Red Lotus Read Online Free Page A

the bright sunlight. The airport was built on a high stretch of the island and a cool little wind blew down from the surrounding mountains. She found herself in need of her coat, and instantly Don Rafael had laid it across her shoulders.
     
    "It is always cool up here at this time of year," he said, "but soon we will go down again along the coast."
    He was looking beyond her, scanning the small groups of waiting people at the edge of the runway as they walked away from the plane, and once more she saw him frown.
    It was then that she remembered that she might not recognize her uncle from the description her mother had given her of him. Living for most of his life out here, might not Robert Hallam look very much like any other planter on the island?
    "I ought to have warned Uncle Robert to wear a red carnation!" she smiled. "I haven't seen him since I was three years old."
    Don Rafael was still scanning the bronzed faces of the smiling groups ahead. They were nearly all men. Only one woman, dressed in deepest mourning and clutching a small child by the hand, stood out among them, her black draperies etched sharply against the cream linen suits and light-coloured hats of the men.
    "Your uncle does not seem to be waiting." Don Rafael's eyes had gone beyond the waiting groups to the line of cars parked on the gravelled sweep leading from the main Laguna—Santa Cruz road, and the frown between his dark brows had deepened. "It is unusual for anyone on the island to fail to meet a plane," he added.
    Following his concentrated gaze, Felicity was aware of the first stirrings of anxiety. She had been perfectly sure that her uncle would meet her, had, in fact, been looking forward to just this moment for the past three weeks, and she knew that no trivial thing would have delayed him. Besides, the plane was over an hour late. He should have been at the airport an hour ago, or at least lingering in the nearby town.
    Before she could voice her fears, however, a large black car came swiftly along the deserted highway and turned in between the airport gates. She followed its progress eagerly, unaware that the man by her side had stiffened involuntarily at sight of it, the frown black on his face, his lips thinned and cruel-looking as he watched.
    "You are met," he said, "after all. Yonder is the car from San Lozaro, but it is not your uncle who brings it."
    Felicity was conscious of the keenest disappointment which was instantly tinged with anxiety.
     
    "Can something have happened?" she asked breathlessly. "Can my uncle be ill?"
    Don Rafael did not answer her. He stood very stiffly and very silently by her side as the man who had come to take her to San Lozaro got out from behind the steering wheel and came towards them.
    He seemed to have no hesitation about her identity, and it was minutes before Felicity remembered that she had been the only woman passenger on the plane.
    In these minutes she was aware of a man taller even than her travelling companion, a sparse, almost gaunt-looking man with a lean, brown face and firm jaw, whose piercing blue eyes were the colour of the distant sea. He came purposefully across the hot tarmac, striding towards them in a manner that was unmistakably English and as unmistakably assured. His whole attitude suggested that he had little time to spare for meetings or lingering sociably in the sunshine.
    "You are honoured," Don Rafael murmured at her elbow. "But I wonder what has brought the taciturn Mr. Philip Arnold all this way to meet you?"
    Felicity could not reply. Her questioning gaze had met Philip Arnold's, aware now that the blue eyes held nothing but anger and distrust.
    "Miss Stanmore?" His voice was abrupt, almost impatient, as he put the question. "My name is Arnold," he added. "Philip Arnold. I am the agent on your uncle's estate."
    He had not looked in her companion's direction, but Felicity was quite sure that he had recognized Don Rafael and disapproved of him It was even more than ordinary