Debutantes by Cora Harrison Read Free Book Online Page A

how sweet! Look, it says P OPPY A GED O NE M ONTH . What a dear little girl. Beautiful Baby Grows Up to Be Ugly Duckling! ’
    ‘Just Poppy? Where am I?’ wondered Daisy.
    ‘Perhaps you were camera-shy,’ suggested Rose.
    ‘I can’t believe it,’ muttered Violet. ‘Everything always goes wrong. We can’t use any of these – they’ll probably fall apart on the dance floor.’
    She got up and wandered irritably around the attic and then stopped beside a trunk labelled L ORD R OBERT D ERRINGTON . ‘Perhaps we could make it a fancy dress party,’ she said. ‘This will have his uniform from the Boer War. Father’s probably got his Indian Army stuff somewhere as well.’
    Daisy thought of her father’s fury if they meddled with his uniforms. ‘Wouldn’t suit you,’ she said hastily. ‘You’re not one of those girls that look good in men’s clothing. You’re the Lady of Shalott type.’
    ‘Here you are, Daisy,’ said Poppy, who had now got hold of the photograph album. ‘Here we are, both of us: “P OPPY AND D AISY ON BOARD SHIP ”. This must have been going back to England after the news came about grandfather’s death.’
    ‘You look more advanced than I do,’ said Daisy, peering over her shoulder. ‘I seem to be all floppy-headed and you’re holding your head up and looking all around you.’
    ‘L ADY E LAINE C ARRUTHERS ,’ read Rose, who had been kicking noisily at a jammed cupboard door in another room of the attic and had just managed to get it open. And then she repeated in excited tones: ‘Elaine Carruthers! Come quick, everyone – I’ve found another trunk in this cupboard. Who’s Lady Elaine Carruthers?’
    There was a clatter of feet as her sisters followed her, Daisy hastily replacing the photograph album.
    ‘Carruthers? But that’s Great-Aunt Lizzie’s name.’
    ‘And Mother’s – she was Great-Aunt Lizzie’s niece.’
    ‘This Elaine must have been related to Mother.’
    ‘Wonder what her clothes are like?’
    ‘I seem to remember,’ said Daisy, ‘that when Father was talking once to Great-Aunt about the entail and how Dastardly Denis would get the lot because the estate is entailed to a male, she sniffed and said: “Nothing like that in our family – the two girls inherited everything! No nonsense about having to have a brother.”’
    ‘So perhaps Elaine was Mother’s sister,’ said Poppy.
    ‘But why haven’t we heard anything about her? Why the secret? Perhaps she murdered someone and died on the scaffold.’ Rose was enraptured.
    ‘Probably she and Great-Aunt Lizzie had a quarrel. You know what she’s like.’ Daisy pulled at the upended trunk, pushing it around so that the handle could be found.
    ‘Bet she had some good clothes – Mother’s family were very rich. I think, from something that Great-Aunt Lizzie said, that was how Father financed the diamond mine out in India,’ said Violet happily. ‘Wonder if Elaine looked like me? After all, if she was Mother’s sister she would have been our aunt.’
    ‘Do you know, this is the funny thing,’ said Daisy. ‘I don’t think that I’ve seen a photograph of her. I must have a look in the gallery.’
    ‘It’s locked; the trunk is locked,’ announced Rose, holding a stout padlock in her hand and then letting it fall. The sisters looked at each other.
    ‘Well,’ said Daisy, ‘Great-Aunt Lizzie did say that we could use anything from the attic. Poppy, see if you can find Morgan.’
    Poppy was gone almost before the last word fell from Daisy’s lips. The remaining three girls looked carefully at the label on the trunk. ‘That’s Mrs Pearson’s handwriting,’ said Violet after a moment. ‘I know the way that she makes a “E”. I’ve seen it often enough on the pots of elderberry jam.’
    ‘Perhaps Elaine Carruthers went out to India with Mother and Father. Mrs Pearson must have packed away all the clothes that Elaine didn’t take with her,’ said Daisy. ‘Perhaps she got married out in