The Silent Pool Read Online Free PDF Page A

as obstinate as the devil – she probably wouldn’t come.’ A bright tear splashed down upon the diamond brooch. ‘I shall just have to cable out to Jimmy and say he must let someone else have the part. It was absolutely written for me, and he’ll give it to that frightful Jean Pomeroy. She’ll ruin it of course, but it can’t be helped. Stella must come first!’
    ‘My dear, you are just being theatrical.’
    Star gazed at her, more in sorrow than in anger. Her colour had faded. She produced a small handkerchief and brushed it across her eyes.
    ‘Of course you wouldn’t understand. I can’t expect you to – you’ve never had a child.’
    An unbecoming flush showed that the thrust had told. The little mournful voice went on.
    ‘No – that is what it will have to be. Jimmy will be furious. He has said all along that there wasn’t anyone else who would be right. It’s just me! But I always have put Stella first, and I always will. I can’t and I won’t leave her unless – unless—’ The handkerchief dropped. Her colour flowed back. She clasped her hands and said with leaping enthusiasm, ‘I’ve got an idea!’
    Edna was prepared for anything.
    ‘You can’t take her with you—’
    ‘I shouldn’t dream of it! Of course it would be fun – oh, wouldn’t it! But I shouldn’t think of it for a moment! No, what I have thought about is Janet!’
    ‘Janet?’
    Really Star was too difficult to follow. She jumped from one thing to another and expected you to know what it was all about.
    ‘Janet Johnstone,’ said Star. ‘She was the minister’s daughter at Darnach – that place where I used to go and stay with the Rutherford relations. Ninian and I used to see a lot of her. Stella would love her. And I shouldn’t have a single moment’s worry – you couldn’t with Janet. Dependable, you know, without being stuffy. You hardly ever get it, do you? But Janet isn’t – not the very least bit. She would be perfect.’
    Edna stared.
    ‘Is she a children’s nurse?’
    ‘No, of course she isn’t! She’s Hugo Mortimer’s secretary. You know – the man who wrote Ecstasy and White Hell. And he’s gone off on a three months’ holiday, shooting, or fishing, or something, so she’ll be on her own, and she could quite easily come down here for Nanny’s fortnight, and I could go off without a care in the world.’
    ‘But, Star—’
    Star jumped down from the arm of the big chair. She was as light and graceful as a kitten.
    ‘There aren’t any buts! I’ll go and ring her up at once!’
    Chapter Five
    Janet lifted the receiver. Star Somers’ charming voice came to her.
    ‘Darling, is that you?’
    ‘It used to be.’
    ‘How do you mean, it used to be?’
    ‘Everything has been rather intensive. We worked up to the last minute – I’ve been a machine. But it’s over. He went off on Tuesday.’
    ‘How grim! You want a holiday.’
    ‘I do.’
    Inwardly Janet reflected that since Hugo had rushed off at the last moment without signing the cheque for her salary, a holiday was not going to be so easy to achieve. She had laid it out before him, she had handed him his fountain pen, and the telephone-bell had rung. It was while she was answering it that Hugo had blown her a kiss and rushed for his train, leaving the cheque right in the middle of his writing-pad without a signature. She had written to him of course, but whether he would ever get the letter was quite another thing. If he made a plan it would not be with any set intention of carrying it out, but merely to have something from which he could break away. The stimulus of the unexpected! It wasn’t always very convenient for other people. It wasn’t being at all convenient for Janet Johnstone. She heard Star say,
    ‘Darling, you can have a marvellous holiday this minute! You haven’t fixed anything up, have you? You told me you hadn’t just before Hugo went.’
    ‘No, I haven’t had time.’
    ‘Then that’s perfect! You can come