Read Online The Persian Price by Evelyn Anthony - Free Book Online

didn’t appreciate, especially since the old man was short of money. He would have preferred to buy his own desk and not be milked for loans in later years that were never going to be repaid.
    Eileen went upstairs to the top floor. There was a little white painted gate, secured by a safety latch. Its purpose was to keep Lucy from toddling to the stairs and falling down them, but it always seemed to Eileen as if it were meant to keep her out.
    She opened the nursery door and went in. It was a pink and white room, overdecorated and clinically neat. Toys were ranged along one wall, repeating the colour scheme; pink and white fairies danced in friezes round the room. The nanny was sitting down, sewing. When she saw Eileen she got up, smiling and distant, as if she were welcoming a visitor.
    â€˜Oh, good evening, Mrs Field. Did you have a good journey – we weren’t expecting you back so soon.’
    â€˜No, it seemed pointless to stay on. I could have been there for ages. Where’s Lucy?’
    â€˜She’s asleep,’ the nanny said.
    Eileen walked to the night nursery door and opened it. She didn’t look at the older woman or say anything. She went inside.
    â€˜Please, Mrs Field,’ she heard the voice behind her. ‘Don’t wake the child. Surely in the morning …’
    â€˜She’s not asleep,’ Eileen said. ‘Close the door please, Nanny.’
    She switched on the light and the little girl sitting up in the pink and white bed held out her arms.
    Eileen was in her room unpacking when there was a knock on the door.
    â€˜Madam! There you are now, I’m sorry I was out!’
    Bridget Hagan’s family had worked at Meath for generations. Her father was Eileen’s groom when she was a child. She was a sturdy, cheerful girl of twenty-six, and she had worked for Eileen for five years.
    â€˜You’re looking tired,’ she said. ‘Did you have a horrible journey? Let me do that, Madam; I’ll put everything away.’
    â€˜It was tiring, Biddy. And I don’t like flying anyway. Today’s your day off, isn’t it?’
    â€˜Sure and there’s the Prince of Wales waiting to take me out tonight! I can go off any time. Shall I get some tea for you?’
    â€˜No thanks. Biddy, I’m going to need your help. I’m giving Nanny notice tomorrow morning.’
    Bridget’s face cracked into a huge smile.
    â€˜Thank God for that! Wait till Mario and Marianna hear about it! The old hag – won’t she be mad?’
    â€˜Biddy, will you help me look after Lucy? I’m not going to get anyone like her again. I want the baby to myself.’
    â€˜High time too, Madam,’ the girl agreed. ‘What about Mr Field – what’ll he say?’
    Eileen hesitated.
    â€˜He’s very busy in Iran at the moment. I haven’t bothered him about it.’
    â€˜Don’t you worry,’ Bridget said. ‘I’ll do everything I can for Lucy. I’ve always wanted to get me hands on her and the old gorgon wouldn’t even let me in the nursery!’ She smiled at Eileen and started unpacking and hanging up her clothes.
    She didn’t feel hungry, but Bridget fussed over her, bringing a tray into the library. It was a small, comfortable room, with an air of casual elegance that costs so much money to achieve. There were photographs of herself and Lucy and a big portrait study of Logan, which was often reproduced in newspapers. Seven years of marriage to a man who had become a stranger. He had another woman now, a woman who could share his passion for business and stand on equal terms with him. Eileen had never been his equal or his partner; she had come low on his list of priorities and accepted it; she wasn’t sure how high even Lucy rated when it came to Imperial Oil. He could never have said, like James, ‘If you need me, I’ll come back.’
    It would have been easy to cable, to call the