No Enemy but Time by Evelyn Anthony Read Free Book Online

for the new master and his lady wife. And to clean up my kitchen before she makes a tour of it. Doyle, ye’ve got mud on my floor from yer dirty boots!’
    â€˜I don’t know how I’ll bring meself to serve her,’ Lily grumbled. ‘Sitting in Mrs Arbuthnot’s place at the dining table. I’d like to tip the soup in her lap!’
    â€˜I’d mind yerself, Lily,’ Doyle said at the kitchen door. ‘It’s himself we’ve got to please, not her. He’ll not put up wit’ yer nonsense any more than the Major would.’ Philip’s father had served in the Irish Guards in the First World War, and was always referred to by his rank. He glanced resentfully at Mary Donovan. ‘There’s divil a bit of mud on me boots,’ he muttered and went out into the back yard.
    Upstairs, Eileen resisted as Philip tried to undress her. ‘Not in here,’ she whispered, avoiding his eager kisses. ‘Can’t we go somewhere else?’ In the end they made love in his father’s dressing room, confined on a narrow bed, and Eileen fell asleep. He woke her gently, smiling at her.
    â€˜You are a little tiger,’ he said. ‘You’ve scratched me to bits. We’ve got to change, darling, so you’d better get up.’
    He saw her bewilderment and said, ‘We always change for dinner at home. I know it’s a bore, but it’s expected. Have your bath, sweetheart, and wear something nice for me. How about the blue we bought together?’
    It was a tactful way of explaining that change meant evening dress for her and dinner jacket for him. Poor little sweet, he thought, splashing in the hot water in his father’s bathroom. It was all very strange to her, but she’d soon get the hang of it. She didn’t mind him telling her things, and learned very quickly. She had modelled her speech on his and asked him to correct her if she said something wrong. Her clothes had been a problem. That was solved by buying a complete new wardrobe. She was so pretty it didn’t matter what she wore. Nothing at all, was better still. They were going to be late, unless he put that thought aside and got ready.
    He gave her a glass of champagne in the drawing room before dinner. She looked very beautiful in the long slim blue dress. He’d given her a string of cultured pearls as a wedding present. His mother had taken all the family jewellery with her. There was a little blue brooch pinned to the neck of the dress. It didn’t complement anything much, but he hadn’t seen it before.
    â€˜Where did you get that, darling,’ he touched it lightly with a finger, as if it were a toy out of a cracker. She had the brightest smile in the world, and the dress made her grey eyes look blue.
    â€˜It’s my granny’s,’ she explained. ‘She give it to me on my eighteenth birthday.’
    â€˜It’s very pretty,’ Philip said. ‘Grandmother, darling, not granny. It makes you sound like a little girl. And she gave it to you.’
    â€˜Sure an’ I know she did.’ Suddenly, cheekily she spun round in front of him, mocking his attempts to turn her into an Anglo-Irish lady. ‘Ye’ll not make this particular sow’s ear into a silk purse, young fella-me-lad!’
    Lily, about to knock on the door to announce dinner, heard them laughing and paused, listening. She heard Philip say, ‘Quite right, sweetheart. You’ve married a pompous idiot!’ She couldn’t make out Eileen’s answer but she muttered, ‘Eejit, is right,’ before she knocked on the door. ‘Dinner is served, sir and mam.’
    They had been living at Riverstown for two months before the first invitation came. It was addressed to Mrs Philip Arbuthnot and a letter was enclosed with the card. It was written in a sprawling hand that was difficult to read. Eileen, who’d been beaten into writing legibly by the nuns,