Island of Mermaids (14 page)

CHAPTER FIVE

Althea
gave her father a brief account of the cafe episode.
‘
Carla has sworn us all to silence, so you
’
d better know something about it and then button up your mouth,
’
she warned him.

Lawrence laughed quietly.
‘
I doubt if she
’
ll be able to pull wool over Emilia
’
s eyes like that for long.
’

‘
Her mother
’
s going to be furious when she finds out. Even apart from that, Kent thinks apparently that Carla may damage her voice. I suppose he means by singing in the open air, although personally I shouldn
’
t have thought that would have any effect.
’

‘
I think it
’
s unlikely that Carla will ever be in the position where she has to depend on her operatic voice for a living,
’
was her father
’
s sage comment.

On the following Sunday, Carla boldly asked Lawrence if he would escort her to Naples for the evening.
‘
Cristo is not here this week-end, you see.
’
She turned towards Althea.
‘
You may also come if you wish,
’
she added graciously.

‘
Oh, thank you,
’
returned Althea with a smile of mock gratitude.

‘
Perhaps your mother would also accompany us?
’
Lawrence suggested.

‘
Oh no, indeed!
’
exclaimed Carla hastily, and her face betrayed a comic display.
‘
She would not care to do so. Besides, she has a headache.
’

‘
Then I
’
d better stay at home and keep her company.
’
Lawrence gave Carla a kindly smile, but Althea knew that he was playing cat-and-mouse with the girl, while appearing innocent of the real object of the Naples trip.

‘
Oh, Mamma likes to be alone when she has a headache,
’
declared Carla.

He agreed without further argument, but the plan almost became unhinged when he spoke to Emilia of Carla
’
s intention to show him one or two of the sights in Naples.

‘
The Castelnuovo and perhaps the Capodimonte Park
,’
he explained. We shall take the afternoon boat and then stay for dinner.
’

‘
Perhaps I will come with you,
’
said Emilia, with a vivacity that belied the imaginary headache.

Consternation kept Althea silent, but her father seemed to agree to the inevitable. Perhaps he thought he could spirit Emilia away for that critical half-hour of Carla
’
s singing at the cafe.

‘
As you wish, Emilia,
’
he said quietly.

It was Carla who deflected this imminent danger.
‘
Oh no, Mamma, not this time. You will become tired with the afternoon and you will say to Lorenzo that you must rest in the shade. So he will stay with you and never see the beauties of Naples.
’

Although it was all in a bad cause, Althea admired the girl
’
s quick wit.

Her mother pouted a little and shrugged.
‘
Then, of course, I will not accompany you, but you must not persuade Lorenzo to be too athletic. He also would be better to rest here with me in the shade.
’

‘
The steamer trip is not good for you, Mamma,
’
Carla warned her, adding those extra touches of discouragement which might
put the entire project in peril.

The trio managed to escape by the afternoon boat, and none of them was solicitous enough to hope that Signora Emilia
’
s
‘
headache
’
would soon be better. On the steamer, Carla was in high spirits and Althea suggested she ought to relax before the evening.

‘
Oh, I shall calm down soon, but you, Lorenzo, nearly made a terrible mistake.
’

‘
What was that?
’

‘
Most of our museums and historic places are open only in the mornings and my mother would soon have known that we were not serious in our sightseeing.
’
Carla laughed delightedly.
‘
But you were most wise. You mentioned those places which are open.
’

‘
That was lucky.
’
Althea joined in the laughter, yet she was apprehensive about these contrived excursions. It was like living on the top of Mount Vesuvius; the eruption could come at any moment without warning.

In fact the tumult broke out the next day. One moment all was calm, with Althea strolling through the villa garden sympathising with the gardeners about the damage done during the night to the orange and lemon trees, the peaches and figs. The sirocco, the fierce south wind from Africa, had stripped many of the immature fruits and the grass below was littered with windfalls. The sirocco was still blowing hard now, but her father was in a sheltered, sunny
corner
, when Emilia bore down on him like a human sirocco herself.

At the sound of her angry voice, Althea hurried towards her father.

‘
You make the tricks on me!
’
Emilia accused him.
‘
You say you are going to Naples for the sights and then you sit and watch my daughter singing in a low place!
’

‘
Oh no, Emilia,
’
he protested.
‘
The place is most respectable.
’

‘
But it is my daughter who will not be respectable!
’
Emilia declared angrily.
‘
Perhaps you do not care if
your
daughter sings in the streets or anywhere, but Carla comes of good family, my own and my husband
’
s. She must always be protected, and I will not allow her to show herself in these public cafes!
’

‘
But, Emilia, there seems to be little harm done.
’
Lawrence spoke mildly.
‘
Young girls want to spread their wings a little.
’

‘
My Carla will spread her wings and fly off with some evil man if I am not careful,
’
snapped Emilia. But to continue the outburst in a foreign language was now too much for her and she reverted to her own, roundly abusing Lawrence for his part in the deception, turning on Althea with a torrent of phrases which the girl could not completely grasp, but which left no doubt as to their censure.

Then it was Kent
’
s turn to come in for much of the blame. But for him, Carla would have continued happily taking singing lessons from the professor who visited Capri. He had insisted on lessons in Naples from a professor of no doubt shady reputation and had led Carla completely astray.

In English Emilia addressed Althea.
‘
That man is a bad one. Indeed, I saw that was so from the beginning, when he was here last year. He is a danger, especially to girls like my Carla. So you can please tell him that he is not to visit my villa at any time in the future.
’

‘
Oh come, Emilia I
’
broke in Lawrence.
‘
That
’
s surely a little hard. Why blame Kent?
’

‘
I know who to blame,
’
insisted Emilia.
‘
I put the blame where it belongs.
’

By now Carla had abandoned her singing practice and come out to the garden to discover the cause of these angry voices. In less than two minutes she was probably regretting that she had not kept out of the way for a
little
longer.

Althea had once heard or read that Italian was the best language in which to make love. On today
’
s showing it was certainly an excellent medium for a battle of tongues! On both sides the words poured out. Carla defending herself from her mother
’
s recriminations, but Signora Emilia suddenly remembered her lost dignity. She ordered her daughter to the villa, promising to finish what she had to say in more privacy.

‘
And you, Lorenzo,
’
she said, turning towards him,
‘
we must talk together later.
’

Althea watched the plump figure of Emilia disappear into the house, exchanged a glance with her father and motioned to the two gardeners who stood leaning on their rakes, enjoying the spectacle, to resume their work.

‘
I wonder who told her,
’
mused Lawrence.
‘
Certainly not
I.
’

‘
Nor I,
’
added Althea.

Later in the day this uncertainty was solved when Carla disclosed that one of her mother
’
s friends had apparently been dining at the caf
e
and seen Carla
’
s performance.

‘
Of course she doesn
’
t say
she
was there,
’
complained Carla bitterly,
‘
she says her nephew saw me. Then she telephoned Mamma to congratulate me.
’

‘
Well, the whole affair was bound to come out sooner or
later.
’
Althea tried to be consoling.
‘
But perhaps you didn
’
t tackle it in the right way. Wouldn
’
t it have been better if you
’
d waited a while before accepting Gregorio
’
s offers and gradually persuaded your mother to let you sing there?
’
Carla
’
s tear-washed dark eyes stared at Althea.
‘
But how could I wait like that? I wanted to pretend to Kent that I was in love with Gregorio.
’

‘
And does Kent believe that?
’

Carla smiled happily.
‘
He has become jealous. So you see, now I am certain that Kent really loves me. He is jealous if another man even looks at me.
’

Althea regarded the other girl with a kind of pitying tenderness.
‘
But you
’
ve made everything difficult for him, haven
’
t you? You can
’
t visit him at his villa and he
’
s forbidden to come here.
’

Tears welled up again in Carla
’
s eyes.
‘
Oh, what shall I do now?
’
she wailed miserably.

‘
If you really love each other, there are other places to meet, without even going to Naples. Romeo and Juliet would have found ways.
’

Carla brightened at once, blinking away the tears.
‘
Oh, yes, you will help me. Also, your father will be able to talk to Mamma and persuade her that
I’
m not a bad or wicked girl. She listens to what Lorenzo—your father—tells her.
’

‘
She may listen, but is she easily influenced?
’

‘
But of course! Do you not know that
?’
but Carla
broke off and turned her head away.

Althea took little notice of that broken silence. Her thoughts were concentrated more on avoiding the role of Nurse to Carla
’
s Juliet and arranging clandestine meetings with Kent. Why on earth had she ever mentioned those star
-
crossed lovers?

She ought at least to warn Kent, however, that at present he was not welcome at the Villa Stefano. After that, he would have to make his own progress in whatever way he chose.

She wrote a note telling him that all was discovered. She could ask one of the gardeners to take it to Kent
’
s villa. Then she changed her mind and decided to walk down to the Villa