Ward of Lucifer Page 5

  "Well, we'll see," Justin Yorke said smoothly. And then they all went in to lunch.

  To Norma, even an informal lunch party with two men was a new social experience, and she felt a little shy and disinclined to take much part in the conversation. But Sir Richard, as well as her guardian, seemed quite willing to draw her out on subjects which interested her. And their visitor, at least, seemed to find a sort of naive charm in most of her diffident pronouncements.

  At any rate, where her guardian merely smiled slightly at some of the things she said, Sir Richard laughed admiringly and looked at her with that slightly bold air of appreciation, and remarked twice that she was "a smart girl."

  "D'you ride?" he wanted to know.

  "No," Norma admitted. "I've never been on a horse."

  "Oh, we'll have to alter that," Sir Richard declared.

  "You'll have to let me teach her and mount her, Yorke."

  "No," replied Norma's guardian pleasantly, with no elaboration whatever.

  Norma gave him a quick glance of inquiry.

  "If Norma wishes to ride, I shall teach her myself," explained Justin Yorke, as though Norma were not there. And Sir Richard looked rather school-boyishly sulky and disconsolate.

  "Your Uncle Justin wants to have all the fun himself," he observed to Norma.

  "I am not her Uncle Justin," said Norma's guardian extremely coldly. "We are not actually related at all. Norma's uncle was foolish enough to marry Janet. That is the only connection."

  "Well, that makes you Miss Norma's uncle in a way," Sir Richard insisted, but whether from tactless obstinacy or malice Norma was not quite sure.

  "It's very kind of you both to want to teach me riding," Norma hastened to say peaceably. "I'm finding it rather hard to take in all the pleasures of this holiday at once."

  "That's really a very nice little olive branch, Norma," observed her guardian, with rather unkind amusement. But when she blushed and looked really disconcerted, he added more gently: "I hope your holiday comes up to the expectations."

  "I'm sure it will." Norma spoke eagerly. "For once, I really shan't like going back to school."

  "Don't go, then," advised Sir Richard. "Here's your guardian saying you don't need to unless you want to."

  "Oh, but I should be going for one term, anyway, even if I decide to leave at Christmas."

  "Why?" Sir Richard wanted to know.

  "Well, I think one has to give a term's notice, or something. Besides" Norma hesitated. It was difficult to explain how startling, and almost frightening, so sudden a change would be.

  "Besides what, Norma?" her guardian asked quietly. "Well, you see, school has been almost my whole life up till now and"

  "What about holidays?" Sir Richard asked in astonishment, evidently having regarded school merely as an unwelcome interruption to holidays, in his time.

  "Norma's holidays were not of particular significance," her guardian explained smoothly. "Go on, Norma."

  "It's just " Norma smiled a little anxiously "to leave school, without the slightest warning, and start on quite a different sort of life would be rather" "Upsetting?" suggested her guardian.

  "Good lord!" said Sir Richard, who seemed to find this a most peculiar view. "I thought everybody wanted to leave school just as soon as they could."

  "Oh, no." Norma smiled at him, genuinely amused.

  "Particularly not when it represents everything familiar and understandable."

  "You needn't worry, my dear," her guardian told her. "You shall make your own decision, in your own time."

  "Thank you." Norma smiled at him, and her dark eyes expressed so much affectionate gratitude that Sir Richard made a very slight face, as though there was something here of which he did not entirely approve.

  But, aloud, he only said: "You vote for leaving school right away, Miss Norma, and come to London with your guardian in October. I'll be there myself in the autumn and help to give you a good time."

  Norma smiled and thanked him too but with something less than the glow which had accompanied her thanks to her guardian. And, very soon after that, lunch was over, and Sir Richard said good-bye and went off on affairs of his own.

  "Well, what did you do with yourself during the morning?" Justin Yorke inquired, standing at his desk, examining one or two letters which had arrived by the second post, while Norma sat on the wide window-seat, looking out over the garden to the distant hills.

  She turned her head at once and smiled at him, as she explained that Mrs. Parry had taken her on a tour of inspection and that, after that, she had explored the grounds on her own.

  "Oh, yes. Mrs. Parry likes to talk about the house and the family to anyone who will listen," her guardian agreed. "She has lived here most of her life, you know."

  "Yes. She told me so. She made it all sound very interesting ."

  "Did she?" Justin Yorke smiled slightly and rather indulgently. And, presumably, the indulgence was not for Mrs. Parry.

  "She's really very nice, isn't she?" Norma said.

  There was a slight pause. Then her guardian said: "Oh, very," though with the same air of amused surprise as that with which he had accepted her kiss.

  He went on reading his letters, and Norma went on looking out into the garden, and there was a curiously companionable silence between them. Then presently she said: "Did you really mean that I could be taught riding if I liked?"

  "Of course. Do you want to learn?"

  "Yes, please. I think I should like it very much."

  "Very well. I'll see about a horse for you."

  "Oh, but"

  "Yes?" He was still reading one of his letters. "Do you mean buy one for me?"

  "Yes. There isn't a suitable one for you here. Only my own mare and one or two farm horses."

  "But don't horses cost a lot of money?" Norma asked.

  "Good ones do," he agreed. Then, as the disturbed quality of her silence seemed to strike him, he looked up. "What is the matter?"

  "Only that well, I don't think I want you to spend all that money just to give extra amusement to me.

  I've got heaps to please me, without that," Norma explained earnestly.

  "My dear Norma" he finally put down his correspondence, and came over to her with an air of amusement "Janet has certainly had some effect on you. But you can have your riding if you want it, child. I can perfectly well afford it."

  "Can you?" his ward said doubtfully.

  "Certainly . I'm a very rich man," Justin Yorke stated dispassionately.

  "Are you? I thought "

  "What did you think?" he inquired with real interest, as she paused.

  Norma recalled all that Mrs. Parry had told her, and said diffidently; "I imagined it was because you were not frightfully rich that you didn't buy back Munley Towers."

  The moment she had spoken, Norma realized how naive this sounded. But, apparently, her guardian took the observation for a perfectly reasonable one.

  "That isn't a question of money, unfortunately," he told her, "Inworth doesn't choose to sell. That's all."

  "Oh, I see! Then that makes it much more complicated, doesn't it?" Norma spoke with sympathetic earnestness.

  "More complicated? In what way?"

  "I mean if it's not just a question of getting sufficient money together, it's rather hopeless to think of ever buying back the place."

  "Not necessarily," her guardian said, and turned away. Then, with his back still to her, he added coolly: "One day I shall find something that Inworth wants very much. Then I dare say we shall talk business."

  He spoke quite lightly, and, for a moment, Norma thought he was speaking in joke. Then it suddenly came to her that, not only was he speaking in perfect seriousness, but that what he had said was, in some way, of extreme significance.

  The discovery startled her so profoundly that she was unable to find any words. But apparently her guardian expected no reply, and, in any case, an entirely new turn was given to her thoughts by a servant coming in just then to s
ay that Mrs. Cantlin had called.

  There was the very slightest pause before Justin Yorke said: "Oh, show her in here, please, at once."

  And, when the servant had gone again, he gave Norma a speculative glance which, to her great annoyance, made her blush.

  However, he made no comment, and, a moment later Mrs. Cantlin was shown into the room.

  Xenia Cantlin was almost as pretty as it is possible to be. She must undoubtedly have been a very pretty baby and would certainly one day be a very pretty old lady. At the moment, she looked a very pretty woman of thirty-four and must have been about forty-five.

  As she came forward, with an outstretched hand and the most charming smile, Norma saw immediately what Paul had meant by her "small-boned elegance,"

  and she thought she had never seen such beautifully dressed dark hair, or such truly violet eyes.

  Possibly even her not altogether willing host was softened by her appearance, because he said: "My dear Xenia, this is charming of you. It's longer than I like to think since you came to Bishopstone."

  Somehow, Norma had not at all expected that Paul's mother and her guardian would be on a Christian names footing. And she came forward, somewhat reassured, to be introduced.

  "So this is the beautiful ward?" Mrs. Cantlin examined her with smiling approval. "I assure you, Justin, that my boy brought such a glowing account of her that it's vulgar curiosity, as much as anything else, that has brought me here this afternoon."

  "You really mustn't turn Norma's head," Justin Yorke said, "I'm so new to my guardianly duties that I'm quite sure I should have no idea how to handle a conceited ward."

  "And I am quite sure that you would know how to handle anyone," retorted Mrs. Cantlin. "You know exactly how to twist everyone round your little finger and get just what you want."

  "You have quite an exaggerated idea of my powers," her host assured her with a cold smile which, however, appeared to have no chilling effect on Xenia Cantlin.

  "Well, I mean to do some twisting round my little finger this afternoon," she explained, with a simplicity of tactics which left Norma gasping. "Can we have Norma up at Fairlees for the day sometime soon?"

  "But, of course," Justin Yorke assured her smoothly.

  "It's very kind of you to ask her." And Norma began to wonder why there had been so much fuss about the difficulties of persuading her guardian to let her go to the Cantlins.

  "That's splendid," announced Mrs. Cantlin with decision. "Now, which day shall it be, Norma?"

  But before Norma could open her lips to answer, her guardian said: "If you don't mind, we won't fix a day until rather later in the holiday. Norma has had a very stiff term at school, and is tired enough to want to take things quietly, for the moment. But, later on, I'm sure she will be delighted to come."

  "Nonsense, Justin," retorted their visitor, with a brisk air of contradiction which Norma could only admire. "That child's bursting with health and vitality. Stiff term, indeed! What girl, with all that sparkle and energy, ever had too stiff a term to start enjoying her holidays right away?"

  Norma so entirely agreed with this view that she smiled in sympathy. But again her guardian spoke before she could.

  "There will be plenty of time for Norma to enjoy herself later. I think you'll find that she prefers to postpone the visit for the moment. Isn't that so, my dear?"

  And he turned and fixed Norma with his cold blue eyes.

  With genuine horror, she realized that she was suddenly right up against something on which she and her guardian were to disagree badly. He had no intention whatever, she knew, that the postponed visit should ever take place. He was merely arranging to

  cut her connection with Paul now, quite finally, though without, of course, giving Mrs. Cantlin cause for open offence.

  If she agreed to say the words he was putting into her mouth, he and Mrs. Cantlin too would know that she had accepted defeat. And, at the thought that Paul would be annoyed and perhaps hurt by such a course, Norma knew suddenly that she could not do it. She would not be guilty of dropping even a very new friend because of what she took to be a guardianly caprice.

  So, though her heart beat fast at the thought that she was actually defying her guardian, she said firmly: "No, Mr. Yorke. As a matter of fact, I'd love to go and see Mrs. Cantlin one day this week. And I'm not a bit tired or anything."

  She was not at all sure how the cold intensity of her guardian's anger was conveyed to her. She only knew that the chill of his displeasure seemed to reach her very heart.

  And yet all he said was: "Very well, my dear. If you feel like that, you have only to arrange a day that will suit Mrs. Cantlin."

  "Friday, then. And do come to us for early lunch and stay until after dinner," cried Mrs. Cantlin, not attempting to disguise her pleasure in her victory.

  "Thank you very much." Norma's sense of triumph was horribly subdued. "Friday will do beautifully.

  At least" she glanced at her guardian, almost appealingly" that will be all right, won't it?"

  "Perfectly all right," he said without even looking at her. And Norma felt an entirely illogical sense of dismay.

  Having accomplished exactly what she had come to do, Mrs. Cantlin did not prolong her call.

  "Paul will fetch you on Friday, dear," she promised Norma kindly, as she was going.

  "That really isn't necessary, unless it's a very long way to go," Norma said hastily, feeling that the sight of Paul might incense her guardian further.

  "Oh , it's quite a mile, I should say," explained Mrs. Cantlin, who was obviously no walker. "Wouldn't you, Justin?"

  "No," her host stated disagreeably. "I should say it's very little more than half a mile. Particularly if Norma goes by way of the spruce plantation."

  "Oh , that way yes. But does she know the way?" "I will show her the way," said Norma's guardian.

  But he still spoke as though neither she nor the expedition held the slightest interest for him.

  "Very well," Mrs. Cantlin said, and went away smiling. If she had been a cat, she would undoubtedly have been purring.

  In her nervous anxiety, Norma had supposed that there might be something of a scene when their visitor had gone. But there was not a hint of such a thing.

  Her guardian merely continued to ignore her presence, and went off to his study, without a word to her.

  After a while, Norma rather disconsolately sought Mrs. Parry's company, because an unusual thing with her own company seemed extremely distasteful to her.

  "May I come in and talk to you Mrs. Parry?"

  Norma stood in the doorway of the housekeeper's room, looking more forlorn than she knew.

  "Why, yes, Miss Norma. Come in." Mrs. Parry looked up from her sewing, touched and faintly gratified by Norma's obvious need of her. "Sit down in that big chair there, and make yourself comfortable." Then, as Norma gratefully did so, she added, as a slightly disturbed afterthought, "Where is Mr. Yorke?"

  "He's gone to his study."

  "He'll be attending to his correspondence, I expect," the housekeeper said, as though she thought Norma needed some reassurance on this point.

  "I think he's very cross with me, Mrs. Parry."

  "Oh, no, Miss Norma! You've no call to think that, I'm sure. Sometimes he's a bit cold in his manner and unsympathetic, but that doesn't mean anything."

  Both of them knew that, whatever his moods, it was seldom that they "didn't mean anything," and the housekeeper's tone lacked conviction, though she would obviously have liked to reassure Norma.

  "Mrs. Parry, why doesn't he like the Cantlins?" asked Norma impulsively.

  "What makes you think he doesn't, Miss Norma?

  Mrs. Cantlin is quite an old neighbour. I think they respect and like each other quite well," Mrs. Parry stated conscientiously.

  "But he doesn't want me to be friends with them."

  Mrs. Parry glanced at Norma curiously and didn't answer at once. Then she said again: "What makes you think he doesn't?"

&n
bsp; "Why, when Mrs. Cantlin came just now and asked me over for the day after to-morrow, he tried as hard as anything to make me say 'no,' and I wouldn't, and he's terribly angry. I know he is."

  "Perhaps it would have been better to have said 'no,' Miss Norma," said the housekeeper dryly at last.

  "But I wanted to go, Mrs. Parry. And there-wasn't any reason why I shouldn't. At least, I can't think of any."

  "Mr. Yorke won't think it necessary for you always to understand the reasons for what he does," Mrs.

  Parry observed. "Nor for what he expects you to do," she added as an afterthought.

  "But that's an awful way to go on," cried Norma indignantly. "I'm sure he wouldn't be so unreasonable.

  He's so kind to me in nearly everything. Surely he wouldn't expect me to obey blindly and without question over something that was just caprice or prejudice."

  Mrs. Parry didn't answer at once. Perhaps she thought these were unsuitably strong words for any ward to use of her guardian.

  Then at last she seemed to decide to say rather more than had at first been her intention.

  "Miss Norma," she said gravely, "Mr. Yorke is a man who likes his own way. It's perfectly true that he'll be kind to you over most things. But, in return, he won't expect you to oppose him in anything. Perhaps it would be just as well if you realized that right away. You'll be happier and well, things will go. more smoothly that way. It's just the same with the staff," she added half to herself.

  "How do you mean it's just the same with the staff?" inquired Norma, a good deal disturbed.

  "Good wages, good conditions, and no questions asked," replied Mrs. Parry succinctly.

  Norma was silent, staring rather dismayedly at the housekeeper.

  She was not naturally a rebellious type. But the idea of blind obedience, for obedience's sake, revolted both her commonsense and her natural independence.

  Besides blind obedience in this case meant giving up her friendship with Paul Cantlin. And that she was not prepared to do.

  "I don't want to seem tiresome or unreasonable," she said at last, with a sigh. "Perhaps if I have a talk with Mr. Yorbe and explain how I feel about things, we might we might arrive at a compromise."