The man who came back

by Pamela Kent

  THE MAN WHO CAME BACK 155

  must have asked his housekeeper to fill the vases

  for the occasion. The tea table was very daintily

  laid and the silver tea-kettle and cake basket

  were glittering with polish.

  It was obvious that Dr. Parkes' housekeeper

  looked upon this as an occasion. And when, in

  the very middle of the sitting-room carpet, Har

  riet turned and looked at her host�not for any

  particular reason, but because some instinct

  prompted her to do so�the sudden leaping of

  her pulses as her eyes met his let her know very

  clearly that this was an occasion for her, too.

  She said, trying to sound as casual as possible:

  "It all looks very nice! You must be quite a

  favourite with Dr. Parkes' housekeeper!"

  "She's grown used to me. At first, I think, she

  couldn't quite make up her mind whether she

  was going to like me or not. But that's happened

  to other people as well!"

  His deep, dark eyes were smiling at her, and she felt as if her whole inner being gave aJdnd of lurch.

  "It�it isn't always easy to decide whether� whether one likes a person or not," she heard herself stammering,

  He came close to her and put his hand beneath her chin and lifted it. He looked into her clear green eyes.

  "And now?" he asked, a faint note of whimsicalness in his voice, but a very big question mark at the backs of his eyes.

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  She remained immovable in his hold.

  "Now?" he repeated, very softly, and let his arms slip round her. She had never been held quite like this by a man before ... not with any fierceness or determination, but gently, casually, as if the moment had seemed propitious but he was not quite sure. He tilted her head back gently with his hand and continued to look into her eyes ... and then she felt his hand touch her cheek, and it was trembling slightly. She made a little clutching movement at him and melted unashamedly into his arms.

  "Why did you kiss me that night?" she whispered.

  He laughed, very close to her ear.

  "Because I wanted to kiss you," he replied. "Because I planned to kiss you from the moment I saw you. But you're the sort of young woman who surrounds herself with prickles unless she's absolutely sure ... and I don't think you were in the least sure about me!"

  "I was, I was!" She felt, now, that she had to convince him, although her very anxiety to do so surprised even herself. It was possible, of course, that she had been all along, otherwise he wouldn't have aroused so much antagonism in her breast.

  "Were you?" His humouring smile remained

  gentle for perhaps two seconds longer, and then

  the casual gleam died out of his eyes, and they were black and humourless and intense as a

  THE MAN WHO CAME BACK 157 sultry night sky. She gasped as she looked up

  into them, between the feminine fringes of his

  thick dark eyelashes, and when his mouth des

  cended on hers with a kind of angry pressure it

  was not quite what she had expected; although

  she made not the smallest attempt to deny him.

  He kissed her several times, harshly, ruthlessly

  �as if his intention was to punish her. And then

  he made a sound like a low, abject murmur, and

  gathered her possessively, hungrily into his arms.

  The kiss this time was entirely satisfactory, and when he lifted his head at last they were both slightly bemused. Harriet, in particular, looked bemused.

  "Do you think Dr. Parkes' housekeeper would �object�to this?" she asked.

  "On the contrary, I think she would approve. I told you she said you were the 'nice youne lady at Falaise.'"

  "Yes, but�" She was flushed all over her face and neck and brow, a delicate, enchanting flush that made her eyes look greener and her hair a living gold by comparison. "Do you mean to tell me she's gone off again�knowing I was coming �and left you to make the tea?"

  "Left us to make the tea! I told her you made it before."

  "Did you?"

  "And she wasn't in the least shocked. Probably she's broadminded."

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  She flushed more rosily than ever, and attempted to extricate herself from his arms. "Don't you think we'd better go and make it

  now?" "In a minute. I told her, you see, that you're the 'nice young lady' I'm going to marry." "What!" Her eyes fell before his, and then brightened as if the sunrise was at the backs of them as she found the courage to look up at him boldly. "Weren't you anticipating things�a little?" she enquired, her voice trembling so much that it actually broke off before the final words. "I don't think so." He smoothed her hair very gently, and smiled at her with not too much complacent triumph in his eyes. "Haven't we already admitted that we knew, from the beginning?" She nodded. This was too momentous a moment for ordinary speech, and in any case she couldn't think of anything adequate to say. So she made another attempt that succeeded to detach herself from his grasp, walked into the kitchen and was in the act of filling the kettle when he came up behind her. "Harriet!" He took her so roughly into his arms that they bruised her. "We can't sit down and drink tea and eat cakes and sandwiches as if nothing tremendous had happened! I asked you here this afternoon because I'd made a discovery that shook me. Not only is it quite impossible for

  THE MAN WHO CAME BACK 159

  me to get you out of my head for a single

  moment, but I've got to hear you say that you

  feel the same. I've got to hear you say that you

  love me!"

  Completely weak again as soon as he uttered the magic word, she turned to him and clung to him helplessly, as helplessly as if she was being buffeted by a storm of wind.

  "But you haven't said that you lov& me yet,"' she reminded him, a bubble of laughter in her voice despite the urgency of the situation. "After all, a man usually says it first, doesn't he?"

  He seized her chin again and thrust her face out into the open. She was inclined to keep it hidden in his neck.

  "Coward!" he accused. "Are you afraid to say what you feel?"

  She shook her head.

  "Of course not. I'm practically certain I love you more than you probably deserve to be loved since you won't take the initiative and put me out of my misery first�"

  "Darling!" Remorse swept over him and he cupped her face in his hands. He looked at her with such a blaze of unmistakable feeling looking out of them that she felt as if her bones turned to water, and she clung to him for support. "Is it misery? Then I know you love me, and I�I adore you! I've never said that to any woman before, because I dislike exaggerations of speech. But this isn't an exaggeration!"

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  "I thought it was Gay," she whispered. "I thought you found her madly fascinating."

  He gazed at her in astonishment

  "Gay? Your sister? You must be joking! Even if she'd attracted me in a mild way I'd have given up attending her as her physician, for a man can't be in love with a woman and advise her medically at the same time. After the other night, when I saw you lying in your bed in that frothy confection of a nightdress, and you so shamelessly appealed to me to hold your hand, I knew I could never again attend you as your medical adviser."

  "Really?" she whispered, looking at him for confirmation. "Is that really true?"

  His lean, tanned fingers wandered down from her face and caressed the smooth lines of her throat.

  "What sort of a man do you think I am?" he asked, a trifle huskily. "Do you think when I kissed you the other night it was all part of the treatment? A booster for the sedative I'd given you! If you do, then I'd better make it absolutely and eternally clear to you that you, as a woman�not a patient!�fill me with a kind of frenzy...."<
br />
  And as proof that the frenzy could get a little out of hand he smothered her with so many hard and determined kisses, and bruised her arms and her chest with such an intensely masculine hold, that she was finally moved to protest in a muffled

  THE MAN WHO CAME BACK l6l

  and distinctly half-hearted fashion, and Solomon, emerging from the corner of the kitchen where he had been polishing off the cat's milk and the remainder of the cat's dinner, which that injudicious animal had left to be consumed later, started jumping up and barking furiously in defence of its mistress. Philip Drew ordered it �as its future master�to stop making a nuisance of itself, then lifted Harriet up in his arms and carried her back into the sitting-room, where he deposited her in the middle of the chesterfield and sat down beside her.

  "Now," he said, sliding his arms about her

  once more, "we've a lot to talk about, you and I,

  so we might as well get things settled.... And in about half an hour," glancing at his watch, "I'll allow you to have some tea. If you want tea!"

  But an hour later the kettle was still cold and the sandwiches untouched on the sitting-room table. Harriet had learned many things about the man who now took it for granted diat she was going to marry him, and he had learned quite a few things about her. He had learned, for example, that she had once had a somewhat colourless affair that had been nipped in the bud by her sister Gay, but apart from that her lovelife would bear the closest investigation, which appeared to be a relief to him. Harriet learned that his life so far had not been entirely' free from romantic incident, but he had never known the smallest urge to barter his freedom for a

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  mess of pottage, as he phrased it, until now. This Harriet found reasonably satisfactory, and after a few more revelations that would have interested no one but themselves, and one or two blissful interludes that agitated Solomon considerably, Harriet decided that if Dr. Parkes' housekeeper was not going to be mortally offended they would have to do something about

  the repast provided.

  But as it was six o'clock by now Philipdeclined to drink tea, and produced a bottle of sherry from the dining-room sideboard. They toasted one another in this more suitable beverage, and Harriet insisted that they fell upon the cakes and the sandwiches, in order that Dr. Parkes' housekeeper should not be offended. Solomon was very useful in this respect, disposing of a plateful of small cakes before they either of them noticed that he had mounted to a convenient chair and was on a level with the flowerdecked table; but Harriet refused to rebuke him because he had been more or less neglected for the past hour, and was not old enough to deny himself when the temptation was too great.

  She put away the china after washing up the used plates arid returning uneaten delicacies to various tins, and then rejoined the doctor in the sitting-room. He was lying back in a deep, comfortable chair and smoking a pipe�having

  ascertained that she had no objection to his so

  doing�and signalled to her to come and join

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  him in the same chair. But Harriet was gradu

  ally emerging from the ether that had separated her from all unpleasant thoughts and duties, and realised that unless she returned to Falaise in time for dinner Gay would look distinctly surprised, and almost certainly ask searching questions. And as a result of recollecting Gay she also recollected other things ... and she knew that before they proceeded any further she had to find out whether or not Philip Drew was aware of his rightful inheritance.

  She drew a deep breath before she put the blunt question to him, for she had no wish to make things awkward for her half-sister, or to be the means of depriving her of anything. But, knowing what she did know, and being now so close to Philip, she simply couldn't allow him to continue in ignorance�if he really was in ignorance� of the true situation.

  Gay would probably hate her for what she had to do, but she couldn't help it. It was something that had to be done. Gay herself should have seen that it was done when she returned from London.

  "I... there's something I must ask you," she said, refusing to go any nearer to him than a tantalizing distance of at least three feet

  Philip frowned for an instant,-and then looked amused. "You want to enquire into my financial posi

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  tion, is that it?" he suggested lightly. "Whether

  I can support a wife, and all that!"

  "Don't be silly." She advanced a few inches in his direction. "It's nothing at all to do with money ... at least," correcting herself somewhat hurriedly, "it has something to do with it."

  She could have sworn that he looked really surprised, and then every atom'of expression was wiped out of his face.

  "Go on," he said. "Like all women you're interested in material things?" But there was a distinctly bleak note in his voice.

  "No." She hurried to get it over, before he got any more wrong ideas about her. "It's about Falaise... the house, I mean, not the village. About that portrait I found in the attic."

  "Ah!" He lay back more comfortably in his chair, and patted his knee to encourage Solomon to jump up on it. "The portrait that vanished?"

  "Yes. The portrait that looked exactly like you!" Solomon having accepted the invitation, Philip let his fingers toy widi the honey-coloured coat

  "You'll remember that I never saw it," he replied very slowly. "We went up to the attic to look for it, but it had gone. It provided you with the nightmare of your life, and I think we can forget it, if you don't mind."

  But she shook her head vigorously. She knew

  THE MAN WHO CAME BACK 165 that she simply couldn't allow Gay to get away with it as easily as that. "No. No, you don't understand! The portrait was there, and Gay found it and had it removed from the attic." She thought his dark eyes narrowed. "She went to London for the purpose of making enquiries, and she learned that the man who sat for the portrait in the early nineteenth century was an ancestor of yours, and that your name is really Philip Drew Earnshaw. We don't know whether you know anything at all about this�" "I do," he said, so quietly that she stared at him. "But I'm not interested... or no longer interested, shall we say? There was a time when the idea of taking over an estate that was rightfully mine appealed to me, and I wangled the job of locum to Dr. Parkes because I wanted to be near Falaise and get to know the present in- cumbent. One reason why I was so attentive after being called in to your sister was because it seemed to me that I'd been presented widi a first-class opportunity to consolidate my facts and establish my claim, but one look into your clear green eyes and my values were upset. You were so completely unlike your sister that I knew I could never have taken the house away from you, if you'd been in Mrs. Earnshaw's position. And then when you fainted after discovering my great-great-grandfather's portrait in the attic it intrigued me so much that I forgot everything

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  else, and concentrated on trying to get to know you. But you were as evasive as air and definitely hostile to me whenever we met, and it wasn't until you received that bump on the head that I grew a little hopeful about you. In fact, I was very hopeful after you permitted me to kiss you without smacking my face!"

  She gave a gasp of relief, and sank down on her knees beside him.

  "Oh, Philip!" she exclaimed. "Did you really cease to bother about the house�and the income!� after you met me?"

  Gently he fondled her hair with the free hand that was not engaged in stroking Solomon.

  "I've told you, from the moment I met you nothing else mattered ... although perhaps I had an odd way of showing it! I became obsessed by you, and I accepted all Mrs. Earnshaw's invitations to be near you."

  "Not to find out more about the house?"

  "I now have absolutely no interest in the house, for I think it's a fitting background for your sister. And being a fitting background for your sister I don't consider it's a fitting background for you or-me.
I have plenty of money of my own, and if I want a house in this district I shall buy one one day. But not-yet! I have to return to my practice in London very shortly, and unless you haven't meant any of the things you've said this afternoon you're coming with me." He drew her to him with a touch of hun

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  ger. "Say you'll go back to London with me, Harriet... as my wife!" In blissful relief she nestled into the crook of his arm. And she actually sighed with relief.

  "I like Falaise," she admitted, "but I would never be happy if you turned out Gay in order to live there. I rather gather there's no doubt at all about your claim, but if you don't intend to pursue it Gay is secure."

  "And being her half-sister you'd like her to be secure?"

  "I suppose I'm fond of her in a kind of way," she admitted. "And in a way, she's fond of me ... but," realising that it would be better if he knew the whole truth, "she's made up her mind to marry you herself, you know! That is, she intended to marry you if you were going to take the house from her, and even when she knows that you're not seriously interested in the house she may persist in trying to marry you. Because I think she likes you rather a lot," defending her sister's determination. "But if you think we ought to let her know�soon�that you're going to marry me ..." blushing and looking delightfully confused.

  "I do." He drew her to her feet, and she stood within the circle of his arm while he frowned down at her consideringly. "I think we .ought to tell her straight away, and I'll go back with you to Falaise now and break the news to her. She

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  probably won't congratulate you, but she can't possibly refuse to congratulate me."

  "No, no!" She was so sure that that was the wrong thing that she spoke with a note of urgency. "Let me tell her, and then you can

  come to the house later and receive her congratulations. After all," feeling an acute feeling of sympathy for her half-sister, "if she was planning to marry you because she likes you�"

  Thank you," he spoke coldly, "but I am not the type of man women plan to marry! And not even if they condescend to like me do I fall at