A Dark and Distant Shore by Reay Tannahill Read Free Book Online Page A

about it? I know everything about it. Everything. Far more than you ever will, if you live to be a hundred. You’ll never be anything but a Sassenach. You don’t even know what that means, do you! It means an Englishman, a stranger, a foreigner. But I know. I know because I belong there. It’s my home. It’s mine !’
    Her voice broke down completely into gasping, agonized sobs that seemed to rack her whole body. Luke could see the tears pouring, like snow water, down her cheeks, and her throat muscles standing out like cords with the effort she was making to control herself. Anguish was something that had never intruded into his well-ordered life before. He had no idea what to say or do.
    When his mother returned a few minutes later, bearing the pretty silk shawl she had bought for Vilia, she found the two of them still sitting where she had left them. Luke had stayed, rigid with anger and apprehension, because he felt obscurely that he ought to; Vilia because there was nowhere else she could go. She didn’t even know yet where her room was.

Chapter Two
1
    ‘I really am dreadfully afraid,’ Lucy Telfer said guilelessly, ‘that Luke is going out of his way to be objectionable to poor Vilia.’
    Magnus, who had been succeeding tolerably well in ignoring the atmosphere in the house for the last three months, kept his eyes firmly fixed on the Morning Chronicle. Recognizing, however, that a reply was expected of him, he murmured, ‘Not very good at it, I shouldn’t think.’
    ‘Oh, but he is, very good indeed. He seems to have a real, natural talent for it.’ If Lucy had not been the sweetest and mildest of women, she might have added, ‘I can’t imagine who he gets it from.’ Magnus, though in general a model of politeness, could take a very arbitrary tone when roused. Thoughtfully, she went on, ‘I believe he regards it almost as a kind of game. Once he discovered he could break down that rather trying reserve of hers – my dear, if only she would snap, or even sulk, everything would be so much easier! – he couldn’t resist going on. I don’t think he wants to provoke another storm, but I do think he may be experimenting to see how far he can go, short of it. It’s a new experience for him, you see, having someone of his own age group to quarrel with. Not that she quarrels back, of course. But he will harp on the fact that Kinveil is going to be his one day...’
    Magnus looked up at that, and his wife smiled mischievously. ‘Not for years and years and years, of course! But one can almost see her holding her tongue, and because she is so good, he is becoming quite intractable. Frustration, of course. I’ve told him he is being very unkind – quite cruel, in fact – but it makes no difference.’
    His momentary interest dying, Magnus dropped his eyes to the newspaper again. ‘Jealous,’ he said briefly. ‘Doesn’t like having to share his parents with a stranger.’
    It was something Lucy had recognized within a week of Vilia’s arrival, and she was pleased that Magnus had reached the same conclusion, even if it had taken a good deal of prompting. ‘How clever of you! I’m sure you’re right,’ she exclaimed. ‘But what’s to be done?’
    ‘He’ll grow out of it.’
    Lucy sighed. ‘Do you think so?’
    Magnus turned a page. ‘All this,’ he said, straightening the fold noisily, ‘must be tiring you dreadfully. I wish I could relieve you of some of the burden.’
    His wife, perfectly capable of distinguishing between a statement of goodwill and a declaration of intent, smiled at him gratefully. ‘It’s not a burden, my love. How could it be? Though I confess I should like a rest from it all. And do you know, I think the time may have come to find a tutor for Luke, so that he would feel there is someone on whom he can rely for undivided attention.’
    ‘A tutor? Well, we’re agreed he shouldn’t go to school, certainly.’
    ‘Indeed, no. Such nasty, rough places.’
    ‘Yes.’