by Flora Kidd
She was staring at the telephone, wondering what to do next, wondering why Wanda was still at Blair's house, when the doorbell of the flat rang. She hurried over to the door and opened it. Blair Calder stood in the corridor. He was dressed in a neat grey three-piece suit, his reddish hair was smoothly brushed as always, but his hazel eyes held an anxious expression.
'Helen—thank heaven!' he exclaimed, stepping past her into the room. 'Where have you been?' he demanded.
'Away,' she said vaguely as she shut the door.
'Away where?' he asked angrily, frowning at her.
'To… to… stay with a friend,' she replied, going past him into the living room. 'Won't you sit down? Would you like a drink? I've not long since made coffee.'
'I think I need something stronger than coffee,' he muttered, rubbing his forehead.
'I'm afraid I don't have any spirits,' she said. 'But do sit down, Blair. You look awfully upset about something.'
'Upset! Upset?' he exclaimed, pacing away from her and then swinging round to face her. 'Upset is putting it mildly! Here I've been nearly out of my mind wondering what had happened to you, wondering why you weren't here when I called in on Friday afternoon to pick you up so we could go away together, and all you can do is tell me I look upset! Of course I'm upset! You… well, you practically stood me up, by going away without letting me know where you'd gone or why.'
'Yes, I suppose it must look like that to you,' said Helen quietly as she sank down into a chair. 'But you see… when you didn't phone me again after Monday I thought that perhaps you'd changed your mind. Or that perhaps you weren't able to get away for the weekend.' She looked directly at him. 'You did say on Monday that you would phone me and tell me what time you'd be picking me up and where we would be going, you know. Why didn't you?'
'I… I… something happened,' he said, turning away from her, pacing to the door of the flat and then coming back to look at her. 'You could have waited,' he went on. 'I was here about two and I remember distinctly telling you when we talked about going away on Monday that we should try to get away by one o'clock on Friday. Surely you could have waited a while… or got in touch to find out why I was late? You could have phoned me.' He frowned at her. Instead you went off without having the politeness to leave a message. I thought perhaps you'd gone down to see your parents, so I phoned them.'
'You shouldn't have done that, Blair,' Helen objected quietly. 'They… I haven't told them I've been going out with you. Who did you talk to? My father or my mother?'
'Your mother.'
'Did you tell her you'd planned to take me away for the weekend?'
'No, I did not,' he snapped. 'I'm hot that much of a fool. I just said that I'd had a date with you and had called for you but you weren't in your flat and no one seemed to know where, so I thought you must have gone to see your parents.'
'What did she say?'
'She said she wasn't expecting you this weekend, but if you did turn up she would tell you I'd phoned. Then she rang off.' Blair managed to look very offended. 'She was very cool and offhand and didn't seem at all upset.'
'I'm glad. I wouldn't have wanted her or my father to have been worried about me,' said Helen, feeling a sense of relief because he had failed to disturb her mother, thankful that Janet Melrose was always unflappable. 'Still, I wish you hadn't got in a tizzy and phoned them.'
'You're taking all this very coolly, Helen,' he said raspingly, sitting down on the sofa. 'You don't seem to realise you owe me an explanation for your behaviour.'
'But I've already explained. I thought you must have changed your mind about going away for the weekend and when I didn't hear from you I went by myself,' she retorted, feeling her own temper rising in reaction to his overbearing attitude.
'Without leaving a message for me.'
'How could I leave a message for you? Where and with whom was I supposed to leave it?' she countered. 'No one is supposed to know we've been meeting regularly. We've tried to keep our association a secret. At least, I have. I… I'm not sure about you.'
Blair's eyes flickered and his narrow pale face flushed slightly and he looked away from her. In that moment Helen knew that Magnus had been telling the truth when he had said Blair hadn't kept his association with her a secret from Wanda, and the last of her liking for Blair died a quick and painless death.
'Where did you go?' he demanded jealously, changing the direction of the conversation.
'I've told you—I went to see a friend. Oh, I wish you'd stop going on about it!' she snapped, letting her anger with him break through. 'I'm free to go where I like when I like. I don't have to tell you everything. I'm not your wife!'
Again he looked uncomfortable, his face flushing a dull red, and she wondered why she had ever thought he was handsome. Compared with Magnus he seemed dull and old, even though he could be only four or five years older than his half-brother-in-law.
'Helen, there's something I have to tell you,' he announced abruptly, pacing away from her. 'Wanda came, on Friday afternoon, just when I was going to leave to come here to pick you up. She's still there. She… well, she won't go away.'
'Oh, but I thought—' Helen broke off sharply, biting her lower lip. She had been about to say she thought he and Wanda had had a row and that Wanda had left the house in a huff, but realised just in time that if she did she would betray the fact that she knew more than she was supposed to know. She would betray the fact that she had been with someone who knew what had happened between Blair and his wife on Saturday morning. 'I suppose she came to discuss the divorce with you,' she muttered.
'She came to tell me she doesn't want a divorce,' Blair replied, turning and pacing back to her. 'She wants to end our separation.' He gave her a worried glance. 'I'm afraid she knows I've been seeing you, Helen, and I told her outright that I didn't want her back, that I want a divorce so I can marry you.'
'Oh dear, you shouldn't have done that. I wish you hadn't done that,' said Helen with a sigh.
'But don't you see it was the only way I could convince her that I… I have a good reason for wanting to divorce her?' he argued.
'Was she convinced?'
'I thought she was at first, because she went off in a huff. But she came back again later and now she won't leave.' He sat down again beside her and tried to take hold of her hands. 'Helen, I don't know what to do to make, her leave, but I still want you very badly. We'll have to wait a. wee while, be patient. I'm sure that now she knows about you Wanda will come round and will agree to let me divorce her.'
'No, no!' Helen sprang to her feet and walked away from him. 'I… I've changed my mind; I'm not in love with you and never have been, and I don't want to marry you even if you do get a divorce. Now will you please go away? Go home, go back to Wanda, and tell her that you and I aren't going to be married even if she does let you have a divorce. Go back and tell her you're glad she's come back to you and that she wants to end your separation.'
'What's the matter with you? exclaimed Blair, getting to his feet and walking over to her. He studied her face and then shook his head from side to side. 'Usually you're so calm, so equable… that's why I've always liked being with you. You're so different from Wanda. But you've changed. You're different.' He frowned at her. 'Helen, where have you been? Who have you been with this weekend?' His eyes grew sharp and his lips thinned. 'Have you been with another man? Answer me, damn you! Have you been with... with a lover?'
'I've told you, I've been with a friend,' she retorted. 'Now will you please go, Blair, or…or I'll phone your wife and tell her you've been bothering me.'
'Good God!' He stepped away from her hastily. 'You wouldn't do that?'
'I will if you won't go away and leave me alone.'
'You're upset because Wanda has turned up, I can see that,' he wheedled. 'But she won't stay. She never has. She'll get bored and will want to go back to London. We'll talk again tomorrow when you're feeling better. I'll see you at the hospital.'
'No, Blair, no!
I don't want to see you again. I don't want to meet you anywhere. Now will you please go away and leave me alone, or I'll phone Wanda and tell her you're here!'
'All right, all right, I'll go,' he said testily, stalking towards the door. 'Come to think of it, I don't really want to see you again, since you stood me up on Friday to go away with someone else,' he jibed nastily. 'You're not at all the person I thought you were. Not at all!'
He opened the door, stepped out into the corridor and closed the door behind him. Alone again, Helen let out a sigh of relief. Now it was up to Wanda.
CHAPTER SIX
Helen didn't sleep well that night. Her emotions were too churned up, and she spent hours examining and trying to analyse her own behaviour when she had been with Magnus, wondering if she really had fallen in love with him or if what had happened had been merely a brief flare-up of sexual passion and nothing more. Then when she wasn't doing that she was worrying about Blair's behaviour, his insistence that he still wanted to marry her if he could persuade Wanda to agree to a divorce.
She fell asleep eventually as dawnlight slanted through the window and was wakened from the heavy slumber when her alarm clock went off at seven instead of the usual seven-thirty. Heavy-eyed, she stared at the clock, wondering why she had set it to ring half an hour earlier, then she remembered that she would have to catch the bus to work instead of going by car because she wasn't sure if she could start the car in the way that Archie Macleish had shown her.
Her weekend away had certainly given her plenty to think about and plenty of problems to solve, she thought wryly, but she had no time while she was at work to think about anything but testing and analysing samples of blood, urine and various tissues taken from various human bodies. And she was glad there was a lot for her to do, since the other lab technician was away for a week on holiday, because it meant she stayed in the laboratory and there was no chance of her running into Blair if he should happen to be in the hospital.
She left the hospital as usual at four-thirty and caught a bus back to the seaside town where she lived, then she called in at the petrol garage on the corner of the street to ask what she should do about getting another key to start her car. The proprietor of the garage was helpful and said he would try to obtain one from the dealer in that particular make of car in Glasgow. Helen left details of the year and model of the car with him and then walked to her flat.
The phone was ringing when she entered and she rushed across to it to answer, then hesitated, hoping it wasn't Blair who was ringing. Slowly she picked up the receiver and spoke cautiously.
'Hello,' she said.
'Helen, how are you?' Janet Melrose's voice was warm and affectionate, and Helen sank down on to an armchair with a sigh of relief.
'I'm fine, Mother, thank you. I hope everything is all right with you and Dad. It isn't like you to phone at this time of the day.'
'I was a wee bit worried about, you,' said Janet, 'so I thought I'd ring just to make sure you were back from wherever you went for the weekend.'
'I got back yesterday about one o'clock,' replied Helen.
'Well, I must tell you that a Dr Calder phoned here, late on Friday night and then again on Saturday. He wanted to know if you were here. He seemed to be very upset because you weren't at your flat when he called to see you there. I told him I would pass the message on to you if you came home but that I wasn't expecting you. On Saturday he was so worried that he said he was thinking of asking the police to look out for your car and asked our permission to do so. Have you seen him since you came back?'
'Yes, I have, and everything is Straightened out now. It wasn't important. How is everything with you?'
'I'm looking forward to the summer holidays. We finish school at the end of the month, and your father and I are going to the cottage at Kilford as soon as we can. Will you be coming down as usual in July for your holiday?'
'Yes, I will.'
'Good. I'll ring off now—time to be getting the tea ready. Goodbye.'
'Bye, Mum, and thanks for ringing.'
Soothed by her mother's placid manner, Helen replaced the receiver and went through to the small bedroom to change from her skirt and blouse into something more casual. As she pulled on jeans and T-shirt she noticed another pair of jeans and a blouse on the chair in her room. Wanda Murray's clothes. What should she do with them? Return them to their owner, of course, if Wanda was still at Blair's house.
It would be a good way of making contact with Wanda, she thought as she went into the kitchenette to make some tea for herself, and perhaps she should talk to the woman and tell her that no matter what Blair said she wasn't going to marry him. And it would be good to talk to someone who knew Magnus and who would perhaps tell her more about him. Plugging in the kettle, she left the kitchenette and went straight to the phone and dialled the unlisted number of Blair's private residence. The housekeeper answered the phone.
'I was wondering,' said Helen, 'if Mrs Calder is still staying there.'
'Yes, she is.'
'I'd like to speak to her, please.'
There was a clatter at the other end of the line as the receiver was put down. A few seconds later it was picked up and the soft musical voice of Wanda spoke.
'Mrs Calder, I'm Helen Melrose. I… I believe you've heard of me.'
'I certainly have.' The voice hardened, took on an icy tone. 'And I think you've a real nerve to phone me! I have nothing to say to you—'
'Mrs Calder—oh, please wait a moment,' said Helen hurriedly, guessing that Wanda was about to hang up on her. 'I… have something of yours that I'd like to return to you.'
'Something of mine?' exclaimed Wanda. 'I don't understand how you have something of mine. Look, is this some sort of trick?'
'No, honestly. I have some clothes of yours and…'
'Clothes? How did you get some of my clothes? Don't tell me you've stayed here in this house and taken some of them! Well, if you have, I'm going to sling some mud at your name! I'm going to make sure everyone knows what a sneaking little thief you are—trying to steal my husband from me, taking my clothes—'
'Oh, please, please stop!' Helen found she was having to shout to make herself heard. 'I've never stayed at Blair's house and I haven't stolen anything. Please listen to me. I was at Carroch Castle at the weekend with Magnus Scott, your half-brother, and… well, I fell in the sea and lost my suitcase and all my clothes and he lent me some of yours, so—'
'You've been with Magnus on Carroch?' Wanda's voice rose in surprise, then she added quickly. 'Where are you now?'
'At my flat. It's in Seakirk, just along the coast from Glencross.'
'I know, I know,' said Wanda impatiently. There's a big hotel there. The Marina, it's called.'
'That's right.'
'Can you get to the hotel—easily, I mean?'
'Yes, I can.'
'I'll meet you in the lounge of the hotel at about seven o'clock,' said Wanda quickly. 'Bring my clothes with you—I think I'd like to meet you after all. I must go now. See you later.'
She hung up and the line went dead. Bewildered, feeling as if a strong wind had swept through the room and whirled her around, Helen hung up too and went back to the kitchenette. Wanda, it seemed, was even more mercurial than Magnus!
At quarter to seven, having changed again, into a summer dress over which she wore a cardigan, she walked down the street towards the esplanade. The evening was pleasant and quite warm after a day of sunshine and the waters of the Firth of Clyde were a soft blue, ruffled here and there to darker patches by the evening breeze and scattered with the white shining triangles of sails as small boats from the sailing club took part in the Monday night race. Beyond the shimmering water the hills of Cowal behind Dunoon were green and tawny against the blue sky, and between those hills and the island of Bute the Kyle of Bute, a strait of water, glimmered invitingly, seeming to point the way like a blue-grey arrow towards other hills, misty purple in the distance.
The hotel called the Mari
na was a stately stone building set back from the wide pavement of the esplanade and overlooking the slopes of green grass between it and the waters of the Firth. Helen had been in it only once, when she had gone to the hospital staff's Christmas party the year before which had been held in the big ballroom renowned for the excellence of its dance floor. Now she entered the foyer through the revolving door and asked a footman, who was standing just inside, where the lounge was. He directed her through a wide archway on the left into a room with wide windows overlooking the Firth. It was furnished with round tables and chairs and there was a bar at one end. Only one person was in the room and she was easily recognisable as Wanda Murray or Calder, her halo of red-gold hair glowing about her pretty heart-shaped face. She was dressed discreetly in a beautifully tailored suit of navy blue linen with touches of white at the neck and wrists and she was talking pleasantly to the barman, as she perched on one of the stools at the bar.
Helen went over to the bar and Wanda broke off what she was saying to turn and look at her. Her blue eyes, which were not quite the same dense blue as Magnus's, widened in amazement.
'You're not… you can't be… Helen?' she whispered, then gave the barman a wary glance. Taking the hint, he turned his back to them and began, to rearrange some bottles on the shelves at the back of the bar, whistling to himself.
'Yes, I am,' said Helen. Now that she was face to face with Wanda she felt very nervous, totally out of her depth in the presence of such cool sophistication. 'I… I've brought your clothes,' she said, and offered the brown paper parcel to Wanda.
'Oh, yes. Thank you, thank you,' said Wanda hastily, ignoring the parcel as she slid off the high stool. 'Let's go and sit over there by the window, it should be private enough. But perhaps you'd like a drink first?' She was holding a cocktail glass half full of some pale liquor in one hand.
'No, thanks,' said Helen.
They went over to the table by the window and sat down. Across the table Wanda studied Helen frankly.