Dorothy Eden Read Online Free PDF

warnings, are you?’ Alice said, suddenly light-hearted. It was amazing how daylight and sunshine dispelled the sinister air of the place. The clear mountain air made her want to sing with Webster and the wood-pigeons, and the chirping coquettish fantail. What a pity Camilla wasn’t here to enjoy it. But Camilla had caught a plane somewhere, which to her would be much more exciting. How irritatingly mysterious she had chosen to be! Even a week ago, when she had written that note of welcome, she had made no suggestion of this dramatic development. But a week ago she couldn’t have known of it, Alice thought slowly. Because she had been writing D is so impetuous.
    Whom had she married, and who so suddenly?
    ‘Lend it to me!’ Webster said suddenly, in the small eerie voice that was such a caricature of his lovely liquid singing notes. He strutted down the path, peering at the ground with his head on one side, muttering absorbedly, ‘Lend it to me!’ He was small and restless, like someone’s conscience, Alice thought. Who had been reiterating to Camilla ‘Lend it to me!’ often enough for Webster to pick up the words?
    And what did Camilla, who, for all her rather miserly efforts to accumulate money, had always been poor, have to lend?
    Suddenly, with utter certainty, she knew it was fantastically unlikely that Camilla should have gone off secretly to get married.
    A figure on a bicycle had suddenly appeared at the turn in the road. It was a girl pedalling vigorously. She was short and stout and dressed in slacks and an old blue jersey. There was a milk billy hanging on the handles of her bicycle.
    ‘What oh!’ she called to Alice. ‘There was no one here when I called yesterday so I didn’t leave any milk. Where’s Miss Mason?’
    ‘She’s not here,’ Alice said rather foolishly. The girl had a round, cheerful, freckled face and inquisitive eyes. She looked a precocious fifteen with a liking for scandal. Nevertheless, her face was friendly and good-natured.
    ‘That’s a pity. I’ve got a note for her. From Him.’
    She handed Alice the envelope while Alice’s brain whirled. Surely this was not another man. It was too much!
    ‘When will she be back?’ the girl pursued.
    ‘I don’t quite know. Maybe not at all. But if you bring the milk I’d better have some. I’m staying here.’
    The girl’s eyes popped.
    ‘Why, what goes on? Has Miss Mason left? Are you the new teacher or something?’
    ‘No, I’m not the new teacher. I’ve merely come to visit Camilla, but she seems to have gone off and got herself married.’
    ‘Whew!’ The girl let out a low whistle. ‘What’s He say?’ The word was still spoken with emphasis.
    ‘Hadn’t you better explain?’ Alice suggested.
    The girl leaned on her bicycle and prepared, with enjoyment, to make her explanation.
    ‘I’m Tottie. I work up at the farm for Mr. Dalton Thorpe and his sister.’ (Dalton! Another D. Was he the impetuous one?) ‘He’s ever so handsome,’ Tottie went on. ‘She’s nice, too. She was fond of Miss Mason. Often had her up there reading to her and so on. She doesn’t see many people. I think she was hoping her brother would marry Miss Mason, and sure enough it looked that way. Any girl’d be crazy about him, and then there were things he gave her.’
    ‘What did he give her?’ Alice asked, despising herself for gossiping with the milk girl, but feeling instinctively the thing was too important to ignore.
    Tottie looked sly.
    ‘It’s not for me to tell things like that. Anyway, I’ve only got my suspicions. But there were hints enough. My, who was it she did marry in the end? Not that new bus-driver who’s been hanging around?’
    Alice found herself suddenly disliking Tottie’s familiarity.
    ‘Of course it wasn’t,’ she said tartly. ‘It wasn’t anyone here as far as I know.’
    ‘Gosh! She was a bit of a goer, wasn’t she? That is going to knock Mr. Thorpe. He’d really fallen for her, I’d say. My,’