Sister of the Bride (14 page)

‘That will do,
’
I said quietly. How like him mischievously to make things more difficult for me in this awkward moment when Averil had just walked in and I was regretting my folly in thinking that I would be able to make a happy party for Rodney and control a group of unruly little boys.

‘On the other hand,’ Vance went on, ignoring me, ‘I have never found Esther to be a snob.’

Impatien
tl
y Averil wandered about the small room. ‘If you’re implying that I’m a snob, you’re darned well right,’ she said
impatiently
. ‘I’m choosy about my company, just as I’m particular about my clothes or my food. Just any old thing doesn’t do little Averil. And by the way, by any chance are those Chinese lanterns I see strung up amongst the trees? Just how long did you expect this party to last, Esther? Or did you invite these young hooligans to stay the weekend?’

‘If you hadn’t turned up to act the spoilsport, we should have been able to admire them in all their glory, including that horrid, common Phillips boy you so much object to.’ There was an edge to Vance’s voice that I had never heard before. Usually, even his most stringent remarks were delivered with a lazy indolence and good nature that took away much of the sting.

Averil regarded him sharply. Apparently she had just become aware of the change in his mood, although I had been acutely conscious of it. ‘For goodness’ sake, Vance, don’t tell me that you intended to be present at Rodney’s birthday party?’ she demanded.

‘Well, yes, now that you ask,’ he replied. ‘Actually I’m sorry I didn’t turn up earlier. My presence might have acted as a squelcher on those rowdy children and saved Esther from the sharp edge of your tongue. But don’t look so surprised,’ he went on as Averil’s eyes widened.
‘
I admit that the company of a group of grubby little boys wasn’t the only attraction. There was a much more interesting lure.’ As he spoke he turned and looked fully at me and I felt myself flush
indignantly.

So he was angry with Averil and was using me as a stick to beat her with. He was deliberately hinting at an intimacy between us that didn’t exist, using me as a tool to punish Averil for flaunting her shipboard romances. It was a bitter blow and made me feel small in my self-esteem, and suddenly I realized that Averil s unexpected return would probably mean the end of the slight acquaintance that had been building up between me and Vance. Bitterly I was aware that Averil was not the only one who was feeling the pangs of jealousy where he was concerned.

Impulsively I burst out, ‘How is it that you’re back so soon? Your boat’s not due for another week.’

‘I flew home,’ Averil said shortly. ‘And just as well, considering what’s been going on behind my back. However, we’ll go into that later. As she spo
k
e her eyes passed between me and Vance.

‘Now just what do you mean by that remark? Vance asked softly. He wandered towards the table on which were strewn trifles, jellies and a solitary piece of cake with the letters ‘Hap’ on top, all that remained of Mrs. McAlister’s inscription, ‘Happy Birthday, Rodney.’

‘I—’ Av
er
il began, then stopped. ‘I mean considering what’s been going on here. I mean, Esther inviting
in the riff-raff and letting them break up my
beautiful home.’

Vance took up a cake knife and cut off a sliver of cake. He popped it into his mouth. ‘It tastes exac
tl
y like the cake I had for my eighth birthday party. In fact, it’s depressingly similar: even the icing is the same colour, pink and inscribed, “Happy Birthday.” But come to think of it, the lettering was in chocolate instead of pink icing, if I remember correctly.’

Averil laughed shortly. ‘You have an amazingly long memory, Vance. Somehow you never struck me as the sort of man who would have sentimental memories of boyhood birthdays
.’

Vance considered a piece of icing closely before popping it into his mouth. ‘But then you don’t really know very much about me, do you, Averil?’

For a long moment she looked at him and I had the feeling that she was disconcerted and unsure of herself. Then, recovering quickly, she gave the slow seductive smile that I knew she always considered irresistible. ‘Let’s say, Vance darling, that I know all that’s really necessary,’ she murmured huskily.

They exchanged a lingering glance and I was surprised to see how his expression changed and darkened as he gazed into her beautiful face. Her recent
anger
had only heightened her loveliness, touching her cheekbones with faint carmine and making her eyes a vivid and sparkling blue.

‘I think it’s time I was pushing along,’ Vance said at last.

‘Oh, must you?’ Averil sounded disappointed. ‘I’ve lots and lots of things to talk about. You’ve no idea what a fabulous time I’ve had.’

‘Then why did you return so soon?’ he asked. Averil’s
li
ps tightened and she shot an ominous glance in my direction. ‘Oh, we’ll go into that later. Let’s say I’d very good reasons for cutting my holiday short.’

But I could see that whatever her reasons for returning so precipitously she had no intention of revealing them until Vance had gone. She had made it clear by her angry glance that in same way I was implicated in her change of plans, and I wondered uneasily how I could possibly be involved.

She changed the subject by adding brightly, ‘Anyway, I’ll be in time now for the pageant. I’m just dying to wear that dreamy Lacroix gown.’ She glanced briefly in the mirror above the sideboard as though visualizing her radiant looks in the shimmering early nineteenth-century gown.

‘I’m afraid you’re not included, Averil, in the plans now.’

‘What?’ Her face paled with shock and she turned slowly to face Vance. ‘What on earth do you mean by saying I’m not included in the plans now?’

‘Exactly what I say. When you left on this cruise you knew perfectly well it would mean chucking it all up, didn’t you?’

‘But I’m back now. What difference does it make?’ she insisted.

‘The simple difference is that I’ve found someone else to take your place. Did you expect my mother to scrap the idea and sit twiddling her thumbs because you backed out? There’s too much involved. She has been planning this show in aid of the new Centre for ages—and for that matter, so have I.’

‘But of course I know she has. And I was to model the Josephine gown!’ Averil retorted shrilly.

‘But as I told you, there has been a change of plans. Someone else is taking your place.’

There was a short appalled silence and I could see that the full significance of his words was only now penetrating.

‘Not by any chance that lumpy Sybil Wilson with the pudding face and those ghastly specs?’ she said ironically. ‘She’s so mad about you she doesn’t care what sort of fool she makes of herself. Always on tap is little Sybil, tripping over herself to be of service and seizing every chance she gets of walking those basset-hounds of hers in the grounds, just so she can hang around Ashmore and get palpitations whenever you as much as glance in her direction. I can just see her trying to squeeze into my gown. Why, the idea is ludicrous!’

‘Sybil has too much commonsense to see herself in that role, but she is helping out and making herself generally useful.’ Vance seemed faint
l
y amused at Averil’s vehemence, but the lightness of his tone added fuel to her anger.

‘Then who is it
?
And do stop standing there smirking at me, Vance, or—or—I’ll fling something at you!’ She glanced around wildly as though bent on selecting an object with which to carry out her threat.

‘Don’t you think there’s been enough destruction for one evening?’ Vance said coolly. ‘Anyway, I shouldn’t advise you to do anything so foolish! Being no gen
tl
eman, I might fire it right back at you.’

‘You mean, then, you’re not going to tell me,’ she said sulkily. ‘But I’ll find out sooner or later, you may be sure.’

‘But I’ve every intention of telling you,’ he replied with maddening deliberation, ‘if you’ll stop
jumping
to conclusions.’

‘Then just whom have you chosen to take my place, may I ask?’

‘Esther,’ he replied fla
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y.

‘Esther!’ Her face flamed with sudden colour.
‘
But you can’t mean that!’ she shouted shrilly.

‘And why not?’

‘Because—because—Oh, she’s ju
s
t not the type. Can you really see her as Josephine? Why, the idea is perfec
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y ridiculous. But don’t think I don’t see through you, Vance. You’ve done this just to get even with me. You’re jealous of the men I met when I was away from you and this is your mean, rotten way of
getting your own back!’

‘My dear girl, astounding as it may appear to you,
I selected Esther because it occurred to me that she has the perfect figure for Empire gowns: for one thing, she is unusually small-boned and slim and
—’

‘And I am not, I suppose,’ she snapped.

The
hint
of a smile touched his lips. ‘Let
’
s say you’ve been over-indulging in shipboard cuisine.
’

She swung around and regarded her figure carefully in the mirror. It was true, I decided, that Averil had put on a little weight, but somehow it had simply added to her attractiveness, making even more definite the narrowness of her waist and the smooth undulating
lines of her hips.

‘Liar,’ she pronounced finally. ‘It’s as I said, you re green with jealousy. Why, Lacroix designed that gown specially for me! I shall go and see your mother tomorrow and fix things up.’

Vance wandered towards the door. ‘Don’t waste your time, Averil,’ he said quietly.
‘
I
’
ve already
arranged matters.’

So I had been right, I was thinking. Mrs. Ashmore s opinion didn’t count for much when Vance had made up his mind
.

Averil bent down and picked up one of the skates which had caused so much havoc in the small room. I caught the glitter of tears as she carefully placed it on a shelf with an air of sad resignation. I knew her well enough to know it was a carefully designed piece of play-acting and that secretly she was filled with a fierce determination to get her own way.

Vance, apparently unmoved by the display, stood in the doorway for a moment before departing and said pointedly, ‘Remember, Esther, you promised to do this. You’re not on any account to let yourself be talked out of it.’

I nodded, wishing he hadn’t brought up the wretched subject again. Apart from that, Av
er
il
’
s contemptuous suggestion that Vance had selected me as a means of paying her out sounded only too feasible and I heartily wished I could get out of the whole miserable business, yet a hard, stubborn core of pride kept me from refusing on the spot. Vance would assume that I had weakly capitulated to placate Averil and I also realized that if I were to back out it would be an admission of failure. After all, it was in the hope of escaping this dreary lack of self-confidence that I had made this short break with the life at Wentworth & Judd’s. To model the Josephine gown for that terrible Monsieur Lacroix would be for me a milestone, a symbol that I was putting the dismal, monotonous past behind me, and taking my first adventurous steps in a new way of life.

When Vance had gone Averil turned to me with slow deliberation. ‘So Eric was right! Only I didn’t dream just how far things had gone!’

‘What on earth do you mean, Averil?’

Her hands trembling with rage, she rummaged in her handbag and waved a scrap of paper in front of my eyes. ‘Read that,’ she grated, ‘and then don’t be surprised I came back so quickly!
’

Dazedly I took the paper and read the short laconic message. ‘Esther and Vance having wonderful time. Don’t hurry back. Eric.’

‘But what on earth does it mean?’ Then I felt my heart sink as I remembered the flash of Eric s binoculars on the day I had rescued Rodney and his kitten from the pear-tree. So he had seen me fall into Vance’s arms and had drawn his own conclusions and out of a malicious pleasure in causing trouble had exaggerated the whole stupid incident.

‘Well?’ she demanded, snatching the cable back. ‘Don’t stand there doing the bewildered act. You
’
ve the nerve to ask me what does it mean! You didn
’
t waste much time, did you, as soon as my back was turned.’

‘Oh, don’t be ridiculous, Averil,’ I said wearily. ‘You must know how malicious Eric is by now. He
’
d seize any opportunity to make trouble.’

‘Perhaps,’ she snapped, ‘but the fact that Vance wants you to model the Josephine gown at the cha
ri
ty affair proves that there’s more in it than simple mischief-making on Eric’s part.’ Angrily she stuffed the slip of paper back into her purse. ‘I might have expected something like this. It’s natural you should be keen to acquire a husband, I suppose. But aren’t you rather, hitching your wagon to a star when it comes to Vance?’ Her eyes travelled over me consideringly. ‘I’m not saying this to be unkind, Esther, but surely you must realize that someone from that office of yours would be much more your style. I mean, do you really see yourself as standing a chance with a man like Vance, or running a home like Ashmore?’ She laughed shortly.

‘Look, Averil,’ I said patiently, ‘strange as it may seem to you, I haven’t the slightest desire to acquire Vance. I haven’t the remotest interest in him. In fact, if anything, I dislike him intensely.’

‘I’ve heard that one before,’ Averil scoffed. ‘It’s the way girls talk when they’re falling head-over-heels in love with a man.’

‘But I’m not,’ I insisted, although feeling an uncomfortable twinge at her words. Was I really sincere in insisting that I had no interest in Vance Ashmore?

‘Anyway,’ Averil pursued, ‘this whole business can very easily be settled. Tell Vance that you don’t feel up to taking it on. He’ll believe you. I mean, it won’t be easy for someone like you to face crowds and cameras and general excitement. I mean, after all, you were only going to be a stand-in anyway.’

‘This is going to be the classic example of the stand-in getting the star’s part,’ I replied calmly.

Averil’s eyes opened wide. ‘What on earth do you mean?’

‘That I’ve no intention of telling Vance something that is completely untrue. I’m going to model the Josephine dress whether you like it or not. Lacroix is a marvellous designer: never in my wildest dreams did I ever think I’d wear one of his creations. It will be something wonderful in my life; something to remember all my life, even if,’ I ended dryly, ‘I end up marrying someone from the office, as you so depressingly put it. No, Averil, you’ll not deprive me of this: I’m just not stepping down this time. All my life I’ve given you the limelight, retiring discreetly into the background if there was even the smallest chance that I might deflect notice from you. Well, this time things are going to be different. For once the limelight is going to be firmly fixed on me and nothing you can do or say will make me change my mind.
’

I saw her mouth fall open a little at the shock of my words. 'What on earth has come over you, Esther?’ she asked with a hint of unease. ‘It’s not at all like you to talk in that wild way.’

‘It’s simply that the old days are over. When we were at home it was always you who got first place because you were younger and better-looking than I was.’

‘You mean you’re jealous of me,’ Averil said contemptuously. ‘Don’t try to disguise it under all these vapourings about it being a wonderful occasion in your life. Why, you’re not even right for it. How do you think you’ll look with your features and colouring in one of those early nineteenth-century gowns: you simply won’t be able to do it justice, only you’re too pigheaded to see it for yourself.’

‘Perhaps, but you forget Josephine was plain too,
’
I said quietly. ‘I should prove quite suitable on that score at any rate.’

‘So you refuse to give up the idea, is that it?’ Averil blazed. ‘I thought, goodness knows, I’d made myself clear enough, but evidently you
’
re too thick
-
skinned to take a hint. Very well then, I’ll try to make it perfec
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y plain. I want you to leave Cherry Cottage. Now that I’m back there’s no need for you to stay on any longer and Mother will need you anyway.’

Shock at her words made me murmur mechanically, ‘But Aunt Mavis has come to
l
ive with Mother. Our cousin George has gone abroad to take up some sort of job.’

‘Apart from the fact that I don’t care two hoots what Cousin George had decided to do may I point out that Aunt Mavis is for ever bewailing the fact that he has never held down a job for more than a few months at a time. I guarantee he’ll be back on her doorstep in a few weeks, and of course she’ll drop Mother like a hot potato when her beloved George is in question.’

What Averil said was true, I realized, and it must have been only wishful thinking that had made me think that there could be anything permanent in Mother’s new arrangement.

‘Anyway, that’s all beside the point,’ she continued irritably. ‘You intended to return to work as soon as I came home again, didn’t you? Well, I’m not preventing you. In fact, as far as I’m concerned, the sooner you go the better.’

I took a tray and began to clear off the remnants of the party in an effort to conceal the agitation I felt. Why did I feel such a devastating reaction at the news? I wondered. After all, it had been accepted that as soon as she returned from the cruise I should take up my old life again, but now that it had come to the point where I must leave I found that the knowledge had shaken me badly.

‘When do you want me to go?’ I asked, try
ing
to keep the revealing tremble out of my voice as I turned and walked towards the kitchen with a tray laden with the debris of the party.

‘How about tomorrow?’ Averil replied coolly. ‘There’s a train in the morning: you should be able to catch it quite easily. I’ll go up to Ashmore House fairly early and when I come back I’ll expect you to be gone. It’s really the most sensible scheme and will save us both embarrassment: don’t you agree?’

Stunned, I laid down the tray and turned to her. ‘But you can’t really mean you want me to leave tomorrow.’

‘I mean every word I say: I don’t want you here any more, Esther, so let’s face it.’

There was the sound of a furtive movement at the top of the stairs and a little half-stifled gasp of dismay.

‘Is that you, Rodney?’ Averil called sharply. ‘What are you doing, sneaking about up there? You have no right to be listening in to what doesn’t concern you.’

Rodney’s pale face appeared around the bend in the stairs. ‘What do you mean about Aunt Esther being gone when you get back from the Ashmores?
’
he asked apprehensively. ‘Do you mean she’s going to leave us?’

‘I mean Aunt Esther and I have talked things over and have decided it would be best if she went home. You didn’t expect she’d stay on for ever, now did you, dear?’ she asked with an air of reasonableness.

Rodney didn’t answer, evidently aware that it would be useless for him to argue with his mother, and I heard the sound of his footsteps retreating on the creaking old boards as he returned to his room.

Averil yawned elaborately. ‘By the way, Esther, for the night you can take the room next to Rodney
’
s. I feel frightfully tired, so the sooner you get your things
moved out the better.’

It was her way of letting me know that the subject was now closed. Tomorrow I would leave Cherry Cottage, and that was that: there could be no appeal, even if my pride would have allowed me to make one.

I cleared the table and stacked the dishes for Mrs. McAlister to wash in the morning; I swept up the broken glass and china and as much as was possible restored the room to order, but all traces of the debacle could not be hidden. At any rate, I thought a lit
tl
e wryly, Mrs. McAlister would derive a certain satisfaction in discovering that her prognostications had proved correct.

Afterwards it didn’t take me long to collect my few possessions from Averil’s room and take over the bedroom with the dormer window that overlooked the front garden. In its own minute way this room was even prettier than Averil’s with its steeply sloping roof and dainty muslin curtains and time-worn oak furniture. However, this would be my last night at Cherry Cottage and I found it impossible to take any pleasure in my new domain.

Later, when Averil had retired to her room and silence had fallen on the cottage, I lay awake. At the open dormer window the muslin curtains billowed: in the silver light of the crescent moon they looked like iridescent butterflies’ wings and I caught the scent of the sweet-smelling borders of velvety wallflowers that lined each side of the patch. Why did I feel so stricken at the knowledge that tomorrow I would be leaving Warefield? Surely it wasn’t simply the idea of returning to the office: from the beginning I had known that sooner or later I would have to go back to some sort of work—even if it were not to return to Wentworth & Judd’s. Nor was it even disappointment at the thought that now I would not be able to take part in Mrs. Ashmore’s charity show.

I lay in bed and watched the clouds pass over the moon and suddenly I realized it was because—whether
I liked it or not—I had fallen in love with Vance. It accounted for the painful stricken feeling I had had at my heart when I realized we would not meet again. But should I not be glad that that mocking glance would never again rake me with silent ridicule? For an instant the brilliant silver moonlight blurred as tears welled into my eyes and slid on to the pillow.

It was then I heard the sound of the wicket gate creak open and I felt a stupid wild elation at the notion that Vance might have returned. It as quickly subsided as I realized how improbable the idea was. Even if by some magic he could have become aware of my peremptory dismissal, did I imagine he was going to ride up to rescue me like a knight of old? No, the only reason why Vance might return at this hour would be for a clandestine meeting with Averil. I felt a sudden revulsion as I remembered the photograph. Were these the sort of stolen meetings they had indulged in while Clive was alive, before Vance had, so conveniently, dispatched him to the Middle East and his death? How could I possibly love such a man? I asked myself, knowing, at the same time, that it was impossible for me not to love him, for it was as though a tide too strong to be conquered was sweeping me into a maelstrom of strange sweet emotions that I both loved and dreaded.

I crept quickly out of bed and crossed to the window. But it was not Vance’s tall form I caught sight of. Instead, I saw the figure of a small boy close the gate carefully and dart furtively along the lane in the direction of the village. There could be no mistaking Rodney’s podgy outlines and for a moment I stared in stupefaction at the spot where he had disappeared. Then, snatching up a dressing-gown and pushing my
feet into slippers, I hurried from the room. I had been too wrapped up in my own woes to hear the tell-tale groaning of the boards as Rodney slunk from his room and now I took care as I tiptoed past Averil’s bedroom; I dreaded any more histrionics from that quarter.

As soon as I was clear of the house I darted down the path and wrenched open the gate, but already Rodney was out of sight around the bend in the lane. What on earth was he doing, wandering about the countryside at this hour of the night? I wondered, as I broke into a run. One thing was clear, the sooner I got him back the better. To be found tearing along a muddy lane in Warefield, dressed in nothing more than a long blue dressing-gown and feathered slippers, would certainly cause unfavourable comment in the village.

As I raced around a curve in the lane and came in view of the main road, I was in time to see Rodney stepping into a car that had drawn up. Panting, I ran the last few steps and was on the point of yanking him out abruptly when I heard Bob Pritchard’s voice say in amazed tones, ‘And what are you two doing, running about the countryside at this time of night?’

As he eyed me I became conscious that I was panting and dishevelled, the hem of my dressing-gown mud-spattered where I had slipped and stumbled in some rain-filled pools. I found myself giggling helplessly at the almost shocked expression that had replaced Bob’s initial surprise.

It was Rodney who clarified the situation. Perched on the back seat, he said dismally, ‘Aunt Esther’s going home tomorrow and I thought if I ran away she might stay on to look for me and then perhaps not go at all in the end. But I didn’t mean to go far,’ he assured us earnestly. ‘I was going to hide in the ba
rn
up at the farm until she’d missed her train.’

Bob Pritchard, however, didn’t seem particularly interested in the latter part of Rodney’s extraordinary statement. ‘What’s this about your leaving tomorrow, Esther?’ he asked abrup
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y.