Garland Holt stood in the middle of the room frowning.
“Have you any suggestions?” he asked Felix
“Not exactly at the moment,” Felix said. “I have been talking to your mother about it, you know how kind and sweet she is, and what she suggests is that Karina should stay here for a little while until I have had time to look round on her behalf.”
“I can’t! You can see – I can’t!” Karina interrupted. “Not after what Lady Carol said and – and – ”
“And what?” Garland Holt said unexpectedly.
“I-I want to be independent,” Karina said. “I want to stand on my own feet. Cannot you understand? I have always had people making me do the things they wanted me to do. Just for once I want to be on my own and be my own Master.”
“It’s quite ridiculous!” Felix exclaimed. “Absurd, when Lady Holt has been so kind. I cannot think how you can be so ungrateful.”
“I don’t think it is ridiculous at all,” Garland Holt snapped at him. “Karina doesn’t want to feel herself beholden to anyone.”
“Well, perhaps you can think of something for her to do,” Felix said with what Karina felt was a superior smile on his lips.
There was a moment’s pause and then Garland said,
“Yes, I can. I will speak to Miss Weston. Karina can go with her. There is plenty to do in the office and, although Karina will be independent, she will at least not be able to get herself into trouble if Miss Weston is about.”
“Well, that certainly is a suggestion,” Felix said slowly.
He rubbed his hands together and there was a grin of satisfaction in his eye that was unmistakable.
Quite suddenly Karina had the uncomfortable feeling that he had been scheming for this all along. The whole conversation had led up to this moment. He had deliberately been difficult and uncooperative and she even doubted if Lady Holt had actually given the invitation for her to stay on.
Because her instinct told her that this was true, Karina wanted to refuse, to say ‘no’ that she would not work with Miss Weston and that she would find something on her own even if it did mean working in a shop or turning a screw in a factory.
But it was too late, Felix had already accepted Garland Holt’s offer.
“It would be extremely kind of you, Garland,” he said in his most ingratiating voice. “It really would take a great weight off my mind. After all Karina is not an ordinary sort of girl. She has lived a sheltered life and she looks so ridiculously young. I would not have an easy night’s sleep if I was not certain that she had a decent job with decent people.”
“No one could accuse Miss Weston of being anything but decent,” Garland Holt replied with a faint smile.
“No, indeed,” Felix agreed. “And, if you ask me, I think Karina is extremely lucky to have the chance of working under her.”
He turned to Karina, who was lying very still on the bed, saying nothing.
“Thank Garland, my child. He has done you a very good turn.”
Karina parted her lips, but no sound would come.
She did not know why, but she felt that this was wrong. Felix was manoeuvring something. She could almost feel him doing it. She and Garland Holt were being fitted like pieces of a jigsaw of which only he knew the pattern.
“I don’t want any thanks,” Garland Holt said briskly. “If you will take Karina to London tomorrow, I will arrange everything with Miss Weston. And Karina can come to the office on Wednesday morning.”
He walked out of the room as he finished speaking, shutting the door behind him with a sharp click.
Felix rubbed his hands together again.
“Now you really have had a lucky break,” he exclaimed. “You realise who Miss Weston is, don’t you?”
Karina said nothing and he continued,
“She is Garland’s private confidential secretary, the woman who knows every one of his movements, everything he does. She has been with him for eight years, ever since he started to become a financial force. Everyone knows Miss Weston, she is quite a legend in the City. Some people say that she is the Svengali behind Garland and that he would never have got anywhere without her.”
He laughed.
“I expect that is untrue but, anyway, as you are going to be with her, you will know all the big secrets that half the financial world would give their eyes and ears to know.”
There was a note of triumph and excitement in Felix’s voice and at last Karina was able to speak.
“Is this the job you meant me to get all along?” she asked.
“My goodness, no,” Felix replied. “I did not expect the whole works in one. But I don’t mind telling you that I planned that Garland should take you into the office. Why not? Working for him will be far more interesting and far more lucrative than doing anything else. But to be with Miss Weston, well, that solves a great many problems with one stroke of the pen.”
Karina was not satisfied, but somehow she could not find words to express her feelings. Why had Cousin Felix wanted this so passionately, she wondered. Why did she feel embarrassed and even a little ashamed that he had schemed so cleverly and achieved what he wanted?
She did not know the answer to this either. She only knew that she resented being made a pawn on Cousin Felix’s chessboard.
And yet, she chided herself, she was being ungrateful after all he had done for her.
With an effort she managed to force the words of thanks to her lips.
“You have been very kind, Cousin Felix. I must thank you.”
“I have been clever, haven’t I?” he asked with a self-satisfied grin. “I have taken you away from an intolerable situation at home. I have found you a better job than any girl in your position could have imagined possible. Where do we go from here?”
“What do you mean?” Karina asked.
“Ah, that is something I shall not tell you,” he replied. “I have other plans, deep laid schemes, which will affect many things, but I am not going to tell you about them, not yet. In the meantime keep on being grateful to me.”
He patted her on her shoulder and went from the room, highly pleased with himself. Alone, Karina slid off the bed and walked across to the window.
Outside the February afternoon was dark and blustery. She felt somehow that it reflected her own feelings.
‘I should be feeling glad,’ she told herself, ‘glad that I can get away from here and glad that I have found a job.’
But somehow the only thing that she could remember at that moment was that Felix had said that she was to go on being thankful to him.
She had a feeling that one day he would ask her to repay the debt she owed him – to pay and to keep on paying!
CHAPTER SIX
Karina had never realised before that London could be so big and overcrowded.
She had come up from the country only once or twice a year with Aunt Margaret, either to buy clothes or to see a specialist or for some other sensible reason unconnected with either entertainment or work.
Then they had flashed through the streets in taxis, stayed at a quiet family hotel and had really very little contact with the overcrowded streets, the packed tube trains or the long queues waiting for buses.
She felt quite bruised and battered by the time she had fought her way on to a bus, travelled by tube and at last arrived at Garland Holt’s office.
It was true that Felix had suggested sending her by car.
“I don’t get up so early in the morning myself,” he said with a smile. “But my valet will take you. He often drives the car for me.”
Karina had refused.
“I must begin as I mean to go on,” she said.
“You have certainly made a good beginning getting into Garland’s office at all,” Felix replied.
They were sitting in his flat having tea, having just arrived up from the country and Felix was telephoning and trying to find her a room for the night in what he called ‘a nice respectable hotel’.
“Tomorro
w I will begin to look for a room,” Karina suggested.
“You won’t have time,” Felix replied. “Carter will find one for you. He is a genius at that sort of thing. He always knows where to put his hand on exactly what one requires, whatever it may be.”
The door opened and he raised his voice.
“I was talking about you, Carter. Do you think that you could find Miss Burke lodgings that she can afford and that are neither dirty nor unsuitable for a young girl on her own?”
Carter put the sandwiches that he had just cut on the table.
“I’ll have a word with my wife, sir. We might be able to accommodate Miss Burke ourselves now that my son has gone out to Canada.”
“The very thing, Carter!” Felix exclaimed. “Karina, I believe that you have the luck of the devil or should I say the luck of the pink elephant that Garland has lost. You will be very happy with Mrs. Carter and she is a wonderful cook. That is why Carter always looks so well and so young.”
“I shall have to ask the wife, sir,” Carter said, his expression remaining quite unchanged by Felix’s flattery.
“Well, go and telephone her now,” Felix said. “I wish I had asked you before instead of wasting my time telephoning these tiresome hotels. They all of them seem to be full up with commercial travellers.”
“They would be at this time of the year, sir,” Carter answered and moved from the room with the quiet unhurried gait of a well-trained servant.
“He is a treasure,” Felix said to Karina. “He has been with me now for seven years and I don’t know what I should do without him. His wife comes and cooks when I have a dinner party. Otherwise I am seldom in for meals and Carter does everything that is necessary in the flat with the help of a woman who comes in the morning.”
“It’s the most beautiful flat I have ever seen,” Karina said, looking round her.
She was not flattering her cousin but speaking the truth. She thought that Garland Holt’s house was fabulous, but there was only one word to describe Felix’s home and that was – perfect.
Untrained though she was, Karina could recognise good taste when she found it and everything in Felix’s flat was a glowing example of impeccable taste allied with plenty of money.
Every picture seemed to be worthy of the National Gallery. Every piece of furniture might have graced a museum. But there was nothing ostentatious or vulgar about it. It was just the perfect settings for a man of culture and intelligence.
“I am glad you like it,” Felix said. “I pride myself on being able to spot a bargain better than most people. That is why most of the things you see around you have been picked up for what the connoisseurs would call a mere song.”
“How clever you are,” Karina exclaimed.
He rose from his chair and came and sat beside her on the sofa.
“You are very sweet, Karina,” he said.
She repressed an impulse to edge away from him as he put out his hand and touched her hair.
“I wanted to see how you looked in my flat. I think it becomes you admirably.”
“Do you think it would be a good idea for me to go and meet Mrs. Carter?” Karina said quickly. “If she cannot let me have the room, I shall have nowhere to sleep tonight.”
“I will find you somewhere,” Felix said reassuringly. “It’s a pity you cannot stay here.”
“Yes, isn’t it?” Karina answered.
She wished that Felix would not put his face so near to hers. She also found herself disliking the way that he was smoothing her hair with his fingers.
“You are pretty, very pretty,” Felix said in that soft voice, which made her somehow afraid. “You will not forget to be grateful to me for all this, will you, my dear?”
“I am grateful, you know I am,” Karina said. “And one day I hope to repay you.”
“And what will you give me?” Felix asked in an amused voice. “A half of your kingdom? Or shall it be your hand in marriage?”
Karina moved away from him and, with a lithe movement of her body, managed to rise to her feet.
“I want to look round,” she said. “I want to look at your pictures and that lovely china over there.”
“I think you are running away from me,” Felix accused. “One day, Karina, you will have to stop running and face up to things.”
“But that day has not come yet,” Karina retorted.
“No, not yet,” he replied with a smile on his lips. “But when it does – ”
She found herself standing waiting for him to complete his sentence. But what he was about to say was never completed because Carter came into the room.
“I have spoken to my wife, sir.”
“Yes, Carter, and what does she say?”
“She says that she will be delighted to have the young lady.”
“That is splendid, Carter,” Felix exclaimed.
“Perhaps, if I might make a suggestion, sir, I will take Miss Burke round myself. I shall then be able to carry her suitcase up to her bedroom.”
“Yes, of course,” Felix agreed. “It will not take you long and then you can bring her back and I will take Miss Burke out to dinner.”
Karina parted her lips to say that perhaps it would be better for her to stay in tonight and then changed her mind. Cousin Felix had been kind, so kind to her that it would be gross ingratitude not to do what he wished.
At the same time she wished she did not feel so unsure of herself when she was with him. He had the effect of making her feel embarrassed, afraid and also gauche and stupid.
She wished that she was sophisticated and experienced like the girls who had been staying with Lady Holt, who had laughed at Felix and teased him.
But where she was concerned every word he uttered seemed to be fraught with some hidden meaning.
And now, as she stepped out of the tube station onto a wet and rainy pavement, she thought how very different her life was going to be from Felix’s or from the girls’ with whom he seemed on such easy equal terms.
She was going to work and she promised herself that she was going to make a success of it.
She put up her umbrella and hurried down the street. She stopped a Policeman and he told her that the block of offices she was seeking was down the second turning on the left.
She hurried on again.
‘It was fun last night,’ she thought as she went. She had enjoyed it because it was all so strange and exciting to be dining in a restaurant, to be dancing to a band rather than just hearing the tunes played on the wireless or on the old gramophone she had in her room at Letchfield Park.
But what she had not liked was being clasped so tightly in Cousin Felix’s arms.
“We are going to have fun together,” he told her. “Lots of fun. I will show you London. I will show you plenty of other things too. It’s rather exciting to have such an innocent inexperienced little cousin.”
“I must not stay up late at night if I am working early in the morning,” Karina said.
“We shall have to make Garland forgive you if you are late,” Felix replied jokingly.
Karina shook her head.
“I think Mr. Holt is the sort of person who would always put business in front of pleasure,” she said. “I don’t think he would understand anyone doing anything else.”
“You judge him very shrewdly,” Felix smiled. “What did he say to you when he carried you upstairs the other afternoon?”
“Nothing,” Karina answered quickly. “It was stupid of me to make a scene. I should have taken no notice.”
“I have never known Garland so attentive,” Felix said. “So long as he doesn’t think that you are running after him, he will be interested in you. It is well known that, as soon as a woman looks at him with love in her eyes, he runs away from her.”
“I am not thinking of looking at him with love in my eyes,” Karina said stiffly.
“No, of course you are not,” Felix agreed. “And if he does question you about what you are doing in London, tell him you
are enjoying yourself with me, tell him that we are going everywhere together, because it’s true, isn’t it?”
He put his hands over hers and there was something possessive about him that made Karina pick up her wrap and put it round her shoulders.
“I think we ought to go home,” she said. “I have to be up early in the morning.”
She was half-afraid that Felix might try to kiss her when they were driving back, but he made no attempt to touch her.
Only when they reached the house where Mr. and Mrs. Carter lived in a narrow street near Paddington Station, did he say,
“Don’t forget, Karina. Tell Garland that you are my girl.”
“He is not likely to ask me,” Karina replied quickly. “And, anyway, it isn’t true, Cousin Felix. I don’t belong to anyone.”
She jumped out of the car before he could reply and by the time he had climbed out on his side she had already taken her latchkey out of her bag and was fitting it into the lock.
“Thank you so much for taking me out,” she said. “Good night, Cousin Felix.”
The door was open and she was slipping through it as he took hold of her hand.
“Good night, my most elusive and adorable little cousin.”
He bent his head and kissed her fingers and then, turning her hand over, kissed the palm. She felt as if his lips burned against her skin and then the door was shut behind her and she was running upstairs as quickly as she could.
In her small but spotlessly clean bedroom she closed the door and locked it, conscious that her breath was coming quickly and her heart pounding with fear.
‘Why does he have this effect on me?’ she asked herself fervently.
*
She asked it again now as she turned down the street that the Policeman had directed her to. The offices were in a new block and, after staring at the names in the hall, she found Garland Holt’s written against the eighth floor.
The Runaway Heart Page 9