At the Villa Massina Page 14

  Juliet had slipped on her wrap and was pushing her feet into espadrilles when Luisa’s distant cry reached them. She turned and waved up at the gesticulating figure, made motions to show that they were coming at once. She looked at her watch. It wasn’t quite one—a little early for Luisa to become agitated about spoiling the lunch.

  She took the children’s hands and raced with them, let them run ahead up the stone steps and across the garden. Noise drew her round to the french door of the sitting-room, where she stopped precipitately, scarcely able to believe her vision.

  The children were ecstatically clasping one leg each of their father, and Norma stood there, smiling regally as she looked about her.

  “Good heavens,” said Juliet, in a flood of gratitude and relief. “Norma and Ruy! How lovely to see you here!”

  “I have no third leg for you, Juliet,” said Ruy, “but we will touch hands. No, not that one with the large white wrist—it is all show and very little wrong underneath the dressing. How are you, my dear?”

  “Fine, and so very glad to see you!” Juliet told him fervently. She turned to Norma, but somehow there was no close greeting between them. “Why didn’t you let us know you were coming?”

  Norma pushed her white bag further on to the table, sank gracefully into a chair. “We didn’t know till the last moment,” she said, with the familiar languid inflection. “Ruy suddenly decided to have the operation on his wrist at once. We were told on Tuesday that he could travel if he wished, but then there was the trouble of booking seats on a plane at this season. We were given a couple of cancellations late yesterday afternoon and decided to take them and surprise you. And you are surprised, aren’t you?”

  “But you can’t imagine how pleased I am!”

  Norma’s light blue eyes were wide and clear for a second; then she flicked her eyelids. “Well, naturally. Children, run along and wash. Luisa is getting lunch, and we’ll give you your presents after you’ve eaten.”

  As the children disappeared, Juliet said, “I shall have to do the same.” But she paused. “Did you make any arrangements for my trip home?”

  Norma shrugged her shoulders; they were beautiful shoulders even under the corded navy silk of her suit. “There wasn’t time, but it’s never difficult to get a single passage on a ship.”

  “And we do not want you to leave at once,” Ruy said sincerely. “You have been splendid to care for the children here—Rina is so bright that one hardly recognizes her, does one, my dear Norma? Juliet must now enjoy herself without having to think of the children.”

  “Unless she has other plans,” put in Norma negligently. “It’s possible she’s had enough of the Villa Massina. I think you’d rather go, wouldn’t you, Juliet?” And she looked up with one of those straight stares which Juliet remembered from her own childhood days; the stare which meant, “The answer is yes.”

  Ruy smiled. “Let us not decide at once. It is so pleasant for us all to be together here. Take your shower, Juliet and we will eat. We all have a great deal to tell each other.”

  Luisa, as usual when faced with a minor crisis, gesticulated as if the world were coming to an end and managed admirably, both at lunch and afterwards, when she bustled away to prepare the beds in the main bedroom. The children showed off their increased appetites and Tony grew slightly riotous and was told by his mother that he must get back to good behaviour now that his parents were in the house. Juliet made no comment; Norma’s pinpricks were negligible compared with what she herself had on her mind. The children went off to bed, and Norma went to her room, to unpack with Luisa.

  Ruy, sitting in an armchair, smiled with the joy of any parent restored to his children, and said he was looking forward to a month’s holiday before taking up his business contacts in Spain. The wrist had increasingly caused trouble, so that he could not even sign a letter, and the operation, “one of those where they manipulate the tendons and muscles,” he explained, was thought to be highly successful, though he would not be able to use it for some time.

  “However, one recovers from everything in San Federigo,” he said. “Even Norma, you will have noticed, is a little ... tense, but the warmth and laziness will be good for her. This year, she seemed afraid to come to Spain—you remember how it was when it was arranged for you to take charge of the children? She is better now, I think, but there is still some sharpness. It pleased me very much that she was suddenly anxious this week to come to San Federigo.”

  “She looks very well.”

  “She looks magnificent,” he said fondly. “But the social life can be wearing. Here is San Federigo she will rest until she feels quite fit to entertain. And you, Juliet. You are well?”

  “You’ve asked that twice, Ruy.”

  “And each time you have said you are fine.” He shrugged. “I will accept that if you wish. I will also accept that those shadows in the eyes are the result of too much sunshine. I am afraid the children have been a large responsibility for one so young.”

  “Not at all. They’ve been marvellous, no trouble at all.”

  “But,” he smiled again, with a hint of teasing, “you were so pleased to see us! Part of your pleasure I understand because you are fond of your cousin and, I hope, just a little fond of me! But there was something else in you, Juliet. Was it relief?”

  “Well ... it’s time I went home to see how Uncle George is getting on.”

  “Oh, that.” He sounded relieved himself. “I can set your mind at rest. The new assistant is excellent; in fact, your uncle was saying that he might spare you for the advanced librarian’s course you were always wishing to take—if you are still of the same mind.”

  “Oh.” There was nothing Juliet wanted less, but she added brightly, “We shall have to see, shan’t we? Shouldn’t you be resting, Ruy?”

  “If I obey the doctor, yes.” He stood up, looked at her with a grave smile. “I thank you for Rina—you know that. You must certainly have some happy times with us before you leave.”

  “Thank you, Ruy.”

  She heard him go upstairs, heard Norma call to him from the upper corridor, “I’ve taken off the bedspread, darling. Just lie down and lose yourself. You’ll feel wonderful in a day or two.”

  “I feel wonderful already,” he answered. “Perhaps because we are again united with the children, this year seems to be what you call something special. Rest yourself, Norma. Please do ... for me.”

  For some reason Juliet had to blink moisture from her eyes. It was easy to decide that Norma didn’t deserve Ruy, but regarded from his angle, he did deserve the things he wanted most.

  Rina and Tony were allowed up later that night, and dinner for the adults was served at nine. They had scarcely finished coffee and liqueurs when Ramiro turned up with his sister. They had heard of the Colmeiros’ arrival and decided to pay their respects at once.

  Ramiro bent over Norma’s hand, touched his lips to her wrist in his practised fashion. “You are even more beautiful than when I last saw you,” he said, “when the ninos were small. Ruy, you are the most fortunate man on earth!”

  Ruy agreed, of course, and Norma parried the compliment while making the most of it. She added, “I would have though you yourself would be married by now, Ramiro.”

  He gave a prodigious shrug and told her calmly, “Since coming here to San Federigo I have had it constantly in mind. Inez has insisted on it! Between ourselves, I think my bachelor days are numbered, but in its early stages this romantic business is explosive. Perhaps, after all, I shall wait another year or two.”

  “You will not wait, caro mio,” said his sister softly.

  During that hour in the sitting-room Ramiro did not once look directly at Juliet. He noticed when she needed an ashtray, offered another cigarette and moved her chair when the curtain billowed over it, but she might have been any young woman in the company of maturer people; she was politely included in the conversation but her opinions were not sought. Only once did the Conde show any sign of remembering her
as an individual. A magazine slipped from the low table to the floor, and Juliet bent to retrieve it as he did the same. Inadvertently, their hands touched, and she withdrew hers as if it burned. The Conde replaced the magazine on the table, looked at his own finger-tips and rubbed the pad of his thumb over them, as if to erase the contact; for just that instant, his nostrils flared. Then it was over, and he was smiling again at the others and asking what their plans were for the next week or two. He suggested that it would be pleasant if all of them, with a few other guests, were to sail in the yacht round to Cadiz. Nothing was settled, however, and he left as he had come, suavely and with Inez.

  The next morning, Easter Sunday, Ruy was called for by one of his old friends, and he went off with the children on a brief round of visits. His own car was on its way from England by sea, and he thought it would be best if, upon news of its arrival in Cadiz, they took Juliet round by boat and waited to see her embark for England, after which the Colmeiro family could drive back to San Federigo. He would rather Juliet stayed longer, of course, but he wanted her to do what she wished. Norma made no demur; apparently the brief meeting with the Conde last night had set her mind at rest regarding Juliet Darrell.

  Ruy and the children were gone, Luisa had made the beds and departed to the kitchen. Juliet dusted her room, came out into the corridor and tapped on Norma’s door. There was no reply, so she ran downstairs into the sitting-room, and finding that empty, too, she moved towards the open door, in time to see her cousin walking across the back lawn in her bathing-wrap.

  She followed her, running lightly, came beside her as they reached the head of the stone steps. Norma looked up briefly and without welcome, and then went on down the steps. Juliet kept firmly at her side, and they trod the beach together. Norma dropped her wrap, adjusted the strapless suit. With the reddish hair brushed back and her untanned shoulders square under the sun, Norma looked superb; mature yet young, supremely conscious of her perfect physique and mentally self-assured.

  “I wanted to bathe alone,” she said pointedly. “Do you mind?”

  “This is more important than bathing,” Juliet returned with spirit. “Your skin isn’t used to this sun yet, so we’d better go and sit under the pines.”

  “I’m bathing. You can do what you like.”

  “Look here, Norma, you’re in the dickens of a spot! You can’t put me off for ever, and in your own interests you’d better hear me out right now, and decide what you’re going to do. Do you think I’d follow you around like this for something trivial?”

  Her cousin regarded her consideringly. “I knew it would be like this,” she said acidly. “We used to be friends, but I knew we couldn’t be again, once you felt you had me in your power. You’re going to make me let you stay here, aren’t you? If I don’t you’ll tell Ruy that I gave you a packet to post to a man. You’re crazy, Juliet. He’d laugh at you. No one could possibly come between Ruy and his family.”

  “That’s what you think!” Juliet got that far and stopped. Did Norma really believe that? Had she so little knowledge and affection that she actually thought Juliet’s anxiety for a private talk was based on ... She shook herself. “I’m not sure what you’re thinking, Norma, but it’s not the same thing as I’m thinking. A good deal has happened here that you know nothing about. It’s terribly serious! If I went away tomorrow and left things as they are, your marriage and your relationship with the people here—everything, would be ruined. Does that shake you?”

  Norma didn’t look shaken; she looked slightly amused but suddenly on guard. “What are you getting at?”

  “I can’t throw it off in a couple of minutes. Come and sit down in the shade.”

  Norma hesitated, then with a resigned sight she picked up her wrap and went along with Juliet and sank down comfortably. Juliet lay back with her hands supporting her in the sand. She felt sick and frightened but still determined. This was Norma’s trouble, and she must face it.

  “Well, it all began with that wretched packet you left in the bag for posting. I could tell you what I think of you for landing me with the gift of that bag, but other things are more vital just now. I posted your packet, and a couple of days later Lyle Whitman came to see me.”

  “To see you! How did he know you were here?”

  “All in good time.”

  Juliet got started and went on and on, explaining, answering Norma’s questions which became more and more staccato, ignoring the sharp accusations. She told everything, even to Inez de Vedro’s buying the jade brooch and other gems. The mention of the brooch touched Norma like a hot needle; she was convinced at last of Lyle Whitman’s treachery. Even the information that he smuggled diamonds was more bearable than the blow to her self-esteem.

  Juliet ended wearily, “So that’s how things stand. Lyle thinks I’m going to meet him on the Alameda next week with the cat’s eye, but the stone is in the hands of the police, and at any moment they may tumble to its being part of the smuggler’s loot, or whatever it is. You’ll have to meet him and explain what’s happened.”

  “Never! I couldn’t possibly risk my reputation like that in San Federigo.”

  “If you don’t, he’ll come here and Ruy will know everything.”

  Norma said through tight teeth, “You’re impossible! I leave things in your hands and you make a wholesale mess of them. All this is your doing, and you’ll have to wriggle out of it. I won’t have any part in it at all!”

  “You’ve no choice,” said Juliet warmly. “When I offered to bring the children to Spain I had no idea you’d been having an affair here!”

  “How dare you say that! There was no affair. The man fell for me and I was bored. He showed me his collection of stones and I liked the white jade. As a matter of fact I bought a couple of his stones not long after we met and had them set for Christmas presents. The jade brooch was a sort of ... bonus, I suppose, but it was a dangerous gift to a married woman. I took it, and afterwards I was sorry. Then when you were coming here earlier than we usually did, I thought it would be a good plan to get rid of the brooch and, by the action, let Lyle know that I didn’t want to see him again. I’m not a fool; if I hadn’t been bored crazy that year I wouldn’t even have answered the man when he first spoke to me.”

  “I understand it was you who first spoke to him. Weren’t you in Cortana buying lace, when you lost your way? Didn’t you speak to him because he looked English ... and different?”

  “Oh, what does it matter? Believe his lies if you like! You can tell the sort of man he is, by his threats. Juliet, you’ll have to see him on Wednesday and tell him he’s in danger. He’ll be grateful and anxious to get out of the district. He mustn’t know that I’m here.”

  Juliet sat up straight. “I won’t do it. I’ve looked after your children and staved off this weak lover of yours, but I won’t go any further. The rest is in your hands.”

  Norma swung round, a spot of high color in each cheek, the blue eyes angry. “If I’d been here I’d have nipped this thing in the bud and there would have been no tangle. You’ve let it grow, and now you expect me to put things right. But I won’t jeopardize my marriage for anyone! The problem is yours.”

  “No, it’s yours. So is the reputation he proposes to shatter,” said Juliet quietly.

  There was a silence. In an uncharacteristic gesture, Norma pushed her fingers through her hair, and then she looked at Juliet with a glance that was blue and calculating.

  “The Conde de Vallos came into it because he found the stone under the table here at the villa?”

  “Yes. He must have had ideas about it from the beginning; he wouldn’t give it up.”

  “There’s one thing I don’t quite get. Why should he withhold what he knows about Lyle from the police?”

  Juliet looked down at the small depression her fists had made in the sand. “He was sorry for me. He got the idea I’d fallen for Lyle Whitman.”

  “And had you?” asked Norma in hard tones.

  “No, I haven’t be
en poaching. I’ve been very frank with him as a matter of fact—told him exactly what I thought of him. Not that he cared. He seemed nice enough, but since Ramiro told me where Lyle gets his private income I’ve know he was only out for gain, and to save his skin. He didn’t trust the Conde with the ruby because he knew that once he suspected he would be merciless. He simply counted on his usual good luck. He even took the chance of selling stones to Inez because he thought he had her more or less enslaved and she’d keep the transaction secret if he asked her to. I think he became over-confident.”

  After a pause Norma said slowly, “If we knew where he was at the moment we could put the police on to him there. I still think he has enough chivalry in him to keep silent about me if he doesn’t know I’m here.”

  “You don’t care a thing about him, do you?” said Juliet with a slight bitterness in her tone. “Not that you should, I suppose.”

  “He’s willing to blackmail—I can’t forget that!”

  Juliet nodded soberly. “I wouldn’t trust him. You could send a note to his cottage at Cortana—he’s bound to go there first, when he returns.”

  “I’ll send no notes anywhere,” stated Norma. “I won’t be incriminated in any way. Juliet, you’ve got to handle this on your own. All right, it’s for me, but you’ll have to do it. You haven’t anything to lose—and I have so much! You’re still a stranger here, and when you’ve gone they’ll forget you. I spend a third of each year in San Federigo, and scandal is the last thing these people will tolerate. I know them! It may seem strange to you, but here where we’re so well known I have to keep above reproach.”

  “It’s a pity you didn’t think of that two summers ago!”

  “I won’t have you preaching to me. It might have happened to any woman—it was just my bad luck that I happened to be attracted to a scoundrel. There’s no risk to you, Juliet. You merely meet Lyle, tell him exactly what has happened to his stone, and come away. He’s wily enough to work out the implications for himself. You say he’s giving up his cottage, so possibly he’s already had a scare and wants the cat’s eye back to close up that particular channel. I wouldn’t know. Juliet, you must do it.”