Island-in-Waiting by Anthea Fraser Read Free Book Online

wasn’t here!” I said shrilly. “Surprisingly enough, I have a mind of my own even if its I.Q. isn’t half yours!”
    â€œLove, I’m sorry.” Hugo put an arm contritely round me. “He gets everyone’s back up and I’d be much happier if you didn’t have anything to do with him, that’s all. It gave me the most uncomfortable feeling yesterday, seeing you with him. You seemed to – to dwindle into some kind of puppet. It was macabre.”
    A puppet: the idea of controlling strings had occurred to me too. We reached the car and Hugo bent down suddenly and kissed my cheek. “Home you go, little sister, out of harm’s way!”
    But was I? Would I ever be again? It was all very well for Hugo and Martha to tell me to avoid Ray, I thought as Martha turned the car out of the college gates, but the option was not mine to make. I was convinced that the forces which had engineered our meeting would not be deflected by any action of mine.

Four
    â€œDid Hugo tell you we’re invited out for dinner tonight?” Martha asked me as we were preparing to go shopping in Ramsey. “I can’t say I’m particularly looking forward to it; the Quayles aren’t the easiest of hosts. You met Nicholas yesterday – tall, with a bit of a stoop. Older than the rest of us.”
    â€œI remember. Why don’t you want to go?”
    â€œWell, Vivian can be difficult. Nicholas is all right, except that he’s a bundle of nerves and poor Hugo sees enough of him as it is. It’s rather sad, really. I gather he came over here with the half-promise of being appointed deputy head, but it didn’t come off and his wife can’t let him forget it. However,” Martha added with a smile, “she’s a first-class cook, I’ll say that for her, so for once you’ll have something edible that you haven’t prepared yourself!”
    The sun was shining as we left the house, though heavy clouds were massing to the north.
    â€œHow’s your paper on the island going?” I asked. “Don’t forget you promised me a guided tour.” Ray’s similar offer was probably in both our minds, but neither of us referred to it.
    â€œI’ll be glad to. The research is just a hobby really, though I’ve become quite hooked on it. I’m concentrating on pre-history, the very early times before the Stanley dynasty. It was the names of the college houses that first roused my interest – Godred, Sigurd, Lagman and Magnus. They were ancient kings of Man.”
    â€œKings?”
    â€œYes, the ruler was known as King for centuries. I think it was Thomas Stanley in the fifteen hundreds who decided he preferred to be ‘a powerful Lord rather than a petty King’. That was when the title became Lord of Man, and it still is.”
    â€œWhen did it pass to the Crown, then?”
    â€œThe first three Edwards each held it briefly, alternating with the Scots. Henry IV gave the island to the Stanleys but Elizabeth I intervened when there were no male heirs and she thought it might be seized by France or Spain. After that it went back to the Stanleys for another hundred and fifty years until it reverted to George III and the title Lord of Man has been held by the British monarch ever since.”
    We were coming round a bend of the road and a sweep of countryside lay spread before us, purple and gold under the uncertain sky. Quite suddenly it was all dangerously familiar. Surely it had been here that –
    â€œCareful!” I interrupted sharply. “Watch out for that sheep –”
    Automatically Martha’s foot went down on the brake and as the car rocketed to a halt, a black ram broke through the hedge bordering the road. Without my warning it would certainly have been under our wheels. With a startled glance at my white face, Martha pulled in to the side of the road and the animal, ears laid back, set off at an