Sea Gem by Wallis Peel Read Free Book Online Page B

but my father made Christine very pregnant.’
    ‘Oh!’ said Mary thoughtfully.
    Victor pulled a face. ‘Tante Louise, as you call her, nearly went berserk. You see, apart from anything else, she detests anyone from Jersey. I don’t know the ins and outs but gossip
says it was something to do with her father’s death.’
    ‘But she told me he died when collecting ormers!’
    ‘That’s as maybe but gossip says he had an enemy who was a Jersey man, they fought, then Dan Penford was found dead. But that’s all history.’
    ‘What happened to him? Surely there was an investigation?’
    He shrugged. ‘I honestly don’t know. It’s all so long ago. When Tante Noyen learned about Christine’s condition and there could be no marriage, there was the most unholy
row and Christine left home. She was exactly nineteen when I was produced.’
    ‘What happened to her?’
    ‘She died giving me life,’ he said simply and paused. ‘So there I was. A bastard and with half Jersey blood to boot. I was only half a Noyen and most definitely not wanted,
especially as she had two legitimate and adored grandsons already, Charles and Duret.’
    Mary was aghast. ‘But surely she could not refuse a home to an innocent baby?’
    Victor shook his head. ‘It wasn’t as simple as that. As I found out many years later, my father was a real boozer and Louise Noyen had just suffered a horrible year of three
tragedies, one after the other. She was not exactly young even then, was coming up to her fifties and Duret was only a baby. My arrival was the final straw, especially with Jersey blood.’
    ‘What happened?’
    ‘My sainted father’s wife found out and she simply took me in, adopted me as her son and I’ve never wanted for love or affection—from her. As to my father, he broke his
neck in a drunken spree in 1906. My adopted mother died only three weeks ago and that’s why I’m on this island. There is a Will being dealt with, not that I expect there’ll be
much money after my father’s drinking bouts, so I thought I’d come here and renew links with my roots.’
    Mary eyed him shrewdly. ‘Do you have financial hopes from Tante?’
    He went stiff and shook his head vigorously. ‘No! I know better than that. Grandmère despises me. She seems to think I will be like her wild daughter. Anyhow, I’m a bastard
and carry tainted blood.’
    Mary snorted. ‘I too know what it’s like to carry the bastard tag around one’s neck,’ she told him grimly. ‘My years at the orphanage—’ Her nostrils
flared with anger at memories. She turned to him. ‘Let no one put you down because of your birth. The only difference between me and the gentry is that their bank books are bigger than mine.
I consider myself just as good as anyone else, bastardy notwithstanding,’ she said with spirit.
    He flashed his teeth in a wide grin and squeezed her hand. ‘My God! That’s what I think is wonderful about you. Fire and fury coupled with spirit and your own, fetching beauty. Guts
enough to come to this island to strangers. Mary Hinton, you are a girl after my own heart. What a pair we would make.’
    Mary studied the gleam in his eye and felt uncomfortable. He held her hand more tightly than he should but her heart warmed to his words.
    ‘So what are you going to do now that you are here?’ she asked him.
    ‘I think I’ll make my life and home here now. At the moment, I’m going to go on trial as a cub reporter for the local rag. I start next week. If I’m any good, who knows?
I might end up on Fleet Street!’ he joked merrily.
    ‘You didn’t want to join the Services and go to France?’ Mary asked curiously. Obviously conscription did not apply here.
    He threw her another of his piercing looks. ‘What me? Why should I? Look how many have already died for England!’
    ‘But surely the war affects here too?’ Mary persisted. He couldn’t possibly be a coward—could he? ‘Where do you live then?’ she asked, thinking