The Stars of San Cecilio Read online

  ‘You come here often?’ she asked, a lump in her throat because every minute as it ticked away was bringing her nearer to her own moment of farewell, and by some irony these words he was uttering to her were being uttered on her last night. ‘Not so very often, but it is a pleasant escape from city life. And at that moment I am looking for a house.’

  ‘Oh—yes?’ she said.

  ‘A house for the summer—a villa where I can install my family. ’

  ‘Oh, yes?’ she said again, more faintly.

  ‘My daughter and her English nurse. ’

  It was on the tip of Lisa’s tongue to ask: ‘And your wife?’ But she hadn’t the courage to let it pass her lips.

  ‘It becomes very hot in Madrid as the season advances,’ he explained, ‘and here on the coast there is usually some air, and always of course the tonic effect of the sea breezes. My daughter is not particularly strong; in fact, it is not long since she was seriously ill, and it behooves me to get her away for the summer. Then, in the autumn, she can go to school in England as planned. ’

  ‘In England?’ she echoed. ‘You believe in English schools?’

  ‘In this case, yes,’ he answered. ‘My wife was partly English. ’

  Was partly English! ... Lisa stared away over the sea, and the iridescent shimmer dazzled her eyes. He was a widower, and Fate was permitting her to know him for a single night!

  ‘I think I saw your little girl the other day, ’ she told him. ‘She was having lunch with you.’ Suddenly he stopped, and his voice was full of apology.

  ‘Your pardon, senorita, but I am talking to you of my affairs, and I have not had the good manners to introduce myself! My name is Julio Fernandez. I am more than happy that I came along in time to rescue your slipper from the tenacious grip of the jetty cobbles! ’

  If there was humor in his voice, there was also a smooth sincerity, and underneath the smoothness there was a touch of warmth that felt like warm fingers reaching and closing about Lisa’s heart. She turned her face up to him with an eagerness that made her look enchantingly attractive in the moonlight, and as she impulsively thrust back the bright wings of hair from her shoulders she responded:

  ‘And I am Lisa Waring—Elizabeth Waring. I’m sure I should have had to abandon my shoe if you hadn’t come along. ’

  ‘Instead of which it is once more safely attached to your foot. ’ He looked down at the foot as if its small size intrigued him. ‘ Are you in a hurry to get back to the hotel, Miss Waring? Or, since we have met, will you drink a glass of wine with me on this last night of yours in San Cecilio?’

  For an instant Lisa could hardly believe her own ears, and then she almost gasped in pleasure.

  ‘That would be—lovely! ’

  His eyes flickered over her once more, dark, inscrutable eyes that nevertheless had the lustre of pools hidden in the depths of a shadowy wood, into which two brilliant stars were peering.

  ‘Bueno!’ he exclaimed. ‘I am very happy! There is a bodega not far from here that will not be too crowded at this hour, and we will drink to your return to San Cecilio—if it is your wish that you should return here at some distant future date?’

  ‘Not too far distant, ’ she returned, a little shakily.

  ‘Then some future date that is perhaps nearer than you imagine.’

  The bodega was not far from the quayside, and they had to retrace their steps to get to it. Inevitably music floated out through the open doorway, and a flood of mellow light fell across the rough wooden benches and tables set out on the cool stone floor. Trailing vines and pot plants gave the place atmosphere.

  In spite of the crudeness of the seating accommodation the wine, when it was brought to the table, was the finest Lisa had so far tasted. She realized that she was hardly a connoisseur of wines, but even her inexperienced palate detected a quality in this sparkling beverage that sent a pleased look into her eyes as she looked across the table at her escort. It was golden and glowing like ripe apricots, and as clear as glass, and as she looked down at the bubbles that floated in it she felt a trifle bemused.

  ‘To your future happiness, Miss Waring,’ Julio Feranandez said formally. ‘ To a great deal of good fortune in your future — and a return to San Cecilio! ’

  ‘I am not in the least likely to return to San Cecilio,’ Lisa confessed forlornly when she set down her glass.

  ‘ Why not?’ he asked.

  And although she couldn’t understand afterwards why she decided all at once to be quite truthful and uninhibited about her affairs, she found herself telling him how she had saved up for this holiday, and about the disaster that had happened literally on the eve of it. When she got back to England She would be jobless, and she was feeling anxious in case she was going to be jobless for very long. Having been wantonly extravagant and refused to cancel this holiday, she couldn’t afford to be without a practical means of support for many weeks.

  Fernandez looked surprised, and then his black brows drew together in a frown. Being Spanish he also felt rather shocked, which was given away by his expression.

  ‘But your parents?’ he asked. ‘Have you no parents? Are you alone in the world?’

  She admitted that she had been without parents since her last year at school, but there had been a little money left for her to train, and she had taken a course in child welfare. She had had two jobs as nursery-governess, one as governess to an older child, and the job that had just come to an end in such a unfortunate manner had combined so many duties that she had been more or less a maid-of-all-work. She wasn’t ashamed of confessing this to the man across the table—perhaps because she was so sure she would never see him again after tonight, and in any case there was little point in departing from the truth—and she saw him looking at her in an inexplicable fashion, as if she was something he had never met before.

  ‘Then although I said you don’t look like Cinderella, ’ he remarked, ‘ your future is really as uncertain as Cinderella’s.’

  ‘Yes.’ She stared down at the bubbles that were expanding and contracting in her wineglass. ‘Except that from the moment Cinderella lost her slipper things started to work out well for her! ’

  ‘That is true. It is a pity we cannot think of something that would enable things to work out well for you.’

  She looked across at him without speaking.

  ‘Tell me,’ he requested, ‘what, exactly, are your qualifications — your accomplishments? You said that you have acted as governess to an older child. Presumably that was not as easy as looking after little ones? Were you a success when you undertook that particular task? Or was it, seeing that you are rather young yourself, just a little beyond you?’ smiling to soften the inference in his words.

  ‘No; I was quite a success. The child was at home from school for a year, owing to illness, and I think I helped her quite a lot. At any rate,’ with a reminiscent look of affection in her clear grey eyes, ‘we grew fond of one another, and it was quite a wrench for both of us when school loomed up once more on the curriculum. ’

  ‘You mean when you had to part? ’

  ‘Yes. And as a matter of fact we still correspond—not only I and the child, but the child’s parents. They were very good to me. ’

  He studied her reflectively.

  ‘Possibly it would be easy to be good to you if you were doing what you English call ‘pulling your weight’.’ Once again she was silent, but her heart seemed to be bounding more quickly than normal—which no doubt was the effect of the wine, which was rather heady.

  ‘Let me tell you something, Miss Waring,’ he said suddenly. ‘I am a doctor—what you call a ‘consultant’ doctor—in Madrid, and my home is, of course, in Madrid also. I have a motherless daughter of nine who was critically ill for several months, and now that she is on the mend I have explained that I wish her to live for a time on the coast. Here on the Costa Brava. I think I have found a suitable villa, or cottage, and Gianetta will be in the charge of her English nurse. But the nur
se is not quite up to coping with Gia — perhaps for the reason that Gia is something of a monkey,’ smiling with a magical softening of his dark eyes, ‘and it seems to me that what is really needed is a governess. Someone young, and alive, and understanding—perhaps like yourself! ’

  ‘You mean--------?’

  Lisa felt her heart stop beating, and then rush on again wildly.

  ‘ I mean that it might solve your problem, and mine, if you stayed on here in San Cecilio, and accepted a position with a Spanish family. That is to say, if you would allow me to become your employer. ’

  Lisa was quite certain that it was the wine that had got up into her head — that she ought to have stuck to only one glass, instead of accepting another half glass as well, and that being extremely potent it was already having a disastrous effect! She was imagining that she heard things

  — imagining that he, of all men, was offering her a job!

  He regarded her quizzically as she appeared to be

  trying to take in his suggestion — groping for words to answer him.

  ‘Perhaps you do not feel that you could take very easily to the Spanish way of life?’ he suggested. ‘It is pleasant for a holiday, but how would it work out if you had to remain here in this country for a period of several months

  — at any rate until the autumn? Is that what you are asking yourself?’

  She shook her head, and he thought that the dazed look in her eyes — so large and steady and English — was a trifle excessive.

  ‘No. I would love to stay, but ... you know nothing about me,’ she reminded him. ‘How could you offer me a position with your own daughter when you know nothing about me?’

  ‘True,’ he agreed, in a common-sense tone that was like a douche of clear cold water on her eager wonder. All at once everything was reduced to its proper perspective, and if her ego had been a bubble that could be pricked it could not have collapsed or become shrivelled more quickly. ‘But I can find out. You can supply me with the address of the parents of the child who was ill, and I can get in touch with them—also, perhaps, your most recent employer. But do not be afraid that I shall be influenced very much by anything she says, although I do feel it will be as well if I do make contact with her. For the sake of my daughter’s welfare, you understand?’ he ended in grave, quiet tones.

  ‘ Of course. ’

  But there was just one moment when she wondered whether she did want to remain in Spain. He was charming and kind and courteous, this man — this doctor from Madrid — but beneath his kindness there was a thread of something inflexible, something that made her think of steel, and just about as unbending.

  He could be adamant, if he chose, and his charm was the unfailing charm of his race. It resulted from his Latin blood, and put that suggestion of warm fires into eyes that could no doubt also look as bleak as ice.

  He sensed that she was hesitating.

  ‘Well,’ he said softly, ‘it is up to you. If you wish to stay, and my inquiries are satisfactory, then there is a position that I can offer you, here in San Cecilio. And in the meantime you can remain at your hotel a few days longer at my expense. Is that as you would wish it, senorita?’

  ‘I can afford to stay on a few days longer myself,’ she told him.

  He rose politely, as if an interview was ended.

  ‘ Nevertheless, I think it will be at my expense. ’

  When he left her in the entrance to the hotel she was hardly aware how she said goodnight to him. She went up in the lift to her room, and then out on to her balcony, where she looked upwards at the stars blazing like diamonds scattered broadcast across a pall of velvet tight-stretched above San Cecilio.

  The stars of San Cecilio! . . . She would remember them always, whatever happened to her, wherever she went!

  C H A P T E R T H R E E

  But it seemed that for a time, at least, San Cecilio was to claim her.

  Three days later she found herself having lunch in the Hotel Carabela with Dr. Fernandez and his daughter Gia. Gia was plainer than ever at close quarters, and this caused Lisa to wonder what her partly English mother must have been like, since there was no doubt about it, Dr. Fernandez was extraordinarily handsome. The only striking feature possessed by her father that the child had inherited was his thick black eyelashes, and between them her greenish-hazel eyes twinkled constantly. They were alert to everything that was going on around her, and although otherwise she was puny the eyes indicated a mental health and vigor that would be difficult to quench.

  ‘You don’t speak English like Miss Grimthorpe,’ she said, studying Lisa with interest across the lunch table. ‘She doesn’t like me to call her Nannie, because she says that makes her feel old, so I call her Grimmie. Will you expect me to call you Miss Waring?’

  ‘You can call me what you like,’ Lisa responded, smiling at her in the way she reserved for young people.

  It was a smile that seldom failed.

  ‘You don’t look like Grimmie,’ Gia told her, crinkling up her eyes as she went on studying her. ‘You’re pretty

  — isn’t she, Papa?’ appealing to her father.

  He looked down dryly at the grapefruit she was engaged in spooning rather carelessly up to her mouth.

  ‘It is extremely rude to make comments on anyone’s appearance while they can overhear those comments,’ he reminded her, and then added: ‘Ah, I was afraid that would happen! ’ as a segment of grapefruit landed in her candy-pink-striped cotton lap, and she instantly looked extraordinarily guilty. ‘However Grimmie behaves, and however she looks, she doesn’t seem to have improved your table manners! ’

  ‘I’m sorry, Papa,’ she whispered, and to Lisa she sounded abject. ‘Lo siento mucho,’ she added in Spanish.

  But his austere face did not relax, and for a few moments Lisa was not merely surprised, but indignant on Gianetta’s behalf. She was so openly anxious to do everything she could to please her father, but on the whole she met with a surprising lack of appreciation, and very little encouragement. Perhaps it was his nature to be critical with young people, even a motherless only daughter.

  ‘It’s nothing very much to worry about,’ she remarked, as she leaned forward to deal with the stain on the cotton frock with her own table napkin. ‘There! There’s hardly a mark!’ after rubbing very hard for a second or so. ‘And, in any case,’ smiling into the small, downcast face,

  ‘ worse things happen at sea! ’

  ‘Do they?’ Gia inquired gravely.

  ‘Much worse.’ With a few neat movements with her fingers Lisa had Gia’s napkin securely tucked into the front of her dress, so that for the remainder of the meal it would be safe. ‘That’s an English saying—a colloquialism. I expect you have lots of them in Spanish. ’ Rising like a small fish to the bait, Gia tried to remember as many proverbs and quotations as she could, and while her nimble mind was thus employed her temporary gloom left her, and although her father did not join in the lighthearted conversation that followed this did not seem to worry her. He sat watching them and smoking a cigarette until the coffee arrived, and then he said quietly to Lisa:

  ‘I am having another look at the cottage I have all but decided to rent this afternoon, so would you care to come along and have a look at it, too?’

  ‘Oh, yes,’ Lisa answered at once. And then she added a trifle more diffidently: ‘At least, I’d like to if — if you think it is likely to become in any way my concern? I mean, if you are still thinking seriously of employing me?’

  ‘ I have received a reply to my telegraphed request for information concerning you,’ he told her, in a level tone, ‘ and it is quite satisfactory. It only remains for you to be convinced that I am a suitable employer, and we must think up some way of providing you with this satisfaction. I can put you in touch with my solicitor, or something of the sort, in Madrid—’

  ‘Oh, but that isn’t necessary,’ she assured him softly. His eyebrows ascended in the way that made her feel young and inexperienced, and also p
erhaps a trifle gauche.

  ‘It is as important for you to have no doubt about me as a man who will pay your salary, and be in a sense responsible for you and your well-being so long as you remain in Spain, as it is for me to feel certain that my child will be safe in your keeping, ’ he pointed out, and for no rhyme or reason she colored. Be in a sense responsible for you! ... It sounded so odd when she had watched him night after night for a fortnight and more, and never expected even to get to know him! ‘You see that?’ he asked.

  ‘Oh, yes—yes,’ she assured him earnestly, ‘I do see it!’ ‘That is as well,’ he returned dryly. ‘In your

  unprotected position you cannot afford to neglect any precaution that safeguards your welfare. ’

  And she wondered whether he was rebuking her for her casual English method of picking up acquaintances.

  His car was huge and white, with maroon upholstery, and in it they were soon driving at considerable speed along the coast. Gia sat on the back seat, where her father had ordered her to dispose of herself, and Lisa sat beside him at the wheel. A tentative suggestion that there was plenty of room for Gia to share the front seat with them, or that she should sit on Lisa’s own lap, had met with an instant rebuff.

  ‘I want to talk to you,’ he told her. ‘And little pitchers

  — to quote another of your English proverbs — have long ears,’ with that note of dryness in his voice she was getting to know so well.

  But although he had said he wanted to talk to her they did not talk on the outward drive to the villa. Occasionally he pointed out to her a feature of interest; a lighthouse on a promontory jutting out into the peacock-blue sea, some rocks that had received a name which suited them, and about which stories were told, a torrent of brilliant growth that trespassed on to the highway. He told her the names of the flowers, and likened them to a less flamboyant specimen to be found in England, and when asked whether he knew England admitted that he did.

  ‘Well?’ Lisa couldn’t refrain from asking.