Sally Wentworth - King of the Castle

by King of the Castle

'Mother isn't ready yet. Would you like a drink?'

  'Please. A dry Martini.' The sight of him in evening dress had a devastating effect on her and she needed a drink to calm her feathered nerves.

  As he brought her the drink Max noticed how she Clutched at the stole as she transferred her bag to the other hand so that she could take the drink from him.

  'Why don't you take off your stole until we're ready to leave?' he asked casually. 'It's quite warm in here.'

  'No, I'm fine,' Lee said hurriedly. 'I don't expect your mother will be long. Do we have far to go?'

  'It will take barely ten minutes if the traffic isn't too heavy.' He went to look out of the window, so, feeling herself safe, Lee turned to walk towards a chair. Then, completely without warning, he was behind her and had Whisked the stole from her shoulders.

  'Mein Gott!'

  Well, it had certainly stunned him all right, but somehow the dress didn't seem to be having the right effect, because he burst into laughter as he stared at her.

  Lee had read about people feeling their hackles rising, but this was the first time she had experienced it herself. 'Just what is so funny?' she demanded.

  'You appear to have forgotten part of your clothing, or did you intend to dance with this on all night?' he grinned, indicating the stole.

  'Certainly not! Let me tell you this dress is extremely fashionable,' Lee retorted, longing to knock the grin off his face.

  'And I expect you paid an extremely fashionable price for it. For heaven's sake, girl, go and put on something decent.'

  'I have no intention of changing.' There were two bright sparks of defiance in Lee's eyes.

  'If you think I'm taking you out in that—in that piece of nothing, you're mistaken. Now go to your room and put on something respectable.'

  Lee glared at him mutinously. 'I won't!'

  'You're behaving like a spoilt child, Lee. Don't you realise the reaction such a dress will create?'

  'It doesn't seem to have created much of a reaction in you!' she said resentfully.

  'No, because I'm not the kind of man who finds enjoyment in pawing silly girls. Did you think I was?' He was becoming angry now and there was a sneer in his voice.

  'N-no, of course not.'

  'Then go and change, there's a good girl.'

  Perhaps if he had continued to reason with her instead of ordering her like a child, Lee would have obeyed him, but now she said stubbornly, 'I've already said that I don't intend to change and I meant it.'

  'Why, you spoilt little brat! It's about time someone taught you a lesson. And as that fiance of yours isn't here to do it…' He caught hold of Lee's arm and jerked her round so that she lost her balance and fell against him, finding herself held fast by one strong arm. He pulled her down over his knee and Lee struggled wildly as she realised what he was going to do. But it was no use. He delivered two hard smacks that hurt her dignity as much as they hurt her bottom before he let her up.

  'You beast! How dare you? How dare you hit me, you great bully?' she blazed as she rubbed herself. 'Why, I'd like to…' Her hand came up to hit him, but Max caught it and propelled her towards the door of her room. He dragged her through and across to the wardrobe where he pulled out a simple blue evening dress that she had worn before from among the clothes.

  'Here, put this on,' he commanded.

  'Don't you dare order me about! If you think I'm going anywhere with you after this, you're crazy!' There were tears of rage and pain in Lee's eyes as she struggled to get free, but she suddenly realised that the top of her dress was slipping and had to hastily cover herself.

  'You will take off that dress and you will come to the dance!' Max said angrily.

  'No, I won't, I…'

  'Or do you want me to take it off with my own hands?' he added menacingly.

  'You—you wouldn't dare!' Lee glared at him defiantly, but the defiance changed swiftly to fascinated horror as he came purposefully towards her. 'All right! All right, I'll change,' she hastily capitulated.

  Max continued to tower over her for a moment as if making up his mind whether to believe her, but then he said, 'I'll give you ten minutes. If you're not ready by then I'll come and get you. And don't get any ideas about locking yourself in the bathroom, because I'll break the door open if I have to.'

  Lee didn't answer or look at him, just waited for him to go, then numbly slipped out of the silver dress and began to put on another—but not the blue one. She wasn't so cowed that she didn't have some spirit left. Instead she chose a full-skirted black dress with a startling white geometric design on the bodice. For the same reason she took longer than the allotted ten minutes before she ventured into the sitting-room again. Frau von Reistoven was there now and greeted her brightly, suggesting that they left straightaway as they were rather late. Lee took good care not to look at Max and so did not catch the look of sardonic amusement he gave her, as he noticed her defiance in not putting on the blue dress. She hurried to get into the waiting taxi so that she could sit as far away from him as possible and look out of the window during the drive.

  Whether Frau von Reistoven had heard anything of their quarrel Lee didn't know, but her hostess kept up a cheery prattle all the way so that Lee was able to sit back and try to gather her shattered dignity. She moved uncomfortably on the seat. Max had hands to match his size and he hadn't held back any; it would be a relief to be able to stand up again. Lee looked gloomily out of the window and thought of all the things she would like to do to Max; red-hot coals and boiling oil came into it quite a lot, but whatever torture she envisaged for him didn't alter the fact that he had used her as he would Rudi, as a naughty child. I should have fought him to the bitter end, she thought morosely. Now he will always expect me to give in to him, the big brute. Still, when a man threatens to take your clothes off, you don't really have much choice. Then her sense of the ridiculous returned. Well, I wanted him to notice me as a woman, but I certainly wasn't going to show him! she chuckled to herself.

  By the time they arrived at the Opera House her good humour was completely restored—after all, it had been a very improper dress—but she was careful to keep on ignoring Max; he needn't think that she was going to forgive him that easily!

  Hendrik, Katrina and Herr Nimsgern were already in the box Max had hired for them overlooking the huge dance floor. Katrina wore a clinging dress of muted lavender shades and Lee reluctantly had to admit that she looked very lovely tonight. Then she noticed that Katrina was wearing a large diamond solitaire on her engagement ring finger!

  Her greetings to them purely mechanical, Lee had been sitting in the box for several minutes before her mind recovered a little from the shock and came back into focus, but the pain of knowing that Max belonged to someone else was still there deep in her heart. Dully her eyes took in the vast ballroom with its tiers of boxes and galleries hung with flowers, the orchestra below the stage and the dancing couples on the polished floor, a sight that ordinarily would have enchanted her.

  'The Viennese waltz is not like your English waltz, it's much faster and more graceful, I think.' Hendrik was sitting beside her making polite conversation. Dimly Lee realised that he had been doing so for some time.

  'Do—do they play waltzes all evening?'

  Hendrik laughed. 'No, that would be too much even for the Viennese I The orchestra alternates with a band and a pop group, so there is something to please everyone. But will you not allow me to teach you the waltz?'

  Taking Lee's hand, he led her along the passageway behind the boxes and down the dim stairs to the vast ballroom. Already the floor was fairly crowded with beautifully dressed, bejewelled women and their evening-suited partners. Hendrik drew her into his arms and whirled her into the waltz. He was a good dancer, holding her gently but firmly and. guiding her easily among the throng so that they didn't knock against any of the other couples. Lee had a natural sense of rhythm and soon got the hang of the new steps; determinedly she pushed the pain away and turned a smiling fa
ce up to Hendrik, only the dead look at the back of her eyes giving a hint of the numbing ache inside her.

  Deliberately she let herself drift with the music, tried to forget everything but the dizzying, whirling gyrations of movement as the tempo quickened to a rising crescendo of sound. The music stopped with a crash of drums and there were two bright sparks of colour now in Lee's cheeks as she stood panting for breath.

  Putting an arm round her, Hendrik said, 'I think we ought to have a drink.' But instead of taking her back to the box he led the way instead to a lamplit bar and found an unoccupied alcove. Lee thirstily swallowed some of the drink he had brought her and then choked as the fiery spirit hit her.

  'What on earth is it?' she gasped.

  Hendrik laughed. 'It's Schnapps, almost our national drink. You'll soon get used to it—and you can't possibly go home without having tried it.'

  Lee was all for trying anything once, but although she finished the drink she didn't like the taste. They went back on to the dance-floor and waltzed again under the brilliant crystal chandeliers that hung down from the ornate ceiling. Once she caught a glimpse of Max dancing with Katrina; he was looking down at the blonde girl and laughing at something she had said to him, while Katrina looked up at him with what Lee could only describe as radiance in her face. Then Hendrik had whirled her round and they were gone. Lee missed a step and Hendrik laughed at her teasingly. 'You've forgotten already.'

  'It must be the Schnapps,' Lee apologised.

  'Or the lack of it. It takes more than one Schnapps to really get the rhythm of the waltz. Would you like another?'

  'Why not?' Lee didn't particularly want another drink, but she wanted to stay on the dance-floor even less. By the time they came out of the bar for a second time the band had changed to a pop group and they were able to let their hair down to a fast beat number. It wasn't exactly Hendrik's scene, but he did his best to keep up with Lee as she let herself go to the music, her body a sensual reflection of the hot? surging rhythm. At the end of it she had to cling breathlessly to Hendrik, the music and the drink making her head spin.

  'We had better go back to the box. It must be almost time for supper,' he told her.

  The others were all there when they arrived and Lee sank gratefully into a chair next to Frau von Reistoven, who said, 'Good heavens, Lee, are you exhausted already? Don't forget the dance goes on until two in the morning.'

  'I shall get my second wind in a minute. It's just that I'm out of practice.' Lee tried hard to be laughing and gay, to give every appearance of not having a care in the world. Perhaps she tried too hard, for she felt Max's eyes on her and looked up to find him watching her with a slight frown between his brows. Immediately she lifted her chin and gazed back at him defiantly until the ghost of a smile took the place of the frown and he gave her a small mocking bow.

  A, waitress arrived with a trolley bearing their supper; a plentiful variety of food from cold soup to great, fat strawberries and a large jug of real cream. But before they began to eat Herr Nimsgern motioned them to silence. He uncorked a bottle of champagne and poured out a glass for each of them, then made a speech in German during which everyone looked at Katrina, who was standing close by Max's side. The speech ended in a toast and Katrina laughed happily and swept them all a curtsey. Max raised his glass to drink to her and then smilingly took her hand in his and bent his head to kiss it.

  Draining her own glass, Lee set it carefully down on the table beside her. No one had bothered to translate the speech for her, in fact it would have been entirely unnecessary; it was perfectly obvious that she had just drunk to the engagement of the man she now knew she had fallen hopelessly in love with, to his future happiness with someone else! The waitress brought her the first course, there was more champagne and then a different wine. Lee hardly touched the food; why eat when everything tasted like sawdust? But she drank the wine and let the noise and laughter from everyone else envelop her, automatically smiling and nodding whenever anyone spoke to her.

  The interminable meal was over at last. The Viennese orchestra was back again and Hendrik claimed her. They all left the box this time, Lee with a fixed smile on her face that she hoped would convince everyone that she was having a fabulous time. Looking at the whirling couples on the floor, she thought that the orchestra must have had some drink with their supper, for everyone seemed to be spinning round much faster than before. The floor was more crowded, too, and it was almost impossible to keep from bumping. Looking up, Lee found her eyes attracted almost hypnotically to the glass chandeliers, each faceted drop reflecting a thousand points of light. A great shower of balloons in every colour and shape descended from the uppermost gallery, people in the boxes started throwing streamers and there was suddenly a carnival atmosphere in the huge room.

  Hendrik held her closely against him to protect her from the crush of people scrambling for balloons and little fancy hats in papier-mâché. 'Let's get out of this, shall we?' Putting his arm round her, he shouldered his way through the crowd and took her into the bar again. Here he was hailed by someone he knew and Lee found herself drawn into a group of his friends. They were nice, they were fun, and took the trouble to speak English to her. They also bought her several drinks and wouldn't take a refusal when she tried to say no. But at least they didn't insist on her having Schnapps again.

  It was almost an hour later before everyone filtered back to the dance. Lee felt light-headed and was glad of it; now she didn't have to think. The corridor leading from the bar was very dimly lit and a bulb had gone out, making a pool of darkness halfway along. Hendrik paused there and leant back against the wall, pulling Lee with him so that she was leaning against him.

  'You're so beautiful, Lee,' he whispered in her ear.

  Lee chuckled. 'How do you know? It's dark.'

  He laughed into her hair. 'Oh, I know.' His lips touched her neck and then sought her lips hungrily.

  She didn't particularly want him to kiss her, but some perverse instinct made her glad that one person at least found her attractive, looked on her as a woman, even if it was entirely the wrong man. Hendrik's kiss became more passionate and his hand crept up towards the bodice of her dress.

  A voice as cold as ice cut across them. 'Hendrik, I think your father is looking for you.'

  Languidly Hendrik pushed himself off the wall and let Lee go. Slowly she turned and found Max watching her, his expression quite unreadable in the half-light.

  Hendrik went to take her hand, but Max stopped him. 'I'll take care of Lee.'

  Hendrik looked as if he was going to protest, but Max said something to him in German which made the younger man look at Lee in some surprise. Then he gave her a little bow and turned up the stairs leading to the boxes.

  Lee turned as if to follow him, but Max said quietly, 'You haven't danced with me yet. Shall we try this number?'

  Without quite knowing how, Lee found herself held firmly in his arms, her eyes on a level with his lapel where she held them fixedly. The musicians had changed again and now a band was playing a slow, smoochy tune. Around them couples were clinging as they danced, their bodies close together, but Max held her away from him at a respectable distance.

  'You seem to be enjoying yourself,' he remarked without warmth.

  'Yes, I'm having a simply fabulous time.' Even to her own ears it sounded too false, too gushing.

  Max's voice hardened. 'And do you always flirt with other men when you're having a good time?'

  Now she raised her eyes and found him looking at her coldly, his mouth set in a hard line.

  'I wasn't flirting,' she said defensively.

  'No? Then just what do you call it when you let a man kiss you?'

  'All right! So what if I was? It's nothing to do with you!'

  'While you're my guest I'm responsible for you to your fiancé. And I hardly think he would have approved of your behaviour tonight,' he ended scathingly.

  Her face very white, Lee looked blindly away. Only for a moment di
d she consider telling Max that she had already written to Richard to tell him that she couldn't marry him. What would be the point? It didn't matter now. Nothing mattered now that Max was himself engaged to Katrina. The music came to an end at last and Max drew her arm through his to lead her firmly back to the box. The effects of the drinks had gone completely and she just felt numb. For what little was left of the evening she sat in the box and chatted desultorily with Frau von Reistoven. Max took Katrina on the floor again and didn't come back until it was time to leave.

  Henr Nimsgern's suggestion that they all go on to a night-club was immediately seconded by Hendrik, but Lee took Frau von Reistoven to one side and said quietly, 'Would you count me out, please? I've rather a bad headache. Too much champagne, I suppose,' she said wryly.

  Frau von Reistoven immediately looked concerned. 'But of course. I'll take you back to the hotel and give you some pills to take away the pain.'

  'No, I've some aspirin in my room. Please, I'll be all right. Don't let me break up the party.'

  'But, my dear, I can't let you go back alone.' 'I'd much rather, really. I'll put myself straight to bed and I'll feel fine again in the morning, but I'll feel terrible if I keep you from going with the others.'

  Her eyes pleaded and Frau von Reistoven, sensing that she truly wished to be alone, kissed her and said, 'Very well, but I'll look in to see you when I get back.'

  They dropped her at the hotel with suitable expressions of sympathy, and when Frau von Reistoven looked in on her a couple of hours later she appeared to be fast asleep, her hair across her face. Frau von Reistoven tiptoed away and Lee was free to stare blindly into the darkness again.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Fortunately Max's time was almost completely taken up with travelling to neighbouring towns looking for a new warehouse site, and the evenings she supposed he spent with Katrina, so Lee saw little of him during the next few days. His mother didn't mention anything about his engagement and Lee certainly wasn't going to ask! During the long nights she lay awake, unable to sleep until the early hours. She made up her mind that as soon as they returned to the Schloss she would sell Max the chalet and go home to England. There she would tell Richard in person what she had already written in her letter. She owed him that much; that, and much more, she thought miserably. Poor Richard, it wasn't his fault that she had fallen so hopelessly for someone else. What she would do after that, she didn't know. Perhaps get a job that would entail a great deal of hard work; anything to make her forget Max. Not that she ever would; however dull the pain became in time, it would always be there deep within her. As she tossed and turned on her pillow she wished wholeheartedly that she had never given way to that crazy impulse to come to Vienna, but she had so wanted these days with Max to remember.