Daughter of Deceit Read Online Free PDF

about?” I asked.
    “Let’s pray it never comes to the ears of the formidable Lady Constance.”
    “I’ve learned this morning that that is Charlie’s wife. I never thought of Charlie’s having a wife.”
    “Most men do have … tucked away somewhere.”
    “And Lady Constance is tucked away in this wonderful old mansion with the Roman remains.”
    “I should imagine she is rather like an old Roman matron herself.”
    “What are they like?”
    “Oh—those women who know everything, can do everything, never put a foot wrong, obey all the rules and expect everyone else to do the same … and very likely make ordinary people’s lives miserable.”
    “Charlie must have told you about her.”
    “I knew there was a Lady Constance and that’s about all. The boy’s nice. He takes after Charlie, I reckon.”
    “Charlie is one of your best friends, and he has never told you much about his wife!”
    She looked at me and laughed.
    “Well, it’s a little awkward. Lady Constance would never allow her husband to have a friendship with a flighty actress, now would she? That’s why she’s never heard of me and we don’t talk of her!”
    “But when Charlie comes to London so often …”
    “Business, my darling. So many men have business which takes them from their homes. Well, I’m just a bit of Charlie’s business.”
    “You mean she would object to his coming here if she knew?”
    “You can safely bet on that.”
    “And now the son knows.”
    “I knew I shouldn’t have asked you to take that letter. I realized it as soon as you’d gone. I thought you would just drop it in.”
    “I was going to, but the maid took me into the drawing room. I thought Charlie would be there and then Roderick came. I’m afraid it was my fault.”
    “Of course it wasn’t. Mine if anyone’s, for sending you. Come. Don’t let’s worry about it. Charlie’s not a child. Nor is this Roderick. He’ll understand.”
    “Understand what?”
    “Oh … he’ll be discreet, that young man. He’ll sum up the situation. I liked him.”
    “I liked him, too,” I said.
    “Trust Charlie to have a nice son. Nice man, Charlie. Pity he had to get hitched up to the high-and-mighty Lady C. Well, perhaps that’s why …”
    “Why?”
    “Why he comes here, love. However, it’s a storm in a teacup. Don’t worry. Roderick will keep his mouth shut and Charlie will get over the shock of seeing his two lives touching each other for a minute or two. And then all will be as it was before.”
    I was beginning to understand, and I was wondering whether it would be as it had been before.
    Roderick Claverham’s visit to the house and the effect it would have on Charlie was soon forgotten, for the first night of Countess Maud was almost upon us. The house was in chaos. There were feverish misgivings, momentous last decisions about changing this and that; there were fierce refusals from Desiree, impassioned appeals from Dolly and noisy reprimands from Martha. Well, we had had it all before.
    And then the night itself. The day that preceded it had been one of especially high tension, when my mother had to be left alone and then suddenly demanded our presence. She was worried. Should she change the bit of business at the end of the first act? Could she try something else at that stage? It was too late, of course. Oh, what a fool she had been not to think of it before. Was the dress she was wearing in the first act too tight, too loose, too revealing or simply plain drab? This was going to be the end of her. Who would want to see her after the flop this was going to be? It was a ridiculous play. Whoever heard of a countess serving behind a counter in a linen draper’s shop!
    “It’s because no one has that it makes a play,” screamed Martha. “It’s a fair play and you are going to make it a great one— that’s if you can put a stop to your tantrums.”
    Dolly strode around striking dramatic poses, his hand to his head appealing to God to