The Runaway Visitors Read Online Free PDF

place.’
    ‘But not you,’ he said.
    ‘I didn’t say that,’ she pointed out. ‘I hope to learn Italian. I hope to discover the treasure trove in Florence.’
    He recognised the allusion. He repeated his words of the morning. ‘I would be happy to give you some advice myself,’ and she repeated her answer: ‘I should never presume to take up your time.’
    Sebastien was quick to recognise that there was an undercurrent although he did not know what it was. He looked quickly from one to the other, thinking it was a pity if they weren’t going to like each other.
    Charles thought she really was an iceberg. She had not wanted to come. Perhaps she had left a young man behind in England, and resented being here. Well, that was between her and her parents—it had nothing to do with him.
    Miss Jameson served them with an excellent lunch. The formality of it was almost too much for Amanda, who had started by thinking it all beautiful and glamorous, and now was beginning to be slightly oppressed and then depressed. Victoria suspected that Miss Jameson was deliberately overdoing it— perhaps to annoy Mr. Duncan, perhaps to embarrass themselves. She thought they would all be infinitely more comfortable if he had his meal in the studio when he wanted it, and they took theirs on the terrace.
    Next day, he was again late for lunch. They waited in the dining room for him, and at last Miss Jameson served them without him, and he came rushing in, apologising, saying he had forgotten the time, he was starting an important new piece of work. Victoria suggested they should lunch separately. ‘After all, Mr. Duncan, you don’t want to be burdened with a group of young people, and we don’t want to interfere with your work.’ And these were so exactly the sentiments he had expressed, in slightly different words, that he looked sharply at her.
    The following day, however, it rained; and it was impossible for the Fenn family to eat on the terrace, so once more they ate in the imposing dining room. After which, Victoria went to see Miss Jameson.
    ‘Miss Jameson,’ she said, without preamble, ‘we have no wish to be more of a burden to you than we can help. There’s no need to use the dining room for our meals. If we can’t eat on the terrace, we can use Sebastien’s room. It was a sitting room before we came and has a table and chairs for eating. We’ll use that, and leave Mr. Duncan free. ’
    ‘Very well.’
    ‘And I’ll bring back our dishes and wash them up. I’ll also keep our own rooms clean. ’
    ‘That’s not suitable,’ said Miss Jameson sharply.
    ‘Why not? I do it at home, I can do it here. I’m used to keeping house. ’
    ‘Then what does your mother do?’
    ‘When she’s at home, she keeps house; but she’s far more likely to be at meetings and discussions, or working in her study, or lunching with important people or speaking on radio or appearing on television. She happens to have a career.’
    ‘And three children,’ sharply.
    ‘As you said yourself, Miss Jameson, we’re hardly children, unless you except Amanda. And except for Amanda,’ she added on impulse, ‘we probably wouldn’t be here.’ Then she regretted that statement, and added: ‘Then it’s arranged, is it?’
    ‘Just as you wish,’ said Miss Jameson, and Victoria thought that she was not pleased at having a legitimate grievance taken away from her.
    So they had partly cut themselves off from Charles, and Victoria thought: ‘Well, now he can’t say that he’s lumbered with us at lunch every day; and nor will “this lot” interfere with his work.’ She knew already that he had resented her parents’ casual demands on him at first, and was determined to give him no more cause for resentment.
    All the same, all three of them felt a little lonely. It was, as Sebastien had said, that they had each other but nobody else. He missed his friends, the easy come-and-go between them, the sport they indulged in, all the preparations