The Girl From Over the Sea (14 page)

Sorrel would not be silenced.
‘
You
’
ll regret it
,’
she said darkly.
‘
They
’
ll all be more trouble to you than they
’
re worth
.’

‘
You can say that again, sister ... or should I say cousin
,’
Rita cried.
‘
If w
e
do stay, and I
’
m not saying we shall, the more trouble
I
can cause the more I will, especially to you
.’

‘
Why, you impudent little
...’
Sorrel leaned forward, her face aflame, and Lesley remembered again that day when she had wanted to send her large Borzoi after the hapless Bingo. This was a very dangerous young woman.

Lesley put a restraining hand on Rita
’
s arm.
‘
Rita, you will cause nobody any trouble
,’
she said coolly. And then to the four who were now all standing,
‘
I don
’
t want to say anything more tonight. We three have got to talk things over. Tomorrow I shall be in a position to say what we
’
re going to do. And now, goodnight
.’

With Richard and Rita on either side, she went out of the room.

After a night of broken sleep, Lesley got up early, watching the sun come up from a stormy red eastern horizon. Thoughts and ideas churned through her mind to be discarded and then brought back again and re-examined, as possible ways out
of their dilemma.

Rita was pale and tired when they got up to the big luxurious bedroom and Lesley had tried to cut short the discussion.
‘
Let
’
s not commit ourselves tonight. Tomorrow morning we
’
ll make up our minds whether to stay here or leave
immediately, go back to London and arrange to sail for home as soon as we can.
’

Both twins looked uncertain, even obstinate.
‘
Steve
’
s coming here in the summer, or near here
,’
Rita muttered, and Richard lucked the toe of his shoe, saying,
‘
Penpethic Harbour is my scene, not Sydney Harbour, Les
.’

Lesley
’
s fingernails were digging into the palms of her clenched hands.
‘
Let
’
s leave it till we
’
ve slept on it. Tomorrow
o
ur brains will be clearer
.’

But the trouble was Lesley hadn
’
t slept, at least only in snatches, and now it was morning and she was no nearer a solution than she had been last night. She dreaded the thought of staying here and working for Blake Defontaine, but what real alternative was there? She was trying to let the twins choose ... or think they were choosing. She must wait to see what they decided.

When Rita woke up, Lesley said softly,
‘
Stay in bed, darling, and I
’
ll go down and get our breakfast tray. Why, I think
...’
she opened the door,
“
Rick
’
s bringing it up now
.’

‘
You
are
bright and early
,’
Rita jeered as he came in.

‘
Couldn
’
t sleep,
’
he answered briefly.
‘
Could you two?
’
Lesley shook her head, but Rita shrugged.
‘
I
’
m not losing
a
ny
sleep about a crummy place like this
.’

Lesley poured out the tea.
‘
We might as well get down to our problems
,’
she said simply.
‘
Just now we
’
ve got to decide whether
w
e leave or we stay. Suppose we leave. The only sensible thing is to go back home. No, don
’
t interrupt. I haven
’
t finished. The truth is there
’
s only enough money to pay for one fare. I might try to get a loan from Australia House
...’

‘
You
’
re spending no more of your money on us, Les
,’
Rick said now, his face white.
‘
I
’
d planned to pay you back directly I got my hands on some Trevendone money,
but...’

‘
Pay me back?
’
Lesley stammered.

‘
Yes, Jim Travers told me when Lactatoo was sold that it had always belonged to you, not to us. Mother and Father
w
ere only managers, caretakers for you after your parents were killed. They brought you up and Rita and I have almost forgotten that you aren
’
t our real sister. Father was a poor sort of manager, I would guess, and after he died it was too
much for Mother or for any woman to run the station profitably. No wonder when you came to sell you found you were up to the ears in debt. And then what you
did
salvage, you blued on passages to bring us to Cornwall to claim an inheritance that never was.

‘
No, Les, you
’
ve done enough and more than enough for us and some day I
’
ll pay you back. But now we
’
ve got to fend for ourselves
.’

Lesley shook her burnished head.
‘
It doesn
’
t matter about the money. We
’
re in this together. I take it you won
’
t go back. What about you, Rita?
’

‘
I won
’
t go back without Rick
,’
the girl said sullenly.

‘
All right, then we
’
ll stay. But where?
’
Lesley said.

‘
Les, do you think it
’
s really true that the Enemy owns just about everything round here?
’

‘
I
’
m afraid I do,
’
she replied slowly,
‘
though I
’
m going to make some further enquiries. All the same, everything points to his being master of all he surveys. It looked like that right from the beginning, you know. He
’
s ruthless. We
’
d have to work our passage if we stay here.
’

‘
But what on earth could we do?
’
Rita asked petulantly.

Lesley shook her head. If they stayed she had no intention of the twins doing anything, but she didn
’
t say so at this point.

‘
As to repaying that d
ebt, i
f debt there is
,’
Rita continued,
‘
it
’
s just ridiculous.
’

I think it
’
s only a kind of token payment he
’
s been expecting from Dominic and Jennifer, and it would be the same for us
,’
Lesley said thoughtfully.

‘
Les, you don
’
t want to work for him. Couldn
’
t you get a job in St Benga Town and we
’
d get a flat or something and
...’
Rick
’
s voice died away.
‘
No, I see that wouldn
’
t do
.’

‘
The point is, will you stay on here if I can arrange for us to do so?
’
Lesley demanded abruptly.

‘
Yes,
’
Rick returned decisively.

Rita shrugged apathetically. The poor darling was still depressed after that wretched
‘
flu, Lesley thought with an anxious look.
‘
I suppose so
,’
Rita said.
‘
But I hope you both realise that what Les said last night will be true. We
’
ll be slaves, and that man will be slave-master
.’

‘
It was a stupid thing for me to say
,’
Lesley put in hurriedly.
‘
Right, we
’
ll give it a month
’
s trial here. If it doesn
’
t work, we
’
ll think of something else. Rita, you
’
ve eaten nothing
.’

‘
I
’
m not hungry
,’
the younger girl said morosely.

Half way through the morning, Lesley walked out of the big main door determined on an outside exploration of the Manor and the immediate grounds. Some time soon she must seek out the Enemy and make their decision—and her conditions
—
known to him. But when she saw Dominic Trevendone tinkering with his sports car in the courtyard she altered her mind and went over to him.

‘
Hello, little Yseult
,’
the young man said, straightening up at her approach and smiling into her eyes.
‘
I hope you
’
ve decided to stay on. It would be a pity to lose you just as we
’
re getting acquainted
.’

Lesley resisted the blandishment on his handsome face.
‘
We haven
’
t quite made up our minds
,’
she said cautiously.

‘
Then you
’
d better hurry, darling. Blake is coming over just before lunch to find out what you
’
re going to do. The hotel correspondence is piling up and I
’
m not much of a hand at dealing with it, while Jennifer is the world
’
s worst typist.
Mrs.
Thomas who has done that side of the work for the past five years has just remarried and we
’
ve got to have somebody in her place. Blake is going mad because his precious book is being held up
.’

His handsome eyes were amused, and Lesley sa
w
that he had got over his gloom of the previous night.

‘
I
’
ve still a few questions to ask
,’
she
s
aid, looking at him gravely.
‘
How does that man come to be the owner of everything round here?
’

‘
Darling, he inherited it from a great-uncle, when he was exactly fifteen years old, and he
’
s been around here more or less all the time ever since
.’

‘
But how
...
how did his great-uncle get the estate?
’
Lesley asked in a puzzled voice.

Dominic said with a shrug,
‘
It
’
s a long story, but in essentials it amounts to this. Our grandfather—yours too—was a gambler, a dishonest one too. He mortgaged this place to pay his debts and then borrowed thousands from Blake
’
s great-uncle on the security of a house that wasn
’
t his. He could have been jailed and the family turned out, but instead old Miles Defontaine took over the mortgage, let the family re
main
in possession and hoped the Trevendones would pay him back one day. They never did, and now they never will.

‘
When my father died, he made Blake our guardian—Jennifer
’
s and mine. It was ludicrous, for he wasn
’
t old enough to be anyone
’
s guardian. But he takes everything very seriously, so he started on the Home Farm for pedigree sheep and cattle and then when Jennifer and I were old enough to run it, he turned this part of the house into a hotel. So we slave here, the pair of us, throughout the season.
’

‘
So it
’
s really true,
’
Lesley said, but her wide green eyes rested curiously on his expensive sports car.
‘
Last night, I half believed you were all joking.
’

‘
Joking
!
’
Dominic gave a hollow laugh.
‘
It
’
s a joke I
’
ve lived with all my life, little Yseult, and I haven
’
t found it very funny.
’

‘
Tell me about the hotel,
’
she demanded now.

‘
It
’
s in the new part of the house—the part you
’
ve been living in. But if you stay, you
’
ve got to move to the Manor proper where Jennifer and Great-grandma and I live. This new part is closed up normally at this time of the year, but we had a big party of Americans for the whole of January and when they left, Great-grandma took the notion that she
’
d like to stay in that part as well. Jennifer was going to be away, I was at the Home Farm, so we had our housekeeper,
Mrs.
Piper, move over to look after Great-grandma and her companion just when you three put in an appearance. Convenient, wasn
’
t it? But Great-grandma decided last night that she wanted to get back to her own cosy quarters in the old house and off she
’
s gone this morning. She
’
s over ninety, you know, and we like to indulge her little whims.

‘
You
’
ll like the Manor proper, the Old Manor we call it, tucked cosily at the back of this monstrosity. It
’
s the original house, built of grey Cornish stone.
’

‘
Monstrosity?
’
echoed Lesley, staring at the Elizabethan black and white front towards which he had gestured.

Yes, that
’
s the new part.
’

‘
The new part? But—but it
’
s old, Elizabethan, surely,
’
Lesley said now.

‘
Pseudo
,’
he shrugged.
‘
It was built about a hundred years ago by an ancestor who
’
d struck lucky, one of our roving ancestors of whom there have been a large number
.’
And he cocked a brilliant quizzing eye in Lesley
’
s direction.

She refused to take up the challenge of his laughter.
‘
The hotel
...
Mr.
Defontaine didn
’
t have any compunction about turning a home
...
your
home into that?
’

He made a gesture.
‘
To do him justice, he hadn
’
t much choice. You must have heard of the predicament of most of England
’
s stately homes. Not that this is a stately home in a big way and neither Jennifer nor I wo
rr
y about this part.
It
’
s the old Manor we love. But in order to keep even that going, to pay the expenses of rates and upkeep, there
’
s got to be some sort of income.

‘
As to the sort of hotel it is—well, smallish but very exclusive and fantastically expensive. We
’
re very choosey about our clients and more or less the same people come year after year and, as I said, pay fantastic prices. But it
’
s very well run. Blake sees to that, and sees to it too that Jennifer and I
work like galley slaves during the season
.’

‘
I
’
m sure he does
,’
she said slowly.
‘
My sister Rita says if we stay we too will be slaves, and Blake will be the slave
-
master.
’

Dominic laughed discordantly.
‘
Your little sister has got something there, Yseult. That
’
s what we all are
...
his ruddy slaves.
’

Lesley turned away. She had found out what she had wanted to know. There had been no joke last night. Just the stark reality that the Trevendone inheritance was in Blake Defontaine
’
s hands, and for the sake of the twins she had brought from over the sea, she must do her part in discharging the debt.