White Heat Read Free

an idea your journey is linked with that of Mrs. Makepiece?’
    ‘Yes, she’s my employer. I’m going to Australia with her.’
    ‘And after that?’
    ‘I don’t know.’
    ‘It all depends whether you like Australia?’
    ‘Yes.’
    He leaned on the rail and the brisk breeze slid like silk over his hair. With the sunlight full upon it it was a strange mixture of blackness and brightness ... as if the sun had burnished it in parts, but at the roots it was still very dark. He offered a cigarette.
    ‘No, thank you,’ she said.
    ‘You don’t smoke?’
    ‘Sometimes.’
    ‘But it’s not a habit with you?’
    ‘I dislike habits,’ she replied.
    This time, in addition to his eyebrows lifting, he looked amused.
    ‘A controlled young woman, is that it? If you don’t mind my saying so, you have the appearance of being rather well organized. You’re very neat and trim,’ his eyes roving over her, ‘and there’s a kind of detachment in the way you talk. Don’t you ever get excited about anything? With your hair you should.’
    Without quite realizing what she was doing she looked upwards at his own hair.
    ‘Do you?’ she asked, with a kind of pointed sweetness.
    Kent Willoughby laughed.
    ‘Ah, but you’re auburn,’ he said, ‘and I’m only auburn in parts. I’m a little like the curate’s egg, really, because parts of me are good and parts bad. Very bad!’ His white teeth g leamed at her mockingly. ‘But to get back to the subject of my hair ... I’ve lived in very hot climates for most of my life, and I’m afraid my natural colour has surrendered to the caress of the sun. You, quite obviously, were born a redhead ... or perhaps you don’t like being described as a “redhead”?’
    ‘I don’t mind,’ with stiffness.
    ‘There you go again!’ His eyes flickered over her with contempt. ‘You deal in evasions, but I suppose it’s as good an armour as any.’
    ‘I don’t think I quite understand what you mean.’ She spoke slowly, with widening eyes, and her whole slim body grew stiff. ‘I don’t think I’ve ever found it necessary to put on armour.’
    ‘No?’ But the whiplash of contempt was in his voice. ‘That’s what you think ... or you don’t think, according to how well you know yourself. With my manservant you could unbend and be friendly, full of girlish charm and unconscious wiles, but with me you put on an act. It wouldn’t be worth it in the case of my manservant, but with me ... ’ He broke off. He tossed his cigarette over the rail into the sea, and the bright tip of it was remorselessly extinguished by the heaving water. ‘And no doubt, although you work for her, and she probably pays you an excellent salary, you, like Rolands, hold Mrs. Makepiece in contempt because the one thing she never does is put on an act, and she’s exactly what she seems to be all the time ... all her wares in the shop-window, and no mistake about it! You probably think she’s vulgar, and would tell her so if you dared!’
    ‘Well!’ Karin exclaimed. She straightened her slim back against the rain, and looked at him with angry eyes. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about, Mr.—’ she even forgot his name for a moment — ‘Mr. Willoughby ! ’
    ‘Don’t you?’ He could not have regarded her with more hostility if she had suddenly developed the outward shape of an adder, and he was anxious to remove it from his path. ‘Well, it doesn’t matter ... it doesn’t matter in the slightest! Only I might as well let you know that my opinion of your employer is far higher than it’s ever likely to be of you, or any other brash young female of your age, and the less I see of you the better during this trip ...’
    He had actually started to move away from the rail, but she called after him in a furious voice:
    ‘And the less I see of you, Mr. Willoughby, the happier I’ll be!’
    That night, while she was helping Mrs. Makepiece into her too-tight evening gown, and zipping it up the