71 Love Comes West Page 8

  He laughed.

  “I manage well on it. But your son looks as if he needs feeding.”

  “Yes, I know,” Roberta said quickly, “and that is why I have taken him away from where he has been staying and we are going to San Francisco.”

  “Have you been there before?”

  She shook her head.

  Then, because she was frightened of having questions put to her that she could not answer, she said,

  “Tell me why you are an Impressionist. It is certainly something I did not expect to find here in America.”

  “It is the way I have always wanted to paint,” Adam replied. “I thought it was my own original idea until I saw the Impressionists in Paris.”

  “You have been to Paris?” Roberta exclaimed.

  She suddenly thought how exciting it would be to talk with somebody who had perhaps seen the same exhibitions as she had herself.

  Then, even as the words came to her lips, she realised that Danny was falling asleep at the other end of the table.

  “I am afraid we are imposing on you,” she said in a low voice, “but is there somewhere where we could spend the night? We are not particular and if there is nowhere else I am sure we could manage on the floor.”

  “I would not be so inhospitable as not to offer you my own bed,” Adam replied, “except that it’s unnecessary. This place is bigger than you might think.”

  As he spoke, he picked Danny up in his arms and carried him back through the main room to the other side of it.

  Roberta saw that there were two doors, one of which was ajar and she could see that it was his room.

  The other door led into quite a small bedroom and there was a bed against one wall and a couch against the other.

  “When it’s warm enough,” Adam said, “I sleep on the veranda, but the nights are still cool enough for me to prefer being inside.”

  As he spoke, he placed Danny gently down on the couch, putting a cushion behind his head.

  Then going to a chest-of-drawers, which was the only other furniture in the room, he opened a drawer and pulled out a woollen blanket.

  “I think this should keep him warm enough,” he said.

  “I am sure it will,” Roberta replied. “Thank you very much.”

  “Now may I suggest that you undress him and put him to bed, then come and tell me a little about yourself. In the meantime I will brew up some more coffee. I think that there are some eggs in the kitchen, if you would like them with cold ham.”

  “I would enjoy the eggs,” Roberta sighed, “but, please, let me cook them myself. I am a very good cook.”

  Adam smiled.

  “That is the best news I have had for a long time! I would like to add that the hamburger I had earlier this evening was not very palatable.”

  Roberta laughed as he went out of the room closing the door behind him.

  It did not take her long to undress Danny, who was so soundly asleep that he had no idea of what was happening to him.

  She put on his flannel nightshirt, covered him with the blanket and knew it was unlikely that he would move until the morning.

  She had taken off her bonnet and now she saw that there was a mirror over the chest-of-drawers and she untied her hair in it.

  ‘We are very lucky to find somewhere to sleep tonight,’ she told her reflection.

  She knew too that she felt an excitement at having met again the man she had noticed on the train journey and had wondered if it was possible to speak to him.

  She thought of how fortunate she had been to escape from the ardent wagon driver and was quite certain that her father had been looking after her and protecting her.

  “Thank you, Papa,” she said softly.

  There was a smile on her lips as she opened the door and went back towards the kitchen.

  After she had made an omelette with the eggs and found several pieces of ham to go with it, Adam sat back in his chair and said,

  “I enjoyed that! You are quite right, you are a good cook!”

  “If you are living here alone why do you not find somebody to look after you?” Roberta enquired, thinking of Mrs. Ski and how capable she had been.

  “I don’t want women messing about the place,” Adam replied, “and I cannot always afford it.”

  She looked at him in surprise, thinking that the house, although it was roughly built, was comfortably equipped and, while Adam was casually dressed, he did not look at all poor.

  “I have to live on what I can make from my pictures,” he explained. “When I sell one I am rich, but when there are no buyers I am hungry. It’s as simple as that!”

  “Are there many buyers of Impressionist art in America?” Roberta asked.

  She remembered how her father had said that nobody would buy Impressionists in Paris with the result that those he had bought had been absurdly cheap.

  Adam laughed.

  “That is obviously a question I have no wish to answer,” he said, “but if you want the truth, when I am nearly down to bedrock, I have to paint something that is saleable, although I feel like a traitor in doing so.”

  “I think it’s sensible of you,” Roberta replied, “for after all you have to live!”

  He pushed his plate away, put his arms on the table and said,

  “Now, tell me about yourself.”

  To her own surprise Roberta had an impulse to tell him the truth.

  Then she knew it would be a very stupid thing to do, for she knew nothing about this man, who might easily talk about her when she had gone and then the authorities, although she was not certain who they were, would take Danny away from her.

  Instead she said in a low voice,

  “My husband is dead and Danny and I are going to San Francisco for the time being at any rate.”

  “Was your husband English?”

  Roberta thought for a moment.

  Then she said quickly,

  “No, American.”

  “Then I think you should bring up your son as an American,” Adam said. “He is a very good-looking little boy.”

  “Thank you,” Roberta answered.

  “It is not surprising,” Adam went on, “considering how beautiful you are, but I expect a great many men have told you that.”

  Roberta wanted to laugh, knowing that in the last two years, when she had been with her father and Francine in the desert, there had been nobody but the camel boys and the camels to admire her.

  As she did not speak after a moment Adam went on,

  “I would love to paint you, although God knows if I can do you justice.”

  “I thought you would prefer landscapes,” Roberta replied, because she felt that she must say something.

  “I do,” Adam admitted, “but you are different!”

  He sat looking at her and she felt the colour rise in her cheeks.

  “You are very lovely!” he said after a moment as if he spoke to himself.

  “You are making me embarrassed,” she protested.

  As she spoke, it occurred to her that, if she really was the married woman she pretended to be, she would not be shy and would not blush.

  But there was nothing she could do about it and she only hoped that the man opposite her would not think it strange.

  “How long will you be staying?” he asked.

  Roberta was about to say that she and Danny must leave the next day, then, as her eyes met Adam’s across the table, it was somehow impossible to say anything but only to be held captive in a way she did not understand.

  “Please stay,” he said after a moment. “I want you to. Besides, the boy is tired and he would enjoy playing on the sands and bathing in the sea.”

  This was indisputably true, but Roberta thought that if she was sensible she would go away.

  Then she knew that every instinct in her body was telling her to stay where she was, where if she did so, she would be safe.

  When she thought about it, it was very frightening to envisage what she should do w
hen she reached San Francisco alone, without knowing one soul in the City or having any idea where they could stay.

  It flashed through her mind that there might be other men like the wagon driver and perhaps the next time it might not be so easy to escape.

  As she thought of how she had managed to evade him and remembered the long tiring walk they had had before reaching their present refuge and above all the shock of the Minister’s death, the whole horror of what had happened so quickly swept over her like a tidal wave.

  In a voice that did not sound like her own, she said,

  “Perhaps we could – stay for a – few days.”

  “That is just what I wanted you to say,” Adam answered.

  She remembered how poor he had said he was and added quickly,

  “We can pay for our board and lodging.”

  “Are you insulting me?”

  “No, of course not.”

  “I have sold three pictures in Los Angeles, so at the moment I am rich!”

  “I have no wish to impose on you.”

  “You will not do that and I shall expect you to sit for me and also to do the cooking!”

  She laughed and he raised his eyebrows to ask,

  “Why are you laughing?”

  In fact it was amusing Roberta that it seemed that wherever she went her cooking came in useful, but she replied,

  “I think I was just feeling happy to be here and not have to worry about moving on tomorrow. I have not been to America before and I find it very large and rather bewildering.”

  “Then you married your husband when he was in Europe!”

  Too late Roberta remembered that she had been speaking as herself and not as Mrs. Boscombe.

  “Yes,” she said quickly, “and a relative of my husband took Danny to live with them until I could come out here.”

  “But your husband died before he could do so,” Adam said, as if he was working it out.

  Roberta felt as if she was sinking deeper and deeper into a pit she had dug for herself.

  She then rose from the table.

  “I will wash up the plates,” she said, “then, as I am very tired, I would like to go to bed.”

  “As you are very tired,” Adam replied, “I will wash them for you.”

  “Why not leave them until the morning?”

  “I am sure that is a very slovenly thing to do,” he replied mockingly, “but if you insist, I agree.”

  They both laughed as if it sounded very funny.

  As Roberta reached her bedroom and closed the door behind her, she knew that in some way she did not understand she was happy for the first time since her father had been taken ill.

  She had laughed as she used to laugh with him. Although there was little physical resemblance between them, Adam made her feel as if she was with her father again.

  It was the same feeling as being protected and being looked after and his blue eyes twinkled in the same way that her father’s had done.

  ‘I am lucky, so very lucky!’ she said to herself.

  Then, as Columbus lay down beside Danny’s couch, she undressed and slipped into the bed, finding that, although it was narrow, it was surprisingly comfortable.

  Before she could even begin to say the prayers she had always said at night, she was asleep.

  *

  Roberta awoke, coming back to reality through clouds of sleep.

  As she did so, she heard the bedroom door click and knew that Danny had just crept out having dressed himself without waking her.

  She heard him in the sitting room talking and Adam’s deep voice replying.

  Then, as she told herself she must get up and cook the breakfast, she knew from the way their voices faded away into the distance that they had gone out onto the beach.

  Slowly, because it was an effort to move, she sat up and looked around the very small bedroom thinking that she had hardly taken it in last night.

  Now she was aware that sparsely furnished as it was, there were thick rugs on the floor, and the curtains shutting out the sunshine were prettily patterned with flowers in bright colours.

  She felt a new energy sweep through her and she jumped out of bed and washed herself in the cold water in the basin that stood in one corner of the room.

  She twisted her hair into a chignon, pinning it tightly to her head without worrying particularly how it looked, put on one of the light muslin gowns she had packed in her grip and hurried into the sitting room.

  As she guessed, the door in the centre of it opened out onto a veranda and she could see Adam and Danny down by the sea.

  They were throwing a stick into the waves and Columbus was jumping in after it to bring it back to them.

  She went into the kitchen feeling that she must pay for her night’s rest by starting work immediately.

  She found to her relief that despite the number of eggs she had used last night in making the omelette for herself and Adam, there were still enough left for breakfast.

  She would have liked to cook something more original than scrambled eggs, but Adam had spoken the truth when he said that he did not bother to cook for himself.

  The cupboard that acted as a larder appeared to be empty of everything except salt and pepper, a loaf of stale bread and some butter.

  She found that Adam had a good fire going in the kitchen stove, so she toasted the bread, spread it with butter, and with the scrambled eggs on top of it, it looked quite appetising. Then she went onto the veranda to call out that breakfast was ready.

  Adam, Danny and a very wet Columbus came hurrying back to her.

  She noticed with a sense of relief that Adam did not seem to mind when the dog shook himself then sat on the floor leaving a wet patch from his ragged coat.

  She gave Adam and Danny the scrambled eggs and they ate them in silence until Adam said,

  “You must forgive me if I omitted, because of the delicious food you have cooked, to tell you how lovely you look this morning. Are you ready to sit for me?”

  “Certainly not!” Roberta replied firmly. “The first thing we have to do is to find something substantial for luncheon.”

  She thought he looked disappointed and she added,

  “If you want to paint, I will go to the shops, but you must tell me where they are.”

  “I will go. I think you walked far enough last night and you should now sit on the veranda and behave like a lady of leisure, at least until I return.”

  “Can I take Columbus down to the sea?” Danny asked.

  “Yes, of course you can,” Roberta replied, “but keep in front of the house where I can see you.”

  “Columbus likes swimming in the sea and I want to swim too.”

  “I will teach you,” Adam said. “Have you a bathing suit?”

  Danny shook his head.

  “Then I will buy one for you and one for your mother.”

  Before Roberta could say anything, he exclaimed,

  “That is an idea! I will paint you as a mermaid coming out of the sea or perhaps a Siren would be a better description, like those who tried to entice Ulysses!”

  “I am not certain, remembering how he stuffed the ears of his crew with wax to prevent them from hearing their cries and had himself roped to the mast, that that is a compliment!”

  “If you want compliments,” Adam said, “I will have to brush up on my vocabulary!”

  “I would not like to put you to any trouble.”

  She knew that his eyes were twinkling as he answered,

  “May I say it would be a pleasure, Mrs. Boscombe?”

  He was teasing her and she laughed.

  It was something she had never been able to do before with any man except her father and she wondered if he had any idea how inexperienced she was and how ignorant of how to be light-hearted with a man who was more or less her own age.

  She had watched women flirting with her father, enticing him with every possible wile, with their eyes, their lips, their hands and the sinuous movements
of their bodies.

  Where Francine was concerned, it had been an exotic performance that might have taken place on the stage.

  But none of it was the same as what was a kind of fencing with words that had other and half-concealed meanings behind them.

  “What do you want me to buy?” Adam asked.

  “Shall I make a list?”

  “It is something you had better do, for I refuse categorically to return for anything I have forgotten!”

  She laughed and he went on,

  “Quite frankly it’s a waste of time and sunlight to fuss about food, when I might be painting.”

  “As long as I am the cook,” Roberta asserted, “I have no intention of allowing either you or Danny to go hungry and Columbus expects at least one very large meal every day!”

  “I will bring back enough food to last for a week!”

  Roberta gave a cry of horror.

  “It would go bad in this heat!” she exclaimed. Besides, as I have every intention of varying the menu, I shall insist on having something different every day.”

  “You are bullying me,” Adam protested, “and that is exactly why I have managed up until now to keep alive without any feminine assistance.”

  “Is that a tactful way of suggesting that we have outstayed our welcome?” Roberta enquired.

  She knew as she spoke that he had no wish for her to leave, but she wanted to make him say so.

  He walked away from her.

  Then in a quiet voice he said,

  “If you vanish while I am away, I swear I will catch up with you and bring you back. So just stay here until I return.”

  She wanted to answer him provocatively, wanting to make him apprehensive that she might in fact go when he least expected it.

  But he turned round and, as their eyes met, she found that everything flew out of her head.

  All she could think of was that his eyes were very blue and there was something magnetic about him that made her feel as if he was drawing her nearer and nearer to him and there was no escape.

  Then, almost abruptly, he walked away and she saw him striding across the rough land and under the trees to where somewhere on the main highway she knew that there were a few shops where he bought his food.

  She made her own bed and then Danny’s and after a moment’s hesitation went into Adam’s room.