Chapter Thirteen
I slept very late that day. The first thing I remember is the sound of shutters being folded back, and then the sudden hot blaze of sunlight striking across the pillow into my eyes.
Phyllida's voice said, "And high time, too, Rip Van Winkle!"
As I murmured something, dragging myself up out of the depths of sleep, she added. "Godfrey rang you up."
"Oh?" I blinked into the sunlight "Rang me up? What did he want—did you say Godfrey?" The jerk of recollection brought me awake, and up off the pillow so sharply that I saw her look of surprise, and it helped me to pull myself together.
"I was dreaming," I said, rubbing my eyes. "What on earth's the time?"
"High noon, my child."
"Goodness! What was he ringing about?"
"To know if you'd got safely home with the ring, of course."
"Did he expect Mr. Gale to steal it en route?"
Too late, I heard the tartness in my voice, and my sister looked at me curiously, but all she said was, "I woke you up too suddenly. Never mind, I brought some coffee. Here."
"Angel… Thank you. Heavens, I must have slept like the dead… Your ring's over there on the dressing table. Oh, you've got it."
"You bet your sweet life I have. I came in a couple of hours ago and took it, but I couldn't bear to wake you, you were flat out, your poor kid." She turned her hand in the sunlight, and the diamond flashed.
"Thank heaven for that! Bless you, Lucy, I'm really terribly grateful! I'd have gone stark ravers if I'd had to sit there all night, wondering if someone had wandered by and picked it up. And I wouldn't have dared go down myself! What on earth time did you get in?"
"I hardly know," I said truthfully. "My watch stopped. I thought I'd got water in it, but I'd only forgotten to wind it up. Some ghastly hour of the morning." I laughed. "There were complications, actually. Didn't Godfrey tell you about them?"
"I didn't quite get that bit. Something about the dolphin being up on the beach and you and Max Gale wrestling about with it in the water. I must say it all sounded highly unlikely. What did happen?"
"More or less that." I gave her a rapid—and suitably expurgated—version of the dolphin's rescue, finishing with Godfrey's arrival on the beach. "And you'll find the wreck of your precious plastic bag in the bathroom, I'm afraid. I'm fearfully sorry, but I had to use something."
"Good heavens, that old thing! It couldn't matter less!"
"I'm relieved. The way you were talking last night, I thought it was practically a holy relic."
She shot me a look as she disappeared through the bathroom door. "I was not myself last night, and you know it."
"Well, no." I reached for the coffeepot which she had put down beside the bed, and poured myself more coffee.
She emerged from the bathroom, holding the bag between thumb and forefinger. " 'Wreck' was the word, wasn't it? I suppose you don't even know what happened to my Lizzie Arden lipstick?"
"Lord, I suppose that was a holy relic, too?"
"Well, it was gold."
I drank coffee. "You'll find it in Sir Julian Gale's dressing-gown pocket. I forgot it. I'm sorry again. You might say I was not myself last night either."
"Julian Gale's dressing gown? This gets better and better! What happened?" She sat down on the edge of the bed. "I tried like mad to stay awake till you got in, but those beastly pills put me right out, once Godfrey'd phoned and I stopped worrying. Go on. I want to know what I've missed."
"Oh, nothing, really. We were both soaked, so I had to go up to the Castello to get dry, and they gave me coffee, and I had a bath… Phyl, the bathroom! You'd hardly believe the ghastly—Oh, sorry; I forgot, it's the Forli ancestral palace. Well, then you'll know the bathroom."
"There are two," said Phyl. "Don't forget there are twenty bedrooms. One must have one's comforts. I'll say I know the bathrooms. Was it the one with the alabaster bath, or the porphyry?"
"You make it sound like the New Jerusalem. I don't know, I don't live at those levels. It was a rather nasty dark red with white spots, exactly like stale salami."
"Porphyry," said my sister. "Was the water hot?"
"Boiling."
" Was it? They must have done something, then. It never used to get more than warm, and in fact I seem to remember a tap for sea water, which was pumped up in some weird way from the caves. There are caves under the Castello."
"Are there?"
"They used to use them to keep the wine in."
"Really. How exciting."
"Only, shrimps and things kept coming in, which was discouraging, and once a baby squid."
"It must have been."
"So Leo stopped it. It was supposed to be terribly health-giving, but there are limits."
"I'm sure there are," I said. "Shrimps in the wine would be one of them."
"Shrimps in the wine? What on earth are you talking about?"
I put down my empty cup. "I'm not quite sure. I thought it was the wine cellars."
"The seawater baths, idiot! Leo stopped them. Oh, I see, you're laughing at