Read Online Folly's Child by Janet Tanner - Free Book Online Page B

thumbnail. So … Greg had been little better than a crook on the business front – and he had very nearly dragged her father – and his stupendous talent – down with him. She had suspected as much, though it had never occurred to her that Greg’s death had been anything but an accident. But important as all this might once have been it did not concern her now. Hugo had weathered that particular storm with Kurt’s help and backing. No one had charged him with anything more serious than naivity and now he was one of the most successful fashion designers in New York. Besides, business dealings never figured very largely in Harriet’s reckoning. There were other, far more important aspects to life – and death.
    â€˜Greg is only half the story though isn’t he, Dad?’ she said quietly.
    His eyes narrowed, emphasising the small lines and creases around them. ‘What do you mean by that?’
    â€˜Oh Dad!’ she remonstrated. ‘ You know very well what I mean. What about Mom?’
    He looked away. ‘What about her?’
    â€˜Dad – come out from that clam shell of yours. I know how good you are at hiding away inside it when you don’t want to face up to the real world. But it’s out here and it won’t go away.’
    â€˜Your mother is dead’, he said flatly.
    â€˜Is she though?’ Harriet shook her head slowly. ‘ We don’t really know that any more do we? We were always led to believe there were survivors when the Lorelei blew up. Now it seems that wasn’t the case. If this Maria Vincenti is to be believed, Greg survived. So I repeat – what happened to Mom?’
    â€˜Harriet …’ He leaned on his desk wearily, not looking at her. ‘It’s so long ago now.’
    â€˜What difference does that make? Twenty weeks – twenty months – twenty years – the questions are still the same and they have to be answered. If we don’t ask them someone else will. The insurance people are already starting to probe. One of them came to see me last night when I got back from Paris. He wanted to know when I last saw Mom.’
    He blanched visibly. ‘Bastards! I was afraid of something like this. So they think … yes, I suppose they would. What did you tell him?’
    â€˜That I’d never seen her from that day to this, of course. But that’s no longer enough, is it? For God’s sake what happened when the Lorelei blew up? And what happened afterwards? Don’t you want to know? Dad – stop fiddling with that damned desk toy and listen to me!’
    He straightened, whirling round on her suddenly, much as he had turned on Victor Nicholson all those years ago. Gone was the vagueness, gone the composure. His eyes were bright now with suppressed passion and pain.
    â€˜No, Harriet, you listen to me. There are some things best left alone – some things it’s better not to know.’
    â€˜But the explosion might not have been an accident,’ she persisted. ‘Have you thought of that? It would explain how Greg manages to be in one piece while the Lorelei is nothing but a few planks of driftwood. And if what you say about the state of his finances is true then he’d have every reason for faking his death to escape the music. But it doesn’t answer my question. What happened to Mom?’
    â€˜Your mother is dead.’
    â€˜So you keep saying. It’s almost as if you want to believe it.’
    â€˜Perhaps I do.’ His voice was tired. ‘Perhaps even that is preferable to thinking she could just disappear and let us think she was dead.’
    â€˜But Dad …
    â€˜How would you feel if you discovered that was the case? That she could abandon you – her four-year-old child – and never see you again? Is that what you want to hear?’
    â€˜No, of course not!’
    â€˜There are things I hoped you’d never, find out,