The Dark Stranger (27 page)

II

Both Craig and Belle were up. Belle had long since dropped to sleep on the sofa and Craig, because he was tired and more dispirited than he would allow people to see, sat on by the dying fire, too lazy to make the effort to go to bed.

He had decided much earlier to give Tina her way and abandon his night
’
s vigil, and even when he heard the car and recognized the engine he did no more than cross the room to one of the long windows and draw aside the curtains. If he saw his cousin actually enter the grounds, he thought, his mouth tightening, he would go out and give him the dressing down of his life, but he would leave his gun behind.

As he looked he could see Tina running across the lawn, her bare feet white in the moonlight, and at his quick exclamation, Belle woke and demanded sleepily if the marauder was in the garden. When he did not answer she struggled to her feet and went and stood behind him to look over his shoulder.

“
W-ell!
”
she said.
“
It looks more like an assignation to me. The sly little puss! No wonder she persuaded you to drop your plans for tonight.
”

A man
’
s figure carrying something was already in the drive, and as Tina came running across the grass, he put down his burden and went to meet her. It was clearly Adwen. In the brilliant moonlight his black head and lithe young body were unmistakable.

“
I
’
m putting an end to this once and for all,
”
said Craig harshly.
“
If Tina doesn
’
t want the young man to get hurt she
’
d better come straight back into the house.
”

Belle put a restraining hand on his shoulder.

“
No, wait,
”
she said softly.
“
Tina will probably persuade him far better than you would, besides, the poor sweet
’
s only doing her best to stop bloodshed. Give them another five minutes.
”

They stood there silently, while Adwen and Tina argued; he seemed to ask a question for she nodded her head in reply and the next moment he had caught her in his arms. It seemed a long time before they drew apart again and to Craig it did not look as if Tina was even struggling. They were etched on the moonlight, close in a long embrace.

“
Well
!”
said Belle with enjoyment.
“
That was quite a kiss. It
’
s a good thing Tina doesn
’
t know she
’
s being watched.
”

“
By God!
I’ll
break that young Lothario
’
s neck!
”
exclaimed Craig, his voice hard and violent with anger, and he tried to push past her, but Belle held him firmly in a grip that was surprisingly strong.

“
Don
’
t be a fool, Craig,
”
she said.
“
The damage is done now. It
’
s the only damage that will be done tonight, I think. He
’
s going away, and by the time you get there it will be too late and you
’
ll only look a fool. Besides, Tina would be most embarrassed.
”

He looked furiously into her eyes.

“
Are you trying to cover up for them?
”
he demanded.
“
It
’
s unlike you to spare Tina
’
s feelings, or did you arrange this little assignation as you call it?
”

“
Oh, don
’
t be ridiculous!
”
she replied.
“
Why blame me for something you
’
ve only got yourself to thank for? If you made love to the girl sometimes she wouldn
’
t have to get what she can from the only other man she knows.
”

The anger in his face gave place to arrogance.

“
Has Tina been complaining of lack of attention?
”
he asked, and she shrugged.

“
Well, after all, Adwen did pay her little pleasantries. She wouldn
’
t be female if she didn
’
t miss them.
”

“
She
’
s complained I don
’
t make love to her, is that it?
”

“
Well, you don
’
t, do you? I don
’
t blame you if she doesn
’
t attract you sufficiently, but you can
’
t expect her to understand that point of view, can you?
”

Craig drew the curtain again and regarded Belle with a mixture of dislike and weariness.

“
It never occurred to you that I might have hesitated to force matters out of consideration for Tina,
”
he said.

She went back to the fire.

“
Well. I can
’
t say I think it would have occurred to her,
”
she said with amusement.
“
When a girl gets engaged she expects certain indications that she is desirable in the eyes of her
fiancé
, however obviously he is contemplating a marriage of convenience. I always did tell you, Craig, that there was a little fondness there for Adwen. If you
’
d left them alone, Tina could have gone on enjoying her little pleasures and excitements.
”

“
Is that all she wants, little pleasures and excitements? In other words the casual passion of any practiced womanizer? Is that what all young girls want?
”

She yawned and looked at the dock.

“
I wouldn
’
t know, darling, it
’
s a long time since I
’
ve been a young girl, but I got the impression that my stepdaughter thinks you
’
re rather a dull, cold-blooded fish. I really must go to bed. Tina will have had time by now to slip in and sneak back to bed after her little pick
-
me-up. Goodnight.
”

By the next morning Craig was still so angry with Tina that he left for the cannery without his breakfast rather
than
meet her with Brownie putting a check on what he would like to say to her.

He knew he had forced the engagement on her but he had thought she would understand that by making no demands, as he had promised, he was allowing her time to come naturally to intimacies which he had no intention of ignoring indefinitely. Small memories came back to torment him: Tina saying:
“
I will remain engaged to you as long as Belle stops here .
.
. Tina telling him his mother had been unhappy because she was unloved; her avoidance of him at Christmas, her reluctance to give him the conventional kiss of politeness which he had asked for in return for his present. And she had dared to complain to Belle that he was lacking in ardor, to Belle who would enjoy her discomfiture and give doubtful advice. For once his cousin could not have been lying, for if Tina had not told her, how else could she be so sure? It never occurred to him that a woman of Belle
’
s type would know a thing like that by instinct. His pride was bitterly hurt to know that the two had discussed him, perhaps laughing as women will that he had observed so meticulously the conditions of his bargain with Tina.

Tina got up that morning with the light-hearted knowledge of a danger put behind her. The mystic number of her childhood had not failed her, and had proved her right just like the fortune-teller on the pier. Solemnly she arranged her belongings in threes all over the room, three shoes, three stockings, three hair ribbons, three pins, as she had done in her childhood. Nellie will think I
’
m mad, she thought, but it was her own salute to Luck and a hostage for the future.

She felt she had conducted the situation very efficiently last night. It was a pity Adwen had to dramatize things
by making a kiss of renunciation a condition for his promise not to return, but Adwen was like that, and it was easier to give in than have an argument, and he really had been rather like a little boy with his pots of paint with which he was going to render the cupids red, white and blue. He had not, she had been glad to observe, been unimpressed by the fact that for the last three nights Craig had been waiting for him with a gun and she did not think that he would trouble them any more.

She thought Belle looked at her with a speculative eye, but no one had heard the car but herself and she wanted to tell Craig about the night
’
s adventures before she told the others. Belle, too, was giving nothing away. She had successfully administered the jolting which she had decided would do Craig
’
s smugness no harm; Tina, she thought, could receive hers from him far more effectually. She had, she congratulated herself, cooked up quite a nice little bitter brew for them both.

It was a fine afternoon and Tina decided to go for a walk after lunch. She cut across the fields, meaning to cross the road and explore the moor on the opposite side, but she had climbed the bank and was just going to jump down, when she heard, to her surprise, the Lancia roaring home unusually early, and she immediately waved and shouted, glad that she would get Craig to herself before the others could make a private conversation difficult.

He stopped with the same scream of brakes that she remembered from their first meeting and she did not think he looked particularly pleased to see her.

“
Were you on your way somewhere else?
”
she asked.
“
I thought you were going home.
”

“
I was going home, for a talk with you as a matter of fact. Since we
’
ve met, we won
’
t go home at all, but have some fresh air instead. Get in.
”

She complied, but with the feeling that perhaps now was not the moment, after all, to make an amusing story out of last night
’
s happenings. He drove with the speed and rather grim concentration which he affected when he was upset by something and she wondered what had happened at the cannery to send him home early and in a mood.

They passed the gates of Tremawvan, up the hill and on to the bleak bit of moor which ended in Tudy Down. The car was open as usual, and Tina knotted her scarf more warmly about her throat and let her hair stream backwards in the wind. Craig pulled up on Tudy Down and sat looking at her in silence for quite a long time.

“
Is anything wrong?
”
she asked.

“
Should anything be wrong?
”
he countered and she looked bewildered.

“
No, I don
’
t think so. I just wondered if something had happened at the cannery. You seem—well, sort of angry.
”

He continued to regard her with that strange speculative expression. She looked very young and very innocent and he wanted to slap her hard.

“
Anger is a misleading emotion. Other things can be mistaken for it,
”
he said.

“
Oh!
”
She sounded blank. This was going to be one of those times when he talked in riddles and made her feel very immature and stupid.

She remembered then that he had not been the same since the statues had been discovered and she thought perhaps the affair went deeper than she had supposed. Like Brownie, he may have had pride and affection for the things because his father had loved them and they were part of his childhood.

“
I
’
m sorry about the statues, Craig,
”
she said impulsively,
“
I thought at first it was just your pride that was hurt, but they meant something, too, didn
’
t they? Part of your childhood, part of order and familiarity.
”

“
The less said about the statues at this point, the better,
”
he replied.
“
You have a persuasive way with you, Tina. Why don
’
t you ask for what you really want, or at least make it plain in other ways if you
’
re too shy to make demands?
”