Dangerous Inheritance (35 page)

Fleur had stopped eating her chocolate sundae. With her thoughts racing she stared at the beautiful coffee-coloured face and sleek dark hair of the woman opposite her. The big, widely spaced eyes held neither greed nor malice. They were quite expressionless; yet their owner had become a potential menace.

Although Lalita had decided to accept a monthly bribe to keep silent, it was certain he would not remain so when he learned that Fleur intended to get a divorce, then cut off his payments. She felt no doubt that, enraged by her plan to cheat him, he would vent his spite by giving full publicity to her adultery at once; so that she as well as Douglas should be shamed and have to bear being ostracised by his family and friends until she could leave the country.

Humiliating as that, and the covert sneers of the lower-caste Sinhalese with whom she had dealings, must prove, with the prospect of marrying Truss in front of her she felt that she could, somehow, manage to face it. But she knew that if there was still some way in which she could protect Douglas, and she failed to take it, she would never forgive herself. Drawing a deep breath, she said:

‘Well. What is your price?'

‘You give me Olenevka,' Mirabelle replied quietly.

‘I can't,' Fleur protested. ‘How can I? You heard me say to Colonel d'Azavedo the other night that it would be impossible for me to sign it away without giving my husband a reason.
What reason could I give him except by making a clean breast of everything? And if I did, I'm certain he wouldn't let me.'

‘He need never know. I have a friend who is lawyer. He would write deed for me and keep quiet. You sign it in secret.'

‘Deeds like that have to be registered. It would be bound to come out.'

‘Not so to harm you. I think of that. We make deed for transfer to be in six months' time. By then you perhaps have your divorce. Anyhow, you are in America. Whatever comes out will then be old tale and you say yourself not much harm your husband.'

Fleur was quick to realise that Mirabelle's plan could save the situation, but she recalled Truss's indignation when Lalita had tried to get her to part with Olenevka. He had declared it outrageous to demand a property worth fifteen thousand pounds as blackmail. She shook her head:

‘No. I am anxious to save my husband from this scandal; but you are asking too much. Far too much.'

‘Only what I must have if I make break with Lalita,' Mirabelle countered. ‘Even if the mine does not again pay very much Olenevka is pleasant property. I like it there, and if I am owner I can make good marriage. I can choose as husband a man I like, live with respect of everybody, and my future is secure. For you who are to marry the rich American, what is Olenevka? A nothing. Besides you give it me and I become your ally. It is not just to stop scandal that I ask so much. If you still have fondness for your husband you will wish to save him from much worse things.'

‘What do you mean by that?' Fleur asked.

Mirabelle gave a pitying shake of her smooth dark head. ‘You do not know the half. Lalita is most vindictive man. He never forgive your husband for starting all this trouble about the will. That he finds you in bed with the American is only icing for the cake he bakes. On your old Duke too, for having stole his jewels, he is determined to be revenged. But first old Duke's defences must be broke down. His clever lawyer must be got out of the way. Soon now Lalita springs something on your husband so that he is arrested. Then he shatter him by
telling how he find you and the American in bed, because he prefer this pleasure of humiliating to more money, and he mean then to finish with him. Among prisoners there is often fight and riots. Many bad men in prison glad to do whatever Lalita say and earn quick release. Easy for him to fix big dust up in which your husband receives a terrible injury, or perhaps killed. Who does it no-one will give away. Next act, Lalita ensnares your Duke. Perhaps by planting papers on him to show that he conspire against the Government. Then he too is arrested and go to prison. For a man so old that means death anyway.'

As Mirabelle revealed these plans of Lalita's, Fleur became more and more alarmed. Her hand trembling slightly she took another spoonful of her now runny ice as she asked, ‘Could you … is it really possible that you could prevent all this?'

Picking up an ice wafer Mirabelle snapped it between her slender fingers and replied, ‘Yes. You give me Olenevka and I break Lalita like this.'

‘But how … how could you?'

Mirabelle leaned forward and said in a low voice, ‘Lalita is a murderer, I know it. I can tell you how to get proof, and when you have it I give evidence. Once he is arrested on charge your husband and the old Duke have no more to fear. He is finish.'

Fleur's eyes opened wide at this revelation, but she instantly grasped its implications. ‘Very well,' she said, ‘if you can do that I'll do as you wish.' Then caution caused her to add quickly, ‘That is, if my friends agree. I must tell them what we have arranged before I … actually sign anything.'

‘If you feel you must I make no objection,' Mirabelle replied. ‘But you must give decision very soon. Lalita makes move against your husband as early perhaps as end of next week. We have to work fast if we are to stop him. When can you let me know with handshake that all is settled?'

‘Tomorrow. I could meet you here tomorrow at the same time.'

That being agreed they beckoned the waitress over, paid the bill and parted. Knowing how anxious Truss would be to hear
the result of her talk with Mirabelle, Fleur had arranged for him to meet her outside the Dutch Belfry; so she hurried off in that direction. It was barely half a mile away and ten minutes later she found him sitting there in a self-drive car that he had hired. While he drove her slowly back past the lake towards her home, she told him about Lalita's vicious intentions and the possibility of Mirabelle putting a stop to them if Olenevka were made over to her.

Having heard her out, he shook his head. ‘It's one hell of a price to pay, honey, just to stop these people talking; and the rest of it may be lies for all we know.'

‘I don't think so. I really don't,' Fleur asserted in an agitated voice. ‘It is the sort of thing one might expect from Lalita; and Mirabelle's anxiety to make her future secure is very understandable.'

‘Sure; sure. She's got brains, that dame; and she's seen the chance to cash in on our troubles. But her story that she can prove Lalita to be a murderer calls for a lot of believing.'

‘She seemed quite confident that she could, and we can't possibly afford to ignore the chance to put an end to this whole awful business.'

‘We'll certainly go into it. At all events she was right in one thing; as you are marrying me, giving up Olenevka need cause you no pain and grief. We'd never go there, the income from it is problematic, and there's more money in the Van Ryn settlements than you could spend in a dozen lifetimes. I don't think Grandpa Greyeyes would object to your giving it up either. Not if that's going to put us all in the clear and Lalita gets no part of it. The old boy's dug in his toes only because he was determined not to let a rogue get away with what is rightly his. But this inheritance has proved a pain in the neck for him, and I think the time has come when he'd be glad to hear the last of it.'

‘I hope you are right about that, because I couldn't give Olenevka away without his consent. We must talk it over with him as soon as possible.'

Truss nodded. ‘After dinner tonight would be best, but if you dined with us I don't see how we'd manage to sidetrack
Douglas. You'd better look in at the Galle Face for a drink at around six.'

‘I can't, unfortunately. We are going out to drinks at the home of one of the High Court judges. For me to cut that is out of the question, and I couldn't come on to the Galle Face afterwards unless I brought Douglas with me. It will have to be tomorrow. Douglas was brought up as a Buddhist, so he never goes to church with me. Instead of attending the morning service I'll go to the hotel. I'll be there at about half past ten.'

‘I had no idea you were a church-goer, honey.' Truss turned on her an interested look. ‘Somehow I wouldn't have thought that to be in your line.'

‘It wasn't during my hectic youth,' she told him a little sombrely, ‘but for the past year or so I've made a habit of it here. Nostalgia for something English perhaps. I don't know. But I've found it rather comforting. Have you anything against it?'

‘No, ma'am; indeed not,' he assured her quickly. ‘In the States good families keep up with religion these days more than yours do in Europe. I'd come with you if we hadn't made a more important date.'

That night Truss told de Richleau about the new situation that had arisen and when Fleur arrived at the Galle Face on Sunday morning the three of them settled down to discuss it.

To Fleur the Duke said, ‘Olenevka is your property, my child, to do with as you wish; but I should be sorry to see you part with it unless you could get something very well worth while in return.'

‘I'd look on giving it up as a small price to pay if that will save you and Douglas from Lalita's malice,' she replied at once.

‘I am sure you would. But the question is, has this Mendoza woman really got it in her power to rid us of him? My advice is that you should sign nothing until she has produced actual proof that he is a murderer.'

‘And she'll have to be quick about it if it's to be of any use,' Truss added. ‘That is, if she's right in believing that Lalita may put a fast one over Douglas come the end of the week, and if that's to be prevented.'

‘Yes, she herself stressed the necessity for acting quickly,' Fleur agreed. ‘That's why I am meeting her again this afternoon. When I do, what do you think I ought to say?'

‘Much the best thing would be if Truss and I could take these negotiations out of your hands, my dear,' de Richleau replied. ‘Do you think she would be willing to come here this evening to talk to us?'

‘I can't say. I doubt it. She might be afraid that one of Lalita's spies would see her and tell him.'

‘Yes, I thought of that. But as things are I am most averse to leaving the hotel, particularly at night. It occurred to me that she would run very little risk of Lalita learning about her visit if Truss met her nearby on the sea front, say by the lighthouse, and brought her through the garden entrance to the swimming baths. They are always deserted by dinner-time.'

‘Well, I'll ask her.'

‘If she refuses, arrange for her to meet Truss and me at the Zoo any time tomorrow morning in front of the monkey cages. There won't be many people about and we could talk there in low voices while looking at the animals without appearing to know one another. But as we have to work against time a meeting tonight would be preferable.'

The Duke knocked an inch of ash carefully off his cigar, then went on, ‘I have been considering very seriously what may happen should she fail to produce this evidence. Whether she can or cannot I feel that we would be foolish to ignore her warning regarding Lalita's intentions, and that the time has come when discretion may prove the better part of valour. Loath as I am to deny myself some further weeks of sunshine here, to find myself accused of subversive activities is too high a price to pay for them. And whatever precautions the good van Goens may take to prevent any incriminating documents being planted here I prefer not to risk that happening. Therefore, instead of waiting for your Uncle Simon's return at the end of the month I should like to leave Ceylon soon, while I've still got the better of Lalita.'

‘But, Greyeyes, darling,' Fleur protested ‘you really ought not to risk making such a long flight alone.'

‘No, my child; but I was coming to that. Have you quite definitely made up your mind to leave Douglas?'

‘Yes, definitely. All I am anxious to do now is to save him the humiliation of it becoming public that I have been unfaithful to him and am running away to marry Truss. And, of course, to protect him as far as I can from Lalita.'

De Richleau nodded. ‘How far you will be able to do the latter depends on Madame Mirabelle. But as Lalita has accepted your first payment you should be on fairly safe ground about the former for the time being. Your plan, as I understand it, was to tell Douglas that you feel you must have a holiday in England and leave with myself and Uncle Simon when he gets back?'

‘Yes. Then when I got home I'd write to Douglas and ask him to let me divorce him. With luck, if Mirabelle plays up, it won't get out then about me and Truss until Douglas has had a chance to save his face by leading people to believe that I left him only because he was having an affaire with another woman.'

‘Exactly. Now, I am sure you will appreciate that it is only with great reluctance that I am prepared to assist in a conspiracy to deceive a man like Douglas, whom I regard as a friend. But you have taken me into your confidence and, naturally, I am anxious for your happiness. Moreover, in this instance, it seems that only by deceiving Douglas can we spare him great pain. I therefore propose to tell him that, owing to Lalita having become a serious menace, I should like to leave Ceylon towards the end of this week, but that I hesitate to make so long a journey on my own. Then, I suggest, you could cover your real reason for wanting to get away by offering to accompany me.'

Fleur hesitated a moment. ‘I'd love to do that, anyway. But to explain knowing about Lalita's intentions you would have to tell him about Mirabelle.'

‘Of course, my child. But we need not tell him that this situation has arisen because she was with Lalita when he found you in bed with Truss, and that you are being blackmailed by them both. I shall leave you out of this and lead him to believe
that she has approached me direct with a view to double-crossing Lalita and getting Olenevka for herself as the price of securing Douglas and myself from his malice. Of course, as Truss has remained in Ceylon only with the ostensible object of looking after me, Douglas may ask why he should not accompany me back to Europe; but Truss can say that unless it is impossible for you to do so, he feels it to be his duty to join his father in the Far East as soon as possible. In the circumstances, it's hardly likely that Douglas will refuse to let you go. Then you and Truss will be able to make your own arrangements about your future without further delay.'