The House of Lyall by Doris Davidson Read Free Book Online Page A

eyes told a different story.
    â€˜Your one and only ball?’ echoed Marianne. ‘Why was that?’
    â€˜Father did not approve of dancing, but he was away at the time when Lavinia Tennant – Father Bernard’s mother, you know – invited us to her twenty-first birthday ball, so Mamma let us accept. She said we would never meet any young men otherwise, but when Father came home and found out, he locked the gowns up in his old trunk, and took itdown to the cellar. Then Mamma died, and … well, we didn’t feel like dancing after that, and by the time Father passed on, we were all past marrying age.’ Miss Edith dashed away the solitary tear that had edged over her bottom eyelid as she closed the door behind her.
    â€˜I don’t think I’d better go to the ball with you, Andrew,’ Marianne whispered. ‘It would likely upset them to see me wearing …’
    He came towards her, eyes wide and pleading. ‘Please, Marianne? I can’t go unaccompanied. Please?’
    A flash of irritation made her say, ‘You just want me to come with you because you can’t find another partner, that’s all! Why don’t you ask that Vi, or one of the other ladies of the street? You told me once you wanted to –’
    He stepped back like a wounded animal and lashed out in the only way he knew how. ‘Maybe I will.’
    â€˜Go ahead, then, and see if I care!’
    â€˜Oh, how stupid I’ve been, thinking you … liked me a little bit.’
    Her conscience smote her. ‘I do like you, Andrew! Quite a lot! But I don’t want to bring back bad memories to your aunts, they’ve been so good to me. Can’t you understand that?’
    â€˜Yes, of course I do, and I’m sorry. All right, if you think even one of them will be upset if you wear her dress, I won’t try to make you change your mind.’
    They left it at that, and he sat down to await his aunts’ return.
    The elderly ladies, whispering excitedly, came in with their arms empty and explained that they had taken the dresses up to Marianne’s room. ‘You can try them on when you go to bed,’ Miss Edith told her.
    Andrew smiled broadly. ‘I get the impression you don’t want me to see them.’
    â€˜Of course we don’t, not yet!’ declared Miss Esther, who was now harbouring secret dreams of him taking one look at the girl in her chosen gown and being so overcome by love that he would gather her into his arms and shower her with kisses in front of them all.
    Pretending to be offended, he got to his feet. ‘I suppose I’d better get out of the way.’
    â€˜You don’t need to leave yet,’ Marianne protested, although she was desperate to see the gowns.
    â€˜I have a lot of revision to do for the end-of-term assessments,’ he assured her. ‘I wasn’t intending to stay anyway.’
    As she had been doing for some weeks, she saw him to the door, but tonight, instead of his usual joking farewell gesture of tipping his forelock, he took her hand in both of his. ‘Choose the dress you want, Marianne, and don’t worry about the aunts. They’re not as vulnerable as they look; they’re really tough old birds.’
    â€˜I still wouldn’t want to hurt them,’ she said gently. ‘You wouldn’t be angry if I didn’t go with you, would you?’
    â€˜I wouldn’t be angry,’ he said softly, ‘I’d be broken-hearted.’
    His eyes held the same strange look she had noticed briefly before; a serious look that she couldn’t have described if anyone had asked her; a look which, combined with the squeezing of her hand, had made her heart speed up, her stomach turn over with a pain that wasn’t a pain, the kind of feeling she welcomed and wished would never go away. Hoping that he was about to kiss her on the mouth, she was disappointed when he raised her hands to his