Promise the Doctor by Marjorie Norrell Read Free Book Online

forgotten her very existence months ago.
    ‘Well’—Mr. Belding consulted his watch and rose, pushing back his chair—‘I am afraid I really must be on my way. Thank you very much for your hospitality. I will leave the set of keys which belonged to Miss Barnes. Mr. and Mrs. Wrenshaw have their own, of course. Shall you be along to see your property before you remove, Miss Benyon?’
    ‘I have half a day off next Thursday,’ Joy told him, ‘and that’s Pete’s half day too. Perhaps he’d drive me over?’ She glanced at Pete, who nodded. ‘So that’s all right. There’s just one point, Mr. Belding. Miss Barnes says in her letter that Fernbank is what she meant by “my dearest possession” and that she trusts me to see to it that the house and grounds are not used in any way which will take away any of the select and beautiful aspects of the town she loved. Just what do you suppose she means by that? I do understand she took my promise to mean that, being trusted with the house, I would never sell it or anything like that, but it’s this wording I can’t quite understand.’
    ‘A little while ago,’ Mr. Belding said gravely, ‘some of the wealthiest of the town’s businessmen decided to form a syndicate to provide us with a holiday village of bungalows, shops, entertainments and the like which most of the citizens would prefer to do without. I think Miss Barnes had reason to suspect they were more than a little interested in her house and the grounds, and the strip of ground which adjoins it and runs down to the road which leads to the sea. I know that before her sisters died they tried to purchase that particular piece of land, but the man who owns it was not interested in selling. He is a member of this group who want to form the syndicate.’
    ‘If Miss Barnes didn’t wish them to have the house and grounds then I shall make it my business to make certain her wishes are respected. You can be certain of that!’ Joy told him.
    ‘I’m so pleased.’ Mr. Belding nodded, well satisfied. ‘I felt from the moment we met that Miss Barnes had made a good choice in entrusting her responsibilities and her property to you! I shall look forward to seeing you if you have time to call in at my office on Thursday, and if not’—he handed her a card—‘perhaps you will contact me there before you are ready to move, and if there is any way in which I can assist you I shall be only too pleased to do so.’
    He said goodbye, and the entire family accompanied Joy to the door to wave goodbye, the entire family with the exception of Lana. They returned to the house, chattering together ‘like a bunch of magpies’, as Cousin Emma put it, and if Lana and Pete were the most silent members of the little household, their silence was not commented upon, since the others were too full of discussion to notice very much.
    There was so much to be done in the few days before the Thursday. Aileen felt very guilty about giving up the extra book-keeping she had undertaken only a month or so previously in an effort to make a little more money, but she had begun to look so tired that Joy was thankful for her mother’s sake that this early rising and extra work in addition to her post as secretary to a firm in Wilborough would soon be a thing of the past.
    There was the matter of the twins and their further education. Aileen went alone—as she had done so much for her family entirely alone—to see the headmaster of the co-educational High School where they had both attended since passing their examination from the junior school. Mr. Appleby was kind and helpful, sending along a letter for the twins to take to their new school, explaining which examining board the twins were to take their forthcoming examinations, so that if their new school had not the same syllabus there would be no confusion when their new teachers helped them through their next and final term before the examination dates.
    The rent of the house in Cranberry