Doctor at Villa Ronda (6 page)

“Too fast for me,” muttered Nicola.

“Me, too,” confessed Adrienne with a grin. “He speaks in Catalan.”

Occasionally above the din the auctioneer bawled
“
Silencio
!”
and cleared the ring of small, boisterous boys.

But it was the arrangement of fish in the trays that fascinated Nicola. Every tray was a work of art, fish arranged in patterns, star-shaped or criss-crossed, dark or light iridescences placed as though they were rug designs. Frivolous borders of pink scampi or centre-pieces of pale blue or silver fish of some strange Mediterranean species delighted the eye.

“If you could climb up to the roof and look down on each tray,” said Nicola, “they’d look like medallions worked in
petit-point
.
How on earth do they have time
to do all this?”

There was no reply from Adrienne and when Nicola shifted her position and looked around, her companion had disappeared.

She strolled across to the second ring where the same process was going on with another auctioneer, but it was almost distressing to see the exquisite symmetry of the fish tray ruined when the buyers tipped the contents into their boxes or buckets.

Nicola suddenly caught sight of Adrienne talking to a young, dark-haired boy wearing a faded blue shirt and denim trousers rolled up above his ankles. His bare feet were tanned to coffee colour, matching his slim arms.

Adrienne’s face was animated as she talked to the boy. Then she put her hand on his shoulder in an apparent gesture of farewell and came back towards Nicola. She did not enlighten Nicola as to who the boy was and Nicola judged it no business of hers to ask. For all she knew, Adrienne might be passing on the housekeeper’s instructions as to the fish required at the Villa Ronda.

On arrival back at the Villa, Adrienne said, “Evidently Elena and Ramon are coming tonight to dinner. Wear your nicest dress and together we will impress them both.”

In any case, Nicola would have taken extra trouble with her appearance tonight, for this was the first time she had dined at the Villa as a member of the household instead of a guest. She chose a new dress she had bought in Barcelona, a turquoise blue crimplene which deepened the colour of her eyes and accorded well with the gentle tan she had already acquired. She made up her face carefully, brushed her hair into its own loose waves and fervently hoped that she would not make some ghastly mistake during the evening.

Ramon Ventallo was introduced to her by Adrienne on the balustraded terrace which had the nickname of the “Mediterranean balcony”. He was broad-shouldered and muscular-looking, with almost black eyes and a thatch of crisply curling hair. He bowed to Nicola and raised her hand to his lips.

“You are on holiday?” he queried.

“Oh, no,” Adrienne intervened before Nicola could reply. “Nicola is here to stay. She is to keep a watchful eye on me.” She gave Ramon a provocative glance. “Any spare time she has left over from that task will be used by Sebastian. She is to help him with his book.”

Ramon regarded Nicola with rather more interest. Then he smiled. “You will have a full life here at the Villa, I assure you. To look after Adrienne is more than enough. To cope with Sebastian also—” he broke off and shook his head in mock sympathy, his eyes twinkling.

In a few moments the trio were joined by Sebastian, accompanied by a fairly tall young woman wearing dark glasses. She wore a full-length dress of kingfisher blue and her jewels sparkled and flashed in the evening sun.

“Dona Elena, may I present Miss Nicola Brettell from England?” Sebastian made the introductions, and Elena inclined her head graciously in acknowledgment.

During the round of pre-dinner drinks, Nicola had the opportunity to study the two newcomers. Ramon did most of the talking with Adrienne chaffing and contradicting him. Sometimes he reverted to Spanish, then made a swift apology to Nicola.

Elena, whose face was effectively masked by the dark glasses, spoke quietly to Sebastian, who seemed much more genial than usual.

Ramon spoke of his trip to Tangier and Nicola gathered that Elena had accompanied him.

“I have been away too long from Orsola—and all its attractions,” Ramon declared with a frank look at Adrienne and a sidelong covert glance at Nicola. “We must remedy matters. With your English friend staying here, we all have fine excuses for a season of gaiety and sightseeing. What does it matter if we have seen the places already?”

“We’ll take Nicola to Sitges for Corpus Christi,” suggested Adrienne. “Now that’s something worth seeing, but we will not tell you until you arrive,” she said, turning to Nicola.

Nicola did not disclose that she already knew from coloured postcards how the main streets of Sitges were literally paved with flowers. She was, however, a little apprehensive as to how Sebastian would regard these plans. She gave him a quick look of interrogation and was relieved when he smiled and nodded approval.

Dinner tonight was a more formal affair than the meals at which Nicola had been present. It was served in a rectangular dining room with arched windows leading to a shaded terrace. The furniture was black oak with high
-
backed chairs upholstered in dark-red brocade. When the candles were lit on the table the shadows advanced from the rest of the room and only the women’s dresses and the white dinner jackets of the two men made illumined contrasts. Two manservants and a maid seemed to appear at one’s elbow by magic to serve the innumerable dishes or refill one’s glasses with wine.

When the long dinner was over at last Nicola felt sleepy not only with the food and wine, but the day had been a full and tiring one. She would willingly have excused herself and left the others to their coffee and liqueurs on the lantern-lit terrace outside the dining room, but she thought it wiser to stay and remain unobtrusive.

A
drienne and Ramon were engaged in so
m
e bantering
conversation, and it was only now that she noticed Elena and Sebastian had gone away. Nicola stared out at the dark midnight blue sky spangled with stars, the gardens were full of scents and sighing trees. Then she heard Elena’s voice from some adjacent room which evidently opened on to the same terrace. Elena spoke in Spanish and Nicola could not follow, but she distinctly heard her own name mentioned, and the way Elena said “Senorita Brettell” was certainly not friendly.

Sebastian was answering in a low rumbling tone, and Nicola was in a way thankful that she did not understand enough Spanish to be guilty of eavesdropping.

Next morning Adrienne was in a wildly excited state.

“Oh, Nicola, I told you we should surprise Elena,” she began. “Last night she was furious.”

“About what?” queried Nicola, although she guessed the answer.

“About you. Elena has been quite anxious to provide me with a slightly motherly eye—or at least an aunt’s eye—so that she could be more often in this house and with Sebastian. Now that she finds I am provided with a suitable companion, she is very angry indeed.” Adrienne collapsed into a fit of laughter. “She says it was a plot behind her back while she was still away with Ramon,” the girl continued after a pause.

“And wasn’t it?” asked Nicola with
a smile.

Adrienne’s frank grey eyes looked into Nicola’s face.
“
Yes, of
course. You understand now why I was so anxious to have the matter settled immediately.”

“
And does she think I’m a suitable companion for you?”

Adrienne laughed again. “No, she does not. You’re too young and you’re English, so you don’t understand our Spanish ways. More than that, Sebastian knows nothing about you, except perhaps that you are good at typing and shorthand. Elena does not say so outright, but clearly she thinks you could easily be a very dubious character, glad to stay in Spain out of the way of any crimes you have committed elsewhere.”

Nicola shivered. The assessment was so very near the truth, except that it was Lisa who was involved, not herself.

“So perhaps Dona Elena will keep an eye on us both,” she murmured.

“Not at all!” declared Adrienne hotly. “I have fought her off for a whole year. I am not going to give in to her now. She expects to come here, choose my clothes, select my friends, tell me where I shall go and not go, and I will not tolerate her. Besides, I must save Sebastian from her,” she finished dramatically.

“But supposing he might like to marry her
?
” Nicola pointed out.

“He has more sense than that!” was Adrienne’s scornful comment.

It was Nicola’s turn to laugh quietly. “When it comes to love and marriage, men don’t usually bother about sense—any more than women do.”

Adrienne stared in some admiration at Nicola. “There! Now I see how right I was to want you for my confidante. You are practical and wise and you have the head wound on well.”

“Screwed on, we say,” Nicola corrected her.

Adrienne beamed. “Oh, I can see that we a
r
e going to have enjoyable times together, you and I, provided that Sebastian doesn’t make you work too hard—and I
w
ill certainly see that he does not.”

“I must be prepared to do some,” Nicola reminded her. ‘That’s partly why I’m here.”

“That, at least, is something that Elena cannot do,” the younger girl retorted.

“She has probably never had any need. I’ve had to earn a living.”

“True.” After a long pause, Adrienne said, “If Elena has a private talk with you, and I think she will try soon, then you must say as little as possible. Just be polite and no more.”

“Very well,” agreed Nicola. Dona Elena was not a woman to be underrated, she thought. Once or twice
during dinner last night, when Elena had removed her concealing dark glasses, Nicola had caught an occasional glance from cold green-brown eyes.

A
t four o’clock when Dr. Sebastian returned from Barcelona, he came out to the little courtyard at the back of the Villa.

“
If I could have your attention, Miss Brettell, for an hour or two? That is, if my niece will kindly give me permission?”

A
drienne gave her uncle a friendly thump on his arm.

Sebastian’s study was book-lined, furnished with a large desk, chairs of embossed leather and a beautiful bronze statue of Apollo. There were long, complicated forms to fill in on her behalf in connection with her work permit, and the doctor completed all he could for her.

“
You must attend in person first at your own Embassy, then at the Spanish official place, but I will take you there tomorrow.”

“
Thank you.”

H
e handed her what was evidently a chapter of his book. “Could you manage to retype that with all the alterations and so on?”

S
he studied the corrected pages for a few moments. “Yes, I’m sure I could do that
.
Now?” She looked around for the typewriter.

“
Presently.” He rose and walked about the room while Nicola waited.

“
Miss Brettell,” he said at last, “did you go to the village yesterday? With Adrienne?”

“Yes, Dr. Montal.”

“
And you visited the fish quay?”

N
icola’s face lit with enthusiasm.

“
Oh, yes. I thought it was wonderfully interesting. Those marvellous patterns they make with the fish!”

S
ebastian’s face grew more sombre, if that were possible.

“
Did Adrienne meet anyone there?” he asked.

“
No, I don’t think so,” she replied.

“
Not a young fisherlad?” he persisted.

“
Oh, yes. I saw her talking to a young boy. I suppose he was a fisherman.”

S
ebastian nodded. “Exactly. Now, Miss Brettell, I want you to listen carefully. My niece is apparently forming a great attachment to this young man, Barto. He lives in a cottage farther down the road with his family. Actually, I own the cottage. Adrienne seems to find many excuses to call at his home or see him wherever she can.” When he paused, Nicola waited in silence.

“I want you to do your best to prevent Adrienne from continuing this association and to report to me whenever she meets the young man.”

Nicola’s face flamed. “But, Dr. Montal, you’re asking me to spy on your niece!”

“Certainly. I cannot tuck her under my arm all the time. I am a busy man, but
I
must do something to stop her from making a fool of herself over Barto.”

“Surely there couldn’t be much harm in a youthful friendship like that?” she protested.

“Allow me to know whether harm might arise or not,” he said coldly. “I’m not concerned only about any harm to Adrienne. There’s the boy, Bartolomeo, also to be considered. The friendship must stop for his sake as well as hers.”