Authors: Unknown
The trawlers were gone and the quay had a strangely deserted look, with only one or two of the older residents strolling in the morning sun before it became uncomfortably hot. Bridie, deciding that she liked the sea air after all, was pulling impatiently at the lead when it happened. A cream-coloured Labrador, as big as a baby elephant, bounded into view and stood waving his tail amiably, tongue lolling stickily from his great jaws. He could have swallowed Bridie in one mouthful, and despite his friendly approach, she obviously did not trust his intentions.
With Katie hanging on grimly to the lead, she launched herself at the Labrador with a crescendo of shrill barks that must have been audible for miles. “Bridie, stop it!” Katie jerked at the lead and the furious ball of fur was pulled off her feet, but kept on barking, her anger now increased by Katie’s obvious siding with the enemy. “Go home, good boy, go home,” Katie said persuasively to the Labrador, who on being spoken to, the air like a whip.
“No, no!” Katie said desperately. “Go away, shoo!” The soft brown eyes looked at her as he put his head on one side. “Go away,” she said. Bridie, furious at the advance, launched a new attack and this time fastened her sharp little teeth into one of the cream-coloured legs.
The Labrador, more injured in dignity than flesh, yelped loudly and swung round on the tormentor. “Stop it, Bridie! ” Katie tugged at the lead, hauling the shrieking pekinese along bodily, but the Labrador was not so easily mollified; he followed, woofing his protests in a booming bass until Katie felt the din was unbearable.
“Golly!” As if by magic, at the sound of the voice, the big dog turned away and loped towards the call. Katie, flushed and breathless, hung on grimly to the lead and looked towards the girl who stood in the gateway of a wide gravel drive, the gateway of the large house she had noticed just before the cliff climb. The girl gazed at Bridie with an expression of amazement and dislike. “What a little fiend,” she said. “It’s not safe on the street!”
“He started it,” Katie protested, not quite truthfully. “Bridie was frightened.”
“Goliath never started a fight in his life,” the girl said, “did you, Golly?” The Labrador lolled his wet tongue happily and acknowledged the defence.
“Well, perhaps it
was
Bridie,” Katie admitted. “She’s not very good-tempered, I have to admit.” She caught a glimpse of laughter in the other girl’s blue eyes and smiled. “I’m sorry, your Goliath
was
only being friendly and Bridie simply went into orbit before I could drag her away.”
“Not to worry,” the girl shook straight fair hair out of her eyes, “Golly in a friendly mood is a bit over powering. I never was very fond of small dogs myself.” She looked at Katie with her steady gaze. “You’re new in Mare Green, aren’t you? I haven’t seen you around before, I would have remembered you.” Her smile complimented Katie’s beauty without a trace of envy.
“I only came yesterday,” Katie said. “I’m staying with an aunt. This monster,” she nodded to the still rumbling Bridie, “is here.”
“I see,” the pleasant, freckled face beamed into a smile. “I thought it wouldn’t be yours, you don’t look like a peke type to me.”
Katie laughed. “Are dog-owners types?” she asked. “I didn’t realise that; though when I think about it, I suppose you could say that Aunt Cora was a peke type.”
“I’d better introduce myself.” A friendly hand was offered and Bridie growled threateningly. “I’m Fran Dennison, and I live here permanently, for my sins.” Katie took the proffered hand and smiled, shushing Bridie into silence. “Katie Roberts,” she said, feeling an instant liking for the "fair, freckle-faced girl. “I don’t know how permanent I am at the moment, it depends what my aunt has in mind.”
“I hope you are,” Fran Dennison' said frankly. “There are so few young people in Mare Green, a new face is always welcome.”
“Thank you,” Katie smiled. “It’s nice to know I’m welcome. After Bridie’s display I wouldn’t have blamed you if you’d ostracised me for life.”
Fran looked down at the little dog with an expression of distaste. “She’s not exactly a charming disposition, is she? Golly is inclined to be die other extreme, he makes friends with everybody. He’s useless as a guard dog.” Goliath, standing quietly by Fran Dennison’s side, suddenly pricked up his ears and bounded away, his ungainly tail waving madly and both girls turned and looked after him. Katie flushed when she saw John Miller approaching with the Labrador in adoring attendance.
“John!” the girl beamed a welcome. “You’re an early bird this morning. Did you get back last night?”
“Yesterday afternoon,” he said as he came up to them. He looked the artist he was supposed to be this morning, Katie thought, with a shabby, open-necked shirt and paint-splattered trousers, that had once been white, a faded canvas jacket, flying open, completing the transformation. Under one arm he carried the impedimenta of painting, the other he slid round Fran Dennison’s slim waist and hugged her close, kissing her forehead briefly. “Hello, Fran.” He turned his vivid blue eyes to Katie enquiringly and Fran hastened to introduce them.
“Miss Roberts, this is my cousin, John Miller,” she said. “John, a new arrival in Mare Green, Miss Katie Roberts.”
Katie acknowledged the introduction with a nod and a ghost of a smile, as he did. “We’ve met,” he told his cousin. “Twice.”
“Oh, have you?” The girl’s puzzled blue eyes went from one to the other of them, trying to find a reason for the obvious hostility between them.
“Mr. Miller makes a habit of trying to knock me over,” Katie said maliciously, adding unforgivably, she knew, “Perhaps he’ll be third time lucky.”
“I hope not,” Fran said fervently, and turned to her cousin, frowning curiously. “I didn’t know that you had your car back yet, John, and your driving must have deteriorated if you’ve just missed knocking Miss Roberts down twice since yesterday afternoon.”
John Miller set his straight mouth into a thin line as he looked at Katie steadily, answering his cousin, “I haven’t had my car back, Fran, not until tonight, and I haven’t almost knocked Miss Roberts over. She’s referring to her habit of not looking where she’s going. First she walked into me at the ticket barrier when she arrived yesterday and last night she bumped into me when she was running down from the cliff walk.”
“Trust you not to appreciate your luck!” Katie turned startled eyes to the man who had approached them unseen from the drive. Even Bridie, sulkily exhausted after her fracas with Goliath, had failed to signal his arrival with any more than a faint rumble of warning. He looked at Katie with the most impudent blue eyes she had ever seen, his good-looking, and vaguely familiar, face crinkled into a smile. As he drew nearer to them he swept his gaze over her from top to toe with evident approval, and Fran turned to him and smiled indulgently.
“Oh,” she said, “this is quite a family gathering, isn’t it? This is John’s brother, James, Miss Roberts.” She watched him, obviously amused by his attraction to Katie. “Jamie, this is Miss Roberts—Katie Roberts, a new arrival in Mare Green.”
“But permanent, I hope,” he said, and Katie felt her face colour under his approving gaze, partly because she was aware of the look of disdainful amusement on his brother’s face. “Where are you living, Miss Roberts?”
“Round in Webber Road,” she told him, “with my aunt.” She flicked a brief glance at his brother. “Next door to Mr. Miller, actually.”
“Smuggler’s Rest,” he said. “Is that the house, I know there’s an elderly lady there alone, she looks like someone’s aunt?” He turned to his brother. “You lucky hound, you wouldn’t consider changing houses, would you, John?” He smiled at Katie in a way that made her heart flutter uneasily. “I can’t imagine a more beautiful next-door neighbour. Perhaps I could move in with John and we could get to know one another better.” Katie laughed, but at the same time she felt that it was not beyond the bounds of possibility that he would do as he said; Fran Dennison, she noticed, glanced uneasily at John Miller who obviously viewed his brother’s words with scorn. “The sooner you grow up the better it will be for all of us,” he said. “I’m not having you disrupting my peace and quiet, Jamie, so put the idea out of your mind.” The disquieting eyes turned to Katie. “I’m sorry, Miss Roberts, but my brother’s activities take up too much of my time and patience.”
“John!” Fran shook her head, her pleasant face disturbed. “You shouldn’t blame Miss Roberts, and you know Jamie isn’t serious, he never is.”
The rather harsh features softened momentarily as he looked at the girl’s freckled face. “You always have to be peacemaker, don’t you, Fran? Anyway,” he moved away from his cousin, dropping a brief kiss on her forehead, “it’s time I started some work, so I’ll leave you to your social chatter. See you later, perhaps, hmm?” He waved a casual hand and strode off up the cliff path, taking the incline easily with his long legs.
“Sometimes I worry about John,” Fran said almost to herself. “Ah, well!” She turned her smile on Katie invitingly. “Would you like to have coffee with us, Miss Roberts? It’s nearly ten-thirty, it’s not too early for you, is it?”
“Oh, no, not at all,” Katie said, delighted at the invitation, and added regretfully, “But I really can’t. It’s Aunt Cora, you see,” she explained. “She’ll wonder where I’ve got to if I don’t take Bridie back soon.”
“Oh,” the girl’s disappointment was obvious, and so was her cousin’s. “Couldn’t you take the little fiend home and then come back? I mean,” she added hastily, “if you’d like to.”
“I’d love to, thank you very much.” Katie stifled a qualm of conscience that told her that Aunt Cora might be glad of her company, and the warm blue eyes of Jamie Miller applauded her decision.
“Don’t be too long,” he said, moving as near to her as he safely could without risking assault from Bridie. “I’ve never looked forward to my elevenses so much before! ”
Fran gave him a long look of reproach and resignation as Katie walked away with Bridie now pulling with equal determination in the other direction, towards home. Aunt Cora received the news of the invitation with surprising good humour.
“They’re a good family, the Dennisons,” she said with what Katie recognised as a suspicion of snobbery, “but I didn’t realise that they were connected with John Miller, next door, although I should have recognised him as one of them, of course, for he’s very like the young man I’ve seen with the Dennison girl.”
“That’s Fran, the girl—she described them as her cousins,” Katie said, pleased that her conscience had been salved by the old lady’s approval. “She seems a nice, friendly sort of girl, and Jamie Miller isn’t a bit like his brother, except in looks. He’s very friendly and rather attractive.”
“He’s certainly a very good-looking young man,” Aunt Cora conceded, “and so is the brother.”
Approaching the Dennison house for the second time that morning, Katie felt a nervous flutter in her heart at the size of the place. She remembered seeing it the previous evening when she had passed on her way to the cliff top. It was situated well back from the sea and slightly raised on a small incline that would protect it from flooding, but at the same time it commanded an uninterrupted view of it across the end of the quay. Surprisingly healthy trees surrounded it making a welcome shade from the hot sun, and spattering the neat lawns with lacy shadows. The Dennisons, Katie thought, must be very wealthy, hence no doubt her aunt’s approval. A nameplate attached to one of the gateposts read ‘Coral House' in sea-faded letters.
The amiable Goliath met her half way along the long drive, his tail waving a greeting, and close behind him Jamie Miller appeared, his smile of welcome at once reassuring and admiring. “The Dennisons
en masse
might be a little overwhelmingly much for you,” he told her. “Not that there are many of them, they always
seem
a lot.”
Katie’s heart sank as she visualised a crowd of overwhelming strangers waiting for her and she wished that she had not accepted the invitation so rashly. With a hand under her arm, Jamie guided her into the big house and straight through a wide hall into a comfortably elegant lounge. “We’re on the terrace,” he explained as they went through the room and out through wide open french windows on to a stone terrace. “It’s cooler outside.”
There seemed to be only three people there whom she had not met before and as they all three smiled at her approach she felt some of her apprehension disappear. She was glad to notice that John Miller had not joined his family for coffee.
“I’m glad you could come.” Fran Dennison rose eagerly to welcome her, and the two men, who had been seated at her entrance, rose also. “I’ll introduce you to the family.”
“No, you won’t, infant.” Jamie Miller kept his possessive hold on her arm. "
I'll
do the introductions.” He smiled down at Katie’s flushed face impudently. “I feel like the wandering son introducing his bride to the family for the first time!”
Fran frowned uneasily and glanced at the elderly man who had been seated near the french windows, as they came through from the lounge. “Don’t embarrass our guest, James.” He spoke in a deep resonant voice remarkable for a man of his years. “If you persist in your right to perform the introductions, do so in a proper manner.”
Surprisingly her ebullient escort complied without demur, turning first to the elderly man who had reprimanded him. “Janus, this is Miss Roberts,” he said. “My grandfather, Sir Janus Dennison.” Katie wished that her aunt had mentioned the fact that her host had a title, but she was charmed by the graciousness of her reception, and forgot her nerves.
The old man was tall, almost as tall as his grandson and as straight-backed as a man thirty years his junior. He bowed over her hand as he held it in his own for a courteously brief moment and Katie noticed the thickness of his white hair and the bright alertness of his blue eyes. He was still a remarkably handsome man.
“How do you do, Miss Roberts,” the deep voice had softness as well as resonance. “I’m delighted to meet you. I understand you are a new resident in Mare Green?”