‘I have asked for no time off, Mr. Defontaine, and I believed I was doing my work to your satisfaction. Will you tell me now what I’ve done wrong? What you’re complaining of?’
She looked at him again, and then turned away quickly. There was something dangerous in his eyes, and also something else ... she must be mad to imagine it ... something tender. In Blake Defontaine’s eyes!
‘I’m complaining of nothing—except that headache of yours. And I’m prescribing for it—a couple of aspirin, a cup of tea, and an early night. I’m coming over with you to the old Manor to see that Mrs. Piper gives you that cup of tea.’
Lesley got up and walked over to the door. ‘You’re very kind, Mr. Defontaine,’ she said with a touch of irony, ‘but I’m already due at the reception desk. I can’t let Jennifer down. She’s got a date down at the Drews’ farm. Please excuse me.’
‘You needn’t worry about Jennifer. I’ll take over tonight,’ he said. ‘Now for once in a while just stop being so damned independent, get off your high horse and accept a bit of help from someone else.’
Lesley was so taken aback by these remarks that she could think of nothing further to say. In silence, she walked with him up the drive to the Manor, hut hesitated in front of the big doors leading to the great hall.
‘I ought to explain to Jennifer,’ she faltered.
‘I’m quite capable of doing that,’ he responded grimly. ‘Have I your promise that you’ll go straight upstairs to bed once you’ve had that cup of tea, or shall I come to see that you do?’
Hastily and with a heightened colour she said, ‘I promise.’
‘Good.’ He nodded. ‘And don’t be afraid the hotel will fall down just because you’re not on duty. It won’t, you know.’
‘No,’ Lesley agreed meekly.
Jennifer came upstairs a few minutes later with the tea that Lesley hadn’t had the energy to ask for in the kitchen.
‘I promised his lordship I’d see you had it and a couple of aspirin. It’s not often he notices anybody is off colour. You’re honoured.’
If this was sarcasm Lesley felt quite unable to cope. ‘I’ve got the worst headache I’ve ever had,’ she admitted. ‘Sorry about it, Jennifer. But Blake did say he’d take over. I didn’t suggest it.’
‘Blake!’ commented Jennifer, but again Lesley couldn’t or wouldn’t take up the challenge.
‘I’ll be all right in the morning,’ she promised. ‘You dash off now, Jennifer. I’m sorry if you’re rather late.’
‘You do look a bit off colour,’ the other girl said. ‘Sure you’ll be all right?’ Jennifer never ailed anything, so she wasn’t given much to sympathy, and this suited Lesley, who hated fuss. ‘I’ll be fine,’ she assured her.
‘Funny his being so considerate,’ Jennifer mused now. ‘I wouldn’t have believed it.’
Lesley kept her eyes tightly closed. If Jennifer went on much longer she would scream, she told herself, but fortunately the other girl suddenly noticed the time and with a careless wave she rushed out of the room.
Lesley turned her face into the pillow.
The following week brought a relief of tension and Lesley began to feel as if she could breathe again. The Australian Life-Saving and Surfing Association team arrived and almost immediately began their demonstrations not only in St Benga Town but at other places on the coast. Though not actually a member of the team, Steve was helping out with administration and there was no doubt too that he welcomed his sessions with’ the boys ‘so that he was making less demand on Lesley’s spare time.
On an evening during that week she hurried over to the old Manor so that she could have her evening meal with the twins, whom she was guiltily conscious of neglecting during the past few weeks. She found Ricky in his room changing from the more conventional clothes he wore at the Technical Institute to what he called his ‘gear’.
‘Lend me the Mini, Les,’ he said, pulling on a gaily coloured shirt. ‘I’m off down to Penpethic Harbour for a practice and the bus was so late I’ve no time to eat here. I’ll get a bite at the disco if you can let me have a sub.’
‘Sorry, darling.’ Lesley shook her head. ‘I’ve had no time to go to the bank this week so far, and I’m short myself. If you’re going to eat tonight, you’ll have to eat here. How’s it going at college?’
‘Oh, so-so. They’ve just started a record club, and I’m joining. That will mean staying to the last bus, though. What about letting me use the Mini? Working all the hours you do, you scarcely ever use it.’
‘Don’t be an ass, Rick,’ Lesley said warningly. ‘You haven’t got a licence, and I still think that Blake knew you were driving that night we came down from London.’
‘Oh, that’s ages ago, and what does it matter if he does know? We’re the family now and he wouldn’t do anything to get us into trouble. You’ve got to hand it to him, he does think a lot of the family and he’s accepted us all right now. In a way, I’m quite sold on him these days. You know he’s been down to the disco with Sorrel several times, don’t you? He and Tim Drage had a long natter last time he was there.’
Lesley turned away. She was crying softly inside—like a fool. After fell, she had Steve, so why should she be so sad to think she had lost Rita to Sorrel, and now she was losing Ricky to Blake?
‘Where’s Rita?’ she asked abruptly now.
‘She got into her riding gear and dashed off. I expect she’s somewhere around the stables,’ the boy said carelessly. ‘Come on, Les, if I’ve got to eat here, let’s have it. Rita can have hers later.’
Lesley hadn’t much appetite for the cold meal which Mrs. Piper had set out in the dining room, but Rick did it full justice and then rushed off, confident that he would be able to cadge a lift down to Penpethic Harbour.
When he had gone, Lesley went up to the bedroom she shared with Rita. The clothes Rita had flung off were strewn round the room. Lesley picked them up, a frown on her face. No doubt of it, just now Rita was something of a headache to everybody. Why had she put on riding clothes at this time of night, especially as she had no horse of her own? Sometimes now Sorrel allowed her to ride one of her horses, and sometimes she rode Dominic’s. But Sorrel wasn’t at Trevendone tonight and Dominic had not yet come in.
Still feeling worried, Lesley went downstairs deciding to go into the stable yard to find Rita, but in the hall a member of the hotel staff came to query a booking and she went back to the reception desk where in any case she was on duty for the rest of the evening.
It was later than her usual time for leaving when she eventually went back to the old Manor and it must, have been only a few minutes afterwards that the phone call came through, taken by the night porter.
Lesley was sitting in the lounge glancing through a letter which she had received that morning from a friend in Australia .and had not till then had time to read when Dominic came in. She wasn’t sure where he had spent the evening, but he had been drinking, though he wasn’t completely intoxicated. He declared that he was ravenous, so she went into the kitchen, made him a couple of sandwiches and was preparing to take the plate ‘with a pot of black coffee into the dining room and leave him there when he followed her into the kitchen, evidently in an amorous mood. Lesley felt quite capable of dealing with Dominic. Even when he had been drinking he was a gentleman, and she was just eluding an affectionate arm, declaring that she was tired and intended having an early night, when Blake Defontaine strode in to interrupt what he evidently thought was-a love scene.
‘Do you happen to know where your young sister is?’ he asked in a blistering voice.
Lesley stared, and bit her lip. Engrossed in the work she had been doing at the reception desk, she had quite forgotten that she had intended going-to the stables to have a word With Rita. But that was three hours ago.
‘I expect she’s in bed,’ she replied, looking at him with eyes that were suddenly anxious. ‘Why?’
The explanation was forthcoming, still in that blistering voice. Blake
had been in Plymouth all the evening and had arrived back at the Lodge a few minutes ago to have a phone call from the night porter at the new Manor, who it appeared could get in touch with no one else. A neighbouring farmer had seen a young girl riding Mr. Defontaine’s black mare on the cliffs. He had ridden out to find out what was happening and she’d urged the mare on at a breakneck speed and had been thrown. She didn’t appear to be badly hurt, but the farmer had had her carried to his own nearby farmhouse and called a doctor. The doctor had said she was suffering only from shock, had given her a sedative and the farmer’s wife had put her to bed. The mare hadn’t got off so lightly. She seemed to be lame, but the farmer had stabled her and asked the vet to come round when he was free.
He had, it seemed, been ringing the Lodge for quite a long time, but finally had decided to ring the hotel.
This was from Blake, so quietly furious that he was terrifying, standing tall and distinguished in evening dress and just back, as he said, from a dinner in Plymouth. Lesley could see from his expression that he thought she had spent the evening in a flirtation with Dominic.
‘I’ll get the car and bring her back,’ Lesley said in a trembling voice. ‘Oh, I hope she’s all right. I shall never forgive myself if she’s badly hurt. I knew she’d put on riding clothes, but I never imagined she’d take one of the horses out.’
‘A pity you didn’t keep a closer watch on her. Where were you when she went out?’
‘I hadn’t come off duty. Rick said she had changed into riding clothes, but I thought she’d just gone to the stables to pet the horses as she so often does. Then I was called back to the reception desk and ... and...’ Her voice faded away. No point in telling him that she had stayed there a long time, sorting out some accounts which Dominic was supposed to have made up but which were hopelessly wrong. No doubt Blake thought she’d been here most of the time, flirting and perhaps drinking with Dominic.
‘You don’t seem to have much control over either of the twins,’ he commented now, still white with temper and rubbing salt into the rawness of her wound—that she had lost both of them since they came to Trevendone. And she brought them here with such high hopes. ‘You were—are—much too young to have had the responsibility of them heaped on you.’
For a moment unutterable weariness washed over Lesley and then her green eyes flashed. ‘I seem to have heard that before, and I seem to have reminded you that you too had plenty of responsibility when you were younger than I am now!’
They had both forgotten Dominic, who was sitting on the edge of the kitchen table finishing his sandwiches. ‘My darling little Yseult,’ he drawled now, ‘Blake is a very different proposition from you.’
Blake ignored that. ‘What possessed Rita to take the mare of all the mounts she could have chosen?’ he demanded. ‘Not only is she the most valuable but she’s as tricky as a wild thing: Somebody must have helped the girl to mount. You’re sure...’
‘I’m not sure of anything,’ Lesley interrupted him stormily. At one time when she was having a blazing row with Blake, it had seemed to make her more angry than ever, and perhaps irritated if she hadn’t come off best, which was seldom. But now it always left her feeling wretchedly miserable with the tears that ached in her throat almost ready to fall.
‘If you think I encouraged her to go off on your beastly mare,’ she went on wildly, ‘you must be mad. I’m sorry if Sheba is hurt, but it’s Rita I’m worried about. I’ll get the car and fetch her back,’
Blake didn’t move from the doorway by which he was standing, and Dominic, still sitting on the corner of the table, glanced from one to the other, amusement in his sea-blue eyes.
‘You can’t do that, Lesley,’ Blake said now, and she noticed that once again he was being less than his usual formal self. ‘Rita has been put to bed and is under sedation. She’ll be all right till tomorrow when I shall fetch her back and demand an explanation.’
‘You mean you’ll bully her until she doesn’t know what she’s saying,’ Lesley flamed. ‘All you care about is Sheba. Rita has done wrong, I admit that, but please don’t say anything to her until I’ve talked to her. Something has upset her, and I’ve got to find out what’s wrong.’
Dominic got up. ‘Dear little cousin Yseult,’ he said mockingly. ‘Don’t you really knew?’
Lesley transferred her wide green gaze from Blake to the young man standing unsteadily by the table. ‘What do you mean, Dominic?’ she asked distrustfully.
‘Don’t you know she’s quite crazy about that husky young Aussie you spend all your spare time with and whom you said you were going to marry when we had that family conference?’
‘Steve? You must be crazy!’ Oh, that stupid, stupid boast of hers that night of the family gathering. ‘As to Rita... Lesley stared at Dominic, frank disbelief in her green eyes. ‘Rita is only a child. She’s only sixteen and she hardly knows Steve.’
Dominic took her by the shoulder and looked intently into her face. ‘She really believes it,’ he marvelled. ‘Young Rita may be only sixteen, little cousin Yseult, but she’s as old as Eve in the ways of men. Young Rita and I have something in common. We’re as jealous as hell, she about you and I about ... well, perhaps about Steve. And you, you poor blindfolded infant, don’t see it.’
‘You’re drunk, Dominic,’ Blake said harshly. ‘You’d better get to bed.’
‘I’ve certainly had more than enough,’ agreed Dominic portentously. ‘That’s why I’m so truthful tonight. I know exactly what young Rita is going through.’
Without looking at either of them, he went lurching out of the door and a moment later they heard him stumbling upstairs. Lesley’s stricken gaze went to Blake, but he seemed to be staring at some distant object, well over her head.
Lesley took a deep breath. ‘Mr. Defontaine, I’ve got to go to Rita. I can’t leave her alone tonight.’
‘You couldn’t do the slightest good if you went to her,’ he said brutally. ‘I’ve already told you she’s in bed under sedation. Farmers keep early hours and nobody would thank you for barging into a sleeping household. Just have a bit of consideration for the people who’ve taken so much trouble with her already.’
No doubt it was a salutary speech, but Lesley hated him for it, hated him also for his next remarks. ‘As I’ve told you before, you worry too much about the twins. You’re not old nor wise enough to be the mother and father to them that you’re trying to be. Actually they’re well able to take care of themselves. They’re both completely self-centred—they’re true Trevendones.’
‘It looks as if they can take care of themselves with Rita in this predicament and Rick down at the disco till all hours,’ Lesley responded in bitter weariness.
He took her shoulder in a grip that hurt. ‘You’ve had enough for one night. The best thing you can do is to go to bed and sleep on it. We’ll work something out tomorrow.’
‘Promise you’ll let me fetch Rita back and talk to her first.’ She raised her eyes to his hard face—the first time she had ever asked him a favour.
His hand on her shoulder tightened even more so that she almost winced. There was something in his eyes she had seen there once before—the dull pewter glowing like molten metal and behind it a tenderness about which she must be completely mistaken.
And then the tension had gone. He gave her a little push. ‘All right. Fetch her back yourself ... but she’s still got to have a reckoning with me. You understand that?’
She clenched her hands, feeling more unhappy than she had ever felt in her life, the pain in her heart a physical thing. ‘If only we’d never come here!’ she cried. ‘If only we’d stayed in Australia. We were happy there.’
She stumbled out of the kitchen and up the oak staircase which it was said had been put in at the time of the first Queen Elizabeth. Blake Defontaine watched her go.
Lesley stood in her room shaking with nerves and anger and with shocked disbelief. It couldn’t be true that the twins were capable of running their own lives.
It was fantastic and horrible to suggest that Rita was jealous of her because of Steve. Lesley flung herself on her bed. Jealous! That was Dominic ... translating his own pain to that of someone else. And his suggestion that his jealousy too was against Steve. That was no truer than what he’d said about Rita. Poor Dominic! He had been drinking too much and didn’t know what he was saying.
CHAPTER IX
Rita was obviously not hurt but rather pale and subdued when Lesley fetched her home in her lunch hour on the following day. Lesley had been on duty at the reception desk all morning and Blake Defontaine hadn’t suggested she could take any time off—indeed she hadn’t seen him at all this morning. Earlier she had spoken to Rita briefly on the telephone, telling her she would pick her up in the lunch hour. Rita had accepted this with a better grace than Lesley had expected, but now they were together in the Mini, at first the younger girl just refused to say anything at all.
Then all at once in a sullen, monotonous voice she said, ‘I’d got my riding things on, but I was only going to the stables to be with the horses. And then it was Sorrel ... what she said...’
‘Sorrel?’ Lesley raised her eyebrows. ‘But she was going to Plymouth to dinner with Mr. Defontaine.’
‘I don’t know anything about that.’ Rita’s eyes were suddenly furtive, and she gave a silly little snigger and wouldn’t look at Lesley.
The older girl’s glance was dubious. Rita was often devious, but there seemed no point in lying just now. ‘What did Sorrel say?’ she enquired.
Rita shrugged pettishly. ‘She often asks me why I dress up for riding and she says as I’m supposed to be one of the owners of the Trevendone estate why don’t I take out one of the horses whenever I feel like it. Well, I told her that Dominic’s belonged to us just as much as they did to him. So she said they didn’t really belong to Dominic any more than anything else did around here. It was all the slave-master’s property and if I was set on riding one of the horses why didn’t I take the mare out.’ Rita shivered. ‘I don’t think she meant it, but then she laughed and said I was chicken. That we were all scared of Blake and he had us all where he wanted us—under his thumb. So I said yes, the slave-master, and she said she’d tell him we called him that and I said, “While you’re about it, let him know I’ve gone out riding Sheba.”
The Girl From Over the Sea Page 16