Lonesome Road by Patricia Wentworth Read Free Book Online

one eyelid slightly and give a very faint twitch to the end of the tail. He then relapsed into an ancestral dream in which he bearded a vast archaic badger in its lair and slew it.
    Rachel Treherne laughed rather ruefully.
    “Louisa can be rude,” she said. “But she thinks it’s good for us, and she is really devoted.”
    Caroline shook her head.
    “To you, darling, but not to us—definitely. She simply hates us.”
    “Oh, Caroline!”
    “She would like to take you away to a desert island and wait on you hand and foot—it sticks out all over her.”
    “And finish up by dying for you in some highly spectacular way,” said Richard.
    Rachel laughed, but there was a troubled look in her eyes. She changed the subject, and the talk drifted away to winter sports and to a girl called Mildred that Cherry had met at Andermatt who was engaged to a fabulously rich young man called Bob. They were to be married some time early in December, and Cherry was to be a bridesmaid.
    “And we shall have to give her a wedding present, I suppose,” said Mabel Wadlow in her discontented voice. “She’s got everything she wants, but I suppose we shall have to try and think of something.”
    “I should love to give her a diamond spray from Woolworth’s,” said Cherry. “I should adore to see her face when she got it. I say, Maurice, let’s do it anonymously. I’ve got an old case of Cartier’s and we could put it in that.”
    “And who’s been giving you a brooch from Cartier’s?” said Maurice. “And where is it anyhow?”
    “Darling, I pawned it immediately—what do you think?”
    “Cherry!” Mabel Wadlow fluttered with anxiety. “What is all this? I insist upon knowing.”
    Cherry laughed.
    “Darling, if you’re going to come over all maternal, I’m off.”
    “Cherry, answer your mother!” said Ernest.
    She laughed again.
    “What a fuss! Bob gave me a brooch, I pawned it, and that’s all there is about it.”
    “But, Cherry—”
    “And I’m not the only person who knows the way to a pop-shop. What did they give on your diamond ring, Carrie?”
    Caroline did not speak. She looked at Richard. He said, “You haven’t told us what you got for your brooch.”
    “About a quarter of what it was worth,” said Cherry. “Quite a bit of luck my meeting Caroline—wasn’t it? She went out as I came in, and the man showed me her ring, but he wouldn’t tell me what he’d given her for it.” Richard smiled agreeably. “Nor will she,” he said.
    Chapter Nine
    Rachel Treherne went to her room with a tired and heavy heart. The thought of going to bed and forgetting all about the family for seven or eight hours was a pleasant one, but on the other side of the night there would be another day, in which she foresaw an interview with Ernest, several interviews with Mabel, a talk with Maurice, a talk with Cherry, a talk with Caroline. Ernest would press her to produce the capital for Maurice’s anticapitalist crusade. Mabel would probably have palpitations. Maurice would deliver a lecture on communism. And Cherry—no, she didn’t really see herself talking to Cherry. Let Mabel deliver her own lecture on accepting jewelry from a young man engaged to be married to somebody else.
    Caroline—oh, Caroline was different. She must find out why the child should have pawned her mother’s ring. All Rachel’s thoughts softened as they dwelt on Caroline.
    She found Louisa in a grimly silent humor. But when Rachel said, “You seem tired, Louisa. Go to bed—I shan’t want anything more,” words came out with a rush.
    “Oh, I know you’d be glad enough to send me away, and there’s those that ’ud be glad enough to see me go. Right down on their bended knees they’d be, and thanking the devil if I was out of the house and gone for good and no one to stand between you and them!”
    Rachel, at her dressing-table, said in a weary voice,
    “Louie, I’m very tired. Not tonight—please.”
    Louisa caught her breath in