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A Pearl for Love

Page 12

by Mary Cummins


  John met her in the hall.

  ‘Catherine! I’ve been wondering...’

  ‘I’ve got a headache, John,’ she interrupted, rather wildly. ‘I’ll go straight up to bed. Say goodnight to everyone for me, will you?’

  She ran on upstairs, aware of his eyes following her till she dosed the bedroom door, then she prepared mechanically for bed, and lay between the sheets, her eyes hot and sandy when she tried to dose them.

  It was hours before she fell asleep.

  CHAPTER IX

  Catherine woke unrefreshed next morning, and decided that she would speak to Uncle James without delay, and clear up the suspicions which Michael had put into her mind. She came down to breakfast feeling composed and purposeful, but everyone was in rather a hurry, and Elizabeth only appeared at the last moment.

  Catherine paused as she looked at the other girl, her eyes suddenly full of concern. Elizabeth looked very pale as she quickly drank a cup of black coffee, then picked up her bag.

  ‘Elizabeth!’ she called. .

  ‘Yes?’

  ‘Are you sure you’re quite well?’

  ‘Quite well,’ said Elizabeth crisply, then as she turned to go out of the door, Catherine saw her fumble with the doorknob, then she ran to hold the other girl as her body slumped against the door. Uncle James was there almost before her, shouting to John, and it was John who carried his sister back upstairs to bed.

  It was a disrupted, difficult morning. After making sure that Aunt Lucille and Mrs. Bannon could cope, and ringing for the doctor, they had to leave for business, knowing that Miss Pryce and Mrs. Neal would be waiting for the keys.

  Uncle James rang home shortly after they were organised, and Catherine wasn’t surprised to hear that Elizabeth had nervous exhaustion, and would have to be quiet for several days. She had not been eating well, and the lack of food had weakened her physically.

  ‘Can you cope, do you think?’ Uncle James asked Catherine anxiously. ‘I’ll get someone new straight away ... a young man, I think, who could train for Michael’s job, when ... when Elizabeth is better.’

  ‘I’m sure Miss Pryce and I can cope,’ Catherine assured him, feeling sorry for James Sheridan. All of a sudden he seemed older, and she saw John viewing him with concern.

  ‘We’re well organised, Dad,’ John told him, ‘and Catherine is no passenger nowadays. She learns fast.’

  He gave her his warm smile, and she found herself responding, then she turned away and went to talk to Miss Pryce. If everything Michael had told her was the truth, then she would have to put John Sheridan out of her mind and heart.

  In fact, she wouldn’t be staying here, she thought rather wretchedly, looking round the lovely showroom which had become so familiar to her, and which she had begun to love. She now knew practically every piece of jewellery in the place, and she was sometimes consulted over stock when a representative called from the dealers in fine diamonds in Hatton Garden.

  Catherine now had quite a shrewd idea as to the demand for pearl and diamond earrings and brooches, and could select the ones most suited to her customers. She enjoyed this, and often felt a flow of pleasure when her own choice was sold soon after selection.

  Now she and Miss Pryce quickly organised their day so that they could work together without treading on one another’s toes. Miss Pryce was most ‘Concerned about Elizabeth, and Catherine realised how fond the older woman was of the girl.

  ‘She takes things too hard,’ she said, her bright dark eyes anxious. ‘That’s always been Elizabeth’s trouble. She tries to pretend she doesn’t care. I used to think she was jealous of you...’

  ‘There was no need. There is no need, ‘Catherine amended.

  ‘I know that now, but for a time I wondered.’

  Catherine said nothing more, and Miss Pryce took the hint and dropped the subject.

  Nevertheless the days were busy, even though a new young man was employed to start on Monday. He would be working under John, and he seemed a cheerful boy when he called to have his interview.

  ‘I expect I’ll be tea boy,’ he confided to Catherine, as he waited for James Sheridan to see him in the office. ‘I’m an expert at that. ‘

  ‘I hope you’ll also be an expert at behaving yourself,’ Miss Pryce told him sternly. ‘We’ve had expert tea boys before who forgot to wash their hands properly, and left sticky fingermarks on the best watches.’

  Ian Adams held out clean hands.

  ‘I don’t bite my fingernails either,’ he said, as he rose suddenly, being quickly summoned into the office.

  ‘I don’t know what lads are coming to these days,’ said Miss Pryce, though her eyes were twinkling. ‘The last one imitated a customer in a funny hat by putting the wash leather on his head, just out of range at the back of the shop. Only she saw him reflected in the mirror!’

  ‘Oh dear,’ said Catherine.

  ‘Yes ... Oh, dear!’

  On Saturday Elizabeth was looking a little stronger, and John came to find Catherine. He had been speaking on the telephone, no doubt to Rosalie.

  ‘I think we have a date,’ he informed her. ‘We could go out for a meal, then on to a symphony concert. It’s mainly Beethoven, and I can just about manage that.’

  ‘You mean we’re going with someone ... with a party?’

  ‘No, just you and me,’ he said firmly, ‘on our own.’

  ‘Oh ... well...’

  ‘I’m flattered that you leap at the chance of going with me,’ he told her ruefully, and she couldn’t help smiling.

  ‘Oh, all right, John. I’ll be ready in a moment. I’ll just see if Elizabeth is O.K.’

  ‘She can have Rosalie Craven to talk to. She’s coming round in a short while. Hurry up, Kate, do.’

  Catherine hurried, her mind busy. John was running away again, and at one time she had felt annoyed that he just did not stand up and put Rosalie in her place.

  But there was no doubt that the other girl was very difficult to shake off, as she had been when she got to know her better. John wasn’t soft, and sooner or later he could turn into a mass of iron when driven too far.

  But he hated hurting people. Catherine had seen that, too, when he had been thoughtless in the house, and had suddenly been made to realise it.

  Now Catherine’s mind was turning again to Michael Rodgers. It had been on her mind such a lot, and she had not been able to talk it over with anyone. Perhaps she could find an opportunity to talk it over with John.

  It was obvious to John that Catherine’s mind was not wholly on the concert. She had talked and laughed during the evening, but always her eyes had become grave and questioning as they looked at him, and he felt it was time to speak about their future once again. Perhaps, by now, Catherine would have had time to think about his proposal, and nerves gripped him when he thought that her answer might now be very different.

  As he led her back to the car, the warmth of the evening and the beauty of the music he had just heard still with him, John was very silent, but he quickly drove to a quiet place he knew quite near home, and stopped the car, then turned to Catherine.

  ‘I ... I’ve got to ask you, Catherine...’ he began.

  ‘And I’ve got to ask you,’ she interrupted, ‘something very important.’

  ‘What?’ he asked, his heart racing.

  ‘Is it true that my father found a rather wonderful pearl just before he died?’

  John felt his heart sink with disappointment, and Catherine could almost feel the life go out of him. So it was true!

  ‘Yes,’ he told her quietly. ‘Have you found it, dear? I ... I’m very glad for you. We were afraid...’

  ‘So that was it!’ she cried. Somehow it had not seemed quite real until now, but if Michael had been right about that, then he was probably right about everything else.

  ‘That was it,’ she repeated. You all wanted me because you knew I’ve got something of value. And I was stupid enough to think you ... you wanted me for myself.’
r />   ‘But, Catherine, I do...’

  ‘Don’t try to make it better by lying to me, John,’ she said. ‘Is it also true that your father bought out Mr. Rodgers just when the firm was getting on its feet?’

  ‘Who told you that? Who’s been speaking to you?’

  ‘Who else could have told me but Michael himself. I ... I didn’t believe what he told me, but now I do. Now I believe that you use people for your own ends, you and Uncle James. What will you do now that I’ve gone over all Dad’s things, and I can’t find the pearl? Throw me out, as you’ve thrown Michael out?’

  ‘No,’ said John icily. ‘I’m going to take you home. Obviously I can’t talk to you while you throw all these wild accusations at me ... and my father. You’ve listened to Mike Rodgers, and accepted all he said for gospel. Yet one thing we do ask of our employees is loyalty, and we’ve been having precious little from him.’

  ‘Only because you forced it on him. He had learned to protect his interests.’

  ‘Is that what you believe? Is that why my sister has worried herself sick ... really sick! She’s pretty straight-dealing herself, and it was his treachery which threw Elizabeth. That’s what she can’t get over. I don’t think even Father realises that, though I do. I know her pretty well, and it’s no good asking me to have sympathy for Mike Rodgers.’

  John had gone cold and hard again in his anger, and Catherine sat beside him, miserably, as he started up the car engine again. His anger was mixed with keen disappointment that his hopes had disappeared in a hurl of accusations.

  ‘I’ll see Uncle James tomorrow,’ said Catherine. ‘I expect he’ll want me to go. I don’t know what Dad can have done with the pearl, so if you and he wanted it for your own ends, I’m sorry to disappoint you.’

  ‘You may not have the pearl, but you’ve certainly got imagination. I suppose it’s no use telling you that we thought we were protecting your interests, that we took you to live with us because we wanted you, and that I consider it fine reward if you walk out now, just when you’re beginning to be responsible enough to be of use to the firm. We no longer have Michael, which is no doubt an asset rather than anything else, though he did work sometimes.

  ‘Elizabeth is ill, and my father beginning to feel his age, as I’ve no doubt Prycey is too, though she would murder me for saying so. The boy is so new that he hardly knows one gem stone from another. So if you want to walk out, do so. No doubt Mike’s got a nice job all lined up for you, and can afford to offer you a higher salary than we can.’

  He had stopped the car, and the front door of the house was dancing up and down before the tears in her eyes.

  Quickly she blinked them away as she got out of the car, then inside the house they were forgotten as Lucille met them in the hall.

  ‘Oh, I’m glad you’re back,’ she greeted them. ‘I ... I’m afraid Elizabeth is rather ill again. She ... she said she felt so much better and wanted to come downstairs, so ... so I let her. Only I was so busy getting everything ready for her, I forgot to tell her not to come down on her own and ... and she fell down the stairs. She must have had a giddy spell again. James is with her now, and there’s a nurse coming. I ... I thought you were the nurse.’

  John’s eyes met Catherine’s, and together they went to Lucille.

  ‘‘It’s all right, darling, we’ll take care of everything. Obviously she’s not so bad, or the doctor would have moved her to hospital.’

  ‘There’s nothing broken, but she’s bruised and shocked.’

  ‘Can I see her?’ asked Catherine.

  ‘I expect so. Just for a moment. Oh, John, there’s the nurse now.’

  Catherine ran on upstairs before the nurse took charge, feeling that she wanted to see Elizabeth, if only for a moment. There was a great pain in her heart, which she had thought was anger at how she herself had been treated, but now it was for Elizabeth ... and not a little for John. She had seen the anguish in his eyes as they looked at her, and she knew that in spite of everything, she loved him. And she loved Elizabeth, too. She loved her courage and self-discipline, and she felt compassion for her now that the courage which had made her get out of bed and try to face everything again had led her to further pain and illness.

  Uncle James looked up tiredly when she slipped silently into the bedroom. Elizabeth had a bruise on her cheek, and her eyes were closed.

  ‘She’s still sleeping,’ he said. ‘The doctor gave her something.’

  ‘The nurse is here,’ said Catherine softly.

  ‘Well, thank goodness for that. She’ll take proper care of her. The doctor says she’s been very lucky. I ... we think she only fell a few steps, and the stairs are broad and shallow. It could have been a lot worse.’

  ‘Was it a giddy spell?’

  ‘Either that or she tripped on that long robe of hers. We don’t know. Lucille only heard her fall, and Mrs. Bannon was upstairs in the bathroom. Elizabeth should have waited, and not come down by herself.’

  A moment later Lucille appeared with the nurse, a cheerful robust woman who quickly took charge. Catherine took another long look at Elizabeth before she left the room, and knew that this certainly was not the time to have things out with Uncle James. That would have to wait till Elizabeth was a great deal better.

  The days were busy ones, and in the evenings Catherine spent some time sitting beside Elizabeth’s bed and telling her about any amusing incidents which had happened during the day.

  Quite a few of the representatives who called regularly were now friends, and they would send their best wishes to her for a speedy recovery. Catherine always tried to make her visits as bright as possible and soon she felt that Elizabeth looked forward to her coming. She was careful never to mention Michael’s name, or to discuss the pearl her father had found, in case it brought him into the conversation.

  ‘I still ache all over,’ Elizabeth told her ruefully one evening. ‘I feel such a fool that I should fall downstairs like that.’

  ‘What happened?’ Catherine asked.

  ‘That’s the funny part—I just don’t remember. I remember thinking I’d had enough of bed, and deciding to come downstairs for an hour or two, then ... well, I must have knocked myself out.’

  ‘Well, don’t worry about it or Nurse will put me out.’

  They looked at each other and grinned, just as John put his head round the door. His face changed when he saw Catherine, and she stood up, her smile sobering.

  ‘I’ll go now, Elizabeth. John can take my place.’

  ‘I’ve no wish to chase you away.’

  ‘I was going anyway,’ she said crisply. I have things I must attend to.’

  She heard Elizabeth’s clear voice asking what was wrong as she closed the door, and she felt chagrined. John had caught her off guard. They had no wish to bother Elizabeth with their private quarrel, she was sure. No doubt John would soon set her mind at rest, however.

  In her own room Catherine began, again, to look through her personal possessions, this time with a much clearer eye, now that she knew why she was searching. Uncle James had impressed on her, previously, that she must not throw anything away, unless she was sure it wasn’t needed, and she now knew why this was so. Remembering, she had no fears that she had inadvertently thrown the pearl away.

  It hadn’t been among her father’s personal things. She had helped her mother to go through everything, and her mother had sent everything to a charity.

  Now all the papers were tidy, and much easier to examine, as were other personal things such as old pieces of jewellery and watches in a jewellery box, some favourite ornaments now on the mantelpiece, books, her father’s old pipes and tobacco jar, also on the mantelpiece.

  Catherine peered into the tobacco jar, and wondered if she ought to throw out the small amount of tobacco which was left. Her mother had just kept such personal things as they were, probably taking comfort from having them there.

  Catherine got a newspaper and tipped out the tobacco, since it was the one
place she had not yet looked. It hadn’t seemed necessary before she knew about the pearl, but now everywhere must be searched.

  Her heart bounded when she saw the tissue paper, and her fingers trembled as she opened it up and looked at the pearl. It was very beautiful, but a second careful scrutiny showed her that it wasn’t quite so perfect as the one she had seen in Perth. Nevertheless, it was probably very valuable, and she wrapped it up carefully again, and put it back where she had found it. She must think about all this, wondering if her mother had once done that very thing, or if she had never known about it at all. At the moment her mind seemed to be scarcely working at all.

  Why hadn’t Uncle James told her? Why hadn’t he asked about the pearl? She could easily have thrown out the jar, and lost it for ever.

  But no ... he knew she would never part with any of her father’s things. She remembered that she wanted to keep everything when he offered to attend to the removal and storage of her furniture. Perhaps he wanted to look for it himself! Was that it? And when he didn’t find it, he encouraged her to look through everything carefully, knowing that sooner or later she would find it. He would know that her father hadn’t sold the pearl, or the find would have become widely known.

  She puzzled over it for a long time, until Aunt Lucille came to ask her if she was feeling all right, and if she wouldn’t like a hot drink before bedtime.

  ‘Coming,’ said Catherine. ‘I ... I’m sorry, Aunt Lucille. I’ve been rather busy, tidying up.’

 

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