Sister of the Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

wasn’t too complimentary. He hates Vance like poison.’
    ‘But why?’ I asked, puzzled. It seemed strange that Bob Pritchard with his placid equable ways should take a dislike to another person without a good reason.
    ‘Oh, who knows? Perhaps because Vance is rich and important and he isn’t. And then,’ she added slowly, ‘there’s probably another very good reason why there’s no love lost between them—’ She stopped abruptly as though she had been on the point of revealing more than she meant to and with a shrug returned to the mirror. ’
    ‘From what I gathered Vance Ashmore doesn’t appear to be a particularly attractive character,’ I remarked.
    ‘Oh, indeed!’ Averil applied lipstick and examined the results critically in the mirror. ‘And what gave you that impression?’
    ‘Well, Bob Pritchard described him as arrogant and overbearing—’
    ‘Really, must you take everything Bob says as infallible? I’ve already told you he’s envious of Vance. But in a way it’s true of Vance: he has a certain arrogance. But then why not? He’s master of all he surveys. I’ve no time for people like Bob, easygoing and unambitious: the woman who marries him will wind up in that ghastly red-brick house and be the wife of a struggling G.P. until the end of her life.’ The picture would be quite different for the woman who married Vance Ashmore, I thought, and wondered what exactly was the relationship between the master of Ashmore and his tenant.
    ‘And don’t put on that prissy, censorious air,’ Averil said irritably. ‘It was perfectly natural that Vance should offer me the cottage: after all, he owed it to Clive. He worked himself to the bone for Ashmore Shipping and if he hadn’t been sent on that trip to the Persian Gulf I wouldn’t have been in the position of having to accept charity from Vance.’
    ‘But you’ve always hated the country: couldn’t you have taken a job and stayed in town?’
    Averil got abrupt l y to her feet. ‘Really, why this interest in my welfare?’ she asked angrily. ‘And anyway, suppose I am interested in Vance, what about it? You don’t expect me to remain a sorrowing widow to the end of my days. It’s the sort of role, I suppose, that you’d like to see me in: it would satisfy that sentimental heart of yours to imagine my heart was in the grave with Clive. Well, for your information, my marriage was a mistake in the first place. Oh, Clive was handsome and dashing-looking, but it was only a front. It was too late when I discovered that he was only an other Bob Pritchard, content to slog along in the same old rut.’
    ‘Then you find Vance Ashmore more your type of man?’ I asked dryly.
    ‘Let’s say I’ve a feeling that absence might make the heart grow fonder: that’s why I jumped at Sheila’s offer in the first place. I’ve a feeling that by the time I return from the sunny Caribbean Vance will have come up to scratch. Not, of course, that I’d turn up my nose at a little dalliance under the tropical moon, but what I feel for Vance is a different matter. Vance can offer me all the things I’ve ever wanted out of life. I’m sick of scrimping and saving. I’ll send Rodney to a really decent school, not that seedy little preparatory school he goes to now. I’ll have decent clothes and a place in London. In fact, Vance is the type of man I should have married in the first place.’
    ‘ What about Mrs. Ashmore? According to Bob Pritchard she ’ s a bit of a dragon: she may have different ideas .’
    She slipped into a light travelling coat before answering. ‘Yes, the present mistress of Ashmore is rather a harridan: she dresses as though she were twenty years younger and loads herself down with masses of jewellery. She sees herself as the leading social fight in these parts and has her finger in all the local affairs. I’m not foolish enough to cross swords with her, for I know I wouldn’t stand a chance. After all, I’m only the tenant of