'Sounds very reprehensible!'
'Stop it, Hes—it's nothing to make a joke about. How would you like it if somebody brought you a newspaper cutting about me doing something you didn't know anything about? Oh hell! I'm getting so muddled—But it doesn't alter the facts. You waited till Flo and I were safely out of the country and then you got married…'
'Would Flo have gone if she'd known about the wedding?' Hester countered.
'You know damn well she wouldn't,' Mia snapped savagely. 'Wild horses wouldn't have got her on that plane, but of all the hole-and-corner things to do, you could at least have told me. And that's not all, is it?' She consulted the grubby cutting. 'It says here—oh damn, why couldn't whoever it was have bought something less greasy to wrap this round—I can hardly read it. It says "Mr Demetrios Thalassis". Now you explain that away, Hes.'
'Simple.'
'No, it's not simple, and neither am I!' Mia's voice rose to an outraged squeal. 'The last time you were here, you said there was a man, you also said he wanted to marry you. You even hinted that you might move in with him when you'd thought about it. You also said you were going away for a while to think about it some more, and that was all right with me. I didn't say a word about it to Flo, you know how she is—but did you tell me the man was some sort of relative of your mother's? No, you didn't…'
'And now you know why I didn't.' Hester went across to the window where she stood watching the traffic making its way to the Blackwall Tunnel. 'Look at the fuss you're making! If I'd told you then, you'd have wanted chapter and verse, and then I'd never have got you on the plane, never mind Flo.'
'But you knew you were getting married!' Mia was bubbling with anger and hurt. 'You can't do something like that in five minutes—in fact, the day you put the money in the bank for me you must have known. What was it, Hes? Did you have the idea you were going up in the world and we wouldn't be good enough for your fancy new relations, because if that's what you thought you needn't have bothered to come here today.'
'You know it wasn't like that.' Hester remained at the window, staring out, but she could no longer see the traffic for the blur of the tears in her eyes—they were threatening to spill over and run down her cheeks, so she kept her head averted. 'Look, love, to put it simply, we made a deal. Vilma sent him. I think she was trying to frighten me off, but instead he offered to help me.'
'The damn swine!' Mia's outrage showed in her wrathful growl. 'Men!'
'Stop it,' Hester said wearily. 'You're swearing like a trooper!'
'The effect of being on Men's Surgical, you learn a lot. But you couldn't have thought you were pregnant, it would be far too soon to tell, or has all this been going on for longer than I think? Hes! There wasn't any need to marry him, even if you were. I'd have looked after you and we'd have got round Flo somehow…'
Hester turned from the window at last. 'Will you let me finish?' she snarled. 'You keep interrupting when you only know half of it. He didn't seduce me and I didn't think I was having a baby. I said it was a deal. I wanted the money for Flo, Vilma was doing a denying thing, so Demetrios helped me. He wanted a stepmother for his little daughter, that's all. It was a straight swap, although I wouldn't tell him what I wanted the money for, I thought he might refuse to help. He thought I was on the make for myself, you see,' she explained tiredly. 'I didn't want to disillusion him—I wanted him to think I could be bought. When he made the offer, I couldn't pass it up, could I? And I couldn't tell you—look at the fuss you're making now the deed's done, and think what you'd have said if you'd known about it beforehand. I'd been to too much trouble to have the deal mucked up at the last moment.'
'Hey!' Mia crossed to stand beside her, sharp eyes taking in the trace of tears. 'Hes, you're crying! What's he done to you? Oh, I could kill him for this, I've a good mind to go and see him and scratch his eyes out!'
'You couldn't.' Hester wiped her eyes with the back of her hand and put an arm round Mia's slender waist. 'My pet, you're too little and much too gentle—see,' she lifted one of Mia's hands. 'No claws, and in any case, he hasn't done anything to me. It's just me being foolish.' She summoned up a smile. 'It's the strain, getting the money and then landing myself with a husband and a stepdaughter—I don't know if I'm on my head or my heels!'
'And worrying about Flo.' Mia squeezed the hand on hers. 'It sounds a pretty ropey marriage, is it going to work out? I think the best thing you can do is tell him about Flo straight away.'
Hester shook her head obstinately. 'Make a plea for sympathy? Try to make him see me in a better light? No!'
Mia suddenly laughed. 'Oh, Hes! I believe you're in love with the man and you want him to love you back and for yourself alone!' she almost sang the last words. 'Poor old hardhearted, hardbitten Hes, gone all romantic! Can't say I blame you, this photograph's nothing much, but he looks a proper dreamboat. All right, love,' as she saw tears starting again in her sister's eyes, 'do it the hard way—but remember, I'm here if things get too tough, you can cry on my shoulder any time. It's your wilful pride,' she snorted. 'Remember, Flo tanned you for it often enough and you're still not cured. You always would make life hard for yourself. Never mind, maybe you're right and the less he knows the better—he'll learn in time. How did your mother take it, the marriage, I mean?'
'Venomously!' Hester gave a watery chuckle. 'When you grow claws, my pet, there's a lady you can scratch with my blessing and approval, that's if I don't do it first myself. Let's make another pot of tea and you can tell me all about Flo.'
'It's a marvellous place.' Mia busied herself with the kettle and emptying the teapot. 'Flo was a bit dim when she arrived, but she'd pulled round a bit by the next day. It's up in the mountains, you can see for miles and she's a lovely room all to herself and a couple of English nurses who are taking turns to special her, so she's always got someone to talk to…'
'We did the right thing, then,' Hester worried at it. 'Even if…'
'Even if!' Mia was firm and serene. 'She's having the best, nobody could do more for her than you've done. She's waiting for letters from you and she gave me a lot of instructions, like seeing we were good girls while she was away or she'd tan our hides when she came home…'
It was nearly five o'clock when Hester left the flat after a tearful goodbye to Mia and a promise to keep in touch through Crispins and the hospital phone if there was anything urgent—if not, as Mia said, letters would do.
At the end of the road she was lucky. A cruising taxi was passing and she hailed it and jumped inside almost before it had stopped. She was late, she would be late arriving back at the hotel—her chin came up aggressively and her soft mouth firmed. So what! She was entitled to some time to herself, surely? And yet, for some silly reason which she couldn't quite pinpoint, she didn't want Demetrios to be cross with her. Probably a carry-over from Vilma's nasty little hints about his character, it was strange how nasty remarks always make a deeper impression than nice ones, how they lingered on at the back of one's mind.
She counted her parcels and sighed with relief. They were all present. The dress she had bought, a rather dramatic garment in black silk—cut like a cheongsam and loaded with silver embroidery—would be rather crumpled since she had refused the cardboard box as being too cumbersome and insisted it was put in an ordinary carrier bag. But it could be hung in the bathroom while she showered so that the creases would drop out.
It had been incredibly expensive; she had gulped at the price. The filmy black underwear which she couldn't resist—and couldn't truly afford, the new pair of black evening slippers—which she badly needed, the tights, make-up and perfume—she'd paid for all of those herself and she hoped this would be her last big expense for some time to come as she had made a considerable hole in her savings.
Demetrios didn't ever seem to use money as money, to him, it was something he kept apart for small, incidental expenses. She sniffed disparagingly—that was all right for him, he had a large bank balance, but she wasn't so fortunate. Her remaining two hundred odd p
ounds wouldn't go far if she had to splash out like this frequently.
'Papa's bought the house in Esher!' Katy came whooping through the lounge almost as soon as Hester opened the door. She had obviously been lying in wait, and equally obviously she was beginning to forget a great many of Miss Mungo's excellent dicta. The main one being that little girls should be seen and not heard. She flung herself on her new stepmother in an ecstasy of delight. 'It's very nice, and we drove past the school—Oh, Hes, you should see it, it's wonderful and there's a lovely place with trees where I can take my dog for a walk.'
Demetrios followed his daughter more sedately, an eyebrow cocking at the sight of the parcels. 'Something nice?'
'You paid for it.' Hester untangled herself from Katy's grip and tossed over the bag containing the dress. 'You judge for yourself. It's a bit rumpled, but the creases will soon drop out.'
'I'll ring down to reception,' Katy offered with the aplomb of somebody who had lived in hotels for most of her life. 'They'll send somebody up to take it away and press it,' and she sped off to the phone, leaving Hester and Demetrios and a small pile of even smaller parcels.
Unerringly, he pinpointed the source of her embarrassment and prised her fingers apart to peep into the bag. 'Oh!' His fingers probed and emerged with a wisp of black silk inset with lace, and he looked from it to the dress now draped over his arm. 'Very sexy!'
'If you don't approve, I'll change it for red flannel,' Hester offered sweetly. 'Everything shall be as my lord and master desires.'
'Liar!' he reproved. 'Don't put on that subservient tone with me, my girl! You're about as biddable as a tigress and you don't give a damn for what I want.
There are times when I understand you and others when I can't make you out. You know what you are, my dear? You're a mass of contradictions. Why wasn't I allowed to pay for everything. You know I've opened an account for you at Harrods?' And as she opened her eyes in surprise, 'You've left the receipt in this bag, it's marked "cash sale".'
'And you don't miss a trick,' she sniffed haughtily. 'The dress is for your benefit, you're taking me out to dinner and I have to think of your image, don't I, but what I wear underneath is my own business. What I mean is, the dress is for public display and I wouldn't like any of your acquaintances to think you'd married a frump, so I think you're entitled to pay for it. The other things are—well, private. I bought them because I either liked or needed them, so I pay for those myself.'
'And you're rich enough to do so,' he added.
'Ha!' Hester had got her second wind and was finding the verbal fencing quite exhilarating. 'You only went as far as "cash sale" on that ticket thing. Look at the price and you'll know I can't afford many things like that. I'll soon go through my savings.'
'Leaving you with only your nest egg which you've salted away somewhere,' and at her scowl of wrath, 'Never mind, darling. You keep it safe, you never know when you'll need it.'
'Pooh!' She bypassed him on the way to the bedroom. 'Why should I do that when I've got a wealthy husband?'
'Because you're complicated, contrary and contradictory.' Demetrios followed her and watched as she hung up the jacket of her suit.
'Wrong again,' she shook her head at him as she kicked off her shoes. 'I'm none of those things. You're suffering from an overdose of vivid imagination. Take an aspirin and lie down for half an hour, you'll soon feel better,' and with a toss of her head, she rejoined Katy to listen to a glowing account of the school buildings, the conservatory attached to the house which would be an excellent place to keep a puppy while it was still making puddles and, last but not least, the important question of what puppy—big or small, hairy or smooth.
Demetrios waited till Katy had run out of questions and Hester was mentally fatigued with answering so many before he lounged over to join them, effectively putting to an end the debate on what sort of dog would be best.
'One that's small enough to be ignored, yet too big to sleep on your bed,' he decreed, 'and also, since Hester will have to look after it while you're in school, it had better be a nice, well-behaved and gentle type. Remember, if it bit Hester, she'd probably bite back!'
Katy went into peals of laughter at the thought and went off to her bedroom to consult the oracle—her newly acquired book on dogs.
'That'll keep her quiet for a while,' Demetrios remarked as the door closed behind the child. 'Now, let's get back to our conversation and your remedy for my over-vivid imagination. Is there a nurse in your family, by any chance?'
Hester, who had been idly fitting in several pieces of Katy's jigsaw, felt a warning prickle of goosepimples down her spine. Her hand remained poised over the small table and she appeared to be contemplating the half-finished puzzle with rapt attention, but her mind wasn't on it. He couldn't know! There was no way he could have found out! She'd been very careful about everything and super-careful about what she'd said— so he must be making a chance remark.
'What a strange remark.' She tried a piece of the puzzle and when it wouldn't fit anywhere, she tossed it back in the pile. 'You know I don't have any family except Vilma, and she's not my idea of a nurse. Whatever gave you that idea?'
'You did, with your suggestion that I should take an aspirin,' he chuckled. 'You sounded as though you were quite used to coping with semi-invalids.'
'But I am.' She was on safe ground now and could smile widely. 'Remember, I've been working with girls ever since I was seventeen, anything between ten and fifteen of them, and with that number, headaches are the rule rather than the exception. If you show too much sympathy, they'll decide the pain's too great to be borne and they'll go home, leaving the place understaffed, so I learned early to temper the sympathy with a brisk, practical approach. It saved a lot of hassle.'
'Yes.' He put a finger under her chin and forced her face round so that he could look into her eyes. He wasn't brutal about it, she felt no pain, only a quiet, implacable insistence. 'But the brisk practicality's only on the surface, my dear—isn't it?'
'All the way down to the bone,' she contradicted. 'I've got few emotions and I keep them under very strict control. Hardhearted Hester, that's me, and I pride myself on it.' Her eyes glowed and there was a wry twist to her mouth. 'How else could I have done what I've done?'
'Tell me what you've done,' he invited, and she faced him squarely, thinking up several rather romantic versions of her activities, dismissed them because they sounded too highfalutin' and came out with it baldly, no punches pulled.
'I put the black on my own mother—salted away the loot where nobody will ever find it.' She thought about that for a moment and qualified it. 'No, that's not quite correct. Like I said, I donated it to a good cause and then I hopped into bed with a complete stranger—you could hardly say those were the actions of a shrinking violet, could you?' She paused thoughtfully and an impish smile lit her eyes. 'I made on that deal as well. A glorious honeymoon, sitting in an ex-monastery on a rock in the middle of the Mediterranean—I swapped my bedsit for this,' she glanced round at her lush surroundings. 'I'm going to be installed in a house in the country and used as a breeding machine and you've just bought me a very nice evening dress! How could any girl be dissatisfied with that?'
'And you've also gained a charming stepdaughter,' he pointed out, 'and you're going to be an equally charming and devoted wife.'
'Hmm,' Hester wrinkled her nose. 'I shan't cheat on you, if that's what you mean. We made a bargain and I've no intention of doing you dirt.' Once more, her eyes sparkled maliciously. 'How could I when you've given me so-o-o much!'
Fortunately, the waiter chose that moment to come in with the tea trolley, followed by a middle-aged maid who scooped up the dress and went off with it over her arm.
Hester took a last, long, considering look at herself in the full-length mirror in the bedroom and stepped back, satisfied. It was amazing what a beautiful gown did for a girl—that and a great deal of care and attention to details. She had spent a long time on her face and it had been tim
e well spent. Her eyes looked wider, darker and mysterious, her rather firm chin now looked much more delicate and her mouth was darkly but softly red. Her hair, drawn back into a loose coil in her neck, first brushed until her scalp tingled and then polished with a silk hankie, glowed like well waxed wood. She smelled of 'Arpege' perfume, but it was the dress which was going to catch the eye. Demetrios would have no need to be ashamed of her, despite her humble beginnings.
Turning back to the mirror, she admired the way the silver embroidery caught the light, making the black of the silk even more dense, and she took a trial step so that the side slit to just above her knee parted to show her long, slender leg and one high-heeled, black silk sandal. Nothing wrong there, she decided— it might have been a bit much if the dress had been décolleté, but it wasn't. It came right up to her throat, finishing in a little mandarin collar and only her arms were bare. She certainly wasn't suffering from over-exposure.
Demetrios came into the bedroom just as she was ferreting in the wardrobe for her camel coat, and the gleam of appreciation in his eyes made her blush. She covered her momentary embarrassment with a snort. 'Nobody will see this,' she threw the coat across her shoulders. 'I'll drop it off in the cloakroom as soon as we arrive. No,' as he took a pace towards her, 'I've done a lot of hard work to achieve this effect and if. you start mauling me, it'll all be spoiled,' she rattled on, words falling from her lips as she went past him to the door.
'Is Katy asleep? Has the maid come up yet? I hope you'll order something substantial for dinner, I had a very scrappy lunch in a cafeteria and I didn't feel like doing justice to those cucumber sandwiches at teatime.'
She continued chatting volubly all the way down in the lift, it was a good cover for her increased heartbeat and the breathlessness which had attacked her when Demetrios entered the bedroom. She had seen him in business clothes, in jeans and a tee-shirt, in a formal suit—he looked good in all of them, but now she was seeing him dressed to go out for the evening, which made him quite something. Had the situation between them been different, she would have gone quite starry-eyed with pride—his white shirt made his face just that little bit darker, his evening jacket fitted him as though he had been poured into it and his thin black evening trousers made his legs look as though they went on endlessly.
The Daughter of Night Page 11
