Compulsion

The sound was so tiny she thought at first she hadn't heard it, then another came and she whirled round, gasping with alarm and fear.

The shape moved warily, coming closer.

'Miss?' The whispered question was a mere breath.

'Come over here.'

Lissa peered through the darkness, not moving.

'You waiting for a boat?' the man asked, still not coming any closer. 'You're in the moonlight over there, you'll be seen. We must start off down the far end. Walk down there slowly.'

Lissa swallowed and began to walk. She heard the Other movements and at last she was in the shadow of the tree-hung cliff at the far end of the beach.

She heard the splash with which the dinghy was launched. 'Hop in,' the man muttered.

Fortune did not like the look of the boat and the man did not like the look of the dog. 'He coming?' he asked with dismay.

'I can't leave him,' Lissa whispered. 'I can't,' He shrugged and sighed. She settled down, the cold rubber of the dinghy against her arm, and the boat shot away from the shoreline.

'What is Mr Ferrier going to do?' she asked the man, peering at him. 'How will he get away?'

He grinned, showing white teeth. 'Luc will manage.'

The casual confidence did not soothe her. She twisted her fingers in her lap, biting her lip.

'What if there's trouble?'

'Trouble is Luc's middle name,' the man replied easily, laughing under his breath. 'And he's been in tighter spots than this-you should have been with him in Rio when he was jumped by two guys with knives. I was ten feet away and before I could get to him Luc had knocked one of them out cold and broken the other guy's wrist.'

'How lovely,' Lissa said with a raging wail. 'That really comforts me!'

He grinned. 'Don't worry. I haven't worried about Luc since he was twelve years old.'

She looked at him in startled surmise. 'You've known him that long?'

'I've known him since he was five,' the man said. 'Taught him to sail myself. Taught him to play poker too.'

'Oh, it was you?' Lissa asked furiously. 'Well, you should be ashamed of yourself! It would have been much better if you'd taught him something else.'

'Oh, oh,' the man murmured under his breath. 'Poor Luc! You're that sort of honey, are you?.'

She didn't answer that. After a pause she asked, 'What's your name?'

'They call me Dandy,' he said, offering a calloused hand which totally engulfed her own. He shook her hand firmly.

'I'm Lissa,' she said, and he nodded, the movement of his head in the darkness just visible.

'I know. Luc told me.'

'Does he tell you everything?'

Dandy considered this for a moment. 'Yeah,' he said, then laughed. 'Well, most things. He has to.'

'Why? Do you have a hold over him?' Lissa wasn't sure if she liked this large man with the deep warm voice who had taught Luc to play poker.

Dandy laughed. 'Sort of. I'm his bodyguard.'

'He needs one,' she said, angry again. 'He needs you now. Why aren't you with him?'

'Luc will tell me if he needs me,' Dandy said casually. 'His antennae work too well for him to make a mistake.'

'I never heard of a stockbroker having a bodyguard,' Lissa said snappily.

'A what?' Dandy stopped rowing and stared.

'Isn't he?'

'A stockbroker?' Dandy threw back his head and roared with amusement. 'Is that what he told you?'

Lissa was stiff and cold. 'I knew he was a liar,' she said with fury. 'I should have known better than to believe a word he told me.'

'You should, you should indeed,' Dandy teased her, grinning. 'Luc didn't get his nickname for nothing. You know what they call Lucifer-the father of all lies?'

Lissa dropped her cold face into her shaking hands.

'What am I doing?' she moaned under her breath. 'What have I done?'

She had told herself not to trust Luc. She had warned herself not to jump out of the frying pan into the fire, but on a crazy impulse she had done just that.

She had run away from the threat of Chris's possession and now she was in the power of a man she barely knew, a man who had lied to her and was as ruthless in pursuit of what he wanted as ever Chris would be.

Dandy was laughing. 'A stockbroker,’ he muttered, slapping his own knee. 'God damn him-a stockbroker! What will he pull next?'

Lissa was sick with shame and self-disgust. She looked back over her shoulder at the fast disappearing coastline. The lights of the hotel blazed like wildfire in the darkness. The moon had gone behind a bank of thin cloud and the ocean was very dark and silent. The cliffs and trees carved heavy shadows on the sky around the lighted hotel.

'Take me back,' she said huskily, and Dandy stopped laughing to look at her in silence.

'Don't be a dumb bunny,' he said, continuing to row.

'Take me back!'

'Even if I was going to, I couldn't,' Dandy added. 'I haven't got the energy. I'll just about make it to the Queen.'

'The Queen?' She moistened dry lips to ask that.

'The yacht,' Dandy explained. 'The Queen of Spades, that's what Luc named her. Daring his luck again. That boy loves to fly in the face of all reason.'

'Boy!' Lissa flung back angrily. 'Boy?'

Dandy chuckled. 'Man, then. Yeah, he's no boy, I guess,'

She settled back in a grim silence and Dandy rowed with slow, effortless strokes. It took so long to reach the yacht that Lissa was half asleep when they finally slipped into the dark shadow of the boat, A voice softly hailed them. A ladder swung from the deck and Dandy hoisted her, his large hands gripping her waist, supporting her as she slipped slightly.

Someone's hand dragged her over the side and she stood there, shivering, the dog under her arm growling with raised hair.

'What's that?' The man who had pulled her aboard stared at Fortune. 'Where did that come from?'

Dandy appeared, puffing. 'She wouldn't leave the little rat,' he grunted.

'Damn!' the man muttered.

Dandy put an arm around Lissa as she swayed., cold and sick. 'Hey, the little lady is dead on her feet.'

Lissa felt his arms round her and then she was swung up against his chest and carried down a narrow gangway.

She closed her eyes and just gave up. Dandy carried her into a cabin and laid her on a bunk. A moment later she woke up with a cry when she felt him stripping off her sweater. Her hands flailed and she yelled, 'Let me alone!'

'Hey, hey,' Dandy grumbled. 'That sweater's wringing wet. Think I'd meddle with one of Luc's possessions? Come on, now, be a good little girl and let Dandy get you undressed and into bed.'

She opened her eyes wide to search his face and see him clearly for the first time. She saw a broad, grizzled man in his fifties with a head which looked as ft if had been carved out of concrete and then weathered by wind and sun. His skin was mahogany, lined and wrinkled, his eyes a light grey. His hair was grey and sparse. His mouth was wide and strong. His ears stuck out at angles from his head. Lissa saw humour, calm self-confidence, kindness in his face.

She relaxed in his hands and Dandy went on taking off her clothes. He might have been a child's nurse. He didn't seem to see her body and he talked reassuringly as he worked.

'You get some sleep now and in the morning we'll be away on the tide. Joe's bringing you some nice hot cocoa-made with tinned milk, I'm afraid, but you won't mind that, will you? That'll help you sleep.'

'I couldn't sleep,' she said drily. 'Not with Luc ashore and in danger.'

'Now just you let us worry over Luc. I told you, the devil looks after his own. Luc will be fine.'

'You don't know,' she cried miserably.

Dandy was folding her like a baby into a warm cocoon of quilt. 'Dandy knows everything,' he told her, grinning down at her. 'All you have to do is remember that and you'll fall asleep like a baby.'

Someone moved behind him and her glance flicked to the newcomer. He grinned at her, winking. 'That's right, miss. Dandy is as close to omniscience as you're likely to meet this side of the pearly gates.'

Dandy offered to cuff him. 'This is Joe,' he told Lissa, removing the mug of cocoa from the young man's hands and handing it to her.