Chapter 8 Two Can Play

VIVIENNE'S MIND MOVED into high gear. Sometimes a principle had to be changed in order to meet the demands of an even higher one; and if people did think it was out of fear that she stayed away... maybe she should go to the ball. If she did, she would have the opportunity of knocking Adrian Blackwood back on his heels again.

'Perhaps I don't care to wear a mask,' she said, careful not to give away her thoughts. Let him wonder, she thought with secret satisfaction. She wasn't about to make anything easy for him.

'Or could it be that you've worn one too long. and you're frightened of what's beneath it?' he taunted.

Sir Gabriel bit down on his tongue. However much he disliked what was going on, he had to let Vivienne handle it by herself. To interfere more might drive her Adrian's way. He sat back and watched in poker-faced silence.

Vivienne laughed, to show Adrian he couldn't goad her into doing what he wanted. But she could not deny the exhilaration of matching wits with him. He was a rogue, but an endlessly tantalising one ... and he challenged her in a way no other man ever had. Why not rise to that challenge and prove him as contemptible as the others who had aspired to use her for their own purposes?

At least he wasn't fortune-hunting. As long as she kept her head-and of course she would-the idea of humbling Adrian Blackwood was more intoxicating than any wine.

'The truth is... I don't live in fear of anything, Adrian,' she said in a bored tone. 'I simply find you insufferable'

The insult amused him. 'You told me that once before. And I didn't believe you then. We danced too well together, Vivienne.'

The memory burned through her mind. He had held her so close, made her feel terribly aware of his body, and her own. But she had been much younger then... inexperienced.

'I'm not as interested in frivolous activities as you are,' she said scornfully.

'Indeed?' His eyes twinkled wickedly. 'Then let me offer you a contest in character. I will unmask you ... see your true identity ...before you can detect mine.'

'It's no contest. I'd know you anywhere.There is no mask you can hide behind.'

His smile was teasingly confident. 'We shall see who is right ... and wrong. I look forward to our next encounter. It should be ... very illuminating.'

He turned to her Father, who had listened to every nuance of the conversation with growing unease, although he did not allow it to show on his face. He suspected that Adrian Blackwood had just played a new card in the poker-game he had been playing for the last two weeks, and Sir Gabriel wasn't sure what it meant. He sensed there was a new dimension to this business. Perhaps he wasn't buying an island at all. Perhaps he was unintentionally selling his daughter. All he knew was that he didn't like it.

The black eyes of his adversary gleamed with satisfaction. 'I won't interrupt your evening any further, Gabriel ... Vivienne. I hope you both enjoy your dinner.'

'Thank you. And you, too,' Sir Gabriel replied with flat politeness, but his mind was furiously working on all the possibilities.

Adrian flashed his smile at them and departed.

Vivienne watched him stroll on to the table where his 'pets' had been seated. A contest with Adrian Blackwood-one that she would win-was very, very tempting. She would show him! And everyone else who thought she couldn't face up to the possibility of being hurt by her father's family.

However, to go to the ball was also a concession to her father's wishes, and she didn't like that. Not one bit. The turnabout from her resolute refusals of any invitation to his home might make him think she was softening. She told herself again that she didn't care what her father thought of her, but she was very conscious of his watching eyes as she flicked her gaze back to him. A most unwelcome flush crept into her cheeks.

And Sir Gabriel Carter knew in that instant how very dangerous his adversary was.

'You intend to come to the ball, Vivienne?' he asked, struggling to hide his disbelief and chagrin that Adrian Blackwood should achieve the breakthrough that he himself had so dearly wanted to make.

'You said you wanted me to come,' she replied with a touch of her old defiance. 'Perhaps one has to start somewhere. This could be the time.'

Sir Gabriel grew even more uneasy, in a way he had never envisaged. The first step taken into his house could be the start of other things ... the ice broken at last... but Adrian Blackwood was such an unpredictable elemen.

He frowned. 'Please don't mistake what I say now, because you will always be welcome, Vivienne ...'

He searched hard for the right words. Vivienne might not need protecting, but the urge to protect was too intense to put aside.

'Adrian Blackwood is the most dangerous man I know,' he said with measured seriousness. 'And I do not say that lightly, Vivienne.' His eyes swept hers in sharp warning. 'He's playing a game. And Adrian doesn't play to any ordinary rules. He always keeps hidden cards up his sleeve until he wishes to reveal them ... and when he does ...' He shook his head. 'If you can beat him, Vivienne, you're a better man than I am.'

The words slipped out, his concern for her blurring his mind and he knew the moment he had spoken them that he had made a terrible mistake. He saw the resolution firming in Vivienne's eyes and cursed himself for underlining the challenge.

'I can play any game, Father. Just like you,' she said with steely pride. 'Even' if I have to invent the rules as I go along.'

She would show them! Both Adrian and her father! For the first time in her life she would step inside her father's house ... and if either man attempted to manipulate her in any way, for any purpose whatsoever, she would demonstrate beyond a shadow of a doubt that she was her own woman! And beholden to no one.