Sara Seale Read online

  "Yes, thank you," she answered, her gaze travelling over Anna's slender limbs and the small, embarrassed face raised to hers. "Who has set their heart on me?"

  "Gran, of course," said Ruth with clumsy honesty. "But Anna understands."

  "Does she indeed? I should think Anna understands very little."

  "More than you imagine, perhaps," Anna said gravely, and Alix showed her strong white teeth in a derisive smile.

  "Really?" she said. "Ruth, my dear, you could do with a new bathing dress. Your proportions have altered a trifle since we swam here, all three of us, six years ago."

  It was cruelly said, thought Anna, and knew a flash of angry impatience when Ruth replied humbly:

  "I know. I'll try to find something else in Merrynporth tomorrow."

  "Ruth looks very well as she is, I think," Anna said, and was not surprised when Ruth flung her a look of annoyance and snapped:

  "Alix is quite right. I'm probably hardly decent in this old thing."

  Anna sighed but made no reply. It was useless, she had discovered, to defend Ruth against Alix. The girl seemed to enjoy those little jibes, or, if she did not enjoy them, she accepted them as part of the role which had always been allotted to her. Anna put on her sandals.

  "It must be nearly tea-time," she said, and got to her feet.

  "Come back to the cottage," Alix said idly, and Ruth scrambled up at once.

  Anna did not want to go to the cottage for tea, but it seemed too pointed to make excuses and leave Ruth alone with Alix. They climbed the cliff path leisurely, the sun hot on their backs. Alix was barefoot as usual, stepping firmly and surely on shale and flint which, even through her sandals, brought discomfort to Anna. Alix had beautiful feet, thought Anna, following on behind; arched and narrow with compact, unblemished toes.

  The cowman's cottage was built on a corner of the wasteland this side of the ha-ha. Anna had not been invited there before and she opened her eyes at the careless elegance which filled the small rooms. Persian rugs covered the floors, and the furniture, though sparse, showed the patina of age and fine craftsmanship.

  Alix observed her surprise with amusement

  "The cowman's cottage is a bit of a misnomer, isn't it?" she said. "Gran let me choose what I wanted from Trevallion. Nice, don't you think?"

  Anna remembered Rick that first evening, smashing his fist down on the dining room table and demanding by what right his grandmother had leased the cottage in his absence. She had not only leased it but furnished it with loving care, installing

  Alix in her own right on Peveril territory.

  "Tea?" said Alix, and made no demur when Ruth went to the kitchen to make it.

  "Ruth's always been so useful," she said, flinging herself into a chair. "I loathe kitchen chores. Well, Anna, are you mentally restoring all these things to Trevallion once you're married?"

  "I wouldn't," said Anna gravely, "know where everything belongs."

  Alix smiled, her eyes suddenly narrowed and lazy like a cat's.

  "No, you wouldn't, would you? I hope you don't grudge me a few of your future possessions for a little while."

  "Why should I? Mrs. Peveril is naturally free to make what arrangements she chooses in her own house."

  "But it isn't her house, it's Rick's. And Rick wasn't very pleased."

  There seemed to be no answer to this. If Rick had not been pleased, at least he had not told Alix to go.

  "What will you do—later on?" she asked.

  "When you and Rick are married, you mean? Would you have any objection to my staying on here?"

  Anna looked at her levelly.

  "Yes, I think I would," she said deliberately. "I know Rick once wanted to marry you. It would seem rather odd for you to go on living on our doorstep, don't you think?"

  For the first time since they had met, Alix looked a little ruffled, and she glanced at Anna with an attention she had not afforded her before.

  "That's old history," she said. "I've been married myself since then, and when I was so soon widowed—well, it was natural to return to Trevallion."

  "Was it? But Mrs. Peveril, I think, asked you to come back."

  "And what if she did?" For the first time Anna experienced the Peveril temper which she had guessed lay only dormant

  under Alix's indolent exterior. The cold grey eyes were suddenly brilliant, like Rick's when he was roused, and her voice held the same familiar lash. "Do you imagine Gran accepts you? Do you imagine that Rick, whatever his reason for proposing, is likely to put you in my place? I don't think, my dear Miss Anna Crewe, you'd ever marry into this family, do you?"

  Anna sprang to her feet. For the moment she had forgotten that her engagement to Rick was only a facade. She was conscious simply that here was an enemy, Rick's and, therefore, hers, to be routed and rendered harmless. Harmless? You might as wed hope to deprive a snake of its fangs as render one of these Peverils harmless.

  "You have no right to talk to me like this," she said. "You chose to marry someone else out of pique, from what I've understood. You can't expect to go back to the beginning again just as if nothing had happened."

  "Well!" said Alix, her temper suddenly receding into a mocking drawl. "You evidendy can deal in a little plain speaking yourself, for all your missish ways. But don't think you can set yourself up against me, my dear. I have a few advantages that you haven't"

  "Such as?"

  "Such as a blood tie with the Peverils which makes me understand such men as Rick, to say nothing of the ties of another relationship which isn't easily forgotten. Don't look so upset, Anna, I'm only warning you."

  "Then perhaps I had better warn you," Anna replied with lifted chin. "Why you came back to Trevallion is none of my business so long as you preserve the decencies, but I will not fight for what is, after all, my right. I will not become a bone of contention between any of the Peverils."

  Alix laughed.

  "You've got more spirit than I gave you credit for," she said, as Ruth came into the room, carrying a large kitchen tray indiscriminately laden with odd cups and saucers.

  "Can't find anything that matches," she said, putting the

  tray town with a clatter. "Didn't Gran lend you any of the decent china?"

  "It's put away," said Alix shrewishly. "If anything got broken, Anna might chalk it up to my account later on."

  Ruth looked from one to the other of them, aware of familiar storm signals in Alix and the pinched anger in Anna's face.

  "Have you been having a set-to?" she enquired curiously.

  Alix shrugged, and Anna said in subdued tones:

  "I won't stay for tea, after all, if you don't mind."

  She felt it was a confession of weakness when she saw the smile on Alix's face, but she could not endure to stay in the cottage a moment longer. Neither girl made any effort to keep her, and, indeed, Ruth looked frankly relieved at being left with a clear field.

  "You might let Ranger out for a run when you get home," she said carelessly. "And don't let him get in the piggeries or Birdie will throw a fit."

  "Very well," said Anna, and walked out into the sunshine and took the path which wound back to Trevallion.

  She hated them all; Alix for her open contempt, Ruth and Mrs. Peveril for their guarded withdrawal, and, above all, Rick for having placed her in a position from which there was no retreat. Of Toby Mason and that foolish little romance she hardly thought at all. He, like Miss Pringle and the office, was somehow of the past; the present and the future, too, were bounded by the dark Peverils.

  "It's ridiculous!" she told herself aloud. "I could leave tomorrow if I wanted to."

  But she knew she could not leave. She was becoming part of Trevallion and she could not give Alix such an easy victory, nor plead with Rick to release her from her bargain.

  She let the spaniel out of the den, where he had spent the afternoon, and, in a sudden craving for affection from some living creature, she stooped to gather the dog into her arms. But he wanted no
ne of her, wildly excited at his freedom, and instantly made off in the direction of the forbidden piggeries.

  CHAPTER V

  It was not, perhaps, so easy to forget Alix and her claims on the past. When the first indignation had passed after that uncomfortable interchange in the cottage, Anna had felt more sympathetic towards Alix. Was she not, after all, standing out for something which had once been hers? Would she not instinctively know that, set against her own careless beauty, Anna's meagre charms must be of small account?

  Alix herself appeared to have forgotten the whole incident. She treated Anna to her customary lazy indifference and Anna sometimes wondered if she had read more into the little scene than had been intended. But if Rick had, at his grandmother's cynical suggestion, told the girl to go, the results of his ultimatum were not apparent. Alix stayed on at the cowman's cottage, walking into Trevallion when she chose, quarrelling with Rick if need be, but sure of her welcome from Ruth and old Mrs. Peveril.

  "Will she move in when I move out?" Anna once enquired of Rick.

  "Are you thinking of moving out?" he asked, filling a pipe.

  "That was the arrangement, wasn't it?" she said. "We would terminate our engagement when it was mutually convenient."

  "But it's not convenient to me that you should move out, as you put it, for some time, yet," he replied. "Does Alix make you feel uncomfortable?"

  "In a way. I think she knows very well that our engagement is a bit bogus."

  "Very likely, but that's your fault, my dear. You show little enthusiasm for my company and still look surprised when I kiss you."

  Anna flushed.

  "I'm not used to you," she said. "But why should that

  make any difference? Alix is what you want, isn't she? Why go on with this silly game just to spite your grandmother?"

  His heavy eyebrows rose and she felt, quite irrationally, that she had been impertinent.

  "So you think I want to spite Gran, do you?" he said. "When you've stayed with us a little longer, perhaps you'll see things differently."

  "I don't know that I want to stay," Anna said crossly. "And mutual convenience cuts two ways, you know. You don't ask if it's convenient for me to stay on here indefinitely."

  "You should have thought of that before you burnt your boats so thoroughly," he said unkindly. "The summer was my stipulation and, at the time, you were only too glad to agree."

  "I hadn't bargained for Alix," she replied stubbornly.

  "Neither had I, but the best-laid plans can go adrift. I'm afraid I will have to insist that you see the summer through with us, Anna."

  She sighed. She did not really want to go. Looking for a job, finding another shabby room, would seem all the harder after these few weeks' respite, and she could put up with the Peverils' scant opinion of her because, ultimately, their opinions would not matter.

  "Very well," she said, and caught the faint mockery in his face as he sat blowing tobacco smoke into the air to disperse the cloud of midges which had gathered under the branches of the tree.

  "Rick," she said hesitandy, "what's going to be the end of it all?"

  "Do you really care?"

  "Yes, I think I do. There's something wrong at Trevallion. Families squabble, I know, but you and Ruth and Alix—well, sometimes you sound as if you really disliked one another."

  "I daresay. The Peverils have high tempers and quick passions."

  "You say that as if it was a kind of proud hallmark." "Perhaps it is—though not, as you seem to think, an envi-

  able one. You probably have no conception what a restful quality you've introduced to Trevallion."

  "I?" She looked quite startled. "Your family think I'm a fool."

  He regarded her steadily and she was conscious of a sudden change in him. The lines in his dark face were hard and deeply etched, but his eyes had lost their coldness and there was a hint of tenderness about his mouth.

  "Do you think so?" he said. "No, Anna, you have a coolness which I find very pleasant, an integrity which must be inherent because you are too young to have learnt to dissemble."

  It was a curious speech. For a moment, as his gaze held hers, she felt a warmth for him spring up in her, a desire to know and like him, to understand what went on beneath the hard Peveril surface.

  "Rick-" she began, but he interrupted at once to ask

  where Ruth was.

  "She's gone out with Mr. Evans on his rounds," Anna said. "She's very good with animals, you know. He says she helps a lot in the more difficult cases."

  Rick frowned and at once the tenderness for her was gone.

  "It's becoming a habit, acting unpaid assistant to young Evans," he said. "Next thing we know, she'll fancy herself as a lady vet."

  Anna smiled. It was true Ruth seemed to have a genuine gift for ailing animals, but she privately thought that David Evans presented a greater attraction than his four-legged patients.

  "What would be the harm if she did?" she retorted. "You could well afford to pay for her training, and there's nothing much to occupy her here."

  "As long as Gran's alive, Ruth has an occupation," he replied brusquely. "I shall have to speak to Evans."

  "I wouldn't," said Anna softly, and he shot her a deep piercing look, but said no more.

  Ruth came back soon afterwards, bringing David Evans

  with her. She stood awkwardly in the shadow of the cedar tree, and said rather gruffly:

  "I've brought David back for a drink. Shall we stay out here?"

  Anna watched the two men curiously. Had Rick no idea, she wondered, that his sister was attracted by the young man, or had they all taken her for granted for so long that such a thing would never occur to him? But Mrs. Peveril had a suspicion, Anna thought, when, later, they all sat on the terrace with their drinks. Those excuses Ruth had made about Ranger's health, the local visits she paid in David's shabby little car would scarcely be lost on her grandmother. Old Mrs. Peveril was abrupt in her manner, putting the young man in his place, but David Evans, though shy, was not ill at ease. Anna liked his soft voice with its faint sing-song intonation, and the fine, sensitive hands which seemed to match his gentle manner. He and Rick talked pleasantly until he took his leave, when Ruth rose awkwardly to accompany him round the house to his car.

  "Is the silly girl throwing herself at this one, too?" Mrs. Peveril observed, and Rick raised his eyebrows.

  "He seems a pleasant enough young chap from the little I've seen of him," he remarked casually.

  "Welsh!" said Mrs. Peveril significantly.

  "Well, Gran, the Welshman and the Cornishman are akin. They're both Celts."

  "You know quite well what I mean, Rick. Going round the district on his cases with him. Old Trevawn would have known better than to suggest such a thing."

  "I've no doubt Ruth suggested it," said Rick dryly. "And old Trevawn was quite different. He was hardly ever sober, and knew his place."

  "Exactly!"

  Ruth came back to the terrace alone. Her defensive expression said plainly that she knew they had been discussing her, and she coloured up immediately when her grandmother observed acidly:

  "I suppose you realize you're most likely getting yourself talked about, my dear."

  "Because I sometimes go with David on his rounds?"

  "Naturally. The local vet has never been on visiting terms at Trevallion, except in his course of duty."

  "Obviously, when it was someone like Trevawn."

  "Mr. Trevawn at least knew his place," said Mrs. Peveril for the second time, and Anna saw the girl's eyes fill with unaccustomed tears.

  "David is quite different," she said, and added defiantly: "In any case this is Rick's house. It's for him to say whether he'll receive a guest or not."

  Anna glanced apprehensively at Rick. This was just the sort of remark to touch off the Peveril temper. But Rick had been regarding his sister with an attention he seldom afforded her and he answered quite mildly:

  "As far as I'm concerned I've n
o objection to your vet friend, but, naturally, Gran's entitied to her own opinion."

  Mrs. Peveril's nose looked alarmingly beaky as she tossed up her head, but Ruth was spared a withering example of her grandmother's opinion by Alix's reappearance among them. The old lady's displeasure turned to satisfaction at sight of her and she held out a hand.

  "Alix, my dear, I thought you'd gone back to the cottage. Have you called in for a sundowner?" she said.

  "That would be very nice," Alix said, smiling at Rick. "I went back to change. It's been hotter than ever today."

  She wore a strapless sun-suit, backless and cut very low. Her firm, deeply tanned flesh seemed like a challenge and Anna was aware of Rick's eyes on the full swelling lines of her barely concealed breast. Her eyes held his for a moment.

  "I think there's going to be a storm," she said. "What about a swim before dinner, Rick?"

  "Not for me," he replied, mixing her a drink. "I've some business over the pigs to attend to with Birdie, if you'd excuse me."

  He walked away across the lawn in the direction of the

  piggeries, and Ruth ran after him. His limp was scarcely noticeable now and he seldom used a stick. It was so unusual for Ruth to deprive herself of a chance meeting with the much-loved cousin that Alix raised her eyebrows.

  "Have I interrupted a family conclave?" she observed lightly. "I detect a certain amount of electricity in the air, or is there just thunder about?"

  "Ruth's making a fool of herself again, and Rick, for reasons best known to himself, appears to be backing her up," said old Mrs. Peveril. "Have you been talking to him, Anna?"

  "No," said Anna gravely, "but I can't, myself, see any objection to David Evans. He has pleasant manners."

  "Which is more than can be said for my granddaughter, telling me to my face the house is Rick's and not mine."

  Alix laughed.

  "Well, it is, darling, although we've all of us bowed to your rule," she said on a teasing note. "Didn't you know Ruth was running after the new vet?"

  "That's not very fair," Anna protested. "He says himself she's a great help to him in some of his cases."

  "I'm sure he would say so," drawled Alix. "I don't suppose there are any flies on young Mr. Evans. Ruth may not have much in the way of youth and beauty, but she's still Miss Peveril of Trevallion."