Daniel and Daughter Page 12

  'Just a tiny drop. Do you know, if it wasn't so early I'd swear I heard Mark's car stopping outside.'

  'It is,' he said, alert. 'It's got a distinctive sound and I should know it by now-the nights I've stood at the window listening for it!'

  'I hope you don't let Phoebe know that.'

  He grinned. 'Don't worry. I know better than to put myself forward, these days.' He slid an arm around Lee. 'I guess I've learned the lesson you tried to teach me.'

  'What's that?'

  That you have to let go to hold on.' A hint of self-mockery crept into his tone. 'You wouldn't recognise me. I creep about the house in fear and trembling, and if Phoebe speaks to me I stand to attention. If she can spare me ten minutes from her busy schedule I'm properly grateful. I've even learned the difference between acceptable interest and unforgivable intrusion.'

  'Tell me! Tell me! I might manage better with Mark.'

  'Acceptable interest is, "May I humbly enquire what you'll deign to eat today, and when should I prepare it?" Or, "What time should I awaken you in the morning, and would you like me to drive you to work?'' Intrusion is, ' 'Where are you going and what time will you be home?'"

  Lee laughed at his clowning, but she could sense the vein of seriousness beneath it as well, and she was glad. If Daniel had really learned to tread carefully with his daughter things might yet come right for them.

  His next words seemed to prove it. 'And by going softly I actually get told quite a lot.'

  'You applied the scholar's brain to the problem, huh?'

  'No, it was you,' he said. 'You showed me the way. Bless you, Lee. Everything's going to be fine, thanks to you.'

  He drew her close. 'They'll be here in a minute,' she murmured.

  'Then kiss me quickly,' he said against her lips.

  The sound of the key turning in the front door made them spring apart self-consciously. There came the sound of urgent whispering from the hall, then Phoebe and Mark came in together, their arms entwined, their eyes shining. Phoebe threw herself forward into her father's arms.

  'Oh, Daddy, I'm so happy,' she said ecstatically.

  "That's wonderful, darling. Is it anything special? A new assignment?'

  'No, it's much better than that. We're engaged.'

  Daniel stiffened. 'What did you say?'

  'Mark and I are going to be married. He asked me this afternoon and he's given me the most beautiful engagement ring. Look.'

  She held up her left hand to show off the ring that flashed there. Daniel stared at it for a moment. Then he said in a hard voice, 'Take it off.'

  'Daddy?' Phoebe backed away, startled by the instant change that had come over her father.

  'Take it off. Now. And forget any idea of an engagement. You're sixteen, for Pete's sake! What's got into you?'

  'I'm in love,' she cried. 'And I'm going to be married.'

  'Over my dead body.'

  'You can't stop me,' Phoebe said defiantly.

  Daniel's face set. 'I'll stop you if I have to lock you in this house until you see sense.'

  'Daniel, be careful,' Lee said warningly. She could have wept with despair at the way all his new-found subtlety had deserted him in this crisis. He was once more the autocratic patriarch who'd learned nothing.

  He rounded on her. 'Don't say you approve of this. Why don't you tell that feather-brained daughter of mine what happens to girls who marry at sixteen?'

  'Because you're not letting anyone else get a word in edgeways,' Lee cried. 'I'm as appalled as you are, but this isn't the way.'

  'Then tell me what the way is,' he said through gritted teeth. 'Tell me how to get some sense into a girl who's been given too much of her own way too soon and thinks she can do any damned thing she wants.' Before Lee could answer he'd swung back to Phoebe. 'I told you to take that ring off,' he said in a biting voice.

  'I won't. It's mine. I don't have to do what you want.'

  'The hell you don't!'

  'Don't talk to her like that,' Mark said.

  Daniel seemed to notice him for the first time. 'I might have known it would be you who'd cause all the trouble,' he said. 'You've been bad news from the first. Who do you think you are to want to marry my daughter? A student who hasn't even finished his education. What are you going to live on-or didn't you bother to think about anything so mundane?'

  'I'm making enough for both of us-' Phoebe said.

  'So you're going to live off your wife,' Daniel demanded of Mark in a voice full of contempt.

  'I won't need to,' Mark told him. 'I've got money of my own. It'll support us until I'm earning.'

  'Sure it will. All of fourpence a week.'

  'A bit more than that actually,' Mark said. 'Why don't you ask Lee the exact amount? She's my trustee.'

  Under Daniel's hard gaze Lee coloured and said, 'Dad left Mark thirty thousand pounds two years ago. With interest, it's grown.'

  He stared at her. 'But you wouldn't let him have it now? It's unthinkable.'

  'Of course not.'

  'Once I'm married she'll have no choice,' Mark said.

  'So there's nothing to stop us,' Phoebe said.

  'Now there you're wrong, young woman,' Daniel told her. 'I will stop you, and make no mistake. I mean every word. Give him that ring back.'

  'No,' she whispered.

  'Give it back.'

  'Daniel, don't!' Lee said desperately. 'It doesn't make any difference whether she returns the ring or not. It isn't a ring that makes an engagement.'

  Daniel flung her a black look. It held the same condemnation she'd seen that first time, when Phoebe had defied him about modelling, only now it was far worse.

  'All right,' he said quietly. 'I'll deal with that later.' He turned on Mark. 'Get out of my house. And stay out. Don't come near my daughter again if you know what's good for you.'

  'Go home, Mark,' Lee said.

  'Not while Phoebe wants me,' he said firmly.

  'Please go, Mark,' Phoebe said through her tears. 'I'll see you tomorrow.'

  Lee saw Daniel's face tighten, but before he could speak she silenced him with a warning shake of the head. Phoebe fled the room, and after a moment Lee followed her upstairs. She found her lying full length across her bed, sobbing bitterly.

  'I hate Daddy,' she choked. 'Why can't he understand?'

  'But he does,' Lee told her, sitting down and patting her shoulder. 'He understands all sorts of things that you don't know about. He doesn't want you to get hurt.'

  'Your dad's only trying to do what's best for you, love,' was what her mother had said.

  'But I love Mark. I want to marry him and be with him for ever,' Phoebe cried.

  'I love Jimmy…I'll always love him…' How the wheel turned full circle, and words spoken in passion came back to haunt her!

  'Phoebe, you're sixteen and Mark's nineteen. In a few years you'll be different people. You don't know what you'll feel then.'

  'You're just saying that to stop me. But you said I was entitled to make my own decisions.'

  'In your career, not about marriage.'

  'Oh, Lee, I thought you'd understand. You married at my age-'

  'That's why I don't want to see you make a mess of your life as I did. It was a terrible mistake. The biggest mistake I ever made.'

  'But you had the courage to follow your heart,' Phoebe cried. 'I've always admired you for that.'

  Lee sighed and buried her head in her hands. After a moment she looked up and said quietly, 'It wasn't courage. It was stupidity. The only good thing to come out of my marriage was Sonya. The rest was a nightmare.'

  'But Mark and I are different,' Phoebe said, using the age-old words.

  'Maybe you are, but it won't hurt to wait a bit. It wasn't very kind to hurl it at your father like a bombshell. Cool it for a while, for his sake.'

  'He had no right to tell me to give my ring back.'

  Lee looked at the ring sparkling on the girl's finger. It was a beautiful creation of rubies and diamonds.

&
nbsp; Dismayed, Lee put its price at around a thousand pounds. So that was where Mark's extra credit had gone.

  'If you love Mark, you won't want to hurt him,' she suggested. 'He got into serious debt to buy this, and it's going to be a struggle for him to pay it off.'

  Phoebe looked stricken. 'I didn't think.'

  'Give it back, Phoebe. Not because your father says so, but for Mark's sake.'

  'But we're still engaged.'

  'Well, as I told your father, a ring doesn't make an engagement. It's what's in the heart that does that. If you love Mark, you can wait until he's finished his degree. You don't want to blight his career just when yours is taking off.'

  'Of course not. I didn't mean we were going to get married tomorrow, and I'd have said so if Daddy hadn't started acting like a dictator.'

  'Just be nice to him. Remember, time's on your side.'

  When she went downstairs a few minutes later she found Daniel alone. He scowled at her.

  'Phoebe's going to return the ring the next time she sees Mark,' she said.

  'She's never seeing him again,' Daniel said at once. You can take it back to him yourself, and tell him this so-called engagement is off".'

  Lee took a deep breath. 'Phoebe isn't calling the engagement off. She's returning the ring for Mark's sake, because she knows he can't afford it. She's also ready to wait until he finishes his degree. Nothing has really changed, Daniel.'

  'Nothing-?'

  'If you'd let Phoebe get a word in edgeways she'd have told you that they're not planning an immediate marriage. When things have calmed down they'll get the chance to see each other clearly, and the whole thing will die a natural death.' She saw that he was still looking at her with a black, frozen look on his face, and something painful happened to her heart

  'That's your advice, is it?' he asked coldly.

  'For what it's worth, yes.'

  'I just stand back and watch my daughter sleepwalk to disaster-?'

  'Give them time and the marriage will never happen. There doesn't have to be a disaster-unless you drive her to it by bullying her.'

  'Is it bullying to want to save her from herself?'

  'That depends on how you do it,' she said slowly.

  'Thank you,' he snapped. 'I know how to take that, I suppose.'

  'Let's not talk about this any more today,' Lee said quietly. 'It's too dangerous.'

  'Lee, just how long do you think we can go on not talking about the things that matter?'

  'I don't know. I hoped it would all come right, but it seems to get worse and worse.'

  Daniel didn't answer this directly. He was silent for a moment, then he said, 'I heard what she said to you just now.'

  'What?'

  'I came up to see her. I heard her say that you'd had the courage to follow your heart, and that was why she'd always admired you.'

  'I told her it wasn't courage but stupidity,' Lee said quickly. 'Didn't you hear that?'

  'No, you spoke so quietly that I couldn't hear, and after that I went away.'

  'I told her my marriage was the biggest mistake I ever made!' Lee cried.

  'Yes, I dare say you did. But just the same-'

  'Daniel, what is it?'

  'What kind of influence are you having on my daughter? Why couldn't you have helped me control her properly in the first place, instead of going against me?'

  'I never went against you, Daniel,' Lee said, very pale. 'I only tried to show you that the kind of control you wanted wasn't possible any more. I tried to stop you losing her.'

  'But I am losing her.'

  'And you blame me?'

  'No,' he said, too quickly. 'Of course not. It's just that I-I can't help thinking how things could have been different.'

  'Different but for me, you mean? Different if you'd never met me at all? That's what you're thinking, isn't it? If only I'd never met her.'

  'Stop it!' he said harshly. 'You're right. We mustn't say any more.'

  'But you said it was time we had it out.'

  'I didn't say exactly that-'

  '' 'How long do you think we can go on not talking about the things that matter?''' she quoted back at him. 'And why don't we talk about them? Because it would finish us. What kind of relationship exists only because we hide from the truth? And the truth is that you blame me for everything that's happened. Why don't you admit it?'

  He didn't speak, but it was there in his eyes.

  Lee knew she should have kept quiet, but she was at the end of her tether. A demon seemed to be lashing her on to say terrible, irrevocable things.

  'Say it,' she told him. 'Say you wish you'd never met me, because without me you needn't have faced the fact that Phoebe is growing up. Without me you could have kept her a prisoner for ever-'

  'That's enough!' His voice crashed into her, thunderous with rage. 'You were right. How can we ever be together when we can do nothing but hurt each other?'

  'Then let's end it now,' she choked.

  'If that's what you want.'

  'I do,' she cried. 'I love you, Daniel, but I can't take this any more. I can't be the whipping girl whenever life doesn't do what you want. I'm sorry. I tried. But I can't see things as you do, and I never will.'

  'Lee-' He put out a hand to stop her as she moved to the door. The truth about what was happening seemed to get through to him. 'Don't go yet.'

  'What's the point in staying?' she asked passionately. 'We both know how it would end at last. So let it end now.'

  'It can't end,' he said harshly. 'We love each other.'

  'I guess that just isn't enough. We're not adolescents to believe that love solves all problems. We're old enough to know that some problems can't be solved. Let me go, Daniel. We can only hurt each other.'

  'Lee-Lee!' He reached out but she backed away.

  'And I'll tell you this, Daniel, however much you we'd never met, it can't be as much as I wish

  'You don't mean that,' he said.

  'I do. I do! I was content, I had a good life, I was safe. You took it all away from me. Don't come after me, please. Just forget about me.'

  She ran out of the house. She had no car tonight because Daniel had collected her from home, but after a moment she saw Mark's car in the street. He was standing beside it.

  'What is it?' he asked as she ran up to him.

  'Take me home, Mark,' she choked.

  As the car swung round she saw Daniel standing in the window. She covered her face. Once before she'd promised herself never to see him again. She knew now she should have stuck to that vow. But this time she meant it. And one day, far in the future, perhaps her heart would stop breaking.

  In their first quarrel Daniel had refused to accept that anything could come between them. This time it was different, and she realised that he too had faced the inevitable. She told herself she was glad that he'd seen sense, but she'd more than half expected him to come after her, and his silence was like a blow.

  Now all her information about him and Phoebe came at second hand. She knew Daniel hadn't carried out his wild threat to lock his daughter up because Mark went out one evening to keep a date with her. He returned late that night in a black mood.

  'I suppose I have you to thank, haven't I?' he demanded.

  'For what, love?'

  'This,' he said bitterly, holding the ring up. 'Phoebe returned this and said I should take it back to the shop.'

  'Did she say why?'

  'Oh, yes. She talked about waiting until I could afford it. She said she couldn't let me get into debt because of her. In fact, she sounded exactly like you.'

  'Phoebe's a sensible girl-' Lee began to say, but Mark interrupted her furiously.

  'Did you tell her I couldn't afford this ring?'

  'Yes, because it's true.'

  'Well, thank you very much for humiliating me. I suppose it's no more than I might have expected. Money, money, money! That's all you think matters. You don't care about love.'

  'Oh, yes,' she murmured, 'I care
about love very much.'

  'You don't know what love is, Lee. If you did, you'd have stopped playing with Mr Raife and married him long ago. Phoebe says he's half off his head with your tricks.'

  'That's not fair!' she cried.

  'All I know is that I've had enough. I'm getting out of this house tonight. You've interfered in my life for the last time.'

  He was as good as his word. Ignoring her pleas, he departed within the hour and moved in with a college friend. Lee was left to mull over his words. She rejected them. She knew they were unjust. But they left an uneasy residue in her mind.

  A phone call to Brenda Mulroy told her that Phoebe was still working.

  'But she's not well,' Brenda confided. 'She's told me a little of what's happened. I think the atmosphere is pretty difficult at home, and she looks as if she's spent a lot of time crying. I've told her if she goes about with red eyes she won't get the Linnon contract.'

  'Linnon?' Lee echoed, startled. The Linnon Corporation manufactured very expensive cosmetics and were about to launch a new line.

  'They're thinking of using Phoebe as "the face",' Brenda said excitedly. 'It's not final, but I'm pretty sure. It'll absolutely make her.'

  Lee made a real effort to put both Daniel and Phoebe out of her mind and give Sonya more of her attention. Her daughter was being a tower of strength, supporting her mother's spirits as no thirteen-year-old should have to do. When she tried to put on a cheerful face Sonya merely said gently, 'It's all right, Mum. You don't have to pretend for me.'

  Lee was awoken one morning by the ringing of the telephone. It seemed to have an urgent sound, and afterwards she fancied that it had held a warning of the dreadful news that was to come.

  'Hello?'

  'Lee? It's Daniel. Is your brother there?'

  'No, Mark doesn't live here now. He moved out a couple of weeks ago.'

  He made a sound under his breath. 'Then it's no use asking if you know where Phoebe is?'

  'Phoebe? Isn't she with you?'

  'No. She's not in her room and there was a note on her pillow.'

  A terrible chill ran through Lee. 'Daniel, no-she hasn't-?'

  'Yes,' he said grimly. 'She says she's run away to marry Mark. They've gone to Gretna Green.'

  CHAPTER ELEVEN