children went to bed crying because you didn’t keep your word, and that’s it. Enough is enough.’
‘Mary, listen—’
‘I’m not going to let you hurt them by putting them last again—’
‘It’s not like that—don’t hang up—’
Harriet couldn’t stand it any more. She snatched the phone from his hand and spoke loudly. ‘Mrs Falcon, please listen to me.’
‘Oh, you’re the girlfriend, I suppose?’
‘No, I’m not Mr Falcon’s girlfriend. I’m a member of the lifeboat crew that’s just taken him from the sea, barely in time to save his life.’
‘Oh, please, do you expect me to believe that?’
Harriet exploded with rage. ‘Yes, I do expect you to believe it because it’s true. If we’d got there just a few minutes later it would have been too late. You’re lucky he’s here and not at the bottom of the ocean.’ She handed the phone to Darius, who was staring as though he’d just seen an apparition. ‘Tell her,’ she commanded.
Dazed, he took the receiver and spoke into it. ‘Mary? Are you still there?—yes, it’s true what she said.’
A sense of propriety made Harriet back away in the direction of the kitchen but an overwhelming curiosity made her leave the door open just enough to eavesdrop.
‘Please fetch them,’ she heard him say. ‘Oh, they’ve come downstairs? Let me talk to them. Frankie—is that you? I’m sorry about the delay—I fell in the water but they pulled me out—I’m fine now. Put Mark on, let me try and talk to both of you at once.’
His tone had changed, becoming warm and caressing in a way Harriet wouldn’t have believed possible. Now she backed into the kitchen and shut the door, gratefully accepting a cup of tea from Kate.
‘He’ll go down with pneumonia if he doesn’t get changed soon,’ Kate observed worriedly.
‘Then we’ll have to be very firm with him,’ Harriet said.
‘Like you were just now.’ Kate’s tone was admiring. ‘He didn’t know what had hit him.’
‘I suppose he’ll be cross with me, but it can’t be helped.’
‘As long as we keep him safe,’ Kate agreed.
Harriet look at her curiously. ‘You sound as though you really care. But he can’t be very easy to work for.’
‘I’ll take him rather than the last fellow any day. Rancing just vanished, leaving me here for weeks. He never got in touch, never paid me—’
‘Didn’t pay you?’ Harriet echoed, aghast. ‘The lousy so-and-so. How did you live?’
‘I had a little saved, but I had to spend it all. I couldn’t contact him. Nothing. Then Mr Falcon walked in and said the place was his. I was still living here because I’ve got nowhere else to go. I thought he’d throw me out and bring in an army of posh servants, but he said he wanted me to stay and he paid me for all the weeks after Rancing left.’
‘He—paid you? But—’
‘I know. He didn’t have to. He didn’t owe me and I couldn’t believe it when he handed me the cash.’
Harriet stared, feeling as though the world had suddenly turned upside down. This couldn’t be true. Darius was a villain. That had been a settled fact in her mind. Until tonight—
‘Why didn’t you tell anyone?’ she asked.
‘Because he said not to. He’d be good and mad if he knew I’d told you now, so you’ll keep quiet, won’t you?’
‘Of course. I’m not even quite convinced.’
‘No, he said you wouldn’t be.’
‘He said what?’
‘Not at the time, but last night when I was making his supper, I mentioned it, asked if I could tell people, and he said that you especially must never know because you enjoyed seeing him as the devil and he didn’t want to spoil your fun.’
‘Oh, did he?’
There were no words for the unfamiliar sensation that shook her. Darius had looked into her mind and read it with a precision that was alarming. Or exciting. She wasn’t sure. One thing was certain. Everything she’d thought she knew about him was now in question. And the truth about his real nature was an even bigger question. The world had gone mad, taking her with it.
And what a journey that might be!
She recovered enough to say, ‘But if people knew he could be as generous as this they’d see him differently.’
‘Perhaps he doesn’t want them to,’ Kate said wisely.
That silenced Harriet. This was too much to take in all in one go. She needed space and solitude.
It was time to see how he was managing. Opening the door, they looked out into the hall and saw Darius sitting so still that they thought the call was ended, but then he said, ‘All right,’ in a hard voice.
After a pause he added, ‘You’d better go back to bed now—yes, all right. Goodbye.’
He set the phone down and leaned back against the wood, eyes closed, face exhausted. Something told Harriet the call hadn’t gone well.
‘Time for bed,’ Kate told him. ‘Shall we help you up the stairs?’
‘Thank you, but there’s no need,’ he growled.
He hauled himself slowly to his feet and began the weary trek, stair by stair, but waving the two women away if they seemed to get too close. They contented themselves with keeping a respectful distance, following him up and into his room, where he sat heavily on the bed.
‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘I can manage.’
‘No, you can’t,’ Harriet firmly. ‘If we leave now you’ll just stretch out and go to sleep in your freezing wet clothes. Next stop, pneumonia.’
‘Now, look—’
‘No, you look. I didn’t give up my evening to come out to sea and fetch you to have you throw your life away through carelessness. You’re going to take off those wet clothes and put on dry ones.’
Darius looked warily from one to the other, and seemed to decide against argument. His eyes closed and Harriet thought for a moment he would lose consciousness. But when he opened them again an incredible change seemed to come over him.
Astonished, Harriet saw a faint grin that might almost have been good-natured, or at least resigned. Then he shrugged.
‘I’m in your hands, ladies.’
He unbuttoned his own shirt and shrugged it off, then unzipped his trousers and stood while
