'Stop it!' Pippa burst out, unable to bear the look of pain on Gene's face. 'Do you have to be so vindictive?'
Sally-Jayne turned to her and looked her up and down superciliously.
'Is this your latest conquest, Gene? You always did like them out of the cradle. But she's not so young or so pretty as the one you were with when Lulu died. Why do you like your mistresses to be so young?'
'Please leave,' Pippa asked curtly. 'If you have nothing to say except abuse then it is better you go or there will be another scandal!'
'Are you threatening me? My, you are sure of yourself! But I doubt if Gene will marry you, pet, you're not really his type, not sophisticated enough, too little glamour. And he wants that as well as youth and innocence.'
'Pippa is worth a dozen of you,' Gene said slowly, and Pippa noticed that he was gripping the arms of his chair so hard his knuckles were white.
'I haven't finished. As well as Lulu there is what happened to Louise. I know you bamboozled them into disbelieving what her brother said because there was no proof. Her car was burnt out, no one could tell whether it had been tampered with and no one saw the crash, or knew whether any other vehicle had been involved. They had to let you go for lack of evidence, despite what Louise had told her brother earlier. A great pity he repaired her brakes himself then, for he could produce no evidence of that. But I can.'
She lifted her glass to her lips, realised it was empty and set it down again angrily. She glanced triumphantly at Pippa.
'Louise kept a diary. You didn't know that, did you Gene? But it went to her elder son with other personal things and he has sold it to me. I can prove by her own words that you tried to kill her! I have her diary!'
'Get out of here, you lying little whore, before I tell Luis to throw you out!' Gene said furiously, rising to his feet and taking a step towards his former wife. 'You won't intimidate me with your threats and lies, I still intend to publish the truth and no vicious little devil like you is going to stop me! Now go.'
*
He turned away and stumbled slightly, and Pippa sprang across to help him. Behind them Sally-Jayne laughed.
'How touching! Youth and crabbed age. It isn't worth it, child, not for all his money. Far better to make certain of a young man, a virile one. And there are some rich ones about, too, if you could snaffle one. I have one last piece of news, Gene dear, then I'll go. Juan and I are to be married in a few days.'
Gene had stood silently until then, supporting himself between Pippa and the table. At Sally-Jayne's final words he swung round quickly and tried to speak. As he opened his mouth he raised his hand as if to strike her, but no sound came from him except a strangled groan, and he suddenly crashed to the ground in front of her with Pippa helpless to prevent his heavy weight from falling.
'Luis! Maria! Come quickly!' Pippa screamed as she dropped to her knees and felt for Gene's pulse. It was sluggish but he was still alive. She struggled to lift his head, from a gash on which blood oozed, and suddenly Luis was beside her.
'Maria, the doctor, telephone at once,' Luis snapped out, and felt for Gene's heart. 'Can you take his legs, Miss Dawson? It is a very short way to his room and he would be better in bed.'
Pippa was strong although small and she and Luis managed to carry Gene across the terrace and through the french windows into his bedroom. There she left Luis to do what he could and marched back onto the terrace. Sally-Jayne was still sitting where she had been all the time, but she eyed Pippa warily as the latter walked purposefully up to her.
'You have caused enough trouble. If he dies I'll see to it you pay for your part in it, Sally-Jayne Ross! Now go and don't come back here, ever!'
'The lioness with her young?' Sally-Jayne quipped, but her voice wavered slightly and she rose slowly to her feet.
'There is no point in staying now, is there? But do continue to persuade him, if he recovers, that to publish would be a very foolish thing to do. You need not see me out, I used to live here.'
She strolled through the drawing room and Pippa followed purposefully. She stood by the front door watching the hired car as it disappeared through the gates, and then turned to find a white-faced Maria leaning against the kitchen door.
'The doctor? Is he coming?'
'Yes, miss, he was at a house not far away, and his wife will telephone him there. Miss, lunch is - '
'Lunch? Oh, no, Maria. I must go and see if I can do anything to help Luis.'
*
She found Gene lying on the bed, deathly pale and still unconscious, but Luis said that he was breathing more steadily. They sat watching him, powerless to help, not speaking. Then the sound of another car was heard and Luis went to bring in the doctor.
After a rapid examination the doctor was reassuring. Luis translated quickly for Pippa's benefit. The attack had been a warning but was not going to be fatal. With careful nursing and provided he remained in bed for some time, and was not worried, Gene would recover. Indeed, under the doctor's ministrations he recovered consciousness and was able to understand what had happened to him.
After a while the doctor left and while Pippa remained beside Gene, Luis took him out. Pippa heard some conversation in the hall but it was a babble of Spanish and she could not understand it, so ignored it. Luis seemed to be a long while returning and Gene had dropped into a quiet sleep when he did come back.
'Miss Dawson, please come outside for a moment,' he whispered with an anxious look at the bed.
'What is it?' Pippa demanded as soon as they were in the hall.
'Maria, she was running to the telephone and she fell over. She has broken her arm. The doctor has set it but she says she cannot serve your lunch and will not be able to cook dinner. What are we to do?'
'Maria? Oh, poor woman! She looked so white but I thought it was just shock. I'll come to her at once. Is she in bed?'
'She would not, she is worried about the vegetables, she says they are overcooked because she forgot to turn them off until just now. She says they are not fit to eat.'
'Nonsense! Where is she?'
Pippa finally reassured Maria she would not starve and could even eat overcooked vegetables if necessary, then persuaded her to retire to bed.
'I can cook for now, I used to enjoy cooking, and we can get a maid soon, surely? Just until you are better again. Luis, do we need a nurse for Mr Watson? Did the doctor say anything about that?'
'He is sending one. There is an agency we can try in the morning for a maid. I can look after Mr Watson until the nurse comes. Thank you, Miss Dawson. Ought we not to tell Il Conde?'
Recalling Sally-Jayne's announcement of their marriage which had so enraged Gene, Pippa swallowed hard.
'Do you know where he is?' she asked, and Luis dolefully shook his head.
'He did not say.'
'Do you know where he could be staying on Majorca? He might be there and we could telephone likely hotels or friends if you know their addresses?'
Again Luis shook his head. 'There are so many.'
'Well, try a few, someone might be able to tell us. But first we must all eat.'
'Yes, miss, I'll lay the table at once.'
'No, I'll eat here in the kitchen. Take a tray to Maria and then come and eat yourself, then you can try telephoning. Heavens, who is that?' she exclaimed as the doorbell rang.
Luis went to see and came back to announce that a Mr Nightingale had called for her. Pippa exclaimed in dismay.
*
'David! Come in here,' she said, finding him standing in the hall looking rather puzzled. 'Luis, an extra glass. David, do sit down and I'll explain. I'm sorry, but I can't come with you, there's been an accident. Two, in fact.'
She explained and David provided enormous help and comfort. He insisted on helping her prepare dinner for the evening and did not appear the slightest bit put out to have his plans disrupted yet again. They managed an hour on the beach before Pippa was called back to the house, and after she had seen Gene briefly they cooked dinn
er together.
'Will he recover?' David asked as they sat with coffee afterwards on the terrace. 'He's got a weak heart anyway, I believe?'
'Yes, but the doctor seemed to think it was not too serious an attack. He is worried, though, about his book. I've promised him I will continue it without him until he is allowed to start work on it again, and that made him easier. But with Maria's broken arm as well and no certainty we can get a maid at once, or that she'll be useful when she comes, I shall be busy.'
'And unable to come out with me,' David finished ruefully.
'I'm sorry, David, I really am, but there's nothing else I can do.'
'Of course not. May I come out here after dinner each evening, just to see you? Then if there is a chance for you to get out for a while we could walk or drive.'
'Come to dinner, not afterwards,' Pippa suggested impulsively, knowing David's company would help her to relax and hoping it would help to take her thoughts away from Juan, and the bitter hurtful news that he was to marry Sally-Jayne.
David eagerly agreed and then, saying she looked tired, took his departure.
Pippa was emotionally exhausted but she knew she would not sleep, so she sent Luis to bed saying she would curl up in the large, comfortable armchair in Gene's room and keep watch over him.
'You cannot sit up all night,' Luis protested.
'It won't hurt me, I can doze.'
'I will take a turn with you after I have slept for an hour or two. Call me if you need any help.'
He went, and Pippa had finally to face her thoughts. Only the still figure of the man in the bed prevented her from giving way to her despair at the shattering of every last hope. Juan's suspicions might have been explained away, indeed he might have done so at once if she had not let her fury rule her, but now he was committed, and she would never again feel his arms about her, his hands caressing her, or hear his voice whispering tender nothings. This quarrel could not be made up.
*
Chapter 9
Pippa was too busy the following day to brood about Juan's marriage with Sally-Jayne. Luis had come to her at two o'clock and insisted she went to bed for a few hours, but she had slept badly and risen early to see to breakfast for everyone. Maria was running a slight fever and Pippa persuaded her to remain in bed to recover from the shock.
Gene was pale and weak, and when Pippa carried in his tray of coffee and toast he caught feebly at her hand.
'Don't let them persuade you - to give up,' he managed to whisper. 'I'm not giving - in!'
'Of course not, but you are not strong enough to work again yet,' she said gently as she helped him to sip the coffee.
'You can - go on - for a while?' he asked slowly.
'Yes, of course, I can finish the typing and possibly begin to arrange everything in chronological order,' Pippa reassured him. 'If you promise to stop worrying and concentrate on getting well again!'
He smiled and seemed content, and fell into a light doze as she was tidying his room. She met Luis in the kitchen who reported he had not been able to trace Juan anywhere on Majorca.
'Never mind, he may come back any time. When will the nurse be coming?'
'The doctor said he would bring one when he came to visit Mr Watson this morning.'
'Good. I'd better prepare a room. What about a maid?'
'I will telephone the agency as soon as they open. There is a room off the kitchen we use when we employ a temporary maid. Then I had better fetch some stores. I will ask Maria what we need.'
'I think she is sleeping. Let's go through the stores in the kitchen and make a list.'
Luis went off to telephone while Pippa explored the cupboards in the kitchen, finding her way around and checking the stocks of the various foods. When Luis came back to report there was a maid available on the following day she already had a list for him.
'Are any of these in some place I haven't seen?' she asked, and he went swiftly through the list with her.
'No, Maria keeps all of these in the kitchen. There is a big cupboard next to the laundry, full of tins, and the freezer, so we won't need these,' he said, striking through a couple of items. 'Is there anything I can get for you?'
'No, thank you.'
'Then I will go now.'
He left in the small Seat car and Pippa went upstairs to find a suitable bedroom for the nurse. The first two she tried were connecting rooms joined by a bathroom, so she passed on. Then she opened the next door and found that Juan occupied a similar suite of rooms, although he had made the second bedroom into an office with a table near the window.
Feeling uncomfortable, as if she had been prying into his personal affairs, Pippa hastily left the room and found a small single bedroom next door which was perfectly suited to the nurse. She checked that the bed was made and towels ready in the small bathroom off, and blessed Maria for her competent housekeeping. The house was always ready for guests, it appeared, so there was nothing much for her to do.
She looked in on Gene but he was still sleeping, as was Maria, and after jotting down menus for the next few days she went into the study and began to type.
*
A few minutes later the doctor arrived and Pippa let him and a tall thin elderly woman in. The nurse spoke a little English and the doctor knew a few words, so they were able to communicate after a fashion and Pippa was relieved to find the doctor satisfied with Gene's progress.
'In bed, always, no worries, no noise, understand?' the doctor said to Pippa, and gave copious and rapid instructions to the nurse, who nodded briefly and immediately began to establish herself in the sickroom.
'Coffee for both of you?' Pippa suggested, and the doctor smiled and nodded. The nurse accepted with a brief nod and made it plain she would stay with her patient. Pippa took the doctor to the drawing room and had just carried in the tray when Luis arrived.
With a sigh of relief the doctor broke into voluble Spanish, obviously giving Luis many instructions, for he kept nodding in comprehension, and then the doctor took his coffee, drank it quickly, and after thanking Pippa briefly, departed.
The nurse was brusque but clearly competent, and Pippa was thankful one worry was lifted from her shoulders. By the time David arrived and insisted on rolling up his shirt sleeves and starting to prepare the vegetables she was sure all would be well.
The nurse refused to join them for dinner, preferring a tray in her room, and Pippa could not help being glad. She was so curt and her English so limited it would have been an uncomfortable meal. Luis said he preferred to join Maria, who was now feeling much better and anxious to get up, so Pippa and David ate alone in the breakfast room.
'Luis would not permit me to eat in the kitchen again,' she said with a laugh, 'but I persuaded him it would be more sensible to use this room instead of the dining room, which is so formal and rather too grand for just two of us.'
David grinned, and chatted about his work so that Pippa could relax and forget her problems. She almost fell asleep as they drank coffee on the terrace, and David made her promise to go straight to bed when he stood up to leave.
'May I come again tomorrow?' he asked, and she nodded eagerly.
'Please do, it's such a relief to have someone else to talk to.'
He departed and Pippa went wearily upstairs, and slept deeply. In the morning she felt physically refreshed, although the emotional turmoil of the past few days had not diminished. She hoped she would be kept too busy to think of Juan.
*
The maid arrived midway through the morning. She was only seventeen, came from a small village in Andalucia, and had hoped to get employment in one of the large Majorcan hotels. They, however, needed no new staff until the main summer influx of visitors, and Ana had been working for the owner of a villa who had just returned to Germany. She was small, dark, willing but untrained, and after a couple of hours Pippa was beginning to think it would have been less trouble to have done everything herself.
All her instructions had to be translated b
y Luis, and then Ana usually misunderstood them, and did not seem to be able to follow Pippa's demonstrated examples so that it had to wait until Luis was around again before further explanations could be given. And Ana could not even cook. She had happily said she would make salad and cook tortilla for lunch, but Pippa sat down to lettuce which had not been shaken so that it was limp and watery, with a dressing consisting mostly of oil and nothing else, and tortilla burnt underneath and uncooked on top.
Unwilling to starve at dinner also, Pippa set Ana to washing bedlinen and clothes, supervising the operation of the washing and drying machines, and leaving her happily folding clothes and sheets and arranging them in piles while she began preparations for dinner.
Again she went exhausted to bed, but happy in the knowledge Gene was rapidly regaining his strength. When she went downstairs in the morning she found Maria, wrapped in a voluminous cotton dressing gown, sitting in the kitchen and issuing abrupt orders to Ana.
'Maria! How are you? Should you be out of bed?'
'I'm well enough, Miss Dawson, and I can do some things one-handed, and Ana here can do the rest. Don't worry, Miss Dawson, she understands me all right!'
Pippa grinned suddenly. Ana did seem much happier under the autocratic style Maria had adopted, and Pippa reflected that she had probably grown up in a large family where her mother would have issued orders rather in the same manner as Maria was doing. She went to see Gene and found him sitting up in bed while the nurse shaved him.
He smiled at her and then grimaced comically as the nurse ordered him to keep still. When she had finished and removed the towels and bowls he patted the bed.
'Come and sit down, my dear. I'm sorry to have given you this fright but Luis tells me you are coping admirably. Are you finding enough typing to keep you busy?'
'Yes, there is plenty to do,' Pippa said, thinking she had in fact had little enough chance to carry on with that work. Now Maria had recovered and was able to supervise Ana she should be able to catch up with it.
She left soon afterwards and went into the study, remaining at her desk until mid afternoon, when she went into the kitchen to see if there was anything she could do for dinner. She found Ana chopping onions and peppers while Maria, one-handed, operated the mixer while she watched Ana carefully.
Question of Love Page 11