by Mary Cummins
New ranges of watches and clocks had been ordered, and he rearranged the window display to show off the best designs to greatest advantage. He and Elizabeth seemed to work well together, though occasionally there would be a difference of opinion, when Elizabeth’s eyes would flash and her chin lift a little. It seemed to be only in this particular field that she stood up to Michael. She knew her job, and although Catherine knew too little about the business to judge, she often felt that Elizabeth was in the right. It was then that Michael would often be the peacemaker.
‘All right, all right, darling, don’t get het up. We’ll have it your way.’
Then Elizabeth would bite her lip.
‘I know I’m right, Michael.’
‘All right. I’ve agreed you’re right.’
On Saturday Mrs. Sheridan asked Elizabeth if Michael would be coming home with them that evening for dinner.
‘I ... I think so,’ she said, a trifle doubtfully.
‘Won’t you be going out together, darling?’
‘Michael didn’t mention his plans. I’ll see what he wants to do.’
‘What about you, John, and Catherine?’
‘I rather think Catherine will be too tired to do more than crawl home,’ said John, with one of his teasing smiles in Catherine’s direction. ‘Or do you want to dance all night, Kate?’
‘No, thanks,’ she laughed. ‘If Saturdays are as busy as you say, then I shan’t want to go anywhere.’
‘Then we’ll come straight home, if we may, Mother. I’ll take Catherine out for a drive this Sunday. She’s more acclimatised now, and an outing to Housesteads would do her good. She can see something of the Roman Wall.’
‘Oh, but...’
‘All you’ll have to do is sit in the car, and you must have a break of sorts. You’ll soon get your sea legs.’
‘Then thank you, John,’ she accepted gratefully. ‘It’s nice of you to bother about me.’
‘It’s a pleasure,’ said John, and she saw that this time his eyes were serious, and he said it as though he meant it. He was really a nice person, she thought, studying him. In fact, she had considered him to be very good-looking until Michael Rodgers walked into the shop. Michael’s looks were much more flamboyant.
During the morning she heard Elizabeth ringing home and telling her mother to expect Michael for dinner. Catherine suddenly felt rather less tired. There would be six for dinner that evening. She didn’t know why that pleased her, but she thought it might be rather interesting. She wondered what Michael Rodgers would be like as a person away from the atmosphere of Sheridan and Rodgers.
That evening Catherine changed out of her plain everyday dress into a softly feminine one in a shade of blue which made her eyes look like the brightest sapphires. She brushed up her dark hair into curls on her small head, and clipped on her lovely pearl brooch.
She was beginning to look better, she thought, studying her own reflection in the full-length mirror in her room. There was fresh colour in her cheeks, and her eyes looked brighter now that the dull lifeless feeling was beginning to lift from her heart.
Obviously Elizabeth thought so, too, because she paused for a moment at the top of the stairs as Catherine came out of her room, and looked at the other girl appraisingly.
‘You must have made a special effort tonight, Catherine,’ she said lightly, though there was a slightly jagged note in the words.
She herself was very smart in a turquoise trouser suit, which looked perfect on her slim boyish figure and contrasted with the red glow of her hair.
‘I haven’t your flair, Elizabeth,’ Catherine returned honestly, and for a moment the other girl’s eyes softened, and she took Catherine’s arm as they walked downstairs.
‘Do you still miss your fiancé?’ she asked, and felt Catherine stiffen a little. Time was healing, but now and again a jarring note would bring it all back to her.
‘Yes, I do,’ she said briefly, and the other girl gave her arm a small squeeze.
‘Don’t let anyone catch you on the rebound,’ she advised. ‘One can do foolish things out of ... loneliness, perhaps...’
‘I hardly think there’s any fear of that,’ Catherine told her, with a rueful smile. ‘Have you and Michael been engaged long, Elizabeth? Are you being married soon?’
This time Elizabeth became rather more withdrawn.
‘We’ve been engaged for over a year,’ she said flatly. ‘Michael has commitments which will have to be resolved before we fix the wedding date.’
‘Oh,’ said Catherine. She felt as though she had been treading on private ground, and it was obvious that Elizabeth had no wish to discuss anything further with her. She crossed to the lounge and threw open the door where James Sheridan seemed to be arguing with his son and Michael. All three men stood up briefly, and again Catherine felt uncomfortable. She could see the small, rather twisted smile on John’s face, while Michael looked very cool and remote. Uncle James’s colour was rather high, but he forced a smile when he saw the two girls.
‘Oh, hello, you two. Is it time, then?’
‘Yes, come along, all of you,’ said Aunt Lucille, coming into the room behind them. ‘We’re all ready to begin.’
Michael had taken Elizabeth’s arm, but his eyes lingered on Catherine and she was again fully aware of his attraction, as John came over and took her arm, grinning down at her.
‘Someone looks lovely tonight,’ he told her admiringly, and she felt her cheeks colour. As John walked beside her, she was aware of his rather quick breathing, and a glance confirmed her suspicions. In spite of his friendly greeting, and his smile, John was seething with anger, and she could sense the power in him which made even Michael seem less striking. What had been said to make him so annoyed? she wondered. She suspected more and more that all was not well in the relationship between the three men.
Could Michael be standing on his rights as a junior partner against the other two? Or was it the two younger men who were all out to modernise and move with the times, against tradition?
Now and again she had heard John advocate a more modem approach for some things, and to argue amiably with his father, who maintained that customers liked to be conservative about their jewellery.
‘If they pay a lot of money for something, they want to be sure it isn’t a gimmicky thing which will go out of fashion in a year,’ he argued. ‘They want something which is going to last and last.’
‘But fashions do change, Father,’ John had argued. ‘I mean, just look at some of this secondhand Victorian stuff we’ve got in to sell. It’s nothing like our present-day stock, yet people are buying it all over again. Fashions do keep changing, but people aren’t going to throw their jewellery away just because it goes out of fashion. They’ll keep it, because it’s sure to be back in fashion again.’
‘Only good stuff that lasts. Some of that stuff is just rubbish. These Victorian pieces are of good design. Probably there was rubbish then, too, but it will have vanished long ago.’
John sighed, then shrugged with his usual grin.
‘All right. You’re still the boss.’
‘Good job, too!’
Uncle James had grinned at Catherine. She had a feeling they enjoyed their squabbles, but it looked as though they had not enjoyed the last one. However, the atmosphere at the dinner table lightened a little as Mrs. Bannon passed round plates and Aunt Lucille talked lightly of the happenings of the day. She had been chairman at a Spring Fete for one of her pet charities, and a local artist had opened the Fete.
‘He’s a wonderful artist, but an appalling speaker,’ said Aunt Lucille. ‘Everything he said had a double meaning, and the hall rocked with laughter. He was very surprised, and it was all rather embarrassing.’
‘I should have thought it was a howling success, Mother,’ John commented, his eyes dancing.
‘Well, it wasn’t at all as it was meant to be,’ said Aunt Lucille, and Uncle James, too, began to chuckle.
‘What did he say?�
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‘You should have been there to hear,’ Aunt Lucille told him pointedly. ‘I told you the children could manage on their own for one day.’
‘Children!’ shrieked John and Elizabeth in chorus.
This time Michael caught Catherine’s glance across the table, and she saw that he, too, was beginning to laugh a little.
‘Not on a Saturday,’ said Uncle James firmly.
‘Well, all right. But I refuse to satisfy your curiosity by repeating the speech.’
‘I had a funny woman in today who showed me a ring she had bought from the fashion jewellery counter of a large store. A friend was sure a mistake had been made and the stones were real, and she wanted me to confirm this, and buy it back from her! I kept trying to tell her it was only paste, but her friend had known better, and I just couldn’t convince her. She went off in a huff, no doubt to try someone else. Some people are odd about their jewellery. If anyone suggests their piece is valuable, then nothing will convince than that it isn’t.’
‘It’s like that with watches sometimes,’ agreed Michael. ‘They won’t believe that a watch can wear out after years of faithful service. The same old watch keeps coming back again and again for repair, and they can become rather offended if one suggests that it’s suffering from old age. It kept perfect time for Grandfather, so why not now?’
‘Must my family always talk shop?’ asked Lucille. ‘Let’s go through to the drawing room for coffee, shall we?’
‘Of course, my dear,’ said James. ‘Then perhaps you’ll give us that speech by your artist friend!’
In the drawing room Catherine found herself sitting next to Michael on a large, rather sumptuous couch, while Elizabeth had plumped herself down on the other side, then jumped up again, excusing herself to go and find her handkerchief. James had taken John into the study for a moment, and Catherine found, to her slight discomfort, that she and Michael were alone.
‘Oh. Perhaps I’d better see if I can help Aunt Lucille with anything,’ she said confusedly.
‘Oh, must you? Surely everyone can’t desert me, or I shall think I have B.O. or something.’ His dark eyes suddenly glinted rather wickedly into hers. ‘Besides, I don’t think I’ve yet said hello properly to you, and that I’m glad to have you with us.’
‘Thank you,’ she said, faint colour in her cheeks. ‘I was hoping you wouldn’t think I was in the way. I mean, sometimes I feel that I’ve been rather foisted on Sheridan and Rodgers, and you, being a Rodgers, might have resented me since it was the Sheridans who brought me here.’
‘The thought never occurred to me,’ Michael told her. ‘Besides...’
‘What?’
‘I doubt if I’d have been consulted, anyway,’ he told her, with a small laugh.
‘Oh, but surely, since you’re a partner...’
He glanced at her, frowning. ‘I’m the son of James Sheridan’s partner,’ he said flatly. ‘I’ve no more authority than...’
‘John?’
‘Perhaps. You’re David Lyall’s daughter, aren’t you? The pearl man.’
‘Yes, but my parents are dead now, and I ... well, I’m having to work for my living.’
‘Not exactly for your living, surely. Not with your father fishing out pearls.’
She laughed. ‘And you a jeweller! I would have thought you would know that it isn’t all that easy to find really wonderful pearls, enough to become rich.’
‘No, but...’ He glanced at her curiously. ‘Never mind. I think Elizabeth said her father had been made your guardian or something.’
‘He’s my godfather, though we haven’t really seen much of the Sheridans over the years. My father kept in touch, and called in when he went to London on business. It’s awfully good of Uncle James and Aunt Lucille to give me a home like this.’
‘What were you doing otherwise?’
‘I had a flat in Perth, but Uncle James has seen to it all for me. It’s been let and the things I want to keep are in store.’
‘In store in Perth?’
‘Yes, though I’ve a few boxes and cases to go through here. I keep putting it off, but I’ll have to start to it all one of these days. I ... I’m only getting my sea legs back after ... after the accident,’ she said, a trifle shakily.
‘Poor Catherine!’ His eyes had grown rather soft as he looked down at her.
‘Oh, it’s all right,’ she said hastily. ‘I’m tons better now. Coming here has helped enormously.’
‘I’ve no doubt,’ he said, rather dryly. ‘They’ll make you very welcome. But don’t go grovelling with gratitude. Take it from me, there’s no need.’ His voice was suddenly harsh, and she felt an odd twinge of distaste when she looked up into his dark, moody face. This man was an enigma to her. He could be bright and charming, then in a moment she could feel an almost sulky moodiness in him, and a sort of smouldering anger. Against whom? At first she had wondered if it could be herself, but now she knew it wasn’t. Yet it would appear that Michael Rodgers had everything which should bring happiness to a young man ... good looks, a share in a fine, well established business, and someone as attractive and suitable as Elizabeth for his fiancée. He seemed to be welcomed into the Sheridan family, so what could be wrong?
‘Do you like being a jeweller?’ she asked suddenly, and he relaxed.
‘Love it,’ he told her briefly. ‘I’ve always been interested in clocks and watches ever since my grandfather used to hold his big hunter watch to my ear to listen to the ticking. Then I often watched my father taking a clock to pieces for mending...’ He broke off abruptly, and she saw the dark look coming back over his face. It was some years now since his father had died. Perhaps he had been at a difficult age for a boy to lose someone he loved.
Catherine felt her heart soften towards this dark man who, she felt now, was hiding some sort of unrest or unhappiness. She had fellow feeling for him, having felt the same empty loss herself. Perhaps Elizabeth could give him her love, but be unable to give him complete understanding over this. As yet she had been untouched by unhappiness of this sort, being a treasured member of a loving family.
Catherine put her fingers light on his arm.
‘You must miss him,’ she said softly, and was unaware of her own beauty, her face soft with compassion. Michael stared at her, and in that moment Elizabeth and John walked in, followed by Uncle James and Lucille.
The spell was broken, though for some reason Catherine felt oddly shaken and could only be aware of the magnetic quality of Michael’s eyes as they held hers.
Then, as though douched with cold water, she became aware of Elizabeth and John both staring at her, and she felt chastened. Surely Elizabeth could not imagine that she had been trying to ... to catch Michael’s interest. Or John either.
She sat back, confused, and was glad when the two older people started a new conversation, and she only need sit and listen. Elizabeth needn’t be jealous, she wanted to assure her. She could never attract Michael Rodgers while Elizabeth was around, and anyway, she wouldn’t dream of such a thing. She wasn’t the sort of girl to go round stealing other people’s boy-friends. Her heart had been given to Philip Neill.
The memory of Philip was beginning to fade a little. She still loved him, but it was gradually becoming the love of memory. Though she was far from falling in love with anyone else, Catherine assured herself. And certainly not with Michael Rodgers.
CHAPTER IV
On Sunday the cold weather of early spring suddenly vanished, and Catherine woke to warm sunshine and a new surge of life in the loud chorussing of the birds, and the bleating of new lambs in distant fields.
She threw open her bedroom window feeling some of the abundant youthful energy returning to her limbs, after the many weeks of lethargy following her accident.
Today John was taking her to Housesteads, which had been a Roman fort, now being excavated. Catherine had a passion for old ruins of this kind, and liked to allow her imagination to run riot as she looked at ancient buildings
, and thought about the sort of people who had built them, and lived in them so long ago.
John had warned her to go warmly clad, in spite of the sunshine, against the winds which blew across the great open spaces. She chose a russet-coloured trouser suit and stout brogues, so that she could cope with any climbing which might have to be done. Then she combed up her long soft dark hair into a topknot, and pinned it securely.
Excitement had brought colour to her cheeks, so that Mrs. Bannon smiled on her approvingly when she ran down into the large kitchen where a breakfast table was set in the window.
‘You’re beginning to look a lot better, Miss Catherine. I hope you’ve brought down a decent appetite. If so, it’s more than can be said for Miss Elizabeth, who only wants a cup of coffee, and her thin enough already, goodness knows.’
Elizabeth looked up rather tiredly.
‘Hello, Kate. Full of the joys of the morning, I see.’
Catherine coloured at the edge in the other girl’s voice.
‘John ... John said he’d take me to Housesteads,’ she said, stammering a little.
‘Oh, I see.’ Elizabeth pursed her lips, then she smiled a little. ‘Enjoy yourselves,’ she said, quite kindly.
‘It should be nice, though...’ Catherine looked round. ‘I hope John hasn’t forgotten. Maybe he doesn’t really want to go today.’