HIGH TIDE AT MIDNIGHT (16 page)

'Sure thing,' Mark agreed amiably. He slid a hand through her arm. 'How did

you find the bustling metropolis of Port Vennor? All human life is there, you

know. It just takes a bit of finding at this time of the year…'

His voice tailed away uncomfortably and Morwenna realised that someone

else had joined them.

She was a small slender woman with elegantly blue-rinsed hair waving back

from her forehead. She was wearing clove pink—a woollen dress with a

matching jacket and black patent shoes. Morwenna had never seen her

before, but she knew with a strange instinct that this was Barbie Inglis. And

she knew too with the same instinct that Barbie Inglis had recognised her

instantly.

'Another girl-friend, Mark?' Her voice was light and teasing, but Morwenna

knew she had not imagined those few seconds when the blue eyes had

narrowed and sharpened as they saw Laura Kerslake in her face, and two

bright spots of colour had stood out on the woman's cheekbones.

Dominic said drily, 'Not this time, Barbie. Allow me to introduce Morwenna

Kerslake, a young friend of Nick's who is spending some time with us.

Morwenna, this is Barbara Inglis, our company secretary and very good

friend.'

Barbie Inglis's hand was very cold as it touched Morwenna's. 'My dear,' she

said, and paused. 'What a pleasure!' She laughed. 'And what a shock,

frankly, after all these years to enter a room and see Laura standing there. It's

the hair, of course, and the bone structure. Quite unmistakable.' She turned

towards the two men, smiling radiantly. 'My dears, please don't look so

embarrassed. It was all a very long time ago, you know.' She glanced back at

Morwenna. 'I knew your mother very well, of course, but one loses touch

over the years. How is she?'

Morwenna said very steadily, 'My mother died when I was eight years old,

Miss Inglis, and my father and brother were killed earlier in the year in a car

crash.'

'So naturally you came to Trevennon for sanctuary.' There was nothing but

warmth and sympathy in Barbie Inglis's voice. 'Heavens,' she gave a low

laugh, 'how history does repeat itself!'

The folder seemed to be burning a hole in Morwenna's rucksack. Barbie

Inglis had no means of knowing about that, of course, but in the nicest

possible way she had represented Morwenna as a leech and a parasite, and

that was bad enough. Morwenna did not look at Dominic Trevennon. She

already knew of the contempt that she would read in his eyes.

Suddenly it seemed very warm in the small room, and the neck of her

sweater seemed tight and choking.

She said almost pleadingly, 'Mark, I really must get back....'

'Of course,' Barbie said almost soothingly. 'And I shall look forward to

renewing our acquaintance this evening. Did Nick mention that we have a

weekly game of chess? No? Well, no doubt he's had a great deal on his mind.

And we'll have to arrange a little party of some kind very soon. A "welcome

home" party for Laura's daughter.'

It was all so warm, so kind, so eagerly said. There wasnothing to which

anyone in the world could have taken exception, but the blue eyes held the

cold, hard glitter of sapphires.

Morwenna knew that her smile would seem forced, but there was nothing

she could do about that. She said very politely, 'I shall look forward to that

too.'

She was thankful to be out in the fresh air again. Glad too of Mark's hand

under her arm. Behind them, she could hear Barbie laughing and talking to

Dominic as they followed. Laura Kerslake's daughter, she thought, being

shown off the premises in style, but very firmly and definitely all the same.

She told Mark, 'I met a friend of yours today—a girl called Biddy who runs a

pottery at St Enna with her brother.'

He said, 'Oh, really?' and his v.oice was too casual. 'How was she?'

'She seemed fine.' Morwenna matched him for casualness, and no matter

how she strained her ears she could not hear what Barbie was saying so

confidentially to Dominic just a few steps behind them. She hesitated. 'Is it

all right, my dragging you away like this? Your receptionist said something

about a meeting—I haven't broken things up by my arrival?'

'Certainly not.' He sounded a little abstracted. 'It was just a routine

discussion—nothing very exciting. Of course, I suppose all this is new to

you. I never thought to ask you if you wanted to see round the yard.'

'It's all right,' she assured him emphatically. 'Another time, maybe. I really

do have to get back to the house.'

He helped her into the passenger seat of the Mini and slammed the door shut,

and went round the car to get into the driver's seat. Morwenna leaned

forward, putting the rucksack down by her feet before adjusting the seat belt.

She looked back at the building and saw that Dominic was standing in the

doorway watching her go. Barbie was at his side and Morwenna saw her

raise her hand in a brief farewell salute. She made herself wave back as the

car drew away. And found herself thinking,' "Our very good friend." And

my enemy.'

'Calm down,' Nick said pacifically.

'Calm down!' Morwenna nearly exploded. 'I've never been so humiliated in

my life. He caught me red-handed, my fingers in the till, and never even

gave me a chance to explain.'

Nick grimaced slightly. 'Believe me, child, that was not what I intended,' he

said grimly. He sighed. 'I should stick to my chronicles of the dead, and not

try to manipulate the living. I'm sorry, Morwenna. I implicated you quite

deliberately in an experiment that failed, but you don't have to worry about

your part in it. I'll provide all the necessary to explanations—to Dominic or

anyone else."

'An experiment?' Morwenna gave the green folder, lying on the table beside

his chair, a despairing glance. 'Then you don't want this file? It was all a

pretence?'

'No,' Nick said firmly. 'I do need the file, and I had my doubts as to whether

Dominic would co-operate if I asked him to bring it to me. He's determined

that I shan't start overdoing things and making myself ill again.' He smiled

wryly. 'He doesn't realise that you can become ill sometimes through sheer

boredom and frustration. That's why I started on the family history—but I'm

no historian. Boats have always been my life, and I'm too old to turn my

back on them now.'

'I can understand that,' Morwenna said quietly. 'But not why you involved

me as you did. Surely there were other ways?'

'Oh, plenty.' Nick leaned his head against the high back of his chair. He

looked tired and strained. 'Forgive me, child. I used you as if you were a

pebble I could fling into the middle of a pool to watch the ripples spread. But

I see now that I was unfair not to warn you in advance.'

Morwenna stared at him, her mind working feverishly. She said almost

hoarsely, 'Dominic wasn't meant to catch me, was he? It was someone

else—that woman—Barbie Inglis. You wanted her to find me in his office

with a folder I had no right to in my hand. But why?'

The look of strain deepened. 'You've read your
Hamlet,
haven't you, child?"

He quoted softly, '"The play's the thing wherein I'll catch the conscience of

the king." But it was a stupid idea. I know that now."

Morwenna spread her hands helplessly. 'What are you saying? That it was

Miss Inglis who sold the design for the
Lady Laura
to Lackingtons?' She

managed an unsteady laugh. 'For God's sake, Nick, what did you think she

would do when she found me? Scream and faint and confess everything in

broken tones?'

'Something of the sort, perhaps. I don't know.' Nick closed his eyes. 'Over

the years I've given her every chance, God knows, to tell me the truth. I've no

real proof that it was her, just a gut-certainty that's stood between us like the

Berlin wall.' He gave a grim laugh. 'For almost twenty years people have

been asking themselves why Barbie and I didn't cut our losses and settle

down together. I've asked myself the same question, a hundred times or

more. But the answer is always the same—not with this question always

hanging between us. How can there be love where there's no trust?'

Morwenna stared down at her hands twisted together in her lap.

'I can hardly believe it,' she murmured, half to herself. 'Why would she do

such a thing? Why? Was—was it because §he was in love with you?

Because she was jealous?'

Nick sighed. 'She was jealous, yes. Laura was always more popular locally,

because she was warmer, more outgoing. Barbie relied too much on the

Inglis family name and dignity. I think it was the affront to that dignity that

prompted her to this ultimate piece of malice.'

'Affront?' Morwenna echoed bewilderedly. 'I don't see…'

'Of course not. You don't know. How could you?' He laid his hand over hers.

'Barbie had hoped to marry Robert Kerslake—your father."

Morwenna gazed at Nick in silence, open-mouthed.

'Oh, no!' she said after a moment. 'Oh, God, Mark told me Daddy had been

on the point of getting engaged to a local girl, and then Biddy said something

too—but I never realised. What a fool I've been!'

'If we're talking of fools,' said Nick, 'then I must be the biggest. It took me a

long time to realise the truth, and even then I didn't want to accept it."

'What made you suspect?' Morwenna asked.

'A number of things,' Nick answered, frowning. 'She was so eager to make

amends—uncharacteristically eager. She invested money in the boatyard

when things looked black for us. And she couldn't quite hide her relief when

Laura's guilt was accepted, apparently without question, by everyone. And

of course, she didn't know about the crack that Lackingtons' man had made

to me about my lady friends."

'But you never tackled her about it," said Morwenna. 'Even when you were

sure, you kept silent. You let my mother take the blame instead.'

He made an abrupt movement. 'Yes—because by then it wasn't as simple as

you imply. I pitied the unhappiness which had driven Barbie to do such a

thing. I could even understand it up to a point. And there was another thing.

We'd become—close, and I believed then that it would only be a matter of

time before she told me of her own accord what she had done. Put things

right between us, so that we could both start again, I didn't want an apology,

or even an explanation. I only wanted the truth.' He smiled faintly. 'I didn't

realise how long it would take.'

Morwenna felt tears prick at the back of her eyelids. 'Oh, Nick, what a waste

of a life—of two lives!'

'I'm not dead yet,' he reminded her with some asperity. 'And nor is Barbie.

So she'll be over for her chess game.' He smiled and shook his head. 'She

plays a good defensive game, but I have a feeling that this time—this time

she may be going to lose. And in the meantime'—he picked up the folder and

opened it—'I'll renew my acquaintance with my other love.'

She could see drawings, pages of figures and notes. 'Another boat?"

He nodded. 'But not another racing dinghy like the
Lady Laura.
This one

will travel the oceans of the world when she's built. She'll challenge Cape

Horn and the Roaring Forties and win. People will talk of her as they talk of

Gipsy Moth
and
Lively Lady.
And she'll be built at Port Vennor.' He looked

ironically at Morwenna. 'Do you think I'm fantasising? Slipping into early

senility? I'm not, you know. Two years ago, when I first got the idea for her,

I talked about it to Alan Hewitt-Smyth. You've heard of him, I suppose?'

Morwenna had indeed heard of him. Hewitt-Smyth was one of the younger

generation of lone yachtsmen, and his sometimes hectic adventures had

made most of the newspapers and colour supplements in the country.

'And he was interested?' she asked rather doubtfully.

'He was more than interested,' Nick returned forcefully. 'About a month ago

I had a letter from him reminding me of the project, and suggesting he might

be able to get sponsorship for it. They're talking of another big race and he

wants to win it with the
Lady Morwenna.'

'Oh!' Morwenna pressed her hands against suddenly burning cheeks. 'But

that's what he—Dominic—called me when he found me in his office. My

Lady Morwenna.'

Nick gave a short laugh. 'Did he now? Well, he's no fool, my nephew, .and

he knew I'd be looking for these specifications as soon as I got my strength

back. Although I never told him I'd heard from Hewitt-Smyth,' he added

with some satisfaction. 'That's a little surprise I'm keeping up my sleeve for

the time being.'

'But why
Lady Morwenna
?' Morwenna asked rather doubtfully. 'I know it's a

family name, but--'

Nick nodded again. 'It's that all right, and it's a name for courage as well. Or