Having said that, Cara stormed out of his study in much the same way she had entered it, and a few minutes later she was taxing her Mini to its very limit in order to reach the hospital as soon as possible. Her mind was in a turmoil of pain, anger and fear, and from deep within her a feeling of guilt was emerging which finally dominated every other emotion. How could she have allowed herself to fall in love with a man as cruel and callous as Vince Steiner? A part of her understood his actions and sympathised, but a part of her was totally repelled by what he was doing, and it resulted in an inward battle which was slowly tearing her apart.
The gravel spun beneath the Mini's wheels when she turned in at the hospital gate, and a few moments later she was walking almost at a running pace into the warm building. At the information desk she was told in which ward she would find her father, and she made her way quickly along the wide passages with the smell of disinfectant quivering in her nostrils.
'I'm so glad you could come.' Lilian Lloyd's eyes were red and puffy when Cara entered the private ward, and they embraced briefly before Cara's anxious glance shifted from her mother to the pale, still form of her father lying prostrate between the white sheets on the high hospital bed.
David Lloyd was lying so quietly that Cara could not be sure he was breathing, and fear slid its icy fingers about her heart once again. 'How is he?' she asked her mother in a husky voice.
'Still under sedation, as you can see,' Lilian subsided into the chair and dabbed at her moist eyes with a lace handkerchief. 'The doctor says that your father is suffering from complete nervous exhaustion.'
'Oh, God!' Cara lifted a shaky hand to her throat as she stared at her father, and her anger simmered inside her like a volcano threatening to erupt. Vince was to blame for this, and she knew now that she could no longer be a part of this relentless vendetta he was waging against her father. 'There is something you must know, Mother,' Cara said before she could change her mind.
'I know everything, my dear,' her mother forestalled her in a hushed voice. 'Your father confided in me this morning a short while before he collapsed.'
Cara's relief was so great that her legs actually began to shake beneath her, but then a new anxiety took possession of her. How much had her father told her mother?
'Did he tell you… everything?' she felt compelled to ask, but she had difficulty in sustaining her mother's glance.
'I know why you married Vince Steiner,' Lilian confirmed Cara's worst fears in a voice that held a rebuke. 'I can appreciate the sacrifice you made, and the reasons for it, but I cannot condone your actions. Marriage is a serious business, Cara, and you have made a mockery of the vows you made.' Lilian's eyes filled with tears, and she gestured expressively. 'This is not the time to discuss your marriage, and I did not mean to lecture you.'
The lecture may not have been intended, but Cara felt chastised, and more than just a little ashamed. Her glance shifted to her father's white, drawn face, then back to her mother's tearful eyes, and her feeling of shame deserted her. If she could have spared them this moment of anxiety, then she would do it all over again, and pray that God would forgive her.
'Did Dad tell you what happened that time with Siegfried Steiner?' Cara changed the subject.
'Yes, he did.' Her mother's hand sought her father's and her fingers curled about his in a manner that seemed to seek as well as give comfort, 'The negligence was your father's. Siegfried Steiner had warned him that the steel would be insufficient, but your father had disputed this on the strength of the delivery note instead of taking the time to carry out a personal check. The company who had delivered the steel had also insisted at that time that they had sent the required amount, but a clever accountant finally found the error. There should have been a second delivery of steel to complete the order, but changes in staff had resulted in the company neglecting to despatch the remainder of the order.'
Cara digested this in silence. It confirmed what Vince had told her, but it still did not warrant his despicable actions… or did it?
'Why didn't Dad do something to restore Siegfried Steiner's reputation?' she put the question to her mother.
'It was too late to do that,' Lilian sighed sadly. 'Siegfried had already taken his own life, and his children had left Murrayville under a cloud and with no forwarding address. Your father tried to contact them, but without much success, and he finally decided to let the matter rest there.'
'I can't understand why Dad never tried to explain this to Vince when they eventually met.' Cara voiced her confused and troubled thoughts.
'Your father blamed himself for Siegfried's death,' her mother explained with tears in her eyes, 'and he was afraid that Vince would think he was using this information as an excuse to exonerate himself from that feeling of guilt he carried around with him.'
'So he chose to take whatever punishment Vince might decide to dish out,' Cara concluded a little cynically.
'And he involved you as well,' her mother added significantly, but Cara hastily directed the conversation away from the reason for her marriage to Vince.
'Did you and Dad have time to make any decisions about the future?'
'Yes, we did.' Lilian Lloyd eased her hand from her husband's and rose to her feet to walk across to the window, and she looked strangely old and defeated. 'If we sell up everything we will only just succeed in repaying the money owing to Vince, and we will start again with a clean slate. Losing the house and all we own is of no importance, but it is important that your father regains his strength and his vitality so that we can be together.'
Cara's throat tightened with renewed anxiety. Would the vendetta end here, or would Vince continue his relentless persecution? She thrust the thought from her and joined her mother beside the window. 'I'll stay here with you for as long as you need me.'
Lilian turned, and Cara saw a smile break through the tears in her mother's eyes. 'No, my dear, I'm feeling much better now that I have spoken to you, and there is no sense in both of us keeping a vigil beside your father's bed,' she said, dabbing at her eyes. 'Why don't you go home, and I'll call you as soon as there is news.'
Cara hesitated. 'Are you sure you will be all right?'
'I shall be quite happy to remain here at your father's side,' her mother assured her.
Cara glanced at her father's seemingly lifeless form and wished that there was something she could do to help, but the nurse who walked in a moment later appeared to be totally in command of the situation as she commenced her routine check.
Feeling superfluous, Cara embraced her mother briefly and left. She felt oddly as if she had transgressed beyond every other emotion except anger: anger against Vince for what he had done to her father, anger against Siegfried Steiner for leaving his son with a legacy of hatred and revenge, and anger against her father whose initial negligence eighteen years ago had instigated the entire disastrous affair.
CHAPTER TEN
Cara walked blindly along the hospital corridor and collided with a solid male frame when she turned a sharp corner. There was a familiarity in the touch of those steadying hands on her shoulders, and she knew that it was Vince before she looked up into those cold, shuttered eyes. She had thought that every scrap of feeling for Vince had deserted her, but she was alarmed to discover that, despite everything he had done, his nearness could still arouse that intense longing inside her. It was shattering to feel this way about someone who had done everything in his power to hurt her and those she loved, and she despised herself for it. An exclamation of disgust passed her lips as she gained the strength from somewhere to place her hands against his chest and push him away from her.
An unfathomable expression flickered in his eyes, and his mouth tightened grimly when he found himself confronted by the pent-up fury of her raised glance. 'How is your father?' he questioned her, an odd roughness in his usually smooth, deep-throated voice.
'He's still alive, if that's what you want to know,' she snapped.
His glance seemed to waver. Fr
om the inside pocket of his jacket he took out a slim gold cigarette case, but he realised in time where he was, and slipped the case back into his pocket. He appeared to be having difficulty in knowing what to do with his hands, and at any other time Cara might have found this significant, but she was too busy with her own turbulent thoughts to notice. She could still see her mother's eyes brimming with tears, and her father's white face against the pillow. It made her feel sick inside at the thought of what might happen if Vince continued with this vendetta, and a renewed bout of fear chilled the blood in her veins.
'Cara, I want to—' Vince began, but she cut in rudely, determined not to stand there listening to what he still had in mind for her father.
'I'm sure it will interest you to know that my parents have decided to sell everything. You will get your money, and they'll start again from scratch. 'I don't doubt that you're well aware of what it would entail for a man of my father's age to have to start again from the bottom, but I know he will succeed, and as for me…' She paused to draw breath and, eyes flashing, she hissed her decision at him. 'I never want to see you again!'
She turned and fled from him, and he did not attempt to stop her. When she got into her Mini, however, her heart was pounding in her throat as if she had actually escaped pursuit. Her hands were shaking so much that she could barely insert the key in the ignition, then something snapped inside her and, burying her head in her arms, she burst into tears. Hot and salty, they slid down her cheeks and splashed on to the steering wheel, and several seconds elapsed before she was able to control herself sufficiently to drive home.
Home. Vince's house had never been home to her, and it never would be now. She had to leave him; she had no other choice. She ought to hate him, but instead she had fallen more deeply in love with him with each passing day, and she could not bear the thought of how she would cope with parting from him after a further ten months of marriage had elapsed.
The house was silent when Cara crossed the hall and walked up the carpeted stairs. If she had not seen Harriet's car in the driveway she would have thought that she was the only one there. Her tears had long since dried on her cheeks, and her jaw was set with determination when she walked into her bedroom and hauled a suitcase down out of the wall cupboard.
Cara worked swiftly and silently. She took her clothes out of the cupboard with the slatted doors and folded them neatly before she placed them into the suitcase. Her thoughts drifted back reluctantly over the past weeks, and she lived again through those frightening days preceding her marriage to a man she had not known. Marrying Vince had been the craziest thing she had ever done in her life. He had bombarded her into a decision with threats of ruination, and her rational mind had become chaotic with fear. To give her father more time to meet his commitment, and to save the home her mother loved had been sufficient motivation at the time, but now it all seemed so ridiculous. If they had confided in her mother, then her father would have been spared these agonising and futile weeks of waiting, and Cara's marriage to Vince would have been quite unnecessary. Lilian Lloyd had proved at last that she was a woman of strength and character, and Cara admired her mother more now than she had ever done before.
The bedroom door opened suddenly, and Cara looked up with a start to find Harriet framed in the doorway. Her grey eyes, so like Vince's, darted from Cara to the suitcase and back, then she pushed the door slightly ajar, and approached the bed.
'You're not thinking of leaving Vince, are you?' Harriet demanded with a hint of anxiety in her direct gaze.
'I'm past the stage of thinking about it, Harriet,' Cara explained, turning from Harriet to resume her packing.
'Don't you think you're being a little hasty? You could at least wait until Vince returns from the hospital, couldn't you?'
Cara hardened her heart against Harriet's plea, and folded a blue silk dress into the suitcase. 'I spoke to him when he arrived at the hospital to gloat, presumably, and I made it quite clear that I never wanted to see him again.'
'Please don't go yet, Cara,' Harriet pleaded. 'Give Vince an opportunity to explain.'
'To explain what?' Cara demanded cynically, brushing past Harriet as she walked towards the cupboard to remove a pile of lacy underwear from the shelf. 'I'm tired of being used as a pawn, and I refuse to sit back and do nothing about it while he pressurises my father into an early grave.' She turned from the cupboard to find that Harriet had taken up a stance between her and the suitcase, and there was a look of such determination in her eyes that Cara was momentarily startled, but she pulled herself together with equal determination. 'You're in my way, Harriet,' she said coldly.
Harriet gestured expressively with her hands, but she did not move out of the way. 'I can't let you go, Cara.'
Cara stared at her speculatively. Harriet had the advantage of being several centimetres taller, and Cara had to raise her chin to meet Harriet's grey gaze. They faced each other in silence as if they were sizing each other up to do battle, and if the situation had not been so painfully serious, then it might have been hilarious, for neither of them were aggressive by nature.
'I never thought that you of all people would want to prevent me from leaving,' Cara protested at length. 'I thought you would understand.'
'I understand a great deal more than you imagine, Cara,' Harriet's voice adopted a sternness which must have subdued many a difficult patient. 'You're in love with my brother, and you want to be loyal to him despite the circumstances of your marriage, but you're being torn in two by your attempts to be loyal to your father as well.'
Cara felt shattered. Harriet had sliced her open so deeply that her soul had been exposed, and Cara felt curiously numb for interminable seconds before the blood leapt through her veins again with a force that sent a hot wave of colour into her cheeks.
'Oh, lord!' she groaned, her pain a mental and physical thing, and her fear so real that it was almost tangible. 'If you have guessed my feelings, then Vince must have guessed as well, and all the more reason for me to leave now.'
'Vince is an astute and clever man, but in this instance he has been singularly blind,' Harriet laughed briefly with a touch of cynical amusement. 'He is convinced that he has succeeded only in making you hate him.'
Cara shook her head adamantly, and elbowed her way past Harriet to drop her pile of underwear into the suitcase. 'I've made up my mind, and I'm going… I must!'
'Cara…'
Harriet's detaining hand gripped Cara's arm, but, before she could say more, an authoritative voice demanded sharply, 'What's going on here?'
A choked cry rose in Cara's throat as she spun round to face Vince, but the sound never passed her lips at the sight of his furious expression.
Cara was, for a moment, ridiculously afraid of what he might do, but she pulled herself together, and snapped: 'Isn't it obvious to you that I'm moving out?'
The deathly silence that followed made Cara's breathing sound laboured to her own ears, and Harriet faded insignificantly into the background as Cara withstood the steely onslaught of Vince's glance. There was something strange about him; something different, and Cara was still trying to decide what it was when he turned towards his sister.
'Leave us alone, please, Harriet,' he said abruptly, and Harriet obeyed him in silence, closing the door behind her as she left them alone in the room.
The atmosphere was incredibly tense, and the silence so prolonged that it began to gnaw away at Cara's nerves. Vince was standing a few paces away from her, his eyes almost feverishly bright in their sockets, and a strange paleness about his mouth. He looked ill and drawn, and she felt herself weaken, but only for a moment.
'I'm leaving you, Vince. I've made up my mind, and there is no way you can stop me,' she broke the silence between them, and it was as if the sound of her faintly husky voice triggered a spark of life in him.
'The agreement was, if I remember correctly, that our marriage would run the course of twelve months,' he reminded her as he observed her with glacier eyes
once again.
'You have succeeded much sooner in your objective, and we both know that, if my father hadn't collapsed under the strain, you would have continued to hound him by placing stumbling blocks in his way to prevent him from having any success with his ventures,' she pointed out coldly. 'Under the present circumstances I feel there is no longer a purpose to our marriage and, quite frankly, I refuse to continue with it. My mother is aware of the truth, and we all know there is only one way my father can repay the loan he took from you. They will have to sell everything they possess, and my mother is quite prepared to do that in order to help my father.'
A flash of unfathomable anger drove the paleness from his face, and he breached the remaining gap between them in one long stride to tower over her. 'You're not going anywhere, Cara! You're staying right here!'
His attitude was menacing, but her anger rose sharply, and she raised her chin defiantly to meet his steely glance. 'I'm leaving, Vince, and there is no way you can stop me. Unless, of course, you chain me to the furniture, and you've stooped so low in the past that it wouldn't surprise me at all if you made use of such a barbaric method to keep me here.'
'Damn you, Cara!' His hands bit into her shoulders the one minute, and released her so abruptly the next that she staggered. He was breathing heavily, but he controlled himself with an effort that made the muscles jut out savagely along the side of his jaw. His eyes held hers with an unfathomable expression in their depths, then he looked away and lit a cigarette with hands that shook visibly. 'It might give you some satisfaction to know that you were right when you said I didn't hate your father as much as I despised my own for taking the easy way out instead of facing up to his problems and fighting back. I could have killed you for saying that. It shook me, but it made me think, and now I can only feel disgust for my own behaviour.' He gestured with the hand that held the cigarette as if to wipe out that incident when she had confronted him with the unvarnished truth as she had seen it. 'I've spoken with your mother, and as soon as I'm allowed to talk to your father I intend to make my peace with him.'
The Devil's Pawn Page 15