by Pamela Kent
THE MAN WHO CAME BACK 183
cian I knew perfectly well there was nothing very much wrong with you. Indeed, if you want me to be blunt, there was nothing at all wrong with you! And last week, if you'll remember, I sent you my bill, as you're a private patient, and explained that I would no longer be on call if you needed me. I gave you the name of another doctor in the district who would be very happy to add you to his list of paying patients, and I felt I had discharged my duty where you were concerned."
For an instant venom crept back into her eyes, and those eyes swung round to her half-sister.
"And all the time it was Harriet... Is that it?" she enquired. "Harriet whom you planned should come and live here at Falaise... In my place!"
"You know very well I would never do that," Harriet assured her with emphasis, and Philip Drew frowned as if not at all pleased.
"I asked you not to interrupt," he reminded the girl to whom he had made ardent love that afternoon.
For the first time she decided to face up to his arrogance ... and his apparent change of heart.
"You know very well that only this afternoon we agreed to say nothing to Gay about Falaise," she reminded him. "You said you didn't want the house, or the money , . . and I don't believe you do!" she added.
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He answered her without any softening or altering of his expression. "I've changed my mind since then," he said, and looked directly at Gay.
She chose to be defiant. "Because of the things I said about Harriet?" "Possibly."
"You know very well it was just because I lost my temper. I know Harriet as well as you do. In fact, almost certainly, a lot better!"
"Then you should have been careful what you said while other people were capable of overhearing." His lips were very grim indeed. "You should also have remembered that I'm the descendant of the man in the portrait."
"I didn't know you were listening...." "I imagine you would have been more discreet if you had. However, it's too late now. I've told you I want to live here at Falaise." ' "You said I could buy the house back from you...." "Have you the money?" as if he was an
usurer and she was a recalcitrant client She shook her head. "I don't suppose I have... not the amount
you'd want for it." "Then I'll instruct my solicitor to get in touch
with yours, shall I?" He regarded her with implacable coldness. "I don't intend to be quite merciless and ask you to leave in undignified haste; but I shall expect you to vacate the prem
THE MAN WHO CAME BACK 185
ises within the next month or so. That should
give you time to find somewhere else to live." Impulsively Harriet offered: "You can have my flat in London, Gay! You
can move in whenever you want." The doctor regarded her almost as coldly as he had regarded her half-sister. "Does that mean you don't see eye to eye with me? You sympathise with Mrs. Earnshaw?"
"Of course." Now it was her cheeks that were flushed defensively, and her slim breasts that were heaving as she faced him. "I could never
agree to your treating Gay quite so badly, and just walking in here and taking over everything. You have already given me your word that you would do nothing of the kind ... and I believed you." For an instant there was appeal in her eyes. "Philip, you're not the man in the , portrait...." "I'm his descendant." "That doesn't mean anything." But she wasn't quite sure why it didn't mean anydiing. "You're a different person altogether�a very different person! If you weren't, I wouldn't�I "wouldn't�" "Have agreed to marry me this afternoon?" "I agreed to marry a man I admire. I'll no longer admire you if you turn Gay out of Falaise." "I'm not turning her out. I'm asking her to vacate a property that is not rightfully hers."
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"But we agreed this afternoon that we didn't want to live in it You also admitted that you've plenty of money."
"Money doesn't enter into it."
"Then what does?"
He walked round the room examining the books on the shelves, and then he came back to her and looked her up and down as if he was seeing her for the first time, and discovering new and intriguing things about her. Then he spoke very quietly, with a queer, vibrating note in his voice�and a touch of appeal in his eyes.
"You do," he said. "You do!"
Before either Gay or Harriet could say anything further he walked to the door, opened it and disappeared into the hall, and they heard his footsteps briskly crossing the floor of the hall and making for the front door. When the front door had slammed Gay walked to the window and watched him getting into his car and driving purposefully away, then she turned to her halfsister and said something that astonished Harriet.
"Go after him," she urged. "Go after him. Your car is on the drive. Go after him!" "What good will it do?" Harriet enquired, in a flat voice.
"It all depends on how much of his ancestor's blood flows in his veins." For some reason Gay seemed to be calculating, working
things out. "If he's a true descendant of that un
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pleasant gentleman in the portrait it won't do anyone any good. But if he isn't!" "Well?" Harriet urged, feeling the blood pounding strangely in her veins and a strange' breathlessness in her throat. "What if he isn't?" "It's up to you to find out," Gay gave her a not ungentle push in the direction of the door. "But if you don't find out now you'll never find
out." Before Harriet reached the door she called after her. "I apologise for the beastly things I said to you a short while ago! They weren't true ...I know that!"
Harriet gazed back at her with relief in her eyes. "I'm glad, at least, to know that," she said. Then she fairly raced across the hall to the front door.
CHAPTER IX
PHILIP'S car had disappeared down the drive,
and he was turning out of the main gates by the
time she scrambled into hers. She pressed the
self-starter with fumbling fingers, and was
thankful that she had had a fill-up with petrol that morning, and that there were no serious hitches now that she had listened to Gay and
was going after him.
But why she was going after him she wasn't quite sure ... and what she would say when she caught up with him she didn't quite know.
Her own car disappeared down the drive� while Gay watched from the library window� and swung between the main gates as Philip drew near to the outskirts of the village. He had gone into Dr. Parkes' house and was having a word with Dr. Parkes' housekeeper when Harriet pressed the gleaming brass bell and waited for the door to open.
"I want to see Dr. Drew," Harriet gasped, and was not entirely surprised because the housekeeper looked highly intrigued.
"The doctor has just gone into his consultingroom," she said. "He told me just now that he
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didn't want to see anyone tonight�unless it's
urgent."
"This is urgent," Harriet gasped.
The housekeeper withdrew, and a second or so later she returned and informed Harriet that
the doctor would see her. With her heart ham
mering in her ears and her throat as dry as a
piece of learner with apprehension Harriet fol
lowed the comfortable form across the hall and
into the sprucely kept consulting-room.
Philip had not had much time, but he was already seated at his desk, and he looked remote and withdrawn.
"What is it?" he asked, not lifting his eyes. "Unless you've anything to say to me that is in the least relevant I think we'd better make an appointment to meet some other time."
"This is relevant, Philip," she told him.
The housekeeper had withdrawn, and the door was securely closed. He lifted his eyes, and Harriet could have cried out because there was such a badly wounded look in them. All the arrogance had gone, and the determination, and the pride... the slightly cruel and
unyielding pride.
"Is it?" he said.
She crossed the space that separated them until she was standing right in front of his desk, and could satisfy herself that the piece of paper in front of him was quite blank, and he was actually holding his pen upside down so that he
1QO THE MAN WHO CAME BACK
couldn't have made a recognisable mark had he
wished.
"I'll do whatever you want, Philip," she told
him, very humbly. "It doesn't matter whether I
agree with what you want... but I'll do it! I'll
try hard for the rest of my life to do whatever
you want me to do!"
Before she had even finished speaking he was
round the desk and had caught her in his arms
and was covering the whole of her face with
kisses. Triumphantly, when he had deprived her
of her breath by kissing her on the mouth in a
devouring fashion that made her legs feel weak
and caused her arms to cling to him, he exclaimed :
"Even if you don't mean it, I'm taking you on. But I think you do mean it!" He tilted her chin with slightly shaking fingers, and looked deep into her eyes. "Back there at Falaise I thought we'd parted for good ... but now L know it isn't so. It's'me, isn't it?"
Rapturously she assured him:
"Always you, Philip ... always, always!"
"And how closely do you think I resemble my ancestor?" "I don't think you resemble him at all." He held her close. He smoothed her hair and
touched her cheeks a little wonderingly.
"And if I should ask you never to return to Falaise ... you wouldn't go?"
"I wouldn't go."
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He laughed triumphantly. And then the triimph vanished, and he addressed her just a little
;ynically.
"My darling, I think you'll make the perfect vife, but you've already learned a few wiles. In ^our hands I really am as nothing. You can do
what you will with me. But only so long as you don't oppose me'. Now, what shall we do with
Falaise?" . . ,� "What was it you intended to do with it? He smiled and stroked her cheek. "Tell Gay she can keep it... and the money! All those things we talked about this afternoon ... remember? You agreed with me." Silently she rubbed her cheek against his coat. Then she whispered: "You know perfectly well I agree with you, darling. I've got a kind of feeling I'm never going to disagree with you." Gay was watching from the library window when they returned to the house. She had an 1 apologetic speech all suitably rehearsed for her Ifuture brother-in-law, but she found that it jwasn't necessary. Harriet said breathlessly: | "What about opening a bottle of champagne ? [believe there's some in the cellar." Gay's eyes met those of Philip's. Dark eyes and dolet eyes smiled unwillingly at one another. "A celebration?" Gay enquired. "Then, my larlings, everything the house contains is yours."
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He laughed triumphantly. And then the tri
umph vanished, and he addressed her just a little
cynically.
"My darling, I think you'll make the perfect wife, but you've already learned a few wiles. In your hands I really am as nothing. You can do
what you will with me. But only so long as you don't oppose me! Now, what shall we do with Falaise?"
"What was it you intended to do with it?"
He smiled and stroked her cheek.
"Tell Gay she can keep it... and the money!
All those things we talked about this afternoon ... remember? You agreed with me." Silently she-rubbed her cheek against his coat. Then she whispered:
"You know perfectly well I agree with you, darling. I've got a kind of feeling I'm never going to disagree with you."
Gay was watching from the library window when they returned to the house. She had an apologetic speech all suitably rehearsed for her future brother-in-law, but she found that it wasn't necessary. Harriet said breathlessly:
"What about opening a bottle of champagne? I believe there's some in the cellar."
Gay's eyes met those of Philip's. Dark eyes and violet eyes smiled unwillingly at one another.
"A celebration?" Gay enquired. "Then, my darlings, everything the house contains is yours."
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"For tonight," Philip concluded for her. "We won't drink you out of champagne, and we'll leave you everything else to enjoy at your leisure."
"You really are a clever girl, Harriet," Gay whispered in her half-sister's ear.
