Across the Lagoon Read Online Free PDF Page B

would go well. Then just as she was about on a level with that shadowy shape in the corner, it came abruptly to life.
    Rapping his book down on his knee with an impatient air, making Carol jerk to a terrified stop, Gray Barrett barked testily, 'For heaven's sake! Do you have to keep creeping in and out all the time? I'm trying to read.'
    'I... I'm sorry,' Carol stammered, 'I didn't... know you were here.'
    With a frown he looked at his watch. 'We'll be starting out early in the morning,' he told her tersely. 'I suggest you get some sleep.'
    'Yes,' Carol nodded meekly, and slid out of the room.
    She scooted upstairs, only too thankful to reach the sanctuary of her own room. Later, undressed and between the sheets, she lay wide-eyed in the shadows, quivering at the ordeal of the evening, and wondering what on earth had possessed her to take on the job. She listened to the stillness of the house feeling intensely alone.
    Her mother and father and brothers and sisters were only a few miles away. She could go to them even now if she wanted to.
    With a wry look she punched the pillow. She could just see Mr Gray Barrett's face pull into a sneer when he found out she had fled. He had said that she was too young for the job.
    She set her mouth determinedly. Well, she would show him that she had no intention of running home, just because of his bite. She would see this thing through whatever the consequences.
    A ND ANYWAY, IT MADE A CHANGE FROM SELLING LAMPSHADES, SHE TOLD HERSELF WEAKLY, AS SHE DROPPED OFF TO SLEEP .
     

CHAPTER THREE
    E MILY came in before seven with a breakfast tray. Carol sat up at once. She had been awake since six, her apprehension growing with the light of day.
    The cheerful woman could only stay a few moments to give her a message from Mr Barrett. She was to come downstairs as soon as she was ready. He wanted to be on the road by eight. They would have to pick up her passport in London, so there was no time to be lost.
    Carol found it difficult to swallow her breakfast. This was due partly to excitement at the prospective journey and partly because she dreaded the moment when she would have to present herself to her churlish employer downstairs.
    She ate what she could, then throwing the covers back she stumbled out of bed and hurried to her suitcase. It would be cool this early in the morning, so she laid out a lightweight suit in pale green check, with a plain neat skirt and small bolero-type jacket. When she was ready the white blouse she had chosen seemed to spill out too much at the front and below the three- quarter-length sleeves.
    Several times she re-tied the scarf neck in an effort to make a presentable bow. Each one seemed worse than the last. In the end she dropped her aching arms. It would have to do. She had packed and locked her case now, and besides, the time was getting on.
    She stood back from the mirror, far from satisfied with her appearance. Her pale hair splayed out on her shoulders about her washed-out features. The suit made her look all arms and legs.
    Turning quickly away, she gathered up her bags. If she didn't get a move on she'd find herself in hot water again. She clumped out on to the landing and made her way with her cases downstairs.
    The front door was wide open. A cold country- scented breeze wafted gustily around the hall. Carol had just got to the bottom of the stairs when Gray Barrett strode in from outside. He was faultlessly attired in a dark suit, his hair and craggy features glistening with an early morning groomed look.
    Tugging the cuffs of his sleeves down as though he had been carrying things out to the car, he flicked his glance towards Carol. Though he was preoccupied as usual, it seemed to her that his brown gaze picked out all her faults as it raked over her.
    He reached for her luggage with a businesslike gesture. 'I'll take those,' and swinging it up left her to follow him out to the car. She had just got into the doorway when Emily appeared from behind her.