Part 12 (1/2)

Helen caught her breath. 'All right, I won't see Nigel again.'

'Oh, no-' Angela's previously malicious expression gave way to unexpected benevolence, 'that's not what I meant at all.'

'You said Friday's little escapade,' Helen reminded her suspiciously, but Angela only lifted a placating hand.

'I meant going out without petrol, of course,' she explained swiftly.

'Meeting Nigel Fox may have been the best thing you could do.' She paused.

'After all, if Heath meets Nigel and likes him, he can't have any objections to your friends.h.i.+p. It's exactly what he expects of you.'

'What do you mean?' Helen was still suspicious, and Angela quickly explained.

'He can hardly accuse you of acting like a child, if you behave like an adult. Having a steady boy-friend is the first step towards marriage, and-'

'I'm not getting married!' Helen interrupted her fiercely, but Angela only continued with what she was saying as if she hadn't spoken.

'-although you may have dozens of boy-friends before you find the one you want to spend the rest of your life with, you'll be proving you're no longer a social liability.'

Helen looked doubtful. 'Aren't you worried that Heath might make you redundant?' she asked, with a trace of defensive malice, but Angela shook her head.

'Your uncle brought me here to help you, it's true, but also to act as chaperone, and I don't think he'll change his mind just because you've found yourself a boy-friend.'

Helen absorbed this in silence. So that was Angela's true function, was it?

A chaperone. Giving her advice was only a sideline. Her real value was to silence those local gossips, whose greatest pleasure was to blacken Heath's character. She sighed. Since when had Heath cared what anyone said? He had often maintained that evil, like beauty, was in the eye of the beholder.

She linked her fingers tightly together. But what if Angela had got it wrong? What if their roles were reversed? What if she was actually the chaperone without even knowing it? What did it mean? What might it mean?

That the woman Heath intended to marry should have no scandal attached to her name?

For the rest of the day Helen suffered her thoughts in silence, and on Monday morning she put her differences with Miles aside and went round to the garage. She needed to get out of the house. She needed to talk to somebody. And for all his amorous advances, Miles was still one of the best friends she'd got.

He was bent over the engine of the lawnmower when Helen strolled casually into the yard, and he gave her only a cursory glance before continuing with what he was doing.

'Hi,' she said offhandedly, coming to stand beside him. 'What are you doing?'

'What does it look like I'm doing?' retorted Miles shortly. 'What do you want, Miss Helen? It's some time since you came slumming round here.'

'Oh, Miles!' Helen tucked her thumbs into the belt to her jeans. 'Don't be like this. I'm sorry if I offended you, but really, I still want us to be friends.'

He looked up at her from his crouched position. 'What if I don't want to be friends with you?' he countered brusquely. 'I hear you've found yourself another sucker. Does he know he's wasting his time, too?'

She flushed. 'I don't know what you mean.'

'Sure you do.' Miles straightened, wiping the spanner he had been using against the leg of his overalls. 'It took me some time to figure it out, but I think I've got the picture now. No wonder Heath was so mad when he came upon us together! I didn't know I was trespa.s.sing on his property!'

'Miles!' Helen stared at him aghast, and the young man shrugged indifferently.

'It's true, isn't it? You are in love with your uncle, aren't you?'

'He's not my uncle, you know that,' exclaimed Helen tremulously, pus.h.i.+ng her hands into her back hip pockets.

'So it is true,' said Miles harshly. 'Oh, Helen, he's far too old for you!'

'I don't know what you're talking about.' Helen turned abruptly away, feeling suddenly empty inside. She had thought she could still talk to Miles.

But apparently he, like everyone else, had his own axe to grind.

'Yes, you do.' He came behind her, putting his hands on her shoulders and turning her resistingly to face him. 'I just wouldn't have expected it of Heath, I wouldn't. For heaven's sake, I thought he cared about you!'

'He does.' Helen swallowed convulsively. 'And-and you're wrong.'

'Wrong about what?' Miles looked disbelievingly.

'Heath's not interested in me. At least, only as an uncle, as you say. If you thought you read something into his att.i.tude, you were wrong. On the contrary, he would have sent me away from Matlock, if I hadn't begged and pleaded with him to let me stay.'

'You mean the finis.h.i.+ng school,' said Miles scornfully. 'You don't really think that was a possibility, do you?'

'Yes, I do. And it still is.' Helen wrenched herself out of his grasp and faced him indignantly. 'Oh, Miles, you're so blind, aren't you? It's not me Heath is interested in, it's Angela Patterson!'

Miles snorted. 'The blonde bombsh.e.l.l!'

'Yes, the blonde bombsh.e.l.l!' declared Helen tautly. 'Now do you believe me?'

Miles shrugged. 'Heath has had dozens of women like her.'

She winced at his frankness, but she was not diverted. 'Not like this one,'

she averred unsteadily. 'You know as well as I do that since I got old enough to understand Heath hasn't brought any women to stay at Matlock. Until now.'

Miles shook his head. 'I thought she was here to give you lessons in deportment.'

'So did I, at first. But honestly, is it feasible?' She sighed. 'She told me herself this morning that Heath had invited her here for an indefinite period.

Does that sound like lessons in deportment?'

Miles hesitated. 'You really believe this?'

'Yes.'

He frowned. 'And you? What about you? I may have been wrong about Heath, but I'm d.a.m.n sure I'm not wrong about you.'

'How?' Helen took a step backward.

'You are in love with him,' he said flatly. 'I don't know why I didn't think of it before. I guess I didn't want to believe it.'

'Oh, Miles ...' Helen bent her head. 'I came here because I thought you were a friend.'

'I am a friend,' said Miles heavily. 'I'd like to say I wasn't, but we've known one another too long.' He looked at her steadily. 'That's why I hoped you'd be honest with me.'