Second Best Wife

by Isobel Chace

  'Nonsense!'

  'What about Celine's mother? I wouldn't be in your shoes for anything! You put an end to her nice comfortable job with Celine, didn't you? And she needed that girl —'

  'Did she say as much?' Georgina was startled into asking.

  'More or less. She came over to me in the hotel at Kandy and asked if I was any relation of yours. I can't say I was flattered at the likeness she thought she could see between us, but she has uncanny ways and she said she could see some kind of thread running between us. I thought it would be amusing to watch her at work on you — she's a very determined lady! — and I owed you a bad turn for taking William away from me. Poor Georgie! Life is going to be very unpleasant for you in the next few days, Miss Campbell and I will see to that!'

  'It's not me I'm worrying about, it's Celine,' Georgina told her. 'That woman—'

  'How noble you are! But then you always were. Did you marry William in order to protect me from his wrath over Duncan? It would be just like you! You never would have made Duncan cry if he hadn't been pinching my arm. I suppose William's black eye was like inspired! What have you found to quarrel with him about when I wasn't here to provoke you both? How dull you must have been!'

  'We managed.'

  Jennifer's eyebrows rose in disdain. 'In separate bedrooms? Not my idea of managing a marriage, I must say!' Georgina swallowed down her anger. Her sister must have been very busy to have found out so much about the geography of the

  bungalow so quickly.

  'Think what you like,' she said. 'William has old-fashioned ideas about marriage and I don't see yours appealing to him much. You'll have to settle for something less, Jennie, if you can.'

  Jennifer was languidly amused. 'Become his mistress? Would you hate that very much? Yes, I can see you would. Have you fallen in love with William, Georgie? Was all that hatred just a pretence because he so obviously preferred me? He'll never love you, my dear. He loves me and he always has! I'll see to it he doesn't change his mind at this point in your favour, you can be sure of that. I always have been able to twist your men round my little finger. It's laughable that you still have lingering hopes of winning against me — and with William too! William will come to hell when I whistle to him, just like all the others, and you'll be left on the sidelines, which is where you belong! God, how I hate that holier-than-thou expression of yours! In fact, I don't like anything about you much. Nor does Mother. She dutifully sent her love, by the way, and said she hoped you were going to be sensible and not thwart your little sister's wishes —'

  'And Father?' Georgina interrupted her.

  Jennifer's smile was both malicious and contemptuous.

  'Who cares what Father thinks? He didn't even send his love to you. He thinks fools ought to be made to suffer for their folly, and he thinks you a fool for inviting me to visit you. I do too.'

  Georgina had never thought she would be glad to see Miss Campbell come into the room, but on this occasion she was. She patted one of the chairs, inviting the woman to sit down and asked her if she would like to have a drink before dinner.

  ‘It's still arrack or nothing,' she told her, ‘but the passion fruit juice is strong and cold.'

  ‘I hope you haven't been allowing Celine to imbibe alcoholic drinks,' Miss Campbell reproved her. ‘It won't do her any good. Little girls should be seen and not heard!'

  Georgina eyed her thoughtfully. ‘Celine has been very well this last week,' she said. ‘She's all right now that she's remembered what happened when her mother died. It won't be easy to make a child of her again, I'm glad to say. She's not a little girl any longer, but a beautiful young woman.'

  Miss Campbell turned a mottled red, her jowls shaking with anger. ‘How clever we think we are! But pride goes before a fall, Georgie Porgie, and I for one won't lift a finger to save you when you topple over!'

  ‘Nor I!' Jennifer drawled. ‘For once, being right won't do you any good,' she gloated. ‘I'll have William and I'll make sure you know all about it! You've always thought you were above being jealous of me, haven't you? You'll learn better!'

  Georgina bit her lip, trying to strengthen her resolution to pay no attention to her sister's barbs. But she couldn't hide the pain in her eyes as the door opened again. She expected to see Celine, and she admitted to a certain curiosity as to what would be her sister's reaction to anyone as beautiful as she was, but it was not Celine who walked through the door: it was William.

  ‘Hullo, Jennifer,' he said easily. ‘Miss Campbell.'

  Jennifer looked up at him through her lashes. ‘Is that the best you can do, my Billy boy? Don't you dare kiss me with your wife looking on?' She giggled. ‘Are you afraid she'll beat you up?'

  ‘No to all that,' he answered shortly. He turned to Georgina, putting a hand on her shoulder. ‘Have you seen Celine?'

  ‘No, not since tea-time. Do you want her for something?'

  ‘It doesn't matter. I rang through to Stuart — to tell him about things

  here — and he wanted to come over. I said I thought it better that Celine should go over there. She isn't in her room.'

  Georgina rose to her feet. 'I'll go and look for her. Go back to bed, William. She'll be all right.'

  A smile twisted his lips. 'Will you be all right too?'

  'Of course.'

  His hand closed over the nape of her neck. I'll come with you. Stuart is waiting for us by the factory.'

  'What a fuss!' Jennifer chimed in. 'Who cares what's happened to her? We can manage very well without her —'

  'No, I can't!' Georgina cut her off, her voice gruff with the effort of keeping her temper. 'She's the most beautiful creature imaginable and I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to her.'

  'Of course not,' Jennifer mocked her. 'Let's hope she appreciates your efforts to keep her tied to your apron strings more than I did!' She became aware of William's incredulous gaze and blushed becomingly. 'Well, you know what Georgie is! She never thought anyone was good enough for her darling sister, who always had to be whiter than white. She bullied me shamefully! She probably bullies the unfortunate Celine too.'

  Miss Campbell laughed. The sound of it echoed round the room, freezing Georgina's blood. 'So you've lost my pretty Celine, have you? Am I invited to come and look for her too?'

  Georgina saw her sister flash some kind of message to the older woman, but Miss Campbell was not looking at either of them. Her eyes were on William, cold and starting out of her head. 'You thought you could stop me seeing her, didn't you? But you're too late! You're much too late! Jennifer and I saw to that!'

  'Jennifer!' Georgina didn't recognise her own voice as she reiterated her sister's name. 'What have you done? Where is she?'

  'I didn't do anything,' Jennifer protested, pouting sulkily in William's direction. 'We did run into someone on the way here, but I had nothing to do with it. Miss Campbell took her away somewhere. I was glad she did! Georgina might not care about other people being lovelier than she is, but I do! What a fuss about nothing! She won't come to any harm where she is.'

  Georgina ran forward in her agitation, but William was before her. He slapped Jennifer lightly first on one cheek and then on the other. 'Hysterical female!' he muttered. 'Where is she, Jennifer? Or do you want some more of the same?'

  'She's not hysterical!' Georgina flung at him. 'William, if you hit her again, I'll—I'll—'

  He took a firm hold on Jennifer's hair, holding up his arm to fend Georgina away from them both. As she straightened her back, determined to make him loose his grasp, she saw that he was laughing at her and tried the harder to get a good blow in before he should take her challenge seriously and, inevitably, would defeat her intention.

  'Yes? What will you do?' He took the full force of her fist on his open palm. 'I'm only doing what you should have done a long time ago! You don't have to fight me on her behalf, Georgie Porgie, not any more. You can settle with me afterwards when we have Celine back safe and sound.'

  'But, Will
iam, Jennifer came here to be with you, and if you're in love with her —'

  'I thought she'd be good for Celine!' He released his hold on Jennifer, staring at his wife. 'Georgie, I thought you knew—'

  'Georgie never knows anything to her own advantage,' Jennifer said nastily. 'I don't know where your beastly Sleeping Beauty is, and I don't care!'

  'Sleeping Beauty is my name for her,' Miss Campbell said quietly. 'Such a good name, don't you think? You won't find her, Mr. Ayres. You're not the right Prince for her, being a married man, and Mr. Duffield doesn't understand her. Nobody understands her as well as her Miss Campbell does! She'll sleep for a hundred years and give her youth to me —'

  'My God! What have you done to her?'

  'Nothing as yet. But you won't find her. Not even your clever little wife will find her now.'

  Georgina turned to face her, catching a flicker of uncertainty in the pale, bloodshot eyes. For an instant she couldn't believe it to be true, but she knew that Miss Campbell feared her in some extraordinary way, and she pressed home her advantage with a ruthlessness she hadn't known she possessed.

  'Oh yes, I'll find her. Your power is broken, Miss Campbell. Celine is mine!'

  'We'll see!' Miss Campbell said grandly, but her fear was obvious now and they could all see it written clearly on her mottled, angry face.

  Georgina took one look and shut her eyes to close out the sight. She felt William's arm close about her and shivered against him.

  'We'd better go and get her,' she said.

  'The villagers won't let you in.'

  Georgina opened her eyes again. 'You think not? Rabahindre will talk to them for me.' Her fingers clutched at William's shirt-sleeves. 'I know where she is,' she breathed. 'She's in that shed where all the masks are kept.'

  Miss Campbell crumpled before them. 'I must get away!' she shrieked. 'I must go now!'

  'That seems a very good idea,' William agreed. 'I'm sure Jennifer will lend you her car and chauffeur to take you back to Kandy, and this time, Miss Campbell, I suggest you don't come back.'

  'Her father owed me the girl's life! With his wife gone, why didn't he marry me as he promised to do? But no, he gave me Celine instead— and now she has taken her away from me!' She broke into laboured sobs, making little rushes towards the door.

  'Shall I see her off?' Jennifer asked of no one in particular. 'I suppose I ought to offer to go with her? Well, Georgina?'

  Georgina chewed on her lip. 'Wh-what?' she stammered.

  Jennifer sighed dramatically. 'You know why I brought her here. You know why I came myself. Are you going to let me stay, knowing all that, or are you going to behave like anyone else would do and chase me away, never to darken your door again?'

  Georgina stared at her, and then she looked at William, silently pleading for his help. It seemed she only wanted what he wanted after all.

  'Georgina is more gallant than either of us,' he stated at last, smiling wryly at his wife and sister-in-law. 'No doubt she'll face up to your presence with her usual courage, but not until I've had something of my own to say on the subject. Is Celine in that shed, Jennifer?'

  Jennifer shrugged. 'I don't know. All I know is this girl came walking down the drive towards us and I wondered who she was. I mean, you don't see anyone as lovely as she is every day of your life, do you? Well, Miss Campbell saw her too, and she got out of the car and spoke to her. The girl seemed to go into a trance. Miss Campbell told me to wait in the car until she got back and I did. She was only gone a few minutes. Then she got back into the car and we came on here.' She gave William a shaken look. 'What is she? Some kind of witch?'

  'She thinks she is. I don't believe it myself, but Georgie thinks she might be one, don't you, darling?'

  Georgina swallowed, bemused. 'It doesn't matter now her power is broken. She's a sad person, isn't she?'

  Jennifer cast her eyes up to heaven. 'It isn't true! Georgie, you can't feel responsible for her too! No wonder I've disliked you for years! You never give up on anyone, do you?'

  'In your case, I'd say just as well,' William put in dryly. 'You wouldn't have got very far without her. How did your mother put it? You have so few friends of your own and Georgie's never come to the house when she's away. I've learned a lot about Georgie in the last few days —and a lot about you too!'

  Jennifer decided to make the best of a bad job. She smiled winningly at them both, and shrugged her shoulders. 'Win a few, lose a few,' she drawled. 'What are we going to do now?'

  William was very much in command of the situation. 'You're going to stay here,' he ordered Jennifer. 'Georgie and I will go and fetch Celine home. And, Jennie, if you want to stay, don't make more of a nuisance of yourself than you can help. Okay?'

  'Okay,' Jennifer shrugged, accepting this dictate with a complacent smile. Georgina, who had constantly been astounded by her thick skin in the past, envied her her ability to make the best of things no matter how they turned out, and began to wonder what the morrow would bring for herself. William hadn't sounded at all lover-like when he had been addressing Jennifer just now.

  'Are you coming or not?'

  Georgina started, realising that he must have spoken before but she had been too busy dreaming to listen to him. 'Of course I'm coming! Celine will need me —imagine being shut into that shed for hours. William, you don't think—'

  'No, I don't,' he said with comfortable certainty. 'Celine is used to Miss Campbell's ways. She's had to cope too often in the past not to do so now.'

  'It wasn't much of a life,' Georgina mourned. 'I hope Stuart realises that!'

  William's face relaxed into an indulgent smile. 'I'm sure you'll tell him if he doesn't, my little Amazon. He won't dare treat her badly with you around to put him right.'

  Georgina's gaze swept upwards over his face. His eyes were amused and shone like liquid amber with some other emotion as well. Her heart went into some swooping acrobatics that made it difficult for her to breathe.

  'You ought to be in bed,' she told him. He looked completely exhausted. 'I thought you wanted a good night's sleep.'

  'So I shall, once we've got Celine back safe and sound. If she's at all nervous, she can share your bed tonight, and then neither of you will feel lonely.'

  'But, William—'

  'Come on, love. Tomorrow is another day!'

  And he would be working! She checked the rising hope within her that he might have other plans of his own—plans that would include her! — and tried to concentrate on the matter in hand.

  It was easier to do that once they were outside and there was only the light of the waning moon to guide them along the narrow path towards the village. They had to go past the factory to get there and Georgina went running ahead, calling Stuart's name as she went.

  'We're here!' Celine's voice answered her. 'Georgie, is that you? Oh, Georgie, I knew you would come! And Stuart came too! He fetched Rabahindre with the key of the shed and let me out. I don't know when I've been so happy!'

  The two girls flung their arms round each other. 'She's gone,

  Celine, and this time she won't be back. You'll never see her again!'

  Celine choked with emotion. ‘I'm glad she came! It doesn't matter what she did in the past, this time it all came right! William said it would, but I didn't believe him then. I do now! Stuart won't let anyone look after me now except himself, not even you—isn't that wonderful? Oh, and Georgie, he doesn't care that I'm not very bright and all that. He thinks I'm beautiful!' She paused to allow this remarkable fact to sink in, quite unconscious of her listeners' united reaction.

  ‘But, Celine, we all know you're beautiful,' Georgina said at last, almost humbly.

  ‘Oh yes, that!' Celine dismissed her loveliness without interest. ‘But Stuart thinks I'm a beautiful woman, not a thing to be looked at. That makes all the difference, you see. Oh, Georgie, I‘m so happy I could burst!'

  Stuart retrieved her from Georgina's embrace, making no more than a half-hearted attempt to put
everything on a more normal footing. ‘She's trying to tell you that we intend to get married,' he muttered to William. ‘With or without your permission,' he added with a grin. ‘I was going to wait until she'd seen a bit more of life, but this last incident has convinced me she's seen more than enough! What she needs is a loving, stable background.'

  William shook his extended hand with vigour. ‘I couldn't agree with you more! Do what you like with her. I'm going back to bed!'

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  ‘I thought it might be a good time to take you over the tea factory,' Stuart suggested.

  Georgina tried to look enthusiastic. ‘Why not?' Why not, indeed? she added to herself. It would be hours and hours before William would be home. He could have looked in and wished her good morning before he had gone, but he hadn't, and by the time she had decided he was not coming and had hurried into her clothes in case she might be in time to have breakfast with him, he was already long gone.

  'Jennifer might enjoy it,' Georgina forced herself to add. 'She ought to see as much as she can while she's here.'

  Stuart's eyes flickered. 'How long is she staying?'

  'Until she decides to go, I suppose.'

  Georgina sounded so dispirited that Celine was concerned for her. 'Surely she won't stay now?' she exclaimed.

  It was unfortunate that Jennifer should choose that moment to saunter out into the garden to join them. It was the first time she had seen Celine in the full light of day and the look in her eyes was far from being one of unmixed admiration.

  'You must be Celine. Well, you don't have to worry, I wouldn't stay anywhere with you around! Very bad for the morale! And, since you're all too shy to ask me, my morale is sagging badly at the moment without having to listen to you telling me how de trop I am to dear Georgina's perfect marriage! I'll go as soon as my car gets back.' She smiled wryly at Celine's bewildered stare. 'You have to admit I was useful there! How else would you have got rid of the old harridan?'