Prelude To Enchantment

Tony chuckled. ‘Maybe you're right, Eleanor. He was a most attractive individual, I must admit.'

‘Oh, stop it, you two!’ exclaimed Sancha impatiently.

‘I really think our Miss Forrest is smitten with Count Malatesta,’ Eleanor insisted maliciously. ‘Perhaps she hopes to impress him with her literary tastes.'

Tony gave Sancha a slanted look. ‘Do you think perhaps, Eleanor, she is hiding something from us? Maybe the Count secretly fell in love with her and they are at present conducting an illicit liaison——'

Sancha's cheeks burned. ‘Have you nothing better to do than stand here making ridiculous remarks?’ she demanded hotly.

Eleanor's expression was one of spiteful satisfaction. ‘Dear me, Tony, I do believe our Miss Forrest is nurturing a hopeless passion for the Count. Do you think we should tell him and put her out of her misery——'

Sancha got abruptly to her feet, anger overwhelming all other emotions. ‘Don't judge everybody by your own standards, Eleanor,’ she stated clearly and distinctly, her voice carrying to every corner of the huge office so that several pairs of eyes turned in their direction. ‘We're not all man-eaters, you know.'

For a moment there was complete silence and even Tony looked slightly uncomfortable, and then Eleanor almost spat out her next words: ‘You—you little bitch!’ she stormed. ‘Don't you dare to speak to me like that, or uncle or no I'll have you thrown out of this building!'

‘What is going on?'

The cool precise tones of Eduardo Tessile broke into the heated exchange.

Sancha's shoulders sagged and she leant on her desk weakly. Eleanor gave her one scathing glance before turning to the older man.

‘Oh, Eduardo, I am glad it is you,’ she said, her voice softened to a honeyed sweetness. ‘Sancha and I have been having an argument and she has said the most spiteful things to me.’ She shook her head. ‘I do not seem able to converse with her these days.'

Sancha compressed her lips. How dared Eleanor stand there and tell such barefaced lies? She looked at Tony. He must know Eleanor was lying, too, and yet he said nothing.

Eduardo looked at Sancha. ‘Well, Sancha,’ he said, ‘have you nothing to say for yourself?'

Sancha shrugged. ‘Eleanor's right, we don't get on. But I don't agree that it's all my fault.'

‘No. There are always two sides to every argument,’ agreed her uncle, sighing. ‘Nevertheless, for the efficient running of this magazine it is necessary to maintain harmony. Can you not at least save your differences for outside these office walls and make a pretence of co-operating while you are here?'

Sancha lifted her shoulders helplessly, while Eleanor sniffed. ‘Your niece cannot take a joke, Eduardo,’ she said, meaningfully. ‘Tony and I were teasing her, that is all, when she—how do you put it—flew from the handle!'

Eduardo shook his head and it suddenly became obvious to Sancha that while he might sympathise with his niece he did not want to offend Eleanor. She was a professional writer and they were hard to come by, and she would find no difficulty in taking her services elsewhere. Even so, Sancha would not have considered her irreplaceable. No, there was more to this than an impersonal desire for a good feature writer. It was something else, something in the atmosphere, something that put a guarded look in Tony Braithwaite's eyes, that enabled Eleanor to adopt an almost aggressive stance, and made Eduardo's voice almost appealing.

It was as though the scales had suddenly been lifted from her eyes, and Sancha wondered why it had never occurred to her before to wonder how Eleanor could get away with so much. The only occasion she could ever recall where Eleanor had not got her own way was over this feature and it must have been galling for her when he insisted on allowing his niece to cover it.

Sancha's probing ceased and she bent her head uncomfortably as she sensed Eduardo's gaze upon her. Had he guessed that she had stumbled upon the truth of the situation?

‘Sancha?’ he said now, questioningly.

Sancha shrugged. ‘What do you want me to say?'

‘Let this be an end to this petty bickering,’ Eduardo replied shortly. ‘Eleanor! I expect you to co-operate, too.'

Eleanor tossed her head indifferently. ‘We shall see what happens,’ she retorted, with careless disregard for his position, and walked away to her own office.

After she had gone Eduardo muttered a word to Tony and then turned and walked back to his own office. After he had gone Tony knocked gently on Sancha's desk. ‘Can I come in?'

Sancha looked up. ‘What is it now?'

Tony sighed. ‘Sorry, kid, but I couldn't help you there.'

Sancha's eyes narrowed. ‘And I know why.'

‘Too bad.’ Tony made an expressive gesture. ‘But that's the way it goes. Don't think too much about it. Your aunt doesn't even suspect, and why should she? Even Eleanor knows better than to brag about it.'

Sancha hunched her shoulders. ‘But why?’ she cried.

‘Why what? Why doesn't your aunt know?'

‘No, you know what I mean. Why?'

Tony glanced round to make sure their conversation wasn't being eavesdropped upon. ‘Who can tell why these things happen?’ he asked. ‘I guess Eduardo was attracted to her and she was flattered by his attentions. Now she seems to imagine she holds a kind of special position here.'

‘And doesn't she?'

‘Only so far,’ replied Tony thoughtfully. ‘You got this feature, didn't you? She didn't want that to happen, but it did.'

Sancha sighed. ‘It all seems so unnecessary somehow.’ She shook her head. ‘My uncle has a wife. Surely one woman is enough!'

Tony chuckled softly. ‘Oh, Sancha, how naïve you are! You frighten me sometimes with your complete lack of—well—knowledge. Men want women for different reasons. Don't try to analyse something about which you know so little. Just let it ride. It's been going on for some time now and no one's been hurt, so don't think about it.'

But after Tony had gone Sancha could not help thinking about it. It was all very well telling herself that it was nothing to do with her and that so far as she was concerned everything was just the same as it was before, but it wasn't! How could she watch Eduardo and her Aunt Elizabeth together without thinking of him with that other woman—with Eleanor Fabrioli? She would never be able to think of Eduardo in the same light ever again …

At the weekend she returned with Eduardo to his house by the shores of Lake Betulla several miles from Venice. Usually she looked forward to these weekends, enjoying the time spent with her aunt, lazing by the shores of the lake or swimming in its lucid depths. But this weekend she was taut and strained, and on the journey to the Tessile house she sensed that her uncle was strained also. Not that he said anything; on the contrary, he maintained a flow of casual conversation which would have fooled all but the most observant, but Sancha was not fooled. Instead, she made monosyllabic replies and was glad when the journey was over.

The Tessile house was quite beautiful. The red pantiles of its roof sloped down to a garden bright with flowers which were her aunt's pride and joy. Surrounding the house which was built on the lines of a dormer villa was a verandah, and it was here that they took most of their meals overlooking the blue sweep of the lake and the shadowed purple of the hills beyond. At first, Sancha had thought her aunt would find the isolation too much for her when she was alone all day, but she soon discovered that Elizabeth Tessile had far too many hobbies and pursuits to ever feel really lonely. She enjoyed gardening; she was an expert at making her own clothes; although she had a housekeeper she enjoyed cooking, and as she had plenty of friends popping in for coffee or her particularly English afternoon tea she seldom had a spare moment.

On Saturday evening her aunt had arranged for them all to attend a dinner party at the home of some friends whose younger members of the family would be company for Sancha, but Sancha declined. She felt she could not spend an evening in her uncle's company, listening to him regaling his colleagues with her aunt's idiosyncrasies knowing full well that he was being unfaithful to her. So she washed her hair instead, and spent the evening writing to her father and stepmother, and to her friends back home in England.

It was almost a relief when Monday morning came and they could drive back to the city.

On the journey back to town, Eduardo said: ‘Sancha, is anything wrong? You've seemed particularly constrained this weekend and I'm sure your aunt was concerned about you.'

Sancha looked up quickly. ‘Oh, surely not,’ she exclaimed quickly. ‘I—I had a headache on Saturday evening, I didn't want to go out.'

‘Was that all it was?’ he probed, glancing her way.

Sancha shrugged. ‘What else could it be?’ she countered.

He frowned. ‘I don't know,’ he said slowly. ‘But perhaps you have been thinking that I neglect my wife——'

Sancha's lips parted in protest and he went on:

‘Elizabeth's world is complete—without anyone else—without me!'

‘Oh, no!’ Sancha stared at him.