The pretty witch Read online

  CHAPTER FOUR

  LUCIFER had promised he would expect her to work extra hours to make up for the time they had spent at the show, and Isobel was not really surprised to find that he had meant it. In fact he kept her working late for the next week or more and she began to wonder if he intended making it a regular thing. Nigel took her continued long hours as a personal affront and he made no secret of his resentment when Lucifer lunched with his grandmother again one Sunday. Isobel too, had been invited and she kept her eyes lowered discreetly whefi Nigel tackled his brother about her working late so often. 'You delight in disrupting people's lives, don't you?' he accused, and Lucifer smiled. 'I didn't know I was doing anything so dramatic,' he said. 'Disrupting people's lives is rather overdoing it, surely.' 'I don't think so,' Nigel argued. 'You know Isobel spends her free time with me and you're just damned selfish enough to keep her late every night because you know it upsets our plans.' 'I never even gave you a thought,' Lucifer admitted blandly. 'Exactlyl' Nigel glared at him so hard that even Isobel found it difficult not to see how self-righteous it made him look. 'As for plans ' A black brow arched curiously. 'Come on, Nigel, you can't possibly go anywhere plastered up like that.' 'Lucifer!' Mrs. Grayson shook her head at him, but 55 Isobel recognized the customary indulgence even in the reproach. 'Poor Nigel has enough to contend with without you being so callous about it.' 'I'm not being callous,' Lucifer protested mildly. 'But where can he go trussed up like that? I've offered to take him out in the car to give him a change of air and environment, but he turned up his nose at the offer. He won't budge anywhere.' 'It's difficult,' the old lady told him, seeing his point of view as usual. 'Being driven when you're used to driving can't be much fun.' 'It isn't,' Nigel declared bluntly. 'Especially when he drives like a maniac in that ghastly little horror of his.' 'Like a maniac?' The black eyes turned appealingly to Isobel and her heart sank at the prospect of either lying or having to side with him against Nigel. 'Isobel, be honest now, do I drive like a maniac?' She was very tempted to lie, but she knew she would never be able to while he watched her like that, so instead she did her best to compromise. "You certainly drive very fast,' she said after a moment's hesitation, 'but but you seem to have good control, so I suppose it's safe enough.' His gaze mocked her reticence and she knew Nigel was even less pleased with her answer. 'There you are,"- Lucifer told him. 'Grudging admission, but admission just the same.' He looked at his brother, his eyes wickedly black. 'One thing about my driving, old boy,' he added softly, 'at least I'm all in one piece, aren't I?' Oh, that was cruel!' Isobel objected, and even Nigel blinked at the vehemence of her protest, while Lucifer looked actually surprised, the first time she had ever seen such an expression on his face. 'It was unkind, Lucifer,' Mrs. Grayson told him. 'All right, all right!' He held up his hands as if in de56 fence. 'I'm sorry I was cruel to poor Nigel and I'm sorry I kept poor Isobel from being with him. O.K.?' 'Of course.' It was the old lady who answered for them, only too ready to accept his apparently sincere apology. 'No one holds it against you, but you really shouldn't make Isobel work so hard and so late.' 'I don't think I do,' he argued, and Isobel saw the strong jaw set stubbornly. 'I know she works hard,-but not too hard, and there may come a time when there's very little for her to do at all. She has to take the rough with the smooth, she knows that.' The black eyes flicked briefly to his brother before settling on Isobel, curious and a little puzzled. 'Has she been complaining to you?' he asked Nigel. 'N0, of course she hasn't,' Nigel said, Tsobel's a good worker, but ' "Then why try to make her otherwise?' Lucifer interrupted. 'I have to agree with Nigel on that point, Lucifer,' Mrs. Grayson said, obviously reluctant to speak her mind. 'Just lately you've kept her very late and almost every night.' Isobel noted the barely discernible tightening of his wide straight mouth as he looked at her. 'Everyone seems to think I treat you very badly, Isobel,' he said quietly, the dark eyes compelling her to look at him. 'Have you any complaints?' She felt herself the target for three pairs of eyes, but it was Lucifer's that still held her gaze. 'No.' She shook her head. 'No, I don't mind having to work late. I - I knew I would have to sometimes.' 'But not all the time,' Nigel insisted, angry because she was not supporting him. 'I scarcely ever see you before half past eight in the evening now.' . . 'But it's not permanent, Nigel.' She sought to stem the temper she could see threatening. 'And I do spend every 57 evening with you, which I never did in town.' 'I know you do, but that was the idea of having you here, so that I could see more of you.' The admission sent Lucifer's black brows swiftly upwards and brought a wicked glitter to his eyes. 'So in other words,' he said quietly, 'my need for a secretary was intended to play second fiddle to your need to have Isobel within easy reach. You wanted her here to soothe your fevered brow and my wants came a very poor second. Now I know why you talked me into taking her on as my secretary.' 'You knew all along,' Nigel retorted. 'And don't make it sound as if you were doing me a favour. You did need a secretary, and Isobel's a damned good one.' T agree,' Lucifer said, still far less disturbed by the argument than his brother. 'But she is working for me, and she's said she doesn't mind working late, so I don't see that you've much room for complaint.' A long hand reached out and covered one of Isobel's, the fingers curled firmly over hers. 'Don't you like working for me, Isobel?' he asked softly. 'Yes, yes, of course I do.' She hastily lowered her eyes against the reproach she saw in Nigel's. 'I'm quite happy,' she added, 'and it's very well paid.' 'You see?' His shoulders shrugged off any further discussion along those lines and the strong fingers tightened briefly over hers, as if in thanks. He was, she thought wildly, quite the most uncrushable man she'd ever met. Whether he had been influenced after all by his family's remarks, Isobel did not know, but the next day Lucifer called a halt to work much earlier than usual. She was not sorry at all for, despite her protests that she did not mind working late, she felt she had been doing rather too much lately, although she would not have said so to 53 Nigel for anything. He saw her glance at her watch as she covered her typewriter and she looked at him sharply when he laughed. 'Respectable hours today for a change,' he remarked, and Isobel smiled. 'So Nigel's complaints did have some effect,' she said. He shook his head, coming over to perch on the edge of her desk as he often did. 'None at all,' he denied. 'I don't allow myself to be influenced by anyone, it just happens to suit me to let you leave early today.' 'Oh, I see.' He was watching her, his eyes glittering mischief as he reached out a hand and brushed back a stray wisp of hair from her neck. 'I expect you do see, bella mia,' he said softly. 'You realize who pays the piper and therefore calls the tune, don't you?' Isobel moved away from him, hating the way her heart was thudding wildly against her ribs just because he touched her, and used that name he often called her, mostly when they were alone. 'I know you're entitled to call the tune, Lucifer, but I wish you wouldn't use Italian words I don't understand.' 'Bella mia?' He smiled obviously with no intention of enlightening her until it suited his purpose. 'Why does everyone call you by your full name? Haven't you a - a pet name?' 'No.' She overlooked a rather unflattering name she had been called as a baby, for it had never been carried over into adult life. 'I'm always called Isobel, and I prefer it that way.' 'Never Belle or Bella?' 'No, I don't like my name shortened, I prefer it as it is.' "'Well, you'll have to bear with me if my more flam59 boyant tastes lead me into error sometimes,' he told her solemnly. 'I think Bella suits you much better.' 'It's not my name.' He smiled and her pulse quickened alarmingly. 'But it's so much more descriptive,' he said softly, and laughed when she frowned. 'It's extremely rude to use words you know I don't understand,' she objected. 'Ah, but knowing''you, piccolo, you'd probably takeeven more exception if you did understand,' he told her. 'You're such a proper little creature, aren't you?' He lifted her chin with one hand and spoke so close to her mouth that his breath was warm on her Ups. 'Bella,' he said softly, and in a gentle, liquid accent that did crazy things to her pulse. 'Bella, bella, bella.' 'Please don't!' She brushed away his hand and turned her face away, clasping her
hands tightly to stop them trembling. 'Don't you want to know what it means?' he teased, and she shook her head. 'I don't suppose you've the slightest intention of telling me,' she said, trying hard to ignore the watching eyes. 'And I'm not sure I want to know anyway.' 'But I'd love to tell you, if I can be sure you won't take offence in your funny puritan little way and slap my face for paying you a compliment.' 'I am not puritan,' Isobel objected indignantly. 'How can you say that?' She looked down at the papers on her desk unseeingly. 'Besides,' she confessed cautiously, T - I think I have some idea what it means.' 'Of course you have,' he told her, and she felt sure he was laughing at her although she dared not look at him to make sure. 'It means pretty and beautiful, everything that describes you so perfectly, bella mia.' He spoke softly and, almost unwillingly, she turned her head and looked at 60 him. 'You're well named, little Bella.' 'I'm not named Bella,-I'm Isobel,' she insisted, her voice barely under control. 'To me you're ' He shrugged his shoulders and spread his hands, deliberately Italian, she suspected. 'Bella mia.' 'I do know what mia means, Lucifer, and that definitely doesn't apply.' She busied herself in an attempt to restore normality, tidying her desk as best she could for his being seated on it, then she picked up her handbag, ready to go. 'Now,' she told him meeting his eyes with difficulty, 'if there's nothing else, I'll go.' The black eyes mocked her. 'Go by all means,' he said, and leaned forward as she brushed past him on her way out. 'Clao, bella mia.' It was no time to stay and argue the rights and wrongs of anything, she decided, and instead .walked to the door and out into the tiny hall. She was just in time to see the front door open and a woman come in. She made her entrance with all the self-confidence of a regular visitor and Isobel felt her hands tighten involuntarily wlien she realized who the caller must be, and why she had been allowed to leave so early today. Despite Nigel's rather lurid description of Vanessa Law, Isobel was not prepared for quite such a striking appearance, and she felt a strange chill of uneasiness when the odd, almost yellow eyes looked at her coolly. She was several inches taller than Isobel and thin as a lath with jet black hair piled on top of her head in a style that should have been much too severe for her sharp features but which, in fact, added in-some odd way to her exotic looks. Even on this bright and sunny August day she wore a very dark dress, Isobel could not be sure of its actual colour in the shady hallway, which made her appear even taller. 61 'Good evening.' Some gesture of acknowledgment was called for, Isobel thought, and she tried a half-smile. Whether the other woman would have answered or not was open to discussion, but almost at once Lucifer came out into the hall and took charge of the situation with his usual aplomb. 'I thought .it might be you,' he told the visitor. 'You're early.' As a welcome it could have been said to lack warmth and her mouth, surprisingly full-lipped in the thin face, pouted reproach before she tip-toed and kissed him. 'Flattering as ever,' she said. 'You are a brute, Lucifer.' He ignored the reproach and turned to smile at Isobel, already part way out of the front door. 'Van, this is Isobel Hendrix; Isobel - Vanessa Law.' Isobel proffered a hand, ready to be sociable although a shiver ran through her, which she firmly quelled, when the odd, catlike eyes swept over her insolently. 'Miss Law,' she murmured, not noticing until it was too late the wide gold ring on the other's left hand. Her proffered hand was ignored and instead a brief nod of the black head acknowledged her existence reluctantly. 'Mrs. Law,' she corrected her coolly, and looked up at Lucifer suspiciously. 'Someone said you had a new secretary,' she said, and made it sound like an accusation. 'News gets around.' He acknowledged the fact with a smile. 'It's amazing, isn't it?' The look he gave her told her plainly enough that he guessed Gal Ford to be her informer. 'Especially after the County Show.' 'Cal told me,' she informed him defiantly. 'Of course.' Isobel felt horribly superfluous standing there, but it would be difficult to just leave without saying anything further. 'You didn't say anything,' Vanessa Law accused, and Lucifer smiled. T saw no reason to tell you that I had a new secretary,' 63 he told her. 'My business arrangements don't usually concern you, I didn't see why Isobel's arrival should.' That, Isobel thought, with sudden and startling insight, was completely untrue. He had not only known that Vanessa Law would hate the idea of her being there but put in a hasty appearance when he heard the two of them together in the hall. 'If you needed a new secretary,' Vanessa told him, the cat-like eyes sweeping over Isobel chillingly, 'I could have found you a much more suitable one if you'd told me.' 'More suitable?' Such innocence had to be assumed, and Vanessa Law recognized it too and frowned. 'You should have had someone older like Mrs. Lomas,' she informed him shortly. 'This one's far too young.' She would not, Isobel thought, even give her the benefit of a name and she looked at Lucifer, wondering what his reaction would be. 'There's no law against young secretaries that I know of,' he told her quietly, 'and Isobel's very efficient.' 'Hmm.' Vanessa could see the argument already slipping away from her and decided to make the best of, whatever power she had over him. She pushed an arm through his and looked up at him, her mouth pouted in reproach. 'I wasn't aware that efficiency interested you to that extent,' she told him, 'but if it does, I'm very efficient too, aren't I, darling?' 'Very,' he agreed amiably and with a smile that recognized surrender. 'Vanessa,' he explained for Isobel's benefit, 'runs a very prosperous antique^ business in town.' 'I know,' Isobel said. 'Nigel told me.9 The yellow-coloured eyes narrowed. 'Nigel?' she queried, looking to Lucifer for explanation. 'Isobel,' Lucifer explained, 'used to work for Frome's, 63 -Nigel's firm.' 'Oh, I see.' "' Lucifer laughed, evidently enjoying the situation. 'I'll bet you don't,' he declared. 'Isobel caught the directorial eye while she was there and, since he's been laid up after his crash, he's been pining for her so much that he talked me into taking her on as my secretary.' Isobel flushed, looking at him with reproachful eyes. 'You weren't obliged to take me on, Mr. Bennetti,' she told him. 'I wasn't desperate for work. I already had a perfectly good job at Frome's.' 'Oh, I don't regret taking you on,' he said, his grin taunting her for her touchiness. 'As I said, you've very efficient and you're much, much prettier than Tottie Lomas.' The latter definitely did not please Vanessa Law, and she pursed her full lips doubtfully. 'What happened to Lomas?' she asked. 'Why did you get rid of her, Lucifer?' Lucifer shrugged. 'I didn't, she left.' 'She left?' She looked as if she found that hard to believe. 'But why?' 'If it matters,' he informed her with a grin, 'she said she'd had enough of me. She couldn't stand the pace.' He looked at Isobel and smiled. 'It gets pretty hectic at times, doesn't it, Isobel?' 'At times,' she agreed, feeling uneasy each time those strange eyes came in her direction. 'Despite her fairy-tale princess looks,' Lucifer went on, . making things worse, T think Isobel's made of sterner stuff, aren't you, bella mia?' Why, oh, why, Isobel thought wildly when she saw the other woman frown, did he haye to use that endearment when Vanessa Law was there? It was just about the most indiscreet thing he could have done, and Isobel felt a 64 sudden, urgent desire to flee, to run as far away from there as fast as her legs would take her. There was something about Vanessa Law that gave her a cold feeling in the pit of her stomach and she wondered why Lucifer did not realize it and behave more discreetly. Except, of course, that it was the sort of situation he would probably enjoy. 'If if you'll excuse me,' she said, glancing at her watch, 'I'll go now. Nigel's expecting me as soon as I've had dinner.' She dosed the door hastily behind her and hurried away, trying not to hear the cool hard voice of Vanessa Law raised in protest as she went. 'Lucifer, she's too young, get rid of her.' Gradually Nigel was getting about a little more each day, although he had still to take care and not overdo the time he was on his feet, and it would be a long time yet before he was completely fit again. It was the cool of the evening and the last of the red summer sun gave a curiously unreal look to the soft green hills and the toy village of stone cottages tucked away in their shelter. The garden sloped a tittle at the very end and from there it overlooked a scene so beautiful it was breathtaking, a scene Isobel felt she would never tire of. She walked slowly beside Nigel as he bobbed along
on crutches, breathing heavily from the exertion. *Am I going too fast?' she asked, and he shook his head. 'No, no, I'm fine, thanks, even though I am puffing like an old man.' 'If you'd use that wheelchair,' Isobel told him for the umpteenth time, 'I could push you and save you all this exertion.' "Well, I won't.' He looked stubborn. 'I refuse to be pushed about like a baby in a pram or an old grandpa. I'll T-PW-C 5 go under my own steam or not at all.' Isobel smiled. 'All right, obstinate, but don't say I didn't offer.' He leaned.forward, awkwardly because of the crutches, and kissed her cheek. 'I know I'm stubborn, darling, but I hate being dependent on anyone at all, and most of all you.' 'Why most of all me?' she asked. 'Because you're special. I want to do things for you, not the other way round.' 'You do do things for me,' she laughed. 'And it works both ways, you know. I like to do things for you too.' He stopped, perching rather precariously on a low wall. Let's take a breather,' he suggested. 'I'm sure it's further to the end of the garden now than it used to be.' He took her hands and pulled her down beside him and Isobel felt her blood stirring uneasily at what she saw so unmistakably in his eyes. 'You are special, you know,' he told her softly. Vou're very, very special, Isobel.' She shook her head, uncertain if she wanted him to be so serious. With Nigel there would be no light-hearted flirting, as with Lucifer; Nigel was much too serious about everything to indulge in anything, so frivolous. 'I'm just a girl,' she told him lightly. 'A moderately good secretary and fairly good-looking, so I've been told, nothing so special.' 'YOU are to me.' He leaned across and kissed her mouth, his blue eyes looking incredibly dark, almost as black as Lucifer's in the red light of the dying sun. 'You're beautiful, Isobel, you're beautiful, my darling.' His choice of words again reminded her of Lucifer and she hastily dismissed the memory of that idiotic discussion about her name. Tou're very flattering,' she told him, smiling gently, for Nigel would be easy to hurt, she thought. She brushed a fall of hair from his forehead, 66 sensing him far less sure of himself than she had ever known him and wondering at the change. The selfsufficient business executive apparently had quite a lot of the schoolboy in him still and at the moment he looked a lot less than the twenty-nine years he claimed. 'I'm not being flattering at all,' he declared. 'You are beautiful and I'm more than half in love with you already. A few more days in this witching country with you and I'll be completely under your spell.' The words reminded her of Vanessa Law and she shook off the scene they recreated, smiling to take the edge off her words. *I don't want you to fall in love with me,' she told him, and saw him frown suspiciously. 'I -1 want to be fancy-free for quite a few more years yet and see something of the world.2 'You're not thinking of leaving me?' he asked, and she shook her head. Not yet awhile,' she denied. "But I don't want to be tied down anywhere yet, it's too early.' He sighed, lifting her hands to his lips in an unexpectedly romantic gesture. 'I suppose I'm being selfish," he allowed. 'You're very young and I've never quite re-i alized it until now. How old are you, Isobel?' She remembered Vanessa Law's last words as she walked away from Lucifer's cottage earlier, telling him that she was too young to be his secretary, and wondered why Nigel too had raised the question of her age. She pulled a face at him. 'That's not a question a gentleman would ask,' she said. 'And you of all people should know how old I am. You interviewed me, or have you forgotten?' 'No, of course I haven't forgotten.' He frowned in thought for a moment. 'Let me see, you came to us straight from school, didn't you?' 'Secretarial college,' she corrected him, and laughed at his concentration. 'That was four years ago,' she prompted, 'and I was eighteen then, so you work it out from there.' 'Is it possible it's four years ago?' he asked. 'I remember it very well, actually, but it doesn't seem so long ago as that. I remember I thought you were an enchanting little creature, even then, and I grudged old Pogson having you for his secretary.' 'He frightened me to death,' Isobel confessed laughingly. 'And so did you, that first day.' 'But not now.' 'Oh no, not now.' 'I'd hate to think you looked on me as as ogre of a boss, even if I am a bit stuffy at times, and I am, aren't I?' 'No, not stuffy,' she denied. 'Just serious.' His eyes studied her closely in the fading light, and she thought he had been reminded of something. 'Luke's never stuffy, I suppose, is he?' he asked at last, and Isobel hesitated before she answered. 'No, he's never stuffy, but then he's seldom serious either.' 'Hmmm. He let you leave at a reasonable hour tonight,' he said. 'Did you demand to go or did he have a change of heart?' 'Neither - he had a date.' 'Oh? That early?' He was obviously curious and Isobel was nothing loath to enlighten him as they started walking again, down towards the grassy slope at the end of the garden. 'I met Vanessa Law as I came out,' she told him. 'Mrs. Law, although you'd omitted to tell me that.' 'Sorry. Did you call her Miss?' 'I did, and was put firmly in my place for my pains. I I don't think she liked me very much.' He glanced at her face and shrugged as best he could 68 for the impeding crutches. 'She wouldn't,' he stated bluntly. 'She's very striking, isn't she?' Very,' Nigel agreed wryly. 'How did she strike you?' 'YOU told me she gave you the creeps,' Isobel reminded him, 'and I'm inclined to agree with you. I felt cold shivers all over me when she looked at me. She really is a remarkable-looking woman and those - those strange" looking eyes have to be seen to be believed.' 'They are yellow, aren't they?' Isobel nodded. 'Although they're more amber than actual yellow, I suppose, to be honest.' She smiled ruefully. 'The temptation to liken her to a witch, knowing what I know about her, is almost irresistible.' 'Isn't it, though?' The last thing I heard her saying as I came away from the house,' Isobel told him, 'was that Lucifer should get rid of me because I was too young.' Try as she would to conceal it there was an edge of anxiety on her voice when she asked the question. 'Will he, do you think?' Nigel shook his head. Wot Luke,' he said with certainty. 'Especially if Vanessa was issuing orders, as she has a habit of doing. I thought she would have known him well enough by now, he digs his heels in hard if there's any suggestion of being told to do anything. He's a terrible autocrat, he always was even as a boy. I suppose he gets it from his father.8 Isobel could not disguise her interest, no matter how she tried. 'Was he an autocrat?' she asked. 'So I understand,' Nigel said, and pulled a face. 'I suppose he still is. Count Giulio Giovanni Giuseppe Bennetti of the Palazzo Bennetd, Rome. Does that answer your question?' Isobel laughed. "No wonder Lucifer has such illusions of grandeur,' she said. 'I suppose they're not really il69 lusions, are they? Does he ever see his father?' she added, her curiosity thoroughly aroused, and Nigel laughed shortly. 'Not lately,' he told her. "The last I heard there was a new and very beautiful young Contessa and - like father, like son. Papa Bennetti's not likely to,put his young Gontessa in the way of temptation by asking Luke to visit.' 'No,' Isobel admitted thoughtfully. 'I can see he wouldn't if he's a wise man.' 'I don't know about wise,' Nigel demurred, 'but he must be quite an old man by now.' 'Oh, really? I hadn't realized that. The Count was your -your mother's first husband, wasn't he?' 'Yes.' He frowned as he always did when he was reminded that his father had not been first. 'Gran knows all the sordid details, of course, and I've heard them at various times through the years. Mother eloped with Bennetti when she was only seventeen and he was nearly thirty. Luke was bom less than a year later and the whole thing only lasted about five years, then she divorced him and married my father.' 'Mrs. Grayson was telling me about your father,' Isobel said, seeking a more popular subject. 'Apparently Andy Frome was a big name in motor-racing at one time, although it was before my time, of course.' 'He was a very big name,' Nigel agreed, with a note of pride for the father he could scarcely have known. 'He was shrewd enough to think of his family's future too and he started Frome Engineering as a sort of insurance for when he retired. The only trouble was he didn't live long enough to retire.' 'It was a chance he took in his profession,' Isobel said softly. 'I expect he knew that and left the firm for you when you were old enough.' 'Yes.' He sighed. T would rather have liked to have 70 known him a bit better, though.' He sat down gratefully on a rough wooden seat under a tree, his eyes on the distant hills that were rapidly disappear
ing in the dying light. 'I sometimes wish I'd had the nerve to follow in his footsteps,' he said slowly, ''but as you see, I can't even handle an ordinary, everyday car without bashing it and myself to pieces.''Not quite to pieces,* Isobel smiled. 'You're getting on famously now, Nigel, aren't you?' 'I feel a tot better,' he agreed, and reached for her hands as she sat down beside him. 'That's largely due to having you here,8 he told her. 'It was a stroke of genius on my part, getting you that job with Luke.' Tes, yes, it was.* She too gazed out at the fast disappearing hills, watching the colour of the sky change from red to purple, and not for anything would she have let him know the brief thought that popped into her head and was hastily dismissed. The thought that evidently he shared none of Count Bennetti's qualms about trusting her in close proximity to Lucifer. 7t