Authors: Unknown
"Enfant gate!
She does not stop to think, that one,"
Adele declared. "One day I shall return, of course, but not until I am sure that my own affairs are in order. I have a great love for this place, Elizabeth," she added quietly. "I want to make sure that it doesn't fall into the wrong hands."
Jenny came in with the tea tray.
"I hope you're both terribly hungry," she said gaily. "Mrs. Murdoch has been baking all morning and I've managed a sponge cake. I suppose I ought to learn to cook."
It was more like a banquet than afternoon tea. There were small, neatly-cut sandwiches, and brown bread and butter, soda scones and pancakes, shortbread, and Jenny's much-heralded sponge.
"I can't cope!" Elizabeth laughed, spreading Kilchoan honey on her bread.
"Mrs. Murdoch believes in fattening everybody up," Jenny said, helping herself to a generous slice of cake. "She looks on us pretty much as her husband does on one of his prize heifers. Under nine stone and you're an emergency! How much do you suppose Effie weighs, Grand'mere?"
"I've never thought about it," Mrs. Abercrombie answered. "She has always looked just right to me, whereas you, Jenny, could do with an extra ounce or two. You're far too thin."
"I'll improve with keeping," Jenny told her cheerfully. "It could be all those exercises I have to do." Suddenly her voice faltered. "Do you think I'm going to be all right? On Friday, I mean."
"Certainly," Adele said a trifle sharply. "Doctor Cummings has made the appointment with the specialist and Charles will be there, so what can you possibly have to worry about?"
Jenny brightened perceptibly.
"I don't know what I would do without Charles—and you," she acknowledged.
"I hope to get you off my hands one of these days," Adele teased. "You had better cultivate Mrs. Murdoch and learn to cook more than a sponge cake, although I must admit this one is delicious." She bit into a slice of cake. "When you marry you should know all that goes on in a household and be able to do it, even if you have domestic help. I could cook reasonably well by the time I was eleven, but I did my household management course when I was older, just the same. Things are different now, I know, but it won't do you any harm to learn. I would like to see you married, Jenny," she added fondly. "I have many plans for you,
ma petite."
"You old matchmaker!" Jenny chuckled, but there was a wistful look in her eyes as she poured them a second cup of tea.
"We have a visitor!" Adele announced, looking out of the side window.
"Natalie!" Jenny exclaimed. "Whatever can she want?"
"A cup of tea, to begin with," Adele suggested.
"She never drinks tea in the afternoon."
"She could try, for once."
"I'll go," Elizabeth offered, thinking that they might want a family conference.
"Sit where you are. I can't think what Natalie can possibly want at this hour of the day." Adele rose to greet her unexpected visitor. "Show her in, Jenny, and we'll soon find out"
There was a short pause while Jenny went to open the door.
"I've tried my best with that young woman," Adele mused, "but I get nowhere. I don't like to think her vicious, but she certainly likes her own way, and I've a fair idea that she would stop at nothing to achieve it People with ungovernable tempers are always difficult to handle."
Jenny reappeared, accompanied by her sister.
"Bonjour,
Natalie," Mrs. Abercrombie greeted her. "Will you take some tea with us?"
"I thought you might have finished that futile little ritual by now," said Natalie, "but I will have a quick cup, since you ask."
Jenny went to infuse some fresh tea, apparently surprised by the unexpected decision.
"Please sit down," Adele invited. "I hate people to prowl around all the time."
Natalie had given Elizabeth one quick, distasteful glance when she had first come in, but now she turned towards her with a coldly quizzical look.
"You seem to have recovered," she observed. "Playing heroine appears to suit you."
Elizabeth flushed uncomfortably.
"One doesn't think of acting a part in an emergency," she submitted. "Jenny and Mrs. Abercrombie were both in difficulty and I did what I could to help."
"I suppose you mean because of Jenny's disability," Natalie said. "She
is
restricted, one has to admit."
"Not for very much longer!" Adele informed her. "Jenny used
both
hands to hold my head above the water, Natalie. I owe her—and Elizabeth—a tremendous debt of gratitude."
Natalie's brows came together in a deep frown.
"Perhaps you'll put me completely in the picture," she suggested. "After all, I
am
Jenny's sister."
"We would have explained everything to you before she went to Glasgow," Adele said. "It seems that she has more power in her arm now than the doctors thought possible at one time, and David Cummings holds out all sorts of exciting possibilities. She must see the specialist again before we can be absolutely sure, of course, but the facts are most encouraging."
Natalie sat tensed in her chair, chewing her lip, wondering what to say that would sound convincing.
"This will make a difference." The words seemed to be forced from her. "You won't have to feel under such an obligation if she does get well."
"We never felt obligated in the sense you mean," Adele returned. "Jenny made her home hare at my request, that was all. If Claire had lived, Jenny would have been a member of my family. You, also, Natalie, if you had wished."
"When Claire died we had very little choice," Natalie murmured. "What does Jenny intend to do now?" she asked sharply.
"We think it would be best to take one step at a time." Adele glanced towards the door. "Jenny will do whatever she sees fit, with my blessing."
Natalie gazed across the room to where Elizabeth sat, her eyes as incisive as cold steel. She wanted to say something cutting, Elizabeth realised, but felt that this might be the wrong moment to reveal her enmity.
"What are you doing at the stables?" Adele asked conversationally as Jenny appeared with the freshly-made tea. "Charles tells me that you have quite a good string of ponies there now. Are they selling well?"
"Reasonably well." The animosity and dissatisfaction faded from Natalie's eyes as she turned to discuss her hobby with her hostess. "I haven't sold very many because the trekking was so good last year and I'm fully booked up over Easter. After that, the hotel trade will keep me busy till the end of September, at least."
'You sound as if you might need some help," Adele suggested. "Have you approached Will Beatty?"
"Approached him?" Natalie's eyes narrowed. "Why should I ? He's your employee, Mrs. Abercrombie, whatever he might believe to the contrary."
Adele gave her a shrewd look.
"He's a man of ambition," she declared, "but a very honest one, and he knows all there is to know about horses."
"Which doesn't mean to say I need his help." Natalie set down her half-empty cup. "I came to see how you were," she added harshly, "not to discuss Will Beatty as a reliable partner for the future."
"N'importe!"
Adele smiled. "It was no more than a passing thought, something which suddenly occurred to me, so we can forget about it, can we not? I dare say Will won't stay very long at Kilchoan, anyway."
Jenny looked upset.
"I wish Natalie wouldn't provoke those dreadful arguments," she remarked when her sister had taken her leave of them. "She always seems to be at cross purposes with everyone and everything."
"Since she doesn't visit us very often," Adele returned, "we can bear with her. I wish I really did know what she is going to do with her future."
"You told her about us going to Glasgow," Jenny said. "She would be quite relieved when she knew that Charles was taking me."
Adele nodded.
"Yes, she must have been," she said, seeing through another woman's diverse ways of getting Jenny and Charles married to suit her own purpose.
Charles returned to Kilchoan late on the Thursday afternoon and on Friday morning he drove Jenny back to the city to see the specialist who had dealt with her case after the accident. It must have renewed the whole tragic business for him once again, and Elizabeth noticed how drawn and tired he looked as they drove away.
"It's a wonderful day after all the rain we've had," Adele remarked when the car had disappeared from view. "Why don't you take a walk up the glen and enjoy the sun?"
"If you'll come, too," Elizabeth suggested.
"Why not?" Adele reached for her walking-stick. "It will do us both good."
When they had reached the end of the carriage drive she pulled up.
"Could we climb the hill, do you think?" she asked.
"I feel fit enough," Elizabeth told her. "How about you?"
"Me? I never felt better." Adele drew in a deep breath of the invigorating hill air. "There's nothing better than a west wind at this time of year."
They walked a short way up the glen, standing on a rise to look about them.
"We must make some plans for you, Elizabeth," Adele said.
Elizabeth's heart seemed to miss a beat, realising that she had to go some day, but if it had finally come to the parting of the ways at Mrs. Abercrombie's request she had certainly not been prepared for it.
"I know," she answered slowly. "I can't stay at Kilchoan for ever."
"You came to Scotland with a very firm objective in view," her employer reminded her. "To see something of your mothers country. How long is that going to take you?"
"I—haven't thought about it," Elizabeth was forced to confess. "Perhaps about six weeks. I've saved some money."
"Six weeks is far too long. You could do it in under a month, if you tried."
It was a very kind way of saying that her employment had come to an end.
"You could take three weeks' holiday and then return here." Adele paused on the narrow moor road. "Would that suit you?"
"You have Jenny," Elizabeth reminded her harshly. "I don't want you to feel that you owe me anything, Mrs. Abercrombie."
"Apart from my life." Adele walked on. "So we will not talk about it for the present, if you are in no great hurry to leave Kilchoan. April and May are the best months to see your mother's native land, Elizabeth. That was all I was trying to say."
"You're so very kind." Elizabeth could hardly trust her own voice. "No wonder Jenny adores you!"
"Jenny is a creature of impulse," Adele reflected. "Her affection is given spontaneously wherever she thinks it is needed. At one time she seemed to be in love with my grandson—with Jason—but she allowed him to go to Australia without trying to stop him and now she does not know what to do. Perhaps she has fallen out of love with him in the meantime," she sighed, "and there is someone else. Jason went off to Sydney because he was needed there, but Jenny thought it was because he could not bear to look at her after the accident. Even when he promised to come back one day she did not think he would."
"I wonder what's happening in Glasgow," Elizabeth said harshly.
Adele glanced at her watch.
"They should be on their way back by now," she said. "We will soon know."
They retraced their steps back down the glen and at the last bend in the road Elizabeth looked up at the open stretch of moor above them. Someone was watching them, a tall girl on a chestnut-coloured horse was leading a string of ponies along the bridle path which led through the heather. It was Natalie, and there was no doubt that what she saw must have displeased her. She sat quite still for several minutes, and then she spurred her mount into action, galloping swiftly across the moor in the direction of Windy Brae with the ponies strung out behind her.
Mrs. Abercrombie had been concentrating on the road ahead of diem where a stoat had crossed their path.
"You didn't see him," she said as Elizabeth rejoined her. "What a pity. They're such delightful little creatures and full of intelligence, but you have to be quick. Ah, here comes Jamie!" she added, greeting the grieve with a friendly smile. "He'll tell you more about them than I can."
James Murdoch came from the direction of the wood, his gun under his arm.
"I see Miss Hodge is in business with her ponies," he remarked. "Did she get the vet for the sickly one, do you know?"
"I understand Charles saw to it," Adele told him. "I hope the poor animal is going to be all right. She rides them rather hard, to my way of thinking, but I'm no horsewoman, as you know, Jamie."
"You could be all the better for that," he answered drily. "Are you well yourself, Miss Drummond?" he asked Elizabeth. "I hear you've been in your bed these past few days."
"I'm much better now, thank you," Elizabeth told him. "It's marvellous to be out and about again on a day like this!"
"You weren't missing much before," he said. "The wind was away round to the north and it was cold, but now we have a change for the better."
The wind, which had been boisterous at the head of the glen, had gone down a little.
"I've thoroughly enjoyed the blow," Elizabeth told him. "You expect a strong wind up on the moor."
" 'The west wind is an honest man'," Murdoch quoted with a twinkle in his eye. " 'He stays at home at night"!"
Mrs. Abercrombie looked amused.
"I've told Miss Drummond if she wants to know anything about the natural phenomena around here she must come to you," she declared. "She couldn't meet up with anyone more knowledgeable."
"Then," Murdoch' suggested, looking keenly at Elizabeth, "you will be staying for some time, Miss Drummond? I'm pleased to hear it," he added. "We could do with some more young people about the place."
"Jamie feels that I am getting did," Adele mused as they walked down the road, "and he's not sure that I have managed my family properly. He thinks that at least one of my grandsons should have married by now, preferably Charles."