by Iris Danbury
She decided after lunch and her siesta next day to go down to swim in the sea instead of the Villa s swimming pool. She went down the long path to the beach house, pushed open the door which was rarely locked, and kicked off her shoes. She reached for a towel and a voice behind her said, “Hallo, Nicky!”
Nicola spun round, hex spine tingling with fear that reached the back of her head. Who would say, “Hallo, Nicky,” in English? Who but her sister Lisa?
But this girl leaning nonchalantly against a cupboard, could she possibly be Lisa?
Nicola forced herself to move closer to the girl, peering at the blonde hair, the deep sun-tanned features that somehow seemed coarser than Lisa’s remembered face. Only the dark brown eyes seemed to belong.
“Well, can’t you say something?” said the girl. “You seem bowled over, but I’m not a ghost.”
“Lisa!” whispered Nicola in awed amazement. “Can it really be you?”
The girl smiled. “That’s better! At least you can remember my name.”
“But where—where have you been all this time? And why did you disappear?”
Lisa smiled. “It’s a long story. Let’s sit down and be comfortable.” She moved towards a cane chair and sat down. Nicola remained standing for a few moments; she, too, felt the need of support for her trembling legs and sat on the long, cushioned settee.
“We can’t stay here long,” Nicola said, “in case someone else comes down here to bathe.”
“Long enough,” replied Lisa confidently. “In any case it doesn’t matter who finds me here. I could easily be a friend of yours, or a new member of the staff, or a neighbour.”
“How did you find this place down here on the beach? It’s private.”
“Oh, I know. Belongs to the Montals. Dr. Sebastian Montal and his family. But anyone can walk through the gates of the Villa Ronda and down the path to this beach.”
“It was lucky that I happened to come down here today,” said Nicola, with a shiver of apprehension. “Supposing someone else had come!”
Lisa smiled. “I’ve been here since yesterday. As a matter of fact, I thought you were never coming.”
“Since yesterday?” The words hit Nicola like a blow. “You mean you’ve slept here?”
Lisa nodded. “Not too comfortably, I must admit. And if you hadn’t shown up today, I’d have been forced to call at the front door of the Villa and ask for you.”
“Why didn’t you?” asked Nicola, and knew in that instant with burning shame that she was thankful that Lisa had not done so.
“I thought it would be easier to talk if I met you first before you revealed all, that your missing sister had been found, and so on.”
Nicola held her head with both hands. “I don’t understand a single thing. You invite me to come to Spain, then you disappear without a word, leaving no address. The job I was supposed to take over from you had also disappeared, for you left it weeks before.”
Lisa laughed softly. “That’s the good Patrick who told you that.”
“Naturally. I was anxious about what had happened to you, and I still don’t know.”
“For a sister who appeared so concerned over my disappearance, Nicola, you’ve shown remarkably little joy at my return. Not so much as a kiss of welcome!”
“I’m still trying to get over the shock,” muttered Nicola, “but of course I’m glad to find you again.” She rose and embraced Lisa, but again she was aware of a strange revulsion.
“I hope you are. Glad, I mean, at finding me—or perhaps at my finding you, for I promise you, Nicola, things are going to be different from now on.”
Nicola smiled for the first time at her sister with some affection. “Oh, Lisa, I hope so!” she said warmly. “I really have been worried. All those debts—”
“Oh, I can explain those. You see, when I came here and found that deadly job in the wine place, I only took it as a stopgap. You know me, Nicola. You know very well that it wasn’t at all my type of job. All the men, too, were just as dull. Then I met Tony. He worked in one of the big tourist companies—oh, he was marvellous! Handsome, accomplished, lots of money. We went everywhere. He gave me a wonderful time.”
“Was he English?” queried Nicola.
“Oh, yes. He spoke four or five foreign languages and he had friends of all nationalities. Then we became engaged.” Lisa leaned towards her sister. “You know, Nicola, I thought I was smart where men were concerned. I thought I could see through those who were sham. Yet I believed Tony was different.”
“What happened?”
“On the strength of my engagement I launched out into some decent clothes for once. Tony gave me a beautiful ring, a large, square-cut emerald. Also at first he took care of all my bills. I took the flat in the Paseo Maritimo and enjoyed myself hugely with entertaining all our friends.”
“And then?” prompted Nicola.
Lisa sighed. “A sad disillusionment. He vanished. I received a letter breaking off our engagement owing to circumstances he couldn’t control, he said. He was clearing out abroad somewhere else. I found out afterwards that he’d taken some of the tourist agency’s money with him—or so it was hinted. As for me, I was left flat broke, with no job and nothing but a few clothes not paid for and a lot of bills.”
“Oh, I know something about the bills,” Nicola said grimly.
“At first I was so angry that this sort of thing could happen to me. Then I remembered the emerald ring. That ought to fetch something.” Lisa laughed harshly. “It did! About three hundred pesetas—a couple of pounds or so. It turned out to be glass rather nicely mounted. So now I was boiling with rage, and when I heard that he’d probably gone to San Fernando, I followed.”
“San Fernando? But I was there until a few days ago.”
“I know. I was there at the harbour when you arrived on that stylish yacht.”
“So it could have been you I saw along the Paseo? But that girl had dark hair.”
Lisa shook her head. “That wasn’t me. You practically looked straight at me and didn’t recognise me. It’s astonishing what a change of hair colour can do. I’ve been blonde a long time now.”
Momentarily Nicola remembered Sebastian’s words about “. . . searching for a girl who does not exist ...” “And did you find Tony in San Fernando?” she asked.
“Not a hope. He probably let it be supposed that he’d gone there, knowing that I might follow. He’s probably safely in South America by now.” There was only the faintest trace of bitterness in Lisa’s tone.
After a moment Nicola asked, “Why didn’t you make yourself known to me if you saw me arrive from the yacht?”
“It wasn’t discreet for me to do so then.”
“But it is now? Why?”
Lisa hung her arm over the back of her chair and regarded Nicola with amusement. “I have to make my decisions as I go along and I thought it might be more advantageous—more advisable, shall we say?—to wait until you were back here again at the doctor’s villa.”
“If you didn’t find Tony, what were you living on in San Fernando?” demanded Nicola, sensing a premonition of danger.
“I wasn’t doing too badly. I landed in a revue put on for the English and American tourists. Not the sort of show that your fine Spanish friends would patronise, of course, but quite respectable.”
“And I suppose you’ve now walked out on that?”
“Nicky, you’re taking a very schoolmarmish attitude. Forget you’re my elder sister. In some ways you’re still a ten-year-old, absolutely innocent of the evils of this wicked world.”
It was on the tip of Nicola’s tongue to retort that perhaps she hadn’t taken the chance to explore the so-called wicked world and its evils, but that would have been unkind to Lisa who had been forced to fight her own battles for the last year or more. Instead, she asked a question that had been puzzling her for the last few minutes. “How did you find out where I was living?”
Lisa lit a cigarette before replying. Then she gave
her sister an oblique glance. “No doubt the devoted Patrick always knows where you’re likely to be?”
“You mean you’ve been in touch with him all the time? He didn’t even know the address of your new flat on the Paseo Maritimo.”
“Of course he did!” Lisa’s tone was derisive. “He came to parties there several times.”
“I don’t believe it,” Nicola retorted abruptly. “Patrick isn’t like that. He did all he could to help me to trace you.”
“Naturally. That gave him the chance of seeing you whenever he wanted to.”
Nicola was bewildered. Could Patrick have been in Lisa’s confidence all this time and only pretended that he disliked her?
“Tell me,” continued Lisa, “have you fallen just a little for Patrick? He has a certain charm.”
“I agree he has charm,” returned Nicola steadily, “but I haven’t fallen for him, and if I had it wouldn’t be much use, would it? Didn’t you know that he’s engaged to a girl in England?”
Lisa’s mouth curled in a smile. “Oh, yes. Whether he’ll ever go back and marry her is quite another matter. Isn’t it odd, Nicola, how men take refuge behind an engagement and use it as a kind of shield to fend off all the other attractive girls within reach? If they only knew, it makes them much more vulnerable.”
“Perhaps only to girls like you. I’d prefer Patrick to be loyal to his fiancée.”
“Oh, yes, of course, I’d forgotten. You had the experience of David marrying that other girl, didn’t you?”
But Nicola was not eager to pursue the subject of that old heartbreak. “Was it also Patrick who told you that I was coming to San Fernando? Or was it just a lucky coincidence that you happened to be at the harbour when I came ashore?”
Lisa shook her head. “Ruben, my faithful spy, let me know that you’d be coming with the Montals and others on a very expensive-looking yacht.”
“Who’s Ruben?” demanded Nicola.
“You saw him once when he called at the flat.”
“That dark young man who raced off when he found me there instead of you? I saw him again at least once and he refused to recognise me.”
“You couldn’t expect him to do that. Too dangerous.”
“Dangerous? What danger was there in letting me know where you were, that you were safe, that I needn’t worry about you?” Nicola’s blue eyes blazed with anger and she tripped herself impetuously into a disclosure that she had not intended to make at that moment. “You left plenty of debts behind. Did the faithful Ruben also tell you who paid those bills?”
Lisa stared blankly at Nicola. Then she burst into laughter. “Don’t tell me, Nicky, that you were fool enough to pay them!”
“Fool or not, I have paid most of them.”
“Good heavens!” exclaimed Lisa. “Whatever for? The sake of the family honour? Once I was out of the way, no one could have done a thing about payment. You’re really greener than I thought you were.”
“I shall never understand you, Lisa,” Nicola said sadly.
“Don’t try!” snapped the other. “We’re two entirely different persons.”
“Yes, we are,” agreed Nicola. “With different ideas about living and occasionally consideration for other people.”
“You’re afraid of life, Nicky. You’re too timid to laugh out and challenge fate.”
“I’m certainly afraid of living beyond my means and at other people’s expense.”
Lisa smiled. “Oh, a few debts to shops. They could afford it. Their prices were high enough.” She stubbed out her cigarette. “Well, we must talk about my future.”
“Yes,” agreed Nicola. “Obviously you can’t stay here in this beach chalet place. What are your plans?”
Lisa flung out her hands. “I haven’t any. I thought you’d be able to form some for me.”
“But, Lisa, how do I know what you want to do? You don’t like working in an office. You’ve tried modelling. You worked in this revue in San Fernando. Nothing pleases you for more than a short time.”
Lisa smiled mischievously. “Nothing that sounds like work pleases me.”
“Well, now that you’re back here—and you’ve very little in the way of debts to hinder you—haven’t you any friends who would help you? I don’t suppose Patrick is of much use to you, but there are probably other people.”
“Who could be of greater help than my own sister?” queried Lisa in her most innocent tone.
“You know I’ll help you all I can, but how? What can I do?”
“You seem to have found a very comfortable post yourself. Trot around after Mademoiselle Adrienne, type a page or two for the doctor—and then enjoy yourself with all mod. cons.”
“You can’t expect me to find a similar job for you!”
“Why not? Preferably one without the work thrown in!”
“But, Lisa, be reasonable. I can’t hide you here, but equally, I can’t dump you on to the Montals. It’s not my house.”
“Who said anything about dumping me on the Montals?” demanded Lisa, and her dark eyes glittered with indignation. “You’ve found yourself a nice soft living and I want to live in the same high style. Why shouldn’t I? We’re sisters. Surely you can share and share alike with me? If I were on top, you’d expect me to share my good fortune with you, wouldn’t you?”
Lisa’s outburst left Nicola amazed and perplexed.
“All right, then. Where am I supposed to have found you? Skulking in a beach chalet?”
“Oh, we can invent something better than that. My good friend Ruben can always act as go-between. We could stage a most dramatic meeting. Then you can take me to Dr. Montal’s house and introduce me as your long-lost and thankfully-found sister.”
Nicola sighed. “You could stay there for a time, of course, but there can’t be anything permanent.”
“We’ll see.”
“I could give you a little money today. I’ve none down here, of course. You could go to one of the small hotels in Orsola and wait until I come. I could then ask Dr. Montal for permission to bring you to his house for the time being.”
“No, Nicky, that won’t do.” Lisa spoke coldly. “It seems to me that you’ve gone up in the world and now you’re ashamed of this sister that you’re supposed to have been searching for. I want to start living in the Villa Ronda straightaway.”
“That’s impossible.”
“Why? You can’t give me one good reason, except that you want to keep everything selfishly to yourself. I’ll give you until the doctor comes home this evening, so that you can break the good news to him. I’ll be sitting in a nearby corner of the garden and you can then invite me into the house and introduce me.”
When Nicola remained silent, thinking over this extraordinary proposition, Lisa continued, “Of course, there is an alternative. I could just come to the front door of the Villa and announce that I, too, am a Senorita Brettell. Spanish hospitality being what it is, I could certainly be welcomed, even if I were your cousin fourth removed.”
“No, it would be better for me to tell the doctor first,” Nicola decided hurriedly. “I’ll go back to the Villa now. D’you want anything to eat? How did you get on if you’ve been here since yesterday?”
“Oh, I didn’t mean I’d been sitting here waiting for you to condescend to come down to swim. I roamed around Orsola, found out quite a bit more about the Montals, drank a coffee here, ate a snack there. I’m not absolutely destitute.”
“Have you any luggage? Where is it?” asked Nicola. Lisa pointed to a small overnight bag on the floor near a chair. “A few essentials. The rest I can send for when I have a new permanent address.”
Nicola returned up the long path to the Villa Ronda, her mind in turmoil, her heart heavy with foreboding. Yet she took herself to task for an instinctive lack of the kind of spontaneous and cordial welcome that she had imagined she would give to Lisa when they eventually met.
“What’s wrong with me?” she asked aloud of the tree-bordered path. “I ought to
be overjoyed to see her again.”
She made excuses that Lisa had changed not only in appearance but character. Yet she knew that Lisa’s nature had not really changed. It was only the circumstances that came into Lisa’s life. Lisa had always been an opportunist.
In Sebastian’s cool study, Nicola sat at the small desk and turned over the typewritten pages she still had to copy. She both longed for and dreaded Sebastian’s return. How could she be sure that Lisa would stay down at the beach and amuse herself by swimming or sunbathing? It was just as likely that she would walk into the Villa whenever she was tired of being alone.
Sebastian came home fairly early and Nicola plunged straight into her news. She felt that if she put it off even for a single moment she would never have the courage to tell him. Yet she did not know why she should have this curious reluctance.
“But that’s very good news,” Sebastian commented. “You must be immensely relieved. How did you find her?”
In her distress Nicola had forgotten Lisa’s suggestion that Ruben could act as messenger. “I—I think a friend was in touch with her and gave her this address.”
“So she was not in San Fernando after all.”
Nicola let that slip by. There was no point in complicating matters unnecessarily.