Bond of Fate Read Online Free PDF Page A

Perhaps you'll think it over and give me your answer this evening.'
    Melanie blinked. This evening! He wasn't really giving her much time, was he? Still, it was something, she thought, as she nodded her approval of even this short notice.
    As she left the study her thoughts were in a whirl, and all she wanted was to go somewhere she could come to terms with the startling proposal that she had just received. But she hadn't reckoned on meeting Celia, who had obviously been on the watch for her.
    `Come and watch Popsie jump a hurdle I've fixed up for her,' she said coaxingly, giving Melanie no chance of escape by linking her arm in hers and all but dragging her out of the house.
    While she watched Popsie, Celia's new pony, giving her display, Melanie's thoughts were still buzzing with the extraordinary event that had taken place in Julian Cridell's study. One thing kept going through her mind. In his determination to keep Celia, he was not really being entirely fair to her mother—or to Celia, come to that.
    No matter what had happened in the past—and he did say that they had been very young when they married—she was still Celia's mother, and surely it was natural that she would want Celia with her, particularly when she was at a stage when a mother's guidance was needed. What right had he to deny her that? To not even allow her access on a once-a-week basis seemed very hard to Melanie, and entirely unfair to Celia.
    Melanie sighed inwardly. She had thought there must be a catch in the job somewhere, and what ;
     
    catch! And to think that Julian Cridell had sat so composedly behind that desk in the Savoy, interviewing not only for a companion for his daughter, but for a wife as well ! Her earlier imaginings of a harem potentate hadn't been all that far out, she thought as she saw Celia trotting towards her on Popsie, and she gave another sigh. It had been nice while it lasted, but no way could she lend herself to a situation like that; she would now have to look for another job.
    `Well?' demanded Celia. 'Don't you think she's good? I shall be able to raise that bar a bit higher as soon as she gets a bit more used to it.'
    Melanie nodded absentmindedly. It was hard to concentrate on something as unimportant as Popsie's jumps while her mind was elsewhere.
    Celia took the saddle off the pony, and with a light tap on her rump sent her off to graze in the paddock, then settled herself on the paddock fence next to Melanie. 'What did you say to Dad's proposal?' she asked, with one eye on the browsing pony and the other on Melanie's reaction.
    Melanie stared at her, She couldn't possibly know, she thought. Perhaps her father had made some excuse for wanting to speak to Melanie in private.
    `Oh, come on!' Celia said coaxingly. 'I do hope you agreed. It will get us out of a hole, you know, and we do get on, don't we?'
    Melanie was still not certain that they were talking about the same thing, so she played it by ear. `So you know what your father was going to ask me?' she said.
    Celia nodded. 'We don't have any secrets from each other,' she replied frankly. 'At least, not on something as important as this. Well, what did you say? You didn't turn him down, did you?' she demanded incredulously.
     
    Melanie looked away from her accusing eyes. 'I'm going to think about it,' she said, then added quickly, `Look, I'm not sure that you do know the whole of it, and I'd rather you asked your father about it.'
    Celia grinned, and suddenly she was a thirteen year -old again, and not the all-too-serious adult she so often seemed to be. 'Dad asked you to marry him, right? Because Mother's decided she wants me with her.'
    Melanie looked at Celia. Well, that was clear enough, she thought. Celia certainly did know. 'Don't you want to see your mother?' she asked, her blue eyes searching Celia's dark ones.
    Celia shook her head in no uncertain manner. 'No, thank you,' she said firmly, and at Melanie's raised brows, added, 'I'll tell you something