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‘Please call me Catriona,’ she said, smiling up at him, and ignoring Jason's sardonic smile.
‘I don't suppose you know how honoured you are, Clive,’ he murmured. ‘When's the big moment, by the way?'
‘Oh—shortly.’ Clive looked round in a harassed manner. ‘I don't see the need for all this fuss. We had the same nonsense in Yorkshire last week. But you know Marion—not to be outdone, of course.'
‘Of course,’ Jason agreed smoothly. ‘Come on, my sweet, we don't want to miss anything.'
Catriona felt her temper rising. ‘What's going on?’ she asked heatedly. ‘Where's Jeremy? I must see him alone for a few moments.'
‘We're going to see him now. I should put that revolting concoction Clive gave you down if I were you. There'll be champagne in the next room.'
‘I don't want any champagne,’ Catriona insisted almost wildly.
‘Oh, but you must. It's traditional, and the fun's just beginning.’ He drew her across the hall into a room packed with people. It was quite true—there was champagne, and Catriona took the glass she was offered almost mechanically.
‘That's the ticket.’ Clive appeared beside them beaming. ‘Now I must do my stuff, I suppose.’ He went off through the crowd, and just as Catriona was turning to Jason, a demand to be taken to Jeremy at once framing on her lips, a sudden hush fell.
Startled, she looked round, and then—at last—she saw Jeremy. He was standing at the end of the room with two women. One of them, Catriona was immediately convinced, was his mother. She was tall and fair-haired, wearing an expensive dress, and stood toying nervously with her rings. Although she was smiling, Catriona had the feeling that in repose Mrs Lord's face would have a rather peevish expression, and she felt slightly chilled. At the same time she was registering incredulously that the other woman—hardly more than a girl, in fact—was clinging possessively to Jeremy's arm. He was in evening dress, and he had shaved off his beard and cut his hair. He looked quite different, Catriona thought with dismay, then he turned to the pretty, rather plump blonde at his side, smiling at something she had said, and his smile made him the familiar reassuring Jeremy again.
Clive's voice rang out over the room.
‘And now, everyone—friends—if you'll raise your glasses, we'll drink a toast to Jeremy and Helen. Long life and every happiness!'
Catriona stood numbly, her fingers clenched round the slender stem of the glass as Jeremy bent and kissed the girl, who smiled and held up her left hand so that everyone could see the glittering diamond ring adorning it.
Catriona gave a little choking cry. The room dipped and blurred and she heard her glass smash to the parquet floor as she turned and fled. A startled maid stepped forward, as she gained the hall.
‘Excuse me, madam——’ she began as Catriona began blindly to wrestle with the ornate ring that served as a front door handle. Her hands were slippery with perspiration, and she felt hysteria rising within her. Then Jason's hands were gripping her shoulders, and his voice was saying calmly, ‘Come into the conservatory, darling. It's cooler there, and you won't catch a chill as you might outside.'
His grip was inexorable. It was like trying to tear free from a vice, and Catriona did not have the strength to struggle any more. She allowed him to lead her across the room they had first entered to the French windows. He lifted one of the long beige velvet curtains, and she passed through like an automaton.
Ordinarily Catriona would have delighted in the warm exotic scents and sights around her. Hanging lamps had been festooned across the glass roof, and the lights were reflected back from the banks of glossy leaves and petals and from a tiny sunken pool. Small brightly coloured fish darted among the pebbles and the lilies, and Catriona stood watching them, her mind registering with complete detachment every swift movement and ripple of the water. In spite of the more than mild atmosphere, she felt icy cold.
‘Here.’ Jason appeared, holding a glass which he thrust into her hand. ‘Drink this, and don't drop it this time. Caterers’ glasses are an expensive item, as you being a thrifty Scot should know.'
Obediently she swallowed some of the amber liquid, then choked as the powerful spirit caught her throat. It was a violent revival, but it was what she needed, and it gave her the courage to face him.
‘You knew,’ she accused, her voice almost breaking. ‘You knew!'
‘Of course I did.’ He set one foot on the low parapet of the pool, and took a brief sip from his own glass.
‘And you didn't tell me?'
‘No.'
‘How could you be so cruel?’ she whispered, her eyes and throat smarting with the tears she wouldn't allow to fall.
‘I had to be cruel—to be kind,’ he said. His dark face was angry as he stared at her. ‘I did my level best to scare you off, to get rid of you, even. I told you to go back to Scotland, but no. Nothing gainsays Miss Catriona Muir once her mind is made up, does it?'
‘Why didn't you tell me the truth?’ she asked, trying to control her trembling voice.
He looked at her steadily. ‘Because nothing on God's earth would have convinced you that it was the truth. You had Jeremy cast as the hero, and me, most definitely, as the villain of the piece. Any warning I had given you about Helen's existence you would have dismissed as having an ulterior motive, though God knows what makes you think I harbour any towards you,’ he added.
She stood silent for a moment, torn between the justice of what he had said and the misery that was threatening to engulf her.
‘Here,’ he said quietly, as if he sensed her struggle, and passed her the white handkerchief from his breast pocket. This unexpected consideration was the final straw. She sank down on to a wicker lounger and let her tears have full rein at last.
To her relief, he made no attempt to touch her, apart from taking the remains of the brandy from her. Except for the sudden flare of his lighter as he lit a cigarette, she was hardly aware of his presence.
Eventually, as her self-control returned and the tearing sobs began to subside, she sat up slowly, dreading that he would be watching her, mocking her woebegone appearance, but he was merely sitting by the side of the pool, staring down at the immaculate toe of one of his black shoes.
She forced herself to sound calm. ‘Who is she, please?'
He glanced up. ‘Helen? Oh, the original poor little rich girl. Her father's in wool—the family live near Bradford. She met Jeremy in Kitzbuhl a couple of years ago.'
‘If he's known her all that time, how could he have been the way he was with me?’ she said slowly.
He shrugged. ‘As you may have gathered, I've never had much time for Jeremy. He was damnably spoiled when he was a child. I don't think Clive ever realised how much until it was too late. Marion's a bit of a fool, and I've never thought her feelings go particularly deep, so maybe Jeremy takes after her.'
‘Just like that,’ she said unsteadily.
‘What do you want me to say?’ he countered, harshly. ‘It's all been a terrible mistake, and it's you he really loves? And all you have to do is go back in that room looking like the Queen of Elfland and he'll be yours for ever more?'
‘He did love me,’ Catriona whispered, her lips trembling. ‘He did. I know it.'
‘I daresay he did in his way for a while—if that's any consolation. But I can promise you this, even if he did love you as you believed, he still wouldn't give up Helen's money for you. And Marion wouldn't let him either.'
‘You devil,’ she said very distinctly.
He gave a slight laugh. ‘Poor Cinderella! All the way to the ball to find Prince Charming's turned into a pumpkin, and you have to go home with Bluebeard.'
Catriona stared down at the handkerchief she was still holding. It had his initials in the corner, she noticed, and she recalled that Jeremy's had been the same. Her eyes began to prick again.
‘Oh no,’ Jason Lord said decisively, and stood up. ‘I've had enough of that, Miss Muir. You've probably raised the humidity in here already and killed off Marion's prize specimens. Now we're going to do some straight talking.'
‘What is there to say?’ she said hopelessly. ‘I just can't understand why you brought me here—like this.’ She touched the shimmering length of her skirt with distaste.
‘Then you're even less perceptive than I gave you credit for,’ he said coldly. ‘That charming piece of nonsense you're wearing is a disguise. Do you think anyone here tonight gave you a second glance except as an extremely attractive young woman? If I'd just given you the address and allowed you simply to turn up in those damned jeans and that rucksack, it would have made a nine days’ wonder for all of them in there. Is that what you wanted? Everyone staring at you, and laughing—because they would have laughed, make no mistake about that, my child. Okay, so you've been humiliated, but no one knows that except the two of us. Oh—and Jeremy, I think,’ he added sarcastically as she turned startled eyes towards him. ‘I think he caught your misguided exit just now. He looked as if he'd just been poleaxed anyway. But to everyone else, you're just Jason's new girl, whether you like it or not.'
‘I must leave,’ she said.
‘Presently. We still have things to discuss.'
‘I have nothing to discuss with you, Mr Lord,’ she said quietly.
He threw down his cigarette, stubbing it out with his shoe.
‘All right,’ he said. ‘You're hurt and you're angry because I've brought you down from Cloud Seven with a jolt. But you'd have been forced down eventually, Catriona, don't you see that? You came to London of your own free will, and you saw Jeremy as you insisted on doing. Now it's time to pick up the pieces. You weren't just crying for Jeremy just now, you know. You were crying for first love and all it means. Well first love isn't everything.'
‘Oh, I believe you,’ she said with bitter sarcasm. ‘I'm sure you're an expert. It must run in the family.'
‘You little bitch,’ he said slowly. ‘But even if you were right, at least I conduct my affairs with women who know what the score is. I don't take sweets from babies. Only a child could have been taken in by someone as callow as Jeremy.'
‘I suppose I deserved that,’ she said wearily. She held out her hand. ‘Goodbye, Mr Lord. It's been salutory, if nothing else.'
He ignored the gesture. ‘How do you intend to leave here, and where do you propose to go?'
Catriona was taken aback. ‘There are taxis, I suppose. And hotels.'
‘There are,’ he agreed. ‘But only if you have money. And some of the more respectable hotels also like you to have luggage.'
Catriona was silent. It was like playing chess with an expert, she thought. Every move she tried to make was anticipated and blocked.
‘So let's look at the alternative,’ he went on calmly. ‘Go upstairs and repair your make-up and have the inevitable confrontation with Jeremy. Oh yes,’ he took her chin in his hand as she flinched involuntarily, ‘you can tell him what tale you like, as long as it's not the unvarnished truth. Don't let him have that satisfaction. And then I'll take you home, pride intact.'
It did not occur to Catriona until she was sitting in one of the elaborately furnished bedrooms, renewing her lipstick, that Jason Lord had not specified precisely where ‘home’ was.
As he had predicted, it was inevitable when she emerged from the bedroom that Jeremy was waiting outside.
‘Trina!’ His face was white, and he moistened his lips nervously. ‘I couldn't believe it. What on earth are you doing here? Who brought you?'
Afterwards Catriona was amazed at the way the lie sprang so readily to her lips.
‘Oh, I know it was mean,’ she said, smiling radiantly at him. ‘But Jason and I just thought what a joke it would be if I—turned up, like a skeleton from the past. And your face was marvellous when you saw me. I wouldn't have missed it.'
Relief was struggling with incredulity on his face. ‘You're Jason's girl?’ he queried sharply.
‘Quite correct.’ Jason himself joined them, looking faintly amused. ‘I don't think you realise just what you've let slip through your fingers this time, dear nephew.'
Jeremy laughed uneasily. ‘Oh, Trina's an angel. I—I don't blame you at all. It was just such a—surprise.'
‘Well, the world's full of surprises,’ Catriona said gaily. ‘Poor lamb, I should have let you know I was here, but Jason has hardly given me time to breathe since I got to London.'
Jason came to stand beside her, dropping his arm lightly across her shoulders. She felt the usual urge to draw away, but was forced to stand still in his embrace, trapped by her own pretence. She noticed he was carrying her stole over his arm.
‘Are you leaving already?’ Jeremy asked, his voice sharp with curiosity.
‘Why, yes.’ Before Catriona could move, or protest, Jason bent and kissed her slowly and deliberately on the mouth. ‘It's time, I think, that all good little girls were in bed,’ he went on, smiling down into her outraged eyes.
Jeremy flushed, and he looked at Catriona with unmistakable speculation.
‘So that's how it is. Fine. Be happy,’ he said, with a fair attempt at nonchalance.
‘Besides,’ there was no disguising the amusement in Jason's voice, ‘Sally would never forgive me if I kept Catriona out too late.'
Jeremy looked at him quickly. ‘Sally Fenton? Is Trina staying with her? I—see.'
‘I doubt it,’ Jason said lightly, and took Catriona's hand. ‘Come on, love, time to go. Tell your mother I'll phone her,’ he added to the nonplussed Jeremy as he led Catriona away.
In the car she turned on him furiously. ‘How dared you?'
‘How dared I do what?’ He was infuriatingly unruffled as the car moved down the drive and nosed out on to the road.
‘Paw me in that insulting way!’ she raged, and was further incensed by his laughter.
‘You flatter yourself, Miss Muir.’ He flashed her a swift glance. ‘Surely that can't have been the most strenuous embrace you've experienced. I must have a word with Jeremy.'
‘Oh, shut up,’ she said bitterly. ‘At least with Jeremy I never felt—besmirched.'
Something came and went in his face, but his voice was still amused. ‘I'm sure you would have done—in time.'
She sought for a retort that would silence him once and for all, but none was forthcoming, so she retired behind a hostile tight-lipped barrier of silence.
Jason Lord seemed totally unconcerned. He hummed snatches of tunes, commented on the road conditions and eventually with a courteous, ‘I hope you don't mind,’ switched on the radio. It was a foreign station. Catriona could not recognise the announcer's accent, but the music they were playing had an oddly soothing quality. The street lights and the white lines on the road became fused in a soft blurring of consciousness. Her head slipped sideways on to her companion's shoulder, and her breathing became soft and even.
She was floating on a cloud, weightless and carefree. Jeremy was beside her, his kisses light as Highland mist on her face. How warm she was, how safe. Then a shadow came between them, and someone was shaking the cloud, which was breaking up and dissolving. It was Jason Lord, his face satyr-like. ‘Come down off Cloud Seven, Miss Muir,’ he was saying. ‘Come down. Come down.’ And his hands were hard on her shoulders, shaking her so that she tried to cry out, only the cloud was muffling her.
Gasping for breath, she struggled out from under the Continental quilt to find Jason Lord standing over her with a cup and saucer.
‘You are a violent little thing in the mornings,’ he commented sarcastically. ‘Do you want this coffee in bed or over it?'
Catriona stared at him for one panic-stricken moment, then huddled the quilt over her bare shoulders.
‘It's all right,’ he said with studied patience. ‘It's only your dress that's missing. I assumed you wouldn't want to ruin it by sleeping in it, so I put it on a hanger in the wardrobe.'
‘You did—what?'
‘Oh, grow up,’ he snapped. ‘You surely don't think there's anything indecent in that boned effort and long waist slip you're wearing. There were women at the party last night showing twice as much.'
Catriona was crimson from head to foot. ‘Do you mind telling me what I'm doing here?’ she inquired icily.
‘With pleasure.’ He sat down on the edge of the bed, to her immediate alarm. ‘You're here as a very temporary lodger, and as soon as I can get Sally Fenton on the telephone and talk her into taking you on, you're leaving.'
Catriona quivered. ‘I don't know that I care to be passed on like an unwanted package,’ she began.
‘And I don't know that you have any choice,’ he interrupted. ‘I happen to know Sally is looking for another girl to share with, and it could be a way out of the woods for us both. I'm not happy at the idea of you drifting out into the city jungle with no one to keep an eye on you.'
‘I'm not a child,’ Catriona said defiantly.
‘Oh, no. Your actions have been characterised by your maturity since you got off the train,’ he retorted.
‘But I don't know this Sally,’ she protested.
‘You know her as well as most girls who share flats these days. Often they just answer each other's ads. In your case, it's me doing the arranging instead of a newspaper. And I'm sure you'll like Sally.'
‘Well, that makes everything all right, doesn't it?’ she said, trying to emulate his sarcasm.
‘Only you can do that,’ he told her. ‘You say you have nowhere to return to in Scotland. You may as well live up to the story you told nephew Jeremy and try enjoying yourself in London for a change. Sally'll help you find a job of some kind. She's an actress, so she's used to finding herself temporary work between engagements.'
