Quest for Alexis Read Online Free PDF

sincere concern for me, I could read the message in her large dark eyes. Alexis stood condemned.
    I said quietly, stubbornly. “We can’t be certain what the truth is, Sir Ralph. There must be some explana tion. I know my uncle.”
    “I thought I knew him too, my dear. And so did a great many other people—tens of millions of them who admired and trusted and looked up to him.” Sir Ralph sighed heavily. “It’s bad enough in all conscience for any man to desert his wife and go off with some other woman. But for a man in Alexis Karel’s position it’s nothing less than criminal. Such a man has a duty he must never forget. His behavior must always be above reproach.”
    Sir Ralph broke off, and I saw that his face, vulner able through blindness, was twitching with emotion. Caterina went quickly to him, taking his arm and coaxing him to sit down. She looked at me in a silent appeal not to upset her husband any further, and I realized that Sir Ralph had felt a deeper admiration for Alexis than I had ever guessed—an admiration that was now being shattered.
    I said in a faltering voice, “I’m sorry. I can under stand how you feel, but I can’t believe it’s ... what it seems.”
    Tapping on the door, Jenny came in with the extra cup and saucer. Nobody spoke until she had left the room again. Then Caterina asked, “Have you seen Madeleine yet, Gail, my dear? She was so happy when I told her this morning that you were on the way home. I made up a little lie, I’m afraid—that you were coming for a holiday.” She looked at me anxiously. “I did what I thought was for the best.”
    Sir Ralph cleared his throat. “It hasn’t been easy to keep the news from reaching your aunt. If it weren’t for her room being at the back of the house, it would have been impossible. We’ve been besieged here—a lot of damned newspaper reporters. And the police. We even had the security people sniffing around until this latest news came through.”
    “It must have been very unpleasant for you both. I’m truly sorry.”
    I watched Caterina as she drew the tea cart toward her and began to pour milk into the dainty china cups. Afternoon tea before the fire—it seemed to symbolize the lives of these two. A retired gentleman and his wife. Tranquility and comfort in gracious surroundings, the well-deserved reward for a lifetime’s work. Some small recompense, perhaps, for the affliction of blind ness.
    Until two days before the Warrenders had been able to count on this quiet, peaceful existence. But not any longer.
    “If you don’t mind,” I said quickly, rising to my feet, “I think I’d better not stay for tea after all. I really must go up and see Madeleine. I would have done so before, only I wanted a word with you first.”
    Caterina’s brow, usually so smooth beneath the crown of dark hair, was furrowed in distress.
    “What will you say to your poor aunt, Gail? Will you tell her what has happened?”
    “I don’t know. I’ll have to decide when I see how she is.”
    At the door I paused and glanced back at them. I couldn’t shake off a curious sense of shame, as if I were the one to blame for this catastrophe.
    It was up to me, somehow or other, to try and put things right. My decision was made in a flash, even as the thought entered my head.
    “I’ll go to Majorca,” I announced. “I’m going to see Alexis and talk to him. Tomorrow.”
    Caterina’s eyes widened in astonishment. Sir Ralph frowned.
    “I warn you, Gail,” he said, “if you go rushing off after Alexis, you’ll only be hurt. Badly hurt.”
    Caterina hastily tried to soften her husband’s words. “I beg you to consider, Gail, my dear one. It cannot be wise to act so impetuously.”
    “What else can I do?” I cried miserably. “I’ve got to do something. I can’t just accept a thing like this as if it isn’t important.”
    “Perhaps if you wait a little,” she said without con viction, “Alexis will write and explain.”
    But I