The House by Princes Park by Maureen Lee Read Free Book Online

cold in September? It made no sense waiting until October just because it was a rule. Reverend Mother had changed the rule because she couldn’t see the sense in it either.
    Maybe the world needed people who wanted to change the rules. Ruby O’Hagan would undoubtedly be better off with Emily than in a place where unnecessary orders had to be obeyed. She wrote to her sister and suggested she visit again in the middle of April, after Ruby’s birthday. ‘It will give you plenty of time to get her room ready,’ she put at the end.
    Emily Dangerfield didn’t pray. She didn’t believe in it. It would be a bore having to drive Ruby to Mass at St Kentigern’s, the pretty little Catholic church in Melling, where she hadn’t been since Edwin died, a fact her sister was unaware of. Cecilia assumed her faith was as strong as it had always been and Emily saw no need to disabuse her. They met so rarely and she preferred to reproach Cecilia about the regressive policies of the convent about which she didn’t, in fact, give a damn, rather than have Cecilia reproach her for her loss of faith.
    What had praying ever done for her? She’d prayed for happiness, but look what she’d ended up with – a dry-as-dust husband who showed no interest in physical contact of the most basic sort once he’d sired two sons, forcing Emily to go elsewhere. And the sons! Adrian was in Australia, sheep-farming of all things, and she was unlikely ever to see him again. Rupert lived in London, but may as well have been in Australia with his brother for all she saw of him and his wife. She’d met her grandchildren, Sara and James, just twice.
    If Ruby came, she would treat her as a daughter. Bestow all the love that no one else apparently wanted on a fragile, orphan child. And perhaps it wouldn’t hurt to start going to Mass again, either.

    Four weeks later, on a cool, sunny, spring day, Ruby emerged from the convent carrying a brown paper parcel tied with string and accompanied by a tearful nun. There was no sign of Reverend Mother, Emily hadn’t been invited inside. The girl’s eyes were dazzling. She joyfully threw back her narrow shoulders, ready to face the world.
    Emily opened the passenger door of her grey Jaguar car and patted the leather seat. Ruby put her hand on the door and looked curiously inside. Then she slid on to the seat with a quiet smile and the ease of someone who had been getting into expensive cars all her life. She threw the parcel on to the back seat and waved to the nun. ‘I haven’t been in a car before,’ she said.
    ‘I’d never have guessed,’ Emily said drily. She started up the engine and they drove away. ‘Aren’t you sad?’ she enquired.
    ‘A little bit,’ Ruby conceded, taking the brown ribbon off her hair and tossing it loose. ‘But it’s silly to feel sad over something that can’t be helped.’
    ‘Very sensible, but not a concept that can be taken literally throughout one’s entire life.’
    ‘What’s a concept? And what does “literally” mean?’
    ‘I’ll give you a dictionary when we get home and you can look it up for yourself.’
    ‘What’s a dictionary?’
    ‘You’ll see when you get one.’
    At first, Ruby found going fast exciting, but a bit scary. She tensed whenever another car came towards them, convinced they’d crash, but the cars easily passed and she quickly forgot her fear. She said little, but her eyes sparkled with interest, even if the countryside they drove through was the same as that she’d been used to all her life: vast green fields, undulating hills, untidy hedges full of birds. They came to the occasional village that looked dull compared to Abergele.
    ‘We’re in England now, dear, Cheshire,’ Emily said – she’d been told to call Mrs Dangerfield ‘Emily’. ‘We’ve just crossed the border.’
    ‘You mean we’re in another country!’ Ruby was impressed.
    ‘Yes. In a few years, people won’t have to drive such a long way round to Liverpool.