A handful of stars

by Lucy Gillen

  CHAPTER FOUR

  THE very impressive Mrs. Borden had come and gone, leaving Charlotte feeling very uncertain just who had been interviewing whom. She was, Mrs. Borden insisted firmly, accustomed to working in only the best houses and she did not usually consider herself a cook-housekeeper, but in the circumstances she was prepared to adjust her standards to suit. The circumstances. Charlotte suspected, had something to do with the fact that Mrs. Borden was the wrong side of sixty, there would only be one in family and, not least, she thought, the fact that Mr. Lingrove had personally asked her to consider it. Mr. Lingrove was first cousin to Lord Everslade and therefore definitely Mrs. Borden's idea of 'the best people'.. She would be unable to start for another two weeks yet, but if that suited Miss Brown Charlotte said it did, and saw her rather intimidating prospective employee to the door with a sigh of relief. Scarcely had she sat down, however, to give herself time to recover her self-confidence, when the doorbell rang and she got to her feet again with a sigh. 66 'It's me,' Scott Lingrove informed her when she opened the door. 'I just saw the Grand Duchess Borden leaving did she suit?' A smile acknowledged the aptness of the description, and Charlotte invited him in, wondering what today's reason was for his calling. 'She's starting in another couple of weeks,' she told him. 'I only hope can come up to her standards.' His grin recognised, and sympathised, with her feelings as he followed her across the hall and into the sitting-room. 'She's a bit much, isn't she?' he said. 'But I'm sure you'll cope.' 'I hope so,' Charlotte said with feeling, and he laughed, perching himself on the arm of a chair. 'Well, don't let her get you down, for heaven's sake. I'm sure you've come across a few dragons before, in the world of big business.' 'But it's not quite the same,' Charlotte told him. 'I have the feeling that Mrs. Borden looks on me as not quite up to her standards not what she's used to. I shall probably do all the wrong things and she'll leave again in high dudgeon because I'm not good enough for her.' Scott looked at her steadily for a moment, his eyes half teasing. 'Oh, come on now, Charlie Brown,' he said with a laugh. 'That's a dangerous state of mind to let yourself get into. Don't let yourself be browbeaten by the likes of Mrs. Borden. Stand up to her, let her know who's boss.' 'At the moment,' Charlotte retorted, 'I'm not at all sure who is boss.' She looked at him through 67 heavy lashes, a small frown on her brows. 'And don't call me Charlie Brown.' He laughed again, undeterred by her disapproval, one hand thrust carelessly into a pocket, the other hugging his bent knee across the other. 'You'll be a real Charlie if you let your housekeeper bully you,' he told her, and she pursed her lips. 'I suppose I will,' she admitted. 'But I've never crossed swords with anybody like Mrs. Borden before, and she petrifies me.' He left his perch on the chair arm and shook his head as he came across to her, so that instinctively Charlotte's fingers curled into her palms. One hand slid beneath her chin and gently raised her face while he studied her for a moment without speaking I�m afraid I'm going to be disappointed in you,' he told her softly. 'I thought you had spirit.' For a long moment Charlotte said nothing, then she raised her eyes and looked at him. 'It's all right for you,' she told him, 'you're the best people, so Mrs. Borden said, and she should know after all her years' experience. Me, I'm just a ' His mouth very effectively stopped whatever derogatory name she had been going to call herself, and his breath was warm on her lips when he spoke, softly, and with a half-smile touching his wide mouth. 'You're an independent, self-reliant, very beautiful girl,' he said. 'And you'll wave the big stick over la Borden or I'll know the reason why. O.K.?' ,'I.. Charlotte could only nod for the moment. Her heart was hammering so hard at her ribs she felt breathless and a little dizzy. 'O.K.,' she agreed in a strangely husky voice, and wondered how on earth she had allowed herself to get into this situation. 'Good!' He smiled approval at her apparent com-pliance. 'Then get your bonnet and shawl and I'll take you for a drink and a bun at the local hostelry.' Charlotte looked at him curiously, still not quite understanding her own reactions. 'Can you spare I the time?' she asked. 'Haven't you got a stately home to run, or something?' Scott shrugged. 'The stately home season is dying off now,' he told her solemnly. 'What few that may turn up, Crayley can deal with quite efficiently. Now are you game for that bun and beer or not?' t It was only a very brief hesitation she made, but fin that time she felt his eyes on her, challenging he to refuse. 'Why not?' she said at last sandwich and a drink at the local. Just give:, me a minute.' 'I'll give you no minutes,' he argued firmly, taking her arm one thing I'm on the point of starvation and for another I don't want you dolling yourself up and putting the Everslade Arms in the cocktail class. It's beer and doorstep sandwiches and there's absolutely nothing wrong with the way you look now.' 'But I -' I She stopped in mid-sentence, turning startled eyes when the door bell rang yet again, and as she I 89 gazed out into the hall the realisation dawned at last. Yesterday when Scott had asked if today was a convenient time for her to see Mrs. Borden she had thought it struck a chord in her memory briefly. Now she knew why she had promised to have lunch with Noel Chartres and he was here to fetch her, completely unaware that she had just this ' minute committed herself to another lunch with , Scott Lingrove. 'Trouble?' Scott asked curiously, seeing her expression, and she nodded vaguely, wondering how on earth she was going to get out of it. 'Very much so,' she told him. 'That's Noel at the door, and he's expecting me to have lunch with him.' Aah, I see.' He evidently had no intention of being helpful, and she was uncertain whether the gleam in his eyes was anger or amusement as he stood watching ' I her, waiting to see how she would cope with the situation. 'Scott, I'm sorry I quite forgot about Noel.' I 'Very flattering for poor old Noel,' he said, quite I calmly and quite unhelpfully. ' ' I promised him yesterday.' I He nodded. 'I see, so I'm to be discarded as an embarrassing mistake while Noel takes you to the ! fleshpots of Chedwell.' 'I've said I'm sorry, Scott,' she protested. ' know it's my fault, but I well, I just -forgot.' He grinned then, as if something had just occur- 7 ' red to him. 'I suppose I could take that as a compliment in a way, couldn't I?' he asked. 'You were so carried away in my company that you forgot you'd already promised to see Noel Chartres.' He shook his head, going on before she could speak in her own defence. 'Oh well, I'll let you get away with it this time, Charlie Brown, but if you ever do it again I shall be much less co-operative next time.' 'Will there be a next time?' Charlotte asked meekly, while Noel rang the bell again. It would , not do, she decided, in the circumstances, to object to the Charlie Brown. The hazel eyes held her gaze steadily for a moment. 'Oh yes,' he said softly, -there'll be a next time.' He strode across the room and out into the hall, with Charlotte following a little dazedly, and he opened the door to Noel Chartres with a small, slightly malicious smile touching the corner of his mouth for the other man's surprise. 'Oh! Oh, good morning, Mr. Lingrove.' He was a valued client. Charlotte remembered. 'I is Miss Brown ' He saw her then just behind Scott, and smiled his relief. 'Oh, there you are.' She smiled a greeting at him while Scott turned in the doorway, in no hurry to depart, apparently. 'Hello, Noel,' she said. 'Do come in.' If you're Noel began, but she shook her head hastily, and distinctly heard a faint chuckle from her first visitor. I'll see you tomorrow, Charlotte,' Scott said, fix71 ing her with a challenging gaze that defied argument. 'Yes. Yes, of course,' she agreed vaguely, and he smiled as he turned to go. 'Scott!' He turned back, his eyes glinting as he cocked a brow in query.'I'm so I'm sorry about today.' Noel was trying to follow the rather confusing , exchange with a curious frown, and Charlotte won- dered if he had some inkling of what had happened. 'If you've something else to do instead,' he began, but Charlotte shook her head. 'I haven't,' she told him. 'Come in, Noel.' I She turned again, feeling rather like a mechanical i doll with her head going from side to side as she gave each of them in turn her attention. "Goodbye, Charlotte.' 'Goodbye,' she echoed. 'And thank you.' He laughed softly as he went down the steps to the drive. ' 'Bye, Noel,' he called back over his shoulder. 'Look after her for me.' S Noel looked quite startled for a moment, then he looked at Charlot
te, seeking an explanation, but she was already closing the door on that disconcerting laugh and fighting to keep the embarrassment she felt from showing on her face. 'What on earth does he mean?' Noel asked, as he followed her across the hall, and she shook her head impatiently. ! 'Oh, it's his idea of a joke, I suppose,' she told him, turning to face him when they stood in the sitting-room. 'It's well, it's a bit embarrassing 72 I really, Noel. You see, I 'm afraid it completely slipped my mind that I was having lunch with you today. I've been seeing someone about the house . keeper's job, and she turned out to be a very formidable female.' i. 'Oh, you've managed to get somebody, have you?' he asked, knowing how anxious she had been about I it. 'She starts in a couple of weeks' time,' Charlotte i said. 'It's someone Scott found for me, actually, that's why he came over. To see how I'd fared with Mrs. Borden.' 'I see. I wondered why he was here.' It was obvious from his expression that the idea of Scott Lingrove visiting her was something he did not view with much favour, and she guessed he did not like the other man very much. Undoubtedly he was obliged to be polite to him because he was a client of his firm, but his manner left no doubt as to what his private feelings were. 'He drops in occasionally to see how I'm getting on,' Charlotte explained. 'And you don't mind him sounding as if as if he has some sort of proprietorial claim to you?' he asked, remembering Scott's parting words. 'Oh, that!' Her laugh dismissed it as unimportant. 'I suspect Mr. Scott Lingrove enjoys stirring up as much mischief as he can.' 'And I endorse your view,' Noel assured her shortly. 'You don't like him?' I 73 ' It seemed he was unwilling to go so far as to actually admit it, his professional caution probably curbed his tongue. 'I wouldn't go that far,' he said warily. 'But he can be rather annoying at times.* 'He can be maddening!' Charlotte declared, not bound by professional etiquette. She smiled up at him. 'But we're not bothered about Scott Lingrove,' she told him. 'I really am sorry that I forgot our lunch date, Noel. I can't think how I could have been so woolly-headed.' From his expression it was difficult to decide whether he was most offended or hurt, but the latter showed most plainly on his face, and he thrust his hands into his pockets and looked down at the highly polished toes of his shoes. 'It doesn't matter if you have something else to do,' he told her, making it obvious that it would matter. 'I haven't,' Charlotte denied. 'If you don't mind waiting for just a little while, while I make myself presentable. I won't be very long.' 'I don't mind waiting in the least,' he assured her, but still looked uncertain. 'I thought I heard you say I mean I wondered if you had arranged something with Lingrove.' 'I did,' she admitted, making a face over the ad-mission. "I said I'd have a drink and a sandwich with him at the local, but that was before I remembered I was seeing you. And I'm quite sure he couldn't have cared less either way.' 'I'm sure he could,' Noel told her morosely. 'Be74 pieve me. Charlotte, I know him, and one thing Scott Lingrove doesn't like is losing something he's set this heart on.' I Such as Blanestock, Charlotte thought ruefully, and wondered just how far he would go to gain his Sown ends. So far he had done nothing to exert pressure on her to sell him the house, but there were more subtle ways of achieving the same end, and 'Scott Lingrove, she guessed, would not be above using them. It was only three days later that Charlotte received a letter from Mr. Philip Chartres containing the information that Mr. Lingrove had made an offer to buy Blanestock, just as it stood, and for a very generous amount considering the state of the house itself. She felt annoyed because he had made no mention , of an official offer either during their public house lunch two days ago, or during a couple of subsequent short visits to the house. Feeling that he was, in a way, applying legal pressure she _was prepared to do battle with him when she saw him again, and in the meantime she prepared a formal letter of refusal for the solicitor. She was angry that he had even made another offer when he knew quite well she had no intention of selling, and she made up her mind to go along to Wainscote and tell him so. Some days before, when she was taking an exploratory walk, she had discovered that it was possible to gain access to Wainscote- property without the need to walk along the 75 road and in through the main gates. ' It was possible because there was a narrow spinney bordering a field belonging to Blanestock which acted as a boundary between the two properties. It dispensed with the need to walk along the road and then along that all too impressive drive which rather overawed her. She had no intention of being overawed by anything or anybody at the moment, so she left the house by the back door and made her way via the neglected gardens to the field beyond, bordered by the communal strip of woodland. It was quiet and still and utterly peaceful out here, and it was not long before it began to have an effect on Charlotte as she made her way through the trees in the spinney. The rich brown loam underfoot smelled warm and spicy, and the autumn sun was persuading the birds to sing as gaily as if it was summer, so that by the time she had worked her way through the trees to the far edge of the spinney she was feeling a little more kindly disposed towards Scott, and almost prepared to see his point of view. At the Wainscote side of the trees she struck something of a snag, for there were tall, thick rhododendron bushes growing all along the edge and their 'thick, solid growth made getting through them something of a hazard. Thick, strong branches wove a barrier between her and the smooth green parkland she had seen on the other side, and she was forced to turn and extricate herself at almost every step, Almost through, she was imprisoned by a particu76 Ilarly strong branch that required brute force to move it, and she had her back to the open space behind her, deaf and blind to anything at the rear as she concentrated on freeing herself from the tangle. She managed, at last, to free herself and jerked backwards suddenly on to the smooth green sward behind her, half stumbling as she came. 'Look out!' The cry came too late, for she had turned at the sound of it, so quickly that she stumbled again and ' She had a brief and quite terrifying glimpse of some huge creature with flaring nostrils and staring !eyes just before she fell and rolled right in front of it. For a moment it towered over her, its legs and feet waving above her, and she closed her eyes tight, resigned to being pounded to a pulp where she lay. It seemed like an eternity that she lay there, hearing a strange kind of snorting sound and the heavy . thud of hooves, mixed and muddled in with a familiar voice sharp with command. Then the thudding stopped and the voice spoke again, followed by a sharp slap and the hooves racing away over the soft t ground. I 'Charlotte!' She still lay there curled up tight and not daring to move, and she still had her eyes closed when hands lifted her gently and arms cradled her against a heart that thudded unnaturally loud under her right ear.'Charlotte?' She had no difficulty in identifying the voice and she played possum for a moment or two because she knew that that gentle cradling would come to an I 77 immediate end when he realised she was unhurt. And she opened her eyes only reluctantly. 'What what happened?' she asked meekly. 'What happened?' As she expected he pushed her upright, none too gently, and got to his feet, looking down at her like some huge figure of vengeance. 'Suppose you tell me?' Charlotte made sure she was in good repair, then scrambled to her feet, brushing down her coat more as a reason for not looking at him, than because it was dirty. 'I fell,' she admitted, and the sound he made was more snort than laugh. 'You burst out of the shrubbery like a rabbit out of a hole,' he told her. 'You're damned lucky Satan didn't pound you to a pulp.' Satan, Charlotte assumed, was the fiery creature who had towered over her with flailing hooves, and she looked across to where he galloped across the parkland for home riderless. 'I'm sorry if I startled him,' she said, looking up at last, 'but I got caught in the branches and I don't know, I suddenly got free and shot out.' 'You're telling me!' He stood regarding her, feet apart, hands at his sides, one hand tapping a riding crop against one leg with ominous impatience. 'You damned near unseated me!' I'm sorry.' 'Let alone risking getting your own neck broken, you could have broken mine too,' he went on relentlessly, and Charlotte sighed. 'I'm sorry, Scott.' 78 p 'So you said,' he retorted. 'What are you doing r caking in through the shrubbery, anyway?' Remembering her original errand. Charlotte d
is missed her momentary meekness and her mouth lightened as she stuck her chin in the air and looked at him down the length of her nose. 'I was on my way to see you,' she told him. 'Oh? I'm flattered.' He was less tense now, and the first glimmer of laughter showed in his eyes as he put a hand under her elbow and turned her towards the house. 'You'd better come and tell me 'why.' He raised a brow that challenged her to argue. 'I know it isn't simply for the pleasure of my company,' he added. 'It isn't!' She walked along beside him, wondering if here and now was a good time to discuss it. The, circumstances and the surroundings were scarcely business-like, but she was unwilling to wait any longer before having her say. 'I've had a letter from Mr. Chartres.' 'Oh? Which one?' 'Mr. Philip Chartres, of course, as you know quite well.' She waited for him to take the matter from there, but apparently he had no such intention. 'Well, go on,' was all he said, and Charlotte frowned at him. 'You're just being difficult, Scott,' she accused. 'You know perfectly well that he's made me an offer for Blanestock, on your behalf.' 'Not quite,' he argued. 'Basil Glee's made an offer on my behalf. Philip Chartres has conveyed the 79 offer to you.' 'Oh, whatever the legal niceties are,' she said impatiently. 'You've made an offer for Blanestock.' That's right.' She looked up at him, at the rugged, almost stern features in profile to her. He was determined not to be co-operative, she thought, and wished she had never come, for he had long since sabotaged any hope of her original plan of telling him exactly what she thought of him, even if it meant quarrelling with him. She had certainly intended to arouse something more than the cool and annoyingly matter-of-fact response she was getting. She drew in a deep breath that sounded almost like a sigh. 'You know quite well I have no intention of selling Blanestock,' she said. 'So why make the offer?'. 'Actually that offer was put in hand before you came here,' he told her. 'It was intended to be all very legal and proper, and if Noel Chartres hadn't jumped the gun, the letter would have been your first intimation that I wanted to buy it.' 'In other words you'd have sprung it on me and hoped I wouldn't have time to think about it first.' "Something like that,' he admitted with a grin. 'As it was Noel successfully scuttled my surprise.' She looked at him, momentarily anxious for Noel. "You didn't let them know I'd been told about it, did you?' she asked, and knew he followed her thoughts from the way he smiled. 'No, I didn't,' he said. 'I wasn't particularly an80 xious to land Noel in the mire with his firm. Hes not the first man to have been led into indiscretion by a pretty face.' 'I didn't ' she began, and he laughed. 'I know you didn't intentionally,' he told her, "but you were the reason he forgot his professional ethics. I've no doubt, so I didn't let on.' 'Well, I'm grateful to you for that, anyway,' she told him. 'But I still don't see why, when you know I have no intention of selling Blanestock, you let the offer be made.' 'Because I intend having it.' Charlotte stopped in her tracks, and glared up at him, ignoring the fact that he was"very obviously amused by her annoyance. 'Over my dead body!' she declared fiercely, and he laughed again, urging her on towards the house. 'Battling Charlie Brown,' he taunted. 'Fighting to the last ditch for her inheritance.' 'That's the whole point,' Charlotte told him firmly. 'It is my inheritance, and I've no intention of relinquishing it to anyone.' 'Not even if you get married?' he asked with a smile. 'Does your spouse automatically get barred from your fortress too.? Or will he be the one ex-ception?' The choice of subject made her uneasy for some inexplicable reason and she looked at him warily. 'There's no question of it arising at the moment,' she said. 'When it does if it does ' "Oh, it will,' he assured her softly. 81 'Then it'll be a different matter altogether, of course. What's mine will automatically be his whoever he is.' They were walking through the beautifully kept gardens at the back of Wainscote, and he still kept a hand under her arm as they approached the house itself 'Then the obvious solution to the problem is for you to marry me,' he told her blandly, and Charlotte stared at him unbelievingly for a moment. When the full meaning of it dawned on her at last, she snatched her arm away from his hold and her eyes blazed furiously, looking almost black in her anger. 'You would too she declared. 'You would stoop as low as that to get what you want. Noel said you didn't like losing anything you'd set your heart on and now I believe him wholeheartedly ' 'Did he now?' He spoke quietly, and Charlotte's brain rang a warning bell. She was pretty certain that the Everslade family would not lightly change their allegiance from Clee, Banbury and Chartres, but another indiscretion by Noel might well be food for thought and she must guard her tongue. Scott Lingrove had already proved that he would go to any lengths to get what he wanted. I shouldn't have said that,' she confessed, looking at him anxiously through her lashes. 'Please don't blame Noel.' Tor what?' he asked, taking her round the side of the house. -He's quite right, I don't like losing a thing I've set my heart on, but neither, I imagine, 82 does anyone, else, do they?' 'I suppose not.' 'Of course they don't,' he retorted. 'Noel Chartres has his sights set on you, it'll be interesting to see if he likes it when he doesn't get you.' The conversation. Charlotte felt, was becoming much too embarrassingly personal and she wished she could find some way of changing it. "I don't think you have any right or any reason to talk like that,' she told him. 'And I wish you wouldn't.' The hazel eyes gleamed wickedly and the fingers circling her arm tightened fractionally when he spoke. 'All right. Charlotte,' he said softly. 'But if you really do imagine Noel Chartres is seeing you simply with the idea of drumming up business, you're in for a big shock one of these days.' 'I don't,' she denied. 'But I just don't think it concerns you, that's all.' He shrugged, smiling as he led the way into the house. 'And I happen to differ on that point, that's all.' It was useless, she thought, staying longer with him for she had little hope of making him see that she firmly and finally meant it when she said she had no intention of selling Blanestock. She might just as well go home, and let her continued residence there show him how much she meant it. 'I won't come in,' she told him, withdrawing her arm from his grasp. 'There's really no need, I might as well get back.' 'I thought you'd come to see me.' He smiled. 'It's been a very brief visit eventful, but brief.' 'I came to see you about the letter and the offer you made,' she told him. 'And ' You mean,' he interrupted with a grin, 'you came to put me firmly in my place.' 'All right, I did,' Charlotte retorted swiftly, chin in the air. 'Well, I've made it quite clear now. I have no intention of parting with Blanestock, now or ever, and since that subject's settled, there's nothing else to discuss.' 'All right, all right!' He laughed softly, taking her arm again, drawing her, into the hall. 'Round one to you,' he allowed. 'So there's nothing more to discuss, but you don't have to go storming back to your fortress yet. Nobody's going to lay siege to it while you're gone, so come and have some lunch with me. hmm?' I don't think I should.' She was not at all happy about his apparently easy capitulation, it was too out of character, as she felt sure Noel would agree, and she regarded the invitation to lunch with open suspicion.' But why on earth not?' he demanded. 'I'm the loser in this battle, remember? If I'm not bearing a grudge, I don't see why you should,' 'I don't exactly bear any grudge,' she began, and he hugged her arm against his side as he persuaded her further into the house, his face crinkling into another smile that was irresistibly persuasive. 'Then come and have lunch with me,' he coaxed, and eventually she heaved a great sigh of resigna84 jtion and allowed herself to smile. As well as being infuriating, he was also disarmingly attractive, and she spared a moment to wonder at his still being I. unattached. 'Very well,' she agreed at last. 'Thank you.' 'I should make one stipulation, I think,' he told g her solemnly, and turned her to face him, both I hands now on her arms. 'I don't know that you're in any position to make stipulations,' she said, laughing at his expression, and wondered why it was that she always seemed to end up being so amenable. 'Please don't nag me about the house,' he begged, and she pulled a face at him. I'I won't, if you don't nag me about it,' she retorted and he laughed softly, bending swiftly to brush his mouth against hers. I 'Agreed,' he said. 85