The Devil's Bride Read online

'I think I'm going to need that more than you.' As she realised what she had just said, Sandra's face paled. She said quickly, 'That doesn't mean I agree to do as you ask— I still think it would be crazy. Stein would be sure to find out. I've read somewhere that blind people develop a great

  sensitivity.'

  'Stein has scarcely had time.'

  Sandra tried to ignore Alexandra's reassuring purr.

  'Stein's accident,' even to ask seemed actually to hurt her in some strange way, 'how did it happen?'

  'Glass from his windscreen. A head-on collision with a drunken motorist.' Alexandra, as usual, had a dislike of gory details and kept her answers brief.

  Sandra felt herself tremble as if she could see it happen. She could feel the horror and the pain moving through her as if she had almost been part of it. How could Alexandra be willing to turn her back on a man who had gone through all that? It seemed too heartless an act even to contemplate. Someone, somehow, must try to make it up to him. Only surely this couldn't mean herself! Yet, if she continued to refuse, would this make her any better than Alexandra? Money didn't come into it. Sandra's heart overflowed with compassion.

  'Poor Stein,' she murmured, feeling the words totally inadequate.

  'The thing is,' Alexandra shrugged, 'without his eyesight he could end up that way!'

  Aghast at her cousin's indifference, Sandra exclaimed, 'And it wouldn't suit you to be tied to a man without a penny to his name?'

  'There's no need to be so disparaging.' Petulantly Alexandra rose to her elegantly shod feet. Restlessly she wandered over the shabby, rose-strewn carpet of her grandmother's sitting room. 'I was never made to thrive on poverty, as you appear to have done,' she sneered. 'Besides, I

  should moulder away on a Greek Island.'

  'Haven't you tried to explain this to Stein?' Sandra asked reasonably. 'Perhaps he doesn't realise?'

  'You'd think he would! Even a few weeks without any regular form of entertainment! He seems to imagine I should be able to exist on love!'

  'On love?' Sandra gulped quickly as her throat went tight. 'I thought you said he didn't talk of it anymore?' 'Oh, take no notice of that!' Just as swiftly Alexandra grimaced. 'It's merely the Greek in him. Naturally they discuss love as we would eggs and bacon.'

  'You didn't say anything about his being Greek!' Sandra couldn't restrain her low note of accusation.

  'He's not Greek!' Alexandra's thin mouth firmed in exasperation. 'It's just his grandmother who is. He's as English as you and me. I'm sure you have nothing to fear.' But instinctively Sandra felt she had, if only Alexandra would give her time to think. Even if Stein Freeman had just a little Greek blood in his veins it would make him a man to be reckoned with. Wasn't it well known that the Greeks believed in a stringent code of conduct? With cold fingers of fright curling around her fast beating heart she cried, 'The whole thing is ridiculous! I couldn't possibly do it.'

  'Very well.' For a moment Alexandra's face was venomous as she said smoothly, 'If you won't you won't. All I hope is that you don't expect me to help you or even see you again after this. I'll tell Stein, as you advise, and if he jumps in the river, he'll just have to!'

  'Oh, no!' the horror in Sandra's voice was clearly audible. 'You simply can't, Alexandra!'

  'I can and I will!' Alexandra turned on her with a fury so unstable as to be absolutely convincing. 'You can't stop me, but you can stop judging me like a sanctimonious little saint!'

  For a long moment there was silence as the two cousins stood regarding each other. Sandra was aware of the hate on Alexandra's face, but it wasn't this that made her look away first. 'All right,' she agreed, feeling driven by some inner compulsion which, against all her more cautious instincts, would allow no other reply, 'if you're sure I can do it?'

  'I'm sure,' Alexandra nodded, with a hint of smug satisfaction that Sandra scarcely noticed.

  'Perhaps, as you say,' Sandra shrugged, trying desperately to stiffen her wavering decision, 'it will help Stein— and what have I to lose?'

  A few days later, on her way to London, Sandra was still wondering just how true her rash statement would prove to be. Alexandra, she realised, had outwitted her, Alexandra and Stein Freeman between them. The willpower of one, the hard masculine attraction of the other, this and the plight Stein was in. Carefully she tried to channel her shaken feelings on to a more impersonal plane, rather than think about it as she had been doing constantly since Alexandra had left. Couldn't this be a chance of adventure, a change of scene such as had never come her way before, or was likely to come again? Never, until now, had there been a chance of spreading her wings. How could there have been when she had to nurse an ailing grandmother almost continually since she had left school. Apart from Alexandra's brief visits there had been no one else.

  Quickly Sandra bit back a sobbing breath, not of self- pity but apprehension. Alexandra had led such a very different sort of life. It wouldn't have occurred to her that after various unavoidable expenses had been met there was very little of Sandra's hundred pounds left. Sentiment apart, this proposition of Alexandra's seemed, when Sandra had really got down to considering it, the only possible way out. God knows she regretted it bitterly, but hadn't she tried every other alternative without success? If Stein Freeman did find out about her deception he could be no worse off, surely, than he might be if Alexandra deserted him now and left him with no one. Sandra knew she must keep thinking along these lines in order to retain her sanity.

  Burying her small face in a magazine she didn't really see, she groped hopelessly with her ensuing problems. Unlike Alexandra she was no actress. How did one suddenly take over the role of a man's fiancee? How could she walk into his flat and talk to him as if she was quite used to doing such a thing? Already she was bitterly regretting the promise she had made to Alexandra, It had been easy enough to memorise most of the things Alexandra had told her, and she had told her enough during the two days she had spent with her, but how could anyone guarantee that the whole thing wouldn't turn out an absolute fiasco?

  Fortunately there seemed no immediate snags as Stein had just returned from America and none of his English friends had yet met Alexandra. He was living in a service flat with which he had been quickly familiar and in another few days he would be in Greece where he had enough servants, should he need them. Even his regular physician was off on holiday, so there would be no problem there.

  'Don't you see, it's as if fate was on my side,' Alexandra laughed triumphantly when Sandra arrived at her flat. 'You've got here safely and no one is going to suspect a thing.'

  That was one hurdle, Sandra admitted, while suspecting there would be other, more dangerous ones to face. Almost before she had set her suitcase down in Alexandra's small bedroom which they were apparently to share, Alexandra was telling her she would need some new clothes.

  'But if Stein can't see,' Sandra protested, 'what's the point?'

  'The point is,' Alexandra said tersely, 'he knows the quality of mine by touch. Touch seems to be important to him. That's another thing,' her elegant nose wrinkled distastefully. 'You know how I hate being pawed.'

  As Sandra stared at her uneasily, a twinge of fear flicking her, Alexandra glanced at her swiftly. 'It's just the usual kind of thing, you know. Taking my coat, my arm occasionally. Nothing more.'

  'I see.' Sandra glanced around her uncertainly, wishing fervently she could be back in her old village home with only Gran to worry about. 'About clothes,' she began.

  'Don't worry about that.' Alexandra took her arm, leading her back into the lounge. 'There are several things of mine which will be suitable, I think. The rest I'll buy you, as a present if you like. After all, I'm not going to be short of a bob or two, not after I'm married. No one need know, least of all Arnold.'

  The whole of the next day was devoted to rigging Sandra out in what Alexandra considered suitable clothing and familiarising her with the immediate district. 'Not that it matters much,' Alexandra said. 'By the end of the week we will
both be gone, but it's essential that you know your way around, if only for a few days. Actually my flat and everything is paid up until the end of the week. All there remains to do is to hand the keys in to the caretaker.' Afterwards Sandra wondered why this didn't warn her as to Alexandra's real intentions, but her thoughts were so full of the ordeal in front of her that no suspicion crossed her mind. The next evening, when she was to visit Stein for the first time, her nerves were so taut she doubted if she could go through with it.

  'I don't think I can,' she exclaimed, white-faced. 'I think if you'd just let me go and explain frankly why you want to end your engagement, Stein would understand. Nothing could be as bad as this deliberate plan to deceive him. No one would believe such a situation could exist!' 'Don't you see, you little fool, that's exactly what I'm banking on!' Alexandra's hiss was suddenly vicious, 'Goodness knows I've spent long enough cramming you up. I refuse to have you let me down at the last minute.'

  Swiftly Alexandra hustled her into her dress, refusing to give her another chance to protest as she rang for a taxi. It wasn't until it arrived that she relented. Perhaps it was the look of mute appeal on Sandra's face that led her to promise, 'If you still feel you can't go through with it by the time you get back, we'll talk. All I ask you to do now is go and meet Stein, if not for my sake, then his.'

  All the way across London in the taxi Sandra wondered why she had spinelessly agreed to Alexandra's demands. The fault must lie in the fact that although she had more or less run Gran's small household she had had no experience in managing her own life. Gran had been a matriarch in her own right and to the last had liked her own way — certainly in every matter that counted. Long since Sandra had given up any idea of asserting herself as this used to upset the old lady, and she doubted now if she still possessed the ability to speak her mind. For someone of Alexandra's dominating nature she must have proved a walkover.

  A deep shiver ran all the way down Sandra's limbs as a few minutes later she pressed the bell of Stein Freeman's flat. If ever she survived this first encounter with him she intended to make it her last—as his fiancee. Somehow, something else must be arranged!

  She was so busy with her thoughts that when the door in front of her eventually opened she almost jumped. Before her stood a tall man with a great breadth of shoulder. He was dark, so dark that she was glad she had discovered he had Greek blood in his veins or she might have been even more startled than she was already.

  There was an odd silence as he stared at Sandra and she could only think blankly that he looked like any normal person. As he stood there no one would ever guess he couldn't see. She recognised him from his photograph. His face had the exact rugged contours, the same straight nose and deeply cleft chin. It was the hint of arrogance that lifted it out of the ordinary. This, and the cool, direct look from the dark grey eyes. It was scarcely a lover-like glance he bent on Sandra, and again she felt herself quiver.

  'Alexandra?' His query betrayed what his eyes had failed to reveal and she felt a renewed surge of pity, a sense of compassion which was immediately replaced by confusion as she wondered if Alexandra usually kissed him. It would seem natural to kiss one's fiance, but it was one of the more obvious points Alexandra and she had never thought of, although Alexandra had said Stein wasn't demonstrative.

  'Yes!' she replied quickly, trying to pull herself together as he repeated her name again, this time with a small hint of impatience. Then, marvelling at her own audacity, she

  brushed past him into the hall. 'You were expecting me?'

  'I wasn't sure,' he said sardonically, closing the door and following her as she crossed to the sitting room, moving decisively as she guessed Alexandra would, 'seeing that you haven't been here for three days.'

  'But...' Sandra's voice trailed off uncomfortably as her eyes widened. If Alexandra hadn't been here last night then where had she been?

  'Don't worry,' Stein drawled, coming close to her, his hands reaching out to take her coat, 'I know you have to work. That's why I didn't ring you. Where did your last assignment take you?'

  'Oh—er— Brighton,' Sandra gasped, hoping he would put down her shortage of breath to the struggle she was having in getting rid of her coat. What on earth was her cousin playing at? Brighton was the first place to enter her head.

  'Poor Alexandra! You're a devil for punishment. Brighton at this time of year! What was Carl thinking about?'

  This was getting worse, especially as Stein sounded so cynical. She had heard of Carl Lennox, of course, Alexandra's favourite photographer, but she knew practically nothing about him. From the sound of Stein, he knew plenty! Irrationally Sandra did the first thing she thought of. She slipped her hand through Stein's arm and pulled him gently towards the settee. 'Come and sit down, darling,' she begged softly. 'I'm sure we don't want to discuss Carl.' 'Which makes a change!' Stein's eyebrows rose sarcastically, but he didn't seem to mind sitting beside her. As she withdrew her hand from his arm he said, 'I presume there's something more important?'

  Sandra flushed and was glad he couldn't see it. She felt stunned that she had been able to speak at all naturally, but she doubted if she could continue to do so. Stein Freeman was much more intimidating than she had imagined he would be, there was a hardness about him which made her shrink, but he also made her feel terribly vulnerable. She had felt sorry for him even before she had seen him, but to be near him stirred her heart with a frightening anguish that such a man could be so disabled. 'There's nothing I want to talk about particularly,' she said, feeling choked.

  Indifferently he stretched his long, powerful legs, his mouth curling to a sneer. 'It sounds as though I'm in for an entertaining evening. As usual you don't ask how I am.' 'I'm

  sorry,' anxiously Sandra tried to emulate her cousin's cool

  tones. 'How are you, Stein?'

  'Quite well,' he returned the coolness. 'But a little warmth, a little more enthusiasm, wouldn't come amiss.' Sandra's thick lashes flickered. What exactly did he mean by that? She suspected he wasn't in the least interested in his own health and there was a devilish glint of irony in his eyes which had her uneasy. It seemed the doctor had been right in thinking his nerves weren't too good, but she didn't want to be on the receiving end of his bad temper. Blinking again, she tried to remember. Hadn't the doctor advised patience?

  Yet the situation was so strange, and she felt so apprehensive, she found herself mumbling inanely, 'You'll probably feel better after you've had something to eat.'

  His snort of laughter proclaimed that he wasn't impressed either. 'Still the greedy little paragon, Alexandra! You always did believe food the cure for everything, and you so thin.'

  Glancing at him quickly, Sandra wondered what reply she could make to this. Her first effort seemed to have sapped what little confidence she had. Now she couldn't think of anything to say which wouldn't seem stilted. ’I don't think you would care for me if I were fat,' she said at last, beating back a half hysterical desire to giggle at her own originality.

  'How do you know I wouldn't?' he asked, his hand reaching out suddenly and taking hers as it lay on her lap, as if he knew exactly where to find it. 'Dear me,' he grinned, without much mirth, 'why the clenched fingers? It's most unlike you, my darling, to let me disturb you.'

  In vain Sandra tried to free herself, feeling a strange flicker of something like fire going right through her, choosing to end in the most sensitive regions of her body. She had felt it before, as she had innocently drawn Stein towards the settee, and put it down to imagination. But this tremor was too strong to be explained away as a coincidence.

  'You don't disturb me,' she protested, perhaps unwisely, as she belatedly remembered the first thing Alexandra would have demanded. 'I think I would like a drink,'

  His mouth derisive, he almost threw her hand back to her side. Gratefully she decided he hadn't noticed how she trembled. After all, she was supposed to be his fiancee, and if he felt her reacting nervously he might take it into his devious head to d
iscover why. It was no use Alexandra declaring she and Stein were not compatible. He might still feel he had some rights, especially as she still wore his ring, and, in spite of everything, he was still supposed to be in love with her. Yet his attitude this evening had been far from loving. As she watched him rise and go to the drinks cabinet, Sandra's gaze followed him, full of confusion.

  'Food and drink never interest me nowadays,' Stein

  quipped dryly, pouring two double whiskeys. 'I find myself

  wondering if I shouldn't try to be a more satisfactory lover.

  We've never really tried very hard in that direction. We might

  have more to offer each other than we think.'

  CHAPTER TWO

  Sandra seemed to feel every nerve in her body tighten as Stein spoke. As she reached out automatically to accept the drink he offered her mind whirled in such fright she forgot it was whisky, something she wasn't used to having. In her grandmother's house, in the latter years anyway, there had only been the occasional bottle of sherry, and even when out with friends Sandra had rarely indulged in anything stronger.

  Trying despairingly to base her reply on a rather vague recollection of what Alexandra had told her, she tried to speak evenly above her unsteady pulse. 'You've never wanted to be my lover yet, so why should you change your mind now?'

  He smiled sardonically as he turned without error to press a bell in the wall. 'I'm not sure,' he confessed brutally, 'unless it's boredom which makes me seek a possible way to alleviate it. You're very desirable, my dear, but I don't forget you've never been a particular advocate of sex before marriage.' He paused, a slight frown creasing his broad brow as he turned again in her direction before continuing with a frankness that shook her, 'Do I detect something which seems to indicate that you might feel differently about going to bed with a man? I've never asked you before, Alexandra, but tonight your voice seems softer, rounder somehow, to hold more promise.'

  'Please stop!' Sandra's entreaty was barely more than a horrified whisper. Any relief that Alexandra must have indeed been speaking the truth regarding her exact relationship with Stein was lost in a flood of embarrassment. No man had ever spoken to her like this before and the heat in her cheeks seemed to be flooding her very body. Yet she must try to remember that, in the circles Stein and Alexandra moved in, such a conversation might be commonplace. 'Nothing has altered,' she managed to gasp, fearful that Stein might mistake her quivering silence for surrender.