Means to an End

by Lucy Gillen

  ‘Why on earth should you wonder?’

  He shrugged. ‘I don’t know quite,’ he admitted. ‘I’ve thought once or twice lately that maybe your heart wasn’t in it.’

  ‘Oh, Danny!’

  ‘Oh, Alison!’ He kissed her. ‘Well, you’d better issue an ultimatum, darling, because there are only two weeks more before I have to decide whether to take a job in Australia.’

  The words fell like a bombshell and Alison stared at hint for a moment in silence, not quite believing she had heard him aright. ‘You—you’re going to Australia?’

  He shrugged again. ‘I have the opportunity of a job there,’ he said. ‘But I’d still rather have the garage and stay here. However—’

  ‘You—you want to go?’ He shrugged again. ‘On your own?’

  ‘I’m afraid so,’ he told her, with remarkable aplomb, she felt, in the circumstances. ‘There’s no provision for a wife, and actually it sounds rather good.’

  ‘I see.’

  His arm hugged her closer and he smiled down at her frown. `So you see, darling,’ he told her, ‘it all depends on you, what and where and everything else.’

  ‘But, Danny, you—you wouldn’t just leave me. Would you?’

  ‘I haven’t much choice, darling, have I?’ ‘Danny—’

  ‘It’s your choice, darling,’ he insisted, still sounding far too relentless about it, she felt. ‘Either you prise some of that money out of Illari and set me—

  us up in business over here, or I shall be leaving for pastures more green. I shall be sorry to go, you must know that, but needs must when the devil drives.’

  ‘Yes. Yes, of course I realise you have to find something soon. You’ve been off work so much lately, haven’t you?’

  ‘Too much,’ he agreed. ‘And I feel like making a stand now, one way or the other.’

  ‘I’ll try again,’ she said, feeling suddenly very small and vulnerable. ‘I’ll ask him again, Danny.’

  He tipped her face up to look at him and planted a light kiss on her mouth. ‘You do that, darling girl.’

  It was not going to be easy at all, Alison decided, when she came down to breakfast next morning. She had half hoped that Aunt Celia would not be there so that she could have Stefano’s ear to herself for a little while at least, but her aunt came from her room as Alison started downstairs, and called after her.

  ‘You’re an early bird this morning,’ she told her with a smile. ‘It isn’t often you beat me to the bathroom. What happened, darling? Feeling energetic?’

  Alison smiled, trying not to show her disappointment at not being even more early. ‘Not really,’ she admitted, and wondered if she should tell her aunt the reason for her prompt rising. ‘I—I wanted to have a word with Stefano,’ she added, and looked through her lashes to see if there was any reaction to that.

  There wasn’t, apart from a faint knowing smile

  that Alison found rather annoying. ‘You haven’t had much success with getting Danny’s money, have you?’ she asked, and Alison flushed.

  `It isn’t Danny’s money, Aunt Celia,’ she told her shortly. ‘It’s mine and Danny’s, and I think Stefano’s been very unreasonable about it so far.’

  `But you’re hoping to change his mind?’ her aunt asked, and she nodded.

  ‘I’m going to try. I must try again—Stefano must listen to me, Aunt Celia. It’s—it’s much more important now.’

  Her aunt looked at her shrewdly as they walked down the wide staircase together. ‘Why so much more, all of a sudden?’ she asked.

  `Because if I don’t get it,’ Alison said, sounding desperate, `Danny’s going abroad.’

  ‘Is he?’

  Alison looked at her reproachfully. ‘I know it may not sound very important to you, Aunt Celia, but it is to me.’

  ‘Of course it is, darling.’ A consoling arm encircled her shoulders and she knew that her aunt was being far more understanding than she appeared. ‘But I don’t hold out much hope for you ever getting Stefano to see eye to eye with you on that point.’

  `I can’t think why he’s being so—so stubborn,’ Alison complained, as they came across the hall. `Unless he just wants to exercise his—his power.’

  Aunt Celia smiled and hugged her again. ‘That’s exaggerating rather, dear,’ she told her, and Alison sighed, stopped suddenly in the middle of the hall, looking at her aunt with curious eyes.

  `Aunt Celia, you wouldn’t—I mean would you ‘ Aunt Celia, however, was already shaking her head slowly, although her smile was gentle and understanding.

  ‘I don’t think I’d be any more successful than you’ve been, darling,’ she told her. ‘In fact I’m quite sure I wouldn’t be.’

  `But he’d listen to you! ‘

  Her aunt smiled. `I can’t think what gives you that idea,’ she said. ‘And I certainly don’t want to argue with him over this particular issue, as I thought you realised.’

  ‘I know you said so, at the beginning,’ Alison admitted. ‘But—well, I thought you might have changed your mind.’

  ‘I haven’t,’ Aunt Celia told her frankly. ‘I don’t dislike Danny, but I’m one of those old-fashioned people who think that a husband should provide for his wife and not the other way around.’

  `But that’s—that’s not fair,’ Alison protested. ‘Danny hasn’t got the money, and I have ! At least I would have if Stefano wasn’t so bent on playing Scrooge on my behalf ‘

  Her aunt shrugged. ‘Well, you can try again, Alison dear,’ she told her. ‘But I really can’t see Stefano changing his mind about it.’

  ‘Never?’

  ‘Never. I’m sorry, dear, but I really can’t bring myself to ask him on your behalf, and I’m quite sure I’d be no more successful than you’ve been.’

  Alison looked at her meaningly, her blue eyes dark with disappointment. `I’m sure you would be,’ she said, and went into the dining room without stopping to enlarge on her meaning.

  Stefano got up as they came in, and smiled at them both in turn, evidently sensing something amiss as he looked from one to the other. ‘Good morning.’

  ‘Good morning, Stefano.’ Aunt Celia made a brief, wry face at him, and Alison thought she was not meant to see either that or the fleeting smile of understanding that he gave her in return. It was that secret, aggravating rapport between them that added fuel to her already short temper, and she barely murmured a greeting as she sat herself down at the table.

  ‘Are you doing anything very special this morning?’

  Alison looked up, startled to find that it was herself being addressed, and nodded first, then shook her head when she remembered that Danny had cancelled a date they had had, because he said he had to go in to Darly. He had not asked her to go with him, so she assumed it was something to do with another job.

  Stefano’s black eyes were watching her steadily and she felt the colour flood into her face, for no good reason that she could think of, unless she was already anticipating further efforts to coax him into changing his mind about the money.

  ‘I am going to take the boat round as far as Crag’s Head this morning,’ he told her. ‘I wondered if you would like to come with me, huh?’

  ‘Me?’ She looked at him uncertainly for a moment then flicked a brief, enquiring glance at her aunt, who appeared not at all concerned about the invitation. ‘Aunt Celia ‘ she began, and he laughed

  softly, cocking a very suggestive eyebrow at her aunt, a liberty she seemed not to resent in the least, although she did look a little startled initially.

  ‘I suspect that Celia is to visit her dentist again, is that not so, Celia?’ he asked.

  Aunt Celia nodded, a slow smile answering the challenge of his question. ‘I do have another appointment,’ she confessed, and Alison looked at her curiously.

  `Again, Aunt Celia?’

  `Again,’ her aunt agreed. suppose you think

  I’m spending a lot of time there lately, but I really do need a lot doing to my teeth,’ she sa
id.

  To Alison’s surprise Stefano laughed softly, as if the idea amused him intensely, and once again Aunt Celia appeared not to resent it, although she did look at him with a faint moue of reproach.

  `So you see,’ Stefano told Alison, with his hands spread wide. ‘Your aunt does not need your company, and I am asking, very nicely I think, no? that you come with me to Crag’s Head in the boat.’

  Alison hesitated for only a moment, then she nodded. After all, it was rather too good an opportunity to miss when she so desperately needed to see him alone. It would be easier to ask him if they were not face to face at the table as they were now, but at the same time she must make quite sure that things did not get out of hand again as they had for that brief moment at Heron’s Point.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said quietly. ‘I’d like to come very much, Stefano.’ Her aunt, she thought, looked almost as pleased at her answer as Stefano did, and

  that puzzled her.

  It was little more than an hour later that they were speeding their way across the water round the coast towards Crag’s Head, and Alison lifted her face gratefully to the brisk wind they were creating. Stefano turned his head and smiled, his black eyes impenetrable but glowing with some expression that both puzzled and disturbed her.

  Crag’s Head was further round the coast than anywhere she had so far been with him, and she was still a little unsure that she had done the right thing in accepting the invitation so lightly. There was something about his manner today that was inexplicably different, although it would have been hard to pinpoint any particular way in which it differed.

  ‘Why Crag’s Head?’ she asked, above the sound of the powerful engine, and the opposition of the whipping wind.

  He turned again and smiled at her. ‘Why not?’ he countered.

  She shrugged, then came and stood beside him, behind the glass screen where the wind was a little less brisk and she could speak to him without shouting. ‘I just wondered if you had any special objective in mind,’ she told him. ‘A house to look at, or something like that.’

  He shook his head. ‘No house, piccola, just a ride to enjoy ourselves. Are you not enjoying it?’ She nodded, and he took a hand from the wheel briefly to lift her chin. ‘Then smile, bella mia.’

  She obeyed, briefly, then resumed her slightly troubled expression. It was not going to be easy at all, bringing the subject round to the money when

  Stefano was only intent on enjoying himself. She sighed and went and sat down again while he manoeuvred the boat past the sandbanks that protected the little cove below Crag’s Head.

  It was only a very small cove that lay back in, the shadow of the great crag, and the only mooring available for the boat was a rather rickety pole that stuck up from the remains of a breakwater, so that Alison eyed it rather doubtfully. His skill with a boat was undeniable, but just the same she experienced a few bad moments while he brought them safely up to the pole and jumped nimbly ashore to tie up.

  They were required to walk along what was not much more than a plank to the beach, and she clung to his hand tightly as he guided her along and on to the sandy cove with the headland towering over it. The crag itself swept down sharply at either side to rocks and boulders which in turn gave way gradually to grassy dunes and beyond them to an expanse of grassland stretching as far as the road.

  It was a quiet, rather impressive place that she had visited at other times, but never before from the sea, and she looked up at the headland, overawed for a moment. ‘You seem to know your way around,’ she remarked as they stepped on to shifting sand at last, and he looked down at her and smiled.

  ‘I found this place first on a map,’ he told her. ‘Then I came to explore and found it rather delightful. Do you not agree?’

  ‘It’s very nice,’ she said, her mind rather more on what her own action should be than on their surroundings, and he pulled a wry face.

  ‘Nice !’ he echoed. ‘That sounds very much like British understatement.’

  ‘I—I suppose it is,’ she agreed, realising that he was still holding her hand, although they were well away from the rickety breakwater and any danger of her slipping.

  She tried to free his hold, but he merely tightened his fingers and smiled down at her in a way that was not exactly encouraging when she considered how far they were from home, and how isolated. ‘Why are you so—nervous, piccola?’ he asked softly, sitting down on the warm sand and pulling her down beside him.

  ‘I’m not ! ‘

  ‘But you are,’ he argued with a knowing smile that she would liked to have done something about. He was going to be difficult, that was obvious, and she wondered uneasily if he already knew what her prime object had been in coming with him.

  ‘I wish you wouldn’t try reading my mind,’ she retorted, and he laughed.

  ‘Am I doing that?’ he asked. ‘Or is it that you have something on your mind that is making you uneasy, huh?’

  `No! No, of course I haven’t! ‘ From his smile she thought he did not believe her, but she determinedly chose to ignore it and leaned back on her elbows, closing her eyes against the sun.

  It was incredibly peaceful and quiet here on the tiny beach, hidden from everyone and everything except the sea which glittered like molten glass in the hot sun, and she thought how wonderful it would be if only it could go on for ever. Not with Stefano,

  of course, she reminded herself hastily, but with Danny.

  Of course Danny would have very little time to come and laze on beaches like Stefano did. He would be working for most of the time in the garage, and she would have to take a part of the chores too. She was not too fond of cars and had no inclination at all to discover the intricacies of the car engines, but if that was what Danny wanted she would have to learn and get used to the smell of oil and petrol.

  She had earned her own living before she inherited her great-grandfather’s money, if she had really inherited it, which she often doubted when Stefano was so intent on depriving her of it. She could easily go back to working again without too much hardship, although she had to admit that she had acquired a taste for the good things in life.

  She glanced from under her lashes at Stefano, beside her on the hot sand, and wondered if she would ever persuade him to be reasonable about it. He was lying full length and he opened one eye as if he felt her watching him, reaching out with one hand to touch hers, a smile on his face as he looked up at her.

  ‘What are you so curious about, piccola?’ he asked, and she shook her head, turning her head away hastily.

  ‘Nothing. I’m not curious.

  His smile widened, startlingly white in the dark face. ‘I do not believe you,’ he said.

  Alison shrugged. `I don’t really care if you do or not,’ she told him. ‘I was—I was only thinking that you look quite at home here. Much more than I do,

  because you’re so dark.’

  ‘And you are so fair, piccola.’ He played gently with the fingers of her hand. ‘So—bells !’

  ‘But I’m dark-haired,’ she objected, half smiling. ‘You have blue eyes.’

  ‘So I have.’ She lowered the eyes in question and kept them averted, for her heart was racing quite ridiculously fast against her ribs and she wished she could do something to control it. ‘But I’m still not fair.’

  He laughed softly, running one finger down her arm and making her shiver involuntarily. ‘Is it not a word for beautiful?’ he asked, and she smiled understanding. ‘And you mean to use it to your advantage, hmm?’

  She frowned. ‘No, of course I don’t I—I don’t know why you think I’d want to do that.’

  ‘Aaah ! ‘ His exaggerated moan of disappointment made her colour furiously. ‘And I thought you would be trying to—’ Expressive shoulders lifted meaningly before he raised himself on to one elbow and captured both her hands. ‘Is that not why you came with me, amante mia? So that you could—persuade me?’

  Alison’s heart banged away crazily when she thought of how she
had planned to do just that, and now here he was making a light hearted joke of it. How could she hope to use her powers of persuasion when he anticipated her every time? It was maddening the way he foresaw her every move, and she wished Danny would not be so insistent that she should keep on trying.

  She pulled her hands free of his and sat upright,

  her face telling its own story, a suspicious brightness in her blue eyes as she looked down, slightly sulky, at her hands clasped on her lap. wish you’d stop trying to make me look small,’ she told him. `You just can’t resist making fun of me, can you, Stefano?’

  He looked at her steadily, resting on one elbow still, a small wry smile crooking his mouth, as if he guessed exactly how she felt. `No more than you can resist trying to make me change my mind about giving your Danny that money,’ he said softly, and Alison turned on him angrily.

  `Oh, you’re as bad as Aunt Celia,’ she told him. `It isn’t just for Danny, it’s for me too, can’t you understand that?’

  He sighed, rather surprisingly. ‘I wish I could,’ he said. `But it seems to me that Danny will be the one who gains in every way. He will have his garage, and you too.’

  `He’ll have neither if you don’t let me have the money,’ she said desperately, seeing yet another opportunity slipping away, and he looked at her with curious eyes.

  ‘Do you mean he will not have you without the money?’ he asked quietly, and she hastily shook her head.

  `No, no, of course I don’t mean that,’ she said, then realised that that was exactly what it did mean. ‘At least,’ she amended cautiously, ‘he—he’s going away if you—if we can’t have the garage.’

  `Away?’

  She nodded. `To Australia.’

  `Without you?’ She nodded, and he reached for

  one of her hands again. ‘Then he is a fool,’ he said softly. ‘You are worth more than any amount of money, cara mia—does he not see that?’

  She refused to recognise the implication in the words, intent only with impressing upon him the importance of letting her have the money so that Danny need not go away. She turned and looked at him. At the dark, expressive face and the glowing black eyes that somehow seemed even more disturbing suddenly when he held her gaze.