The Arrogant Duke

by Anne Mather

  Just then, Juliet heard Teresa call: 'Nurse, Nurse! Where are you?' in a rather plaintive voice.

  Nurse Madison turned back to the bedroom door. 'I think you'd better go, Miss Summers. You must be the last person Miss Teresa wants to see.'

  'Oh! Why?'

  'Surely you don't need me to tell you that. I haven't spent the day with Miss Teresa's guardian!'

  'What has that to do with it?'

  Nurse Madison's expression was sneering. 'You know exactly what it has to do with it.'

  'I know that you seem to encourage Teresa in some mistaken belief that her uncle has more than avuncular feelings towards her!' exclaimed Juliet, before she could prevent herself.

  'How do you know what feelings the Duque has for her?' retorted the older woman angrily. 'The Duque has always taken an intense interest in his ward. Only a woman like Estelle Vinceiro could stir up the amount of trouble she has done - unnecessary spitefulness, I call it!'

  'Nurse Madison, where are you?' Teresa's voice came again.

  Juliet stayed the woman by taking her arm, preventing her from entering the bedroom. 'I think you have a little knowledge of spitefulness yourself, Nurse Madison,' she said coldly. 'How do you get your kicks? From taunting Teresa with every tiny piece of gossip you can hustle up?' She held on as Nurse Madison attempted to wrench her arm away. 'I don't think you care a jot for Teresa! There's only one person in whom you take the slightest bit of interest, and that is yourself!'

  'How dare you! How dare you!' Nurse Madison was incensed.

  Juliet released her arm. 'Go on, do your worst, but remember, the Duque is no fool, and even he will begin to have his suspicions if Teresa makes no progress!'

  'You're talking absolute nonsense!' Nurse Madison was less convincing now, and then Teresa called again:

  'Nurse Madison! What are you doing? Who are you talking to out there?'

  'It's me, Teresa,' said Juliet, pushing past the older woman and entering Teresa's room.

  She was astounded to discover that the shutters were closed, and no breeze penetrated their closeness. The room was slightly humid, and Teresa, in bed, covered with what seemed to be far too many blankets, was sweating profusely.

  Realizing that on no account must Teresa get more of a chill, Juliet nevertheless removed some of the covers from the bed, and smoothed a towel from a nearby trolley over Teresa's flushed cheeks.

  Teresa looked at her rather petulantly, and then said: 'You've been out with Felipe,' accusingly.

  'That's right,' said Juliet, nodding, and sitting down on the side of the bed. 'We went to Lauganca Bay. He gave me a skin-diving lesson.'

  'I see.'

  Nurse Madison hovered angrily in the background, uncertain of her best means of approach.

  'Did Nurse Madison tell you I had gone out with the Duque?' asked Juliet, taking Teresa's hand. It was hot too, and lay limply in her own.

  'Yes.', Teresa twitched the coverlet with her other hand. 'My - my cold seems to have got worse.'

  'I wonder why,' murmured Juliet dryly. 'Do you feel ill?'

  'Not exactly. I feel awfully hot, and my throat's dry.'

  'Then have a drink,' said Juliet, pouring a little iced lemon juice into a glass. 'Here,' she helped Teresa to take some. 'I really think you've not changed at all. Maybe Nurse Madison is unnecessarily concerned for your welfare.' This last was said with a little sarcasm that Nurse Madison could not fail to recognize.

  Teresa struggled up on her pillows. 'Actually, I wanted to get up after lunch, but - well—'

  'You're not fit to be up!' interposed Nurse Madison sharply.

  'I would agree with you now,' said Juliet, looking round angrily at the nurse. 'She's obviously running a temperature, but whether that's due to the cold or to an overweight of blankets on a bed in a room which is absolutely stifling, I wouldn't care to hazard a guess!'

  'Don't try to teach me my job!' said Nurse Madison furiously. 'The Duque shall hear about your interference !'

  'I am hearing!' remarked a voice which Juliet could not fail to recognize, 'and quite frankly, I am inclined to agree with Miss Summers. You do appear to have hindered rather than helped Teresa's recovery.'

  'Tio Felipe!' gasped Teresa, releasing herself from Juliet, and holding both hands out to her uncle eagerly. 'Oh, I've wanted to see you all day.'

  Felipe took her hands, kissed them tenderly, and then gently but firmly released himself. He looked at Juliet for a moment, and then said:

  'Miss Summers, have you a complaint to make against Nurse Madison?'

  Juliet moved awkwardly. She had no desire to get the woman dismissed, even if her methods left a lot to be desired. She felt sure that given time, she, Juliet, would be able to persuade Teresa to attempt those, first steps at walking herself. To have the Duque dismiss Nurse Madison would be arrogant, and needlessly cruel. After all, she had no actual proof that her suspicions about the woman's motives were true.

  'As I believe I said once before, senhor,' she said slowly, not looking at him, 'Nurse Madison's methods are perhaps a little out of date, that's all.'

  'Very well.' The Duque bent his head in acknowledgement. 'We will give Nurse Madison the benefit of the doubt. Nevertheless, I do agree, it is hot and unhealthy in here. A little air - a little Caribbean air - never did anyone any harm.'

  Nurse Madison flounced out, with barely a word, and Juliet made as though to do likewise. But the Duque motioned her to stay.

  'So, pequena?' he murmured, looking at Teresa. 'You are happy now.'

  Teresa looked at Juliet doubtfully. 'I suppose so, Felipe. Did - did you have a good day at the beach?'

  The Duque shrugged his broad shoulders. 'I thought Miss Summers the rudiments of skin-diving,' he said, without actually replying to her question, Juliet noticed. 'Maybe one day you too will be able to skin-dive with us.'

  Teresa sighed. 'Perhaps.'

  The Duque moved towards the door. 'Tomorrow I must work, but the next day we will all take the hydroplane to Barbados, and do some shopping, eh?' He smiled. 'You would like that, pequena?'

  Teresa's face lit up. 'Oh, yes, yes! Could we?'

  'I do not see why not. After all, it is time you became used to mixing with the masses again. Who knows - we may find you something delicious to add to your wardrobe.'

  After he had gone, Juliet's nerves relaxed. She had been tense in his presence, and yet after he had gone she felt an awful sense of despair., However, Teresa seemed completely recovered from any harboured thoughts of their day out together, so Juliet tried to feel content. But it was difficult when her whole body was aware of another being, so near, and yet so far from her.

  After dinner that evening, Juliet found herself increasingly anxious about that letter. It was all very well shelving responsibility, when no one else was involved, but now her father had made everything far more complicated.

  Then she had an idea. The Duque had said they might spend a day in Barbados in two days' time. If, if she could contact her father by some means, telling him she would be at his Club there at such and such a time, it might be possible to meet him; she had no doubt that Robert Lindsay himself would come if there was any chance of seeing her; and then she could personally explain why she had done what she had done, without actually giving her whole whereabouts away.

  She lifted her shoulders helplessly. In theory that sounded perfectly all right. The trouble was her father had exercised such a powerful influence over her all her life, that even now she was in doubt of her own capabilities of standing up to him.

  She paced about the room wearily, smoking cigarette after cigarette. It was the only way. The only sure way of absolving the Summers from all sense of responsibility, and the only way she could keep her own self- respect, and yet her knees quaked at the prospect. She half-smiled as she wondered how such a Victorian- inspired father could have sired such an independent anachronism. Did other girls, in other walks of life, have these kind of problems? She supposed some did, so why did she fee
l so completely isolated with her problem?

  She wondered what the Duque might say if she confided the whole sorry story to him. He might be sympathetic, with his great understanding of people he might understand, but more likely he would consider her an irresponsible product of a society that bred such disobedience by its very essence, and that her father, as her guardian, had every right to dictate her life. At any rate she dared not take that risk, or with or without her father's intervention she might find herself back in London, imprisoned by the bars of financial success. Money might make the world go round, but for her it had developed into a racing carousel that was spinning her into oblivion.

  Stubbing out her cigarette, she went downstairs to the lounge where the telephone had an extension. Lifting the receiver, she waited until the operator answered, and then asked for the number of the Hauser Reef Club, a luxurious hostelry where her father always stayed when he was in Barbados.

  The manager answered, recognizing her when she identified herself in an undertone, hoping no one would overhear her conversation.

  'Oh, yes, Miss Lindsay,' he said eagerly. 'I'm very glad to hear from you. Your father has been here for several days looking for you, but obviously without any success.'

  'I know, Mr. Maxwell, I know,' said Juliet quickly. 'Look, do you know where he is now?'

  'In London, I imagine, Miss Lindsay. It's several days since he departed for New York, en route for England.'

  'I see. Well, look, Mr. Maxwell, I want you to do something for me.'

  'Yes, of course, Miss Lindsay. What is it?'

  'I want you to ring London, speak to my father or to my father's housekeeper, Miss Manders, and tell whoever it is you speak to that I'll be in Barbados, at the Club, on Friday at say - oh - three o'clock. Tell him if he wants to see me, to meet me there.'

  'You'll be here, on Friday afternoon?' exclaimed the manager, with obvious astonishment.

  'Yes, yes! Oh, Mr. Maxwell, don't waste any time. I know the time change and so on, and I know it will be the early hours of the morning in London, but if Iknow my father he'll still be awake. Do you know the number of his private house in Hampstead?'

  'Of course, Miss Lindsay, I know the number. But are you sure you want me to ring him tonight?'

  'You must, don't you see,' Juliet bit her lip nervously. 'He has got to have time to get here, and the sooner he knows that I'm alive and well, so to speak, the better!'

  Mr. Maxwell accepted her explanation without further argument. Juliet was cynically aware that the information he had to offer Robert Lindsay would afford him a generous token of appreciation, and he had nothing to lose and everything to gain by contacting her father.

  'Is that all right, then?' asked Juliet hastily, hearing sounds from the hall.

  'Of course, Miss Lindsay. We look forward to seeing you.'

  'Thanks,' said Juliet dryly, and rang off.

  She walked jerkily to the hall door, looking out expectantly, ready with an explanation that she had been checking with the airport at Barbados about some discrepancy in her travelling expenses, but there was no one there. The hall was deserted.

  Frowning, she made her way upstairs, reaching her room and closing the door thoughtfully. Then she promptly forgot about worrying whether anyone had heard her conversation when the whole prospect of what lay before her hit her with full force. She had got to think and think hard. There must be a way to appeal to her father, some way that would convince him that without this chance she would never be the same person he had always thought he knew.

  The next day, true to his word, the Duque devoted all his time to the estate, riding out early in the morning and not returning until the evening. Despite her anxieties regarding her own personal problems, Juliet and Teresa resumed their companionable friendship, watched with malevolent eyes by Nurse Madison who seemed to have conceded that round to Juliet. Teresa seemed to have accepted her uncle's explanation that he had been giving Juliet a diving lesson, and that it had all been completely innocent.

  Only Juliet wondered at its innocence. There had been that moment on the beach when both the Duque and herself had been aware of one another, but after all, there was nothing so unusual about that kind of a situation. She knew without any sense of false modesty that she was a passably attractive female, and the Duque's reactions had been those of any normal male placed in the same position. Her own reactions to him were an entirely different matter, but she did not fool herself that anything would come of it. Estelle Vinceiro was his race, his contemporary, and his type, and she would not be thwarted in her . objective, of that Juliet was certain. And now that Teresa had taken to herself, Juliet, there seemed little doubt that Estelle would hasten the day when she became the mistress of the Quinta de Castro.

  Late in the afternoon when Teresa was resting and Juliet was sitting on a lounger on the patio, reading, the Senhora Vinceiro herself was announced. She came towards Juliet, a wide smile on her small face.

  'Oh, Rosemary,' she exclaimed, with enthusiasm, 'just the person I wanted to see!'

  Juliet wondered why she felt so wary suddenly. Estelle had never been anything but friendly towards her, and yet she couldn't trust her and she didn't understand why. Obviously, now, with her new-found discovery of her own feelings, there was some constraint in her manner, but it was something more than that, and she despised herself for feeling that way.

  'Hello, senhora,' she murmured awkwardly. 'Er - what did you want to see me about?'

  Estelle seated herself opposite her on another lounger, and sighed. 'This really is the most heavenly place in the island,' she said, not at once answering Juliet's question. 'You must love it here already.'

  'Oh, I do,' affirmed Juliet, nodding. 'But - but I think anywhere in these islands is delightful!'

  'Do you? Do you now? Well, I suppose you may be right. It's just that when I think of the Caribbean I think of the Duque, and naturally Venterra is my special favourite as well as being my home.'

  'Naturally,' murmured Juliet, feeling that some remark was warranted. 'Er - can I - can I offer you some tea?'

  Estelle's smile was a little tight. 'In the quinta I feel completely at home,' she said. 'If I require tea I have only to ask for it.'

  'Oh, oh, of course,' said Juliet awkwardly. 'I just thought..,...' Her voice trailed away, and Estelle glanced around, apparently assuring herself that they were alone.

  'Tell me,' she said, leaning forward, 'your - er - relationship to Teresa has improved intensively, I hear.'

  'Teresa and I are good friends, if that is what you mean,' returned Juliet, a trifle dryly.

  'Of course, of course. That is exactly what I meant. That is good. She has accepted you. Acceptance is the most important thing, don't you think?'

  Juliet inclined her head, unwilling to make any comment.

  'However, that is not entirely the whole of my reasons for speaking with you, Rosemary. I - er - I want to tell you something about Laura Weston.'

  Juliet stiffened. 'Teresa has already told me a little about her previous companion, senhora,' she said politely.

  Estelle's whole attitude, her casual use of her supposed Christian name, the almost confiding tone she was using, was intended to imply a confidence that Juliet was far from feeling.

  'Yes, I suppose she has. After all, she was absolutely delighted when Laura made a positive fool of herself over the Duque. However, I think I can be a little more sympathetic about the whole affair.'

  'I don't see what this has to do with me, senhora,' said Juliet, feeling slightly nauseated now.

  'Don't you? Oh, well, perhaps not. Nevertheless, I feel I must tell you about Laura's unfortunate dilemma. You see—' Estelle glanced round yet again, '—you see, my dear, Laura was a rather - how shall Iput it? - er - attractive girl, and well - quite used to being pursued by men.' She gave a slight laugh. 'After all, Americans are noted for their pursuit of their women, aren't they? At any rate, when she came here, ripe for romance, as they say, and encountered t
he Duque, who even I must admit is quite devastatingly attractive, she misinterpreted the Duque's interest in her work as something much more personal.'

  'How unfortunate!' murmured Juliet dryly.

  'Yes, wasn't it?' Estelle put just the right amount of sympathy in her tone. 'And of course, when the Duque discovered her - well - penchant for him, he had no option but to dismiss her.' She sighed and gave an expressive gesture. 'Of course, in her case it was not a tragedy. She and Teresa had never gotten along. Their relationship had been stormy at the best of times, so that her departure was quite a relief, really.'

  She rose to her feet, surveying her dainty sandals with a critical eye. 'But you, Rosemary, you are different. Teresa likes you, she has taken to you, and I really believe that with you she could make genuine progress, particularly as you appear to have that odious Madison woman taped from the start. I never liked her, of course, and the sooner she can be dismissed the better.' ,

  'Thank you for your confidence in me,' said Juliet, biting her lip. 'Is - is that all, because if so—'

  'No. No, Rosemary, not quite all.' Estelle compressed her lips, obviously looking for words to phrase her next statement. 'The fact is, I came here yesterday when you were out with the Duque. Consuelo told me.'

  Juliet had known this was coming all along. And now it was here, and she felt frozen.

  'Oh, yes,' she managed, in a tight little voice.

  'Yes.' Estelle compressed her lips again. 'My dear Rosemary, I have no desire to offend you, but - well, I am afraid you might fall into the same trap as did poor Laura.'

  'I don't think—' Juliet began, only to be interrupted.

  'Wait, please. I know you are a sensible girl, and I don't want you to misunderstand me, Rosemary, but as I have said, the Duque is the kind of man whom women seem to find irresistible—'

  Now Juliet interrupted Estelle. 'Senhora! I can set your mind at rest. I am perfectly aware of your position, and of that of the Duque. And I am also not foolish enough to imagine the passing interest the Duque showed in me yesterday, by taking me to Lauganca Bay, when he was probably bored, as anything more than what it was.'