‘You’ve killed her – you’ve killed her – you’ve killed her!’
Chapter Twenty-one
It having been ascertained that Miss Cara was not dead but merely in a swoon, she was lifted and laid on a massive Victorian couch. Miss Olivia went down on her knees beside her, and Joseph went for Anna. Presently, when she had recovered consciousness, Derek carried her up to her room. As far as Olivia was concerned he might not have been there at all. She had words for Anna and for Joseph, but not for him. Her glance passed over him as if he were not there.
Since Candida was having the last of her driving lessons, he had a good excuse for getting out of the way for some hours. He told her about the scene.
‘Darling, it was completely shattering. I’ve seen her a bit on the high horse before now, but nothing like this, I give you my word. I can’t imagine what has happened to her.’
‘She doesn’t like being crossed,’ said Candida. ‘Aunt Cara doesn’t do it ever, and you haven’t much. And then I come here, and she doesn’t like me a lot anyhow, so when I start crossing her it gets her back up.’
‘Why did you start crossing her?’
‘I couldn’t help it – not if I didn’t want to be a trodden slave! She started on about Stephen being an architect and so I couldn’t have lunch with him or anything like that, and I couldn’t let her get away with that sort of thing – now could I?’
‘Well-’
‘I wasn’t going to anyhow! That is the way poor little Aunt Cara has been ground down until she hasn’t got a will of her own or enough courage for anything except to say yes when Aunt Olivia says yes, and no when Aunt Olivia says no.’
Derek looked at her, half laughing, half serious.
‘If Stephen is the bone of contention, you paraded it a bit last night, didn’t you?’
She coloured brightly.
‘I suppose I did.’
‘Anything in it?’
‘Oh, Derek, yes!’
‘Have you fixed it up?’
She nodded.
‘Last night.’
He took his left hand off the wheel and patted her shoulder.
‘He’s a good chap. Jenny and I are fixing things up too.’
He told her about Jenny and the garage, slowing the car down and even stopping on the grass verge before they came to the straggle of bungalows outside the town. At the end he said,
‘I don’t know what’s going to happen now. She may shoot me out straight away, or she may have a stab at rescuing me. I didn’t get as far as telling her that Jenny and I are going to take over the garage, so she doesn’t know the worst.’
‘But you’ll have to tell her now.’
‘I don’t want to upset Aunt Cara.’
Candida reflected that this was Jenny’s business. She could have said plenty of things herself, but she had enough on her hands without Derek’s affairs. She said,
‘I’ll be late for my lesson!’
He put out his hand to the switch and drew it back again.
‘I’m not the only one who has put a foot wrong, am I?’ he said with a hint of malice.
‘What do you mean?’
‘Well, you’ve got rather a lot of make-up on this morning, haven’t you, darling?’
‘I don’t think so.’
‘Well, I do. And it doesn’t quite prevent me from seeing that you’ve got a bruise on your cheek and a scratch on your chin. Being the soul of tact, you will notice that I haven’t asked, “How come?” ’
She flushed to the roots of her hair, but she did not speak.
His eyebrows rose.
‘She hit you? I could have told you that girlish confidences would be out of place.’
‘There weren’t any – you needn’t be horrid about it. And it wasn’t about Stephen at all. It was because I said I thought Aunt Cara was ill. And she is. I had to help her upstairs last night.’
He whistled softly.
‘Darling, I could have told you that too – it’s quite fatal. I did it once when I first came, and had my nose more or less bitten to the bone. I suppose it was one of those heavy bracelets that scratched your chin. They are practically fetters, but she always wears them when she wants to be grand. Well, we had better be going. Are you seeing Stephen?’
‘I’m lunching with him.’
He laughed.
‘I’m having a heart to heart with Mr. Adamson at the garage. Burning the boats, you know. He’s in a hurry to get everything fixed up. He wants to hand over the house and a lot of the business and take a bit of an easy.’
It was odd to meet Stephen with everything changed between them. He brought a picnic lunch, and they drove out to the place where they had quarrelled and ate it there. It was one of those early days of spring when the sun shines sweetly for perhaps half an hour, and then without a warning the sky clouds up and the rain comes plumping down.
They sat in the car and talked. It was past hoping for that at such close quarters Stephen would not see what Derek had seen – the slight change in the contour of the cheek, the faint dulling of the skin, and the line where the bracelet had scratched her chin. At a little distance and to the casual eye there was not much to be seen, but where there was no distance at all and the eye was that of a lover, concealment could hardly be hoped for. Stephen exclaimed, questioned, cross-examined – and went up in smoke.
‘That settles it! You must get away at once!’
‘Oh, no, we have an amnesty.’
‘Nonsense! Did she beg your pardon?’
Candida laughed.
‘Of course she didn’t! I don’t suppose she has ever begged anyone’s pardon in her life. We just ignore the whole thing.’
‘All very well for her, but where do you come in?’
‘Darling, come down off the high horse! She lost her temper, and that was all there was to it. You can’t have a brawl with a great-aunt – it isn’t done. Besides, there is Aunt Cara. She is ill, and I think she is very unhappy, and she does rather cling to me. No, Stephen, listen – you really must! I can’t just rush away in a temper and leave the bits lying about all over the place. What I thought I would do was to let a day or two go by, and then I must begin to look for a job in earnest.’
He put his arms round her.
‘You don’t need to look for a job – you’ve got one. I rang up my uncle this morning and told him you were taking me on.’
‘You didn’t!’
‘Why shouldn’t I? I don’t have to walk round my relations like a cat on hot bricks. He was thrilled, and suggested I should bring you over for the next week-end. And then, I think, it would be a good plan if you came and stayed with Cousin Louisa for a bit while I am getting on with the jobs round here.’
‘But she hasn’t asked me.’
Stephen said in a purposeful voice,
‘She will.’
Chapter Twenty-two
However much Miss Cara might have wanted to stay quietly in her bed, cosseted by Anna and visited by Candida and Derek, she was not permitted to do so. She could stay where she was for the morning, and she could have her afternoon nap, but she must get up and come down for tea. Candida, who had come to enquire, stood unnoticed by the half-open door and heard Miss Olivia dealing with her reluctance.
‘If you do not feel able to get up, I shall be obliged to send for Dr. Stokes.’
Miss Cara said in her mousy voice,
‘He is away.’
‘How do you know?’ said Miss Olivia sharply.
‘Louisa mentioned it.’