The Guilty Secret (8 page)

‘Who else?' he said in mock surprise. ‘Rozalinda doesn't mean it of course. She flirts with everyone. It's a reflex action, but I don't think little brown mouse understands that.'

‘Mary is
not
a little brown mouse!' I said, and then as Aunt Harriet looked enquiringly across the table, lowered my voice even further. ‘If you've got anything else to say I think it would be wisest to leave it till later.'

‘With pleasure,' he said, giving me the benefit of a gleaming smile and teasing eyes. Rozalinda wasn't the only compulsive flirt who sat at the dinner table.

Deliberately I turned to Rozalinda, interrupting her as she playfully pinched Tom's cheek.

‘I still don't know which villa is mine, Rozalinda. Is it one of those near to Phil's?'

‘Yes. Mary and Tom and Aunt Harriet have the two villas nearest this one. Phil and Miles have one each in the woods and the third is all ready for you. When Jonathan comes we'll have to put him up with Phil or Miles.'

‘He's more than welcome to share with me. There's not enough room in Phil's,' Miles said generously. ‘Besides, I won't be here for much longer.'

His eyes and Rozalinda's held.

‘Just till our business affairs are tied up.'

‘Not now, not now,' Harold said hastily. ‘Don't spoil a nice evening by talking business.'

Phil's eyebrows raised slightly as he looked across at me, signalling ‘I told you so'. Certainly the mention of business affairs had taken the smile from Rozalinda's mouth and replaced it with a look of sulky defiance.

Miles turned to me, saying pleasantly:- ‘Rozalinda is to star as the Queen of Sheba in a mammoth spectacular. Perfect casting, don't you think?'

Rozalinda's chair scraped back sharply and she rose to her feet her eyes flaming. Harold said nervously:-

‘Later old man, later. Rozalinda is tired at the moment. No time to be talking business.' His eyes full of concern he hurried the length of the table and took her arm. She jerked it away, turning and sweeping into the salon.

There was a short embarrassed silence and then Tom excused himself from the table and hurried after her, followed equally quickly by Aunt Harriet.

‘You seem to have successfully wrecked the dinner,' I said to Miles.

‘That, you will find, is easy done,' he said lightly, rising to his feet and taking his glass of wine with him. For the first time in her life, Mary avoided my eyes leaving the table and her scarcely touched wine.

‘I thought,' I said to Phil, my voice heavy with sarcasm, ‘ that you said everything was fine here except that Rozalinda was a little nervy.'

‘I did.'

‘Then you must be blind.'

He looked genuinely surprised. ‘You mean Rozalinda storming out like that? That's an everyday occurrence, always has been.'

‘I mean,' I said, wondering just how unseeing Phil could possibly be. ‘Rozalinda flirting mercilessly with Tom and making Mary intensely unhappy. I mean Aunt Harriet being obviously unwell. I mean the fact that there's more to the Miles-Rozalinda relationship than co-stars, and that there's an atmosphere under all this gaiety that you could cut with a knife.'

‘That's just what Mary said as she left the table,' Phil said, helping himself to more fruit flan.

‘What, that you could cut the air with a knife?'

‘No.' said Phil innocently, ‘ that she wished she had one.'

Rozalinda had regained her composure by the time Phil and myself joined the rest of the party in the next room. She swept across taking me by the arm.

‘I
must
apologise for Miles, darling. It was too,
too
bad of him to provoke me like that on your first evening here. He knows I don't want this beastly film part and I shall be glad when he goes. He's making me quite ill.'

‘It sounds a good part, there's not that many million dollar films to turn down these days.'

Her mouth took on an obstinate line. ‘I'm not doing it. I'm staying here … with Harold. Why, we hardly see anything of each other!'

Seeing Harold had never been one of her priorities in life.

The laugh was back as Tom approached us. ‘I'm just apologising to Jenny for Miles' bullying,' she said, pouting.

Tom was instant sympathy. ‘Just because he's frightened of being replaced in the film if you turn your part down. If you want him to leave, tell him so. Can't he see he's making you ill with his pestering? If you want me to have a word with him …'

She laid a hand delicately on his arm, lashes fluttering. ‘Darling Tom. Always so considerate. How lucky Mary is. No, Miles was my co-star in my last film, and,' she drew a martyred little breath. ‘I shall just have to be patient with him.'

Aunt Harriet interrupted them. ‘Jenny must be tired after her drive down from Viana, if you like I'll take her to her villa and we'll see you in the morning.'

Rozalinda sulked prettily at the prospect of her party breaking up so early, wrapping her arm around Mary's shoulders and insisting that at least
she
would stay for a little longer. As I kissed Mary goodnight, I whispered:- ‘See you in the morning for a chat,' and squeezed her hand. Our roles seemed to be reversing. Previously it had been Mary who had dispensed comfort and reassurance. Now it seemed to be my turn.

The breeze blowing in from the Atlantic had a refreshing bite to it after the perfume laden air of Rozalinda's villa. I linked my arm with Aunt Harriet's as we made our way in the moonlight down the shallow stone steps and out of the garden into the woods.

‘Will you be able to find your way back all right. It's very dark.'

‘Phht, child, of course I will. I live here for nine months out of every twelve. I know every path in these woods like the back of my hand. Now let's cut out the chit-chat. Who is this young man you say you intend marrying?'

‘His name is Jonathan Brown and he's English.'

‘You told everyone that at the dinner table,' she said caustically. ‘Now tell me what he's
like.
'

‘He's … nice,' I said inadequately.

‘So are thousands. What's so special about this one?'

‘You'll see when he arrives. He needs me and loves me and I'm happy, Aunt Harriet. Really and truly happy.'

‘Well, for that child, I'm glad. It's about time you had your share of happiness.' There was silence for a few minutes and then she said:- ‘Does he know?'

‘No. Not yet.' I saw her expression change and said quickly. ‘ I was going to tell him on our last evening. I started to but he said we would have plenty of time to talk when he came here and that nothing I had done could change the way he felt about me.'

‘If he's a good man then it won't.' Aunt Harriet said, but beneath the firmness I knew she was worrying that I was about to be hurt yet again.

‘He
is
a good man, and everything is going to be all right. I know it is.'

‘I hope so, child. I really do hope so.'

The pines thinned and the three villas gleamed in the moonlight. They were set in a rough triangle. Phil's the nearest and parallel with it the villa Miles was occupying, and some twenty-five yards behind them, mine. Aunt Harriet pushed open the door and switched on the light.

A large stone fireplace linked the two main downstairs rooms together. The floor was tiled and scattered with the same pretty rugs I had seen in Phil's villa. But here, instead of only two grand pianos and floor cushions for furnishings, were comfortable settees and deeply upholstered chairs in rich velvet and small, marble topped coffee tables. A scattering of softly shaded lamps had switched on simultaneously at Aunt Harriet's touch, giving the room a soft, welcoming glow.

‘There's only one bedroom in this villa,' Aunt Harriet said, leading the way into a beautifully equipped kitchen. ‘It isn't often in use, being the furthest away from Rozalinda's.' A wrought iron spiral staircase led enticingly upstairs. While Aunt Harriet began making coffee I went up, gasping with pleasure at the bedroom with its four poster bed with white lace canopy and decadent looking silk sheets. Through an open door I could see the bathroom and a wealth of gold fittings. I ran back downstairs.

‘It's super! Are all the villas as nice as this?'

‘This,' Aunt Harriet said dryly. ‘Is the most spartan. Most of the furniture was taken out of Phil's at his request. Rozalinda knew that without a piano she would never persuade him to come here. Miles comes quite regularly and so his villa has a lot of his personal possessions in it and is never used by anyone else. Mary and Tom's villa is the one guests usually have. Mine is next to it and so far Rozalinda has left me its sole occupant.'

‘And you like it here?'

‘Yes. When it's quiet.'

‘You mean when Rozalinda is away?'

‘Rozalinda doesn't bother me and never has done.' Aunt Harriet said reprovingly. ‘I love her just as much as you or Phil and you should have the common sense to know that. No, it's been Harold who has been making all the commotion this last few days.'

‘Harold?'

‘Him and Miles. I could hear them rowing the other night.'

‘I can't imagine Harold rowing with anybody.'

‘Well, he has lately. Miles wants Rozalinda to sign a contract for this film he's going to star in and we keep getting frantic telephone calls from her agent in London, but Rozalinda is adamant she isn't going to do it. Harold has got himself quite steamed up about it. He's quite insistent that Rozalinda needs a rest and that she is staying on at Ofir until the end of the summer.'

‘Does she need a rest?'

Aunt Harriet nodded her head emphatically. ‘ Yes. I've never known her nerves to be so bad. Which is why, of course, she's acting so stupidly.'

‘You mean flirting with Tom?'

Aunt Harriet nodded. ‘Though don't let that worry you, Jenny. I'm going to have a word with her about that tomorrow. If she knew she was hurting Mary she'd stop immediately. She just doesn't think.'

‘Then she should,' I said, remembering the hurt on Mary's face.

Aunt Harriet patted my hand reprovingly. ‘You mustn't be hard on her, Jenny. She never had the advantages of a loving mother and father. I hate to say it but my youngest niece was totally selfish. She hardly ever spent any time with Rose at all. Which is why she was always round at my house and always wanting to be with you, Phil and Mary. And if it hadn't been for Mary she would have been left out altogether. You and Phil were sufficient unto yourselves. That little girl was intensely lonely and she has always been insecure. All Harold's money can't give her the security she needs. That's why she clings to you all so much. Underneath that veneer of sophisticated gaiety Rose is nothing but a frightened little girl.'

‘Frightened? I can understand that she's insecure. But she's nothing to be frightened of.'

‘No, she hasn't. Which is why it's puzzling.' And Aunt Harriet abruptly took her cup and saucer back into the kitchen, saying:- ‘Have a good night's rest, Jenny. And don't forget. Phil's villa is the one to the right of you. Don't go mistakenly into Miles. I saw the way he was looking at you at the dinner table. I wouldn't fancy your chances if you did.' She kissed me goodnight, closing the door behind her with the embarrassment of someone who has said more than they intended. I went slowly into the kitchen with my own cup and saucer.

The meek Harold rowing with forceful Miles. Tom making a fool of himself. Mary hurt. And Rozalinda frightened. It seemed I was the only person at the enclave without a problem.

Thank God, I thought sincerely as I slipped between the silken sheets. Thank God for Jonathan. And with the distant sound of the Atlantic breakers beating on the shore, reminding me again of our last night together, I ignored my tablets and fell into a deep and natural sleep.

I was woken by a soft tap at my bedroom door and before I could fully wake up a slip of a girl with thick dark hair tied back in a ponytail, came in with a breakfast tray of fresh coffee and rolls. It was just like being back in the hotel. She smiled shyly, placing the tray on my bedside table with a softly spoken ‘Obrigadoa.'

‘Obrigadoa,' I said. ‘ My name is Jenny, what is yours?'

She stood hesitantly, not fully understanding. I smiled reassuringly, pointing to myself and saying again, ‘Jenny.'

Her smile widened. ‘Joanna-Maria,' she said, leaving the room with none of the nervousness with which she had entered.

I was still drinking my coffee when I heard Mary's voice downstairs, I swung my feet off the bed and called out:-

‘Come up, Mary. I'm still having breakfast, ask Joanna for an extra cup.'

She came in the room looking tired and drawn. She had never had any dress sense, now she was beginning to look positively dowdy. I poured her a coffee saying:- ‘You've no need to tell me, Mary. You're missing the children and want to go home.'

‘And how,' she said fervently, sitting down on the bed. ‘We've been here ten days now and I really
do
miss the children. I wanted to see you, of course. I wouldn't have left till then. But now I know you're all right there doesn't seem to be much point in staying on.'

‘Then be firm about it. Tell Tom you want to go home.'

‘Tom,' she said heavily, ‘is enjoying himself. He's being waited on hand and foot. He spends all day playing tennis or riding with Miles, and in the evenings Rozalinda flirts with him outrageously.'

‘Rozalinda flirts with everybody. Even Phil.'

‘But that doesn't mean Tom has to look at her with that stupid, besotted expression on his face, does it?' Mary's voice was beginning to crack. ‘And she
is
so beautiful. I'm sure Tom is going to be bored with me when we get back home …' her voice broke completely and she began to cry. ‘I love him so much, Jenny. I couldn't bear it if he left me. I'd die, I know I would.'