Joan Wolf by The Guardian Read Free Book Online Page B

never see him again.”
    I nodded, incapable of summoning up words of comfort on the death of his brother.
    Two footmen came in the front door, carrying Stephen’s bags. Mrs. Nordlem asked, “In what room shall I have them put Mr. Stephen’s bags, my lady?”
    Stephen looked surprised. “Can’t I have my old room?”‘
    I said, “Giles and his governess have the nursery now, Stephen.”
    The shuttered look that I had seen him wear so often in the years of our growing up settled across his face. “Oh, of course.”
    He had never before put up that shuttered look for me.
    “Take the bags to the blue bedroom,” I said, and the footmen went obediently toward the corridor that led into the family part of the house. Mrs. Nordlem and Hodges followed.
    Stephen and I were alone in the hall.
    He was staring at my face. “You haven’t changed at all, Annabelle,” he said in wonderment.
    The power of his flesh-and-blood presence was beginning to take its toll on my nerves. I said in a hard voice, “You’re wrong, Stephen. I’ve changed a great deal.”
    A slight narrowing of the eyes was the only indication he gave that he had heard the open hostility in my voice.
    The door that led from the library directly into the west side of the hall suddenly opened and Adam came striding in. “Stephen! Hodges told me you were here! My dear boy, how wonderful to see you!”
    “Uncle Adam.” Stephen smiled for the first time since he had walked in, and I felt my heart twist in my breast. He was holding out his hand, but Adam ignored it and enveloped him instead in a huge bear hug. Then he put his hands on Stephen’s shoulders and held him for inspection.
    “Why, you’ve grown. You’re taller than I am!” Adam said in surprise.
    “It must have been all that sunshine,” Stephen said.
    “Or the rum,” Adam retorted, and they both laughed.
    Aunt Fanny’s breathless voice came from behind me. “Is it true what Hodges has told me? Is Stephen really home?” I heard the sharp intake of her breath “Why, Stephen, you’re as brown as an Indian!”
    He was holding out both his arms. “Aunt Fanny. How wonderful to see you again.”
    She ran to receive his hug. “Do you know that Jasper is home also?” she said as she emerged from his embrace.
    “No, is he really? That is excellent news.”
    Aunt Fanny fluttered around him, chattering excitedly about “having both my boys home again,” and he regarded her with affectionate amusement. In all the years of our growing up, Adam and Fanny had always been very fond of Stephen.
    “Come along to the morning room and have some tea,” Fanny said now, and Stephen’s eyes moved to me in obvious surprise that Fanny should be acting as hostess in my house.
    “Adam and Fanny are staying at the hall while the Dower House is being refurbished,” I said.
    This was the arrangement I had come up with to satisfy my mother about the propriety of Stephen living in the same house as I. Aunt Fanny had been delighted when I suggested redecorating the Dower House, and although her constant chatter could be wearing at times, she was infinitely preferable to some unknown cousin from Bath.
    Adam and Fanny and Nell had moved in the previous week. Jasper had arrived yesterday.
    Stephen and I would be well chaperoned.
    Stephen said, “Tea would be wonderful, Aunt Fanny.”
    “How was your voyage?” Adam asked as they began to move toward the door that would take them through the library and thence into the morning room.
    I did not move, and Aunt Fanny turned to ask, “Annabelle? Are you not coming, my dear?”
    I shook my head and gestured to my clothes. “I would like to change first, Aunt Fanny.”
    “Did you and young Giles catch anything?” Adam asked genially.
    “Yes, Giles caught four fish. He was delighted.”
    Fanny and Adam smiled. Stephen said nothing.
    “Jasper and Nell have gone for a ride, but they will be back soon,” Aunt Fanny said. “How pleased they both will be to see you,