Dorothy Eden (9 page)

‘What a lovely house,’ Alice exclaimed, aware of the first excited impression the house must have made on Camilla, who loved the slightest hint of luxury.

‘I built it,’ Dalton answered.

‘Recently?’

‘Three years ago.’ He drew the car up outside the dark-blue front door and, getting out, went round to open the car door for Alice.

‘What made you come to this part of the world? I mean, it’s magnificent, but if you haven’t been born in it don’t you find it a little gloomy sometimes?’

Dalton had his closed uncommunicative look. What a difficult person he was to get to know. How had Camilla discovered the key to his heart? She must have done so, for there was that note,
Have missed you so much, darling.
Dalton Thorpe looked too self-contained ever to miss anyone, but probably his nature, beneath that reserve, was extremely passionate.

‘We like it,’ he answered briefly.

At that moment the front door opened and there was Katherine running down the steps excitedly, crying, ‘Alice darling, how nice to see you. I’ve looked forward to this so much.’

She put her arms round Alice in an affectionate embrace. Her ardent welcome was as surprising as her brother’s reserve. Then she went ahead up the steps, saying, ‘Come in out of this horrid rain. Sometimes I think I will go mad if it keeps on raining. But when the sun shines the mountains seem to press down on me, so really I don’t know which is the worst.’

Alice followed her through a wide ivory-panelled hall into a large comfortable room in which a log fire burnt. She noticed that Dalton Thorpe had not followed them, so she could say, ‘But your brother says you like it here.’

Katherine turned. Her black eyes were bright with some sharply felt emotion.

‘Oh,
he
says so. Yes, indeed, he says so. Didn’t we have fun with Margaretta last night? But the silly little creature spoilt it all at the end.’

‘It was because of the shoes,’ said Alice deliberately. ‘They were Camilla’s, you know.’

Katherine looked at her blankly. ‘Were they? Oh, I didn’t know that. Well, what of it? Did she think she would catch a plague from them? And I
was
enjoying dressing her up.’ (Odd, the ownership of the shoes seemed to mean nothing to her. She had a mind like a fantail, flitting here and there, never settling on one thing.)

‘Now we will have tea right away and then we will talk,’ she went on. ‘I want to know all about you. Everything. Perhaps I seem inquisitive, but I see so
few
people. Dalton makes hermits of us.’

Tea was brought in by an elderly woman in a black dress. She had exceptionally large strong hands, Alice noticed, and a hard face. Alice began to be sorry for Katherine, who was so lovely and yet who had to live a lonely life with a taciturn brother and this hard-faced woman. She noticed that Katherine said, ‘Thank you, Mrs. Jobbett,’ in an almost nervous voice, and that she didn’t recover her animation until the woman was out of the room. Then she began to chatter again, her lovely face full of mobility.

‘How long will you stay over here? Do stay a long time so we can see a lot of each other. What do you do for a living? Couldn’t you get a job here? Couldn’t you teach in the school?’

Alice laughed. ‘I’m not a schoolteacher. Besides, Camilla may be coming back even though she is married. She hasn’t actually resigned. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?’

‘Oh, Camilla. No, she wasn’t trustworthy.’ Everything she had seemed to feel yesterday was dismissed. ‘No, I wouldn’t like her back. Neither would Dalton. No, we’d rather have you.’ She gave Alice her brilliant smile. ‘Do stay, won’t you?’

It was then that Alice had her first feeling of uneasiness. It was something to do with Katherine’s hands, the way the knuckles seemed too large for the skin that covered them. When she was old they would be claws. And it definitely wasn’t true that Dalton rather have her than Camilla, because there was the evidence of that note that Tottie had delivered. But, of course, Dalton wouldn’t tell a sister who chattered as Katherine did all his secrets.

A few moments later Dalton came in for tea. He watched his sister pouring it. Indeed, he seemed to be watching her all the time. He maintained his usual reserve, but his long dark eyes missed nothing.

The rain outside had become harder, and, listening to it on the window, Katherine said vivaciously, ‘Oh, good, Alice. If it keeps on raining like that you’ll have to stay all night. We should love that. Shouldn’t we, Dalton?’

‘It would require exceptionally hard rain to flood the river within a few hours,’ her brother answered.

‘Well, never mind the flooded river. Alice can stay in any case. Can’t you, darling?’

The poor girl was lonely. She said so often enough. One had to be sorry for her. But the thought of spending a night here filled Alice with a queer apprehension.

‘I should like to get back, if possible. One can’t have two women disappearing from the schoolhouse without explanation.’

‘But who would worry about you? Aren’t you alone?’

‘Well—Dundas.’ Again Alice was thinking of Dundas with affection and security.

‘That odd little man,’ said Katherine. ‘He has eyes like a tiger.’

‘A tiger?’ said Dalton suddenly. ‘How absurd.’

‘Well, one of those large cats. Not just a tame pussy.’

‘Really, Kay, your imagination behaves in the strangest way.’

Katherine flushed and drooped. Alice got the impression that she was a little afraid of her brother just as she was of the housekeeper. Good-naturedly she came to the girl’s rescue.

‘Sometimes Dundas’s eyes are like a cat’s at night. But he is the kindest person. And then there’s Felix—I mean Mr. Dodsworth.’ (Would Felix worry about her and try to find out where she was? If she disappeared she thought he would, if only out of curiosity.)

‘Oh yes, Felix,’ Katherine cried vivaciously. ‘He’s sweet. Do you know him well, Alice?’

‘Well enough.’

‘But how interesting. Dalton, I think we should ask Felix to dinner one night.’

The repressive scowl on her brother’s forehead deepened.

‘Isn’t he driving the bus?’

‘But that’s what makes him so interesting. He’s so versatile. I thought he was extraordinarily nice.’

Her face was glowing with enthusiasm. If Felix were there now he would know he had made one of his easiest conquests to date. And it would no doubt go to his charming faithless head. At the same time Alice had the impression that if Dalton could prevent it Katherine would not see Felix again. He was a snob. A broken-down actor-cum-bus-driver would get no encouragement from him. It was unreasonable of her to feel that small measure of relief about someone who had deliberately walked out of her life.

Katherine had sensed her brother’s mood. She was downcast for a few moments, then she made a determined effort to regain her spirits.

‘Anyway,’ she said brightly, ‘the immediate thing is that if it rains too hard we keep Alice all night. And then we really can have a long long talk.’

It was strange how, after her distress the other day, and her agitation last night during the episode of the fur coat, she seemed to have put Camilla completely out of her mind.

K
ATHERINE’S BEDROOM UPSTAIRS HAD
the luxury that one had come to expect in this house. The white quilted satin bed covering, the pastel-pink carpet and the white ruffled curtains looped with rose-coloured velvet were a perfect setting for her dark beauty. Alice said so enthusiastically, and Katherine sighed and said, ‘Every time we move I change my colour scheme. That’s the only way it’s fun moving. I suppose you think it’s silly having a room like this way up in the mountains. In a way it is, but Dalton thinks we may stay here a little longer than most places, and, anyway, I like nice things. I lie in bed and pretend I’m still in Honolulu or on the Cote d’Azur.’

‘Have you moved a lot?’ Alice asked unnecessarily.

‘A lot?’ For a moment Katherine looked blank, almost as if she couldn’t remember. It was the dazed look of the constant traveller who wakes and can’t remember where he is. ‘Oh yes. I can’t remember us being more than a year in any place, except here, and now it’s nearly three years. And if we stay much longer I shall go mad.’ She pressed her thin sharp fingers into her temples, leaving red marks on the white skin. She had a distracted look as if the place were indeed affecting her mind. ‘But Dalton likes it. He said when we came that this was the kind of place he’d been looking for for years. So he built the house and bought a lot of cows and things, and here we’ve stayed. To rot.’

‘Oh, surely not. There’s the hotel so close.’

‘Yes, but people never stay there long enough for one to make friends even if Dalton let me meet them. He doesn’t, you know. He prefers me to be alone. He didn’t even want you to come tonight.’

Alice was startled, although she had already sensed that fact.

‘But that, surely, is because I remind him of Camilla. I think—didn’t you say he was fond of her?’

‘Oh, Camilla?’ It almost seemed as if Camilla, like the other places in which she had lived, was slipping out of Katherine’s mind. Or had her brother warned her that the Camilla theme was unpopular? ‘Do you know, I think you have a much nicer face than Camilla. Now we know she wasn’t trustworthy we don’t care nearly so much about her going. She used us, you know. She took our hospitality and—’ Her hesitation was curiously significant ‘—other things, and then just went off without a word of thanks.’

‘But it was strange about her leaving that fur coat.’

‘Oh, that,’ said Katherine absently. ‘But it was only squirrel.’

The thing was too puzzling. Last night Katherine had seemed almost to faint at the sight of the coat. Now she dismissed it lightly as a thing of no account. After all, she, who had moved at a whim all over the world, might turn up her nose at a squirrel coat, but Camilla Mason never would. That was the angle from which to look at it. It really seemed that Katherine and not Camilla was the one who was faithless to a friendship.

Already she had changed the subject and was saying, with her black eyes sparkling, ‘Let’s dress for dinner tonight, shall we? It would be such fun.’

‘But I’m afraid I’m not staying to dinner. And, besides, I haven’t brought any change of clothes.’

‘Oh, but you are staying, of course. Listen to that rain. I can lend you a dress. Come and choose one.’

She flung open her wardrobe door and disclosed a bewildering array of clothes, suits, dresses, evening gowns.

‘If that poor kid Margaretta had been here last night we’d have had no trouble in dressing her. But I believe she likes being shabby.’ She lifted out a black chiffon. ‘I got this in Paris. It’s three years old, but black doesn’t date so much. Or here’s the green thing I got in Rio. I never wore it. This is one I had sent from New York. I took the rhinestones off, they glittered too much.’

‘But where do you wear all these?’ Alice asked in bewilderment.

‘Nowhere.’ Her beautiful black eyes surveyed Alice. ‘You think I’m mad, don’t you? But one must do something. Even a hermit must do something.’

Alice said uneasily, ‘They’re all beautiful, but really I must go home. It’s getting dark now. Will your brother mind taking me?’

‘You can’t go. Listen to the rain and the wind.’

‘It isn’t raining very hard now.’ This was true, although it was also true that the wind was rising, and the night promised to be wild and stormy.

‘But it’s much too cold and unpleasant to go out. I had your room got ready in case I could persuade you to stay.’ Katherine smiled her brilliant wistful smile. ‘Do,’ she begged.

‘Why, another time I’d like to. But tonight—’ Alice couldn’t have explained her uneasiness. It was somehow wrapped up in the luxury of this lonely house, in the ridiculous surplus of clothes that hung in the wardrobe, in the careless way Katherine had dismissed Camilla as if she were scarcely even a memory, in the fact that Dalton had never wanted her to come and that as far as he was concerned she was quite unwelcome. And lastly, quite unreasonably, in that silly remark Katherine had made about Dundas’s eyes being like a tiger’s. No simile could have been less apt.

Katherine was pouting, her face that of a spoilt child.

‘How unkind you are, Alice. Very well, we’ll go down and find Dalton. You shall just have a drink with him before you go.’

Dalton was in the lounge downstairs, and even his façade of good manners couldn’t conceal the fact that he was relieved Alice had her coat on.

‘Alice is just going to have a drink before she goes,’ Katherine said in her vivacious manner. ‘I can’t persuade her to stay. You get her one, will you, Dalton dear, while I tell Mrs. Jobbett we’re not having a guest for dinner after all.’

As she went out Alice heard the wind buffeting against the house. It seemed to have got very dark. Although they were invisible behind the deep mist, suddenly she was peculiarly conscious of the mountains looming close, as if to shut them in this world of wind and rain.

‘What will you drink, Miss Ashton?’ Dalton asked in his courteous voice. ‘Will you have brandy? It’s a cold night to go out.’

‘Thank you,’ said Alice. ‘I’m sorry to take you out, too, on a night like this.’

‘Not at all. I’m used to it.’ Now that she was going his manner was subtly more friendly. ‘Do you know, I’ve never been a farmer before, but I find it extraordinarily fascinating. And there’s something about this kind of country that appeals to me. I should like to be able to stay here a long time.’

‘Is there any reason why you wouldn’t be able to stay?’ Alice asked lightly. The question was asked at random, but to her disappointment it had the effect of closing Dalton in his reserve again.

‘My sister has got into the habit of moving about, as she has probably told you. She may find it too quiet here.’

‘She told me she gets very lonely,’ Alice said.

‘Yes.’ His fingers were gripping the stem of his glass. The prominent Thorpe knuckles shone in the light. Alice thought she heard him add under his breath, ‘It is necessary,’ but at that moment Katherine came hurrying in, crying, ‘A drink for me, Dalton. It’s so cold.’