Read Online The Sin of Cynara by Violet Winspear - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Violet Winspear
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swimming-pool. Back home at the Copper Jug the bathroom had been a converted back room with a narrow white tub and cold white walls. But here on the walls were mosaics of sea scenes, and Teri re-discovered King Neptune and his court of mermaids and he stood there entranced while Carol ran water into the marble pedestal wash-basin.
'I've never ever seen a bathroom like this one, Cally. It's 'normous and just like a sea cave.'
Carol had never seen one like it herself. 'It's bella' she agreed, and thought to herself that Rudolph Falcone lived here in his island palace like one of the nobles of the Medici times, shut off from the rest of the world where there were too many eyes to stare at his face.
She caught sight of her own face in a large, bold-framed mirror on the wall, and she felt anew that clutch of alarm at what Gena had said about her appearance having softened the hard heart of her brother. She saw her own vulnerable look, the sea-green lighting of the bathroom making her hair and skin seem unreal in their fairness. She had let down her hair for the man, but not to seduce him; not to make him imagine that she was free with her kisses.
'Do you like it here, Cally?' Teri stood there, wriggling a bit when she applied the face flannel.
'It's a beautiful house, Buster, but like you I feel a bit strange in it. I expect in a few days we'll be more used to the atmosphere.'
'Then we're never going home to the Jug?' he asked, and he suddenly gave her the quick, mischievous smile of a small clown. 'I'm glad Auntie Rachel isn't here with us, for she was always scolding me, and she said I ought to be put in a home. What's a home, Cally, and why should I be put in one? Is it like the dogs' home where they take all the strays?'
'You're as full of questions as a pumpkin is of pips !'
Carol smiled as she wiped his face, but inwardly she was fuming. Aunt Rachel had been furious when she had brought Teri home as a tiny baby, for the Aunts had hoped that Cynara, who during the last six months of her pregnancy had lived in rooms in London, would sign away the baby so he was taken for adoption and the dreaded breath of scandal then receded from their door. But in her fashion Cynara had loved Vincenzo and she had begged Carol to live with her in London and between them they would bring up Vincenzo's child. That had been the agreement, and then on the day of Cynara's discharge from the hospital she had vanished, leaving Carol to cope alone with the dark-haired infant who then, and for always, had stormed her heart with his huge eyes and his helplessness.
Carol had found it impossible to part with Teri, and had thought it would be better for both of them if she arranged with her aunts to go on living with them, helping out in the tearoom, in an environment she was accustomed to. Being all alone in London with a small baby had seemed too much of a challenge at the time, but now she had the feeling that she would have coped. At least it would have saved her from the persistent nagging of the Aunts, who lived in constant dread that Cynara would reappear and claim the child, and therefore reveal to their clientele that they had a niece who had sinned.
Oh yes, in many ways were the Aunts a pair of Victorians, and Carol could only wonder at herself for enduring the tensions that were never at rest behind the shell-ruched curtains of the Copper Jug.
She had dared to make her escape from all that, but it couldn't be denied that she had fled from petty tyrants only to find herself in the lair of a veritable dragon who carried the scars of his own brush with love and hate.
When she and Teri returned to her bedroom they found that a maid had brought a steaming cup of Horlicks with some chocolate finger biscuits, and a fluted glass of wine for Carol. The various standard lamps set about the big room cast pools of soft light on the floor, islanded with rugs, and on the panels where big-framed paintings hung.
'I've never ever seen a bathroom like this one, Cally. It's 'normous and just like a sea cave.'
Carol had never seen one like it herself. 'It's bella' she agreed, and thought to herself that Rudolph Falcone lived here in his island palace like one of the nobles of the Medici times, shut off from the rest of the world where there were too many eyes to stare at his face.
She caught sight of her own face in a large, bold-framed mirror on the wall, and she felt anew that clutch of alarm at what Gena had said about her appearance having softened the hard heart of her brother. She saw her own vulnerable look, the sea-green lighting of the bathroom making her hair and skin seem unreal in their fairness. She had let down her hair for the man, but not to seduce him; not to make him imagine that she was free with her kisses.
'Do you like it here, Cally?' Teri stood there, wriggling a bit when she applied the face flannel.
'It's a beautiful house, Buster, but like you I feel a bit strange in it. I expect in a few days we'll be more used to the atmosphere.'
'Then we're never going home to the Jug?' he asked, and he suddenly gave her the quick, mischievous smile of a small clown. 'I'm glad Auntie Rachel isn't here with us, for she was always scolding me, and she said I ought to be put in a home. What's a home, Cally, and why should I be put in one? Is it like the dogs' home where they take all the strays?'
'You're as full of questions as a pumpkin is of pips !'
Carol smiled as she wiped his face, but inwardly she was fuming. Aunt Rachel had been furious when she had brought Teri home as a tiny baby, for the Aunts had hoped that Cynara, who during the last six months of her pregnancy had lived in rooms in London, would sign away the baby so he was taken for adoption and the dreaded breath of scandal then receded from their door. But in her fashion Cynara had loved Vincenzo and she had begged Carol to live with her in London and between them they would bring up Vincenzo's child. That had been the agreement, and then on the day of Cynara's discharge from the hospital she had vanished, leaving Carol to cope alone with the dark-haired infant who then, and for always, had stormed her heart with his huge eyes and his helplessness.
Carol had found it impossible to part with Teri, and had thought it would be better for both of them if she arranged with her aunts to go on living with them, helping out in the tearoom, in an environment she was accustomed to. Being all alone in London with a small baby had seemed too much of a challenge at the time, but now she had the feeling that she would have coped. At least it would have saved her from the persistent nagging of the Aunts, who lived in constant dread that Cynara would reappear and claim the child, and therefore reveal to their clientele that they had a niece who had sinned.
Oh yes, in many ways were the Aunts a pair of Victorians, and Carol could only wonder at herself for enduring the tensions that were never at rest behind the shell-ruched curtains of the Copper Jug.
She had dared to make her escape from all that, but it couldn't be denied that she had fled from petty tyrants only to find herself in the lair of a veritable dragon who carried the scars of his own brush with love and hate.
When she and Teri returned to her bedroom they found that a maid had brought a steaming cup of Horlicks with some chocolate finger biscuits, and a fluted glass of wine for Carol. The various standard lamps set about the big room cast pools of soft light on the floor, islanded with rugs, and on the panels where big-framed paintings hung.
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