Mountain Magic (7 page)

B
y
the time lunch was nearly over Toni was receiving the co-operation of the other girls with whom she worked, and she was surprised—as well as extremely grateful—because they put themselves out to give her confidence, and prevent her appearing in front of a sea of strangers as if she was as inexperienced as she actually was.

The girls—Vera, Gerda and Elisabeth—encouraged her every time they passed her with their own trays.

“You’re doing fine!” Or its equivalent in German. “That fat man over there can’t eat you, although he looks as if he’d like to! The dress really suits you! ... You look much nicer in it than Trudi did.”

Toni was not at all sure about that. Her skirt felt ridiculously short, billowing out from her slim waist—a froth of lilac banded with black velvet; and her muslin blouse, although crisp and immaculate, had an extremely
décolleté
neckline. As for her absurd little apron, and the flower in her hair
... those were the final musical comedy touches!

What with her consciousness of her appearance, and her fear that she would drop a tray every time she hurried with one along the sunlit terrace, she was in a continual state of nervous tension, and perspiring profusely—although, fortunately, no one would have
guessed it—by the time the terrace had emptied and everyone had disappeared for lunch.

One good thing about this new arrangement was that the waiters served coffee, and she was allowed to go off duty once the aperitif rush was over. Another good
thing
about that first morning was that neither Kurt Antoine nor Philip Gresham appeared on the terrace d
uring
her period of duty, and for this she could not have been more grateful.

Although Antoine was her employer, and it was in his interests that she was dressed up in her eye-catching uniform, she shrank from the thought of meeting his eyes when he first caught sight of her wearing it. And Gresham would be certain to take advantage of the opportunity to talk to her, since all he had to do was lift his finger and beckon her to his table.

“
Fraulein,
bring me a nice cool lager, will you?”

It was quite easy to imagine the anile in his eyes, and the efforts he would make to detain her.

But somewhat to her surprise when Gresham did first catch sight of her in her new role, and beckoned her over to his table, it was to ask her somewhat explosively what in the world this meant.

“Are you determined to learn the hotel business from the bottom to the top, or vice versa?” he asked. “I could take it when you first appeared on my horizon as a chambermaid; but
I’
m not at all sure I can take this.” He touched her ridiculously short skirt, and her absurd little apron. “Do you
like
wearing this get-up?” He was frowning heavily. “If you do you must be more like the sort of girl I first took you for, and somehow I don’t think
you are!”

She flushed, because his voice was not merely characteristically English, but it carried clearly as English male voices so often do.

“Really, Toinette, you have handed me a surprise! Or are you doing it for a wager?”

“Of course not,” she answered hurriedly, and bent to excuse herself because someone else wanted her.
“I’ll
have to go. I—”

“
Fraulein
!”
a guttural German voice called just as impatiently, and just as clearly, as the English voice.

“Tell him to wait on himself!” Philip Gresham exclaimed, with snapping, cold blue eyes. He rose and pushed back his chair. “I’d like to have a few words with you—in fact, I
must
have a few words with you! —as soon as it’s possible, Toinette. I’m off to Vienna after lunch tomorrow, and I’
ll
be away about a week.
C
ould you manage to slip out and meet me some time this evening? In that woo
d
where we met before?”

Kurt Antoine strolled along the terrace towards them, and Toni bolted like a startled rabbit at the first hint of his coming.

Gresham regarded him as if he disliked him personally, and then strode off along the terrace in the opposite direction.

Toni was making a disastrous business of
filling
a glass with Vichy water, when her employer appeared at her elbow and said in a quiet undertone that he would like a few words with her as soon as she was free.

“Come along to my office, wi
ll
you? I’
ll
be waiting for you.”

Toni could only think that she had committed some enormous crime to be thus ordered to report to his office; and the customer who had ordered the Vichy water looked openly surprised when she slopped so much of it over the
table that she had to fetch a cl
oth and mop it up. Then, with her heart knocking as if it was attached to a string inside her, she made her way to Kurt Antoine’s office.

She had no need to knock on the door. He must have been listening for her footste
p
s, for he called out at once:

“Come in!”

Feeling about as noticeable as a tropical bird amongst a gathering of starlings, Toni accepted the invitation, and then accepted another inv
i
tation to be seated.

She found it quite impossible to cover her knees with her bri
ef
lilac skirt once she had accepted a chair, and she could almost fed Antoine’s eyes staring at the shapeliness of her legs. Then he lifted them to her face, and he asked quie
tl
y:

“I want you to tell me something truthfully, Miss Darcy.” The fact that he didn’t call her Toinette filled her with apprehension. “I was amazed when I heard that, in pr
ef
erence to accepting a position in the office, you had decided to step in and fill the breach l
ef
t by the departure of Trudi, one of our terrace waitresses. I don’t
mind
admitting I was so amazed that I could hardly believe it at first! But Marianne assures me that it is true. Apparently glamour appeals to you more than assisting with the routine work of an office!”

If he was amazed by what he had heard Toni was so amazed that she could hardly speak. Then she realised what had happened ... Marianne, fearing that he might be slightly critical of the niche she had found for his
prot
é
g
é
e
, had decided to proffer her explanations before she was asked for them. And in doing so
sh
e had made it impossible for Toni to complain, and certainly she had made it impossible for her to state bluntly and baldly that Mademoiselle Raveaux was a distorter of the truth.

“Well?” Antoine was looking at her, frowning at her as if there was just a chance he would have believed her if she had told the truth about Marianne. But it was such a flimsy chance Toni couldn’t take it.

He would probably be so furious with her for destroying—or attempting to destroy—the character of his manageress, that he would sack her, Toni, on the spot.

Toni took a deep breath, and then sacrificed any good opinion of her he might possibly have held.

“I don’t know anything about office work,” she said quietly. “It seemed to me that I should be a— a sort of square peg in a round hole.”

“But you do know something about serving drinks to men who can seize the opportunity to admire your legs
?
” in such a tone of icy displeasure that she would rather he had accused her of robbing the office safe.

“Of course not.”

“Then shall we say you thought it was an excellent opportunity to acquire that knowledge?”

She swallowed. Her face was so red that she felt as if it was literally on fire.

“I’m disappointed in you,” he remarked. “I thought you would jump at the office job, particularly as I created it especially for you, and in time it might have led to something worth while. However, if you prefer that frilly apron, and that ridiculous flower in your hair...!” He stood up and started to pace about the room, and then came back to her and stared down at her with dark and hostile eyes. “One other thing, before you return to your duties
.
..
”

“Yes?” she said, barely above a whisper.

“When I came along the terrace just now you were
talking
to a man whom, presumably, you had just served with some sort of refreshment, and because he made no effort to keep his voice down I heard very clearly what he was saying. He called you ‘Toinette’, and he said he must have a few words with you
—in the wood where you met before
!”

Toni felt that this really was a disaster. For a moment she couldn’t even think how to answer him, and then she decided to fall back on a partial truth.

“I think you must be referring to Mr. Gresham,” she replied, finding it difficult to get the words out. “He—I met him on the first day that I was here, and his father is a close friend of a relative of mine...”

“I thought you didn’t possess any relatives?” raking her with his hard eyes.

Her fingers twined and untwined themselves in her lap.

“I don’t
... At least, not relatives I see anything of. This one I haven’t seen for years.”

“But he is a close friend of Mr. Gresham’s father? And Mr. Gresham is a young man with a background, money, position, possibly even influence! Are you quite sure you’re telling me the truth, Miss Darcy?”

“Quite sure.” She looked down at her hands, and she wondered how much longer
this
inquisition would last.

It lasted another few seconds. He turned his back on her, walked to his desk and picked up his gold-mounted fountain-pen.

“In future you will remember, Miss Darcy,
that
whether you are on familiar terms with the guests who stay here or not, you will not associate with them in your free time. That is absolutely forbidden! Do you understand
?
”

“Yes,” she answered. “Yes—
Monsieur
—I understand.”

“Good,” he said, without turning to look at her again. And as she left his office she thought with a most curious pang that it was extremely unlikely she would ever feel his hand resting warmly and reassuringly on her shoulder again.

And she thought with sudden, bitter envy of Marianne Raveaux, who could do no wrong in his eyes, and didn’t scruple to lie when it suited her.

For the next few days she managed to carry out her new duties without making it too plain that she disliked them, or betraying the fact that she was covered in self-consciousness from the moment she appeared in her pseudo-Tyrolean outfit on the terrace for two painful rush-hour periods each day.

Once, when she was accepting the order of a couple who were newly arrived at the hotel, she saw
Marianne and her employer seat themselves at a table to which she was bound to attend, and a sensation like sheer panic took possession of her. To stand before the two of them while Marianne smiled secretly but triumphantly—perhaps even with open triumph—up into her face was something that she suddenly knew was quite beyond her. So when Elisabeth passed her with a tray of drinks she whispered to her urgently that Monsieur and Mademoiselle Raveaux had been waiting for several minutes, and would she attend to them?

Then, without waiting for Elisabeth’s surprised look, she fled inside.

Ten minutes later, slipping back unobtrusively, she found that Antoine and Marianne had been served with drinks; but Marianne beckoned imperiously as soon as she made her appearance.

“Why did you disappear just now?” Marianne asked, in a cold, accusing voice. “You saw that we were waiting—at one of your tables—and you disappeared
!
”

“I asked Elisabeth to serve you,” Toni replied.

“Quite. And she attended to us immediately. But she has her own tables, and at the moment far more customers on her hands than you have, so why should the extra duty have been placed upon her? Are you in the habit of getting Elisabeth to do a share of your work for you
?
”

“No, no, of course not!”

“Then don’t let it occur again!” With a cool, dismissing nod she made it plain to Toni that she could go; but although perfectly well aware that, on this occasion, there was some justification for her criticism, her manner of displaying annoyance caused Toni such an unusual rush of resentment that she bit her lip hard, and then threw back her head a little—while careful to avoid Kurt Antoine’s eyes.

“If you consider I’m not satisfactory you can always dismiss me,” she said, with a tremble of anger in her voice. She had a wild vision of herself approaching the nearest Consul and asking for assistance to get home to England; but suddenly it didn’t matter what she did so long as she got away from the
Rosenhorn
.
“
In fact, I
think
it would be a good thing if you agreed to release me immediately, and I could
hand
my uniform back to the linen-keeper
!”