The Dragon's Cave (9 page)

‘
So,’ Inez’s ready tongue broke the silence, ‘now I shall tell you about Carlos and me. I have lived in Mallorca all my life. Once I have been to Barcelona, but that is all, and then it was to visit with the Valloris. They have always been so very good to me! Of course when we were children I did not have much to do with Carlos because he is older than the rest of us, but always he was the one I loved the best. Pepe is
nice, but he teases all the time and now he is in South America. I think one cannot love anyone who is on the other side of the world? He writes sometimes and tells me I am bad because I don’t write back to him
!’
Inez’s eyes flashed with a sudden spurt of temper.
‘
If he wants to know about me, he can stay here
!’

Megan chuckled.
‘
That’s hardly very practical
!
He has his living to earn
!’

Inez shrugged.
‘
The Valloris don’t need any more money. It is
o
nly because Carlos insists that he works that Pepe had to go to South America. He could have stayed here and looked after the Vallori almonds, or
something
!’
She sounded so passionate on the subject that Megan was amused.

‘
Doesn’t Carlos do that?’ she enquired.

‘He comes occasionally,’ Inez admitted.
‘
There is
a man who looks after the orchards for him. Carlos does nothing himself.
He
doesn’t work for his money
!
’

‘
But he makes Pepe work?’

‘Pepe is the younger son
!
’ Inez said meaningly.

Megan refrained from saying that she had thought she was going to hear about Carlos. She eyed Inez thoughtfully, noting the faintly sulky look that came and went round the full, kissable mouth. The thought occurred to her that the Spanish girl was rather spoilt, and she was amused by the thought. Hadn’t that been exactly what people had always said about
her
?

‘Do you like Pepe better than Carlos?’ she asked aloud, languidly, as though it were of no real interest to her.

Inez flushed.
‘
Of course not! Pepe is only a boy. Carlos is a man
!’

Megan nearly laughed at the Spanish girl’s tone of voice, but something prevented her. ‘When Pepe comes home he will be a man,’ she pointed out.

‘But not like Carlos
!’
Inez denied.
‘
That was what I was going to tell you about. When Pepe had gone it was so dull here. You have no idea what it was like!
There were a few parties, but nothing that I could interest myself in. Almost everything here is for the tourists—my father works for the tourist industry—and there is hardly anything for people of good family on the island.’ She sighed. ‘That was when I really got to know Carlos! You have no idea how kind he can be! He was staying at the farm for a few days and I told him that he had managed to ruin my whole life by sending Pepe away
and
taking Pilar and Isabel to Barcelona to live
!’
She frowned, remembering her former misery. ‘He said that it would never do for me to be unhappy and he put on a party especially for me, and called
often
at my parents’ house just to see me. It was natural that I should fall in love with him, don’t you think? Well, I did! And I think he meant me to because my family is quite as good as his, and he has to marry sooner or later, doesn’t he?’

Megan chewed her lower lip thoughtfully. ‘I—I suppose so.’

‘
Suppose
?’
Inez sounded annoyed.
‘
Carlos understands his responsibilities very well. It is necessary that he should marry and have a son to carry on the family name—’

‘
Pepe could do that,’ Megan objected.

‘
Pepe!
That wouldn’t be at all the
same!
’
Inez’s dark eyes held a tragic look that looked as if it might well brim over into tears. ‘Pepe has no money of his own. All the Vallori estates and businesses were inherited by Carlos. Some of them belonged to
his
mother, you understand. Anyway, although his father loved his English wife, Pepe didn’t stand a chance when it came to the inheritance.’

‘
And what about Carlos’ stepmother?’ Megan knew that she shouldn’t enquire into a matter which was absolutely no business of hers, but she was intrigued to know the exact situation between the Senora and her stepson and whether she was still as jealous of him as she had been when he had been a small boy.

Inez raised her eyebrows. ‘Carlos takes care of her.’

‘Didn’t her husband leave her
anything
?’ Megan asked in astonishment.

‘But of course not
!
’ Inez sounded startled and patronising, both at the same moment. ‘Margot has everything she needs. If he had left her any part of the Vallori estate she would have given it to Pepe and that would have been the beginning of the break-up of the Vallori empire. He would have hated that, and so would Carlos
!’

Megan swallowed. ‘Do they own much property?’ She hesitated, catching herself up as she thought about the impropriety of her questioning Inez like this. ‘I mean, surely there must be more than enough for them all?’

‘
Carlos is one of the richest men in Spain,’ Inez said judiciously.
‘
You see what a good thing it would be for me to marry him?’

‘I suppose so,’ Megan agreed.

‘But, Megan, if I married him I should be rich too
!
’

‘
There’s more to marriage than that,’ Megan said. She was beginning to think that her role as Inez’s confidante and friend was going to be a rather trying one. ‘Won’t Carlos expect you to be in love with him?’

Inez wrinkled up her nose, looking highly put out. ‘But I told you! I am in love with Carlos
!
I want to marry him very much and he wants to marry me. If—If he has other friends, that is no concern of mine!’

Me
gan gave her an anxious look. ‘Well, if you can look at it that
way—
she began. She made a further effort to hide the fact that she found it the most coldblooded view of marriage that she had heard for a long time, made all the worse in her view because Inez was actually contemplating entering into such a relationship. ‘I couldn’t stand any husband of mine playing around with anyone else
!
’

Inez laughed with real amusement.
‘
But would you know?’

Megan blushed a
little
. ‘I think I would,’ she declared. ‘In fact I know I should
!’
Not that I should ever marry anyone like Carlos
!’
she added for good measure.

‘No?’ Inez still looked amused. ‘Perhaps not,’ she agreed. ‘You are too prim and too English for a
juerguista
like Carlos. I think you would be frightened if he paid court to you! You would not like it that he takes what he wants
!
It is as well that I am Spanish and understand these things
!’
She consciously preened herself, smiling maliciously at Megan. ‘Am I not right?’

Megan’s eyes filled with tears. She made a play of drinking the last of the tea, remembering that Carlos had kissed her and that he had said that he hadn’t disliked it, but what had her reactions been? Not the first, brief thrill of being dose to him, but afterwards, when she had finally been allowed to go to her room and climb into the bed that had been Carlos’ when he was a boy? She had thought about it from every possible angle, or so she had thought. Now she was not so sure. She had thought all the time as though she were the only woman in the world and, of course, she was not. Even Inez admitted that Carlos had other female friends, and she was hoping to marry him! But, for that short moment, Carlos had been the only man in the world for her. No one else had ever aroused that feeling of wonder and exultancy within her before. Perhaps no one ever would again!

‘
Probably,’ she said at last.
‘
Even when I marry I want to keep my independence—’

‘
Claro
!’
Inez nodded vigorously.
‘That
is very English
!
In Spain we want to be looked after by our men.’ She giggled. ‘It is so much more comfortable
!
’ she added languidly. ‘If you don’t believe me, ask Margot! She is more Spanish in that way than we
are
!’

Megan couldn’t imagine herself doing anything of the sort. She didn’t know why, but the thought of Carlos marrying Inez depressed her. She thought the Spanish girl was too light a character to find happiness with Carlos, but then she knew very little of Spanish ways. Probably Inez would be content enough, but Carlos—? What happiness would he have?
It was none of her business,
she reminded herself. Carlos was well able to look after his own interests. Only, somehow, the nagging ache of worry about him wouldn’t go away.

Inez walked home with her so that she wouldn’t get lost. ‘I want to come anyway,’ the Spanish girl confided, ‘because my parents are coming to dinner with Margot tonight and I want to explain to her why I won’t be there. I am promised to another party,’ she added by way of explanation, ‘and Carlos won’t hear of my breaking a previous engagement—even for him
!’

She rushed up the stairs ahead of Megan, pushing her way into the gallery, her high heels tapping importantly on the marble floor.

‘Tia Margot?’

A sleepy voice answered her from within and Inez hurried into the small sitting room, a flood of Spanish falling from her lips. Megan followed more slowly, giving her eyes time to grow accustomed to the comparative darkness of the interior by pausing and looking at the stiff paintings of Carlos’ ancestors. She paused in front of one of a woman that was plainly more
modern
than all the rest.

‘
That is my mother,’ Carlos’ voice said behind her shoulder.

‘I
thought it must be,’ she managed, a little embarrassed to be caught looking at the portrait. She turned back, studying the representation before her with greater care. The first Senora Vallori had been a striking-looking woman. She had the same leaf
-
green eyes as Carlos and a slightly cynical expression that caught at Megan’s ready sympathy. It was sad that she
had been parted from her son before she had been able to see him grow to manhood.

‘I am said to favour her in my looks,’ Carlos drawled slowly. ‘Perhaps you don’t agree?’

Megan stared up into the painted eyes.
‘
Why isn’t your stepmother’s painting here too?’ she asked.

‘M
y father preferred to have it in the Barcelona house,’ he answered indifferen
tl
y.
‘
Do you think I ought to have it brought back here?’

Megan shook her head.
‘
This is your mother
’
s house,’ she said.

He looked at her with renewed interest.
‘
That is how I feel,’ he said. ‘But Margot is probably right, I am too inclined to make the house a memorial to a woman I never knew—’

‘But you did know her
!
’

‘Not I, the boy who knew her is as dead as she is, and a good thing too
!
Now that Margot has decided to live here, the house will once again be used by the living, as it ought to be.’ His lips twisted into a cynical expression that was the image of his mother
’
s. ‘It is time the Valloris laid their ghosts, or not even the intrepid English will come and visit us here
.’
His laughter mocked her as much as himself. ‘May she rest in peace
!
’

CHAPTER VI

Megan settled into the ways of the Vallori household more speedily than she had thought possible during those long first days when everything had seemed strange to her. She still thought of that first dinner party with something like a shudder, when Inez’s parents had come to dinner and had showed their disapproval for herself so plainly. She had thought at first that it had been because she was English and, because she spoke no Spanish and they very little English, they had done no more than smile at one another which had inevitably led to a certain stiffness. Then she had become conscious that they disapproved of her clothes and were discussing her freely amongst themselves. She was wearing an evening trouser suit that flashed in the light and which suited her. Her first reaction had been one of hurt and then she had been angry.