‘Oh, please!’ Joanna flushed to the roots of her hair. ‘Not even to be mentioned in this company. I’m nothing but a student.’
‘My dear, we’re all students to begin with,’ Anthea assured her kindly.; ‘And a very happy time of one’s career it can be, too.; I loved my student days — except when Oscar was being mean to me!’
‘I was never mean to you,’ said her husband imperturbably.; ‘Only healthily strict. Which is why you are such a great artist today. So you’re a singing student, Miss Joanna?’ Joanna was both pleased and frightened to have his attention on her again. ‘What do you sing?’
‘I’m a lyric soprano,’ said Joanna timidly.
‘Yes?’ The great man’s tone was not discouraging.
‘I — I hope to sing in opera one day. But I haven’t got further than a little touring experience and our end-of-term productions at St. Cecilia’s.’
‘Let me see — they’re doing “L’Amore dei Tre Re” this term, aren’t they?’
‘Yes.’ Joanna nodded, somewhat awed that the small doings of her college should actually find a place in Oscar Warrender’s famous memory.
‘And what part are you taking?’
‘Fi-Fiora. In the second cast, though,’ she amplified hastily, which seemed to amuse him for some reason.
‘Well, you will be following in some distinguished footsteps,’ he said, not unkindly. ‘And that reminds me - ’ he turned once more to Elliot — ‘we’re going down to visit your uncle, the week-end after next. Shall you be there?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Elliot sounded regretful, ‘I doubt if I could get away so early in the run. Unless, of course, it’s a flop and closes within a week.’
‘None of us would want that, even for the pleasure of your company at the Manor,’ Anthea declared with a mock shudder.
‘Anyway, it’s not going to be a flop,’ Joanna asserted positively.: ‘It’s going to be a great success.’
‘There you are, Elliot. The public has spoken,’ said Warrender amusedly. ‘Good luck.’ And he and Anthea went over to their table, while Joanna propped her chin on her hands, gazed happily at Elliot Cheam and said,
‘I’d no idea he was like that!’
‘Like what?’
‘Well, approachable and kind. I always heard he was so difficult and an absolute tyrant.’
‘He’s mellowed a bit with the years, I suppose,’ Elliot said consideringly. ‘That’s her doing. She’s one of the nicest women on God’s earth, and Warrender adores her in his way. But that doesn’t prevent his being a tyrant still in the opera house, to her or anyone else.’
‘Do they know your uncle very well?’ Joanna asked with interest.
‘Yes. Why?’ Suddenly his tone was guarded, she noticed, and the realization chilled and embarrassed her.
‘I’m not planning to go down there during their visit, if that’s what you’re thinking,’ she told him sharply. ‘Why do you have to be unpleasant and suspicious every time I presume to mention your uncle?’
‘I wasn’t being unpleasant and suspicious.’ He sounded slightly on the defensive. ‘The idea just crossed my mind that — ’
‘Well, it can cross back again,’ she told him tartly. ‘Whatever you may want to think, I’m not the sort of girl —
‘I know, I know. I’m sorry.: Take no notice of me. I’m in an impossible mood, and I shouldn’t really have inflicted myself on you or anyone else tonight.’
‘Yes, you should.’ She was instantly contrite. ‘I ought to have remembered that you’ve had a beast of a day. And I’m terribly glad you took me out tonight. I wouldn’t have missed this for anything.’
‘Really?’ And when she nodded, he said, ‘You’re a nice child.’ And then suddenly he smothered an irrepresible yawn.
‘You’re dead tired,’ she exclaimed. ‘And no wonder.; We’d better go now.’
‘Don’t you want coffee first?’
‘No, thank you. And nor do you. You’ll sleep better without it, and sleep is what you want.’
He looked for a moment as though he might make some amused protest. But then weariness seemed to wash over him like a wave, and he murmured, ‘If you’re sure you don’t mind.’
‘I don’t mind anything, so long as you won’t think I would try to muscle in on the Warrenders’ week-end at your uncle’s place.’
‘Forget it,’ he said impatiently. Then he called for the bill and, having paid it, followed her out of the restaurant into the street.
‘Drive carefully,’ she said, lightly touching his arm, ‘and thank you for a lovely, lovely evening.’
‘I’m taking you home first.’
‘Indeed you’re not.’ She smiled up at him.: ‘You ought to be in bed now. And I’m getting this bus that’s just coming along. It passes the end of my road.’
‘You’re sure?’
‘Of course I’m sure.’ She swung herself on to the platform of the bus, then waved and called back over her shoulder, ‘Thank you again, and good luck for Wednesday!’
She saw, as the bus swung round a corner, that he was still looking after her, with a smile that somehow warmed her heart.
‘I can’t believe it all!’ she told herself as she made her way to the front seat in the bus. ‘I just can’t believe it. Oh, I do hope Mother’s still up. I just have to tell someone all about it!’
Fortunately, her mother was indeed up. In fact, she came running into the hall as Joanna opened the front door, and it was she who first began to pour out an excited tale.
‘Joanna, the most wonderful thing! You’ll never believe it. Mr. Wilmore telephoned about an hour ago. What a nice man. A gentleman, as Georgina said. He wanted to speak to you — ’
‘To me? What about?’
‘Well, I’m just telling you, dear, if you’ll let me finish. I explained that you were out, of course, and he asked me to give you a message. He wants you to go down there the week-end after next — ’
‘Oh, no!’ There was more dismay than pleasure in Joanna’s tone.;
‘Wait a minute, that isn’t all. He says the Warrenders will be there and he would like you to meet them — ’
‘I’ve met them,’ said Joanna dazedly.
‘Don’t be silly, dear! Of course you haven’t. I’m speaking of Sir Oscar Warrender and his wife — ’
‘So am I,’ murmured Joanna, but her mother went on. ‘He said if it was not convenient for your aunt to have you he would be delighted for you to stay at the Manor. So I said immediately that I knew your aunt would be away — ’
‘But she won’t.’ Joanna looked bewildered.
‘No, of course she won’t. But I said she would. You don’t suppose I was going to let you miss a chance like that, do you? You’ll be staying at Wilmore Manor at the same time as the Warrenders — think of that! No one would believe that things could fall out just that way, would they?’
CHAPTER THREE
JOANNA gazed at her mother in open dismay. As Mrs Ransome had just said, no one would believe — least of all Elliot Cheam — that ‘things could fall out just that way.’
‘I can’t go, Mother,’ she said rather distractedly.
‘Can’t go?’ Her mother looked both astonished and annoyed. ‘Of course you can go. It’s the chance of a lifetime. What were you going to do the week-end after next that cannot be put off, for goodness’ sake?’
‘Nothing. At least, nothing I can remember.’ Joanna pushed back her hair from her forehead with both hands. ‘It isn’t that. It’s — oh, let me explain — ’
‘Well, come in and sit down first. I was so excited I just had to rush out to tell you at once. And now you’re behaving as though I’d given you bad news. I don’t understand you, Joanna. You never used to be temperamental and difficult. Being given this important role hasn’t gone to your head, I hope.’
‘No — no, of course not.’ Joanna followed her mother into the dining-room, where she was oddly touched to see a vacuum jug of hot chocolate and a cup an
d saucer standing at the end of the table.
‘I thought you might like a hot drink.’ Her mother indicated the jug a little timidly, as though her daughter had suddenly become so unpredictable that she might resent, rather than welcome, the attention.
‘Oh, Mother, how sweet of you!’ Joanna smiled gratefully. At which her mother’s face cleared and she looked like a child who was beginning to think that everything might be all right, after all.
‘Now tell me,’ Mrs, Ransome sat back in her chair, an eager expression on her face. ‘First of all, was it a good evening?’
‘Lovely, thank you,’
‘Even though you had to go with that horrid young man?’
‘He’s not a horrid young man. And anyway, he had already given me one delightful treat.’ She explained about being unexpectedly invited in to the dress rehearsal, and how this had presently led to her being asked out to dinner.
‘Well, I suppose you couldn’t refuse when he’d, already been nice to you,’ her mother conceded.
‘I didn’t want to refuse,’ Joanna was a little surprised to remember how eager she had been, on the contrary, to accept. ‘We were getting on splendidly by then. He took me to a perfectly charming restaurant, and we were just enjoying our meal when — I know it sounds improbable — in came the Warrenders.’
‘Then you have met them? I thought you were making some kind of joke.’
‘No, I meant it literally. They came over to our table and Elliot — Mr. Cheam — introduced me and they were both very pleasant to me.’
‘Darling, what a delightful coincidence!’ Mrs. Ransome was enchanted. ‘That you actually know them already! They’ll be so pleased to find you too are staying at the Manor. I thought you meant - ’
‘Just a moment, it’s not so simple as that,’ Joanna insisted, ‘They said — that is Sir Oscar said — that they were going down to stay with Elliot’s uncle the weekend after next, and asked if he too would be there. Elliot explained he would be too much tied up with his new production and - ’
‘What a pity you didn’t already know you’d been invited. If you’d been able to announce that in fact you would be there it would have caused quite a sensation,’ declared Mrs. Ransome.
‘Yes, it would have caused no end of a sensation,’ Joanna agreed rather grimly. ‘Elliot would have been furious.’
‘Why? Just because he couldn’t go too? What a dog in the manger! He’s just as unpleasant as I thought, after all.’
‘No, he isn’t. He’s nice,’ Joanna stated firmly. ‘But as I told you before, he has the idea that people try to impose on his uncle — to cadge things from him — because he’s so naturally kind and easy-going. Oh, he’s a bit exaggerated about it, I suppose.; In fact, of course he is. But it all stems from a genuine wish to protect someone he’s very fond of.’
‘I call that silly,’ her mother replied impatiently. ‘Why not leave his uncle to look after himself? He’s a grown man, isn’t he? Not like a woman left all on her own.’ And Mrs. Ransome glanced instinctively at her own pretty reflection in the mirror opposite her.
Joanna abandoned any further academic discussion on this point and went on determinedly with her story.
‘When the Warrenders had gone to their table we naturally spoke a few words about them, and I asked if they knew his uncle well. He immediately looked withdrawn and suspicious — ’
‘I said he was unpleasant!’ interjected her mother triumphantly.
‘ — and asked why I wanted to know. If he hadn’t been tired and irritable after a gruelling rehearsal I doubt if he would have reacted quite that way - ’
‘Yes, he would. That’s the way that kind of man does react.’
‘ — but anyway, I snapped back in my turn, I’m afraid — ’
‘And quite right too!’
‘ — and said he needn’t think I was trying to muscle in on the Warrenders’ week-end at Wilmore Manor, because such an idea had never entered my head, and I didn’t behave that way anyway. He apologized then.’ ‘And so he should!’ declared her mother. ‘And what a slap in the face for him when you do turn up.’
‘But I can’t turn up! Don’t you see,’ said Joanna patiently, ‘that’s the point? The very fact that I took up such an indignant stand about being unjustly suspected makes this occasion, of all occasions, the one when I just can’t go.’
‘But he won’t be there.’ Her mother looked obstinate.
‘How do you know he won’t be there?’
‘You’ve just said he won’t.’ With unerring accuracy, Mrs. Ransome dredged up from her daughter’s story what she considered to be the one salient point. ‘You said he told Sir Oscar he wouldn’t be there because he would be busy with this silly play of his.’
Joanna thought of saying that it was not a silly play — that, in fact, it was quite a brilliant play — but she knew that, in her present mood, her mother was determined to find nothing good in Elliot Cheam and all his works.
Instead she said slowly, ‘It’s true he did say he almost certainly couldn’t be there. But then he’d be bound to hear about it eventually.’
‘Why? Does that poor old uncle of his have to give him an account of everyone who visits the place?’
‘No, of course not! These things come out in ordinary conversation. And I couldn’t bear to have him discover that, after I’d taken up such a virtuous stand about being unjustly suspected, off I went and turned up there after all.’
‘Darling, you are adopting the most ridiculous attitude about it all,’ exclaimed her mother impatiently. ‘Who is this Elliot Cheam, anyway? Why should you bother about his views or let him dictate your actions? The invitation came from Mr. Wilmore to you — for a week-end that might give you the most valuable contacts in your career. And you’re prepared to throw away this priceless opportunity because you’re frightened of some disagreeable young man.’
‘I’m not frightened of him.’
‘Well, you’re behaving exactly as though you were. And what about Mr. Wilmore, come to that? How will he feel if you just throw back his invitation in his face?’
‘I wasn’t going to do any such thing,’ muttered Joanna protestingly. But she did look rather shaken. For after all, it was, as her mother said, the chance of a lifetime — and so very kindly meant. ‘If I could somehow let Elliot Cheam know — ’ She was still speaking under her breath, but her mother caught her last words.
‘Why?’ she demanded scornfully. ‘Do you have to ask his permission before you dare to approach his uncle?’
‘No. It’s just — ’ and then Joanna realized that they were back on the same circular track again, and that unless she put an end to the conversation they would continue with argument and counter-argument indefinitely,.
‘I can’t make a decision at the moment,’ she declared, drinking the rest of her chocolate and setting down the cup with an air of determination. ‘I’m too excited and — and tired — and bewildered with so much happening all at once. I’ll have to think things over. If there’s any way of accepting this wonderful invitation, I’ll do so, of course. But I shall stay with Aunt Georgina. I couldn’t possibly stay at the Manor.’
‘It would be perfectly respectable,’ said her mother naively.; ‘With an elderly housekeeper and other guests and all that.’
‘Oh, Mother, you’re a darling!’ Joanna kissed her and laughed. ‘I was not worrying about my reputation.’
‘No. You were just worrying about what that tiresome young man might think,’ retorted her mothers ‘I don’t know why he has suddenly become so important to you. Don’t get any silly ideas about him, will you? He doesn’t sound at all the kind of person I should like you to get fond of.’
‘There isn’t the slightest danger of that!’ Joanna assured her. ‘And anyway, I think he’s a good deal involved with Sara Fernie, his leading lady. She’s very good in this new play, by the way. You and I must go and see it some time next week. You would enjoy it.’
‘Well — �
�� Mrs. Ransome, who adored the theatre, obviously found the prospect attractive, even if it would mean coming under the same roof as the despised Elliot Cheam. ‘Let’s see first what the reviews are like.’
And on that she and her daughter bade each other good night and went to their rooms — Joanna at least to sit on the side of her bed in deep thought, divided between the overwhelming temptation to accept Mr. Wilmore’s invitation at any cost, and the almost pathos logical fear of increasing Elliot Cheam’s unfair suspicions.
‘There must be a perfectly sensible and civilized way of dealing with it,’ she told herself. ‘I suppose I could phone him — ’ But the idea of troubling him with her small concerns when he was so much involved in his own work would be ridiculous. And even more ridiculous would be the implication that she thought him entitled to be consulted at all. There would be no way of putting it which would not sound as though she thought she needed his permission to go down to Wilmore Manor. And that would be the height of absurdity.
Although she had argued each point in the recent discussion, she had not been unaffected by her mother’s viewpoint.; And, reflecting quietly now on her own, she did think that perhaps she had been showing an exaggerated regard for what Elliot Cheam thought or said-After all, he was nothing to her.; At least — almost nothing. Except insofar as one preferred to have the good opinion of anyone one liked and respected — even moderately.
‘I’ll work out a plan of action tomorrow,’ she decided. ‘Of course I couldn’t miss a chance like this. And anyway, as Mother said, what about Mr. Wilmore’s feelings? He might be really hurt if I refused his kind gesture.’
That thought seemed to weight the scales much more heavily on the side of her doing what she was longing to do. And, on that cheering thought, Joanna went to bed and to sleep.
Both she and her mother overslept the next morning, and Joanna had no time to do anything but snatch a hasty breakfast and rush off to the Colleges Here she found that her singing teacher was not only still away but, according to report, likely to be so for some while. Consequently there had to be some change in her scheme of studies. Her singing lessons were, of necessity, transferred to another teacher — excellent in his way, but not at all temperamentally in tune with Joanna.
Remembered Serenade (Warrender Saga Book 9) Page 5