The Daughter of Night (15 page)

Nothing had changed in the Poplar flat; Hester knew that, although suddenly, as she had walked in, it seemed smaller, cramped and dingy. She scolded herself—it was nothing of the sort, just as it had always been, it was just that she had become accustomed, in a very short time, to more spacious and luxurious surroundings, and with a wry grin at herself, she hoped that this effect wasn't a lasting one, because she'd have to grow out of it some time.

In the kitchen, she filled the kettle and lit the stove before creeping along the passage to Mia's bedroom where her foster-sister was snoring delicately, her head under the bedclothes. She didn't go into Flo's room, it would be empty, the bed stripped and the wardrobe and drawers cleared, but while she didn't see that emptiness, she could pretend Flo was out shopping or perhaps gossiping with a neighbour—that she'd be home soon and she wasn't in Switzerland fighting for her life.

Back in the kitchen, she spooned instant coffee into a mug, added boiling water, two teaspoonsful of sugar and the top of the milk before carrying it in to Mia.

'Hi,' she said softly, and waited for her sister to emerge.

Mia stirred, pushing the bedclothes from her face, blinking owlishly and holding out a hand into which Hester thrust the coffee mug.

'Whatimeisit?' A yawn slurred the words and Mia tried to focus on the bedside clock. 'Oh lord, not already! I've only been asleep ten minutes, I swear. That woman upstairs has been nailing down her carpets, that's what it sounded like.' Suddenly she sat bolt upright in bed, slopping coffee over the sheet. 'Hes! What are you doing here? I thought it was…'

'Take your time.' Hester mopped up with a couple of tissues. 'Wake up properly.'

'I
am
awake,' Mia grew wrathful, 'and I've got a bone to pick with you…'

'Like I said, take your time,' Hester patted Mia's thin shoulder. 'Drink your coffee, have a shower to wake you up properly and come to the kitchen, I'll make a pot of tea. Your bone won't go away and neither shall I until you've had a chance to pick it clean.'

'But I just don't understand.' Mia, freshly showered, wrapped up in a woolly gown and with her hair wound on to rollers, sat down at the kitchen table with a thump. 'I'm as mad as hell, Hes—you lied to me!'

'No,' Hester shook her head as she poured out the tea, 'I didn't lie, not exactly. I just didn't tell the truth, not all of it.'

'But to let me find out this way!' Mia dived in the pocket of her gown and produced a piece of newspaper, liberally stained with grease. 'One of the porters brought me this, he said I might find it interesting. He'd had his fish and chips wrapped up in it—or perhaps it wasn't
his
fish and chips. I bet it was that nursing aide, she's always nipping into the linen cupboard for a snack.'

'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 pounds 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?'