The Black Opal by Victoria Holt Read Free Book Online Page A

poor doctor was looking gaunt and haggard. 1 understood very well then why it was necessary for Dr. Everest to look after her.
    It was a very unhappy household. I was one of the more fortunate ones, because I could keep out of her way.
    When Uncle Toby came life brightened. Even Mrs. Marline seemed a little happier, for she was clearly pleased to see him. He sat with her, talking to her and making her smile now and then.
    I had a long talk with him. It was in the garden.
    “Nice to get out of the house,” he said.
    “Poor old doc. Things not too bright for him. And you have to be sorry for Grace. She’s always wanted her own way. She ought to have married someone more like herself, someone who could put a curb on her. Doc’s all for a comfortable life.” He raised his eyes to the sky.
    “And he married Grace! Some people do have bad luck. Their own fault, I suppose.
    “Not in our stars but in ourselves,” and all that. And what about you, little Carmel? How does all this affect you? “
    “She doesn’t take much notice of me … she never did … so I’m lucky.”
    “Ah, there’s good in everything, eh? You’re growing up now. How old is it? Eight?”
    “Eight in March,” I told him.
    He patted my hand.
    “Not much fun, is it? I wish it could be better.”
     
    “It’s nice when you come.”
    He put his arm round me and held me tightly.
    “One day,” he went on, ‘perhaps I’ll take you to sea with me. We’ll sail round the world. How would you like that? “
    I clasped my hands together in ecstasy. There was no need for words.
    “We’ll sit on the deck in the moonlight,” he said, ‘and we’ll look up at the Southern Cross. “
    “What’s that?” I asked.
    “It’s the stars you see on the other side of the world. On hot days we’ll watch for the whales and we’ll see the dolphins jumping out of the sea. We’ll watch the flying fishes skimming across the water ..
    ”
     
    “And mermaids?” I asked.
    “Who knows? We might even produce one of those for you.”
    “They sing songs and lure sailors to destruction.”
    “We won’t be lured. We’ll go on sailing.”
    “When?” I asked.
    “One day … perhaps.”
    “I’ll pray every night.”
    “You do. I believe those up there occasionally answer prayers.”
    I thought about those words for a long time afterwards, and I dreamed of the day when Uncle Toby would keep his promise and take me away with him.
    Uncle Toby left soon after that and uneasiness settled on the house.
    Dr. Marline looked lost and exhausted. Nanny Gilroy and Mrs. Barton had long conversations in the kitchen with the district nurse.
    I overheard some of them.
    “Nothing pleases Madam,” complained Nanny Gilroy.
    “She’s in pain,” said Annie Logan.
    “Not all the time … but it’s there, threatening. That’s why she’s got those rather strong pills, for when it’s specially bad. Morphine in them.
     
    It helps her. She wouldn’t be as well as she is without them. “
    “She was bad enough before,” said Mrs. Barton.
    “Nothing pleased her then, but it’s ten times worse now. There’s no pleasing her.”
    The weeks began to pass. My eighth birthday came. It was set on the first of March, though nobody knew the exact day. Tom Yardley had found me on the sixteenth, and they reckoned I was a few weeks old at that time, so the first seemed about right. Everyone else had a birthday, so mine was set for that date. Uncle Toby had given orders that I was to have a fine dress. Sally had bought the material and had given Mrs. Grey, the local seamstress, one of my old dresses to copy for size. It was the finest dress Mrs. Grey had ever made and I was not to see it until the morning of the first. Sally had given me a book of children’s rhymes which I had seen in the bookshop and coveted:
    Estella’s gift was a blue sash which she no longer liked, and Adeline’s a bar of chocolate. No one else remembered it, but I did not care because I had my wonderful