Air Ticket by Susan Barrie Read Free Book Online Page B

mine.”
    Lucien came up behind her.
    “I’m sorry about the oversight, Caro. I should have put that photograph away before I left.”
    “Oh, that’s quite all right,” she answered, staring out of the window at the chestnut trees. “She was very ... beautiful, wasn’t she?”
    “Very,” he agreed.
    “You don’t have to put it away if you don’t want to,” she found herself saying with curious stiltedness after a silence of nearly a minute.
    He turned around and looked at her.
    “Don’t be silly,” he said, and then he walked into his dressing room.
    Some little while later he returned. She had slipped into a white candlewick dressing gown, and as she was one of the few people whom white seems to etherealize and to render eternally youthful, Lucien stood looking at her from the doorway with undisguised admiration on his face. Then, as she glanced up and smiled at him, he moved to her and took her gently into his arms.
    “Darling,” he said softly, his lips moving against her hair, “I’m afraid I’ve got to leave you alone on your first evening in your new home. Will you mind very much? It’s a very dull dinner—entirely masculine—that I’d forgotten all about, but which, if possible, I really ought to attend. Fraulein Neiger reminded me of it just now.”
    “Then of course you must go,” she said, looking up at him with her quick smile. “I wouldn’t dream of preventing you.”
    “And you won’t feel very dull left alone here? What will you do?”
    She glanced around her at the clothes that remained to be unpacked and hung up neatly in the wardrobe, and she had her answer at once.
    “I’ll finish my unpacking in a very leisurely way, and perhaps Frau Bauer will let me have some dinner up here on a tray, and then I can have an even more leisurely bath and go to bed early with a book.”
    “And before that you can read this,” he said, and produced an envelope from his pocket. It contained a special-delivery letter written with the exuberance that was typical of Beverley:
    Darling mummy: David and I both send our love and congratulations. Delighted for you bu t very very surprised. Can’t imagine what my new stepfather is like, but dying to meet him. We will break our journey in Oberlaken and stay with you for a few days if convenient. If not we will go to a hotel. Expect to be with you about the 25th. Much love.
    Beverley
    “Oh!” Caro exclaimed. And then her lower lip trembled. “They’re ... coming! I’m so pleased!”
    “Are you? Well, don’t cry!” His eyes smiled at her teasingly, but he carefully wiped away the first tear that started rolling down her cheek. “It shouldn’t be necessary to shed tears over your one ewe lamb, especially as you’ll be seeing her again quite soon.”
    “Yes. It’s just that I ... I’m very pleased to have heard from her.” She looked up at him shyly. “Will they—will they be able to stay here, Lucien?”
    “Of course,” he answered. “This is your own house now, and we’ve plenty of room.”
    “And you won’t ... mind?”
    “Mind? Why should I?” Her lifted her chin and gazed at her. “Of course I don’t mind, you silly little sweet, but I don’t like to see you cry. And remember that although you’re Beverley’s mother you’re my wife now, as well.” He kissed her hard on the mouth. “Understand?”
    “Of course.”
    “Then that’s all right.”
    When he had left the house she felt that it settled down to an additional quietness, and as soon as she had had her bath she went to bed. Lucien had asked her not to keep awake for him, and although she felt strange and extraordinarily bereft without him she hoped she w ould fall asleep soon.
    And then she thought of the photograph in the drawer in the next room—the photograph of Lucien’s first wife, Barbara. She said the name over to herself softly as she lay in bed. Barbara Andreas. And then she said the name she had so recently acquired. Caro Andreas. The beauty of the