Read Online Charlie by Lesley Pearse - Free Book Online

strongly of Jin. He had a feeling she was capable of learning to be just as cunning too.
    ‘Let’s just say that no one yet has made an inventory of things in this house,’ he said. ‘They will of course, and possibly very soon, and at that time the doors will be sealed and no one will be allowed to take anything away. But right now there is nothing to prevent you taking some small pieces away to safety.’
    She didn’t understand what he meant exactly. Yet she sensed he was trying to help her. ‘Like what for instance?’
    He shrugged. ‘I don’t know what’s here, do I?’ he said pointedly. ‘I do vaguely remember some rather fine miniatures once, though of course your father might have sold them. A quick look through your mother’s jewellery box might be in order. It wouldn’t do to take anything away that is too large to carry with you. Now let’s have another cup of tea and then I’ll leave you to water those houseplants.’
    When he dropped the subject and moved away to make a second pot of tea, Charlie knew he had gone as far as he could for her and he would never mention it again. Over a second cup of tea she asked him if he thought she should forget going back to school in September and find herself a job now.
    Wyatt had forgotten until that moment that she went to a private school, and that she was intending to take ‘A’ levels with a view to going to university. That threw up even more difficulties for her.
    ‘I think it would be an excellent plan for you to get a job,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘But hold fire about school for a while, there’s always a possibility they might offer you a free place, especially if your “O” level results are good ones. How are you getting on with the Mellings? Can you stay there indefinitely?’
    ‘I don’t know.’ She went on to explain she felt the atmosphere was becoming a bit strained. ‘Maybe if I found a job I could get a room of my own somewhere?’
    Wyatt had been impressed by her poise and good manners on previous meetings, today he’d been touched by her innocence. But it was only now that he saw her courage and her intelligence.
    She hadn’t dissolved into tears or even bitter recriminations. Every question she’d asked was relevant and showed a fine grasp of reality. He wondered though if she was capable of looking after herself – according to Mrs Brown the old housekeeper she couldn’t even boil an egg. But maybe she needed to try. It might be the making of her.
    ‘That sounds like an excellent idea to me,’ he said. ‘But find the job first. You can’t pay rent without money coming in.’
    He left soon after, warning her to double-lock the front door behind her and the outside gate. The moment she heard his car pull away Charlie went up to her bedroom, lay down on her bed and burst into tears.
    She had cried many times in the last five days, but never like this – hot, bitter tears that seemed to come from some hitherto untapped well. She had never before felt such an overwhelming sense of isolation, grief, fear and betrayal. She had loved, trusted and looked up to her father, yet he had callously gone away, taking with him all the money, knowing full well it would be his wife and daughter who would be punished and publicly ridiculed when his debts were called in.
    Why had he done it? Surely if he was in some sort of trouble he could at least have warned them? Now as a result of his cowardice, her mother was crippled, his daughter’s life ruined. How could any man do such a terrible thing?
    She knew that she would never again sleep on this big comfortable bed with its peach drapes, never lie and sunbathe in the garden, or curl up with a book on the settee downstairs. Common sense told her that wherever she and her mother ended up, it would be tiny and grim. As from today she was going to have to learn to live without all the luxury she’d taken for granted up till now.
    How could she return to school in September? Even if it were