Reluctant Relation (12 page)

It was inevitable, of course, with a child who lived such a curious life, but Meg found her most pathetic then. It was when Pearl sounded like a sophisticated 18 that Meg most wanted to hug her and treat her like a baby.

How I wish I could stay with her indefinitely!
she thought.
At least be part of the pattern of her life. I know what Dick meant when he said I create an oasis of calm and sanity in Felicity's crazy world. It’s nothing very clever, it's just that I’m intensely normal
...
and that’s a novelty in this family.

As though she had been thinking along the same lines, Pearl said suddenly, “You make everything seem simple and undramatic, Meg. You won’t go away from here when I go to school, will you?”

“From this house, do you mean? That depends on your mother my dear. If she doesn’t intend to come back here herself, she would hardly keep the place for me, after you have gone back to school, you know.”

“Then where will you go?” asked Pearl quickly.

“I really don’t know, Pearl. I haven’t worked things out,” Meg admitted. “I suppose I’ll go on from where I left off when I met you. In other words, look for a job to keep me in reasonable comfort.”

“Nothing to do with our family, you mean?”

“Darling, once you’re back at school, my reason for being in this family ceases to exist.”

“
But I’ll see you again, won’t I?”

“Of course! That’s just a question of being friends,” Meg explained soothingly.

“But will you be able to come see us, maybe at the London house, during the holidays?” Pearl insisted.

“Depends on the job,” Meg said, thinking it best not to define too clearly a situation in which it was going to be difficult to see much of the little girl. “Anyway, we don’t have to worry about that just now. We have two or three weeks’ holiday left.”

“I’ll speak to Uncle Dick,” muttered Pearl. “He’ll know what to do. He always knows what to do.”

Meg thought little more of their discussion, until later that evening, when she came from the kitchen into the hall to find Pearl carefully replacing the telephone receiver.

“Why, Pearl dear—” Meg stopped in surprise. “Who telephoned? I didn’t hear the bell.”

There wasn’t any bell,” Pearl explained nonchalantly. “I telephoned.”

“Did you?” Meg looked even more surprised, for she couldn’t think of anyone in Purworth whom Pearl was likely to telephone.

“Yes. I telephoned Uncle Dick.” A faintly defiant expression came over Pearl’s face.

“Just to talk to him, do you mean?”

“Partly to talk to him. And partly to ask him to come and see us soon.”

“Why dear? Have you been getting lonely?”

“No. I just want to ask him something.”

“But
...
Pearl—” Meg noticed how like her mother she was looking, “—couldn’t you have asked him on the phone?”

“No. It’s something that needs talking about,” Pearl explained.

Meg bit her lip. “Your uncle’s a busy man, you know. I don’t think you should have asked him to come all the way from London unless it was important.”

“This was important,” declared Pearl.

“But you’re not going to tell me what it is?” Meg smiled in spite of herself, but Pearl shook her head.

“What did he say?” Meg inquired curiously.

“He said he’d come tomorrow, because it was Sunday and he could get away,” Pearl stated. More than that she wouldn’t disclose.

Meg wondered if she should telephone Dick when Pearl was in bed and assure him that, to the best of her belief, there was nothing that required urgent discussion. But she didn’t feel
justified in interfering, especially because there were several minor matters she herself would be glad to talk over with him.

So she contented herself with looking up the train schedule from London to Newcastle.

In actual fact Dick didn’t arrive until late Sunday afternoon, and then in his own car.

“Why, Dick! Do you mean to say you drove up? You must have started terribly early,” she exclaimed.

“Not really. I spent the night with friends of mine in Hertfordshire, and that saved me an hour or more that it takes to get out of London. Hello, niece-with-a-talent-for-drama—” he swung Pearl up and kissed her “—you get more like your mother every day. And not only in looks. What’s the problem which you think is sufficiently important to bring your poor worn-out old uncle all the way from London?”

“I’ll tell you afterward,” said Pearl, with great composure. “Let’s have tea first.”

“Well ...
it’s an idea,” her uncle conceded.

Meg said quickly, “I’ll get tea. I’m sure Pearl would like to have you to herself for a while.”

She went out into the kitchen and busied herself with preparing the sort of tea a man would want after a long and tiring drive. Since Dick seemed content to have traveled all this way to see them both, she thought little more about the way in which Pearl had got him there.

When she returned to the living-room, pushing a well-laden trolley in front of her, Dick was alone, lounging comfortably in one of the deep arm chairs.

“Where’s Pearl?” Meg inquired.

“Gone to get something that needs signing before she returns to school, I think.”

“Was that what she wanted to see you about?” Meg looked surprised.

“Oh, no.”

“I’m sorry, Dick, if she got you here on a wild-goose chase. She telephoned without my knowing. I’m afraid, and I didn’t feel justified in interfering, once she said you were coming.”

“No, I gathered it was her own idea.”

“Has she told you why she wanted you to come?”

“Oh yes. She wanted to know what I was going to do about your future.”

“About my future?” Meg, who had been setting plates and cups on a nearby table, stopped and stared at him. “Oh, Dick, I am sorry! Of course ... I remember
now ...
she questioned me yesterday, and even muttered something about asking you, because you always knew what to do. But I never thought she would actually fetch you up here to discuss it.”

“I don’t mind. I’m quite willing to discuss it.” He smiled at her in his lazy charming way.

“But—” she laughed protestingly “—don’t be absurd. There’s
nothing for you to discuss. Once Pearl is back at school, my work here will be over and I’ll look for another job.”

“Pearl doesn’t seem to think that’s the solution,” he explained gravely. “And neither do I.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” She refused to take him seriously and went on setting the table.

“Pearl feels ... so do
I...
that, having once been fortunate enough to lure you into our circle, we shouldn’t let you go.”

“But there’s nothing for me to do, Dick, once Pearl goes back to school. I wouldn’t want to have a job created for me. It wouldn’t work, in any case.”

He seemed unimpressed by her arguments. He merely went on smiling calmly. “Her expression was ... though I think she was quoting me, as a matter
of fact ...
that we ought to keep you in the family,” he said.

“It’s very sweet of you. But, however you put it, I’m afraid there’s no practical way of including me in the scheme of things, once Pearl has gone back to school,” Meg said finally. “I wish there was.”

“Ah! Then, in that case, it’s simple,” he declared. “Marry me, Meg, and we’ll keep you in the family.”

“Mar ... Now, don’t be absurd. You told that joke before in Newcastle Station, and I’m not going to .laugh twice at the same joke,” Meg told him.

“
It’s not a joke. It’s a serious proposal.”

“That’s just what it looks like, with you lounging there in an arm chair, grinning at me across the room,” she assured him, and she turned to get some spoons from a drawer behind her.

In one second he was beside her and his arms were around her from behind.

“There’s nothing between us now,” he said, as he kissed the side of her cheek. “I
’m not lounging in a chair, I’m not even smiling ...
much. Now will you marry me?”

CHAPTER
TEN

“
Dick
... please—” She was trembling a little now, for it was impossible to remain unmoved with his arms around her and his lips against her cheek. “If you’re really serious about this—”

“I’m perfectly serious,” he told her.

“Then I can only say—” she nervously put her hands over his, which were lightly clasped, imprisoning her “—that
I ... I
like you enormously. I’m truly flattered that you should want to marry me. But I’m not in love with you.”

“Is that a vital objection?”

“Well, I think it is.”

“You might come to love me later.”

“No, I don’t think so.”

“Am I such an unlovable fellow?”

“No. Quite the contrary. Both you and Felicity are intensely lovable people,” Meg said slowly. “You ought to be loved by the woman you marry, Dick. I’m just not the woman.”

“Suppose I tell you that I know you are the woman for me.”

“Then I must say—” she glanced up at him over her shoulder “—that I know you’re not the man for me.”

“That means there’s someone else.”

“Not necessarily,” she said. But her glance fell.

“I suppose it’s Leigh Sontigan, isn’t it?”

“Oh, Dick ... please don’t put it into words. He never gives me a second thought, I’m sure.”

“But that doesn’t make any difference?”

“No, it doesn’t make any difference.”

“A
ll
right. I accept that for the
moment ...
but not forever.” He turned her quickly in his arms and smiled down at her. “Will you kiss me, just the same, since you say I’m not unlovable?”

“Oh, Dick—” she laughed and put her hands to his handsome face “—you’re such a dear. I only wish—”

But she could find no words for what she really wished, so she kissed him with tenderness and affection instead, and then put him gently aside.

As she did so, she caught her breath on a gasp of dismay for, behind him, Leigh was standing in the open doorway.

The moment was so full of drama and tension that only trivial
words would fill it. As Leigh came into the room, Meg heard herself say, “You’re just in time for tea.”

“Good. I could do with some. It was dusty driving.” He too seemed to be groping among trivialities, in a slightly dazed sort of way.

It was Dick, naturally, who took the situation in his stride.

“Sit down, old man, and don’t look so embarrassed,” he said kindly. “We didn’t expect you to walk in at that moment, but you’re welcome just the same.”

“Thanks,” Leigh replied stiffly. Then Pearl rushed in, bringing with her a more normal atmosphere and a blessed change of subject.

It was over at last, and Leigh got up to go.

“Aren’t you going to stay for supper?” Pearl inquired disappointedly.

“I’m sorry. I can’t, Pearl.”

“Meg will make you something really nice ... the way she did before,” Pearl promised.

But he said, “No!” so sharply that Pearl looked surprised, and Meg suddenly knew exactly what it felt like to wish that the ground would open and swallow you.

She contrived to say goodnight to him quite affably, without either looking at him or touching his hand. And then, to her immense relief and almost equally immense regret, he was gone, and the dreadful scene was over.

While Pearl was still with them there was nothing she could say to Dick, but one thing at least she determined to set right. Putting an arm around Pearl, she said firmly, “Look here, darling, it was nice of you to think that your uncle might settle my future for me, but you’ll just have to leave that to me.
”

“Then what are we going to do?” Pearl inquired.

From the bottom of her heart Meg wanted to say, “I don’t know! I don’t know what on earth I am going to do.”

But the little girl in the circle of her arm wanted reassurance, so Meg said quietly and confidently, “We’re going to do what everyone else does, Pearl. Just deal with things as they come. Don’t worry, sweetheart. Enjoy the nice time we have left during the holidays. Go back to school in the ordinary way. And I promise you that, whatever works out for me, I’ll manage to see you and keep you as one of my best friends. Will that do?”

“Oh, yes.” Pearl was consoled.

Dick stayed for a little while after Pearl had gone to bed, though he had already explained that he would drive back as far as York that night. At first they talked about Pearl rather than themselves, but then, with characteristic candor, he said, “I’m sorry Leigh came in at that point. Do you want me to make any sort of explanation to him?”

“Explanation?” She looked astonished. “What sort of explanation do you suppose one could possibly make?”

“Well,
I mean ...
if you’re so keen on him—” she winced, in spite of herself “—I suppose the last thing you want him to think is that you were kissing some other fellow with feeling.”

“I don’t care what he thinks!” She spoke almost violently.
“I ... I
’d almost rather he read something into that scene if it would make him forget
the ...
other thing he heard.”

“What other thing?” inquired Dick.

“Oh, Dick, you know! He must have heard me say that I
... that I loved someone other than you. And you said, ‘I suppose it’s Leigh Sontigan,’ and I as much as said, ‘Yes.’ ”

And, overcome again by the recollection of that monstrous humiliation, she actually buried her face in her hands.

“Good lord—” she looked up again to see Dick rubbing his chin meditatively “—I never thought of that. But aren’t you agitating yourself unnecessarily? I don’t think he heard that part.”

For a moment she toyed with a glimmer of hope, but then she shook her head dejectedly. “No. You didn’t see how he looked when I first caught sight of him. You had your back to him.”

“How did he look?” Dick wanted to know.

“Appalled,” said Meg unhappily. “Like a man who’d just been faced with a situation he simply couldn’t take.
Oh no ...
he’d heard all right. He just didn’t have time to get away.”

“I’m really sorry.” Dick said. “I feel I’m somehow to blame.”

“You’re not in the least to blame,” Meg assured him warmly. At that moment she felt she had never liked Dick more.

“Well, if there’s nothing I can say to him—”

“Nothing!” she repeated emphatically. “He’ll probably just keep away now. And presently, when he marries Felicity—”

“When’s he going to marry Felicity?” inquired Dick, sitting up in his chair.

“Oh, I don’t know. But that’s what will happen eventually.
”

“All right, then. She’ll marry Leigh. And what about you, Meg?”

“What about me?”

“Don’t you know what most sensible girls do if the man they most want is out of their reach? They make themselves happy with the second best. And that’s me.”

“There’s nothing second best about you,” Meg said rather indignantly. “You’ll be someone’s first best one
day ...
and that’s what you deserve.”

“Couldn’t you leave that to me to decide, sweetheart?” He smiled as he got up to go. And then, without waiting for her to reply, he went on, “I know, you’re feeling too hurt and harassed to make any decision just now, and I’m not pressing for one. But think it over. And remember ... in the rather touching words of
my niece ...
‘Uncle Dick usually knows the answer.’ ”

She laughed reluctantly, and somehow felt a little better.

The next morning there was another letter from Felicity, and a brightly colored postcard for Pearl.

Once more, Felicity’s letter was light-hearted and amusing, but this time she wrote much more about Max.

She referred only passingly to Leigh and, reading eagerly between the lines, Meg thought she detected a breath of that sweetly brutal indifference which Felicity displayed toward almost everyone when her interest waned.

“I expect it’s wishful thinking on my part,” Meg told herself. “And anyway, what does it matter to me, one way or the other?”

Of course it did matter to her. For hope is the most indestructible emotion in any heart, and she could not help being faintly cheered (though guiltily so) by the thought that Felicity’s interest might once more be veering from Leigh to Max Trenton.

Only when she thought of Laura Trenton did she feel badly, but she couldn’t alter the situation between Felicity and Max one way or the other.

All the same, she was glad Laura did not live in the village and that she was not likely to run into her until something definite had been decided.

Therefore, Meg was put out to see Laura’s car pull up at the gate one afternoon. Laura, catching sight of her at the window, beckoned energetically. Meg ran out to greet her visitor.

“My dear, I can’t stop,” Laura called, as soon as Meg came within hearing distance. “I’m on my way to Newcastle. But I simply had to tell you. I’m going to meet Max.”

“To meet ...
Max?” Meg stared at the happy face which beamed at her from the open car window. “But I thought he was in Spain.”

“He’s come home. There’s been some sort of bust-up with Felicity ... and he’s coming home.”

“With Felicity? Is she coming home too?” inquired Meg quickly.

“I don’t know.” It was obvious that Laura didn’t care either. “But Max is coming. He sent me a ridiculously long, expensive cable, saying I should meet him at the barrier at Newcastle Central, or it just wouldn’t feel like coming home. I always used to meet him ... in his college days. I didn’t think he remembered. Oh, I have to go or I’ll be late. But I had to stop and tell you. I knew you’d be interested.”

“Yes,” Meg said. “Of course. I’m ... terribly interested.” Then Laura drove off and Meg was left staring after the car.