Read Online Reluctant Relation by Mary Burchell - Free Book Online Page A

Felicity Manners’ child, wasn’t it? He spoke as though he knew you really well.”
    “Well, that was a slight exaggeration,” replied Meg lightly. And, turning back to her father, she asked eagerly how long they were staying.
    “In the district? Several days, I think, though we may move around a bit. I understand I might find some good fishing along the Coquet or the Wansbeck, and Claire will be glad to see her brother, I’m sure.”
    “Yes, indeed. I think I’ve had my eye off him too long.” Claire laughed as she said that. But something in her manner suggested to Meg that there was a slight barb in her little joke.
    Since she had no way of telling how much Claire was in her brother’s confidence, Meg kept her own counsel about Leigh’s affairs. Presently her father suggested that she have lunch with them at a country hotel less than ten miles away which was, Claire had assured him, famous for its salmon lunches.
    “I’d love to! But I must be in Newcastle before three o’clock,” Meg explained.
    “Why?” inquired Claire flatly.
    “Because I’ve undertaken to collect Pearl from hospital if she’ s well enough to travel.”
    “I don’t expect half an hour one way or another would matter,” Claire shrugged.
    “Yes. I’m afraid it would. L ... your brother promised to drive Pearl and me home to Purworth. He said he would be at the hospital about three. I don’t think I should keep him waiting. I’m sure he’s a busy person.”
    “Leigh said he would collect you?” There was distaste as well as astonishment in Claire’s tone.
    But Meg’s father laughed and said, “Using the family connections to the best advantage? Quite right too, in an inaccessible place like this!”
    “It wasn’t that at all!” Meg spoke quickly and emphatically. “Leigh—” she simply could not go on saying “your brother,” however remote and annoyed Claire might look “—is a good friend of Pearl’s mother. It was she who made the arrangement yesterday evening.”
    “Oh, Leigh was here yesterday evening?” Claire seized on that quickly.
    “Yes, he was.”
    “Just visiting?”
    “No. He brought me home from Newcastle, after Pearl’s accident. The whole thing was rather upsetting, and I must admit I wasn’t anxious to wait for a bus. Besides, as I said, he knows Pearl’s mother well. I think he felt he could explain better than I could.”
    “I see.” Claire’s tone was reflective.
    But at this point her husband intervened with goodhumored insistence, to point out that if they were all going to lunch together, it was time they started.
    “The place we’re thinking of is roughly in the direction of Newcastle, so you won’t be wasting time. And afterwards we’ll take you to the hospital,” he told Meg. “Claire and I are staying in Newcastle anyway for the moment.”
    Claire also made a display of wanting Meg to come to lunch with them, so Meg went out into the kitchen to explain to Mrs. Parker.
    “Your dad, you say? He’s a nice-looking man. A gentleman,” Mrs. Parker observed approvingly. “She’s never your mam, surely?”
    “Oh, no! She’s my stepmother.”
    “I thought she must be. With that hat,” added Mrs. Parker somewhat enigmatically.
    “What’s wrong with her hat?” inquired Meg curiously. She freely admitted to herself that Claire’s hat could hardly have b e en more becoming.
    “I’ve never seen one like it before.” Mrs. Parker pressed her lips together and shook her head.
    “Well, I don’t know that I have either.” Meg was amused. “But it’s very smart, don’t you think?”
    “Oh, yes. It’s smart. It’s a ‘look at me, do’ sort of hat.” Mrs. Parker explained. And with another shake of her head she went back to her work.
    Meg was still laughing as she left the kitchen. But she found herself wishing that the rest of her luggage, for which she had sent, would have arrived. It was difficult living in what one had been able to get into a knapsack,