Taken at the Flood Read Online Free PDF

too matter-of-fact.
    “My dear,” she said gently, “do tell me. I can't go on guessing.”
    Cloade said stiffly, “We went through rather a bad crisis two years ago. Young Williams, you remember, absconded. We had some difficulty getting straight again. Then there were certain complications arising out of the position in the Far East after Singapore -”
    She interrupted him.
    “Never mind the whys - they are so unimportant. You were in a jam. And you haven't been able to snap out of it?”
    He said, “I relied on Gordon. Gordon would have put things straight.”
    She gave a quick impatient sigh.
    “Of course. I don't want to blame the poor man - after all, it's only human nature to lose your head about a pretty woman. And why on earth shouldn't he marry again if he wanted to? But it was unfortunate his being killed in that air raid before he'd settled anything or made a proper will or adjusted his affairs. The truth is that one never believes for a minute, no matter what danger you're in, that you yourself are going to be killed. The bomb is always going to hit the other person!”
    “Apart from his loss, and I was very fond of Gordon - and proud of him too,” said Gordon Cloade's elder brother, “his death was a catastrophe for me. It came at a moment -”
    He stopped.
    “Shall we be bankrupt?” Frances asked with intelligent interest.
    Jeremy Cloade looked at her almost despairingly. Though she did not realise it, he could have coped much better with tears and alarm. This cool detached practical interest defeated him utterly.
    He said harshly, “It's a good deal worse than that...”
    He watched her as she sat quite still, thinking over that. He said to himself, “In another minute I shall have to tell her. She'll know what I am... She'll have to know. Perhaps she won't believe it at first.”
    Frances Cloade sighed and sat up straight in her big armchair.
    “I see,” she said. “Embezzlement. Or if that isn't the right word, that kind of thing... Like young Williams.”
    “Yes, but this time - you don't understand - I'm responsible. I've used trust funds that were committed to my charge. So far, I've covered my tracks -”
    “But now it's all going to come out?”
    “Unless I can get the necessary money - quickly.”
    The shame he felt was the worst he had known in his life. How would she take it?
    At the moment she was taking it very calmly. But then, he thought, Frances would never make a scene. Never reproach or upbraid.
    Her hand to her cheek, she was frowning.
    “It's so stupid,” she said, “that I haven't got any money of my own at all... ”
    He said stiffly, “There is your marriage settlement, but -”
    She said absently, “But I suppose that's gone too.”
    He was silent. Then he said with difficulty, in his dry voice: “I'm sorry, Frances. More sorry than I can say. You made a bad bargain.”
    She looked up sharply.
    “You said that before. What do you mean by that?”
    Jeremy said stiffly:
    “When you were good enough to marry me, you had the right to expect - well, integrity - and a life free from sordid anxieties.”
    She was looking at him with complete astonishment.
    “Really, Jeremy! What on earth do you think I married you for?”
    He smiled slightly.
    “You have always been a most loyal and devoted wife, my dear. But I can hardly natter myself that you would have accepted me in - er - different circumstances.”
    She stared at him and suddenly burst out laughing.
    “You funny old stick! What a wonderful novelettish mind you must have behind that legal facade! Do you really think that I married you as the price of saving Father from the wolves - or the Stewards of the Jockey Club, et cetera?”
    “You were very fond of your father, Frances.”
    “I was devoted to Daddy! He was terribly attractive and the greatest fun to live with! But I always knew he was a bad hat. And if you think that I'd sell myself to the family solicitor in order to save him from getting what was