The Dragon's Cave (4 page)

CHAPTER III

Megan could have bitten out her tongue.

‘I—I mean—’

‘
Muy bien!
It is all settled, then? Naturally, I shall pay your salary in whichever currency you prefer. You may prefer half in pesetas and half in sterling? You will not need much money in Mallorca. My stepmother is still in mourning—she is old-fashioned in these ways—and does not go out a great deal.’

‘I see,’ said Megan.

‘I hope you will not find it dull. Pilar and Isabel will be there for their holidays, but otherwise there will not be a great deal for you to do.’

Megan listened to him explaining exactly what she would be called upon to do, her mind racing as she wondered whatever could have induced her to have given way to him. She was secretly amused, too, that he should be so concerned that she might be bored. Didn’t he know, she wondered, how lonely it could be in the heart of swinging London, when you knew few people and had very
little
money?

‘
We have two houses in Mallorca,’ he went on.
‘
One is in Palma itself, just off the Plaza Santa Eulalia, in the Calle Morey. It is a typical Mallorcan house and my stepmother is fond of it. She and my father spent some of their honeymoon there. The other house is on the east side of the island. We grow almonds and export them and this house is in the centre of the orchards.’ His expression relaxed a
little
. ‘You are fortunate to be going at this time of year,’ he said gently. ‘The blossom is very fine in the early part of February.’

‘Is your stepmother already there?’ Megan asked him.

‘She goes there tomorrow,’ he answered.

‘How soon
can you be ready to join her?’

Megan shrugged. She thought of saying that after all, she didn’t want to go, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

‘I—I can be ready as soon as I’ve packed,’ she said instead. ‘Most of my things are in London, but I can go and get them tomorrow.’

‘Fine. I shall collect you on Tuesday, the day after tomorrow. There will be no difficulty in getting a seat on a plane at this time of year. I shall telephone my stepmother tonight and tell her that you are coming.’

He stood up, offering her his hand to clinch their bargain. Reluctantly, she put her hand in his, wishing that he didn’t make her feel quite so young and foolish. To her surprise, he didn’t shake her hand as she had expected, but raised it to his lips, kissing it lightly.

‘I thought Spaniards didn’t kiss the hands of unmarried ladies?’ she said nervously.

‘Do you object?’ he countered.

‘N-no,’ she said. She thought she would sound even more young and foolish if she said she did. ‘ I just wondered if it were quite proper.’

His dark green eyes glinted with laughter.
‘
Quite proper, seeing the difference in our ages—’

‘You aren’t thirty yet
!’
she reproved him.

He sighed. ‘Pilar has been talking a great deal,’ he said.

Megan blushed. ‘She was telling me about all her family,’ she explained.

‘I see,’ he said shortly.

‘Anyway,’ Megan said crossly, ‘I don’t see why you should mind my knowing how old you are. You know how old I am I
.’

He smiled slowly. ‘I don’t mind your knowing
.’

‘
Then what did you mind?’ she prompted him.

She thought he wasn’t going to answer, but in the
end he did.

‘They always had each other. I was too old to play with them, and their mother wasn’t my mother. I expect I resented always being the odd man out.’

‘But you are the eldest son
!
’ Megan pointed out.
‘You were always that
!
’ She hesitated. ‘I
expect it’s that that’s made you so interfering,’ she added impertinen
tl
y. ‘Rescuing strange females
—

‘
That
had nothing to do with my responsibilities as the eldest son!
’
he cut in sharply.

‘O
f course it did
!
’ retorted Megan, well pleased with her theory. ‘I was just another Pilar, or Isabel, to you! I could feel it
!’

‘Indeed?’ he said stiffly.

‘
Well, what other reason had you?’ Megan asked reasonably.

‘I suppose that one will do as well as any other,’ he said with a glint of humour.

Megan’s eyes widened. ‘But it
must
have been your reason!’

He bowed slightly.
‘
If you say so.’

She chewed on her lip thoughtfully, wanting to puncture his confidence—just once—with the same ease with which he undermined hers. It wasn’t only that he had the advantage in years and experience, for she had always before been able to give as good as she got, no matter who; it was more that he intimidated her
physically,
without even touching her, because for some peculiar reason she felt weak at the knees at the sight of him.

‘I expect lunch will be ready soon,’ she said finally.
‘
I’d better go and set the table.’ She jumped up out of her chair and left the room in a rush, almost colliding with Pilar in the hall.

Pilar’s eyes danced with anticipation. ‘Did he ask you? Are you going to Mallorca?’ She looked at Megan’s face more closely. ‘Did he upset you?’ she demanded at last, her eye kindling.

‘No, of course not! And yes, I am going to Majorca—’

‘Ah
!
’ Pilar grinned happily. ‘I am so glad I If you hadn’t, you know, I should have had to leave Barcelona, and that wouldn’t have suited me at all!’

‘No?’

Pilar looked wicked.
‘
There is a certain man I know—’

‘Do I know him?’ her brother’s voice cut across their conversation.

Pilar’s face fell.
‘
I have never seen him alone,’ she said quickly. ‘You know his sister!’
she added. ‘So perhaps you do know him
!
’

Carlos eyed her coldly. ‘We’ll talk about it later
,’
he said quie
tl
y. ‘Now we had better join the others.’

Lunch was a painful meal as far as Megan was concerned. Her parents looked smug, as if they had pulled off a successful deal against incredible odds, and Pilar was still sulking in case her brother prevented her from seeing her friend in Barcelona ever again, though how he could do such a thing was quite beyond Megan.

It was a relief to her when the meal came to an end and she made her escape into the kitchen to make the coffee.

‘May I carry the tray for you?’ Carlos asked her.

‘Thank you, but I can manage,
senor
,’
she said with dignity.

He didn’t offer again. Instead he stood and watched her as she made the coffee and placed the cups and saucers on a tray, together with a jug of cream and a bowl of brown sugar. When she had done, she picked up the tray and started off for the sitting room where the others were waiting, but somehow the kitchen door began to close just as she was walking through it, catching the edge of the tray, and some of the hot coffee spilled over on to her fingers.

Carlos snatched the tray from her and put it down on the table. Megan put her scalded fingers behind her back, swallowing down unbidden tears, and wishing that he wouldn’t look at her.

He turned on the cold tap and pulled her over to the sink, forcing her hands under the flow of water.

‘That’ll take the sting out,’ he said cheerfully. He touched the pink patches that the hot coffee had made with incredible gentleness.
‘
There
!
You won
’
t feel it in a few minutes.’

‘It was all your fault
!’
she wailed.

‘
Naturalmente lo dice en broma
,’ he drawled.

‘I don’t understand Spanish,’ she said sourly.

‘I
, said you must be joking
!’

‘Well, it was your fault
!
Why couldn’t you stay with the others?’

‘I preferred to be with you,’ he said.

‘Nonsense
!
’ she rebuked him with some asperity.

‘
May I carry the tray this time?’ he suggested, unabashed.

She knew that she was being silly, but she couldn’t help it. ‘I’m not helpless
!
’ she exclaimed.

His eyebrows rose. ‘I
didn’t suppose that you were. A little spoilt, perhaps, but helpless? No
!’

Megan looked at him. How could he say she was spoilt?

‘
I—I—’ she began.

‘It is more feminine to accept an offer of this sort graciously,’ he said, with a remarkable lack of interest in her as a person. ‘A Spanish woman learns that sort of thing in her pram
!
’

‘Oh, really?’ she said coldly.

He grinned at her. ‘But it’s not too late for you. You’re young yet
!
’ he taunted her. He picked up the tray and strode out of the kitchen and across the hall into the sitting room. Megan could hear her mother telling him how kind it was of him to bother and could have wept. Why was it that all the doors had behaved perfectly for him? Life was extremely unfair!

The afternoon was endless. Pilar and Carlos showed every sign that they were enjoying themselves. Mr
.
Meredith stoked up the fire in the sitting room and had them toasting crumpets in front of its warmth, while Mrs
.
Meredith pretended to do some mending and fussed over Megan, her mind jumping from one article to another of the things she thought Megan ought to take with her to Majorca.

‘I’ve got all tomorrow to think about that,’ Megan told her, exasperated.

‘But Mrs
.
Vallori will want you to look nice
—’

‘Don’t I always?’ Megan asked her dryly.

‘In your own way,’ her mother admitted.
‘
But I hope you’ll be
tidier,
dear, when you’re there
!’
She emitted a sigh of satisfaction. ‘It’s so nice to have no further worries about you
!
You’re so thin, darling. I
’
m sure you haven’t been eating properly in London by yourself.’

‘
I
t’
s fashionable to be thin
!’
Megan protested ‘Isn’t it, Pilar?’

The Spanish girl nodded her head, smiling.
‘
But even I think you are thin, Megan. That dress is too wide for you—’

The word is slim
!’
Megan interrupted her, crosser than ever.

Carlos chuckled. ‘A yard of pump-water,’ he teased her.

‘If
you’re going to be
horrid
—’ Megan flared at
him.

‘
No, no,’ he denied hastily. ‘It is just an expression I heard somewhere. I find you very pleasant to look at.’

For some reason this didn’t please Megan either.

‘It’s very bad manners to make personal remarks
!’
she said loftily.

His dark eyes lit with laughter. ‘But not to children
!’
he excused himself.

‘I’m not a child!’

‘Of course you are still a child,’ her mother put in placidly.

Megan glared at her.
‘
At least I have the law on my side
!’
she muttered.

Pilar put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

‘Carlos is always like that!’ she pouted at her brother.
‘
But you will have the last word! Do you know what
dragonear
means? It is the Mallorquin word for courting a young lady at her window. You will have more suitors than Mama will be able to deal with. Then let them say that you are a child
!
’

Carlos laughed out loud. ‘Then we’ll call her a minx
!
’

Pilar looked at him coldly. ‘You are not above courting the ladies yourself,’ she reminded him.
‘
I know
!
’

‘I am a man of valour
!
’ Carlos drawled.
‘
I put my hand in the dragon’s mouth and come away unscathed.’

Pilar giggled, unable to keep up her disapproval of anyone for very long.

‘Tell them the story, Carlos! Tell them! It will amuse Megan to hear that Mallorca has its own St George
!
’

‘It is a true story,’ he began. ‘You can see the proof in the Diocesan Museum behind the Cathedral in Palma, if you don’t believe me. It was a long time ago now, perhaps about the year
1700
, and Palma was in a state of terror because this dragon was living there. It preyed upon anyone who went out at night, and on anyone whose faith was weak, and sometimes it was seen prowling beneath the gratings in the street. Once, it nearly carried off a young boy, and the whole city was in a state of panic. Nobody dared to go out at all after dark, and a reward was offered for the dragon’s capture, but nobody was brave enough to engage the dread beast. The Governor of Alcudia, a young man called Don Bernardo Coch, used to go to visit his
fiancée
in Palma just the same. He used to ride into Palma on a very fine horse and make love to his beloved through the window. But one night the dragon appeared, breathing fire through its nostrils. The girl was badly frightened, but Don Bernardo was quite pleased to be able to prove his courage to his sweetheart. He drew his sword and attacked the dragon, killing it dead
!’

‘
It’s absolutely true
!’
Pilar exclaimed, seeing Megan’s ironic expression.
‘
The Mallorquins were terribly grateful to Don Bernardo. They called the dragon after his betrothed,
El Drac de Na Cocal
.
There used to be a festival every year when the dragon was shown to the people
!
It was kept by the Rosell
e
Miralles family, the descendants of Don Bernardo, and they gave it to the museum
!
’

‘I don’t believe it
!’
Megan said flatly.

Carlos looked amused.
‘
You can see for yourself when you are in Palma,’ he said.

‘But,’ Megan said reasonably, ‘nobody courts people through a window nowadays
!’