Second Time Around by Marcia Willett Read Free Book Online Page B

At seventeen he was the most handsome young man she had ever seen. Tall, fair-haired, hazel-eyed, he treated her just as he did his younger siblings; he teased them, hugged them and for the most part ignored them. Tessa, who had so desperately missed family life, was enchanted by the Andersons and never refused an invitation to stay.
    By the time she was seventeen she was wondering what she should do with her life. She could see that a university degree was not the passport to a career that it had once been and she knew that she was not brilliant enough to be one of the lucky few who, in these difficult times, found jobs easily. Once again it was through the Andersons, who gave her help and encouragement, that she discovered, quite out of the blue, what it was she really wanted to do. At the end of the spring term Rachel received a letter from home.
    â€˜Doom and gloom,’ she announced to Tessa, with whom she shared a study. ‘The dog lady can’t come, apparently. She’s broken her ankle and Granny’s down with flu. Looks like our holiday’s up the spout.’
    â€˜Dog lady?’ Tessa knew that the Andersons were going skiing as soon as school broke up for Easter.
    â€˜You know,’ said Rachel. ‘The woman who dog-sits when we go
away. Mummie’s quite desperate. It’s the first leave that Daddy’s had for ages that fits in with school holidays.’
    There was a silence whilst Rachel read her letter and Tessa was visited by an exciting answer to the Andersons’ problem. She thought it through carefully.
    â€˜I’ve had a thought,’ she said at last. ‘Is there any reason why I couldn’t do it? After all, Baggins and I are old friends. I’d be quite happy to look after him.’
    Rachel had stared at her for a few moments, letting the idea sink in. ‘Brilliant!’ she’d said. ‘Fantastic! Are you sure? It’s a great idea. I’ll phone Mummie.’
    That was how it had started. During those quiet weeks in the Andersons’ house Tessa began to see how she could earn her living. She adored dogs, preferred the country to the town and never minded her own company. She still missed her parents and her brother quite dreadfully but she had already learned that it is better to be alone than to be with the wrong people.
    Sebastian and Rachel approached the suggestion of her new career with their usual enthusiasm. Sebastian immediately drew up a list of naval families who might require her services and Mrs Anderson recommended Tessa to these friends and wrote a glowing reference. In the following year—her last at school—she had four jobs during the holidays and a growing clientele.
    Now, at twenty-two, she worked almost two-thirds of the year. Between jobs she came back to London but she longed for a little place of her own. Her work took her all over the south and west so it was difficult to decide where she might base herself and whatever she chose to rent would be empty for the greater part of each year. The money from her father’s estate would come to her when she was twenty-five but it was by no means a large sum. It had paid for her education—which included driving lessons—and her trustees had advanced enough for her to buy an estate car so that the dogs could be taken for walks or to the vet in an emergency—owners did not
always leave transport available—but meanwhile she lived on the interest which was paid quarterly. It amounted in all to approximately two thousand pounds a year, which came in very useful.
    Tessa bent thoughtfully over her diary. The weeks were filling up very satisfactorily and tomorrow she was off to Devon; a week on Dartmoor. She sighed with pleasure. Kate and David Porteous were probably her favourite clients. David was an artist—an RA—who often went to London whilst Kate tried to juggle their lives between their town house and the country. Kate, who once had