The Flesh of The Orchid by James Hadley Chase Read Free Book Online

filled him with pity and wonder. Seeing her like that, he lost his sense of embarrassment; it was like looking at a work of art and not at a living woman.
    He did not hear Roy come in, nor was he aware that Roy, too, was staring with intent, hard eyes at the half-naked girl as she lay on the bed.
    Steve lifted the girl to slip on the pyjama coat.
    “Not so fast,” Roy said. “I want to look some more. What a stack-up! Why, damn it, she’s even better than I thought.”
    Steve laid the girl down quickly, turned.
    “Get out!” he said furiously.
    “Hey, take it easy,” Roy said, grinning, his eyes still on the girl. “Why should you have all the fun? I’ll give you a hand. This is right up my alley.”
    Steve advanced on his brother, his eyes furious.
    “Get out,” he said, “and keep out.”
    Roy hesitated, then shrugged.
    “O.K.,” he said, and laughed. “You can have her until she’s well, then I’ll take over. I’ve got a way with women. She won’t claw my eyes out. I know how to tame a wild-cat like her. You watch and see, and don’t think you’ll stop me, you big hick. I’m going to have a lot of fun with this beauty,” and still smiling he slouched down the passage and out on to the verandah.
     

CHAPTER II
     
    A WEEK passed.
    It was a bewildering week for Steve, kept hard at work running the farm, cooking the meals and nursing Carol. Roy made no effort to help him, and spent most of his time sitting on a high crag overlooking the mountain road and staring with fixed intensity into the empty valley.
    Steve guessed that something or someone was terrifying his brother, and decided that Roy’s fear and jumpy nerves were partly responsible for his vicious mood. This conclusion seemed right, for after the third day of nothing happening Roy became less nervy and hostile and finally ceased to watch the road. By the end of the week he was almost friendly—at least, as friendly as his sneering, selfish nature would permit. But he was still determined that Steve shouldn’t leave Blue Mountain Summit while he was there, and Steve was forced to accept the situation.
    Now that Carol had Steve’s room, the two brothers shared the only other bedroom, and Steve had further proof of his brother’s nervousness. Roy scarcely slept, tossing and turning through the night; and when he did doze off it was only to start up at the slightest sound.
    Carol, however, was making rapid progress. She had been very ill for the first two days of her stay at the cabin, and Steve had to be constantly with her. But once the fever had left her, the wound began to heal, and she quickly gained strength.
    But her mind remained a blank after the accident. She had no recollection of anything that had happened nor of Glenview nor who she was. She had complete and child-like faith in Steve, and as the days passed, the accepted conventions between man and woman swept aside by her helplessness, there grew up between them an odd and intimate relationship that bewildered Steve and awakened in Carol a deep feeling of affection for him which quickly turned to love.
    Steve had always been shy with women. When Carol was ill and helpless he regarded her the way he would have regarded a sister (if he had had a sister), and attended to her needs impersonally and with no feeling except that of embarrassment. But when she was convalescing and showed so obviously that she was in love with him he did not know how to cope with the situation.
    As soon as Carol was able to get up, she trailed rather helplessly after him wherever he went, and she was never happy unless she was with him. He was the pivot around which her life now revolved.
    Not knowing of her mental history, Steve assumed that the head injury she had received had not only obliterated her memory but had, in some inexplicable way, broken down her adult reserve, giving her the mentality of a child. It would be out of the question, he argued to himself, to respond to her love for him or to