Fortune's Lead by Barbara Perkins Read Free Book Online

looking as if everything one said was interesting.
    He went on being easy to talk to, and to listen to, as we sat over a delicious meal chosen with a flattering care for my tastes. I began to feel as if I had known him for a long time, and, after a while, I found myself telling him about Robert, and about my present inability to decide what to do next. It was easy to explain things to such a sympathetic audience, and it wasn’t until we had been sitting for some time over coffee and brandy that I realized how much I had been saying, and that I was probably boring him. Abruptly, the conversation died.
    ‘I’m sorry. You—don’t want to hear about all this. I shouldn’t start talking about my problems anyway—’
    ‘Nonsense, of course you should. Some more brandy?’
    ‘No, thank you.’
    ‘So you haven’t decided what you want to do next?’
    ‘It seems difficult somehow. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been talking about it—’
    ‘Stop saying you’re sorry, Shah!’ He grinned at me, his eyes friendly. ‘I can see it was very lucky I found you, or you might have gone back into being thoroughly serious! As it is, you’ve only just escaped in time! I must say, I think you’re very well rid of this Robert.’
    ‘So do I. It isn’t that. It’s just ... well, I expect I’ll be able to make up my mind what to do sooner or later.’ I pulled myself together, and smiled at him. ‘Let’s talk about something else. I’m sorry—’ I caught his reproachful look, and corrected myself. ‘All right, I’m not sorry.’ I added, rather shyly, ‘It’s nice of you to be so easy to talk to.’
    ‘Not at all. I’m very interested. Besides, I’ve been deliberately leading you on.’ He smiled at me. ‘I can quite see that you don’t want to go back into your rut now you’ve climbed out of it. It would be a pity. Wouldn’t it?’
    ‘Yes ... I suppose so. It’s not that I’m not interested in nursing as a job—I am—’
    ‘But you need a break.’ Henry regarded me with his head on one side, apparently appreciating what he saw. ‘I must admit, I did have a certain idea in my mind when I came to see you.’
    ‘You—did?’ A warning bell rang in my mind, and at the same time Gypsy Rose’s predictions flooded back at me, however hard I tried to stop them.
    ‘I have a suggestion to make. Quite by chance, just as you’re looking for a job, I’m looking for a social secretary.’
    ‘A what?’
    ‘Please. Wait a moment.’ He looked at me quite seriously for a second, the twinkle usually present in his eyes gone. ‘I really do need a social secretary. At least, that’s what I shall call it, though it’s something more than that. It’s a question of my daughter.’
    ‘Oh,’ I said faintly.
    ‘She’s seventeen, and it’s time I did something about her. She has no idea of the social graces at all—she barely speaks to anyone who isn’t a horse! Now you, Shah, could be a very good example to her. Did I mention that I would want my social secretary to come and work in Suffolk?’
    ‘No, you didn’t. But—’
    ‘I’m intending spending the winter there, which promises to be very dull; unless, of course, we enliven it a little.’ He grinned at me, before becoming serious again. ‘It’s difficult without a woman in the house—apart from Mrs. Mott, my housekeeper—and I’m determined that Esther shall learn to wear something other than jodhpurs and talk about something other than strained fetlocks. I will not be father to a—a cross-bred mare!’ Henry snorted, making me want to giggle. ‘I propose to give a series of parties for Esther—dances, and so on—and to make her meet people socially as well as on horseback. No doubt the conversation will be horsy—it’s apt to be unavoidable!—but at least she can learn to dress like a lady! You see my point?’
    ‘Yes,’ I said doubtfully. ‘But —I’m not very—’
    ‘Nonsense, Shah. Of course you’re very.’ The twinkle was