71 Love Comes West Page 14

  Then Mr. Garson said,

  “I cannot hang about waiting for letters to be translated into Arabic while you look around for an apartment. So for the moment you had better come here!”

  Now he certainly surprised Roberta and she looked at him in astonishment.

  “Here?” she questioned.

  “There is plenty of room and I need you at hand when I want you,” he said. “I am not having you interfering in the office, turning all the young men’s heads and making them waste their time when they should be working.”

  “I have no intention of working in your office, Mr. Garson,” Roberta said quietly, “and I think perhaps it would be a mistake for me to stay here, although it’s very kind of you to invite me.”

  She could not help feeling as she spoke that it would be lovely for Danny to be out in the country instead of in the City.

  “I want you here!” Mr. Garson answered sharply. “I have no time to go all over the City with every letter that arrives here.”

  “No, I quite understand that,” Roberta agreed.

  “I will not see you unless I want to,” he remarked almost as if he was reasoning it out for himself. “You can come at once. I will send the carriage for your things.”

  He gave her a glance over the top of the paper he was holding and Roberta thought with amusement that he was quite expecting her to settle down and work all night.

  “It certainly sounds a very interesting idea,” she said slowly, “but I will have to bring somebody with me.”

  “Somebody? Who do you mean, a man? I thought you were unmarried.”

  “I am,” Roberta replied, “but I have a little boy with me, a relation I am looking after.”

  “Boys? I will not have boys about the place making a noise and a mess!”

  Roberta smiled.

  “That is what I thought you would say.”

  She rose to her feet.

  “I will, of course, help you out if you are unable to find anybody else to translate your letters,” she said, “and when I leave Mrs. Weingart, I will let Bert know where I am staying.”

  As she finished speaking, she walked towards the door and, only when she had reached it, did Mr. Garson shout,

  “Where do you think you are going?”

  “I thought we had finished our discussion.”

  For a moment it seemed as if he could not force the words to his lips.

  Then Mr. Garson growled,

  “Where is this boy? In the City?”

  “No, he is outside waiting in the carriage you sent for me.

  Again there was silence before almost like the roar of a lion Mr. Garson shouted,

  “Bring him in. Let me have a look at him.”

  Roberta smiled, opened the door and walked back down the passage.

  The servant was waiting in the hall and, as he opened the front door for her, she said,

  “Mr. Garson wants to see the little boy I have with me.”

  She thought that the servant’s expression of astonishment was almost farcical.

  Then, as she saw Danny looking out through the window of the carriage, she called,

  “Come here, Danny!”

  He opened the carriage door and jumped out with Columbus at his heels.

  “The gentleman who owns this house wants to meet you,” she told him.

  She took Danny by the hand and they walked along the high corridors and the servant, who had followed them, opened the door into Mr. Garson’s study.

  He seemed to be busy at his desk, but Roberta had the feeling that he was waiting for them with curiosity.

  She could see his eyes under their dark eyebrows staring at Danny as they walked towards him.

  Then, to her astonishment, Danny ran round the desk, not in the least nervous, and said to Mr. Garson,

  “Bert says you are building the fastest train engine in the whole world! Please, will you show it to me?”

  Roberta had no idea that Danny had listened to the conversation when Bert had explained about the special locomotive that Mr. Garson was planning to build and which was to be larger and faster than any other engine in the whole of America.

  “It will be sensational!” Bert had said. “An express to beat every other express and his rivals will be biting their nails with fury when they know about it!”

  “What do you know about my engine?” Mr. Garson asked gruffly.

  “That it’s going to be faster than any other engine and I want to ride in it,” Danny said, “and when I’m big, I’ll drive it for you.”

  “Why are you interested in trains?” Mr. Garson enquired.

  “Because they’re so exciting and I want to go fast, very very fast, but safely so that people aren’t killed, but at the same time they can go wherever they want in America and very quickly!”

  “That is the most sensible explanation I have heard for some time,” Mr. Garson said. “What is your name, young man?”

  “Everybody calls me ‘Danny’, but I was christened ‘Daniel’.”

  It struck Roberta that an earlier Daniel had bearded a great lion in his den and incredible though it seemed that was what Danny was doing to Mr. Garson.

  To her surprise he brought a large plan out of one of the drawers of his desk and spread it out for Danny to see.

  The small boy asked intelligent questions and Mr. Garson was ready to answer them seriously.

  When he was explaining that it would be faster than any other engine, Danny gave a deep sigh.

  “It’s a gorgeous train!” he said. “Absolutely gorgeous! Please, may I travel in it when you have built it? Please, please!”

  It would have been difficult for anybody even with a heart of stone, Roberta thought, to refuse Danny’s wide pleading eyes and eager face.

  He was such an attractive little boy and she could understand that, just as she had been, Mr. Garson for all his gruff exterior was captivated by him.

  “Perhaps you may be the first to travel on my engine,” he said, as he showed him the plans, “but I will tell you one thing, young man, you are the first person who is not in the business to see these plans and I have enemies who would like to be in your place because they would steal them from me, if they could!”

  “Do you mean they would then build the engine and not you?” Danny asked.

  “Exactly!” Mr. Garson said. “So you must keep what you have seen very secret. Do you understand?”

  “I promise you I will explain it to nobody!”

  Danny went a little nearer to Mr. Garson.

  “You did say I would be the first person to ride in it?”

  “That is what I said,” Mr. Garson said, “but, of course, by the time it’s finished you may not be here!”

  Roberta looked across the desk at Mr. Garson.

  “All right,” he said. “Have it your own way. The place is big enough. I don’t suppose I shall hear the noise he makes!”

  Almost as if he noticed Columbus for the first time and wanted to assert his authority he said,

  “But no dogs! I will not have any dogs in this house!”

  Danny gave a little cry and put his hand on Mr. Garson’s arm.

  “Columbus is not an ordinary dog,” he said. “He is a very good, very quiet dog and, if you don’t like him, he will hide so that you won’t see him.”

  “He can go into a kennel,” Mr. Garson said firmly.

  “Then I shall have to live in a kennel too,” Danny said “and then you might forget about me and send your special train off for the first time without me.”

  He looked up at Mr. Garson and, as if he knew he was having to battle not only on behalf of himself but also for Columbus, he said,

  “Please, Columbus will be no trouble to you and I have to look after him, as he looks after me.”

  “We will give it a try,” Mr. Garson said sharply, “but if there is any noise or you upset me, then you all leave. Is that understood?”

  “Perhaps it’s a risk we should not take,” Roberta
said provocatively.

  “Good God, woman! You have got what you want!” Mr. Garson snapped. “A boy and a dog! What more can I agree to?”

  Roberta laughed.

  “I promise you there will be no trouble and I really do speak Arabic well enough to make sure that the Arab who is buying the train will not ‘pull a fast one’ on you.”

  She thought that there was a little twitch at the corner of Mr. Garson’s mouth at the way she spoke.

  Then he said,

  “All right. Send the carriage back for your clothes and find my housekeeper. Tell her to show you to your rooms, but mind I don’t hear that dog barking.”

  “He will not bark unless somebody comes to try to steal the plans of the train,” Danny said. “Then I will tell him to bark very very loud and bite the burglars too!”

  Before Mr. Garson could speak Roberta pointed out,

  “You see, Mr. Garson, you are not only gaining an interpreter but also a security guard and a police dog at the same time!”

  She thought that he was going to laugh.

  Then it was as if he forced himself to say gruffly,

  “I think I must be off my head!”

  “On the contrary, I am sure it’s something you will never regret,” Roberta said, “and, when we have found our rooms, I will come back here so that you can give me the letters you want translated.”

  “All right! But don’t be long about it!”

  He spoke as if he had suddenly remembered that he should assert his authority and added,

  “I want quite a lot done before tomorrow morning!”

  “I will do what I can,” Roberta promised. “Come along, Danny.”

  She thought that he was going to follow her.

  Instead he slipped his hand into Mr. Garson’s.

  “I am glad we are coming here to you,” he said. “I think you are very very clever to design such a big engine, it’s going to be very fast, the fastest in the world! And, when I ride in it with you, everybody will cheer and wave.”

  “I hope you are right,” Mr. Garson said. “There is always the chance that it may not work as well as it should.”

  “I will help you,” Danny said confidently.

  “Thank you,” Mr. Garson replied simply.

  Then Danny was running towards Roberta with Columbus beside him.

  “We’re going to go so fast, Aunt Roberta,” he said excitedly, “that everybody will think we have magic wings. Just think of it! The fastest train in the world – and I will be on it!”

  Chapter Seven

  “You can go into the garden, Danny,” Roberta suggested, “but don’t go near the part of the house where Mr. Garson works. You know he does not like noise.”

  “Columbus and I never make a sound when Mr. Garson is at home,” Danny replied.

  This was true, but Roberta had been astonished by the way Danny had attached himself to the awe-inspiring tycoon.

  She was aware, perhaps because of the way the Minister had treated him, that he was nervous of Mr. Weingart and also of Bert.

  But Mr. Garson was different.

  Although Danny was very good and kept out of sight if Mr. Garson was working, he waited for him in the hall when he came back in the evenings and would run to him eagerly asking questions about the engine and how far it had developed since the day before.

  To Roberta’s astonishment and that of everybody else in the house, Mr. Garson did not seem to mind.

  He would talk to Danny about the engine, answer his questions and reiterate his promise that he should be one of the first to ride in it when it was finished.

  He was certainly very kind to the child, but after a week of working for the man who she had learnt was the most exacting in the whole of San Francisco, Roberta knew that he certainly intended to have his money’s worth.

  “I will pay you what I pay young Weingart,” he said brusquely the first morning after she had arrived, “and, as you get your bed and board for nothing, you are doing well out of the deal!”

  “I only hope I shall give satisfaction,” Roberta said with mock humility.

  But the irony with which she spoke was lost on Mr. Garson and he merely replied,

  “If you don’t, you will go!”

  She found, however, that there was such an enormous backlog of letters from Africa that it would take her some time to sort them out and also translate those that arrived nearly every day.

  It was difficult for Mr. Garson to understand that a great deal of the correspondence consisted merely of flowery expressions of politeness that had little to do with the main objective, which was to buy a train.

  It had taken the Arabs some time to realise that the train involved a great many other pieces of equipment.

  Roberta found it hard not only to make clear to Mr. Garson what was wanted but also to reply so that the Arabs would understand what was imperative for them to purchase.

  Actually she found it very interesting, but she thought now as she looked at Danny running into the sunshine that she would so like to be with him.

  Or rather, if she was truthful, with Danny and Adam, running down the beach to swim in the sea.

  She thought about Adam constantly, so that she not only found it hard to sleep at night but would often cry despairingly, feeling that she would never see him again.

  She might think he painted well and undoubtedly there would be a certain number of people, even if they had no money to buy pictures, who would appreciate his talent in France.

  Yet she was quite certain that in San Francisco the Impressionist style would leave those who wanted to collect pictures unmoved.

  They would much prefer a painting of flowers or, because they were so near the sea, of the ships with their tall white sails which filled the harbour.

  “Oh, Adam, Adam!” she had sobbed last night. “I want you and Danny wants you too!”

  She had not yet looked for a school for Danny, feeling that, since he had been so unsettled, it would be a mistake for him to have to enter yet another new world where he would be a stranger.

  He seldom spoke about the school at Blue River, but she sensed that it had been very much a part of his life.

  Now she was sure, because he was still rather small for his age and still suffering from the semi-starvation inflicted on him by the Minister, that it would be best for him to acclimatise himself in San Francisco before she made any more changes.

  She had no idea how long Mr. Garson would keep her and she had no wish for Danny to start at one school out here in the country and then have to move into the City and begin all over again at another.

  ‘I wish I had somebody to advise me what is best for him,’ she worried and knew that that somebody was Adam.

  He would understand, he would help her and she thought that what Danny was looking for was a father figure, which, for the moment, he had found in Mr. Garson and his fast train.

  She had not told him very much about Clint Dulaine, but, when she made much of the courageous way he had died, Danny was not as upset as she feared.

  However, she was sure it added to his feeling of insecurity and afterwards he clung to her even more closely than he had before.

  She had received a letter from the Bank Manager telling her that he had sent instructions on her behalf to London and as soon as he received a reply he would contact her again.

  He had addressed the letter to the Weingart address and Bert had sent it to her by the office messenger who brought Mr. Garson’s mail to the house.

  She was rather perturbed when she realised that the Bank Manager had naturally addressed her by her title since she had not instructed him to do otherwise.

  ‘It will mean nothing to them,’ Roberta told herself and decided that as long as she was in San Francisco it would be best just to be known as ‘Miss Worth’.

  Now, as she walked along the passage to Mr. Garson’s study, she was thinking only of Danny and feeling happy that he was looking so much healthier.

 
; Although he had nobody to play with except Columbus, he seemed quite content and he was certainly enjoying the very good food that the housekeeper provided for them.

  They did not eat with Mr. Garson, but in a small room off the dining room where they were alone.

  It was what Roberta preferred, just as she was thankful she had an office to herself next to Mr. Garson’s study and did not have to share it with anybody else.

  She was just about to go into it now when one of Mr. Garson’s personal secretaries who did not live in the house came from the study to say,

  “The Master wants you, Miss Worth!”

  He spoke in a somewhat ominous way and Roberta wondered what was wrong.

  She went into the study and saw Mr. Garson sitting at his desk looking down at a piece of paper he held in his hand.

  He looked up at her from under his bushy eyebrows and said,

  “I have been just speaking to the servants about the security of this house. I understand that one of the doors into the garden was left open last night. Was that you or the boy?”

  “It was neither of us,” Roberta replied. “Danny did not go outside after supper, but one of the servants was kind enough to take Columbus out last night because I was tired and wanted to go to bed early.”

  Mr. Garson’s lips tightened.

  “Lies, lies! That is all I ever get from my staff,” he shouted furiously. “Nobody tells the truth, nobody owns up if they do anything wrong! Why the hell can I not be better served?”

  “If you want me to be frank,” Roberta answered, “I think it’s because they are so frightened of you.”

  He looked at her in surprise before he said,

  “That is no excuse for lying!”

  “Of course it is,” Roberta retorted. “If people are really frightened, they will say anything to get themselves out of trouble. You must be aware that you terrify everybody who works for you.”

  “Except you!”

  “I am frightened sometimes,” Roberta admitted, “but at least I am not afraid of being turned out into the street because I can afford to keep myself.”

  She spoke without thinking and Mr. Garson raised his eyebrows.

  “You have money of your own?”

  “Enough not to be so terrified that I would not tell the truth!” Roberta answered.