The Gospel Makers

The Gospel Makers by Anthea Fraser Read Free Book Online Page A

Book: The Gospel Makers by Anthea Fraser Read Free Book Online
Authors: Anthea Fraser
mother’s arms. Sebastian was a placid baby, secure in the love that surrounded him and confident of getting his own way. Dilys returned his stare somewhat doubtfully.
    ‘Darling!’ Susie planted an enthusiastic kiss on her cheek. ‘You’re an angel! I’ve stressed to Sarah that you mustn’t be disturbed in any way.’
    Dilys’s eyes moved to the young woman who was helping James extract a folding cot from the boot. ‘One point, Susie,’ she said quickly, remembering Peggy’s reservations. ‘Where does she sit in the evenings? I mean —’
    ‘Oh, don’t worry about that. If it’s convenient, she goes out. Seb never wakes once he’s put down, so provided there’s someone in the house we don’t mind. She has relatives in the town and spends most of her free time with them. And if she’s in, she works in her room.’
    Dilys was relieved that neither she nor Peggy would be called on to entertain their visitor. ‘Works?’ she repeated with a raised eyebrow.
    ‘For some exam or other,’ Susie said vaguely. ‘She keeps very much to herself. She has breakfast and lunch with Seb and supper on a tray in her room. Honestly, you’ll hardly know she’s here.’
    James and Sarah approached them with what seemed an inordinate amount of baggage. James bent to kiss Dilys’s cheek, and Susie continued: ‘Dilly, this is Sarah Baines. Miss Hayward, Sarah.’
    Dilys smiled and nodded, disconcerted to find the young woman’s gaze as uncommunicative as Sebastian’s. However, she smiled gravely and the moment was eased by James’s inquiry as to where the luggage should be taken.
    ‘I’ll lead the way.’ Dilys turned back to the house and went up the stairs with the contingent following behind her.
    ‘This is Miss Baines’s room,’ she announced, aware of sounding formal but unable for some reason to call the stiff young woman by her first name. And unbidden, the memory returned of her involuntary shiver the previous week when checking the room for her guest.
    She moved hastily down the landing. ‘And this is Sebastian’s,’ she continued. ‘There isn’t a general bathroom each room has its own. The next door is the little room where we do the ironing — the airing cupboard’s in there — and the one at the end is my room. If there’s anything you need,’ she added to Sarah, ‘do please ask either me or my housekeeper.’
    ‘Thank you, I’m sure everything will be fine.’
    James went into the baby’s room and began to set up the cot, while Sarah, depositing various bundles on the bed, unrolled the mattress. Susie turned to her son. ‘Now, my darling, you’re going to be a good boy for Auntie Dilly, aren’t you? And Mummy and Daddy will be back before you know it.’
    Sudden tears filled her eyes and she hid them by burying her face in the baby’s neck and kissing him.
    ‘Have you time for coffee?’ Dilys asked, to distract her.
    ‘No thank you, we must be going. The car’s coming for us at eleven. Now don’t worry,’ she added, intercepting Dilys’s cautious glance at the baby. ‘Sarah’s very experienced — she’ll take good care of him.’
    ‘I’m sure she will,’ Dilys said, unsure whether it was herself or the baby’s mother she was reassuring. James and Sarah emerged from the bedroom, where the cot now stood in the centre of the floor.
    ‘We’d better be going, darling.’
    ‘I know.’
    Susie thrust her son into Sarah’s arms and turned blindly to the stairs. James, with a wry little smile, said goodbye to the nanny and followed Dilys downstairs. Moments later the car had driven away.
    Dilys went through to the kitchen, where Peggy had been keeping a low profile. ‘All right, Peggy, you can relax. She either goes out in the evenings or spends them in her room.’
    ‘Well, that’s a relief.’ The woman paused. ‘What’s she like?’
    ‘Not what I’d expected.’ She’d imagined a fresh-faced girl with a ready smile. ‘In her mid-thirties, I’d say, and rather

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