Bella (6 page)

Read Bella Online

Authors: Jilly Cooper

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #General

BOOK: Bella
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‘No way,’ said Bella. ‘There’s nothing the Irish like better than feeling martyred. Hanging would only make them step up the campaign.’
Constance was revving up for a really crushing reply, when Lazlo said,
‘How’s Jonathan?’
‘A case in point,’ said Constance sourly. ‘Young people today are allowed far too much freedom. His housemaster wrote to me only this morning saying Jonathan painted “Death to Apartheid” in red all over the chapel wall.’
Lazlo and Charles grinned. Rupert started to laugh.
‘But that’s great,’ said Bella, whose glass had been filled for the fourth time. ‘He’s doing something positive.’
Constance stared at Bella, her cold eyes baleful. ‘Have you ever been to South Africa?’
‘No,’ admitted Bella.
‘I thought not. People who haven’t first-hand knowledge of a country always make sweeping generalizations.’
‘But one has only to read the papers . . .’ Bella was thoroughly roused by now.
‘I bought that chestnut filly I told you about, Charles.’ Once more Lazlo had interrupted her in mid-sentence.
Suddenly, the table came to life. Horses were obviously a complete obsession where the Henriques were concerned.
The candles threw sharp daggers of light on to the table. Chrissie was talking to Rupert. Bella watched the rapt expression on the girl’s face.
So that’s the way the wind blows, she thought. No wonder she hates me.
Constance was rabbiting on about the game reserves. Lazlo was picking his teeth.
I was a fool to come, thought Bella miserably. Steve was right about these people.
She felt both exhausted and depressed when they left the men to their port and cigars. Chrissie sat down at the grand piano and played Beethoven extremely well.
She looks beautiful now, thought Bella, looking at her softened face, the lamplight on the black hair.
Constance and Gay talked more about the wedding, Constance sewing a piece of tapestry of a Victorian lady with a hare lip.
Rupert joined them first and came straight over to Bella, his face drawn.
‘All right, darling?’
‘Fine,’ snapped Bella. ‘Give me a cigarette.’ She was irritated that he hadn’t stuck up for her at dinner.
‘Sorry we took so long,’ he said. ‘My father and Lazlo were having rather a heated discussion about devaluation.’
But Lazlo didn’t look heated as he came through the door a moment later, smoking a large cigar and laughing at some joke of Charles’s, his saturnine face lit up by the glitter of dark eyes and the flash of very white teeth.
He ought to laugh more, thought Bella, as he went over to the piano.
‘All right, love?’ Lazlo picked up a loose hair from Chrissie’s shoulder.
‘Of course,’ she said brightly.
‘Good.’ He smiled down at her, then crossed the room and sat down beside Bella.
He’s a womanizer, thought Bella. Maybe I’ll try and vamp him. She leaned forward to show him more of her cleavage.
‘I met a friend of yours the other day,’ he said.
‘Oh, who?’ said Bella, giving him a long, hot, lingering glance, which was immediately wiped off her face when he said, ‘Angora Fairfax. She said you were at drama school together.’
Bella had always loathed Angora Fairfax. She had been the spoilt darling of immensely rich parents, always at parties and complaining how exhausted she was next morning. All her fellow students, except Bella, had been pixillated by her. Angora, in her turn, had been jealous of Bella’s talent.
‘I knew her slightly,’ said Bella. ‘What’s she up to now?’
‘A television series, I think. She talked a lot about you.’
‘I’m sure,’ said Bella coldly.
‘She’s extremely attractive,’ said Lazlo, examining his whisky. ‘Can she act?’
Bella nodded. She wasn’t going to fall into the trap of being bitchy.
‘I hear you had an audition tonight,’ Lazlo went on.
Bella’s early warning system wasn’t working very well.
‘Yes, I did.’
‘And the director made a pass at you. How distressing for you.’
Sarcastic cat, thought Bella.
‘Who was he?’
‘Harry Backhaus.’
‘Harry?’ His eyebrows shot up. ‘Unlike him. He’s only just got married again. We’re lunching tomorrow. I’ll give him a bollocking.’
Bella felt herself going hot, then cold, with horror.
‘Oh, no! Please don’t,’ she said, far too quickly. ‘I expect he got carried away.’
Lazlo’s smile was bland. ‘Still, there’s no excuse for that sort of thing.’
At half past eleven Bella got up to go.
‘I’ll drive you home,’ said Rupert.
‘I’ll take her,’ said Lazlo. ‘I go straight past her door.’
‘But it’s not that way,’ said Rupert mutinously.
‘I’d like you to wait for another call from Sordid Arabia,’ said Lazlo. ‘You know the background.’
Wow! thought Bella, he’s really pulling rank. And she willed Rupert to stand up to him. But Rupert opened his mouth, shut it again, and sulkily agreed.
As she left, Charles kissed her on both cheeks. ‘We’ll see you at the wedding next month, if not before,’ he said.
Everyone stiffened. ‘Have you sent Bella an invitation yet, Constance?’ he added.
‘We’ve run out,’ said Constance coldly.
‘Nonsense. There are at least a dozen left in your desk. We need a bit of glamour on our side of the church.’
When they were nearing Bella’s flat, Lazlo said, ‘I want to talk to you. Shall we go to your flat or mine?’
‘I’m very tired,’ snapped Bella. ‘Can’t we talk here?’
‘No,’ he said. ‘It’s important.’
‘All right. We’d better use mine.’
Her flat was in chaos, clothes all over the drawing-room, unwashed breakfast things lying around. Bella kicked a bra under the sofa and went into the bedroom to take off her coat. In the mirror her eyes glittered with drink. Really, that blouse was too indecent for words. Perhaps Lazlo was going to make a pass at her. When she came back she found him sprawled in an armchair playing with the solitaire board.
He’s got the face of a riverboat gambler, she thought, tough, cool, measuring up all the options.
‘Did Rupert give you this?’ he said.
Bella nodded.
‘He’s a nice boy,’ said Lazlo.
‘
I
think so,’ said Bella. ‘Do you want a drink?’
Lazlo shook his head. ‘Rupert hasn’t had an easy life,’ he went on. ‘Lots of spoiling but not much love. Constance has always been too tied up with her charities; Charles much too preoccupied with Old Masters and young mistresses. Rupert’s pretty unstable as a result. He needs someone who can’t only handle him, but who also loves him very much.’
‘My,’ said Bella with a nervous laugh, ‘I didn’t know you were that romantic.’
Lazlo didn’t smile back. ‘I’m not. I just hate waste.’
Bella took a deep breath. ‘You don’t want me to marry him, do you?’
‘No, I don’t.’
‘Because I don’t come out of the top drawer?’
‘I don’t care if you come out of the coal-hole! I just want Rupert to land up with someone who loves him.’
‘Like your sister Chrissie, I suppose? Then you’d keep all your millions in the family.’
‘Leave Chrissie out of it.’
‘Why should I? What makes you think she loves Rupert more than I do?’
‘She wouldn’t have arrived an hour late to meet her future mother-in-law.’
‘I told you I couldn’t get away. I was stuck at the audition.’
‘And not bothered to dress.’
‘I didn’t have time to change.’
‘Or arrived three parts cut.’
‘I was not. Americans just pour very strong drinks.’
‘Or been rude to Aunt Constance on every possible occasion.’
‘She was insufferable,’ said Bella in a choked voice.
‘I agree,’ he said evenly. ‘She’s an uphill battleaxe. But if you loved Rupert you’d have put up with it.’
‘What’s it got to do with you, anyway?’ Bella said furiously.
He had only a few marbles left now in the centre of the solitaire board. She watched his long fingers, mesmerized.
‘All I’m saying,’ he said softly, ‘is that if you loved Rupert, you’d have arrived on time, sober, properly dressed, instead of swilling whisky in the Hilton Bar with one of your lovers.’
Bella turned green. ‘W . . . what are you talking about?’ she whispered. ‘I was having an audition.’
‘Maybe you were earlier in the evening, baby. But when I saw you, you were so engrossed with your handsome desperado, you didn’t even notice I was sitting only a few tables away.’
Confusion and horror swept over her. Lazlo had seen her with Steve. How much had he heard of their conversation?
‘He’s an actor,’ sheliedquickly.‘We . . . er . . . we were discussing a play we’re doing together next week.’
‘Rehearsing all the love scenes,’ said Lazlo dryly. ‘If you gazed at Rupert with a tenth of that slavish adoration, I’d be only too happy for you to marry him.’
He was left with one dark green marble now. He looked at it for a moment, then, putting the board down, took out his cheque book.
‘Now,’ he said, in a businesslike tone. ‘How much do you want? If I give you – oh, five grand, will you leave Rupert alone?’
Bella laughed in spite of herself. ‘I never realized people really said things like that! No, I won’t.’
‘Because you adore Rupert and can’t live without him?’ he said acidly.
‘I never said anything about love,’ she said. ‘It’s you who keeps banging on about it. But since you want things spelled out – I don’t intend to break it off!’
‘Ten grand,’ said Lazlo.
There was a pause. Bella looked out of the window.
Wow, the things I could do with ten thousand pounds, she thought. I wonder if it would be tax free? Then aloud she said, ‘I don’t want your rotten money. You’ll have to think of something else.’
Lazlo put away his cheque book and got to his feet. The sheer size of him made her step back. ‘Well, if you won’t be sensible about it, I shall have to try other methods.’
‘You can’t stop me marrying Rupert.’
‘I can’t?’ he said softly. ‘You obviously can’t be familiar with our family motto: “Scratch a Henriques and you draw your own blood.”’
The long scar showed white on his swarthy skin. A shiver ran down Bella’s spine.
He’s like the devil, she thought.
‘My family’s got a lot of influence,’ he went on. ‘We can make things very difficult for you if you don’t play ball.’
‘You’re threatening me?’ she said.
‘Yes, and I’d warn you, I fight very dirty. Are you sure you don’t want that cheque?’
Bella lost her temper. ‘Get out! Get out!’ she screamed. And, picking up a blue glass bowl, she hurled it at him. But he ducked and it smashed on the wall behind him. He laughed and left.
Bella couldn’t stop shaking after he’d gone.
Oh no, she wailed. Why did I blow my top? Loathsome, horrible bully. He’s only bluffing. He wouldn’t do anything really.
And yet . . . and yet . . . with all that money and power behind him . . .
She shivered with fear. Perhaps she ought to take the money and clear out with Steve. But Steve was unreliable, not to be trusted. And then, of course, there was poor Rupert to be considered.
Suddenly the doorbell rang, making her jump out of her skin. Lazlo again? Steve? Her heart was cracking her ribs. Whoever it was was leaning on the bell.
‘Who is it?’ she sobbed in terror.
‘It’s me, Rupert.’
She opened the door and, as he followed her inside, she burst into a storm of weeping.
‘Darling! Hush, sweetheart! It went all right.’ He pulled her down beside him on the sofa, stroking her hair. ‘They’re always bloody at first. You should have seen them with Teddy. Wasn’t Lazlo nice to you?’
She shook her head. She hadn’t meant to tell Rupert, but she couldn’t control herself any more.
‘He hates me,’ she sobbed. ‘More than any of them. He said he doesn’t want me to marry you.’
‘He doesn’t? Probably fancies you, that’s why he’s so rude. Anyway, my father’s crazy about you.’
How good it was to be held in his arms and comforted.
‘I’m so rotten to you,’ she muttered. ‘Arriving late and cheeking your mother. I don’t know why you put up with me.’

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