Painted Wings Page 6

  CHAPTER SIX

  'DERYN, I just don't understand you at all,' Gerald told her the following'morning. He sat beside her on the grass while she worked. 'You insist you don't like him, and yet ' 'I don't insist I don't like him,' Deryn argued. 'That was your idea.' He had said little last night when he hadseen her having dinner with Dominic, only murmured a very brief and very formal good evening as he passed their table to one of his own, and she had to admit to some relief from that. It would have been embarrassing if he had made some remark that made an explanation there and then more or less obligatory. 'I see,' he said, looking down his nose in a manner she knew well. 'I had the wrong idea about that teteatete, apparently.' 'You most probably have,' Deryn retorted. 'If you think what I think you're thinking.' 'I could have sunk through the floor when I saw you there,' he went on. 'I couldn't quite believe it at first.' 'I don't see why not. I'm not a hermit, and I do get hungry.' 'But with him ' 'Oh, for heaven's sake, Gerald!' she exclaimed shortly. "I have no particular strong feelings either way about Dom Gregory. I can take him or leave him, I'm not much bothered either way. And how 85 was I to know you'd come back last night?': 'I told you I might.' 'So you did,' she admitted. 'But I don't see that. it would have made any difference anyway.'j 'You mean you'd still have gone, if you had re membered I was coming back last night?' 'Of course.' 'I see.' " 'I don't think you do,' she told him. 'You're still trying to see some ulterior motive in my going to dinner with him, and there simply isn't one. I have too much else to think about.' She dabbed at the picture she was working on and was much too heavy handed with the blue paint on the wings of a wood pigeon. 'Oh, bother it! Now look what I've done " 'I suppose that was my fault,' Gerald suggested, 'It was,' she agreed shortly. 'I can't concentrate.' 'Well, I'm sorry.' He stared down at his hands, obviously unwilling to drop the subject, despite her evident dislike of it. 'But I wanted to get things straight, Deryn. You know how I feel about you, and I don't think you're being altogether fair in going out to dinner with Gregory the minute my back's turned.'I 'I didn't!' she denied indignantly. 'You'd been gone a couple of days, and I saw no harm in it. I don't see why I shouldn't have a break from work ing now and again, and from getting meals. Besides, you have no proprietorial rights as far as I'm con cemed.' 'I ' Gerald began, but she went on regardless of the attempted explanation. 'Dom offered to take me out t6 dinner, for a 86 ' change, and I went. I can't see why you have to make a major tragedy out of it.' 'I'm not making a major tragedy out of it,' he denied. 'I just happen to love you.' 'I know you do or at least you say you do, but you don't own me, Gerald, and you know how I feel about being independent and uninvolved.' 'Oh, Deryn!' He looked so hurt and dismayed that she was immediately contrite. She was also reminded of what Dominic had said to her the night before. Cruel and ruthless, he had called her, and suggested that Gerald was likely to get hurt by her. Here she was now, proving him right, unless she did something about it right away. She reached out a hand and touched his face. 'I'm sorry, Gerald,' she said. 'I shouldn't have worded it quite like that.' 'That's not the same thing as not meaning it, is it?' he asked gloomily, and she sighed, putting down her brush and wiping her hands carefully on a rag. 'No, I suppose it isn't,' she admitted. 'But you know how I am, Gerald. I can't I won't mislead you into thinking I could change. I'm not ready yet to to settle down and marry or even be half way serious about anybody.' 'Not even half way?' he asked anxiously, and she smiled. 'I'd rather not even go half way,' she told him, and he sighed deeply. 'I had thought you'd become a bit more fond of me recently,' he said. 'I know your feelings about settling down and marrying, and I respect them, you know that, but well, lately you've seemed a bit different. As if you might be changing just a little bit in your attirtttde. 'I'm sure rai'aoC,' Deryn denied, but warily. 'You seemed it at times,' he insisted. 'And I thought you might be getting a bit more serious about me.' I like you, Gerald.' She found his injured, slightly sulky look rather dismaying and hoped . she wasn't beginning to weaken. Her freedom and her independence had always been very precious to her and she would hate to slip unknowingly into what she considered the obscurity of courtship and marriage. Gerald' was really very nice, and he was very fond of her, she knew, and sometimes it did prey on her conscience v hen she thought of all the travelling he undertook to be near her. 'Only like?' She smiled, diffident about being too forthcoming. 'Well, maybe a little more than just like,' she confessed. 'I'm really rather fond of you.' 'Oh, Deryn! Darling!' 'I said fond she reminded him hastily, when he took her hands in his and gazed at her earnestly. 'I'm not in love with you, Gerald, and I'm not sure I ever will be ' 'You're fond of me,' he repeated solemnly. 'That's something, darling De'ryn. I'll just wait and wait until you decide it's something more than just fond.' She laughed, uneasy because she could see Dominic coming through the trees from the river and, .even from here, she could tell that Hound's ears were pricked alertly and his powerful body straining to be free of the restraining finger tucked into 88 his collar. It waa almost unbelievable the way the dog disliked Gerald and she could, at times, almost believe that Dominic did have something to do with it, for Gerald had such a way with animals as a rule. Sensing her sudden distraction, he turned to seek the reason, frowning when he saw the man and dog coming in through the garden gate. 'Does he actually go swimming in the river?' he asked, noting the bundle Dominic carried in one hand, and Deryn nodded. 'He goes skindiving sometimes.' 'In the river?' He looked quite disgusted with the idea. 'Isn't it dirty polluted?' Deryn shook her head. 'No, not the Penntog she told him. 'It's one of the few rivers that isn't. Fortunately it doesn't run near anywhere that could pollute it and it'sas clear as crystal right to the bottom.' Gerald shrugged. 'It's a Funny place to go ikindiving all the same,' he insisted. 'I wouldn't have thought the water was deep enough for one thing.' 'It's plenty deep enough in some places,' he was told. 'And I don't think it's so very odd, is it? If it amuses him.' 'And keeps him out of your way,' Gerald guessed, and she shrugged. 'Something like that.' 'It's odd, though,' he went on, evidently bent on pursuing the subject. 'Why he's here at all, I mean. I wonder why he decided to come and hide himself hereof all places.' 'Because he knows Gwyneth Rhys, and she offered 89 him the use of the cottage. I thought you knew that.' 'I knew that part,' Gerald said. 'But why the depth of the country is what puzzles me. I wouldn't have said he was the sort to hidehimself away. I wonder where he's been the past few years, too since that heiress business that was splashed all over the front pages.' 'In the tropics,' Deryn informed him briefly. 'Oh?' He raised a curious brow, looking at her almost suspiciously. 'He's talked, has he?' 'Only because I asked him,' she confessed. 'And I'd really much rather not talk about him for the entire morning, if you don't mind, Gerald.' 'I don't: mind.' He shrugged, a little grudgingly she thought. 'I wish he'd clear off back to wherever he came from, that's all, and stay there.' She could not resist a smile. 'He's unlikely to do that,' she told him. 'I've suggested something of the sort myself, but he's bent on staying here, it seems, and he's stubborn.' 'Like you,' Gerald retorted ruefully. 'If you really want to be rid of him, darling, come back to town with me. Or let me find you another cottage somewhere.' Deryn shook her head determinedly, her mouth set firm. 'I like it here,' she said. 'I can put up with a lot as long as I have this cottage and this wonderful valley.' 'Like I said,' Gerald told her. 'Stubborn.' 'So I am.' She glanced at her watch and sighed for the work still not completed. 'I . suppose if Dom's come back from the river and it's later than I realised, I'd better go and see about getting some lunch ready,' she said. Gerald frowned. 'Are you still cooking his meals for him?' 'When I do any cooking, which isn't very often.' She gathered up her paraphernalia. Since Hou ad had investigated it once, with disastrous results, she never left her things unattended. 'Are you staying?' she asked, and he looked at her hopefully. "May I?' he asked, and she nodded with a wry smile. 'Of course you may, it's still my cottage so'far.' She was reminded of Gerald's remarks about skindiving in the river the following morning when she went out into the ga
rden to work. It was not very late, but already the sun was fairly high and beauti fully warm, so that she looked forward to her session out of doors. While she was setting up her stool, something caught her eye down by the summerhouse something white, lying on the grass and too big and uncrumpled to be paper blowing about. If she had not known that Dominic took his laundry into Glanreddin to do, she would have thought it was some washing he had put down there to dry. The more she tried to ignore that patch of white while she set out her things, the more it puzzled her. If it was something put out to dry, it would be much better on the clothesline by the cottage. Knowing he was already out of the way, she ventured down to the summerhouse to find out for herself. If it was washing, she could rescue it and peg it up properly on the clothesline, if not he would not be there to ' 91 taunt her for her curiosity. It was, she saw when she got nearer, a pair of swimming trunks apparently he had been swimming early, perhaps before breakfast. Despite the warmth of the sun, they were not drying at all, and they were unlikely to lying there, so she picked them up and carried them back up the garden. Pegged out on the short line attached to the corner of the cottage they would catch the brisk, warm breeze and dry much more quickly. She had quite forgotten she had pegged anything at all on the line by the time Dominic came in for his lunch, and she looked at him in some surprise when his first words to her were, 'Did you know this would happen?' She turned from the cupboard where the plates were kept and stared for a moment uncomprehendingly at the handful of white material he held up for inspection. Then she smiled. 'Oh, are they dry?' she asked. 'I put them on the line, they'd have taken ages spread out on the grass like that.' 'But at least they'd have dried all in one piece,' he remarked, holding the trunks in both hands and poking a finger through a fairly large hole in the back. 'Oh!' Deryn stared at it for a moment, barely suppressing a giggle. 'How did that happen?' 'It happened because some bright girl used pegs with wire springs to peg them on the line,' he told her. 'I'm sure it didn't catch when I put it up,' she said, still looking at the hole. 'It caught when I took it down,' he told her, 92 (throwing the trunks on to a chair. 'I didn't realise there were pegs in there, and I just pulled.' 'Then you can hardly blame me,' Deryn objected reasonably enough, she thought. 'You could see the pegs, surely.' j 'The point is I couldn't,' he argued. 'Or I . r shouldn't have simply tugged. The wind had blown j them up over the line and I didn't see the damned I Pegs.' Deryn sighed deeply, putting plates and dishes on ' . the table. 'Well, you might have known,' she said. I You should have known I wouldn't put anything I on the line without putting pegs m it. No woman in her right mind would.' He grinned maliciously. 'I've yet to have it proved that you are a woman in her right mind,' he told her, and sat down at the table,, daring her to retaliate Deryn, having seen her rescue of the swimsuit as , a gesture of goodwill, resented his attitude fiercely and glared at him as she all but threw the bread down in front of him. 'Oh, I don't know why I bothered with your silly frog suit ' she told him 'It isn't a frog suit,' he informed her precisely, as if she was a rather stupid child. It's an ordinary but rather expensive swimsuit.' , 'Whatever it is,' she declared. 'I thought you fancied yourself as a frogman, sploshing about in the river.' 'I don't splosh about, I go skin diving, and that's vastly different from being a frogman.' 'Well, whatever the ins and outs of it are, it's not my fault it was torn, it was yours.' 'You could have left it where it was.' She brought butter and a jar of pickles and banged them down in front of him. 'I wish I had,' she retorted. 'It isn't as if you need a frog suit anyway, to look like a frog.' It was a childish retort and she knew he would make something of it, so she started to walk away to take her place at the table, but he curled his fingers round her left wrist, bringing her to a halt and making her cry out in protest. 'That wasn't very ladylike,' he said quietly. 'Not ladylike at all.' 'Dom You're hurting me! Let go!' He held on to her more tightly than ever, and his eyes shone with unholy glee as he looked up at her. 'You're a beautiful princess,' he said softly. 'One kiss will turn me into a handsome prince, so the story goes.' 'Will you let go!' 'Turn me into a handsome prince first.' Td as soon hit you over the head with that loa!E of bread,' she retorted, and reached for the long French loaf with her free hand. 'Beautihil princesses aren't supposed to clobber poor defenceless frogs,' he told her solemnly, grabbing her other wrist as well and pulling her down until her face was close to his. 'Now you play by the rules, and I'll let you have your lunch.' 'Dom!' He pulled harder on her wrists and reached for her lips, his mouth hard and much more ruthless than she had expected so that she made muffled, protesting noises as he held her firm. Slowly he 94 I released her at last, still holding her wrists and looking at her with a strange kind of wondering look in his eyes. 'Please! Let me go!' He let go her wrists at last in silence, and she stood for a moment rubbing absently at the marks his fingers had left, then she' looked at him once, briefly, and turned away, unable to bear the feeling of warmth and intimacy it gave her to be so close to' him. She sat down at the other end of the table, her hands trembling and her legs so weak she felt sure they would collapse under her if she stood another minute. They ate in silence, and she could see that even r Hound, in his customary place near the door, was puzzled by the unaccustomed silence between them. I His head was cocked to one side, and his ears alert, trying to decide if something was wrong or not. It I was only when she put the coffee tray down on the table that the silence was broken, and Dominic looked at her as she returned to her seat, that wry, crooked smile tipping his mouth again. 'Shall I say I'm sorry, Deryn?' he asked quietly, I and she started to shake her head, then shrugged lightly instead. I 'Only if you are sorry,' she said. I 'I'm not, in fact.' I 'Then why say you are ?' t He leaned back in his chair and lit a cigarette, exhaling a cloud of smoke that, for the moment, obscured his face from her. "Because I thought you might expect it of me,' he explained then. 'I hadn't realised quite how conventional you are. That I' W y.' y'f artistic, Bohemian facade is just that, isn't it? A facade.' 'I don't know what you mean.' 'Don't you?' He studied her for a moment through the haze of smoke, an experience she found disturbing. 'If you'd been the genuine article you claim to be,' he told her at last, 'you would have taken one little kiss in your stride.' 'How would you know?' she demanded, on the defensive. 'Even arty hippie types as you call them have the right to choose who kisses them Surely.' 'True,' he allowed, as if trying to see her point of view. 'But I did notice that you didn't slap my face.' 'That,' Deryn told him darkly, 'can soon be remedied.' i He laughed, getting to his feet. 'I wouldn't try it, love, I might hit back.' 'And that wouldn't surprise me!' she retorted, wishing she could control the husky, shaky sound of her voice. He picked up his swimming trunks on his way to the door, and grinned ruefully. 'I shall have to go shopping,' he said, 'before I can do any more swimming.' She did not reply, but began gathering up the things on the table, feelingquite incredibly like laughing, considering how angry she had been only a short time before. She only just stopped herself , from giggling idiotically as she carried the dishes over to the sink. Putting them in the oldfashioned enamel bowl, she pulled a tea towel from the rail behind the door before going for the kettle. 'Catch!' she said, throwing the tea towel at him 96 I as he walked to the door, and he looked at it for a moment as if he couldn't quite believe what he saw. 'What's this for?' he asked. 'To dry up with,' she informed him. 'You've got away with it quite long enough. I don't see why I should have to do all the chores as well as prepare the meals.' He looked at her for a moment, and she could see the laughter lurking in his eyes despite the frown he wore. 'Suppose I say I won't dry up?' he suggested quietly. 'Then what?' 'Then you get no more meals,' she informed him shortly, although she was aching 'to laugh, at his expression. s>