Meeting in Madrid (20 page)

Teresa’s eyes sharpened. ‘I do not think he will find him,’ she said. ‘Not if Lucia has sent him away. That would be the end as far as Manuel was concerned.’

Catherine heard the car door slam and the sound of the engine as Alex drove away, and in the ensuing silence she felt very much alone. ‘Come and see me soon,’ Alex had said, as if she already knew there was trouble in the air.

Jaime came slowly back along the terrace, entering the hall by the
patio
door, but he did not cross to the
salon
where they were waiting. Instead, he went straight to the study, closing the door firmly against intrusion.

Catherine hesitated only for a fraction of a second while the ruby seemed to burn its way through her flesh.

‘Will you go now?’ Teresa asked.

She nodded, crossing the polished floor with a deliberation she found difficult to sustain as she knocked on the study door.

‘
Adelante
!’

She paused to draw breath before she turned the painted knob and went in.

Jaime was seated at his desk with the neat piles of letters set out before him, ready to begin an evening’s work which would last till the dinner gong sounded at ten o’clock. He looked up in vague surprise at her approach.

‘Ah, Cathy!’ he said. ‘Thank you for tidying up in here. It is twice as easy to get to grips with everything now.’

She stood looking at him, stunned by what she had to say, although she knew that it must be said quickly. Withdrawing her hand from her pocket, she placed the ruby on the desk between them.

‘I didn’t take it,’ she said, ‘but you’re not going to believe me.’

He looked at the ruby as if he had never seen it before.

‘I didn’t take it,’ she repeated, thinking how futile her protestation must sound.

He took a long time to answer.

‘Do you know who did?’ he asked carefully, at last, his tone coldly impersonal as he looked back into her distressed eyes.

Catherine hesitated.

‘I don’t know for certain.’

‘But you suspect someone? Someone in my household, perhaps?’

‘Oh, Jaime!’ She felt all her defences crumbling before his proud concern for his family name. ‘I’m not accusing anyone because I have no proof. I came to give you back the ruby and to tell you that I was innocent. I hoped you would believe me, but—now I see how impossible that is. Everything points to my guilt, you see. Teresa found the ruby in one of the drawers of my dressing-chest. I don’t know how it got there—I didn’t steal it—but the fact remains that it was discovered in my room. That’s all you have to go on, isn’t it?’ she rushed on. The evidence of my guilt!’

‘Not quite.’ He rose slowly to his feet, coming round the edge of the desk to stand beside her and seeming to tower over her in his superior height. ‘I do not intend to judge you until I have gone into this more carefully. Blame or proof, how can we consider them impartially when so much emotion is involved?’

The little pulse beating at his temple suggested that he might be keeping powerful emotions in check with considerable difficulty, and she could not blame him for being angry.

‘When did Teresa find the ruby?’ he asked.

‘About an hour ago.’

‘While you were out with Alex?’

She nodded.

‘And you had no idea it was there, in your drawer?’

‘None whatever. I give you my word.’

Did it really matter, she wondered, when all the evidence was stacked against her?

A small, thin smile touched his lips.

‘I know how you must feel,’ she said. This is a dreadful thing to happen, but I must defend myself. If you thought me a thief—’

‘Yes?’

‘I couldn’t stay here. In any case, I must go away.’

‘Not so fast,’ he said. ‘I will make the decisions. You must stay at Soria till we discover the truth.’

‘Surely now that you have the ruby it doesn’t matter very much, unless—unless you want to punish me for something I haven’t done.’

He laughed abruptly.

‘You have an odd way of putting things, Cathy,’ he said. ‘I will punish the offender, of course, but until we know exactly who it is I wish you to remain here. There must be no scandal now that the ruby is safely returned, and you will help to present it by staying where you are and continuing to instruct Teresa.’

‘But that will be impossible!’ she cried. ‘How could I pretend that everything was the same? Teresa knows, although she still believes in me because we’ve become friends, and soon Dona Lucia will find out when you return the ruby to her.’

He turned his back on her for a moment.

‘I want you to make me a promise,’ he said almost harshly.

‘Anything,’ she agreed.

‘I want the discovery of the ruby to remain secret for an hour or so. I want time to think and perhaps to act.’

‘What’s the use?’ she cried. ‘Even if you wait for a day or a week Lucia will still accuse me.’

His jaw hardened as he turned back to face her.

‘That may be so,’ he agreed, ‘but I have to be sure. You believe that Lucia has become your enemy, but you have no proof of that, either. Listen to me, Cathy!’ He pulled her round to face him. ‘Four years ago I took on the full responsibility of Soria. That meant the
hacienda
and the
peons
who work on the plantations, the servants here in the house, and my brother’s wife, to say nothing of Teresa. It wasn’t a promise to Eduardo before he died or anything dramatic like that. It was just the natural thing to do. A Spanish family is one unit, whether they are rich or poor, and they are sheltered by the head of that family. You have to understand that before you can understand me. Just as our wide Cordoban hat shields a man from the heat of the sun, so I must shelter my family from misfortune while I can.’

‘I know all this,’ she agreed in a shaken whisper, ‘but you didn’t expect the ruby to be stolen. It was a family heirloom.’

‘Indeed, but I think I can survive the loss of a precious stone, however valuable it might be. The ruby is nothing. The important issue is that I am responsible for Lucia, just as responsible, in a way, as I am for Teresa. She is my brother’s widow and I owe her a home.’

‘Yes, I understand.’

‘I wonder if you do!’ He swept a handful of papers across the desk in an impatient gesture which reminded her incongruously of Ramon. ‘Soria is beginning to pay for the first time in a decade, and it is very much thanks to the money Lucia invested in the estate when she married my brother.’

‘I see.’ Her spirits were at their lowest ebb. He would defend Lucia because Soria owed her so much, turning a blind eye to anything she might have done. ‘You’ve explained everything.’

‘I don’t think so,’ he said immediately, ‘but the rest can wait. Have I your promise to keep quiet about the ruby for the moment?’

She nodded.

‘If that’s what you want me to do,’ she agreed, ‘and I suppose you have yet to be convinced that I’m innocent.’

‘I must take your word,’ he said, crossing to open the door for her. ‘Since you have given it.’

‘Do you wish me to speak to Teresa?’ she asked, pausing on the threshold to look back at him.

‘No, I will do that.’

It was the most unsatisfactory situation Catherine had ever known, but she could only acknowledge his authority and keep her own counsel about the ruby.

The
sal
o
n
was empty when she reached it and the rain which had been threatening all day was already falling in great, heavy drops on the terrace so that she could not find solace in the garden, yet she could not go back into the house where she might so easily come face to face with Lucia. If they met it would be like the collision of the angry storm-clouds above El Teide.

She stood listening to the rain, hearing it falling on the tiled roof and running along the gutters and watching as it filled the ornamental troughs in the garden until they overflowed. It was tropical rain such as she had never seen before, falling relentlessly out of a leaden sky, but no doubt it would be good for the thirsty soil when it rained so seldom in this sun-kissed land. Water had to be stored in vast basins set into the hillsides against the possibility of drought and she knew the Ramon and Jaime had been supervising the construction of a new one for some time now. It had kept them busy between harvesting the vast banana crop and packing the tomatoes to make way for a further yield.

Restlessly she paced to the far end of the colonnaded way where the rain fell like a grey curtain between her and the garden trees, saturating the ground beneath them until it became a sea of mud, the weight of water snapping the heavy flower-heads from the wet branches to scatter them like thrown confetti at her feet.

Somewhere beyond the garden a sudden roar of water descended the planted terraces, rushing relentlessly downwards until it was finally trapped in one of the vast concrete dams. It was a terrible sound, driving fear into her heart. Where was Ramon and why didn’t he come home?

For half an hour she stood there wondering about the immediate future, wondering what Jaime would do about the ruby; wondering about Lucia and her terrible obsession with power, and wondering, too, about Teresa when the time came for her to leave Soria altogether. She had another year to do at the convent before she went to Madrid, and a year could seem like an eternity to someone of Teresa’s age. She had passed through it all herself not so long ago, the restless desire to leave the realm of childhood behind for ever and step boldly into the adult future which beckoned so seductively. Thinking of her own schooldays, she realised how happy they had been, but she could not caution patience when she had stretched out her hand so eagerly to the future herself. Even when she had taken this job and had come to Tenerife it had been with the odd, pathetic hope in her heart that she would find a home.

And now, in a matter of days, perhaps, she would be alone again.

The rain poured down relentlessly, the sound of it obliterating all other sound. Surely there was enough water now to fill all the catchment areas for many weeks to come? She looked out at the tormented garden, already despoiled by the weight of water and the ferocity of the sudden wind which bent the palms almost to the ground and tore great fronds from their upper branches to hurl them across the terracing in wild abandon. Broken lilies hung on their stalks, still gleaming bravely above the ornamental pool, and the little pink geraniums which grew almost wild around them hung their bright heads in dismay.

‘It’s worse than I expected.’ Jaime was standing at her elbow, frowning into the night. ‘Do you know if Ramon has come in?’

‘I don’t think so.’ She turned towards him. ‘I’ve been out here for nearly an hour. Are you afraid for the new dam?’

‘That, and some of the others. The new one would have taken the weight of most of this water if it had been completed, but now all the strain will be on an old reservoir up in the hills. We were patching it yesterday, but the new cement won’t hold.’

She could see how worried he was and his need for Ramon’s help.

‘Surely he will not stay away for long,’ she said.

‘I will need him immediately if this goes on.’

‘Could I do anything to help in the meantime?’ she asked.

He hesitated.

‘You could stand by the telephone till it goes out of order,’ he said. ‘It won’t be long now, with all this wind and rain about, but I must be in contact with Orotava for as long as possible. The surrounding estates will all be affected if our dam breaks.’

‘I’m sorry,’ she found herself saying. ‘You could have done without this.’

‘It could mean life or death for Soria.’ His voice was suddenly harsh above the sound of the falling rain. ‘We need water, and then we get too much. It is always the way, but I should have been prepared for it.’ He struggled into a heavy riding cape. ‘Can I leave you in charge at this end till Ramon gets back?’

‘I want to help,’ she said.

He stood looking down at her, buttoning the cape close under his chin.

‘
Gracias,
Cathy!’ he said. ‘Will you tell Ramon to join me as quickly as he can? I’ll be at the west dam where most of the damage could occur.’

She watched him go, a tall figure stooping a little against the onslaught of the rain, his head bowed, his proud face no longer confident as he strode off into the night.

Lucia came from the direction of the kitchens.

‘Who was that?’ she demanded.

‘Jaime. He has gone to look at the new dam. He’s afraid it won’t stand up to the rush of water if the rain continues.’

Lucia’s expression changed as a look of triumph dawned in her eyes.

‘He may have need of me again,’ she said. ‘My father’s money saved Soria once before, but now Jaime has managed to pay it almost all back to me to save his pride. He has impoverished himself to recover his independence, but we shall see!’

‘You can’t be
glad
that this has happened,’ Catherine gasped. ‘That the rain may wash away the dam.’

‘Glad, no, but I am a fatalist. Miss Royce,’ Lucia declared. ‘I believe that what will be cannot be averted. You will disagree with me, of course, but that is of no consequence. You are not a part of Soria, as I am. You will return to your own country quite soon and your time here will be forgotten.’

The logic of her statement could hardly be denied, but Catherine was determined to hold her own while she remained at Soria in the present emergency.

‘Jaime has asked me to stand by the telephone,’ she explained, ‘and to contact Ramon as soon as he comes in.’

‘Ramon could be anywhere,’ Lucia declared. ‘He looks after his own amusement, that one!’

‘He has gone in search of Manuel.’

Catherine had meant to defend Ramon from Lucia’s cynicism, but the effect of her words was electric.

‘Manuel?’ Lucia cried. ‘What has he to do with Soria now? I have dismissed him. He was my own servant and I sent him away.’ Any colour which might have been in her sallow cheeks had faded to a dull putty. ‘Ramon had no right to go after him of his own accord.’

‘I think Jaime knew he was searching for Manuel,’ Catherine said coldly, ‘and Manuel could be needed in the present emergency.’

‘They will not find him,’ Lucia declared emphatically. ‘He has gone for good.’