Dark Castle Page 13

  She shook her head, moving quickly into the bedroom, unpacking the few things from her case, hanging the contentious suit away in the wardrobe. Anything to rid her mind of the insidious thought that had Jonas not left the country so precipitately she might have been tempted to go back to him.

  She had changed into jeans and a sweater and was drinking a cup of coffee in the kitchen when she heard the outer door of the flat open and close and guessed, with a tightening of her nerves, that Angela was back. She must have seen Julie's sheepskin coat hanging in the hall because she came through to the living-room calling: 'Julie! Julie! Where are you?'

  'I'm here.' Julie came out of the kitchen, finding a smile.

  'Julie!' Angela hugged her closely, always affectionate, and Julie appreciated the other girl's warmth of greeting even though she had not expected to do so. 'How long have you been here?' Angela stood away from her, sensing that in spite of Julie's unchanged appearance something was troubling her. 'Is anything wrong?'

  'Heavens, no!' Julie forced a light laugh. 'It's wonderful to be back in civilized surroundings again.'

  Angela relaxed. 'Well, it's certainly good to see you again, darling. The flat's been like a tomb this past week. I've spent almost every evening out. I even went to see your mother.' She removed her coat to reveal a slim- fitting suit of beige wool. She always looked elegant, no

  matter what she wore. 'Well, tell me - did you get the interview?'

  'Yes, I got it.' Julie turned back into the kitchen, not wanting Angela to see her face. 'What have you been doing?'

  Angela came after her. 'This and that.' She frowned. 'Julie, has something happened? You seem - I don't know - distraught.'

  Julie schooled her features and turned to look at her friend. 'No. What could have happened? It was a - shock, seeing Jonas again, naturally.'

  'Naturally.' Angela nodded impatiently. 'Julie, you should have let me come with you. It's taken so long. I knew you'd hate it. Did he refuse to see you after bringing you all that way or something?'

  'No, nothing like that. Actually - actually he had an accident while I was there. He cut his hand rather badly. It sort of - held things up.'

  'Serves him right,' remarked Angela callously. 'Making you travel all that way. I saw Mark Bernstein. I told him exactly what I thought of him for forcing you into doing such a thing!'

  Julie pressed a hand to her throat. 'And - and what did he say?'

  Angela shrugged. 'I don't remember. Something about you being the only one for the job, all that twaddle. Anyway, it's over now, so we can return to normal. Have you had dinner?'

  'What? Oh - no, not yet.'

  'Let's eat out!' Angela spread her hands. 'A sort of celebration, eh?'

  'Oh, really, I don't think so, Angela.' Julie could not face the thought of tackling a huge meal. 'I - I'd really rather just have an omelette or something here.'

  Angela looked disappointed. 'But I'd treat you.'

  'I'm not awfully hungry, honestly.' Julie made a dismissing gesture. 'But you go out, Angela. I don't mind.'

  'Without you? Of course not.' Angela's mouth straightened. 'All right, we'll have omelettes here. And then afterwards we'll go round and see your mother, hmm?'

  Julie shook her head. 'Not tonight, Angela. I'm rather tired, too. It's a long journey.'

  Now why had she omitted to say that she had spent last night at Jonas's mother's house? For the same reasons she had not as yet admitted to staying at the castle...

  On Sunday, Julie could not avoid going out to Hampstead to see her mother. It was a fine, almost warm day, the kind that sometimes occurs in October and attempts to deceive the population into thinking that winter is still a long way off. She and Angela drove over in the morning in Julie's Mini and found her mother busy in the garden.

  Mrs. Preston was a keen but meticulous gardener, and as a child Julie had found the formal lawns and flowerbeds more of a nuisance than anything. She remembered she had constantly been getting into trouble for walking on the new shoots or allowing her ball to knock the heads off the daffodils, and on one particular occasion she had suffered a week's detention in her room after school for falling and trying to save herself by dragging up one of her mother's prize rose trees. It had seemed an innocent offence to warrant such punishment, but Mrs. Preston had been adamant. The contrast between her mother and Mrs. Hunter, who Julie could never imagine treating a child in such a way, was all the more marked this morning after her recent stay at Howard's Green. She felt rather uncharitable, too, after

  her mother greeted her warmly and insisted that they both stay for lunch.

  Over the meal, Julie repeated the information she had given Angela, and then came the question she had dreaded most.

  'And where did you stay, dear?'

  Julie swallowed the piece of meat she had been chewing and reached for her glass of wine. 'As a matter of fact, I stayed - at the castle,' she said, and waited for the explosion.

  As she had half expected, it was Angela who reacted first. 'The castle? Jonas's castle? You stayed at Jonas's castle?' she gasped disbelievingly. 'But you didn't mention that when we were discussing it last evening!'

  'How could you, Julie?' That was her mother, her lips curled fastidiously. 'How could you be so incredibly foolish?'

  Julie knew her cheeks were turning scarlet. 'I don't know why you're both behaving as though some crime has been committed!' she exclaimed. 'It - it was perfectly respectable. He has a married couple - the Macphersons - living in. They looked after the place for his grandmother when she was alive.'

  'It was his grandmother's castle?' asked her mother, frowning.

  'Yes. But I never met her. She was too old at the time - at the time we got married, and as the castle was expected to pass to his uncle he never mentioned it.'

  'And why didn't it?' asked Angela coldly. 'Pass to his uncle, I mean?'

  'Oh! He - he died. He was killed in an air crash.'

  'How convenient!' Angela looked at Mrs. Preston, tight-lipped.

  Julie sighed. 'Well, it was just as well I could stay - at

  the castle. There - there weren't any hotels in the area, and any guest-houses there had been were closed for the winter.'

  'Well, I think you behaved irresponsibly, spending any time with that man,' said her mother bitterly. 'I'm quite sure he could have made other arrangements if he'd chosen to.' She fixed her daughter with a piercing stare. 'What happened between you?'

  Julie strove to remain calm. They knew nothing - nothing.

  'At - at the castle?' she ventured, playing for time. She had nothing to hide about her stay at the castle, and they need never know of that brief interlude at Howard's Green.

  'Of course.' Angela was irritable.

  Julie looked from one to the other of them feeling curiously alienated. She sensed their hostility, their feeling of betrayal, and she couldn't altogether blame them. They had not wanted her to go to Scotland, and by insisting on going she had aroused their resentment and impatience. But this was much worse. She was now admitting to fraternizing with the enemy, and no amount of justification would entirely exonerate her in their eyes. Were they not taking it all so seriously, it could have been farcical, thought Julie without humour.

  'Nothing happened,' she said now. 'I - I had a job to do, and I did it. What makes you think Jonas would want anything to do with me after the way I've treated him?'

  'After the way you've treated him!' echoed her mother in horror. 'What did he expect? Seducing your best friend!'

  Julie pushed her plate aside. 'Let's not begin a discussion on that, Mother, please,' she appealed quietly. 'It's over now. All I've got to do is type out my notes.

  Mark should be delighted.'

  Angela looked as though she would have liked to have said more, but as luck would have it the vicar arrived a few minutes later to request Mrs. Preston's help in the forthcoming Christmas fair, and he stayed until the two girls were ready to leave.

  But back at the flat, An
gela gave full vent to her anger.

  'You must have been out of your mind, Julie!' she exclaimed furiously. 'Putting yourself into his power - providing him with a heaven-sent opportunity!'

  'A heaven-sent opportunity?' Julie's lips trembled. 'I - I told you, he didn't touch me—'

  'Oh, not that!' Angela flung herself into an armchair. 'I know you better than that, I hope. I'm pretty sure you'd never let him lay his hands on you again.' Julie turned away so that her face should not betray her again, but Angela didn't notice. 'No—' she went on, 'I'm talking about divorce!'

  'Divorce?' Julie felt hopelessly confused. 'I don't understand—'

  'Your divorce, Julie!' explained Angela shortly. 'The divorce you should have insisted upon at the outset.'

  'But what has—'

  'Can't you see?' Angela's mouth was a thin line. 'Julie, you stayed at the castle. No court of law would grant you a divorce if Jonas could prove that, and he can, if he has these two old retainers to back him up.'

  Julie didn't know why she should feel such an immense sense of relief. The question of the divorce had been weighing heavily on her mind, but now it seemed she had to make no immediate decision.

  'Well, does it matter?' she murmured, bending to pick up a magazine, shaking a cushion, anything to avoid sitting down and becoming the cynosure of Angela's attention.

  'Does it matter?' Angela was incredulous. 'Of course it matters, Julie. So long as you're still married to him, he's got a hold over you, and I don't like it.'

  'I don't see how it affects you, Angela, one way or the other,' said Julie quietly.

  Angela stared up at her, her eyes wide and accusing. 'You don't see how it affects me? Oh, Julie, you know I'm only thinking of you. I'm very fond of you. I don't want to see you getting hurt again.'

  'I -I shan't-'

  'You don't know what ideas Jonas Hunter may have. This whole thing may have been engineered by him to get you back again. And then what? More unfaithfulness - more humiliation!'

  Julie shook her head. 'Angela, I'm sorry if I sound - well - indifferent, but the situation is no different now from what it was before I went away.'

  But it is, a small voice inside her taunted.

  However, much to her relief, Angela seemed to decide she had said enough for the present. She was still far from satisfied with her explanations, Julie could tell that, but for the moment she was prepared to let it go. Instead, she began telling Julie what had been happening that week at the salon, and later Julie got out her notes on Jonas and edited them ready for typing.

  Going into the office on Monday morning, Julie began to feel a little more normal. This was her environment, and she had always been able to gain an immense amount of satisfaction from her work. She had her own small sanctum off the main office, and she knew her position was envied by more than one member of the staff. But her work was good, consistently so, and the enthusiasm she had always felt for it showed in the bright, co-ordinated style of her writing. It was through her enthusiasm to be

  successful that she had first met Jonas Hunter . ..

  She had always wanted to write. She had dreamed of working for a national newspaper, interviewing people, covering important events, being on the spot when something momentous happened. But it hadn't been easy. National newspapers had their pick of applicants, many of them experienced, and one small girl with only her talent to commend her could not expect to get far. Interviews came and went and she was no nearer her goal than she had ever been.

  So, using her own initiative, she started covering events on her own account, writing up stories and sending them in. Nothing happened to begin with. So far as she was aware the articles all ended up in someone's waste bin. But her persistence paid off. Six months later, one of her pieces fell into the hands of Jonas Hunter and recognizing the talent inherent in everything she wrote he asked to see any more that were sent in. Unaware of this, Julie carried on, gradually becoming more and more despondent, until one afternoon a sleek grey Aston Martin drew up outside her mother's house and a tall dark stranger came to the door.

  Looking back on it now it was hard to remember the tremendous thrill she had felt when he had introduced himself. Jonas Hunter was almost a household name as far as she was concerned, and her mother, who for weeks had been protesting that Julie must get herself a proper job, was suitably impressed. He was invited into the splendid isolation of the parlour, which was seldom used by anyone but the vicar, and offered tea, which he declined. Julie had wondered what he must have thought of them, but afterwards Jonas had always maintained that from the very beginning he had been conscious of very little but the eager intelligence in a pair of wide-spaced

  hazel eyes.

  Later, of course, after Julie was installed at the Herald, albeit in a very junior capacity, he began to notice other things about her. At that time his work was mainly freelance, and he had had plenty of time to pick her up from work and take her home, sometimes offering her dinner, sometimes not. Julie was warned - she lost count of the number of times she was warned - not to have anything to do with him, that he was a wolf, that he ate little girls like her for breakfast, or perhaps supper was nearer the mark. He had the kind of reputation calculated to deter the most hardened matrons from offering their daughters in the matrimonial stakes even though his good looks and his social position encouraged them to try. He had escorted all the most sought-after models and debutantes at one time or another, but he remained dishearteningly unattached.

  Julie knew all this, she had thought she was tempting fate having anything to do with him, and certainly her mother and Angela had not approved even then. But she hadn't been able to help herself. He did nothing to arouse any unwelcome suspicions in her mind, and their conversations were always interesting and impersonal. He was a fascinating raconteur, and she could sit for hours listening to him talking about the places he had visited. He could make the drabbest situations sound exciting, and if he sometimes took her hand in his enthusiasm and stroked it almost absentmindedly with his fingers she had not to imagine that he meant anything by it. All the same, those hand-holding sessions disturbed Julie more than she cared to admit, but if they left a restaurant and his fingers closed round her wrist she always managed to detach herself without too much difficulty.

  For three months they saw one another almost every day. She got to know him very well. He told her about his parents, and his brothers, and their home in Yorkshire, and she took him home to Hampstead on occasions, much to Mrs. Preston's annoyance. Her mother's initial reactions to Jonas had soon given way to anxiety concerning the possible effect he might have on Julie, nurtured, Julie had to admit, by Angela's gossip. She accepted that they meant well, but they didn't know Jonas as well as she did.

  Then one week-end he asked her to go to Yorkshire with him, to meet his family. Julie had been eager to go until she got home and told her mother. Mrs. Preston of course thought the worst. She asked Julie whether Jonas's mother had offered the invitation or whether Jonas had relayed it to her. Naturally Julie had had to admit that she had not spoken to Mrs. Hunter, and from that moment on Mrs. Preston was convinced that he had no intention of taking her to his parents' home. She had pleaded with Julie not to go, but Julie, in spite of the fact that her nerves were on edge by this time, had refused to change her mind.

  They had driven north in the evening, and if Jonas had noticed Julie's preoccupation with her thoughts he had made no comment. But the car had broken down on a lonely moorland road and suddenly everything her mother had suggested had become agonizingly possible.

  Jonas, unaware of her suspicions, had suggested they make their way to the nearest farmhouse and ask for assistance, but Julie had refused to go with him. She had insisted on staying in the car, even though the moorland road was dark and unfamiliar, and she had seen by the hardening of his expression that he had correctly divined her thoughts. He had returned some time later with a garage mechanic who had quickly fixed the faulty carburettor and got the
powerful engine started again. They had driven on in silence and although Julie had felt terrible about suspecting him she had not been able to bring herself to apologize.

  They had arrived at Howard's Green as the family were sitting down to dinner. Nicholas and Paul had both been at home at that time and their welcome had increased her sense of contrition. However, Jonas gave her no opportunity to say anything more about it that evening. He had taken his father and brothers off to the village pub after the meal, leaving Julie to talk to his mother.

  From the beginning Julie had liked Mrs. Hunter. They had got along well together, and if the older woman sensed that all was not well between her eldest son and the girl he had brought for the week-end she was discreet enough not to mention it. Julie was in bed by the time the men got back and it was not until after breakfast next morning that she had seen Jonas alone.

  Mrs. Hunter had suggested he take Julie for a walk, to see something of the countryside, and as it was a pleasant September morning he had agreed. They had put on anoraks over slacks and sweaters and climbed the grassy slopes of Lonsdale Fell. Julie was searching for a way to bring up her stupidity of the night before when her foot had gone down a rabbit hole and she had cried out in agony as she lost her balance and collapsed on to the moist turf. Jonas had been beside her in a minute, going down on his haunches, taking her ankle between his long fingers, examining it for possible fractures. Julie had sat helplessly watching him, aware that she wanted his hands on her body, not just on her ankle, shocked that she should be experiencing such wanton thoughts.

  He had looked up and encountered her eyes upon him, and his thin handsome face had hardened as it had done

  the previous evening. 'I'm surprised you came out with me alone after yesterday,' he had said harshly. 'Aren't you afraid I might take advantage of you? Foolish mouse! Do you think you could stop me if I chose to make love to you?'