The Dragon's Cave (13 page)

She cast a swift look beneath her eyelashes.
‘
I can imagine Inez using a fan, can’t you? She has such pretty movements.’ She sighed.
‘
I wouldn’t know what to do with it
!’

‘You must get Margot to teach you
!’

‘Does she use a fan?’ Megan couldn’t have said why she was so surprised, but she had never thought of anyone but a Spanish-born lady mastering the intricate art of opening and shutting a fan in a single satisfying, rustling movement.
‘
I’ve never seen her with one.’

‘It’s the winter now,’ he said. ‘In the summer it’s a different story when everyone is trying to keep cool. All the young men will vie with each other to present you with a fan of your own then.’

She refrained from pointing out that she didn’t know any young men in Majorca, let alone any who would want to give her anything.

‘I think I’ll ask Inez for one of hers,’ she said.

He shrugged. ‘Just as you like.’

Only it wasn’t as she liked! If she had what she liked, she knew exactly how it would be. Carlos
himself
would give her a fan, the most beautiful fan in the whole of Spain
!
And she would know from instinct how to use it, to flatter him with it, and flirt with him a
little
, and make him aware of herself as a mature, fully grown up woman who would know just as well as Inez how to please him
!
She gave herself a
little
shake, dismissing the dream. A strong dose of hard reality was what she needed, she thought, and that brought her back to Inez.

‘
Have you kissed her often?’ she wanted to know, and was horrified to hear herself asking.

‘
Kissed whom?’ he said. His voice was very withdrawn and she wished more than ever that she hadn’t said anything at all.

‘I-Inez.’

‘There’s only one thing that I
never
do,’ he began, his voice so remote that she thought she would never be warm again.

‘
What
’
s that?’ she asked inevitably. The glare from the sun was hurting her eyes, but in a funny way she was glad of it.

‘I never kiss and tell,’ he said.

Megan didn’t see Carlos once in the next three days. It was hard to believe that this was coincidence, seeing that they were both living under the same roof, so she could only think that he was avoiding her. She tried to persuade herself that he wasn’t angry with her and that she had behaved better when he had taken her over to the farm than she knew she had. If she had had to be so young and
silly,
she chided herself frequently, why had she had to bring Inez into it? That had been the one unforgivable thing!
That
had been why he had avoided her ever since!

In a half-hearted sort of way, Megan had tried to find out where Tony’s band was playing, but there were no notices to be seen in Palma that mentioned his name and she was beginning to think that she had dreamed that he was in Majorca. But then, on the third day, Inez came to call.

‘
Megan, I have had a brilliant idea!’ the Spanish girl squealed excitedly, not even pausing to sit down.
‘
You know that my father is in the tourist business? I must have told you so
!
Well, he has a small
hacienda
in the country, on the way to Valldemosa, where he holds barbecues for those who wish to come. It is a very good evening, I can tell you. But,
mire,
there is always a dance that goes on until midnight after the people have eaten. And—’ Her voice reached a new peak of excitement—
‘
at the moment, we have an English group making the music
!
’

Megan’s professional interest was aroused.
‘
Do they have a singer?’ she enquired.

Inez shrugged. ‘I haven’t heard them yet,’ she said. ‘That is what I was thinking about. We shall go this evening and hear them play and, if everything goes well,
you
can sing with them!’

‘Do you think so?’ Megan said doubtfully.

‘Why not? They are English, I am telling you, so you may already know them?’

Megan swallowed. ‘You don’t happen to know—?’

‘
Tony!’ Inez produced in triumph.
‘That
is Antonio, no? Tony Starlight!’ She smiled suddenly, her eyes dancing with amusement. ‘My father says they are not very good, but he thinks the tourists will like them because they make a great deal of noise
!’
Megan sank into the nearest chair, her knees feeling suddenly weak and unable to support her.

‘I should have to ask Senora Vallori,’ she began, trying to still the flustered excitement that rose within her.

‘
I will ask her,’ Inez decided. ‘Tia Margot never refuses me anything!’ She threw Megan another, slanting smile.
‘
I’ll tell her not to mention it to Carlos,’ she added. ‘He doesn’t approve of women going to a place of entertainment unescorted and if he came too, he wouldn’t allow you to sing
!’

‘No, he wouldn’t,’ Megan agreed. The thought of his displeasure made her tremble. ‘Though he has no authority over me
!
’

Inez drew in her breath sharply.
‘
But you would not defy him, if he was there, would you?’ she asked in awe.

‘
I don’t know,’ Megan admitted.

‘Then you have never seen him angry!
I
would never dare to provoke his anger, not even Tia Margot says anything to him when he is angry. My mother says that once, when Carlos was a boy, he nearly killed Tia Margot in one of his rages. My mother knew his mother and she says Tia Margot should have known better than to disparage her. My mother says that if Tia Margot had gone about it the right way, she could have twisted Carlos around her little finger, but now it is too late. He gives her everything she asks for, of course, but he has never given lovingly to anyone. Perhaps now he never will
!’

‘When he marries—’ Megan began, but Inez stopped her with a look.

‘He will be kind to his wife,’ the Spanish girl opined
realistically. ‘She will be a fortunate woman to be married to such a man, but Carlos will never give in to any woman. It is she who will have to give everything to him.’

Megan frowned. It didn’t seem to her that Inez would take second place to the man she married She would want to be spoilt and petted, just as she was by her own family.

‘
I think he’d love her very much,’ she said.

Inez laughed and pouted. ‘No, no! Carlos will be good to her, but he will never be faithful to any one woman. He will respect her because she will bear his name and his children, but his love is in the tomb with his mother.’

‘Inez!’

The Spanish girl laughed, her eyes dancing.
‘
It is true! But it is not the tragedy you think it to be! Which one of us would refuse to be his wife?
Verdad,
I can hardly wait for him to ask me
!
’

‘
I suppose you’re in love with him,’ Megan said in such flat, dreary tones that she surprised herself.

Inez shrugged. ‘A little,’ she admitted. ‘I am very easily in love
!
I am both pretty and healthy, so what else should I be?’

Megan could have told her, but she didn’t. If she was so much in love with Carlos that it hurt, even to think of him, it didn’t mean that every other girl had to feel the same way, not even the girl he was going to marry.

Margot Vallori readily gave her permission for Megan to go to the barbecue with Inez. ‘I expect your parents will be there,’ she said to Inez, ‘and that they will look after you both.’

‘
Yes, so you mustn’t concern yourself about us if we are late home,’ Inez told her easily. ‘That’s why we don’t want you to tell Carlos where we are. We don’t want him bringing us home before we’ve begun to enjoy ourselves!’

‘I don’t think Carlos would want to interfere with your pleasure, Inez,’ Margot reproved her.

Inez made a face at her. ‘
Clara que no
!’
she muttered sarcastically. ‘
Y
ou think not, Tia?’

Margot said nothing more on the subject.
‘
If you want to, you can take my car,’ she offered. ‘Megan can drive you home, Inez, on the way back here.’

‘
Carlos wants to see how well I drive before I go out on my own,’ Megan reminded her.

‘You won’t be on your own,’ Margot retorted in a voice that brooked no defiance. ‘Inez will be with you.’

And so, with Inez in the passenger seat beside her, Megan set out to drive the few miles along the Valldemosa road to the Novidad
hacienda.
Inez, she thought, looked beautiful in a scarlet chiffon dress that billowed about her when she moved. She wished that her own dress had been in the same class, but she had never been able to pay the kind of money that the Spanish girl obviously did. Her own dress was a simple white shift that reached to the floor and which had cost only a few shillings as she had made it herself. Her silver evening sandals were different, however. They had been a present from her parents and she had come to look on them as her good luck charm and had worn them on every occasion she had sung in public since she had had them.

It took all her concentration to drive Margot’s tiny Seat through the crowded streets of Palma. The tyres vibrated against the cobbles and the gears were unfamiliar and it seemed very odd to be sitting on the left-hand side of the car. A policeman whistled at her and she realised that she had not noticed him at all, bringing her stream of traffic to a halt, and that scared her. She wished that she had waited for Carlos to take her out a few times before driving alone in this seething maelstrom of traffic.

‘You
should have turned right there,’ Inez said
suddenly.

‘But there was no sign to Valldemosa,’ Megan protested.

Inez shrugged her shoulders.
‘
It is quicker, that is all. The sign is on the next road. You can turn there.’

Megan obediently did as she was told, relieved beyond measure to see the traffic thinning out and a clear road ahead of her. In another few minutes they would be out of town and she would have nothing more to worry about until the journey back.

‘If Carlos had come with us—’ Inez began, and stopped.

‘Yes?’ Megan prompted her.

‘
I was only thinking that it will be strange not to have an escort at the dance,’ Inez went on sulkily.

‘What will I do while you sing?’

Megan felt suddenly cold. ‘But surely your family will be there—won’t they?’ she ended on an uncertain note that dismayed her.

‘My
family
?’ Inez shuddered at the thought. ‘No, no, my family seldom visit the barbecue. The place is very old, you understand. Of course it has all been made quite
modern
inside, but when there are old walls there is always damp and cold in the winter. In the summer, sometimes we all go and enjoy ourselves, watching the horses race and the flamenco dancers, but in the winter, my family never goes in the winter.’

‘Then who organises the barbecue?’ Megan asked.

‘There is a manager,’ Inez explained indifferen
tl
y. She gave a sudden jump.
‘
Oh, Megan! I had forgotten all about Senor Valdez! He’s bound to tell Papa that I was at the barbecue and what will I do then?’

‘Perhaps he won’t notice you,’ Megan said comfortably.

‘Not
notice
me!’
Inez was more put out than Megan had ever seen her. ‘You don’t know what you
are talking about
!
I never would have come if I had thought of him before
!
Papa will be very angry with me
!
’

‘
But why? It isn’t so terrible,’ Megan argued. ‘It isn’t as though you will be completely alone—’

‘
I don’t think you would be acceptable as a chaperone,’ Inez interrupted her.

‘Why not?’

‘We know too
little
about you. Margot has told my parents a
little
, you may be sure, but it—Megan, why did you have to behave so
badly
in England?’

The cold feeling tightened its grip around Megan’s spine. ‘What did Margot say about me?’

‘
Only what Carlos had told her,’ Inez answered.
‘
She said that you were a singer in a very bad place, and that you only sang there because you knew the man in charge very well and had influence over him. She said that Carlos says you were too young to know what you were getting into, but that you couldn’t stay in England any longer because—well, because people were talking about you. We all know that that is why you came to Mallorca! Tia Margot is very concerned about your coming. She says that Carlos will find people talking about him too, when they find that he brought you to his home, and that he thinks his name is too honourable for anyone to think that he would stoop to anything bad, but that he doesn’t know human nature
!
’

Megan’s hands shook and she grasped the wheel so tightly that her knuckles showed white in the faint moonlight. She wouldn’t have believed that Carlos would have discussed her so freely if Inez’s innocent remarks hadn’t constituted proof positive. How could he? If he disapproved of her, nobody had asked him to rescue her, or to bring h
e
r to Majorca! She could imagine him arrogantly supposing that his name would cover all her misdeeds! Only there hadn’t been any misdeeds and she was not in need of his protection!
In fact, if he hadn’t
gossiped
about her to his stepmother, nobody in Majorca would have known anything about her!

‘
I don’t think Margot could have understood what Carlos said to her,’ she said, astonished that she should sound so calm.

‘But she did
!’
Inez insisted.
‘
Can you pretend, Megan, that the man who employed you wasn’t kissing you when Carlos first saw you? Of course he thought that you had kissed him before
!
’ She paused.
‘
Had you?’ she asked, her curiosity getting the better of her c
a
ution.

‘
No,’ Megan said.

‘
Then why was he kissing you then?’

‘I don’t know,’ Megan sighed.
‘
The show had gone well and I had gone out into the street because it was stuffy inside. It was snowing and I had forgotten to put my coat on. I was shivering and Tony put his arms round me and kissed me.’

Inez gasped. ‘But what a terrible thing to do! No wonder Carlos was shocked
!
’

‘I think it would take more than that to shock Carlos,’ Megan said dryly.