Dora had said nothing since Coll walked in. He had neither spoken to her nor looked at her, and she remembered that too from their childhood. Now he managed to ignore her as though she wasn't there, or as though she didn't matter. She didn't matter in this transaction, she wasn't buying the furniture for him, nor getting his food, but a glance and a good evening would have been civil.
'Let's have a fire,' he said suddenly.
The big white marble fireplace stood empty. It was a warm night, they had opened a window in here, but the fireplace was the focal point of the room and, although the previous owners had installed central heating, fires had burned in the drawing room to cheer the hotel guests.
Neither Simon nor Thea were much good at firelighting, they had a gas fire in their living room, but there was an open grate in the lodge and Dora said, 'All right, I'll light one if I can find some kindling.'
There were a couple of logs left in the hearth, and a half filled brass coal scuttle, and there would probably be some sticks and paper down in the cellar.
'Yes,' said Simon hastily, 'well, I'll get phoning about this.' He held up his notebook, and Thea laughed,
'And I'll get a supper tray.'
'I wouldn't hear of you lighting the fire,' said Coll to Dora, with what sounded like courtesy. 'I will.'
She shrugged and went. She found some sticks and a newspaper that didn't seem too damp, and came back into the drawing room where twigs were crackling away in the hearth and Coll was feeding them slowly with small pieces of coal. The coal had caught, the fire was well away.
Dora stood back and looked at it, then dropped her small load in the hearth and said, 'That was quick.'
'I learned how to light a fire when I was very young,' he said, as though they were talking about playing chess, and she said shortly,
'I suppose you would, but I shouldn't think you've had much practise lately.'
He got up. He was tall, and it was an effort to stand
still and not move away. He had always threatened her peace of mind, but suddenly, although he was smiling, the threat seemed physical.
'Once learned never forgotten,' he said lightly. 'Like swimming. Or making love.'
She said, 'You could swim very well, I remember.' Down where the weir was, and it was dangerous, and Simon would have gone in too if Dora hadn't been in tears. Although perhaps Simon did have more sense. Coll seemed to take risks for their own sake, as though life had to have an edge on it.
'My repertoire has increased since then,' he said, and her gaze dropped from his face to his hands. The long strong fingers were black with coal dust. Lovemaking, he meant that he was adept at that too, and her mind registered shock at the thought of him making love. To her. Of herself touched, taken.
A rush of revulsion sent her stumbling back, seeing nothing, certainly not the footstool just behind her; so that she would have gone flying if he hadn't moved faster than she could think.
He caught her in his arms and held her until she croaked something, and when he let her go she went on croaking, looking at her shoulders where the coal dust lay and his hands had touched her.
He said laconically, 'It will wash off.'
It had all happened in seconds. Everything. Nothing. Nothing had happened except that she had stumbled and he had steadied her and there were marks on her dress.
'Yes, of course,' she said, but she was rubbing at the dust, frantically trying to shift it, and he drawled,
'Although you may need a bath to get rid of my contaminating touch.'
That was how she felt, and it was irrational, but she managed to laugh and say, 'What do you mean?'
She knelt down in front of the blaze and began to feed it with the sticks she had brought, and when Thea walked in a minute or two later she was still kneeling, her back to Coll.
`Food,' said Thea.
'I need to wash,' said Coll.
`So do I,' said Dora when he had left the room. 'Nice fire,' commented Thea.
'He lit it,' said Dora. 'He says it's a knack you never forget.'
She went to the kitchen, and stayed longer than she needed just to wash her hands. She stood at the sink, looking out at the stable block and trying to calm herself. She felt almost faint, as though she had been actually attacked, and she didn't want to go back into any room where Coll Sullivan was.
But she had to, and she had to get rid of this crazy idea that he threatened her. How could he?
They were all seated around the fire; Coll was eating from the tray of assorted leftovers that Thea had made look quite appetising, and Simon was talking about the changes locally in the last ten years.
As Dora walked in Coll looked across at her. 'Washed it off?' he asked quietly.
`Mmm.' She sat on a sofa beside Thea, and Simon went on with what he was saying.
The furniture had changed in here since the old days, but it was still the same room, and in the firelight Dora found herself slipping back again into a musing reverie.
Then Coll got up, and he was the host, offering drinks, pouring out, and that was nothing like the old
days; and as she looked at him he asked, 'Do I seem out of place?'
He did to her, because she was remembering her father, but not to anyone who wasn't hooked on the past. He looked as though. he owned the house, if that was what he meant, at home. 'I'm sure you can play any part you choose,' she said, and he smiled.
'I'd have done quite well as a repertory actor. I've got an Identikit face.'
She looked at him standing there, relaxed and elegant, the dark smooth hair springing back from a peak, the cleft chin. A smooth supercilious hawkish face, cool and well bred. That was how he looked.
'A mask of a face,' she said softly, and he took that up cheerfully.
'And very useful too. I wouldn't have got far if I hadn't been able to hide what I'm thinking.'
'Now you're making me nervous,' said Thea, pretending to shudder, and Coll turned to her, his voice sounding warm and sincere.
'I hope not. I prefer to do business with people who trust me.'
Thea smiled. 'But of course we trust you.'
He had signed a cheque for the articles that Simon had brought along tonight, and presumably for the house. And to have been handed the key just like that meant he had to be who he said he was. For a moment Dora had thought—suppose he is a confidence trickster, and regretfully had to discard the idea.
Coll said, 'That was a suspicious little gleam in your eyes,' and she frowned, annoyed at being read so easily, and said,
'I'll turn away next time. I'm not so good at hiding what I'm thinking.'
`And you don't entirely trust me?' The impudence of that took her aback. Before she could say, `No, and with very good reason,' he said, 'A pity, because I was thinking we might do another business deal.'
'Like what?' she said, contemptuously.
He was talking to Simon and Thea. 'Your shop's leasehold.' It wasn't a question, but Simon said,
'Yes.'
'Do you want to buy the freehold?'
'We can't afford to,' said Thea.
'I could lend you the money.'
Dora felt as though a net was closing orr them. She wanted to jump to her feet and break out, but Simon and Thea were looking at each other with a dawning hope.
'On what terms?' Dora demanded harshly, and Coll said in the amiable voice of a reasonable man,
'I should want collateral, of course.'
`Of course,' Dora muttered, and he went on, ignoring her,
'But I'd be prepared to improve the look of the place for you, and we could get together over the more pressing financial problems.'
He seemed to know more about the business than Dora did. She hadn't realised the problems were so pressing, but Simon's air of astonished relief was admitting it now.
`What kind of collateral?' Dora persisted. Simon and Thea looked in a state to agree to anything, but Coll Sullivan would want his pound of flesh, whether it was a share in the shop, or per
haps he wanted to buy the Lodge now that he had the Manor. Whatever it was the time to spell it out was now, before Simon and
Thea accepted this highly generous, highly suspect offer.
Simon grimaced. 'We don't have much that's worth much.'
wouldn't say that,' said Coll.
When he said nothing more Dora broke the silence; it was as though Thea and Simon were scared to. 'What, then? What would you consider as security?'
Thea and Simon wanted this backing. Thea, beside Dora, was leaning tensely forward, and two deep stress lines cut between Simon's brows.
This time Coll didn't look at either of them, but straight at Dora. He said softly, smiling, but under it all was a steeliness of purpose, 'You.'
CHAPTER FOUR
`HA-HA,' said Dora, 'very funny.' The silence was puzzled as Thea and Simon waited for an explanation, then Coll said,
'You're not wearing your engagement ring.'
She looked down at her hand and said drily, 'You're the first observant one I've met all day.' She wouldn't show how shaken she was. She would be cool, even a little amused at his presumption, whatever he was going to say next.
Simon said abruptly, Are you asking Dora to marry you?' and she had to deal with that, and fast. She laughed, on a harsh note,
At the risk of repeating myself, very funny,' and Coll smiled.
'At the risk of sounding unchivalrous—hell, no. I'm offering her a job.'
She heard Simon and Thea relax, Thea's soft little 'Oh' and Simon's 'Ah' as though that was going to be all right, then.
'I take it the engagement is off,' said Coll.
'As it happens,' said Dora airily, 'yes.'
'And you'd feel awkward still working for the man?'
`Why should I?' She raised both eyebrows. 'We never did mix business with pleasure,' and Coll grinned again. He had very white teeth, very dark eyes, and she wished she could say, 'Stop grinning at me!'
'Having met Neil Hewitt I'm sure you didn't,' he said.
`Do you?' she asked.
`Not as a rule. This would be a hands-off arrangement.'
She wanted no arrangement, no connection with him whatever. The moment he had looked straight at her and said, 'You,' had hit her like a knife blow. She was sitting calmly, but inside she was screaming and running for cover.
Thea said, 'Dora's a first-class secretary.'
`Excellent,' said Coll. He didn't sound as though it surprised him, but it probably did. In the old days she had been trained for nothing, except perhaps a good marriage, which meant marriage to a-rich man. He said, 'I'd like Dora around to help me get this house in order.'
She could do that, but she wouldn't, not for him; and Thea sounded doubtful now. 'You mean as a housekeeper?'
`Housekeeper-cum-secretary. There'll be domestic staff, of course.' He could offer good wages and there
was very little employment going locally. He'd get domestic staff.
`Why me?' asked Dora coldly. 'Why do you want me around?'
Because she was a Holcroft and he fancied having the Holcrofts, late of the Manor, at his beck and call? He could hardly admit that, but what other reason could there be?
He was holding his glass, he hadn't drunk any since he'd poured it, but he took a sip now, and then he said, 'As a good luck charm, Dora-Lily. I think you'll bring me luck.'
She goggled, gulped and said, think you must be out of your mind!'
'Not at all.' He leaned back in his chair, charming confident and confiding; and there had never been a man she distrusted more.
'They were lucky days for me down here,' he went on. 'The more I think about it the more I realise that a lot of my luck started with you.' He looked around the room. Sometimes he had come into the house with Simon, into this room. 'Maybe this place gave me a taste for high living. If I hadn't met you both I might have stayed a travelling man.'
That was nonsense. Envy might have spurred him on a little, but he was born to travel in style. She couldn't remember ever having seen his father, but Coll had every qualification for success. Particularly the unpleasant ones like ruthlessness, and a talent for using people. He had Thea and Simon jerking on strings now, like two puppets, and he wanted Dora twitching to his touch too.
Not if she could help it, but she had to get out of this without causing a scene that would show he was
under her skin, as well as upsetting Thea and Simon.
He said softly, 'I took something away from here that—well, gave me my start, I suppose,' and only his curved lips smiled.
Her pearls! They hadn't been fabulous. Some of her mother's jewellery had been worth a great deal more, the real old family heirlooms that her father had sold. But he would have got something on them that could have gone towards that first dump he had bought, and renovated and sold.
He couldn't mean that! He couldn't have the nerve to be talking about her pearls I
But he was. He was challenging her, eyes glinting and with a mocking half smile. He wanted her to start babbling accusations so that he could cut her down. But if she did it wouldn't be in front of Simon and Thea, or anybody. If she settled accounts with Coll Sullivan it would be a very private matter.
She said, 'Get yourself a horseshoe. I'm no good luck charm.'
He sighed as though he was disappointed. 'No you, no deal,' he said. 'I told you I can afford whims. This is how I see this one.'
She wondered how many board meetings he had addressed in the same quiet fashion, wasting no words, expecting no arguments. 'I'll buy the freehold of the shop,' he said, 'and advance whatever Simon and Thea feel is necessary to get the business rolling. On condition that you stay in my employment for six months, acting as secretary if I need a secretary while I'm down here, helping to get this house habitable and helping to run it.'
Dora wondered if he wanted her around because she was unpredictable and might even be dangerous. He
had been waiting for her to say something about the pearls. He knew she disliked him, he had always known that, and now she amused him and he was enjoying the conflict.
She took a deep slow breath and said, 'No.'
'A pity,' he said.
'Look,' said Simon, 'could we have a family confab about this?' and Coll got up.
'Of course. I'll take my drink into the library.'
Thea spoke first, perplexed because she couldn't understand why Dora was being so dogmatic. They thought Dora might have considered before she said `No' so fast, when there seemed so many reasons why her answer should have been 'Yes.'
'You're a good secretary,' Thea said. 'And you could get this house into a private home again. We could help you with that.'
Simon said, 'Maybe he does feel you're lucky for him.'
'Bosh! ' Dora snorted.
Thea suggested, `Do you think he's feeling guilty about your engagement being broken off? He did have something to do with that, didn't he? Neil was jealous of him.'
That was news that came as no surprise, from Simon's expression. He had seated himself on the sofa now, so that Dora was between the two people she loved best, both seeing in her the answer to their problems.
Dora said grimly, 'I don't think his conscience ever bothers him. More likely it appeals to his ego to own our old home and have both of us working for him.'
'We've got to work for somebody.' Every line in Simon's handsome face seemed a little deeper, as
though he was ten years older and still in debt.
Thea was studying Dora's face closely, trying-to understand. 'Why don't you want to work for him?'
'Because I don't like him,' Dora burst out. 'I never did.'
'Why?' Thea persisted, but it wasn't easy to explain. She didn't trust him because he had stolen her pearls, but she had never liked him. It had been a gut reaction from when she was six years old, and that was rather too early to be claiming female intuition.
She said, 'I don't know. Life seemed pretty secure in those days, but he used to come without warning and while he w
as here nothing was the same. He—upset everything.' She floundered, looking helplessly from one to the other, and Simon snapped,
'But we weren't secure, were we? We only thought we were.' He jumped up suddenly and walked away from them, down the long room, talking without turning, 'And there's never been any security since, we'll be going bust unless we get some luck from somewhere.'
'Surely not,' said Dora. Simon often joked about living on credit, but Thea was biting her lip now, looking close to tears. 'You never said it was this bad.' Dora reached for Thea's hand, almost glaring at Simon's back, and Thea said,
'What's the use of moaning? And we're keeping our heads above water, there are lots worse off than we are. But this does sound like the best thing that's happened in years.' She looked as though it could be the answer to her prayers. 'To have the freehold of the place, there's always the worry what's going to happen when you don't own it; and if someone would invest some capital with us it would make all the difference. We
never had any capital, you know, it's always been hand to mouth:
'It would only be for six months.' Simon stood where he was, as though he felt that if he came any closer he would grab Dora and shake some sense into her. 'We'd be paying him back, of course, but. I'm sure he'll give us reasonable terms on the condition that you work for him for six months, and it doesn't seem much to ask.'
Six months didn't sound very long, and probably Coll would be away most of the time, but she didn't want to do it. She desperately wanted to say 'No' again.
'I know you didn't get on all that well with him,' said Simon, who had never mentioned that before, 'but-you were both kids then.'
Coll had never seemed a child, there had always been a self-sufficiency in him, and the gap between them was deeper than four years difference in age. He was almost the same age as Simon, but the difference was there too.
The last time he had been twenty and in appearance he hadn't changed much. His skin was still smooth, almost unlined. He was better dressed, of course, but his body hadn't softened. It was still hard and taut and she remembered being held against him a little while ago, when she had stumbled here in front of the fire. She pressed her lips with the back of her hand, as though someone had kissed her mouth and she was wiping it away.
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