and that she was now the one doing the pursuing.

‘I see,’ she said hollowly. ‘And are you . . . are you absolutely sure that he loves you?’ she asked, trying to find a way to let Lucy down lightly. Because of one thing she was sure — Payne Lacey had not missed her. Not one little bit. And she was in a unique position to know!

‘Oh yes, I’m sure of that,’ Lucy said, then laughed a little uneasily. ‘The thing is, sis, things got a bit . . . messy, I suppose you could say. There were circumstances that made everything so horrible.’

Charmaine bit her lip and glanced away. Horrible wasn’t the word for it.

When Lucy had come back from her holiday to the Bahamas, Charmaine had known at once that something was wrong — dreadfully wrong. Lucy, usually so effervescent and so sure of herself, seemed lacklustre and distracted. Worse, she’d then failed an audition that both Charmaine and their father knew she should have aced, and had proceeded to mope about her flat without any make-up on, barely eating and generally going into a decline. She had insisted she didn’t want to talk about it.

Then Charmaine had begun to hear rumours. Although Lucy had a wide range of friends and Charmaine didn’t run around in their circle, she knew people who did, and soon it was reaching her ears that Lucy had had a wild affair in the Bahamas with a casino-owning playboy who’d dumped her. Hard. To make matters even harder, there had been a certain maliciousness in these rumours, for Lucy, popular with both men and women alike, had always had easy conquests before, and there was a certain amount of self-satisfaction that she’d at last got her comeuppance.

Naturally, Charmaine hadn’t let on to her sister that she knew about Payne Lacey. Nor did she tell Lucy how everyone was pseudo-sympathising with her behind her back. If Lucy didn’t want to talk, there was no point forcing her. But when the need had arisen for an exotic swimwear shoot for Jonniee, so too had Charmaine’s plan. She had been determined to put the smile back on her little sister’s face.

So why did she feel as if she was dying inside?

Well, duh! It didn’t take a genius to figure that out, did it, she told herself grimly, as Lucy began to chatter about all the good times they’d have in the next three days, which was all Charmaine had left on the island.

If Lucy was determined to have something, Lucy always got it. Maybe even Payne Lacey. She was a tenacious human dynamo when she was this emphatic, and what man could resist Lucy in full battle-cry? After all, she had all of an actress’s weapons right at her disposal, not to mention her moral right of a prior claim on him.

It was not as if Charmaine could, or should, compete with her.

At this, Charmaine brought herself up short. Compete with Lucy? Now where had that thought come from? Of course she wouldn’t compete with her sister. Apart from anything else, Lucy had seen him first.

Something about this struck her as childish, and she had to fight an inane desire to giggle.

As Lucy began to talk about taking a boat out to one of the smaller islands, Charmaine tried to force herself to listen. But all she could think about was Payne. How would he react to Lucy’s return? After all, their affair couldn’t have been totally one-sided. He must have had feelings for her. And Lucy wasn’t someone easily forgotten. And even if he had thought the affair was over, and wasn’t best pleased to see an ex-lover appear over the horizon — especially since he seemed to be in hot pursuit of another conquest, namely herself! — how long would it be before Lucy was reminding him of all he had missed?

She knew her sister was a sophisticated and scintillating woman, and must be a fabulous lover. She knew a lot of famous people, and had theatrical stories to tell and a store of gossip that delighted even the most jaded listener. What’s more she could become beautiful, mysterious or tragic at the drop of a hat.

How long before she herself began to fade into insignificance, and Payne regretted his proposal of marriage to her?

She would never wear that lovely ring.

At this wayward thought, she leapt up and began to pace the room. She was so distracted she didn’t notice that her sister had broken off her sightseeing plans and was watching her with growing concern.

Charmaine went to the French windows and looked out restlessly. How stupid could she be? Of course she was never going to wear the ring. She couldn’t do that to Lucy, especially not now she’d arrived to claim Payne back for herself.

Charmaine had to face it: she was never going to marry Payne Lacey.

‘Hey, Planet Earth calling Charmaine Reece. Is anyone out there?’

Charmaine blinked then spun around, forcing herself to laugh lightly. ‘Sorry, did I zone out for a while?’

‘I’ll say. All the way to Jupiter by the look of it. Is something wrong?’ Lucy asked.

‘No of course not,’ Charmaine said, with her best newly learned model’s smile. What could possibly be wrong?

‘You look like hell,’ Lucy said, coming towards her and looping a consoling arm around her shoulders. It was almost more than Charmaine could bear. ‘What is it with this island? It seems to be cursed for both of us. What’s wrong? Is it a man at last?’

Charmaine swallowed hard, avoiding her sister’s kind, sympathetic eyes. ‘No. You know me. No man trouble.’

Lucy nodded, but she didn’t look convinced. ‘Well, as soon as I’ve got my little problem sorted out, we’ll work on yours, OK? Remember, nobody messes with the two musketeers and wins,’ she said, shaking a fist in the air as they used to as children.

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