Read Online Home is Goodbye by Isobel Chace - Free Book Online Page A

critically. ‘You’d better go and show him you’re still master in the house!’
    Joe smiled bashfully and went into the bedroom.
    ‘Is Marjorie okay?’ Matt asked.
    Sara nodded and before she could stop herself yawned.
    ‘She’s fine! All she wants is Joe to tell her how wonderful she is and she’ll be fully restored — after she’s slept!’
    Matt grinned. ‘And you? Could you face the flight back in an hour or so?’
    Sara looked as shocked as she felt. ‘And leave them to it?’ she demanded. ‘Certainly not! I’m going to bed and then I’m going to see to Master Halifax until Marjorie’s nannie arrives!’
    Matt made a face. ‘I’ve got to get back today,’ he said. ‘Where is this nannie?’
    ‘At Tanga.’
    She yawned again and swayed slight l y on her feet. ‘You’d certainly better get to bed,’ Matt agreed. ‘You’d better use the other bedroom here because you don’t look as though you could walk as far as the house.’
    Sara walked sleepily to the door he pointed out.
    ‘Why do they put guests in the garden?’ she asked in muffled tones. ‘Isn’t there room in the house?’
    Matt pushed her through the door.
    ‘Just an old East African custom,’ he answered. ‘Ask me again when you can take in the answer!’
    Sara chuckled as he shut the door behind her, and walked over to the bed. It was cool and inviting. Quickly she threw off her outer clothing and lay down.
    ‘I must remember the time for Marjorie won’t be able to manage alone,’ she told herself sternly, but as soon as her head touched the pillow, she was fast asleep.
    The sun was right overhead when she woke up. She could hear someone mowing the grass just outside her window and remembered the beautiful scent they had walked through the night before. She wondered if the garden could possibly be as beautiful in reality as it had seemed then.
    She dressed rapidly and wandered out to take a look. The gardener saw her and grinned. She watched him idly as he pushed the mower slowly up the lawn and then back down towards her again. The flowers were truly magnificent. Huge blooms, so heavy that they pulled their stems downwards towards the ground, were everywhere she looked. It was lush and full-blown, but very beautiful.
    ‘Are you truly awake at last, or am I dreaming?’ a voice asked from one of the windows of the guest-house, and Sara saw Matt leaning out of it, watching her.
    ‘I’m truly awake,’ she assured him. ‘I was just going in to see Marjorie, but I couldn’t resist coming out for a moment to look at the flowers!’
    It was incredible, she thought, how quickly she had fallen into the local habit of calling everyone with a white face by their Christian names. She opened her mouth to say, ‘Mrs. Halifax, I mean,’ but Matt cut her off.
    ‘I’m going to start clearing the air for our return now, nurse,’ he said in brisk, businesslike tones. ‘Joe’s sent the ayah a wire telling her the baby has arrived, and in the meantime he’s found a neighbour to come in and help. She used to be a nurse before she married, so you needn’t look so affronted!’
    Sara licked her lips and swallowed. Affronted indeed! She was merely astonished at the speed with which everything seemed to happen out here.
    ‘I — I—’ she began.
    ‘Joe didn’t know about her last night,’ Matt continued, quite unperturbed by her attempted interruption. ‘I’ve had him phoning up everyone he knows this morning, though. It’s imperative that I get back to Kwaheri today!’
    Because of Julia? she wondered. He might deny that she meant anything to him, but everyone else thought that there was something between them.
    ‘ What time shall we be leaving?’ she asked, hoping that he would know nothing about her bitter disappointment at being torn away from this other half of the estate so quickly, before she had had time to even see it. But Matt appeared to have no difficulty in seeing what she was thinking.
    ‘We’ll be coming