The Last of the Kintyres (9 page)

“No,” she said. “No.” But inwardly she was trembling. It was as if his kiss had been real.

CHAPTER
FOUR

AT one o’clock they reached the hotel where Hew had ordered lunch and were immediately accosted by a breezy voice.

“Hullo, there!” said a man coming down from the cocktail bar with a drink in his hand. “What brings you to Oban on a fine day like this, Hew, and at such an unlikely hour?”

Hew wheeled round in the direction of the voice, his hand shooting out instantly in welcome.

“Steve!” he said. “You old fraud! I thought you were on your way to America?”

“So I was, until Thyra let me down.”

“It wouldn’t be
Naomi,
by any chance?” Hew laughed. “You ought to buy a decent boat, you know!”

“There isn’t a better little yacht this side of the Atlantic! But don’t let’s go into all that again, shall we? I’m waiting to be introduced!”

Hew turned to put a hand under Elizabeth’s elbow, drawing her forward.

“This is Stephen Friend,” he said without hesitation. “Commander Friend, R.N., to give him his full title! He’s a very near neighbour of ours at Ardlamond when he is content to stay in these parts. Stephen—Miss Stanton.”

Elizabeth’s fingers were gripped in a close, warm handshake and Stephen Friend looked deeply into her eyes. What he might be searching for in that first moment of contact, she could not say, but he gave a little nod which seemed to indicate that he had found it. His eyes were the bluest she had ever seen. They were frank and twinkling and hidden in a network of tiny wrinkles as if their owner laughed often, enjoying life to the full. He was not a very tall man, with an amazing breadth of shoulder which seemed to detract even from the height he had, but everything about him
suggested that he was an honest man. In a word, Elizabeth mused, he had the look of the sea about him.

“You’re staying in Oban?” he asked
.

“No—at Ardlamond.”

Commander Friend looked surprised.

“Miss Stanton’s brother was made my father’s ward,” Hew supplied. “They arrived at Ardlamond the day he died.”

“I only heard this morning.” Stephen Friend gave Hew a brief, sympathetic look which seemed to suffice between them. “We were down on the Solent when it happened. I’m sorry I didn’t know in time, Hew.”

“I realized that something of the sort must have happened,” Hew said. “Imogen wired me yesterday.”

“She’s been in Edinburgh,” Stephen said, “But she’s coming home.” He glanced towards the double doors leading into the dining-room. “Look here,” he suggested, “if you’re having lunch why not share my table? I’m completely on my own. I promise I won’t talk boats once during the meal if you do!”

“It’s a bargain!” Hew decided.

“I haven’t heard your news for months,” Stephen complained when they were settled at a window table overlooking the bay. “Nor you mine.” He turned to Elizabeth with his quick smile. “This is going to be tough on you, Miss Stanton,” he warned. “The fact is that Hew and I haven’t seen each other for six months, and that’s quite something. Now that I’m going to settle down at home we really must get up to date.”

“You’re what?” Hew asked incredulously.

“Going to settle down. Don’t grin derisively,” Stephen smiled. “It’s quite true. I’ve decided that I really ought to make a proper home for Imogen, and Thyra’s of the same mind. She says it’s about time I gave up wandering around the world in a boat and did something about Glenisla.”

“Thyra always retained a sensible approach to life,” Hew reflected, the smile still lingering in his eyes. “Has Imogen left school, then?”

“Six months ago. She’s seventeen, y’know. Time passes, old man, even though you might not notice it living up here in your splendid isolation!”

For the second time he gave Hew a quick, probing look, as if he would discover any change there might be in his friend’s attitude to life, and what he saw did not appear to put his mind at rest, for his dark brows drew together in a worried frown. In the next instant, however, he had turned back to Elizabeth with a smile.

“If you’re going to be any length of time at Ardlamond,” he suggested, “I’d like you to meet my sister. I think Imogen and you might get on very well. My other sister, Thyra, is married and lives on the Isle of Wight—at Bemberg. She will be up with her husband later for a week with the guns when her two boys go back to school. Imogen is coming over from Edinburgh next week. What age is your brother?” he asked, as if statement and question must necessarily be linked.

“Tony is nineteen,” Elizabeth told him almost too eagerly, thinking that here might be the natural antidote to Caroline Hayler, as far as Tony was concerned. “He’s a little lost at the moment, having left most of his friends behind him in London.”

“We’ll have to do something about that,” Stephen agreed. “Especially if he’s going to stay for any length of time.” He glanced at Hew. “Have you settled anything about Ardlamond yet?” he asked.

“Only that I have taken over,” Hew said.

“And Whitefarland?”

Elizabeth’s heart gave an uneasy lurch, because she knew how much Hew cared about the farm.

“Whitefarland will have to go,” he said briefly.

“Isn’t that rather a pity?” Stephen asked. “Isn’t there someone who could take it on?”

“Not anyone who hadn’t a great deal of money to spend on it,” Hew answered. “It’s been ticking over and no more.”

“I see.” Stephen evidently decided to leave his questioning there. “Well, I guess you’ll have your hands full at Ardlamond,” he mused. “You’ll want to keep everything as it was.”

“That is my idea,” Hew said, as the waiter came to change their plates.

During the remainder of the meal Stephen Friend kept up a lively flow of conversation which did not touch too closely on Ardlamond, although it could not entirely avoid some mention of Hew’s home. When they were ready to leave he looked closely at Elizabeth and said:

“If your brother fancies a day’s sailing bring him over to Glenisla. He can have his choice of dinghy racing or the big stuff. Imogen’s tremendously keen on dinghies,” he added briefly.

Without quite knowing why, Elizabeth felt that she had made a new friend. The second in twenty-four hours, she smiled, as she remembered Shona Lorimer and the kindness she had been shown at Ravenscraig. Shona’s name had cropped up more than once in their conversation over lunch, and it was evident that Stephen’s respect for her was no less than Hew’s.

“I’ll see you at the Trials, I expect,” he said as they were about to leave.

“Yes,” Elizabeth said, “I hope so.”

Suddenly Stephen stiffened as he looked beyond her to the revolving doors, and she saw his eyes narrow and all the kindness go out of his face.

“We’ve got company, I’m afraid,” he said in a clipped tone which made his pleasant voice sound cold and distant.

Elizabeth and Hew turned together to see Caroline coming across the foyer towards them. She was immaculately dressed in the finest of Italian knitwear, her hair blown a little by the wind as she had run up the outside steps from her car.

“I spotted the Daimler in the car park,
Hew,” she informed him after the briefest of nods in Stephen Friend’s direction. “I was on my way back to Ravenscraig.” She glanced from Hew to Elizabeth with slightly calculating eyes. “But perhaps there was no need for me to do that,” she added. “I take it that Tony is all right when you have come away so quickly.”

“He appears to have been lucky,” Hew told her. “I don’t think there’s any need for you to go to Ravenscraig, Caroline.”

She took time to study him coolly.

“I suppose not,” she admitted with a shrug. “I was rather anxious because I believed myself responsible, but now that everything has worked out smoothly we needn’t worry any more.”

She spread her hands in a small, deprecating gesture which infuriated Elizabeth, who had noticed it before.

“It may not have worked out quite so smoothly as you think,” Hew was forced to remind her. “There’s still the little matter of your car.”

“Oh, don’t worry about that,” Caroline assured him. “I’ll get it fixed. You are an old, worrying dear,” she added with a smile,
li
nking her arm in his. “Come up and buy me a drink and forget about it. I have another car.”

He glanced at his watch.

“I must get back,” he said. “I have to phone the po
li
ce before three, and I think you had better contact them as well. One can’t just go leaving a
n
unattended car in a ditch without some sort of reference being made to it.”

Caro
li
ne bit her
li
p, but she said contritely enough: “I really am sorry about all this, Hew. You having so much unnecessary trouble, I mean. But I wish you would come with me when I go to see about the car. I know I sha
ll
speak entirely out of turn and cause a whole lot of needless questioning. I never could resist having a jab at the local constable!”

“It rarely pays,” Hew returned dryly. “I’ll go along with you if you think it will help, though.”

“I’m sure it wi
ll
!” There was triumph in her tone. “And Commander Friend can amuse Elizabeth while she’s waiting for you.”

Hew turned to look at Elizabeth.

“I’m sorry about this,” he apologized. “But I think it ought to be cleared up right away, if we can manage it.”

“Of course,” she tried to smile, but her lips felt stiff and, somehow, Caroline seemed to have won a victory. “I don’t mind waiting.”

“Come along and see my boat,” Stephen invited, taking her by the arm. “In spite of what Hew says about her, she’s a beauty!”

“I can see you’ve entirely lost your heart to her!” Elizabeth smiled as they went out into the sunshine together.

“To Caroline? Good heavens, she’s the last person on earth I would care to trust with a heart—or anything, else!”

“I
didn’t mean Mrs. Hayler,” Elizabeth said in a small, tight voice. “I was thinking about your yacht—
Naomi,
isn’t it?”

“But you do agree—wholeheartedly—about Caroline,” he reflected without answering her question. “She’s a first-class nuisance, to say the least of her, and I’m sorry if Hew has forgiven her for what she did to him four years ago.”

“Perhaps he never really fell out of love with her,” Elizabeth suggested.

“He should have done, by all the rules. And Hew’s not the type to forgive and forget easily. It was a sort of nine days’ wonder in these parts when she went off and married someone else. Of course,” he added dryly, “the old chap had plenty of money.”

Elizabeth did not want to go on talking about Caroline, and Hew and the past, not even with kind, generous Stephen Friend.

“
Tell me about
Naomi
,”
she prompted.

His smile was quick and boyishly pleased.

“Come and see for yourself,” he invited. “Hew is likely to be some time with the police.”

And Caroline, Elizabeth thought. Caroline had wanted Hew to herself and she had won her point, but perhaps she had a right to claim his services and his attention.

Stephen handed her into the trim white launch which lay moored at the jetty steps and they cut through the calm water of the bay.

“Here we are!” Stephen said, throttling back the engine as they picked their way between the trim craft dotted all over the anchorage. “The good ship
Naomi
at your service, ma’am!”

“She’s utterly lovely!” Elizabeth’s eyes were bright with admiration for the graceful little ketch riding at anchor just ahead of them. “Like a white, floating bird!”

He surveyed her with deepening interest.

“You sound as if you might be my sort of girl!” he told her laughingly. “Come aboard and I’ll show you how she sails.”

Elizabeth hesitated, not quite sure what to do.

“Do you think we ought to? Today, I mean. You see,” she explained impulsively, “I don’t want to keep Hew waiting unnecessarily. Tony and I have caused so much trouble already—coming to Ardlamond. Hew couldn’t have wanted to take on the responsibility of having Tony as a ward, and now there’s been this accident and he finds himself involved quite deeply right away.”

Stephen caught hold of the yacht’s gunwale to steady them as he shut off the launch’s engine.

“So that’s the way of it,” he mused. “I wondered why you looked so concerned about everything.” He gave her a brief, thoughtful look. “Hew would take on all his father’s commitments, I guess. He’d settle for the lot. What about you?” he asked abruptly.

She looked puzzled.

“Have you no say in the matter?” he asked.

A faint colour stained her cheeks.

“Not really,” she confessed. “And I don’t suppose I should interfere. My mother thought that Tony might benefit by a steadying hand.”

He put his own hand out to cover hers.

“Don’t worry,” he advised. “These sort of things invariably straighten themselves out in the end, and Hew isn’t nearly so impatient as he might seem.”

“But Tony is!” Elizabeth answered ruefully. “He’s terribly impatient, and he’s going to resent it dreadfully if Hew decides to adopt a disciplinary attitude, even over small things.”

“He’ll learn!” Stephen grinned. “We all do. And we must see that Hew isn’t too hard on him. Between us,” he added with a twinkle in his blue eyes, “we ought to be able to lick ’em both into shape!”

But what about Caroline? It wouldn’t be so easy to deal with Caroline, Elizabeth knew, especially as she already distrusted Stephen.

That had been quite plain to be seen as soon as they had met. Caroline knew that Stephen resented her because of her treatment of Hew in the past, but so often a clever woman was more than a match for a man. Especially a straightforward, generous type of man like Stephen Friend.

“Come on aboard,” he urged, holding out his hand. “I promise I won’t let you keep Hew waiting for more than five minutes. We can see his car coming back along the front. We’ll sail round Kerrera, which shouldn’t take us more than an hour in this wind.” After that, argument seemed ungrateful, and she really was anxious to go, if only to establish some sort of contact between this man and Tony. He had promised so much—a clean, invigorating sport, young company, and, by no means least, his own guidance where her brother was concerned. A week or two in Commander Friend’s company, Elizabeth felt certain, would add enormously to Tony’s stature and perhaps make things easier in the future for both Hew and himself.

She looked at Stephen and felt a tremendous gratitude, and he smiled back at her
with a new light in his eyes.

Up till now—and he was thirty-two—he had never allowed any woman to dominate his life. He had sailed the Seven Seas, in the course of duty and for his own pleasure, and always the sea and the ship that skimmed over it had taken first place in his heart. But now— now that he was ready to settle down with only the odd trip to satisfy the sea-hunger in him—he supposed he ought to think about falling in love.

The idea had never occurred to him until now. Not too seriously, anyway, but a week before he had made a promise to his elder sister in Bemberg, and he meant to keep it. The home which had been so well-beloved to them all in their youth was his, and he had promised to open it permanently now that Imogen had put her schooldays behind her.

Things had worked out well enough when there had been only holidays to consider, the brief vacations which could be spent as easily at Bemberg as in Scotland, but Thyra quite often went abroad with her husband for long periods in between, and so Glenisla was the answer.

He was glad, he supposed, that it had come to a final decision. He had been more or less ready to give up his roving and come home.

Sitting with Elizabeth in the deep well of the ketch which had carried him so gallantly across distant seas, he watched the white sails fill out and felt deeply content, as if a door had been unexpectedly opened to show him a bright glimpse of the future.

Elizabeth listened to him discussing the set of the sails and the run of the tide with the deck-hand who had come forward and saluted them as they came aboard, and it seemed to her that they were moving in a vaguely happy dream. This swift and silent winging over the water was a new and wonderful experience for her, and her only regret was that Hew was not by her side.

Yet Hew himself would probably have reminded her that he had little time for sailing idly across a pleasant sea. He would be busy this very minute about the task of
eliminating
Tony’s impulsive folly, and suddenly she felt guilty and more deeply ashamed than ever.

When they came again into the shelter of Oban’s blue and peaceful harbour she knew herself relieved in spite of the pleasure of the trip.

Just before the launch reached the jetty they saw the Daimler coming slowly along the promenade. Hew was in it alone.

“Looks as if he’s jettisoned Mrs. Hayler somewhere,” Stephen observed with strange satisfaction. “One could almost hope that the police have taken her into custody. That’s the only place Caroline would be really harmless!”