The Girl From Over the Sea (6 page)

Lesley hadn
’
t the slightest intention of doing anything else, but she was anxious not to be beholden to this man in any way. Rita
was
conscious now and with Richard
’
s help she could get her upstairs.

‘
Please don
’
t bother any more
,’
she said stiffly.
‘
Richard and I can manage
.’

‘
I dare say you can, but all the same, I
’
ll carry her up
.’

‘
Let him, Lesley,
’
Richard whispered, his face pale with apprehension which he was trying to hide under a show of bravado and impudence.
‘
He
’
s got plenty of brawn, as you can see, and he can
’
t really help his lack of brains
.’

Blake Defontaine gave him a considering stare and suddenly terrified, Lesley rushed into the breach.
‘
Please carry her up
,’
she said hurriedly.
‘
It
’
s just that she might have something contagious and we don
’
t want to risk anyone else
...’
Her voice died away as he transferred his gaze from Richard, which was what she had angled for.

For a few seconds she braved the sword of his grey-eyed concentration. Then she gave him best and looked away, moving so that he could lift Rita. He wrapped the blankets more securely around her and said to Richard,
‘
You stay here and keep
Mrs.
Trevendone company and you, madam, follow me
.’

It was that word
‘
madam
’
that again irritated Lesley beyond endurance. If she had had a weapon to hand she was sure she would have used it. Instead all she could do was to shoot him a glance of utter loathing from her big green eyes, a glance that was reciprocated in kind.

Oddly enough that gave her a further feeling of shock. She wasn
’
t used to men looking at her like that. But then she hadn
’
t met anyone like Blake Defontaine.

Mrs.
Piper was waiting at the head of the further stairway and she indicated that they should follow her into a large twin-bedded room, which breathed an air of comfort and quiet luxury. It had cream brocade curtains, a dark rose-coloured wall-to-wall carpet, cream rugs by the beds, bed covers of patterned brocade in cream and rose pink, the brocade repeated on the chairs and the chaise-longue. Trevendone Manor might be Elizabethan in origin, but it was twentieth
-
century in the quiet luxury of its appointments.

‘
There
’
s a really thick blanket underneath the sheet and the electric blanket to go on top,
’
Mrs.
Piper said in her rich west-country accent.
‘
A maid will be up soon with hot water bottles. There, put her down, poor little body. Oh, my dear life, she do be in a way! I
’
m surprised, miss, you let
‘
un come out on a cold morning like this be. Real unseasonable it be for our part of world. Bright and sunny it may be, but there
’
s a wind that would cut you in two.
’

Defontaine lowered Rita still in her cocoon of blankets.

‘
Just take her boots and her coat off, but nothing else until the doctor comes,
’
he ordered.

Lesley swallowed. She had no intention of getting Rita properly to bed until the doctor had seen her. If he could arrange it she wanted to get the three of them back to St Benga Town or even back to Australia. Lesley
’
s enthusiasm for the Trevendone inheritance had suffered an eclipse. She was beginning to wish she had never heard of Cornwall and the legends of King Arthur and his Knights, of Camelot, the romance of Tristan and Yseult which in her mind had twined around Ralph Trevendone
’
s ancestral home of Trevendone Manor.

To her relief Defontaine now took his departure and between them
Mrs.
Piper and Lesley made Rita as comfortable as they could. With the thick blankets and the hot water bottles the girl was soon much warmer, though she kept complaining
about her sore throat.

‘
Doctor will be here soon
,’
Mrs.
Piper comforted, and then to Lesley,
‘
You
’
m come all the way from Australy, Miss Yelland was saying. It
’
s mortal hot there, isn
’
t it? I expect the poor little thing has caught
a chill coming to these
cold parts
.’

Doctor Statham proved to be fairly young and ve
r
y thorough.
‘
She has a virus infection. It may be influenza. Her throat is very inflamed and she has a temperature
.’

‘
We
’
re staying in a hotel, the King
’
s Arms at St Benga Town,
’
Lesley said, looking at him in a worried fashion.
‘
If we wrap her up well do you think we could take her back? Or is there a hospital or nursing home that would admit her?
’

The doctor shook his head very decidedly.
‘
We can
’
t move her with that temperature. There
’
s plenty of room here and you
’
ll be able to do the simple nursing which is all that will be required. If there are complications we may have to think again, but I
’
m not anticipating any.
’

Lesley said, rather desperately,
‘
We can
’
t stay here now Rita is ill. We
’
re strangers
.’

‘
But you
’
re Trevendones, cousins from Australia, I understood. Of course you
’
ll stay here. Why not
?
’

Lesley could think of several reasons why not, among them the fact that so far the only Trevendone she had met had been that old lady of nearly ninety.

The doctor scribbled a couple of prescriptions.
‘
Somebody will go into St Benga Town for them.
’
Lesley left
Mrs.
Piper helping Rita to undress
’
while she followed the doctor out of the room.

‘
I
’
d like her to start on the tablets as soon as possible
,’
he said, going down the shallow oak treads with Lesley beside him.
‘
Could your brother take your car and go into St Benga Town straight away?
’

Lesley swallowed. Blake Defontaine was at the foot of the stairs, looking up at them.
‘
I
’
ll take the car
,’
she said hurriedly.
‘
Rick isn
’
t seventeen yet and has no licence
.’

The doctor said, as he approached Defontaine,
‘
This young w
o
man has been talking of taking her sister back to St Benga Town to that dump of a hotel. Utter nonsense, isn
’
t it
!
Of course they can all stay here, can
’
t they?
’

Ironically then, it was from
‘
the Enemy
’
that the twins and Lesley from Australia were invited to stay in the ancestral home of the Trevendones. For in response to the doctor
’
s remark, he said curtly,
‘
If you think your patient should be kept in bed, doctor, then she must certainly stay here until she has recovered. And naturally her sister and brother must stay too.
’

‘
And Blake
,’
the doctor went on affably,
‘
could you get someone to fetch these prescriptions
?
I want my patient on the tablets as soon as possible.
’

Defontaine held out his hand.
‘
I
’
ll send someone immediately. Is there anything else she requires, doctor?
’

‘
No, the tablets should do the trick—and keeping her in bed warm and with plenty of hot drinks. I
’
ll be in again tomorrow, Miss Trevendone, so stop looking so anxious. Goodbye for now.
’
He turned from Lesley.
‘
By the way, Blake, I wanted to ask you
...’

Lesley murmured goodbye and sped in the direction of the small drawing room.
Mrs.
Trevendone was lying back in her chair having another catnap and her companion Miss Yelland was enjoying another cup of coffee.

‘
Where is my brother?
’
Lesley asked, looking round, a sudden unreasoning panic tearing her heart.

‘
Mr.
Defontaine sent him out to quieten your dog,
’
the other replied repressively.
‘
Really, it
’
s very worrying for everybody.
’

It was. Lesley couldn
’
t have agreed more. She bit her lip. She
’
d forgotten all about Dingo. He must have gone mad, having to wait alone in the Mini all this time. And what a problem
he
was going to be. Everything that could go wrong seemed to be doing so.

Lesley heaved a sigh, and went back into the hall, hesitating slightly in the doorway because she did not want to meet the doctor, or rather his companion, again. But actually they had both gone. She despised herself for being so feeble. She didn
’
t know who Blake Defontaine was and she didn
’
t really care. To Rita, Richard and herself, he would always be
‘
the Enemy All the same it was the foulest piece of luck to run into him again here, of all places.

She pulled open the great door and saw Richard, still pale and pinched with cold walking round the courtyard with Dingo on the lead. As soon as Lesley approached, the puppy began
to bark a welcoming
‘
Hello, hello
’
and to bound towards her, almost dragging Ricky with him.

‘
Pipe down, Dingo, and keep down, for pete
’
s sake
!
’
Lesley exhorted, but of course he took not the slightest notice and continued to leap towards her, yelping vociferously.

Ricky glanced round nervously.
‘
Can
’
t you stop
‘
him making this row?
’
he enquired, unreasonably in Lesley
’
s opinion, for Dingo was the twins
’
dog, not hers, and right from the beginning she had set her face against adopting him.

‘
That fellow,
“
the Enemy.
”
You should have heard what he said when he came in and told me to come out and stop our dog raising hell. He
’
s a Limey at his worst, isn
’
t he? Superior, sarcastic and
“
don
’
t-come-within-a-yard-of-me, I-might-catch-something-from-you
,”
sort of devil.
’

Lesley frowned.
‘
You have to give the devil his due
,’
she pointed out.
‘
He
’
s sending someone for Rita
’
s prescriptions to the chemist in St Benga Town and he
’
s said we
’
re all to stay here till she
’
s better. And Ricky, don
’
t you think it might be a good thing to drop those words
“
Limey
”
and
“
Pommie
”
now we
’
re in England? We don
’
t want to be offensive just for the sake of it.
’

‘
I shall never mind being offensive to
“
the Enemy
”,
said Ricky stubbornly.
‘
As to that prescription of Rita
’
s, he isn
’
t in any great hurry to send anyone. Here he comes
...
and I
’
m off. Come on, Dingo old fellow.
’

With a great deal of ostentation on his part, and a great deal of noise and movement on Dingo
’
s, they turned and went to the opposite side of the courtyard. Lesley looked round and saw Blake Defontaine making a leisurely approach from the great doorway. His attention was concentrated on the boy and the dog.

‘
Has that puppy received training of any kind?
’
he enquired sharply.

‘
He
’
s house-trained
,’
Lesley replied defensively.
‘
As to any other sort of training, we
’
ve had him only a short time and don
’
t know him very well
.’

A mocking gleam came into his dark grey eyes.
‘
So you didn
’
t bring him from Australia and smuggle him in! No, perhaps not. He isn
’
t a likely candidate for that sort of episode. He
’
s much too disobedient and too vociferous to lie doggo under a lady
’
s coat
.’