The Dark Stranger by Sara Seale Page A

” she replied on a note of distress. “ Do you mind if I ask you something? ”
    “ No, what is it? ”
    “ Well—you were very kind showing me a—little attention tonight, but will you please not do it very often ? I mean of course I don ’ t suppose you ’ ll want to, anyhow. ” He smoked his pipe in silence, his arms folded, and his steady regard became so long that she was forced again into speech.
    “ You see, Belle doesn ’ t like it. ”
    His head went up and for a moment the old arrogance was back.
    “ Belle doesn ’ t like it! ” he exclaimed. “ Do you think I give a damn for the whims and objections of my not very gracious cousin? ”
    “ You don ’ t understand, ” she said quickly. “ Belle doesn ’ t mean to be ungracious. She ’ s—well, she ’ s not the right sort of person to have been landed with a stepdaughter and not much money. I—I don ’ t want to upset her. ”
    His voice was gentle again when he replied:
    “ I think you place too much importance on what is due to your stepmother. ”
    “ No, I think I ’ m just beginning to understand how difficult things have been for her. Craig—when I find work and go, can Belle stay here? ”
    “ Are you going to leave, then? ” He sounded polite, almost disinterested.
    “ Well, I shouldn ’ t think it would be easy to find work here, and anyhow you can ’ t keep me for ever. ”
    “I remember you telling me once, Tina, that at your age you had to do what was arranged for you, ” he said.
    “ But that was school age. It ’ s different now. ”
    “ No different at all. Belle ’ s responsible for you until you are twenty-one and you ’ re not yet quite eighteen. You ’ ll still have to do what ’ s arranged for you. ”
    “ Y-yes, she said doubtfully. “ But Belle wants me to find a job. ”
    “ Belle will want whichever way her own comfort is best studied. If you want your stepmother to stay here you ’ d better make up your mind to stop yourself. ”
    His voice had the familiar autocratic ring and she tried to read his face in the gathering darkness.
    “ But don ’ t you want ... I mean, I ’ m not your responsibility ... Belle is a Pentreath, but ... I don ’ t think I understand you very well, Cousin Craig, ” she finished, at a loss.
    His pipe had gone out and he put it in his pocket and got to his feet.
    “ I, on the other hand, understand you quite a lot, ” he observed, “ but don ’ t expect much help from Belle, if you ’ re in difficulties. Come to me instead. Good night. ”
    II
    T owards the middle of August Tina had her eighteenth birthday and Craig unexpectedly announced he would take a day off from the cannery. What would one like to do?
    “ Could I go over the cannery? ” she asked. “ Just for a short visit, I mean. ”
    He looked surprised.
    “ I didn ’ t think you ’ d be interested. Tin cans aren ’ t at all romantic, you know. ”
    “ I didn ’ t suppose they were, ” she said, a sudden idea growing wildly at the back of her mind. “ But there must be plenty of work in your cannery—work even I could do. If you could—if you could find me some simple job like banging lids on tins or something, I could do it to repay you for my keep. ”
    His mouth twitched at the corner s.
    “ Have you ever seen a cannery in action? ” he asked a little dryly.
    “ No, ” she said, “ I expect it ’ s very noisy. ”
    “ Very. All right, Tina, you shall go over the works, and the mine too, if you like, only it strikes me as an odd way of spending your birthday. ”
    So on this hot August day she set out with him to Merrynporth, a luncheon basket in the back of the car, a new white handbag, his birthday present to her, laid carefully on her knees. Belle had declined to join them, and Tina thought it would seem odd picnicking alone with Craig on the first outing she had ever had with him.
    He took her over the cannery, introducing his foreman and many of the workers, explaining