The Lazarus Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page B

it had been an extremely successful venture. Eloise and Clarissa had managed the house with great efficiently, cared lovingly for him, the fatherless child, and seemed to be devoted to one another. In fact, the whole household seemed to run happily with no hint of any past tensions. If, at times, there was an air of sadness about the two women, Max accepted that this was because his father had died, Eloise had lost her son and Clarissa, her husband. He was aware that Charles and Alexander had also fought in the war resulting in Charles walking with a permanent limp and obviously Alexander too had suffered, but there was little talk of what had actually happened to him.
    They were a close family but none of the four adults made any attempt to have outside friendships and as a happy child with copious amounts of love and attention it was something that Max never thought to question. He knew nothing of the ties that bound them irrevocably together, of the devastation that had threatened to tear them apart when his father was killed or of the pact they had made to stay together and protect him.
    Even in such isolation Max found nothing sad about his childhood home. Charles had schooled him in the gentlemanly pursuit of cricket and Alexander even taught him to box, much to the dismay of his grandmother and mother. His grandmother was French and probably his favourite person. They spent long hours together speaking in French and English as she told him stories of her wonderful, adventurous husband Xavier Darrington who had drowned in the sea while training to swim the English Channel and whom she said looked exactly like Max with the same dark red hair and dark blue eyes.
    Eloise seemed to come alive when she spoke of Xavier whom she had married just two weeks after meeting him in Paris and for whom Max was named.
    Max was eleven when Charles brought home a fun-loving young woman called Barbara Denby and he overheard whispered conversations as to whether or not the two would marry. Max idolised Barbara who played cricket with him and cheated outrageously, rode a bicycle with him perched precariously on the handlebars and laughed loudly and often; she taught him to do the Charleston and was the antithesis of his conservative grandmother and mother.
    Quite suddenly everything changed and without any explanation Barbara never came to the house again. Charles was quiet and sad and other adults whispered with concern as to what they might do to help but eventually life went back to the way it had always been and Barbara was not spoken of. For once Max was not the focus of attention and no-one was aware of the effect Barbara’s departure had on him but he was mystified and heartbroken; she was the first person outside the family he had loved and she left without even saying goodbye to him.
    Some years later Eloise died suddenly on the same day that Max received word that he had won a place at Oxford University. They were all devastated at the loss of the tiny but indomitable woman who had been the mother of the family and although Max felt guilty about his feelings, he was relieved when it came time for him to leave; he was finding the intense suffering of his mother and uncles unbearable. He too was grieving for his grandmother, but they seemed to have mentally moved into a tight huddle that refused to release them or indeed allow him in.
    The news that they were selling up the London house surprised Max but when he travelled to Oak Hathern for the odd weekend or end of term he noticed great changes in them all. The threatened war had started and having been awarded a Government contract, Charles and Alexander were working long hours to establish the new haulage company they had bought in Southampton. Clarissa looked stronger and younger than she had in London and was taking great pleasure in organizing the interior decoration of Top Cottage. He could sense was no longer the focus of their lives and was grateful to be free of the