Sugar in the Morning (9 page)

Pamela pouted. It was the first real glimpse I had had of the temper that lay behind her prettiness.

“It isn’t fair!” she said sulkily. “I
asked
Camilla to come and I shall be the only one who doesn’t see anything of her!”

Daniel smiled faintly. “That is bad luck,” he admitted. “Never mind, you won’t be a working girl for much longer!” He watched with a satisfied eye as Pamela’s cheeks coloured, making her look more like a chocolate-box beauty than ever. “Where’s this coffee we were promised
?
”

The coffee duly came and Pamela, her good humour recovered, poured it out for us, fussing over the cups as she did so to make sure that we all had enough sugar and enough of the thick yellow cream she had somehow conjured up from a drawer in her desk. Patience and I drank eagerly, for both of us were famished by that time, and vied with one another to be offered a second cup before Daniel said we had to go.

Daniel hurried us out to his car as soon as he was able, looking meaningly at his watch as he did so. It was not yet four o’clock, but I had to agree with him that it was late enough if we were to explore all the possibilities of the Longuet estate that day. He pointed out the first fires that were burning over the sugar that was to be mine
, getting
rid of the unwanted trash before the serious cutting began. It gave me a physical thrill to see the flames licking through the b
right
green of the cane a thrill that had nothing to do with ownership but was physical in its excitement, a combination of the noise the sight of the orange flames, and the dirty smoke that settled all over the land for miles around.

“Do Mr. and Mrs. Longuet regret having to sell
?” I
asked, feeling suddenly sorry for my host and hostess at
having to lose all this.

“I shouldn’t think so,” he answered.
“Th
ey
’
re not born sugar people. They’ve made the required improvements on their estate, but it’s never been their whole
life as it is with some of us.”

I was able to witness to some of these improvements myself as we drove through the long lines of sugar towards the house where the Longuets lived. There were a
number of shacks made of fruit boxes and palm leaves that housed the occasional workers who came during the cutting and planting seasons and then went again. But these were already outnumbered by recently built two-roomed houses which, Daniel assured me, had running water, showers and a small garden.
T
hey were better than the shacks, far better to live in, but frankly
rather dull in appearance.

The Longuet house, though, was one of the prettiest I have ever seen. It was a two-storey house that rose
w
ith graceful lines above the sugar which completely surrounded it and the garden that grew with a wild abandon, full of flowering shrubs and large trees that gave shade from the sun. The house had a curly roof that looked vaguely Chinese and there were two Chinese stone lions that guarded the gates that had been left open for so long that I doubted if they would close now even if anyone wanted them that way.

Daniel parked the car under a tree. He ushered me
into the hall and shouted the fact that we had arrived to the empty room. There was the sound of a door slamming upstairs and a few minutes later Mrs. Longuet came rushing down the stairs, an older and less pretty version of her daughter, her high heels tapping on the polished wood of the stairs.

“My, so there you are! But you haven’t got Pamela with you? Didn’t you go over there first? Daniel, how nice to see you!” She turned to me, appraising my appearance and everything else about me in one comprehensive glance. “Pamela has told me
all
about you.
Not
pretty, she said, but definitely someone! Now, do I agree with her? What lovely legs you have, child! No wonder you wear mini-skirts! You can afford to
!
”

I smiled a not very confident smile and gave Daniel a furious look. He was openly laughing at me while I tried to pretend that my skirt was several inches longer than it actually was, though why I couldn’t imagine. I had worn mini-skirts ever since they had come out and this one woman’s disapproval wasn’t going to stop me.

“Doesn’t Pamela wear short skirts?” I asked aggressively.

Mrs. Longuet emitted another giggle. “I don’t suppose they’re as popular in Trinidad as they are in swinging London,” she laughed, somehow making London sound like somewhere on another planet. “Besides,” she confided, “Pamela hasn’t got your lovely legs!” She made that sound too as though it were a decided advantage
not
to have legs that were long enough and shapely enough to have been used in the average stocking advertisement.

“She certainly hasn’t!” Daniel chimed in. He was having a hilarious time. It was no wonder that he liked the Longuets so much.

“
But who is that in your car?” Mrs. Longuet rattled
on, hushing her voice to a whisper. “Shouldn’t we ask her to come in?”

It was Daniel who went out and got the waiting Patience and it was Daniel who introduced her to the Longuet maids and made sure that she was comfortable. Meanwhile Mrs. Longuet went on talking. She spoke of her first coming to Trinidad with her husband, of their buying of the estate, and she laced the whole with endless reminiscences of the doings and sayings of Pamela.

“It was a shame to tie a girl like her down to these parts, but we always knew she would do well for herself. What’s bred in the bone comes out in the flesh, as the saying is. Well, anyway, you know what I mean. Pamela has been gently reared and always given the best, so it’s natural that she should expect the best, don’t you think?”

“Well, yes, I suppose so,” I said inadequately.

“I knew you’d agree!” Mrs. Longuet purred. “Now tell me all about yourself. I’ve heard you’re related to Philip Ironside?”

“I’m his niece,” I said flatly.

“
You poor dear! It must be dreadful for you!” she
sympathised.
“Pamela knows his two boys, of course. I
m
ean even though
it
was all so dreadful one couldn
’
t very well avoid them, could one? But I hear they’ve all gone downhill very badly. I’ve even,” she lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’ve even heard that they
’
re not always
scrupulously
clean!”

I swallowed down my laughter and concentrated on my very real feeling of outrage that she should talk about my family in that way. “I believe they bath
e
fairly often,” I managed to
sa
y in a fairly normal tone of voice.
”

I met Daniel’s eyes as he came back into the room and he must have seen the storm signals in mine, for his
lips quivered visibly. “What are you talking about?” he asked carefully.

“I was telling this nice child all about those horrible relatives of hers!” Mrs. Longuet told him. “Of course in a place the size of Trinidad one can’t well ignore them, I know. It must be such a problem for the poor girl!”

“Miss Ironside is living with her uncle,” Daniel announced baldly.

Mrs. Longuet was reduced to silence. She stared at me for a long moment, her eyes growing rounder and rounder with shock. “Does she know?” she asked hollowly of Daniel.

“Know what?” I demanded.

Daniel looked embarrassed. “Nothing very much. There was a bit of talk years ago when your uncle sold up. I rather thought you might have been told about it.”

“I was,” I agreed bleakly. “I was warned by you before I had even met you properly. Aaron told me what I suppose is more or less the truth, but gossip is something else again. I should have thought
you’d
have been above gossiping about other people
!
” I added stormily.

Mrs. Longuet edged forward in her chair. “But, my dear, you can’t possibly know the whole of it! Not possibly. Did you know
—
”

“Not now, Mrs. Longuet!” Daniel interrupted her forcibly.

“Yes, now,” I contradicted him flatly.
“
I want to know exactly what’s being said.”

“It isn’t so much what’s being said
now
,”
my hostess assured me, only too willing to indulge in a good spicy gossip. “It was what was done then!”

“Mrs. Longuet—” Daniel edged in helplessly.

“No, no, she
wa
nt
s
to be told!” Mrs. Longuet insisted.
“It was Philip’s fault, of course, one can’t blame the boys for it, though they didn’t do anything about it when they might have done. They weren’t as young as all that! Philip had owned his estate for a good many years then, and a rotten, run-down place it was. The rest of us who grow sugar hereabouts didn
’
t like his sugar going to the same factory as our crop. He did nothing about the weeds and the diseases in his cane. Absolutely
nothing
! So you see it wasn’t surprising that he grated on us rather. But then there was the scandal. He began to sack all his people. I suppose he was short of money, but
really,
that was hardly the way to come about, was it? The Hendrycks’ place took on most of his employees. It was terrible for them. They had no money—nothing! But Philip was simply furious that anyone else should take on his men. He set fire to the Hendrycks’ estate—and with the cane only half grown—and he tried to get all the workers to go out on strike. It was a dreadful time for everyone!” Mrs. Longuet
’
s eyes snapped eagerly. It might have been dreadful for most people, I thought, feeling slightly sick, but there was no doubt that she had enjoyed every minute of the dispute. I could imagine her throwing up her hands in simulated horror while she dug out the details of what was going on from everyone who came to her door. My eyes sought Daniel’s for reassurance. He looked unbearably sad.

“It wasn’t all Philip’s fault,” he said with authority. “We all knew that. Nevertheless, it was rather a relief
when he decided to sell.”

I bit my lip. “Was your aunt still alive?
”
I asked, though what had brought her into my mind I did not know.

“Yes, she was,” Daniel said, surprised. “It was because she asked us to that my family bought Philip out.”

“I see,” I said quietly.

“No, you don’t see at all!” he exclaimed. “Things got on top of him, that was all. It’s easy to make a great big story of it, but it was only a case of a man who was unable to take advantage of
modern
methods. He thought more labour was better than using
modern
science. He wasn’t alone in that!” he added bitterly. “It’s the whole story of the sugar industry in the West Indies. A relic of the curse of slavery, you might say.”

But Mrs. Longuet wouldn’t have it. “Daniel has always excused him,” she said austerely. “But those of us who
suffered
from your uncle’s actions find it difficult to be quite so generous. Thank God there’s no chance of his coming back here to plague us all over again.”

“But there’s every chance,” I said smoothly.

Daniel rose in a desperate effort to stop me, but I knew it had to be said. “When I’ve bought the estate, my uncle will manage it for me. I thought that that had been clearly understood.”

Mrs. Longuet went first bright red and then ashen pale. “Did Pamela know this?” she hissed at Daniel.

Daniel nodded. “Your husband knows too,” he added soothingly.

“Then why wasn’t I told?”

Daniel shrugged. “You’re moving to New York,” he reminded her. “Why should you care?”

“I—I—” She gained control of herself with difficulty and smiled without amusement. “Philip and I never got along very well,” she said primly. “I don’t like to think
o
f him living in this house.”

Daniel shook his head. “I shouldn’t dwell on it,” he said briskly. “Aaron Glover and I are going to oversee the place. Which reminds me, Camilla had better see the estate before it gets dark. As your husband isn’t home yet, perhaps you’d like me to show her over? We shan’t be long.”

He almost physically manhandled me through the door and I knew that he was really angry as I had not seen him before. He was angry with me too, rather than with Mrs. Longuet, and I thought that that was unfair.

I was just a litt
l
e afraid of him, though, when he turned and faced me in the driveway outside.

“D
id you have to? Don’t you know that she can stop the sale going through?”

“What if she can?” I said sulkily. “I’m not afraid of her—or her evil tongue, come to that!”

He gave me an impatient look. “I could shake you
,”
he said suddenly.

“But it’s all so petty,” I objected, sounding a great deal more confident than I felt. “And I refuse to compromise because people feel they can say anything they please about my family and get away with it!

“Petty!” he shouted at me. “Petty! I’ll tell you how petty it was. It meant that I never saw my aunt again until she was dying. It meant that she spent her dying days in disgrace. And it meant a row that nearly finished the whole family. People took sides. People I thought my friends refused to speak to me because my aunt was Philip’s wife. I’m not going to have that kind of thing happening again. Is that understood
?
You
’
re coming down here and you are going to buy this estate and we’re going to be
friends
!
Philip, Wilfred, Cuthbert, Aaron, you and I are going to run this place in harmony if it kills us. Do you understand that?
”

I nodded. His hands on my shoulders bit into my flesh, but it never occurred to me to protest. I had never seen a man go off like a geyser like this and I was more astonished than anything else that he should feel so deeply about it. It had all happened so very long ago. Then quite suddenly he bent his head and his lips
were on mine and he was kissing me and, worse still, I was
kissing
him
back as though my very life depended on it.
I didn’t even hear the car creeping up the drive, nor the doors slamming as the occupants got out. Pamela’s shocked face swam into my line of vision and I heard myself giggle.

“Do you have to?” she said with dainty disapproval. “I mean, do you have to out here?”