Free The Stars of San Cecilio by Susan Barrie

time here will soon pass, and it might be as well if I begin to make inquiries with a view to obtaining for you some further employment. ’
    ‘You are very kind,’ Lisa said, sitting still and pale as a moth in the gloom of the wide verandah, although the light of the rising moon made a splendor of her soft gold hair.
    ‘Don’t you think it’s a little early to talk about finding Miss Waring further employment?’ Dr. Fernandez inquired, staring at the tip of the cigarette he had just lighted. ‘Gia hasn’t gone to school yet, and until she is reasonably fit I shall not make any definite plans for her to do so. ’
    Dona Beatriz’s eyebrows arched.
    ‘But I understood they were made! We talked the whole thing over. ’
    Lisa stood up.
    ‘Do you mind if I go to bed?’ she asked. ‘And I would like to make absolutely certain that Gia is quite all right. ’
    The doctor nodded casually.
    ‘You will find that she is fast asleep, and in the morning will be much as usual. But you probably do feel tired, and of course we don’t mind if you go to bed. ’
    It was a politely careless dismissal, and it made something deep inside her feel very lonely and isolated just then. But she took herself to task as she went up the wide staircase. Her employer was considerate in his detached, impersonal fashion, and if it was impersonal that was not his fault. A governess was, after all, a governess — and he had Dona Beatriz, with whom he no doubt wanted to be alone.
    But it would have been impossible for anyone to swear to it that he wanted to be alone with Dona Beatriz. Lovely as the Spanish woman was
    — his own enchanting fellow-countrywoman! — exotic as she appeared in her black dress, and alluring as those brilliant dark eyes of her were, there was, at frequent intervals, a something in their relationship—just a touch, of ill-concealed impatience on his part, a quick, resentful look on hers, that could have given rise to doubts if anyone had been attempting to speculate.
    And Lisa found herself speculating frequently. She felt that it was all-important, even though it was no concern of hers whatsoever, that she should find out what their attitude to one another was. And whether that strange aloofness at time, that almost monastic withdrawal — as if women had no real place in Julio Fernandez’s scheme of things, because in spite of being rather more attractive physically than most men he had no real need of women, or the softer side of life — was merely a screen behind which he hid. Or whether there was nothing to hide.
    C H A P T E R S E V E N
    The next morning he and Dona Beatriz went off together in his big white car, and they didn’t return until lunchtime. Gia, as he had predicted, was quite herself again, but Lisa decided to run no risks with her, and they spent the morning extremely quietly within the confines and the shade of the tangled garden by the sea.
    Just before lunch-time Peter Hamilton-Tracey made his appearance, and Lisa wished he hadn’t. He said he wanted to be sure she hadn’t been fired on the spot as the result of what had happened before breakfast the day before, and expressed his opinion that an enormous amount of fuss had been made about nothing at all.
    ‘If you need me to support you on any occasion just call upon me when, and at any time, you please, ’ he said, looking at her as if he found doing so a most pleasing occupation. ‘If you ask me, looking after other people’s children is a thankless task, and that goes for my brother’s offspring as well. You must have had a brute of a time with them, particularly as my sister-in-law isn’t the easiest type in the world to get on with. ’
    ‘Your brother was very kind,’ Lisa admitted, realizing at this distance of time that he had been extremely kind on occasion. ‘I never found him difficult to get on with. ’
    Peter smiled.
    ‘I shouldn’t think many men would find it possible to be anything other than kind in their