Enemy Lover (6 page)

a favourite of Uncle Angus.”

“But your cousin Angus was?”

“At one time. I believe the old boy was quite attached to him at one period of his life, but they fell out because they were much too like one another, and old Angus was just as liable to fly off the handle as young Angus unfortunately is. If Angus had toed the line there’s no doubt about it, my uncle would have left him everything when he died, but I don’t imagine Aunt Clare would have got anything, or Juliet, either. There was no family feeling between them and old Angus.”

“Then you don’t think I ought to offer them something? Suggest that I make something over to them, I mean,” she amended the somewhat awkward phrase hurriedly. “I’d feel happier,” she assured him candidly, “if I did.”

But Alaine shook his head at her, and after they had consulted the menu to decide their sweet urged her seriously not to make any more overtures to Angus, and if possible to avoid him whenever she saw him coming.

“I don’t mean that he’d ever be violent to you, but he has a flaming temper and a devilish lot of pride, and it doesn’t do anyone any good to get on the wrong side of him. Unfortunately, it was inevitable that you’d be on the wrong side of him, so make up your mind that there’s nothing that can be done about it, and treat him as you would a stick of dynamite. Remember that it has a nasty habit of exploding suddenly, and so has Angus. When he marries, his wife will have an outsize job keeping him in a good humour.

“Is he likely to be married soon?” Tina asked, finding it difficult to associate the red-headed, bleak-eyed Angus with the softer sentiments like love and marriage. Alaine shrugged.

“So far as we know he isn’t even engaged yet. But there’s always the possibility that he might be one day. Juliet seems to think it could happen at any time.

“Oh! Then there is... someone?”

Again Alaine shrugged.

“According to Juliet, yes.

Tina watched him as he lighted a cigarette and a waiter brought their coffee, and during the temporary lull in the conversation she wondered whether there was anyone important in his life, and whether he might, or might not, be contemplating matrimony. He was so darkly attractive that he must appeal to a good many women, and then, in addition, he was a doctor—and doctors always seem to make a tremendous impact on the imagination of the women with whom they come into contact.

Tina was unaware that her eyes were growing very thoughtful as they remained fixed on Alaine, and it was only when he smiled a little quizzically and one of his eyebrows elevated itself that she realised what she was doing. She flushed and looked away hurriedly, and then said quickly:

You know, I’ve never asked you... Have you a practice in London ?”

“Yes, but it’s not a fashionable practice, if that’s what you were expecting. In fact, it’s rather unfashionable, in the dock area. But I enjoy living amongst my patients, and one day I’ll retire to the country and set up a practice there, when I grow tired of my toughs.”

“Are they so very tough?”

“Some of them. Most of them, not a bit.”

“You look to me as if you ought to have a consulting-room in Harley Street,” she admitted.

He inclined his sleek dark head.

“Thank you, Miss Andrews. But I don’t know - whether to feel flattered or otherwise.”

“I suppose, if you had a wife...” she began, diffidently, and he

threw back his head and laughed.

“I was wondering when you were coming to that,” he told her. “All women have to know whether the men of their acquaintance are married or otherwise, if only, I suppose, so that they can do something about the omission if the victim hasn’t already been caught. But I’m very much afraid I’m not the marrying kind, so don’t waste any of your energies on me. Content yourself with hoping that a woman will one day soften up Angus. And now tell me what you propose to do with your life now that you’re a rich woman? You can’t go on being a schoolmistress with your * •> income.”

“No, I suppose not,” she agreed, a little doubtfully, however. “But I like teaching—which means, of course, that I like children— and I’ve got to have something to do.”

“You could marry,” he suggested, “since we’re on the subject of marriage. Then you could have children of your own.”

“Yes.” But she was not prepared to discuss her own marriage aspirations with him since he had quite definitely snubbed her where his own were concerned —and apparently he hadn’t any. “But that’s something in the future, and what I have to plan for is the present. I haven’t yet asked to be released from my job at Stoke Moreton.”

“But you will,” he predicted.

She lifted slender shoulders.

“Perhaps. I’d like to do something useful with my life... I was wondering whether the house in Cheviot Square might be put to some purpose that would benefit someone. Perhaps a lot of people. It's far too big to be lived in as an ordinary house, and yet it has possibilities.”

“I’ve often thought so myself,” he admitted. “In fact, at one time I thought of trying to persuade Uncle Angus to let me have it for a nursing-home.” Her eyes brightened.

“That’s a good idea. Or a children’s home. “There we go again!” He laughed. “You really will have to marry, you know... And fairly soon, I would say! You seem to me to have the ideal oudook for * •> marriage.”

As she didn’t reply he leant across the table and gently patted one of her hands that was resting on the tablecloth. He spoke apologetically.

“I’m sorry if you thought I was rude just now when I refused to discuss my own ideas on marriage. If anything, they’re the ideas of a perfectionist... an idea! I don’t think I’d like to risk it!”

They looked at one another across the table. It was true, she thought, he had the slightly ascetic lines of an idealist in every contour of his face—and it was a good .face, a strong face. The eyes were a trifle brooding, but they would always inspire confidence.

And she knew now why she had not hesitated to go with him, a complete stranger, that night when he arrived at the schoolhouse to take her to old Angus.

CHAPTER SIX

THERE was the question of Giffard’s Prior. The realisation gradually sank in that it was hers now, and Tina began to toy with the idea of returning to the north country and at least visiting it again. She supposed she had every right to stay there now, and the staff would have to be given some information about her intentions, and it would be up to them to stay on or hand in their notices as they thought fit.

Alaine, with whom she had dinner one night only a few days after she had lunched with him, advised her to make the return journey to the north, and he also advised her strongly to stay at Giffard’s Prior. If she didn’t do so the house would be without either a master or a mistress, and old Angus had neglected it badly enough when he was alive. The fact that the various members of the staff had remained extraordinarily devoted to him, and had carried on admirably during his constant absences, was certain indication that he, at least, had been a good master to them, and he would expect Tina to carry on the tradition and be a good mistress.

Besides, Alaine urged, she had to live somewhere, and with a house like Giffard’s Prior why even think about living somewhere else? She couldn’t deceive herself about her possessions... she was a very wealthy young woman, and the sooner she got used to the fact the better.

Tina was inclined to look upon Dr. Giffard as a fount of wisdom—in the short time she had known him he had impressed her strongly as utterly reliable. And she was quite sure he didn’t resent her benefiting financially at the expense of himself. Also, apart from Mr. Jasper, there was no one else to advise her... And Mr. Jasper was too urbane and pompous to be easily approachable. He said, ‘Yes, yes, of course,’ whenever she voiced any doubts, and was increasingly surprised because she was so unwilling to accept the fact that she was financially secure, and had really nothing to worry about at all.

Indeed, she was very, very fortunate.

Dr. Giffard, on the other hand, could understand the reason why she could not work herself up into a state of excitement over her new possessions... although it wasn’t because she wasn’t secretly thrilled and amazed whenever she allowed herself to dwell on them. And Dr. Giffard’s advice never varied.

“Have a good time... I don’t suppose you’ve ever really known what it is to have a good time,” he said, for she had confided to him that she had been an orphan since her very earliest years, and the grim old aunt who had brought her up was not the kind to approve of young people enjoying life very much. On the contrary, life had to be looked upon as a very demanding and serious business indeed, and the frivolous pursuit of pleasure was violently frowned upon in her house.

Hence the reason why Tina’s jewel-blue eyes had a shadowed look in them sometimes that disagreed with the delicate, flowerlike youthfulness of her general appearance.

“I don’t think you’ve ever known what it is to have fun,” Alaine remarked, somewhat abruptly, on the second occasion when they dined together. “Old Angus probably realised that, and it struck him that here was a splendid opportunity to put right something that he regarded as an omission. A young girl living the lonely life that you were living, bothering to look after him when he was ill... How infinitely more worthy you were to inherit what he had to leave than anyone else he knew! So, although he couldn’t have been feeling too good at the time, he got in touch with his lawyers and had a fresh will drawn up. He left you everything, and he wanted you to enjoy it.”

Tina was watching him with wide open, interested eyes.

“And you think he meant me to live at Giffard’s Prior, and to give up teaching and that sort of thing?”

“Of course.”

“I remember he said I was too young to be responsible for young children, who needed lots of discipline. He recommended hearty spankings, which of course I disagree with. There were occasions when I read to him out of the newspapers that he said I was too solemn. Do I look solemn?” An expression that was vaguely anxious flitted across her face.

Dr. Giffard reassured her on this point, but he added that in another twenty years—if she had gone on teaching in her remote schoolhouse, with nothing but a few books and a wireless set for company in the long, lonely evenings, and apparently hardly any-

thing in the nature of adult companionship—she would almost certainly have worn an extremely, solemn expression.

“So look upon old Angus as someone who came along at precisely the right moment to prevent that happening, and show some appreciation of your good fortune by really being young. Buy more clothes, all the things you’ve always wanted and never thought you’d have, a car—”

“I couldn’t drive a car.”

“No, but you could learn. In the meantime you could have someone to drive you.”

“A chauffeur?”

“Why not? You’ve got to get about, and it’s inconvenient to depend upon taxis and trains. There’s no reason why you shouldn’t return to Giffard’s Prior in your own car, or at least have one delivered to you once you’ve returned there. If you like, I’ll take you round the showrooms myself. In fact, I think I know of a man who could provide you with what you want without any unnecessary delays.”

“Could you ?”

She was suddenly excited by the thought of possessing a car of her own—even more excited than she had been by the opportunity to buy new clothes. She admitted that she had often longed to possess a little car at isolated Stoke Moreton, where dependence on a bus was often most inconvenient.

“Well, drive up to your schoolhouse in something new and shining, and give your old pupils a treat,” Alaine recommended. “What about tomorrow morning? I think I can manage an hour before lunch— perhaps a couple of hours. I’ll pick you up at your hotel.”

So, the following morning, they drove up to a very imposing and well patronised car showroom in Dr. Giffard’s car, and he introduced her to the man he trusted to find her just what she was looking for. Tina was a little alarmed when he left her to make her decision without his assistance, but she realised that being a doctor he was pressed for time, and the young man he had handed her over to seemed extraordinarily helpful. He thought he knew exactly what she wanted, and produced it, as it were, out of a hat.

A sleek grey Bentley, not in the least ostentatious, but enough to make anyone’s eyes pop who knew anything at all about this make of car. And anyone who had known Tina Andrews a month or so before, and was suddenly given to understand that she was the owner of it, would almost certainly have his eyes start right out of

his (or her) head when the information was passed on.

Tina herself felt a hysterical desire to laugh when she remembered little Johnny Gains, and wondered how he would react if she drove up to his cottage in her brand new possession and asked him whether he would like her to take him for a drive on the moor. Johnny’s mouth would almost certainly drop wide open, allowing her to see his broken front teeth, and his eyes would grow as round as marbles.

“Your car? ” he would gasp. “But you can’t possibly own a car like that! You’re the teacher!”

And his mother would look suddenly faintly alarmed, realise all at once that Miss Andrews was no longer the Miss Andrews with whom she had once been quite familiar, and she would probably pull Johnny inside the cottage and tell him not to be rude to the lady.

But the thought of taking Johnny—as well as a few of the other children—for trips into Murchester, the nearest town to Stoke Moreton, and buying them sweets and anything else they fancied in her own car was the thought that suddenly decided her to buy the car. Not to hesitate any longer.

She pulled out her cheque-book shyly, and then felt slightly faint when she had written the cheque. Would Mr. Jasper, and her bank manager, have a joint fit? She was so alarmed about this later on that she telephoned her solicitor and told him what she had done, and was immensely relieved when he laughed and said genially: “Having a real spending spree, are you? Well, go ahead and enjoy yourself! The estate will stand the strain!”

Having acquired the car she had to have someone to drive it. Even if she started taking lessons in driving straight away she couldn’t possibly take over the controls of the Bentley until she was reasonably proficient, and she wanted to leave for Stoke Moreton in a few days’ time.