delay her departure.
Stein was waiting for her as she had known he would be. On her way to the flat she had been unconsciously praying he might have been called away, but unfortunately this was not to be. He was there, opening the door moments after she rang, courteously guiding her to the lounge after removing her wrap, as though she was the one without sight. She could feel his absolute control of the situation, sense his dominant personality. Maybe, Sandra thought, staring at him nervously, both she and Alexandra might have been wrong in thinking him vulnerable. He was so decisive, giving such an impression of rugged strength that she was the one to feel weak and exposed.
'You're a little late.' He went over, after seeing her seated, and began sorting through bottles. 'I got it into my head you weren't coming, but you wouldn't let me down, would you, my darling?'
'Why — no,' Sandra faltered, torn between the note of sarcasm in his voice and what he was doing. He was filling two glasses. Could she continue feeding his roses with whisky. Mightn't it be more sensible to pretend she had changed her drinking habits? 'Would you mind, Stein,' she begged, before giving herself time to fully consider, 'if I had something soft to drink? I seem to have had an awful day.'
'A soft drink?' The way his eyebrows rose might have warned her. 'Just what did you have in mind, Alexandra? I can't remember hearing you ask for such a thing before.' 'Oh, anything,' she tried desperately to adopt Alexandra's careless indifference. 'Soda and a splash of lime, I'm not fussy. Just anything you have.' As her voice trailed away she began to wish she had never asked. There was a sardonic smile on his lips which made her uneasy.
She watched, astonished that he spilled nothing, as his hands moved deftly, half filling a glass from the soda siphon before topping it up with something else. 'I think this will be to your liking,' he told her suavely.
Rather than fidget where she was on her low seat, Sandra rose to take it from him. 'Drink it up,' he ordered, as she thanked him.
'How are you?' she asked awkwardly, staring unsuspectingly down at the frothy white bubbles before raising the glass to her lips.
One second she was quite all right, the next she was choking. Quickly, alarm jumping through her, she groped for her handkerchief. Whatever he'd put in the glass made her throat tighten and sting like mad. Unable to find her own handkerchief, she grasped the one he held out, rubbing furiously at the tears which came to her eyes.
'Better?' he enquired smoothly a minute later as the spasms stopped.
'What on earth did you put in it?' Her voice was hoarse with indignation and for a moment she forgot to do anything but act naturally.
'Nothing to what I might wish I had put in it, after you've answered a few questions!'
The soft menace in his tones struck Sandra to a horrified silence and he must have heard her sharply drawn breath.
'Surprised?' he jeered. 'The Alexandra I know would have downed that without turning a hair, yet one sip and you splutter and cough like a two-year-old. Not even my roses made such a fuss.'
Half petrified, Sandra tried to calm herself, to laugh coolly as if it were all a joke, but even her voice seemed to be lost. How much had he guessed if he knew about that?
'I wasn't feeling too good last night either,' she managed at last. 'That's why I tipped my drink into the rose bowl.' She knew she should perhaps have challenged him about being so horribly suspicious, but somehow she hadn't the nerve.
He had gone pale, and with a sinking heart she felt his anger as his hands snaked out to take hold of her shoulders, his grip fierce, as if determined she shouldn't escape. 'I don't know,' he ground out, 'if this is supposed to be a practical joke, but if it is it's not one I appreciate. Just who the hell are you? You aren't Alexandra, so don't give me that!'
More frightened than she could ever recall being in her life, Sandra almost collapsed under his cruel hands. His face was tight and hard, his eyes focussing squarely on her, giving the impression that he could see with icy clearness. While she knew he couldn't she was also aware she could no more deny the charge he laid against her than she could go on living a lie.
'How did you guess?' she whispered hoarsely.
His laughter was cynical, expressing his scorn. There was no amusement in it. 'You betrayed yourself in several ways,' he assured her, 'although it was some time before anything really registered. Your refusal to have more than one glass of wine surprised me. Alexandra, you see, no matter how tired she was, could always drain the bottle. Then your mistake with my coffee. She knows only too well I take no milk or sugar, and you added both. Afterwards I wondered why the scent of the roses someone was kind enough to bring me should remind me faintly of whisky. It wasn't until I dipped my finger in the water that I realised. Want me to go on?' he asked, overlaying her strangled gasp with cold fury. 'Shall I tell you what proved conclusive evidence, after you'd gone and I went over the surprising events of the evening?'
'What?'
'What!' his sarcasm lashed her harshly as he jerked her closer to his strong body. 'It seems you're too dumb to make a good conspirator. Shall I demonstrate how I knew?' Before she could evade him his head bent and his mouth came down with force on to hers. Then, as he crushed her to him, one of his hands slid aggressively over her.
He lifted his head to say viciously, 'The girl I'm engaged to doesn't have curves like this — and this! Haven't I seen enough of Alexandra to be familiar with every straight line of her figure? Yours is much more seductive, my dear. Didn't you imagine I would know the difference? There are some things a man doesn't need eyesight to judge. He usually learns of these things in the dark anyway.'
Against his brutality she seemed to have no defence. Insistently his hands increased their pressure until she cried out. He couldn't see the fright on her face, so he had to hear it, she realised, shrinking from his grim satisfaction. She was too bewildered to respond to the shiver of excitement that flicked through her taut nerves, or the way in which her body curved unconsciously to his.
'Yes,' he sneered, his face black, 'protest as much as you like, my little cheat. There's no one to hear you. No one comes here unless I ring.'
'Please let me go,' she begged desperately, trying to break free.
'Why should I?' His hand left her breast to lace through her hair, tugging her head back to his shoulder. 'Why shouldn't you be prepared to pay for your sins? Deceiving a blind man surely couldn't be classed as anything else? Wouldn't you care to brighten his darkness a little by agreeing to spend a few hours in his bed? I can promise you might even enjoy it.'
'No!' she cried wildly, her whole body suffused in a peculiar heat.
'No?' His mouth found the racing pulse in her throat, moving over her tender skin while he appeared to enjoy assessing the exact degree of her terror. From the tenseness of his lean, hard body, she gathered the shaken impression that he would like to have done more than merely assault her with his lips, and when he spoke it seemed with the deliberate intent of insulting her. 'If you won't willingly grant me more than a few lukewarm kisses, girl, then at least I'll have the truth. I warn you I can hurt worse than this. Now tell me — who are you?'
'Sandra Weir.'
'Sandra Weir?' his voice rasped with impatience. 'Listen, girl, I've heard small boys shouting "pull the other one", but I'm in no mood to appreciate your perverted sense of humour. This is something, I presume, which you and Alexandra hatched up between you. Now, your real name?' 'But I am called Alexandra Weir!' Suddenly almost beside herself with regret, she had no desire to go on evading the answers he so ruthlessly sought, although even the thought of confessing many of the things he would have to know filled her with both alarm and remorse. That the truth was obviously going to hurt him seemed to cause her actual pain and she was glad he couldn't see the tears which sprang unhappily to her green eyes. 'I'm Alexandra's cousin,' she continued hastily, before he could rip into her again. 'I was christened Alexandra, too, for —for family reasons, but because I'm the younger, I've always been known
as
Sandra.'
'Indeed!' His curt exclamation held sarcastic incredulity and he still retained his tight grip of her shoulders, as if determined she shouldn't escape before he uncovered the whole diabolical truth. 'And was this little charade arranged for any particular reason? I presume Alexandra is away on an assignment about which she preferred not to tell me? Why, in heaven's name, didn't she just explain frankly?' His strong mouth twisted. 'We surely could have worked something out. I hope I'm not that terrifying, or helpless!' 'No. No, of course not,' Sandra mumbled, trying to think straight. 'There were reasons she didn't want you to know.' 'Reasons?' he grunted ominously. 'There'd better be, although I don't think you'd find one good enough to impress me now. What craziness led Alexandra to go to such ridiculous lengths? I take it she intends to return before Friday?'
Trembling, Sandra stared at him, wishing fervently that she could conveniently faint. What could she tell him that wouldn't seem like striking a man when he was down? Stein spoke quietly but she could feel the leashed anger in him. For this she couldn't blame him, as no one appreciated being made a fool of. She shuddered to envisualise his reactions when he knew all. If only it were possible to pretend Alexandra was only away working —but this, Sandra realised, would merely be postponing that which Stein must know sooner or later. There could be no sense in putting it off now. It seemed dreadful that she herself, by agreeing to Alexandra's stupid scheme, should be responsible for so much heartache. It would be little use telling him that, after their meeting last night, she had changed her mind about everything. He wouldn't believe her. If only she had been fully aware of what she was doing before it had been too late!
'I'm sorry,' she whispered, her heart, which just a few minutes ago had been full of resentment at the way he had kissed her, weeping for him. 'Alexandra isn't coming back, now or ever.'
His voice hardened to steel. 'Would you mind being a little more explicit?'
'I------' Sandra's barely won composure broke, 'I scarcely
know where to begin.'
'You'd better sit down,' he said curtly. Almost as if he sensed the whiteness of her face he steered her towards the settee. Seating himself beside her, he added grimly, 'I feel you would like to pass out, but you'd better not! Not until you've answered every one of my questions. So Alexandra decided she didn't want to have anything more to do with me? What then?'
Sandra took a deep breath, striving to keep a grip on her churning emotions. 'Alexandra came to see me,' she blurted out, even now not sure she could relate clearly what had taken place. 'I lived in Cornwall, so I rarely saw her, and knew less about her affairs. I knew, of course, of your engagement.' She paused, unable to mention how she had half fallen in love with his photograph. Anyway, that wasn't relevant. 'Well,' she drew another uneven breath, 'she came to see me and told me about your accident, and the fix she was in.'
Tersely he interrupted, 'You mean she couldn't face the fact that I was blind?'
'No!' Sandra denied quickly, not having the heart to agree that this might have been partly true. He was about to be brutally hurt by other things, there was no reason to add to his. misery. 'Someone else wants to marry her too, you see, and she felt the shock of knowing this just now might prove too much for you.'
'Alexandra's ego takes a bit of beating!' His laughter was suddenly cynical, his bitterness pinning Sandra to her seat. 'You don't believe in cushioning your somewhat startling announcements, do you, Miss Weir? Am I to presume, from what you say, that your cousin finds this other man irresistible? That she loves him, and wants to marry him rather than me?'
Trying not to hear the harsh sarcasm in his voice, Sandra answered gently, 'I'm sorry to have to tell you this. Believe me, I didn't want to do it. Alexandra only wished to save you as much pain as possible. This way she thought you'd never need to know she'd left you for another man. Acting on her behalf, when you were stronger, I was simply to tell you I'd changed my mind.'
'While pretending to be Alexandra! God!' his voice lanced into her, 'how on earth did the pair of you expect such a stupid scheme to work? Or did your cousin not care?'
'She hoped it would work,' Sandra protested weakly, not knowing why she should be defending Alexandra, who appeared to have played tricks on them both. Frozen with a terrible despair, she stared anxiously at Stein. 'She was convinced you weren't strong enough to stand such a shock,
which seems to prove she must care more than you think.'
CHAPTER THREE
Stein Freeman shrugged this off with a casual movement of his wide shoulders which refuted any suggestion that he was impressed. 'Was she concerned for me or her own public image, I wonder? A nice little scandal if I were to commit hara-kiri or, in a more ladylike way, did she favour the river? She could be flattering herself. No woman, I assure you, Miss Weir, would drive me to that!' Impulsively Sandra laid a soothing hand on his arm. 'I understand this other man wouldn't allow her to consider going to Greece with you.'
'Why should a few more weeks have made any difference? If she couldn't trust herself alone with me she can't be very enamoured with her new lover.'
That last bit hurt, strangely enough. Had they really been lovers, Stein and Alexandra? Sandra's heart shook. 'Perhaps,' she exclaimed unwisely, 'she felt she couldn't trust you.'
His mouth twisted wryly, as if he enjoyed a private, though not very amusing joke. 'Perhaps you're right,' He paused cynically. 'Does she intend marrying this other man right away, do you know?'
'Almost.'
'Who is he?' Stein asked curtly, shaking off her hand, as if rejecting her impulsively offered comfort.
'I'm sorry,' she flushed, as her hand fell back to her side, 'I promised not to tell.'
'Indeed?' For a moment, seeing the angry tightening of his mouth, Sandra felt afraid, but he merely shrugged again, contemptuously. 'Keep your worthless little secrets, Miss Weir! It will only be a matter of time before I find out.'
Reduced to a quivering silence, Sandra heard him continue grimly, 'As there seems nothing more to be said of Alexandra, might we go on to your part in all this? You agreed to take her place and come to Greece with me, to deceive me to the bitter end? It must have taken quite a sum of money to persuade you, Miss Weir. Just how big was the bribe?'
'The bribe?' Sandra's eyes widened with apprehension as she stared at him. She had been so agitated all day, so busy trying to reach a logical decision, she had forgotten all about the money. After reading Alexandra's instructions about seeing Arnold's solicitor regarding it, she had vowed never to touch it, but today she hadn't given it another thought. Biting her lip, she felt guilty, now that Stein mentioned it, and didn't know what to say.
'No reply?' Stein taunted, his face hard. 'People are usually willing to do anything for money, aren't they, Sandra? You'd better tell me how much it was.'
'Five thousand,' she confessed, while not having intended giving way to his threatening tones. Despairingly she realised his seeming ability to extract information against her will
'Five thousand!' His voice grated insultingly as he rose to his feet. 'You could be even worse than your cousin!' 'Stein,' she was up beside him, facing him desperately, though she was well aware he couldn't see her, 'you must believe I wasn't going to take it! I changed my mind about everything last night, after I left here. I was going to tell Alexandra so.'
He paused, a quick frown to his brow. 'The money hasn't been paid over?'
'Yes, in a way, but ------ '
'Little mercenary!' Without waiting to hear the finish of her faltering explanation, he stretched his hand ruthlessly out to drag her to him. 'You don't have to search for excuses. You stand there and confess shamelessly that you agreed to come to Greece with me, a total stranger, for the sake of a few paltry pounds?'
'It's not paltry!'
'How easily you're impressed. For a few drachma,' he sneered, what might I not get you to agree to? Did Alexandra not warn you, Sandra, exactly what you were taking on?'
Trembling in his hands, Sandra tried to remain calm. She hadn't meant to make that comment about the money, making it sound as if she found it irresistible, but for so long she and Gran had scrimped and done without that it seemed sacrilege to pour scorn on a single penny. 'You don't understand,' she replied hollowly.' 'I hadn't a job and Alexandra said you really wanted a sort of secretary to help with your work.'
'Fair enough,' he snarled, 'but you can't conveniently forget the other commitment. You agreed to pretend to be my fiancee and it suited you to take what must amount to almost a thousand pounds a week. Don't tell me you didn't realise this must involve more than merely typing a few notes? Didn't Alexandra explain properly?'
'Don't worry.' Sandra's face blanched as her fright and bewilderment grew. It seemed to her Alexandra hadn't explained a lot of things, not clearly. Painfully she swallowed as she tried to apologise to the man who bent so angrily over her. 'You can forget about the money, it's not important. I'm sorry for all the trouble I've caused, but I promise I won't bother you again. As I've already said, I was going to tell Alexandra last night that I couldn't do it, but when I returned to her flat she'd already gone.'
'You expect me to believe that?'
'You probably won't.' Helplessly she shrugged under his biting fingers. 'I don't think you would be inclined to believe anything good of me at the moment.'
'I've had little cause to.'
'I suppose not.' Suddenly she found herself examining his face closely, her resentment superseded by a growing anxiety. He must have been very ill and Alexandra had emphasised that he couldn't stand another shock. While Stein's splendid physique seemed to deny this she could see plainly the lines of strain around his eyes and mouth. Alexandra's behaviour must be hurting him terribly. Under that inscrutable front he could be suffering like the devil. 'I really am sorry about Alexandra,' she whispered, 'and I'm beginning to realise just how you must feel. You must want to be alone, so I'll go now. Anyway, there's no point in my staying any longer.'
The Devil's Bride Page 4