The pretty witch Read online

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ISOBEL was thinking one evening of her dinner. It was quite early and it would be some time yet before she was allowed to leave, but it had seemed such a long day today and she would be very glad of the half hour or so of relaxation that would follow her meal, before she was expected to go over to the house and see Nigel. It had been so sultry all day, not pleasantly warm but heavy and oppressive and, even with the windows wide open, the room seemed close and airless. She finished the page she was typing and looked across hopefully at Lucifer, disconcerted to find him watching her. 'Have you had enough for today?' he asked, running a hand through his hair, and Isobel nodded. 'It's so terribly hot,' she complained, 'and there seems to be not a breath of air anywhere.' He stretched lazily. 'It'll probably thunder before the night's out,' he guessed. 'It feels like it.' 'Don't you know?' she asked, remembering his claim to have ordered the fine weather especially for the County Show. 'Not this time,' he admitted. 'But I'm pretty sure we're in for a storm.' Isobel shuddered. She knew she was an abject coward and frankly admitted it, but thunderstorms had always terrified her ever since she was a child, and no amount of logical explanations made a scrap of difference. Not that she made an exhibition of herself if there were other people around, but if she was alone she always hid her head and let her shaking limbs have their way. 'I hope you're wrong,' she told him. 72 j He cocked a black brow at her curiously. 'You're not H-scared of thunderstorms, are you?' I Isobel hesitated before admitting it. 'Yes, as a matter of | fact I am. Oh, don't worry,' she added hastily, 'I don't go I berserk or make a fool of myself, not when anyone's I around to see me anyway.' I 'But you don't like it when you're alone?' I 'I'm petrified, an absolute coward.' I Surprisingly he seemed more interested than scornful as | she had expected him to be, and he leaned back in his I chair to catch what breeze there was from the. open | window behind him. 'Why?' he asked. 'I mean what actu| ally frightens you?' I' She shrugged, looking a little shamefaced for having | admitted it. 'I don't know, I wish I did, then perhaps I | could do something about it.' i 'What do you do when you're alone?' ; She pulled a wry face. 'Hide my head.' I Tinder the pillows?' ; 'Anywhere that shuts out the noise and the flashes of lightning. I told you, I'm a dreadful coward.' 'Oh well,' he cast a speculative eye at the brassy sky outside, 'let's hope it keeps fine for you.' She echoed the hope fervently and picked up paper and carbon to start another page. 'It may not come to : anything,' she said. 'I thought we agreed we'd finished for today,' he said, getting up and coming to perch, inevitably, on her desk. 'Take that paper out again and pack up, it's much too hot to work.' Isobel glanced at her watch. 'It's rather early,' she said, willing to be persuaded, and he laughed. Tou're a glutton for work, aren't you?' he asked. 'I'm surprised Nigel wanted to part with you.' 'Well, he didn't exactly part with me, did he?' sheasked. He pulled a wry face at her. 'No, the crafty so-and-so pulled a fast one there. He wanted his cake and eat it too.' The black eyes twinkled wickedly. 'Not that I blame him in the least, it's very nice cake.' 'That wasn't his only reason for getting me here,' she protested. 'YOU wanted a secretary, after all. You'd driven the last poor woman half out of her mind. Besides,' she added practically, 'this is very much better paid.' liittle mercenary,8 he teased. 'Is that the only reason you came?' She looked at him for a moment. The main one," she said at last ^Although I like being near Nigel, of course.' 'Of course,' he echoed. 'But you realize that he'll expect you to go back to Frome's when he does, don't you?' It was something that had often crossed her mind since she had been there. What would happen when Nigel was well enough to return to London himself, whether he would expect Isobel to go too. Almost certainly he would, she thought, and wondered if she was prepared to go when she had so much to give up. Not only was her salary considerably more, but she also had the little cottage to herself and at far less rent than she had been paying for her rooms in London. 'I - I don't think he will,' she denied, so obviously not believing it that he laughed. 'You know damn well he will,' he told her, and arched a brow in query, a query she forestalled. 'Well - well, maybe he will,' she allowed hastily. Thit it's logical really, I suppose.' He was still, she saw, going to ask her. 'Will you go, Isobel?' It was a difficult question to answer at any time and particularly so with that black-eyed gaze seeming to look right into her. 'I -1 don't know.' 'Ah, I suppose it depends,' he said mockingly, as if he guessed her reasons for hesitating. She lifted her chin, her eyes glistening darkly. 'It would depend,'she told him. 'On what else he offers?' The jibe angered her and she clenched her hands on the papers she was tidying. 'I don't know what you mean by that,' she said, 'but I don't like the way you said it.' 'Sorry about that, but you do know what I meant, don't you?' 'No, I don't.' 'Oh, come on,' he said. 'YOU know he's goo-eyed over you.' That's not ' 'He might marry you,' he guessed, giving her no time to finish her protest. 'In fact I'm pretty sure he's serious about you.' 'Which is more than you ever are about anything,' Isobel retorted. He laughed. 'YOU don't know me well enough to make a crack like that, bella mia, now do you?' She made no immediate answer, but was forced to recognize the truth of the accusation. Considering she spent so much of her time in his company she knew really very little about him except what Nigel had told her, and she doubted if she ever would. He was as enigmatic and elusive as his notorious namesake. 'No, I suppose not,' she admitted at last as she put the cover on her typewriter and picked up her handbag. 'It's hot,' she complained, 'and I feel crotchety.' That's painfully obvious.' He got up from her desk and held up a hand when she would have retorted. 'I suggest we go and find ourselves a breeze,' he said. 'Blow ourselves back into sanity with a long fast drive.' But-' 75 'But me no buts,' he told her. 'We'll drive out as far as Reever's Beacon and back.' 'It would be lovely and cool,' Isobel said wistfully. Then why are you arguing?' 'I-I'm not-I'll let Ni'Ybu'U do no such thing,' he retorted, taking her firmly by the arm. 'You're not tied to Nigel's apron strings and you don't have to report every move you make to him, so come on.' 'You are a bully,* she told him a little breathlessly as they left the cottage and walked out to his car. 'An absolute bully!' 'I also eat pretty blondes for breakfast,' he informed her, and leered horribly as -he half pushed her into the car. Isobel looked at him loftily. 'I can believe it,' she retorted. It was beautifully cool driving along and, despite Nigel's scornful reference to his maniacal driving, Isobel had no qualms at all for her own safety. He was a skilful driver, the strong brown hands firmly in control and taking no chances although they were travelling fast to create a breeze. The lanes were quiet and there seemed no other traffic about at all. She had little time to notice the countryside flying past, but sightseeing was not the object of their journey, just the creation of a cool breeze, and she leaned back her head and half-closed her eyes to make the most of it. 'Have you ever been to Reever's Beacon?' he asked unexpectedly, and grinned at her barely concealed start. 'No, no, I've been nowhere except into Greenlaw and to the County Show with you.' She turned her head and looked at him lazily from under her lashes. 'What is Reever's Beacon?' He smiled. 'Exactly what it says it is - a beacon. One of 76 -those fire-places you find dotted over the landscape, the original telephone service, I suppose.' , The idea amused her and she laughed lazily. 'You're quite funny, aren't you?' 'Am I?' He briefly turned his head and grinned at her. T mean funny ha-ha, not funny peculiar,' Isobel explained and added, almost without thinking, 'Nigel scarcely ever laughs.' He smiled, his eyes on the road ahead. 'He always was a bit of a sobersides,' he told her. That's probably why he minks I'm mad.' 'Does he think you're mad?' 'Of course, hasn't he told you?' Another brief grin over his shoulder gave lie to the assertion. 'It's because I'm not one hundred per cent British,' he explained solemnly. Tou know the idea - all foreigners are a bit mad.' 'Do foreigners include Scots?' Isobel asked, and he nodded. 'Of course. Why? Are you one?' 'I'm afraid so.' He shook his head solemnly over the information, lips pursed. Then I'm afraid your girlish dreams won't materialize, cara mia. No wedding bells for you.' 'I wish you'd stop harping on wedding bells
,' Isobel objected. 'What about you hearing them first - you're a great deal older than me.' 'And you're sassy,' he retorted. 'YOU treat your elders with respect, my girl, or you'll be in trouble.' 'Yes, sir.' 'YOU needn't go that far, for heaven's sake!' 'Well, you are nearly old enough to be my ' Tf you say it,' he warned, 'I'll tip you out, so help me!' 'Well, you are,' Isobel insisted, thoroughly enjoying the situation. 77 'Damn you, stop it, will you!' 'YOU started it,' He sighed resignedly. *So I did,' he admitted, 'but even I wasn't precocious enough at thirteen and three months and two days to have fathered you.' She looked at him a second in silence. 'You're very precise,' she said, sounding a little breathless and wishing there was something she could do about her heartbeat, 'J didn't know it was that much.' 'I like to keep the record straight.' He turned and grinned at her and she found herself smiling in return, a warm glow of intimacy adding to the sun's warmth. 'Anyway,' he added, 'it was your wedding bells we were talking about, not mine. I'm not the marrying sort.' 'What makes you think that I am?' Isobel asked, and he shook his head, his mouth smiling, although he did not turn his head again, 'Oh yes, bella mw? he told her softly. 'You must marry some time, you're too beautiful to be allowed to remain alone all your life.8 'Well, I don't know who told you that I'm going to marry Nigel,' she said, determined not to be defeated. The subject has never even been raised between us.' 'Yet,' he added briefly, and Isobel frowned. 'I've no intention of marrying anyone for a long time yet,' she told him. 'Nigel knows that.' 'He's not a patient man.* 'For heaven's sake, Lucifer, he hasn't even asked me. There's nothing as serious between us as you seem to think,' she added. 'But there soon will be.' He sounded so sure that she looked at him for a moment in silence, then she shook her head, smiling knowingly. 'If you're trying to impress me with your powers as a forecaster,' she told him at last, 'you forget 78 you've already told me how it's done.' 'Have I?' 'Mmm. It's all done by psychology, according to you. You watch for a word that triggers a reaction, then take it from there.' 'YOU catch on quick, don't you? But how do you think I managed it in this case?' he asked. 'I've not seen Nigel for more than five minutes together unless someone else has been there, and we've certainly not discussed his feelings for you.' Then it's probably guesswork,' Isobel retorted. He shook his head and grinned. 'Nope, you're wrong, this time it's gen-uine seeing-eye stuff. Nigel's going to ask you to marry him much sooner than you expect.' She stared at him, suddenly uneasy. 'I I don't see how you can possibly know that,' she told him, and added, 'and why are you so interested anyway?' 'I'm more interested in what your answer will be,' he confessed. She was quiet again for a bit, thoughtful too, for she did not even know herself what her answer would be. 'I'd need to think about it,' she told him at last. 'I'd need to think about it a lot.' 'I hope you will,' he said quietly. 'I'd hate to see you make a mistake, cara mia.' Reever's Beacon itself proved not very exciting at all, but the view from the top of the hill was enchanting and it was so beautifully cool. It was not grand-looking countryside, but pretty and mellow, with little stone villages cuddled up in the rich old trees that both sheltered and guarded and looked as if they had been there for ever. Some ancient Cotswold farm-girl could have looked out at exactly this same scene, unchanged except for the occasional glinting car windscreen over on the main road. 79 They sat, part way down the slope of the hill, and watched the dark grey threat of clouds roll over the hills and down between them like a gathering frown, and Isobel shivered at the prospect of their arrival. The air was heavy with the gathering storm and she knew that before nightfall it would break and send her, coward-like, to hide her head. Unless by some chance it came before she left Nigel, and then it would not be so bad. It was never so bad when she was with someone. 'Here comes your storm,' Lucifer told her, and turned to smile at her,, 'I don't think it's funny,5 Isobel said. 'Certainly not if it breaks while we're up here in the open.' He grinned widely, his dishevelled hair giving him an even more satanic look than usual. 'YOU can hide your head on my shoulder,' he promised JI shan't mind.' 'Well, I shall.* She glanced at the clouds again. 'Shouldn't we go back, Lucifer, just in case it catches us here? We've no coats.8 'We shan't need coats,' he told her, and sounded absolutely confident of the fact, 'It won't get here yet. It won't reach us for another three or four hours yet.' 'How do you know?' He shrugged, grinning at her, mocking her fears. 'I know,' he said. Isobel hugged her knees, shoulders hunched impatiently. 'Oh, you know,' she echoed. 'YOU know so many things in advance, don't you? Sometimes I think you really are ' She bit her lip on the preposterous suggestion she had almost given voice to,, and he turned his head and looked at her, one black brow lifted high into the thick fall of hair on his forehead, his eyes glittering darkly in the brassy sunlight as if he knew exactly what she had been going to say. 'I am?' he prompted. 'What am I, pic80 color 'Oh, nothing!' She shook her head, refusing to look at him. It was so nonsensical it should never have entered her head in the first place, and yet here, on this ageless, quiet hillside, with those black eyes watching her, she could believe almost anything possible. 'Lucifer, let's go back, please.' 'Why?' Almost any other man would have complied with her plea, been anxious to please, but he merely watched her as if he had no intention of moving until he was good and ready. She nicked him.an appealing look, her eyes wide and darkly grey, glancing away again hastily when her heart set up a rapid, almost panicky beating that she felt must surely be audible. Broad shoulders hunched slightly to support the arms curled about his knees, th& strong brown throat and chest dark against the whiteness of his shirt, open to the waist to catch the sparse breeze, there was something so right, so disturbingly right about him in this ancient place, that she felt herself not only alien but afraid. 'Please, Lucifer!9 'What's the matter with you?' he asked, and she shook her head hastily to deny it 'Nothing's the matter with me, I just - I just think we should go, that's alL8 That's not alL' he retorted. "'Isobel, what is it?' She sought to steady her voice, her throat feeling dry and parched. 'I -1 don't know.' She attempted a laugh, but it failed miserably. 'It's the storm, I suppose, I've got the heebie-jeebies.' A finger touched her arm gently and traced a long line down to her wrist. 'So you have,' he allowed, 'though I can't think why.'She shivered involuntarily at his touch. 'I told you it's 8s the storm.' 'Just the storm?' -'Yes, of course. What else?' He took her chin in one hand and turned her, reluctant, to face him. 'Me?' he suggested softly. 'Or perhaps old Reever's spirit?' 'Oh, Lucifer, don't!' She bit her lip. 'I'm sorry, I'm being stupid, but ' 'I'm sorry.' The apology was so unexpected that she looked at him for a moment in disbelief. 'Why should you be?' she asked. 'I'm just being silly. There's such an atmosphere up here, isn't there?' 'Yes, I suppose there is,' he allowed, 'and you're obviously susceptible to it.' 'Can we go home - please?' He looked at her for a moment in silence, still holding her chin in his hand, then he leaned forward and kissed her lightly on her mouth. 'If you want to,' he said. Tdo.' He got to his feet and reached down for her hands. Tour wish is my command,' he told her, and she shook her head. 'It's nothing of the sort,' she argued as he pulled her to her feet. 'You just don't want to get wet when that storm breaks.' 'YOU cheeky infant,' he retorted, and held her hand tightly to pull her up the hill after him. Instead of being earlier, Isobel was even later than usual that evening going over to see Nigel, and his frown conveyed his displeasure almost as soon as she came into the room. 'It's time Luke gave you an early day,' he told her shortly, and she. was tempted to keep silent about her drive to Reever's Beacon with Lucifer. She would have 82 done too, but there was little point in her trying to keep it secret if Lucifer told him about it, and he almost certainly would. That would inevitably lead to suspicion on Nigd's part if their stories conflicted, 'Actually I did leave early today,' she told him. 'It was much too hot to work.8 'It's murder,' he allowed. *But you've been a long time coming over here, if you left early.' 'I - we went for a drive to cool off.' His eyes narrowed suspiciously and Isobel's heart sank at the sight of it ^You and Luke?' *Yes. We went as far as Reever's Beacon.' "Why all out there?' Nige
l demanded. 'I told you, to cool off, it's been terribly hot in the office all day and it was lovely and cool in the open car.' 'I've no doubt,* he said acidly. 'It wasn't very lovely stuck here with all this plaster on my leg.' 'Nigel, I'm sorry.' She wished she felt more sympathetic and less impatient as she sat beside him on a low chair. 'I did need some air after being cooped up in that room all day, and the offer was too tempting to refuse.' 'I can imagine.' 'YOU surely don't object to my going for a drive for an hour, do you?''she asked, looking at him dubiously. "That would be unreasonable, Nigel.' He shrugged, reluctantly agreeing. 'Yes, I suppose it would,' he allowed. 'It's this ghastly heat, I feel terrible.' 'I expect you do." She was more easily sympathetic now. 'I wish there was something I could do to help, I always feel so helpless.8 'Will you walk down to the end of the garden with me?' Tes, of course. It should be much cooler down there.' 83 She helped him up from his chair and handed him the walking-sticks which now took the place of the crutches he formerly needed, following him out of the french window and out on to the lawn. 'It's better already,' he said, 'although it's hot work humping along on these things.' 'But much better than the crutches,' Isobel said, determinedly cheerful despite his grumbles. ^You've done wonderfully well in the last few weeks, Nigel. At least walking-sticks are a step in the right direction, aren't they?' 'It takes so damned long,' Nigel complained. 'It seems like years since I walked properly on my own two feet.' 'Patience,' Isobel quoted wryly, 'is a virtue.' 'It's one I don't possess,' Nigel retorted. She smiled, pulling a rueful face at him. 'I had noticed,' she chided him gently, and he shook his head. 'I'm sorry, darling, I shouldn't take it out on you. Please forgive me.' 'It's this blessed storm brewing up,' Isobel said. 'It makes everyone edgy, I'll be glad when it breaks - in a way,' she added hastily. 'It might pass us by, it does sometimes.' Isobel shook her head. 'According to Lucifer,' she told him, 'it should reach us about nine o'clock tonight.' 'Huh!' He snorted disgust at the opinion. 'How would he know?' 'He seems pretty sure of himself,' Isobel said. We'll have to wait and see how right he is.' 'He's always so blessed sure of himself,' Nigel declared, reminded of her absence earlier. 'I don't suppose he gave you much option about going with him in the car, did he?' Her expression was confirmation enough and he scowled as he hobbled slowly along. 'One of these days,' he promised darkly, 'he'll come such a cropper and I, for 84 one, shan't weep over him.' 'Considering your opinion of him,' Isobel ventured, 'I'm rather surprised that you want me to work for him.' 'I don't especially,' Nigel confessed. 'But I want you here where I can see you more often, and I know you have more sense than to fall for his line of smooth talk.' 'I think I'm flattered,' she told him wryly, and instinctively put a finger to her lips where Lucifer had kissed her. He flicked her a brief glance, as if he suspected sarcasm. 'You're much too intelligent to let Luke's continental smarm fool you,' he told her. 'I know you, Isobel. Anyway,' he added, as if it solved everything, 'he's too old for you.' Thirteen years, three months and two days, Isobel thought, and immediately dismissed the thought. She walked along slowly beside him, seeking a safer subject than Lucifer. 'Shall we sit down?' she asked. They had reached die end of the garden where the bank sloped away and what breeze there was blew sulkily in over the valley and barely stirred the trees. The air was as heavy as lead and the evening sky a dull metallic gold and grey that leaned weightily on the hills. Nigel sat down with a sigh of relief, putting the sticks down beside him on the seat. "God, it's awful,' he said. 'Just look at that sky, it's almost touching, it's so heavy.' 'It looks awe-inspiring from here,' Isobel said. 'Almost beautiful in a way.' 'I don't call that beautiful,' he denied. 'It's threatening and ugly.' He took her hands in his and smiled down at her, hazily fair in the fading light, her grey eyes big and lustrous. 'You're what I call beautiful,' he said softly. 'You're very beautiful, darling Isobel.' 85 'Nigel ' She would have protested, but he kissed her and very effectively silenced her. 'I warned you I was half in love with you the other day,' he reminded her. 'Well, now I'm completely in love with you. Do you mind?' She did not know quite what to say to him, hearing Lucifer's voice plain in her mind warning her. 'I'd hate to see you make a mistake, car a mia.' She was convinced that she was not yet in love with Nigel, although she thought she might easily be before much longer, and she felt enough for him now, not to want to hurt him. T - I don't know, Nigel,' she said. 'I told you that I don't want to be serious about anyone yet. I don't want to commit myself to a promise I may regret.' He put a gentle hand to touch her face, his smile unexpectedly understanding. 'You're so young,' he told her softly. 'I mustn't hurry you, but I'm here when you make up your mind, Isobel. Remember that, won't you?' 'I'll remember it,' she promised, feeling ridiculously tearful for some reason she could not have explained. 'And - and I'm very touched, Nigel, honestly I am.' 'You're adorable,' he told her, his hand still gently touching her cheek. 'I want to marry you, I'm telling you that now, so that you'll know how serious I am about it. But I'll wait until you're more sure of yourself before I ask you for an answer.' 'I ' She went no further, shaking her head and re-membering Lucifer's certainty that Nigel would ask her to marry him much_soonerjhan she expected. She looked out across the darkening landscape and the gathering storm and shivered. Even the elements, it seemed, were subject to his will, for surely that storm would break within the next hour or so. 86