To Marry a Tiger (10 page)

‘They’ seemed to have seen a great deal, Ruth reflected ruefully. She gave Lucia a humorous look. “Poor Pearl! Can it be that Sicilians don’t like the very fair look?”

“It is too unusual to be considered pretty by the peasants,” Lucia was forced to agree, “but there are other men!”

Ruth knew that she was referring to Mario, but for once the fact didn’t disturb her. She would love the Sicilians for ever, she thought, just because they didn’t like Pearl’s fair looks! And if that showed how ill
-
natured she had become, she thought she could quite easily learn to live with it!

“Shall we go out into the drive to meet them?” Lucia suggested.

Ruth agreed with alacrity. She was, she realised, a complete fool, but she was longing to cast her eyes over Mario again, no matter if he was still angry with her, no matter what! She could hardly wait to see his tall figure, his haughty, arrogant expression, and that touch of the devilish that his broken nose supplied.

From the front door, Ruth could see the trail of dust that marked the car’s progress towards them. She envied Lucia who made no secret of the fact that she was impatient with waiting and was in a fidget for them to arrive. She herself forced herself to stand completely still and hoped that the fact that she was trembling would not be visible to anyone else.

Pearl jumped out of the car as soon as the wheels
stopped moving. She looked about her with keen satisfaction, completely ignoring her sister.

“Is all this really yours, Mario?” she breathed, very impressed.

“It belongs to my family,” Mario replied. Ruth wondered if she had imagined the note of impatience in his voice and decided she had when, taking Pearl by the hand, he led her up to his impatient aunt.

“This is Ruth’s sister,” he introduced her, adding with a grin
!
“
She’s not much like her, is she?”

Lucia extended her hand with the autocratic courtesy that any Verdecchio seemed able to assume at will. “My niece, Ruth, has spoken of you,” she said distantly.

Pearl found this excessively funny. “I’m surprised she’s had time,” she observed artlessly. “She’s been so busy, hasn’t she? Running away with Mario and getting him to marry her!” Her laughing eyes passed over Mario. “And who would have thought that
he
would have been so malleable?”

Ruth felt distinctly uncomfortable. “I hope you weren’t worried,” she began apologetically.

Pearl looked at her at last. “You know me better than that,” she said. “I never worry!”

“No, you don’t,” Ruth agreed doubtfully.

“Well then,” Pearl advised her frankly, “there’s no need to look so downtrodden. It’s you who lectures me about my behaviour, not me you!”

Mario smiled down at Pearl. “Ruth has almost forgotten that she is a schoolmistress,” he drawled. “You mustn’t tease her!”

“Oh, I won’t!” Pearl promised immediately.

Ruth hoped that Lucia’s look of complete disgust was not reflected in her own face. “Shall we go inside?” she said hastily. “I’ll show Pearl to her room.”

“Good idea,” Mario agreed. He looked tired, she
noticed with concern, and wished that she could do something about it.

“Are you coming, Pearl?” she asked her sister. Pearl tore herself reluctantly away from Mario, blowing him a light kiss as she went.

“I see you’ve had your hair done,” she said to Ruth as they mounted the stairs. “Was that how you did it?”

“Did what?” Ruth countered.

“Oh, let’s not play games! I didn’t think Mario would fall so easily, or I might have held out for marriage myself. Congratulations, sister dear!”

Ruth gave her a shocked look. “I was trying to protect you,” she explained. “Pearl, I don’t know how you came to give him such an impression, but the last thing Mario had in mind was marriage!”

Pearl chewed her lip thoughtfully. “If you could make it occur to him, I expect I could have done so too!”

Ruth sighed. Giulia had prepared a room for Pearl as far away from the one she was occupying as possible. Ruth had been going to argue the point with her that morning, but now she was glad she had not. It was bad enough having her in the house at all.

“I’m not very welcome, am I?” Pearl muttered, as Ruth opened the door to her room.

Ruth flushed, unwilling to admit the truth that Pearl had suddenly become very unwelcome indeed. “You’re my sister, aren’t you?” she replied.

Pearl giggled, “What has that got to do with it?” She walked across the room and looked out of the window, before flinging her handbag on to the bed and stepping out of her high-heeled shoes with a grimace. “Mario actually told me that you wanted me to come. And, knowing you, I almost believed him!”

“The invitation came from both of us,” Ruth said flatly.

Pearl’s bright blue eyes looked the picture of innocence. “You’re a fool, Ruth.”

Ruth smiled faintly. “Am I?”

“Did you really think that having his ring on your finger was going to stop me from taking him away from you?”

“No.”

Pearl looked at her sister with a new interest. “You wouldn’t have said that a couple of days ago in Naples!” she observed.

Ruth was amused. “Probably not,” she agreed readily. “But I’ve
l
earned a lot about us both since then.”

“Us both?” It was easy to see that Pearl resented their being bracketed together in any way. “What do you mean?”

Slightly astonished that she had managed to seize the initiative so easily, Ruth said vaguely, “Oh, I don’t know
!
I actually believed Mother that it was up to me to look after you—”

“You are the elder!” Pearl said in an aggrieved voice.

Ruth suppressed a chuckle. “In some ways,” she said.

Pearl gave her a thoughtful look and then shrugged her shoulders. “If you tell Mother, I’ll kill you!” she said lightly.

“It would kill her!” Ruth said warmly. “I never would have believed it! Pearl, you wouldn’t really have stayed here with Mario, would you?”

Pearl looked her straight in the eyes. “It didn’t seem to bother you
!
” she said.

“But I thought—But I didn’t
know
! I was coming straight back to Naples as soon as I’d told him what I thought of him
!
” Ruth stammered.

“I can imagine,” Pearl said with cynical amusement. “Off you went, with your little wooden sword, determined to be a martyr. Well, it’s your own fault if he took you at your word—”

“But he was away!” Ruth burst out.

“
Away
!
Away where?” Pearl sounded truly indignant. “Do you mean to say he didn’t meet the ship?”

“No, he didn’t. It would have been rather awkward if he had, for I shared a cabin with his aunt, who was expecting him to meet her. He left a message for her, telling her that a friend of theirs was seriously ill, and Lucia went there. The friend died in the night and Mario came home then, only it was too late to disturb me—you—so he waited until morning.”

“Then why did he marry you?” Pearl demanded.

Ruth blushed. “He said he’d compromised me,” she confessed.

“
Compromised
you!” Pearl exclaimed. “But he hadn’t touched you!” She narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. “Or had he?”

“N-no.” Ruth wished that she sounded more emphatic. “But this is Sicily,” she went on miserably, “and he didn’t think he had any choice.”

Pearl uttered a scream of laughter. “Didn’t you warn
me
about these customs in southern Italy?” she shrieked. “It serves you right! Or it would, if it wasn’t Mario!”

“It was a trifle awkward—” Ruth admitted.

“Have you told the parents?” Pearl interrupted her. Ruth shook her head. “Then you’d better not!” Pearl went on. “It can’t possibly last, and so the less they know the better.”

Ruth stood her ground bravely, even as she wilted inwardly. “I don’t think it can be undone very easily,” she said.

Pearl stood up, losing interest in the whole conversation. “But he doesn’t want you,” she said scornfully. “And I shan’t hold it against you! Mario and I will get along just fine without you!”

Ruth took a deep breath. “But I’m not going!” she said stubbornly.

Pearl’s innocent look vanished in a flash. Ruth wondered why she had never noticed before how vindictive her young sister could look, and was immediately sorry that it should have been her who had brought such an expression to her face.

“He’ll divorce you!” Pearl spat at her.

Ruth stood up very straight. “There is no divorce in Italy,” she answered calmly.

Pearl looked at her sister and made a discovery. “You’re in love with him!” she accused her.

Ruth blanched. “What if I am
?
”

“I’ll still take him from you!” Pearl threatened her.

Ruth lifted her chin in a characteristic gesture. “You can try,” she said. She turned on her heel and left the room, shutting the door carefully behind her. It was time to get out her dress and get ready to go to the party.

CHAPTER SEVEN

THE dress was better than she had remembered. Ruth took it out of the suitcase with loving care and laid it out on the bed. It was made of a man-made fibre that closely resembled wild silk and looked, at first glance, expensive. Closer inspection showed that it had been worn several times before and even that at one time she had had to darn a tiny hole on the hemline where her shoe had once caught in the long skirt, but that scarcely showed at all. Indeed, she liked the dusty pink colour as much now as she had ever done, and the style suited her as well as any dress she had ever had. It was not, perhaps, outrageously modish, but there was nothing frumpish about its classical lines and it was comfortable to wear.

Ruth had barely started to dress when Mario knocked on the door between their rooms. Ruth put down the hairbrush she was holding and picked up the rather skimpy bathrobe that was all she had with her. Even so, she was too late, for he had already come in. If he was embarrassed to find her in her petticoat, he didn’t show it.

“Do you mind?” he asked, his eyebrows slightly raised.

“It would be all the same if I did!” she retorted.

He chuckled. “I suppose it would,” he agreed. He picked up a box of powder, lavishly covered with Luigi’s name, and smiled at her. “I see you took my advice,” he remarked.

“Oh?” she muttered.

“Making up to your eyes!” he reminded her.

“Oh, that!” She tried to sound indifferent. “I’m glad you approve!”

He looked at her closely. “Are you?” He sat down on a stool and smiled at her. “Has Pearl settled in?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry,
piccina
,
but she had to come. You don’t really doubt that, do you?”

She was undone by the gentleness of his tone. “No,” she said briefly. “But I wish it wasn’t so soon!”

He rose to his feet. “It won’t be for long. I shall arrange for her return passage to England in a few days—”

She turned and faced him. “I shall have to tell my parents first!” she said baldly.

“That too,” he agreed.

“They won’t—they won’t be very pleased,” she told him.

The haughty look returned to his face. “I will naturally explain the circumstances to them myself,” he said.

R
uth tried to imagine her father’s reaction to any such tale and failed dismally. “I think I’d better tell them,” she said at last.

But Mario shook his head. “It is only right that they should know the truth from me,” he insisted. “If I didn’t think so, it would still be the wisest course. Pearl’s imagination is more torrid, I find, than any truth.”

R
uth blushed. “She is rather silly—”

“But she is so pretty that nobody minds,” he finished for her. “That has always been the way of the world. Any man will forgive a pretty girl much!”

Ruth was forced to admit the truth of this. It was galling, though, to hear Mario talking about her sister in such affectionate tones, especially as she could easily wring her neck for all the trouble she had caused.

“I think I’d better finish dressing,” she said aloud.

He touched her dress between his fingers. “Is this what you shall wear?” he asked her.

She nodded, immediately worried that he should find it inadequate. “It’s the best one I have,” she said defensively. “I know it isn’t new, but I like it!”

“Then I’m sure I shall like it too,” he agreed calmly. “Will you?”

She bit her lip nervously. “Lucia wanted me to go into Palermo and buy a new one. It’s—it’s important that I should look
well
tonight, isn’t it?”

“Very important, he answered calmly.

“Well then, perhaps I should have—”

“Why don’t you put it on and let me see?” he suggested.

But the very idea made her dither. She hadn’t finished her make-up; nor had she coaxed her hair into the new fashion Luigi had wrought for her; nor was she at all sure that she would be able to do either of these things with him standing there, watching her every movement!