note in his voice sent a prickle of tense awareness down her spine.
She said, 'It's hardly any wonder Crispin vanishes if you—persecute
him like this.'
Flynn laughed. 'Persecute, is it?' he queried mockingly. He shook
his head. 'Maybe I'm just trying to redress the balance of a lifetime
of indulgence from Magda, in the first place, and a succession of
pretty little blondes like yourself in the second.' v Sandie hoped she
had concealed the pang his words had caused. She said curtly, 'Well,
you can exclude me from that category, Mr Killane. As I've tried to
make clear to you more than once, I'm here to work.'
'Of
course. How could
I
have forgotten?' The blue eyes swept her
mockingly once more. 'You're the very epitome of what a working
girl should be.'
She bit her lip. 'I'd be in the music room at this moment, if you
hadn't driven Crispin away.'
'I'll try and remember what a sensitive soul he is in future,' said
Flynn. He gave her a last, derisive look, clicked his tongue to the
horse, and moved off, breaking into an easy canter.
'Can't he just ride!' James said enviously, spreading out his towel
and throwing himself down on to it. 'O'Flaherty says he could have
been world class, better even than his father, if he'd stuck to it
instead of commerce.' He sighed. 'We wish he'd come back here for
good, don't we, Steffie? Then maybe he'd have us with him all the
time.'
With a pang of sympathy Sandie remembered what Crispin had told
her of the twins' background.
'But this really is your home, isn't it?'
The two exchanged rueful glances. 'Well, it is and it isn't,' Steffie
said reluctantly. 'We're away at boarding school mostly, and
sometimes, when Mother's touring, she arranges holidays for us with
friends of hers—people who owe her favours—but we'd rather be
here.'
'Only Flynn doesn't come as often as he used to,' James said
mournfully. 'O'Flaherty says he gets sick, as who wouldn't, of
having a decent house turned into a class of rehearsal-room.'
'Apart from the fact that he and Crispin hate each other,' Steffie
added.
Sandie was aware she probably shouldn't be listening to all this, but
found it quite irresistible.
She said tentatively, 'I suppose—your brother tends to feel the odd
one out, with all this music?'
'It's not just that,' James said scornfully. 'Flynn and Crispin always
fought like cat and dog, generally over women,' he added with a
worldly air. 'Mrs Doherty from the gift shop says they were a pair of
devils, always stealing and snatching each other's girls, and that
nothing in a skirt was safe from them from here to Dublin.'
Sandie's brows drew together. 'I don't think we should be talking
like this about your brothers' private affairs,' she said stiltedly.
The twins looked at each other and hooted. 'There wasn't much
private about them. The world and his wife had them under
discussion,' Steffie told her kindly. 'They'll be talking about you
next.'
'Well, I'd prefer them not. to,' Sandie said hotly. 'Besides, there's
nothing to talk about.'
'Except that Flynn and Crispin have been bawling each other out
ever since you got here.' James gave her an angelic smile.
'And I don't understand the reason,' Sandie said despairingly. 'Why
does Flynn resent my being here?'
'Oh, he doesn't approve because of Francesca.'
'Francesca?' Sandie echoed slowly. 'Who is Francesca?'
The twins collapsed into paroxysms of mirth again.
'God, don't you know anything?' Steffie demanded between giggles.
'Why, she's Crispin's wife, of course.'
Sandie felt as if she'd been turned to stone. Crispin was—married?
But it wasn't possible. She'd never heard any mention of a wife in
any of the publicity about him. And if it was true, why hadn't he told
her?
All at once the little secret dreams she'd been harbouring about him
seemed not merely pathetic, but dangerous.
She drew a breath. 'I really shouldn't be letting you tell me these
things. It isn't right...'
'Who's to hear us?' James asked practically. 'Anyway, you needn't
consider us. We're used to broken homes round here.'
'And you don't have to worry,' Steffie added kindly. 'She and Crispin
were always rowing at each other. In the end she walked out on him.
She hasn't been back for two years, so he'll be about ready to fall in
love again.'
'But you can't expect Flynn to be too pleased. Apart from anything,
Francesca's parents still live over there at Croaig Mhor. And people
round here still look down their noses at divorced people. Mrs
Cadogan from the hotel says Mother is forgiven because she was
widowed from her first true husband besides being a great artist, and
judged differently from the rest of us.'
'Now look,' Sandie said with a touch of desperation as she digested
all this, 'you mustn't get the wrong idea. I've come to Killane to—to
play the piano, that's all.'
Another glance was exchanged and two heads nodded wisely.
'That's what Francesca used to say, every time she came over to the
house. She was a pianist too,' said James, and grinned at her.
'In fact when you walked in yesterday, we all thought...' Steffie
paused with a yelp, as James gave her a shrewd kick.
'Yes?' Sandie prompted rather tautly. 'What did you all think,
precisely?'
'Oh, it doesn't matter,' Steffie mumbled after a pause. 'I think I'll go
for another swim.'
It was clear the twins had decided they'd been indiscreet enough for
one day, Sandie thought as she reached for her jeans. The sun was
still blazing down, but she felt suddenly icily cold. She had to force
herself to speak normally.
'I think I'd better be getting back to the house. I— I ought to
practise...'
'Can you find your own way?' James asked. 'We'll stay here for a
while.'
'I'll be fine,' Sandie agreed hastily.
She was trembling as she cycled off, her mind dazedly trying to
make some kind of sense out of what she'd been told. At least some
of the question marks which had been hanging over her since she'd
arrived at Killane had now been answered, but not in the way she'd
expected or wanted, she thought forlornly.
And it explained some of Flynn Killane's hostility too, but not all.
What right has he to set himself up as some kind of moral arbiter on
Crispin, anyway? she asked herself angrily. He's nothing but a
hypocrite, if what the twins said is true.
Stealing and snatching, she thought, and grimaced. She couldn't
imagine any woman in her right mind preferring a boor and a bully
like Flynn to Crispin. And If Crispin made a mistake in marrying
this Francesca, that surely doesn't mean he has to forfeit all future
chance of happiness, she argued.
Flynn Killane seemed to be taking his self-assumed responsibilities
as head of the house much too far. But he won't win, Sandie
thought, lifting her face defiantly to the breeze. He won't spoil
things. Because I won't let him.
And she shivered suddenly, as she was struck by the absurd
conviction that—somewhere, somehow— Flynn Killane had heard
her silent challenge—and accepted it.
THE music helped, as it always did. As Sandie played, she felt her
inner turmoil quietly subsiding as all her emotional concentration
became centred on the notes she was trying to interpret.
Magda, she thought, would have nothing to complain of tomorrow.
As she played, she was marginally conscious of the panorama of
lake and trees outside the huge window. The sight of the sun
sparkling on the water seemed to calm and uplift her at the same
time.
It was amazing, she thought, that someone as basically insensitive
and—earthy—as Flynn Killane could have deliberately provided
such an environment for the making of music, when it was
something he didn't even approve of.
But then he was obviously a mass of contradictions, she decided
with a shrug, and certainly not worth the amount of mental energy
she seemed to be expending on him. But it was hard to dismiss him
completely from her thoughts in the light of the twins' revelations,
she told herself with an odd defensiveness.
And it was infuriating the way he kept intruding between her
consciousness and the things that really mattered—like Crispin's
Elegy,
for example.
She took up it up and placed it on the stand, studying it frowningly,
trying over a few of the opening chords. It was an amazingly
complex composition, and far more technically demanding than
anything she'd ever attempted in the past. But then Crispin had
criticised her for being unadventurous, she thought with a mental
shrug. Perhaps this was his way of launching her into the musical
deeps.
She struggled with it for half an hour, then put it aside with a sigh,
glad that he hadn't been around to hear her fumblings after all. But
at the same time she couldn't help wishing that he'd stayed—given
her his support—even explained exactly why Flynn was gunning for
her.
Flynn again, she realised with total exasperation. And until she
could dismiss him and his machinations from her brain, she was
simply wasting her time here. She glanced at her watch and saw it
was getting late. So it was probably best to call it a day, anyway.
She closed the piano and went up to her room to change for dinner.
'So there you are!' Crispin was standing beside the window.
'Darling, where on earth have you been? Bridie said you'd gone out
somewhere with the twins.'
'I did—for a little while. We went swimming. But I've been back for
ages—in the music room.'
'Well, it doesn't matter,' he said dismissively. 'Hurry up and change,
my sweet, and I'll take you out for a meal.'
Her heart skipped a beat. 'I—I don't think that would be very
sensible, in the circumstances.'
'What on earth are you talking about?' His brows drew together.
Sandie bit her lip. 'Crispin, why didn't you tell me you were
married?'
'So that's it,' he said ruefully. 'My poor sweet, have you been
worrying your head off about the fact that I have a wife somewhere?
Because you really needn't, you know. Come out to dinner with me,
and I'll tell you all about it.'
'Do you think we should?'
'Well, it will certainly be less wearing on the nervous system than
eating here, and a damned sight more private,' he said shortly. 'I
gather Magda worked a miracle and persuaded Flynn you were
staying.'
'Yes, she did,' Sandie bit her lip. 'But I think slie may be regretting
it. Our—first session didn't go terribly well this morning.'
'Well, that was rather silly, sweetheart. Particularly when she's gone
out of her way to help you.'
'I'm sorry,' Sandie said rather coolly, stung by the note of censure in
his voice. 'But you weren't the only one to have—a traumatic
interview with the master of the house today.'
Crispin sent her a repentant look. 'My poor girl! Was he a swine to
you?'
'Yes,' she said baldly. She hesitated. 'Crispin, do you really think it
was a good idea to bring me here- all things considered?'
'Darling, I didn't know Flynn was going to descend on. as like a ton
of bricks. He normally avoids the place like the plague when we're
all here, and especially when I'm among those present. But you don't
have to worry. He'll be gone soon, I promise.' He ran a smiling but
at the same time critical eye over her casual attire. 'Now be quick
and put on something pretty for me.'
Sandie noted with dismay that he showed no signs of taking his
departure. Surely he didn't intend to stay in the room while she
changed her clothes? Perhaps it was the kind of thing other girls
took in their stride, but it was altogether too intimate a situation for
her to handle this early in their relationship—especially when she
didn't even know if there could be a relationship.
She said stiltedly. 'I'll—see you downstairs, shall I?'
His brows lifted. 'Turning me out, sweetheart? Well, I'll accept it
this time—but you won't be shy of me forever, will you?'
She bent her head. 'I—I don't know. Crispin, I'm not sure what to
think any more.'
Crispin smiled, brushing her heated cheek with a careless finger as