Read Online Lace by Shirley Conran - Free Book Online

simply sent to
Gstaad instead of Roue.”
    “That reminds me,” Pagan said, lying quickly, “Matron asked me to tell you to go to the post office, Francesca. There’s a parcel waiting there for you with three francs
to pay on it.”
    Francesca squealed in anticipation, paid her bill and rushed off.
    “I couldn’t stand much more of her,” Pagan said loudly.
    “Neither could I,” said the tiny waitress. Pagan turned around and suddenly realised that the girl in the traditional Swiss costume was the girl she had rescued on the mountain. Her
short blond hair looked as if it had been hacked with a pair of kitchen scissors, which it had. Gravely she said, “You saved my life . . .”
    “. . . I’m glad you realise that!” snapped Kate.
    “. . . and you’ve broken your arm!”
    “No, only sprained the shoulder,” said Pagan. “Are
you
all right?”
    “Hardly a scratch, but I was really frightened. My knees wobbled for hours afterward. I don’t know what to say except thank you. I know I shouldn’t have rushed off . .
.”
    “It’s okay, Nick explained,” Pagan said.
    “
You
may be all right,” Kate snapped, “but Pagan wasn’t. She fainted, and her poor hand as well as her shoulder were torn to bits. She was kept in bed for two
days.”
    “Shut up, Kate, what’s the point of making her feel guilty? After all, she didn’t fall off the cliff on purpose.”
    “I didn’t even fall off. The ground gave way beneath me. But I was almost more worried about being late on duty than ending up a corpse.”
    “Well, let’s forget it,” said Pagan, embarrassed. “Hey, look who’s arrived!”
    She waved to Nick, who had just opened the heavy carved oaken door. He waved back, ducking his head to pass under a low beam, blackened by hundreds of years of smoke from the hearth. The Chesa
was older than the rest of the hotel and had once been a seventeenth-century farmhouse, with walls as thick as an arm’s length.
    “I can’t talk anymore,” said Judy, “but Nick and I are off on Sundays and we’d love to meet you properly—and thank you properly. And I’ve got something
for you.”
    She hastily refilled the cups with hot chocolate and dashed off with her tray as Nick gazed after her, clearly besotted.
    The following Sunday afternoon the Chesa door burst open and a blast of cold air came in with Judy, followed by Nick. She was wearing her Sunday uniform of blue jeans rolled up
to midcalf, saddle oxfords, white socks and an American navy pea jacket. She looked around, then beamed when she saw the girls.
    “Hi there!” she called. She presented Pagan with a large gift-wrapped box tied with white satin ribbon. Inside was a pair of scarlet knitted knee socks with leather soles. Pagan was
delighted. “They match my red silk sling,” she said, insisting that Kate put them on her immediately.
    Maxine turned to Judy. “Why did your parents send you to the language laboratory and not one of the finishing schools?”
    “They didn’t send me anywhere. I didn’t tell them I was entering for the exchange scholarship, because I never thought I’d win it—and when I did my mom was furious.
She thought that fifteen was too young to leave home and anyway she can’t understand why I want to learn foreign languages, but our minister persuaded her that I ought to use the talent that
the good Lord gave me.” She grinned. “The pastor of the Lutheran church here is supposed to keep an eye on me. He seems to think I’m going to be an African missionary so
I’ll need French and German for the heathens of the Belgian Congo and East Africa.”
    “And aren’t you?” Maxine carefully smoothed the skirt of her best tangerine dress, which she was wearing because Nick was, after all, twenty-five percent her date.
    “No, I’m going to Paris,” said Judy in a firm voice.
    “Alone? Will your parents let you go alone?”
    “They won’t know. I’ll tell them when I get there after I’ve got a job.