[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

little more she wanted to know; certainly nothing from
Norman.
She stayed there alone near the lake the whole morning,
and when she got back to the farmhouse only Henri was
there. Miss Morelle, he told her, had gone to-friends for
the day; pickers were rambling and climbing, Joe was
spending the day with cronies.
"And you'd better do the same, Henri," she told him.
"I'll look after myself."
Henri voiced profuse thanks and disappeared. Lu,cie
took the salad from the fridge, ate a little, drank some
115
orange juice and smoked a cigarett'e. She had the un-
familiar sensation of knowing herself quite alone.
She read for an hour, took a bath and came back to
the kitchen to make a cup of tea. She was pouring the
first cup when Matt came round the house and into the
kitchen. Lucie felt her nerves tightening, but showed
nothing in her polite smile.
"You seem always to be finding me in the kitchen,"
she said. "Cup of tea?"
"Please," he said, without expression. "Why aren't you
having it in the living-room?"
"I prefer it here. It's a good old family kitchen.
Sugar?"
He took some, rested an elbow on the table and looked
at her. She had changed into the dark slacks and wore a
lilac jersey that had a hefty roll about the neck; it made her
look small and rather pale. Her hair flopped forward
because it was growing too long, and she shook it back.
"You don't have to stare. I'm still the same person,"
she said offhandedly.
"Not quite. I'd have trusted the other one," he said. -
"What made you do it?"
"I wanted to see the farm before complications set in." .-
"I guessed that. Did you have to deceive everyone else, y
as well as Firland?" "'
She crossed both arms on the table, looked down at' .1
them. "I wasn't sure about him. I certainly had no inten- " ]
tion of laughing at him behind his back." *
"You were going to keep it up for the whole month, |
of course. What then?" ' ' . ''^
"I'm not sure. The way things are, I might have left 'is
for Vancouver and seen the lawyer before anyone knew,-||
who I was." -,'1
"That sounds like the deed of a brave woman," he said '.'%
sarcastically. "I expect it gave you an immense kick,||
picking apples from your own tree and getting paid
"Yes, it did," she answered with spirit. "I still
it wasn't a bad idea to come here as someone else.
certain that had you known me as Lucille Denman neither^
you, nor Norman, nor anyone else would have been~:;s$i^
candid with me as you have been. Possibly, whatever
circumstances, I'd have come to the same conclusion and
been willing to sell up, but I'd have had a very uncom-
fortable time while I was putting in the month here. I
should think you'd be happy to see everything so near
completion."
"Frightfully happy," he said with irony. "But you still
have between now and Thursday to gum up the works.
Tell me, Lucille . . ."
"That's not in the least funny!"
"It's your name, little one, and I intend to use it for
this different person you've become. It has a more distant
sound. Tell me, what have you gained by deceiving every-
one?"
"I've had no false relationships . . ."
"That's not true," he said brusquely. "You've had Firland
running round in circles, and even Torrance can't make
up his mind whether he's taken the count from you or
Dinah! Everyone had the idea you were just a couple of
young' things needing friends in a strange part of the
country." He ended grimly, "However you look at it, the
whole thing was unfair to everyone who might get to
know you." ;
"It wasn't meant that way at all!"
"But worse than that," he said contemptuously, "was
the fact that you could think up such a ... masquerade.
Dinah's right. Your actions don't go with sweetness and
innocence."
"Did you come here to tell me that?"
"No," he said with chilly calmness, "it's not important
now. I've been on the telephone to the lawyer this morn-
ing. I thought we'd better arrange for all of us to go
down and see him next Friday,v but he can't manage it.
He has to go to Victoria on business and won't be back
till Saturday. So I asked him to come up to the ranch
for a couple of days. He's coming out next Sunday and
will go back on Tuesday."
Lucie realized that her fingers were clutching too tightly
at her arms, and she loosened them. "Can't I see him in
Vancouver on Saturday? I only have to sign a few
papers."
"Firland has to be there, and I've been in on it almost
from the beginning, though naturally I've never seen a
117
copy of the will. If I had seen it," he said with that
heavy note of sarcasm, "I daresay I'd have noticed your
full name, and you wouldn't have got by with this little
act of yours."
Just faintly, her lip quivered. "Be quiet about it, she
said. "It concerned Norman more than anyone else.
You're getting the farm. What more can you- want?"
"If you really want the truth  I don't like to get it
this way. The thought of solving a problem for Norman
Firland and some young Englishwoman was almost enjoy-
able, particularly as I've known for years that more could
be made of this property, but it won't be easy to forget
all this underhand business. . . ."
"There was nothing underhand! When . . . when Dinah
and I agreed on it we knew no one and expected to know
no one  but Norman. We thought that a day or two
would be enough to find out whether Norman was the
kind of man who would fall in love with . . . Lucille
Denman because that way he would practically own the
farm himself."
Just perceptibly, Mart's lip curled. "But he fell rather
heavily for Lucie Dawes, instead. You even got him to
propose to you. What a thrill you must have got out of
that!"
For a second she was tempted to hurl the truth at him.
Only tempted, because it would never have occurred to
her to break her word to Norman. Then she thought
that it couldn't matter a great deal what Matt Leverson
concluded about events here at the farm. She hated to
have him look at her like that, but in a way it would help
if he thought her callous. Callous people don't feel things
too deeply. It would be fatal to have him aware of the
torn thing inside her that wanted him to believe only the
best.
"It was you," she said as evenly as she was able, "who [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]