Tall Poppies Read Online Free PDF

Bessie?’
    ‘No,’ replied Elizabeth coldly.
    ‘You’re wasted at school. Really, you know. You’re very pretty. Ever thought about gettin’ hitched?’
    Elizabeth withdrew as far as the waltz allowed her, but was caught by David’s plump arm squeezing her waist.
    ‘Definitely not. I’m only sixteen, I haven’t even been to college yet.’
    The duke looked nervous but tried again. ‘What does a pretty girlie like you want to bother with college for? Bet your ma and pa wouldn’t mind;’
    ‘I wouldn’t dream of it,’ said Elizabeth sharply.
    ‘Anyway, I’ve got a boyfriend. Joe Sharp in the village.’ ‘Sharp? Never heard of him.’
    ‘You wouldn’t.’ Elizabeth grinned again, picturing Joe, stained overalls, swearing, muscular, the forbidden taste of cigarettes in his mouth when she kissed him. ‘He’s an attendant at the garage, he goes to St Joseph’s school.’
     
    z7
     
    ‘Ha ha,’ Fairfax chuckled, annoyingly, ‘don’t be ridiculous?
    Suddenly he caught her to him as they whirled in time with the Strauss, thrusting his face into her neck and kissing it. Revolted, Elizabeth braced herself and shoved him away.
    ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing? Get off me!’ She was a strong girl. Fairfax tripped and fell sprawling, and there was an agonising crack as his head hit the flagstone floor.
    Around them couples stopped dancing to stare. The string quartet faltered in its playing for a second because of the commotion at the centre of the ballroom. It struck up again as the countess made frantic motions to continue, but David Fairfax lay crashed out on the polished marble, groaning in agony. Blood was seeping out of one cheek.
    There was a stunned silence amongst the assembled guests.
     
    l’.eaning back against the tree trunk, Elizabeth winced at the memory. Her father’s face had set like granite and the ball had started breaking up as of that moment. Suddenly all the tycoons remembered important breakfast meetings and the socialites developed headaches, as the guests made polite excuses to their hosts and scurried away. David, helped to his feet by the onlookers, gave Elizabeth an embarrassed nod and hobbled towards the door. It had taken barely half an hour for the piles of fur coats and cashmere shawls to disappear from the cloakroom, and once the last guest had hastened outside the earl sent his daughter to her room, the quiet menace in his voice worse than any shouting fit.
    Neither last night nor this morning had Tony wanted to hear her explanation. As far as her parents were concerned she was simply a disgrace.
    z8
     
    Elizabeth sat under the mossy trunk of an apple tree, biting into the crisp, smoky flesh of a windfall. She loved it out in the orchard: the dry-stone walls covered with bindweed and ivy, the warm scent of mown grass, the tiny white moths that fluttered around her like scraps of lace. They kept pear, apple and plum trees, and if you didn’t mind the wasps that gathered greedily around all the ripe fruit, the orchards were a glorious place to get lost in. Elizabeth discovered them as a child, to her parents’ dismay. She liked nothing better than shinning up the ancient, gnarly trunks, finding a nook to sit in, and hiding there all afternoon, while the stable-hands combed the grounds calling for her.
    Maybe that was the start of my rebel streak, she thought ruefully. It had been so exciting, clambering up a tangle of branches and leaves like a squirrel. If she got high enough, she could see over the orchard walls, to the red-roofed stables and the manicured green of the croquet lawn, and even past the bounds of the estate, to the clifftops and the silver glitter of the sea. She would trek back up to the castle around teatime, with grazed knees and torn stockings, leaving mud and leaves all over the kitchen flagstones, and be marched off to bed without supper.
    Elizabeth smiled. Sixteen years old, and she was still in trouble.
    Even the servants had been