[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

and sank down on the damask-covered stool.
"Craigwood," she announced automatically.
"Is that you, Patricia?"
She pushed back her hair with an unsteady hand. 'Yegg
Simon."
"Wouldn't it be wonderful," he said mockingly, "if w®
knew each other's thoughts as quickly as we know each
other's tones?"
"It might be dull. Do you wish to speak to Marion?"
"It isn't necessary. I rang up to let you know that I may
be a bit late. I thought it would be a good idea to get
your father up to dinner. Ralph will fetch him."
157
 "My father's busy. You don't have to bother about as,
Simon. I'm sure you have enough to worry you."
"That," he said, with an inflection which brought
glinting green eyes before her vision, "sounds dangerously
like one of those remarks which start fires, but I refuse
to rise to it over the telephone. I'll be there as soon as I
can."
She was driven by a treacherous impulse to put a ques-
tion: "Where are you?"
An almost imperceptible pause. "At Exeter  I had to
meet a man here."
She felt as he uttered the words that it was a lie. He
was at Dolbridge, but so heartily sick of his actions being '
queried that it was less trouble to prevaricate than to tell
the truth. Pat felt a clamminess in fhe palms of her hands
and at her temples, and an anguish filled her throat. Her
fingers tightened round the receiver.
"Are you there, Pat?" he demanded peremptorily.
Unevenly, she replied, I'm going home now  and^
please don't come to the cottage again. I'll make my own
arrangements with Marion."
"Pat, don't be a damned idiot. I'm coming right away.
You only have to wait for a bit. . . ."
"Leave me alone, Simon," she almost choked. "Do me
a kindness  and leave me alone!"
Before he could reply to that she had dropped the
receiver into place. She stood very still, suffering the
torture of trying not to cry, and in a moment or two the
worst of the nightmare had passed and she was able to
go into the drawing-room.
"It was Simon," she said. "He'll be a little late."
"Well, never mind." Aunt Alison's cheerfulness had a
spurious lustre. "It's nice that he remembered to telephone.
He doesn't always."
Marion looked up from sipping her drink. "Before you
went out we were trying to decide what time to pick you up
on Friday."
Pat felt better now; horribly empty, but less likely to
break into tears. "When will you meed me to do some
more work?"
 "We're deaf now. Anything else that: tarns op ea®
remain over till the middle of next -week."
"In that case, I'll come along next Tuesday or Wednes°
day. If you should need me before then, send Edna. She
loves a jaunt to the village."
"But you don't want to be at the cottage alone, Patf
°Tes, I do," she said baldly.
There was a long silence filled by the measured tide ©f
me Empire dock on the mantelpiece. Pat had never pre-
viously noticed it, even when she had been alone in the
room. No protestations followed the silence; even Aunt
Alison only smiled sorrowfully, as if acknowledging that
anything could happen on a day like this;, with Charlotte
laid up. \
"You really mean to stay on at the cottage  not to go
away?" Marion asked quietly.
"It needs a spring-clean and my father's anxious about
me garden. We haven't been able to do much outdoors
because of the rain."
"I don't like your being there alone."
'"I'll be safe enough. There hasn't beeo a crime iffl
Manbury for ten years. If it's all right with you, I'll go
now."
"Walking?"
Til take you," offered Ralph. "Have your drinfe while
I get the car out."
It was all very stilted and polite, with not a single
objection raised once they had accepted the fact that she
wanted to be alone at the cottage. Pat said good-bye to
Aunt Alison and Marion, took her place in Ralph's small
but comfortable car and felt, as they moved smoothly
away, as if she were leaving the most vital part of herself
behind. Two willow-wrens were perching on one of the
pillars when they reached the gates, and with a flick of the
wings they were off towards their nests near the river.
In the hedges foxgloves still bloomed among cow
parsley, and the acorns which drooped over the lane
were fat and as green as the leaves among which they
grew. Growth, and the blue-grey sky overhead; ths
 "So you've bought a car," Pat commented, for some-
thing to say. "It's a very nice one. I suppose you' won'S
630 sailing a ketch through Polynesia, after all." i
"I may yet, if I can't settle back into a London dub."
"What about the house yon were going to buy at
Marlsea?"
"Oh, that," he said. "What would I find to do at [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]