by Pamela Kent
party.
She had never in her life attended a fancy-dress ball before, and having seen Mrs. Mortimer she entertained few doubts about the quality of this particular effort to divert her friends and acquaintances. It would be something, in
55
vulgar parlance, to "write home about" ... and as Romilly
wrote home occasionally to the few special friends she had
in England, including a favourite aunt, she had no doubt
she would be mentioning this excursion of hers into top
flight Cairo society before very long.
But in the meantime she was very much exercised in
her mind as to what she should wear. It was one thing to be
invited to a cocktail-party, or something of that sort, by
her new neighbours, but fancy-dress meant investing in an
outfit that also meant a lot of thought. Unless, of course,
she took advantage of the "fancy-dress optional", and
turned up in one of her simple little dinner-dresses. She
had not expected much social life on this visit to Egypt
and had made virtually no provision for it, but she had
already seen one or two very smart dress shops in Cairo
and was not averse to parting with a little of her hard
earned money in one or other of them. It would give her
a feeling of recklessness which the fascinating knowledge that she actually possessed a statuette for which people were willing to pay vast sums of money made in some way justifiable.
For - who knew? - she might even be a very wealthy woman before long I
So she allowed the thought to go a little to her head and actually bought herself quite an outfit once she got inside the most enticing of these very feminine shops. The saleswoman, sensing that Romilly was taking a kind of de- light in being unusually extravagant, and impressed by the purity of her complexion and her essentially English looks, brought forth some most attractive clothes to induce her to part with her money. Although by no means certain she was behaving wisely - for what if the trunk in the attic failed to contain the statuette? - Romilly found herself the possessor of a couple of evening gowns which she might
56
never have occasion to wear, some delightful day dresses
and a trouser suit in cream-coloured wild silk that went
extraordinarily well with her curling silken hair, in addi
tion to the dress that she was to wear at Mrs. Leah Mor
timer's party.
The saleswoman knew Mrs. Mortimer by repute, although the establishment was not honoured by her patronage, and she was quite awed when she heard that the English customer was on visiting terms with Mrs. Mortimer. She assured Romilly that parties at Mrs. Mortimer's house were very elegant affairs indeed, and they were often much talked about afterwards in the district. Only the most influential looking a little dubiously at Romilly - received invitations to her salons and her cocktail-parties and her dinners. And if she was giving a fancy-dress ball, then half the local press
would i be there to photograph the guests and report on it
afterwards.
Everyone who was anyone in the district would be there. It would be a very smart affair indeed, widely talked about once it was over and magnificently staged, since Mrs. Mortimer was not only extremely rich but she spent her money lavishly. She had a houseboat on the Nile and another house in Alexandria. She was known to have houses all over the places, and her friends were in very high places.
And although the invitation stated that fancy-dress was optional, it was practically certain that fancy-dress was expected, unless one was either old, or infirm, or eccentric.
And, once more looking at Romilly and smiling this time, the saleswoman had to admit that she didn't honestly think Romilly was any one of those three things.
In the end, since Romilly was curiously reluctant to wear fancy-dress, she suggested a shadowy black dress shot through with silver and a scarlet silk domino, which she could wear with a black mask for further concealment. The
57
mask would be vaguely exciting and arouse speculation, and certainly the colour scheme would suit Romilly, with her enchantingly fan- skin, perfectly.
Romilly left the shop at last with the promise that all her purchases would be delivered on the following day, and from there she went on to a shoe shop to purchase the right kind of shoes to complete her outfit, as well as a really lovely evening bag that was perhaps the nicest thing she had ever possessed in her life, and make an appointment to have her hair washed and set for the great occasion.
. She felt she had behaved in a way that indicated she had taken a certain amount of leave of her senses by the time she arrived home, but that didn't prevent her looking forward to the following day when all her exciting new purchases would be delivered to her.
Kalim, who must have sensed her mood of slight exaltation, served her a very fitting dinner in a candlelit atmosphere that actually touched her, for she had not suspected he could rise to such heights without being explicitly requested to do so ... and as to the candles, that belonged to the days of silver epergnes and candelabra, Venetian glass and real lace table mats, when her great-aunt Romilly had entertained the district and been as much talked about, perhaps, as the present-day hostess, Mrs. Mortimer, they were rose-pink and tapering, and matched the fresh roses from the garden with which Kalim had filled a bowl and placed it in the centre of the table.
The next day Romilly kept her hairdressing appoint
ment, and was modestly pleased with the result.. Her dress
for the party lay spread out on her bed until the moment"
arrived when she slipped into .it, and to say that she was
modestly pleased with the over-all effect once she was
ready to leave and be driven by Kalim the short distance
between her house and her prospective hostess's would have
58
been an understatement. She was actually quite beguiled by her own appearance, never having believed she could look quite like that, with the cloudy black dress highlighted by clever silver embroidery hugging her slender hips and cascading about her ankles.
When she finally adjusted her mask she wondered why it was people didn't wear them more often. Hers certainly suited her, and the slight air of mysterious glamour it lent to her made her smile, for she was not mysterious by na
ture.
She sprayed herself with the delicate lilac perfume that had been one of her most expensive purchases, and was so
extremely light and delicate that it could give offence to no one, and then set off in the car.
Her silver-shod feet twinkled as she climbed into it. Far away above her head the Egyptian stars were shining like jewels, and that remarkable greenish light that was always left by the sunset seemed to linger low dowfa on the skyline.
The road to Mrs. Mortimer's house wound like a wellcared- for snake, beneath the flawless sky. There was a smell of warm dust and flowers in the air, and at the same time it was crisp and cool and reviving after the long sun-filled hours of the day. In the road before Mrs. Mortimer's house the cars were parked in serried rows. Her drive was packed with them, and lights from the house streamed over their gleaming paintwork and glittering chromium. Romilly experienced her first real sense of alarm when she caughtsight of them, and she wondered for the first time whether she had been utterly mad to accept this invitation.
On the drive to the house she had found herself pleasur- , ably anticipating the evening, and had even allowed herself to wonder whether amongst the guests she would find someone she knew in the person of Julius Crighton, who had so
59
painstakingly avoided her after burgling her house. She had been most peculiarly fascinated by Crighton from the mo
ment she saw him on her visit to the Pyramids, and
although she had been quite rude to him on on
e particular
occasion that was because she more than suspected he was not all he seemed on the surface. But now that she knew
her late aunt had valued him as a friend she was able to allow herself to think of him quite differently.
He was so good-looking, and so unlike any man she had ever met that it might have been strange if she hadn't allewed her thoughts to dwell on him a good deal. And now she knew he was the son of a princess.... It was all very glamorous!
Glamour! Why was she thinking so much in terms of
glamour... ? She who led quite a humdrum life at home!
And then when she saw the cars outside Leah Mortimer's house, and the brilliance of the lights that streamed down the drive and bathed the road, her heart fluttered nervously and did a kind of uneasy jump up into her throat. .She swallowed several times, and wished she was anywhere but where she was.
There was actually one moment when she was about to instruct Kalim to rum the car and take her back to her aunt's house, but common sense prevailed, and having already accepted her invitation she told herself that she couldn't very well fail to turn up.
Besides, Kalim would think it very odd, and in any case he had already stopped the car and was ready to help her alight, with the full blaze of the lights pouring over them and several people who were doing precisely the same thing as herself glancing, she thought, curiously, in her direction, and no doubt wondering who she was.
Not that anyone was in the least likely to know who she was, and the comforting obscurity her mask provided really 60
was something to give her courage. She saw Columbines
and Roman gladiators ascending the steps to the house,
gypsies and pirates, and with the additional courage lent
to her by a burst of music escaping from an unseen ball
room falling on her ears like a noisy but well-meaning friend
she found herself copying their example.
It really was a magnificent house to which she had been invited, and she stood for several seconds in the hall admiring the great marble staircase which was its most promin
ent feature. People were pouring up the staircase into some upstairs rooms, and there was a great deal of laughter, chatter and noise. The upstairs rooms were a suite of splendid reception rooms, and they were alive with a mass of moving colour as the motley throng of guests surged restlessly to and fro.
But still no sign of her hostess, and when she caught sight of a door marked Ladies' Powder Room Romilly darted into it and made sure that her make-up was in no need of any special attention. Her silk domino was a part of her present disguise and she had no reason to discard it, so she returned to the first of the reception rooms and wondered how long it would be .before her hostess pounced upon her and at least made her welcome.
But ten minutes later she was still standing in the same spot and being jostled by every new arrival. They quite plainly knew the house much better than she did, and went on their way without sparing her more than a glance and pausing for more than a second. There seemed to be every nationality amongst them, from swarthy, dark-skinned Arab types to paler-skinned Egyptians and obvious Europeans. Their mecca seemed to be the roof, from which the . music was finding its way, and when Romilly eventually summoned up the courage to behave like the rest she found that the roof was the high-spot of the festivities, for it was
there, in the velvet calm of the Egyptian night and under
the shattering brilliance of the stars, that many couples
were dancing to the steady beat of a band ensconced be
hind a bank of pure white roses, while other couples pa
raded and got in their way with champagne glasses in their
hands to the accompaniment of champagne corks being
popped at an improvised bar in another flower-decked cor
ner, and Ae ceaseless efforts of the orchestra.
Romilly, in her scarlet cloak, might have attracted atten
tion in any other gathering, but this one was too colourful
and too bizarre to allow her to be outstanding in any way.
True, the fact that she was alone did seem to arouse some
interest, and occasionally a pair of dark, masculine eyes
looked at her a little more penetratingly than the rest. It
was while she was attempting to avoid a definitely amorous
pair of eyes that she caught sight of someone whom she felt
very certain was her hostess, although she was dressed to
look like Cleopatra in shimmering silk and golden bosses
concealing her shapely breasts, while on her raven hair the
royal serpent of Egypt was attached to a golden fillet and
entwined amongst her curls.
She was laughing and talking with a handsome man who was supposed to be one of the early Pharaohs when Romilly first caught sight of her, and inevitably one of her exquisite, beringed hands clutched a diampagne glass. But at the interchange of glances which resulted from Romilly's fixed stare she set down the glass and came moving fluidly towards her, her lovely body undulating as if it was part of a snake.
"Why, Romilly! How lovely that you could come!" She was showing all her perfect little even teeth, and Romilly was quite fascinated by the exquisite perfection of her face, despite the fact that her brilliant laughing eyes were heavily .ringed with kohl, and from the point of view of an English
62
girl who was used to less ostentatious make-up her violent
poppy-red lipstick was a little startling, to say nothing of
the fact that she was heavily rouged and smelt like a garden
of flowers.
"It was very kind of you to invite me," Romilly replied
a little stiffly. It wasn't that she resented being ignored for
so long, but she had felt very obvious standing there.
"Nonsense! I couldn't be more pleased," the hostess as
sured her. She looked about her, despite her assertions, a
trifle vaguely. "Now, we must find someone to look after
you and take you into supper. I wonder who could be trus
ted to make sure you enjoy yourself? Ah!" catching sight
of a tall figure lounging against a flower-draped column.
"There's the very man! Julius," she called, in her lovely
bell-like voice. "Julius darling, do stop being so completely
idle and come and be introduced to Miss Styles. She's being
very English and aloof, and we can't have that."
It didn't surprise Romilly at all that he had declined to
behave like nearly everyone there and subdue his personal
ity by wearing a fancy dress costume. He could have played
the part of a Pharaoh to far greater advantage than the
man who had been the hostess's recent companion, but he
preferred to be almost painfiiHy immaculate in a white
dinner-jacket and cummerbund, with linen that dazzled the
eye, and diamond studs in his shirt-cuffs in addition to
that solitary diamond stud he wore in the front of his shirt.
He had a look in his eyes that was hardly encouraging when one realised - as Romilly most certainly did - that he must have been aware of her presence on the roof for some time, and had made no effort to approach her until his hostess singled him out for the purpose of requesting a favour from him.
He bowed, however, very formally and correctly in front of both women.
63
"There is no need to present me, Leah," he told Mrs. Mortimer. "Miss Styles and I have met."
Whether or not Mrs. Mortimer was as surprised as she appeared Romilly was unable to tell. But for some reason that was rooted in instinct, and for that reason somewhat suspect, the girl was not, entirely convinced by her air of being completely astonished.
"Oh, really? Well now, isn't that interesting!" she exclaimed.
And then, tapping him archly on the sleeve with a gold-mounted ivory fan, with which she had been keeping herself cool on me roof: "You don't lose any time, do you, darling? You must have had your scouts out in advance of Miss Styles'arrival!"
"Nothing of the sort," he answered coolly. "But we do happen to be reasonably near neighbours."
"Of course." The slightly slanted eyes gleamed like brilliant stars. "And you were always a great favourite with our late lamented friend, weren't you? And no doubt you were curious to find out what her nearest relative and principal benefldary looked like."
"As to that," Crighton replied, with even greater coolness, "� don't believe Miss Styles is the principal benefidary under the late Miss Styles's will. Unless I've been wrongly informed the bulk of her fortune was bestowed on some very worthwhile charities locally." .
Leah Mortimer smiled as if this obvious, but slight rebuke amused her very much indeed. "Yes, of course, I am forgetting," she said. And then she turned once more to Romilly.
"You must forgive us, my dear, for discussing you in this manner, but you really are a source of profound interest to both of us." Then once more she tapped the Bey on the sleeve. "However, we will not continue the argument, which is a little pointless in any case. And since
you are already known to one another will you take Romilly in to supper?" The arch look this time swung in Romilly's direction. "You see, I already have permission to call her by her Christian name, which means I may have advanced a little further than you have, Julius!"
Romilly was not aware that she had granted permission for her Christian name to be used by the ravishing widow, but since the matter seemed unimportant she refrained from making any comment one way or the other. And Crighton Bey, who was beginning to look a little bored, looked politely in her direction.
"You will allow me to take you in to supper. Miss Styles?" he inquired, deliberately, perhaps, emphasising the "Miss Styles".
Romilly realised there was no other course open to her but to agree, although the lack of enthusiasm in his tone brought a faint flush to her cheeks.
As soon as they were alone, their hostess having departed with a few airy words, and the expressed wish that both her invited guests would enjoy themselves, the Bey said almost coldly to Romilly, looking down on the top of her head from which the hood of the silk domino had slipped: