`To be honest, Johnny, this girl is not up to your weight. She is practically a new born lamb, and after a couple of days you may find yourself hopelessly bored with her. But she seems to have had so little fun in her life and she is so desperately lonely, it really would be a generous act to spare her an hour or two now and then.'
He smiled at her. `You horrible woman ! I can scent the maternal match making instinct a mile away in this.'
`Good gracious, no!' she protested. `We don't really know anything 'about her, and her father sounds a most undesirable type.'
`One doesn't marry their fathers, dearest except in the tale of the chap who killed the dragon, who when offered his choice said he'd rather marry the king than any of the three princesses.'
`What are you talking about?'
Putting his head on one side, he wriggled his shoulders, smirked, and replied in an effeminate voice, `It's a fairy story.'
`Johnny, you are awful,' she laughed.
`On the contrary, I am nobly defending myself against a conspiracy to make me break my plighted word, given freely long ago, that when I grew up I would marry you.'
`Idiot ! I tell you, the idea of your entering on a serious affair with this young woman never entered my mind. It is simply that she has been starved of youthful companionship and ...'
`I know. That she could be a sweet little sister to me. Really, Mumsie ! How you can sit there looking so innocent while you tell such tarradiddles, I cannot think.'
`But you will do as I ask?'
`Knowing that you will starve and probably beat me if I refuse, it seems I have no option.'
`Splendid. I expect you would like to sleep off your lunch now; then I thought that about tea time I would take you over and introduce you.'
'O.K., honoured parent.' John stood up, but before turning away he screwed his face into a leery expression and gave a slow, sardonic wink. `Before retiring to my slumbers I'd like to know just where I stand. I take it that there will be no kick coming from you if I seduce her?'
Molly knew perfectly well that he was only pulling her leg, but all the same she replied with a hint of seriousness, `I've already told you, she's as inexperienced as if she had just come out of a convent; so you'll jolly well behave yourself.'
`Oh, I'll be as good as gold,' he assured her blandly. `But I know these innocent types. The odds are that she'll seduce me. Then what? I'll get the blame, of course, and have to pay the seven and six maintenance for the baby. Or has it gone up to a quid now? I think that the least you can do is to guarantee me against that.'
`You're a horrid boy, with a horrid, low mind, and I dislike you intensely,' said his mother, giving him a light kiss on the cheek. `Now, run along and get your nap. It's past three al ...'
Her last words trailed away into silence as she caught a quick step on the gravel outside the French window of the dining room. Next moment a tall shadow was thrown by the sunlight on the parquet, and turning she saw Christina standing on the threshold.
`Oh, Mrs. Fountain,' the girl began rather breathlessly, `I hope I'm not interrupting you. I knew your son was arriving to day, and I waited until I thought you would have finished lunch; but I wanted to talk to you rather .. . rather urgently.'
`Of course not, my dear. Come in.' Molly waved a vague hand. `This is John Johnny, our new neighbour, Christina Mordant.'
The two young people nodded and smiled politely at one another. Neither made any move to shake hands. John was thinking, `Gad, what a nose ! But her eyes really are remarkable'; while Christina thought, `He's really quite nice looking: what a pity he has such a prominent Adam's apple.'
`Do sit down.' Molly offered the cigarettes and Christina took one. As she lit it, John hurried forward. `What about a liqueur? A Bene, or a spot of Sticky Green?'
`No thanks,' Christina replied quickly. `I only go in for soft drinks, and I don't want anything now.'
`I expect you would rather John left us,' Molly said after a moment. `He has so gorged himself with food that he can hardly keep awake, anyhow.'
John sighed. `See how my own mother derides and dismisses me. But take no notice. I am hardened now to the feminist streak in her, which has ever thwarted my ambition to emulate St. George.'
`What! And marry the king like your friend in the fairy story?' Molly said with a twinkle.
`That's one up to you, Mumsie,' he replied with a grin.
After a puzzled look from one to the other of them, Christina's glance came to rest on Molly. `Over dinner last night you suggested telling John about me, because, if the sort of thing I have to fear happened, a man's help might prove invaluable; and I agreed. If you have told him, and he cares to stay, it would be just as well for him to hear about this new development.'
`Yes. Mother has given me an account of the extraordinary situation in which you find yourself,' John said, his voice now low and serious. `You must forgive our fooling; and please believe that I am just as anxious as she is to help you in any way I can.'
She gave him a faint smile. `Thanks; you're both most awfully kind. Well, just before lunch I had a visitor.'
Molly's face showed her dismay. `Then the enemy has run you to earth already?'
`No; this was a friend or, at least, an old acquaintance. But I was so surprised to see him coming through the gate that for a moment I thought I must have got a touch of the sun, and be imagining things. It was Canon Copely
Syle.,
'As he is an intimate friend of your father's, your father might quite well have confided to him the place where he had hidden you.'
`No. That's the strange part about it. His finding me here was pure chance. He hasn't seen my father for some weeks and had no idea I was in the South of France. He has been staying at Cannes for a few days, and this morning he was motoring in to St. Raphael for lunch. He just happened to catch sight of me sitting on the terrace; so he made his friend who was driving the car stop, and came in to see me.'
`There doesn't seem to be anything particularly perturbing about that,' John remarked.
`Oh, but there is!' Christina protested. `His first words to me were, “My dear child, whatever are you doing here? Why aren't you in England with your father?” I replied, “Why should I be?” At that he looked quite staggered, and said, “But surely you've heard the bad news about him? Has no one informed you that he was seriously injured in a car smash? I had it yesterday in a letter from a mutual friend. I would never dream of upsetting you without good reason, but I gather there are grave fears for his life.” '
`Perhaps this is just the sort of thing your father feared might happen to him,' Molly said, her thriller writer's mind having gone swiftly into action. `I mean, it wouldn't be the first time that unscrupulous people had deliberately engineered a car smash, in order to get out of the way somebody against whom they had a grudge.'
`Yes; I suppose such things do happen. Anyhow, the Canon said that he is returning to England to morrow, and he offered to take me with him.'
`You will be leaving us then?'
Christina shook her head. `No. Father told me that no matter what messages I might receive, even if they were said to come from him, in no circumstances was I to leave the villa until he returned to fetch me; or, failing that, before the twentieth of next month.'