by Susan Barrie
Humphrey greeted Frederica with an amazingly appreciative smile, as if he was really quite pleased to see her again, and suggested he take her for a stroll in the woods. They were wonderful beech woods that enclosed the Appleby Manor estate, and if he recollected rightly she had a fondness for woods.
Sir Adrian went to have a nap, and Lady Dillinger retired to write letters, and the two of them wandered off, Frederica feeling a little awkward because she couldn’t help feeling it was not exactly a conventional thing for an employer to do to wander in the woods with the young woman who drove his cars.
However, he was obviously in high spirits, and no sooner had they reached the welcome shade of the first sylvan outcrop of trees than he told her the reason why he was feeling temporarily exhilarated.
“I’ve been turning Lady Dillinger into a Mother Confessor, and she knows all about my marriage plans! She’s delighted ... and I might say so am I!”
He picked up a clump of moss and tossed it exuberantly skywards. Then he turned to Frederica and smiled.
“Won’t you congratulate me, too, Frederica?”
Frederica stammered.
“You must realise I haven’t the least idea whom you’re planning to marry...”
“Haven’t you?” There was a wicked expression on his face—wickedly amused. “But I did say that, for quite a little pitcher, you have exceptionally long ears, didn’t I?”
She turned pale—perhaps because it was very hot in the wood.
“You mean—you mean—?”
“Last night?” His expression was debonair, and his eyes sparkled. “Tell me exactly what you overheard last night,” he commanded. “And tell me precisely what you deduced from it.”
Frederica sent him an agonised look.
“You’re going to marry Rosaleen?”
The sparkling eyes confronting her confused her. “And you wish me happy?” he said. “You wish me madly happy, I’m sure!” He moved closer to her, playing with her, she felt, as a cat plays with a mouse. “If I’m to be your brother-in-law, Frederica, hadn’t you better congratulate me? And if we’re to be linked by the ties of marriage, what about accompanying your congratulations with a kiss? I’m quite sure your mother will kiss me when she hears the news!”
Frederica half turned as if to run away from him, but he caught her hands and, laughing rather cruelly, drew her up against him. He tilted back her head so that he could see into her eyes, and the desperate expression in them seemed to give him greater cause for satisfaction. He actually uttered something that sounded like a throaty exclamation of approval, accompanied with a lighthearted laugh, and then she felt his arms imprisoning her and his hard masculine mouth pressed firmly upon hers.
The distant tops of the trees and the far away glimpses of blue sky performed an eccentric dance while he refused to let her go, and the kiss went on and on. And when, abruptly, he drew back and looked down at her in an extraordinary fashion, while he even looked pale in the gloom of the trees, she would have staggered and fallen if his arms hadn’t still held her.
“Well,” he said, “for a future sister-in-law, and my own personal chauffeur, you have quite a lot to offer! Your lips are eminently kissable, and if you asked me I’d say that you didn’t object too strongly to having them taken advantage of in the depths of a silent wood—!”
But the wood was no longer silent. The old butler was crushing the undergrowth as he sought hurriedly to find them, and it was necessary only to glance at his face to realise that something was wrong.
“Sir Adrian, sir ...” he stammered. “He’s been taken ill, and we’ve sent for the doctor! Lady Dillinger ... Lady Dillinger would like to see you, sir!”
“Of course.” Lestrode straightened and put aside Frederica, and from that moment he obviously forgot her entirely as he strode through the wood and back to the house. He had paused only long enough to receive the information that it was a heart attack, and the information seemed to galvanise him into action.
After all, Sir Adrian was a very old friend, and a friend of his father before him.
Frederica and the butler followed through the wood. Frederica stumbled slightly as she trod close in the tracks of the extremely agitated manservant.
It was no moment for remembering that she had just received a serious affront, and normally she would be boiling with indignation.
Lady Dillinger was in a state bordering on collapse herself when they reached the house, and Frederica was provided with all the distraction she needed when she found that on her devolved the task of not only comforting but supporting her until the doctor arrived. The butler’s wife was with Sir Adrian in his study, and as she was a very capable woman there was no need of much assistance in that quarter. What little assistance the housekeeper needed—and it was mostly moral support—was supplied by Humphrey Lestrode as soon as he entered the study.
Sir Adrian had suffered these attacks before, but this one was particularly serious. Between Lestrode and the doctor he was successfully manoeuvred upstairs to his room, and once in bed the latter was able to give him his full attention, and pronounced that, following upon rest and treatment, he would recover.
He had been overdoing things lately, testing his fragile strength to the utmost, and rest was all-important if he was to recover. .
Lady Dillinger was so relieved by the verdict that she quickly recovered from her near-prostration, but she appealed to Frederica to stay with her until the following day, when she would have had more opportunity to recover herself, and the news of her husband might be even better than it was at the moment.
Frederica, who had carefully avoided meeting her employer’s eyes from the moment they returned to the house, and they found out precisely what awaited them, had to turn to him and request permission to stay with Lady Dillinger, at any rate for one night. She was genuinely concerned for Lady Dillinger, and quite shocked about Sir Adrian, but the memory of what had happened in the wood was pressing like a sharp thorn at the back of her mind, and she knew she would never forgive Lestrode for his insufferable conduct. The fact that he had actually thought she might enjoy being kissed by him made her feel physically sick whenever she recalled the cool insolence of his assumption. It was apparently not enough for him that one sister should be willing to marry him. He had to boost his morale by ascertaining whether or not the other sister might have succumbed to his charms if he had chosen to select her for his attentions rather than Rosaleen, who was so much more suitable in every way to become the wife of such a successful man.
Frederica wished she had seized the opportunity to smack his face with vigour in return for the sheer impertinence of his behaviour; and but for the timely appearance of the butler on the scene she might very well have done so. In fact, she was quite certain that she would have done that very thing ... and that was the only comfort she had—that she might have left her imprint on his arrogantly good-looking face if the badly alarmed manservant hadn’t preserved him in time.
There was not a single moment once they returned to the house when she found herself alone with him, and Lady Dillinger was sitting in her chair in the drawing-room and looking extraordinarily pathetic when Frederica turned to him and put her question about staying the night.
“I’m sure you can do without me,” she said stiffly, “and Lady Dillinger, as you can see, is still very upset.”
“Of course.” But Lestrode was pacing up and down in front of the flower-filled fireplace and looking very thoughtful, and somehow not at all as if he was concentrating entirely on the troubles of his host and hostess. “Of course,” he repeated.
But he turned and frowned at Frederica.
“You will, however, be collected in the morning. Lady Dillinger, I’m sure, will be much more like herself after she’s had a good night’s rest.”
The old lady beamed at him gratefully through the watery tears that kept trickling down her cheeks. She wiped one of them away with a wisp of fine cambric as she thanked him in so many words
.
“It is good of you, Humphrey ... and you do realise I’m still feeling rather shaken.”
“Don’t mention it.” He bent over her with a smile and lightly touched the waves of her silky white hair with one of his strong, brown, and very shapely hands. “You know perfectly well I wouldn’t leave you without anyone to keep you company, and as a matter of fact Frederica can stay with you for a few days if you’d like her to do so.” He glanced upwards at Frederica with rather a questioning look in his eyes, and then patted his old friend’s hands. “I can do without her ... that is to say I can do without her services for as long as you want her, but I must insist that you allow me to visit her—and you and Adrian, of course—at any time I feel like it!”
“Dear boy!” The wan and watery eyes smiled still more gratefully into his. “That is exceptionally kind of you, but no more than I would have expected knowing how you always react in difficult circumstances. Of course you can visit us whenever you please ... and I shall look forward to seeing you whenever you can make it convenient to drive all this way to Appleby Manor. Thank goodness you don’t really need anyone to drive you about...”
“Don’t I?” He smiled at her more whimsically. “But it’s good for my ego having someone like Frederica at the wheel of my car.”
For the first time Lady Dillinger looked slightly doubtful.
“She’s such a little thing to drive such a big car as yours,” she protested. “I know young women nowadays do all sorts of things that I wouldn’t have thought of doing when I was young, but it does seem a little risky ... I mean, she can’t have much strength in those slim wrists of hers when it comes to changing a tyre, and that sort of thing. But perhaps you have an arrangement about that?” looking up at him hopefully.
Lestrode looked towards his chauffeuse and smiled with a strong tinge of the old mockery.
“Oh, yes, we have an arrangement about that,” he assured the old lady. “I do it myself!”
A minute later he invited Frederica to walk to the front door with him and see him off the premises.
“I’ll have some of your things sent over,” he promised her. “Perhaps Rosaleen can pack you a case, and fortunately the gardener can drive. I don’t suppose I’ll be able to tear myself away from the members of your family who happen to be my guests at the moment, to say nothing of Bob Rawlinson—who likes to be looked after properly when he condescends to pay me a visit.”
Frederica refused to meet his eyes.
“I’m sure Rosaleen would hate it if you had to come all the way over here to Appleby Manor again tonight,” she observed in a voice like the drip of ice.
He studied her intently for a moment, and she wondered whether it was yet too late to smack his face for what had happened in the wood.
All at once their eyes met—her resentful green ones, and his slightly worried dark ones—and in addition to the worry there was a slightly rueful expression as well.
“What a little bundle of bad temper you are, aren’t you,” he remarked suddenly, with a strong note of irritation in his voice. “And worse than that, I find you stupid!”
“Thank you, Mr. Lestrode,” she returned icily.
“Don’t mention it.” He swung away from her on his heel. “Of course, if there is any further trouble here you must let me know. I don’t wish you to feel I’ve abandoned you, and you’ve got to cope with all sorts of eventualities. I’m sure Sir Adrian will recover very quickly, but he’s elderly, and one can never be certain. If you’re bothered at all just ring Farthing Hall. If I’m out Lucille will pass on your message.”
“Thank you,” she replied again, in the same tone as before.
He glanced at her for a moment as if exasperated, and then ran away from her down the steps to his car, which she had left standing on the drive.
“Don’t forget!” He glanced up at her sharply. “If anything goes wrong, let me know!”
She watched him as he entered the car. He had said nothing further about visiting either her or Lady Dillinger while she was at the manor, and a cold contemptuous curl of resentment altered purely temporarily the attractive shape of her lips.
He waved a hand as he drove away, but he had no further injunctions to lay upon her. She was quite sure he was seething inwardly because if she had been a man there would have been no question of her being left behind to keep Lady Dillinger company. Not that he objected to Lady Dillinger being supported in her hour of trouble, but he would have preferred it if the responsibility for the support had not fallen upon a useful employee of his—particularly at a time when he had other matters on hand.
Very important matters.
Fortunately Sir Adrian made a quick recovery, and by the afternoon of the following day he was even allowed out of bed, and the day after that he sat outside in the garden for an hour or two. Lady Dillinger had quite recovered her spirits and her optimism, and although it seemed to delight her having Frederica with her there was no real need for the girl to continue staying with her once Sir Adrian appeared to be clearly on the mend.
The butler’s wife was very able, and quite a support, and there was an excellent daily woman who came in from the village and was also much relied upon by Lady Dillinger. Frederica could think of no real reason why she should continue as a guest at Appleby Manor; but at the same time, having had plenty of opportunity to think the situation over, she had no intention whatsoever of returning to Farthing Hall. After that little scene in the wood, when her employer had taken her completely by surprise—revealing a curious callous side to his nature she quite honestly had not suspected existed—she felt it would be intolerable to return to the manor and take her orders from Lestrode. If he wanted to marry her sister, well he could marry her ... and Electra almost certainly would be delighted. In fact, she would be extremely disappointed if he didn’t marry Rosaleen.
But that was no reason why a girl like Frederica, who had never had to put up with anything of the kind before, should have to submit to humiliating treatment just because the man in question was about to become her brother-in-law.
If he ever did become her brother-in-law she could cope with him; but as her employer and her brother-in-law she could not ... quite apart from her own secret knowledge that he attracted her in a way that covered her in humiliation, and when he had kissed her in the Appleby wood that afternoon she had actually clung to him in a kind of ecstasy for a short while...
It was the memory of that that drove her to make up her mind.
Lestrode telephoned twice to find out how she was getting on, and how Sir Adrian was progressing, but he said nothing about collecting Frederica. She received the impression that he was far too busy, and probably the gardener was driving him about.
So, after she had been at Appleby Manor for nearly a week, she told Lady Dillinger that she was leaving, and she didn’t think it necessary to make it clear that she was not returning to Farthing Hall, where her mother and sister were still installed, and she certainly didn’t consider it necessary to reveal that she was returning to London, with the object of finding herself another job as quickly as possible. Lady Dillinger was by no means obtuse, however, and it did strike her that the girl seemed agitated, and her spirits had been declining gradually for the last day or two. Her somewhat agitated explanation that she didn’t think it necessary to trouble Mr. Lestrode and have herself collected from the Manor as had been arranged certainly puzzled Lady Dillinger, but she readily offered the use of her own car and her own chauffeur to take Frederica back to the Hall.
Frederica, however, declined. She felt she had got to know Lady Dillinger very well in the past few days, and she hated deceiving her; but Lady Dillinger was not to be trusted when it came to anything that affected her “dear Humphrey”, as she called him. If she had the least suspicion that Frederica was not returning to her employer she would have telephoned him immediately ... Frederica was so sure of that, for the first time in her life, she behaved with an unnatural secretiveness, and was very mu
ch ashamed of herself by the time she had arranged for a taxi to pick her and her single suitcase up at the manor, and drive her into Greater Corsham and the railway station.
She had thought it would be easy, when the moment finally arrived, but it was not. Lady Dillinger was so sorry to part with her, Sir Adrian actually asked her to kiss him goodbye, and she promised both of them that she would return to the Manor some day—as soon as it was at all possible.
She was so conscious of black depression when the taxi drew up at the door and Lady Dillinger also kissed her goodbye that she could have cried there and then, on Lady Dillinger’s shoulder. All her things were at Farthing Hall, and all she had in the world now was her solitary suitcase and a few pounds in the bank to keep her until she found another job. And as her mother had parted with the London flat it would mean staying at a hostel.
Lady Dillinger stood on the steps and waved a thin white hand ere the taxi took her round a bend in the drive, and then she was outside the gates and the taxi-man was looking slightly confused because of a conflicting set of instructions he had received.