LITMIR.BIZ

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      She thought to herself:

      ‘She’s a beast—a beast…’

      Stepmothers! It was rotten to have a stepmother, everybody said so. And it was true! Not that Arlena was unkind to her. Most of the time she hardly noticed the girl. But when she did, there was a contemptuous amusement in her glance, in her words. The finished grace and poise of Arlena’s movements emphasized Linda’s own adolescent clumsiness. With Arlena about, one felt, shamingly, just how immature and crude one was.

      But it wasn’t that only. No, it wasn’t only that.

      Linda groped haltingly in the recesses of her mind. She wasn’t very good at sorting out her emotions and labelling them. It was something that Arlena did to people—to the house—

      ‘She’s bad,’ thought Linda with decision. ‘She’s quite, quite bad.’

      But you couldn’t even leave it at that. You couldn’t just elevate your nose with a sniff of moral superiority and dismiss her from your mind.

      It was something she did to people. Father, now, Father was quite different…

      She puzzled over it. Father coming down to take her out from school. Father taking her once for a cruise. And Father at home—with Arlena there. All—all sort of bottled up and not—and not there.

      Linda thought:

      ‘And it’ll go on like this. Day after day—month after month. I can’t bear it.’

      Life stretched before her—endless—in a series of days darkened and poisoned by Arlena’s presence. She was childish enough still to have little sense of proportion. A year, to Linda, seemed like an eternity.

      A big dark burning wave of hatred against Arlena surged up in her mind. She thought:

      ‘I’d like to kill her. Oh! I wish she’d die…’

      She looked out above the mirror on to the sea below.

      This place was really rather fun. Or it could be fun. All those beaches and coves and queer little paths. Lots to explore. And places where one could go off by oneself and muck about. There were caves, too, so the Cowan boys had told her.

      Linda thought:

      ‘If only Arlena would go away, I could enjoy myself.’

      Her mind went back to the evening of their arrival. It had been exciting coming from the mainland. The tide had been up over the causeway. They had come in a boat. The hotel had looked exciting, unusual. And then on the terrace a tall dark woman had jumped up and said:

      ‘Why, Kenneth!’

      And her father, looking frightfully surprised, had exclaimed:

      ‘Rosamund!’

      Linda considered Rosamund Darnley severely and critically in the manner of youth.

      She decided that she approved of Rosamund. Rosamund, she thought, was sensible. And her hair grew nicely—as though it fitted her—most people’s hair didn’t fit them. And her clothes were nice. And she had a kind of funny amused face—as though it were amused at herself, not at you. Rosamund had been nice to her, Linda. She hadn’t been gushing or said things. (Under the term of ‘saying things’ Linda grouped a mass of miscellaneous dislikes.) And Rosamund hadn’t looked as though she thought Linda a fool. In fact she’d treated Linda as though she was a real human being. Linda so seldom felt like a real human being that she was deeply grateful when anyone appeared to consider her one.

      Father, too, had seemed pleased to see Miss Darnley.

      Funny—he’d looked quite different, all of a sudden. He’d looked—he’d looked—Linda puzzled it out—why, young, that was it! He’d laughed—a queer boyish laugh. Now Linda came to think of it, she’d very seldom heard him laugh.

      She felt puzzled. It was as though she’d got a glimpse of quite a different person. She thought:

      ‘I wonder what Father was like when he was my age…’

      But that was too difficult. She gave it up.

      An idea flashed across her mind.

      What fun it would have been if they’d come here and found Miss Darnley here—just she and Father.

      A vista opened out just for a minute. Father, boyish and laughing, Miss Darnley, herself—and all the fun one could have on the island—bathing—caves—

      The blackness shut down again.

      Arlena. One couldn’t enjoy oneself with Arlena about. Why not? Well, she, Linda, couldn’t anyway. You couldn’t be happy when there was a person there you—hated. Yes, hated. She hated Arlena.

      Very slowly again that black burning wave of hatred rose up again.

      Linda’s face went very white. Her lips parted a little. The pupils of her eyes contracted. And her fingers stiffened and clenched themselves…

      III

      Kenneth Marshall tapped on his wife’s door. When her voice answered, he opened the door and went in.

      Arlena was just putting the finishing touches to her toilet. She was dressed in glittering green and looked a little like a mermaid. She was standing in front of the glass applying mascara to her eyelashes. She said:

      ‘Oh, it’s you, Ken.’

      ‘Yes. I wondered if you were ready.’

      ‘Just a minute.’

      Kenneth Marshall strolled to the window. He looked out on the sea. His face, as usual, displayed no emotion of any kind. It was pleasant and ordinary.

      Turning round, he said:

      ‘Arlena?’

      ‘Yes?’

      ‘You’ve met Redfern before, I gather?’

      Arlena said easily:

      ‘Oh yes, darling. At a cocktail party somewhere. I thought he was rather a pet.’

      ‘So I gather. Did you know that he and his wife were coming down here?’

      Arlena opened her eyes very wide.

      ‘Oh no, darling. It was the greatest surprise!’

      Kenneth Marshall said quietly:

      ‘I thought, perhaps, that that was what put the idea of this place into your head. You were very keen we should come here.’

      Arlena put down the mascara. She turned towards him. She smiled—a soft seductive smile. She said:

      ‘Somebody told me about this place. I think it was the Rylands. They said it was simply too marvellous—so unspoilt! Don’t you like it?’

      Kenneth Marshall said:

      ‘I’m not sure.’

      ‘Oh, darling, but you adore bathing and lazing about. I’m sure you’ll simply adore it here.’

      ‘I can see that you mean to enjoy yourself.’

      Her eyes widened a little. She looked at him uncertainly.

      Kenneth Marshall said:

      ‘I suppose the truth of it is that you told young Redfern that you were coming here?’

      Arlena said:

      ‘Kenneth darling, you’re not going to be horrid, are you?’

      Kenneth Marshall said:

      ‘Look here, Arlena. I know what you’re like. They’re rather a nice young couple. That boy’s fond of his wife, really. Must you

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