Read Online Distant Choices by Brenda Jagger - Free Book Online Page B

harm.’
    â€˜Made an enemy, you mean? Of Aunt Maud? That was done long ago – the first time she held out a charitable hand to feed me and I bit it … You would never have done that, Oriel, would you?’
    â€˜No.’ Oriel smiled. ‘I would have lacked the courage.’
    â€˜You may have had more sense. I’ve watched you. Oriel, defending yourself by being always beyond reproach.’
    â€˜And I’ve watched you, setting out to be a thorn in their sides. They won’t like you for it.’
    â€˜Does that matter? Being liked?’
    â€˜It makes life easier.’
    And they were both surprised, sitting there in the sharptoothed, irritable wind, how easily they passed the restraints of politeness to a point where they could talk to each other.
    â€˜Is that what you want? An easy life?’ And because Oriel had never quite dared to examine her desires too closely – in case there should be too wide a gulf between desire and probability – she quickly threw back the question.
    â€˜What do you want. Kate?’
    â€˜Oh –’ The thin shoulders rose jerkily in a shrug. ‘To set off for Arabia on a camel.’
    â€˜Kate.’
    â€˜Oriel – I mean it. There – or anywhere else, so long as it is far away and I can go alone. Or without Aunt Maud, at any rate. And failing that, I’d like – oh, wildly ambitious things, like not feeling uneasy at dinner if father happens to be there. Not feeling sick whenever I have a set-to with Aunt Maud. Not marrying Quentin.’
    â€˜Does he want to marry you?’
    â€˜No.’ The reply came with another shrug and the return of her wide, boyish grin. ‘He wants to be rich and influential and to get away from all his hopeless brothers and sisters. I think he may want to get away from his mother, too. I suppose one can sympathize with that. So – taking into account my Kessler money and my Stangway money – marrying me to get it is a sacrifice he’s quite ready to make.’
    â€˜Kate …’ Oriel, to her great astonishment, felt an urge, which almost overcame her. to reach out and touch, to ruffle the thick, unruly hair with an affectionate – a sisterly – hand, and then, with her own calm, quick fingers, to smooth out its tangle, tuck every haphazard wisp in place with a secure hair-pin, a prettily arranged knot of ribbon. Scarlet, she thought, against the heavy tresses which would gleam raven-black, she felt certain, with some regular brushing. And what a tiny waist Kate would have if one gave her a wider skirt to show it off, instead of the skimpy rag she was wearing that looked like a hand-me-down with its disgracefully bedraggled hem.
    â€˜They make me do my own mending,’ Kate said, as Oriel’s eyes remained speculatively on her gown.
    â€˜So I see. If you leave that skirt in my room tonight I’ll tidy it up for you.’
    â€˜Why?’ Kate’s eyes, shooting wide open, looked suddenly hungry for a truthful answer.
    â€˜Because I would like to. Will they make you marry Quentin?’
    â€˜Aunt Maud and Aunt Letty will do their best. My father will not care. He tends not to care. It is really what he does . Not caring, I mean. And poor, brave Quentin, of course, will grit his teeth and march to the altar like a human sacrifice … and then they will all come and live here happily ever after. Except me, of course. I don’t expect to be here. And what about you, Oriel? Men must always be falling in love with you. Who are you going to marry?’
    And leaning forward a little, reaching out once again, Oriel spoke a cold truth into the wind.
    â€˜Falling in love is not marrying, is it? When it comes to wives, men are very careful and I – well – I shall not find it easy.’
    She would find, instead – as her mother had done – a host of ardent beginnings which would founder, she supposed, one after the other,