Read Orphan Bride Online

Authors: Sara Seale

Orphan Bride (9 page)

BOOK: Orphan Bride
9.08Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

When she said good night to him on
Sunday evening, he remarked:

“I won’t be coming down for a couple of weeks.

“Won’t you?” she said, wondering if she ought to be disappointed.


No. I’m giving you all a rest. I worry you, don’t I, Jennet?”

“Me? Oh, no.” She sounded distressed. “I—I shall be very sorry not to see you.”

He smiled.

“You’re very polite. You mustn’t mind my sharpness
.
I know I’m pretty ill-tempered at times, but I’m quite fond of you, you know.”

“Are you?” She looked surprised.

“Go to bed
!
” He laughed,, and pinched her cheek. “And try not to dream of all the beastly things I’ve ever said to you!”

He wrote to Emily saying that he would be down for the first weekend in April, and
J
ennet, who, despite the discomfort of spirit he often caused her, had missed his more frequent visits, was glad. She
would ask him if she might bring Frankie and the children to Pennycross for tea.

Julian arrived soon after four o’clock. He did not look pleased as he came into the hall and flung his coat and hat on to a chair. His dark face was set in forbidding lines, and as he limped into the living room, Emily, at least, realized he was taut with temper.

“How are you, Julian?” she said, and he answered briefly:

“Quite well, thanks.”

“Good evening, Cousin Julian,” Jennet said.

His eyes ran over her deliberately, and his mouth tightened.

“I don’t think it is a very good evening, Jennet,” he replied. “Kindly tell me where you picked up this young
man.”

Emily looked startled, and Jennet felt herself go white.

“Jennet doesn’t know any young men, dear,” Emily said, before she could answer.

He made an impatient movement with his stick.

“She may have lied to you, Aunt Emily,” he said hardly, “but I’m not going to have her lying to me. I repeat, Jennet, kindly tell me where you picked up this young man.”

She stood, twisting her hands together, and answered in a small voice:

“On the moor.”

“Jennet!” Emily exclaimed, and looked at her more closely.

Jennet turned to her quickly.

“But I didn’t lie to you, Aunt Emily,” she said. “I would have told you if you had ever asked me but—”

“But you took care not to volunteer any information of your own,” said Julian. “How long has this been going on?”

“Since February.”

“February!” He wheeled round on his aunt. “And you advised me to stop away, Aunt Emily, while all the time this—this affair was going on behind my back. Are you quite sure you knew nothing about it?”

Emily regarded him calmly.

“Aren’t you being a little unreasonable?” she asked. “I certainly knew nothing about it.”

“Then you should have made it your business to know,” he replied shortly. “That’s what I brought the girl here for. All these expeditions on the moor—you might have guessed that the attraction was more than a sudden urge for the wide open spaces. I have to hear it from Cornish who, no doubt, has discussed it with the entire village. Who is this man, Jennet, and where do you meet him?”

Jennet felt sick. Julian’s anger seemed out of all proportion.

She tried to explain about Mrs. Thompson’s illness, and about the children, but under his bitter, uncomprehending gaze she faltered. Just as before she had been unable to speak of the children to any of them, so now she could not make them understand that it was not Frankie but the affection which stood for the whole family which she had wanted to keep secret and apart.

Julian listened, sometimes putting in a sharp question, but for the most part his expression was one of grim disbelief until she finally faltered into silence.

“Very worthy and unconvincing,” he said sarcastically. “And now, if you don’t mind, we will return to the young man. He made love to you, I suppose.”

“Love?”
Jennet’s eyes, enormous and bewildered, met his with pleading. “Frankie’s only a boy. He’s nineteen.”

Emily got to her feet.

“I think it would be much better if you left all this until after tea,” she remarked.

“Go and have you tea, Aunt Emily,” he said, trying to control himself. “I mean to get to the bottom of this here and now.”

Left alone with Julian, Jennet faced him in silence and waited miserably for him to speak.

He leant heavily on his stick and said briefly: “Well, I’m waiting.”

“What do you want me to tell you?” she asked.

“I asked you if, this man had made love to you.”

She looked bewildered. She had never thought of love in connection with their tender relationship.
“I told you, Cousin Julian, he’s just a boy,” she said.

He moved impatiently.

“Even a boy of nineteen is capable of puppy love, he said harshly. “Well, answer me, please.”

“I don’t think so.”

His dark eyes were exasperated.

“Don’t you know?” he asked impatiently. “Really, Jennet! I may have taken you straight from an orphanage, but you must have some sort of knowledge of the
world.
Did he kiss you, then?”

She thought of Frankie and his young awkwardness
in
the heather.

I’d rather rest...

“Yes,” she said softly. “Yes, he did.”

“And yet you tell me he didn’t make love to you,” he said
sarcastically, and all at once his anger seemed likely to get beyond control. “Well, it’s going to stop, do you hear
.
You will stop seeing these Thompson people from now on, and if I think you are still meeting this youth on the moor,
I shall tell Aunt Emily not to allow you
out alone. Now is that quite clear?”

The color rushed to her thin cheeks.

“Oh, Cousin Julian, don’t stop me going there
—please
don’t stop me going there,” she cried. “It isn’t Frankie, it’s Mrs. Thompson, the children—and doing things for
them. They’re my friends—the only friends I’ve ever made. Surely it’s natural to have friends—friends of one’s ow
n
age?”

He looked at her with deliberation.

“At your age
,
” he said, “you should have friends of my choosing. What do I know of every Tom, Dick and Harry who may scrape acquaintance with you? You’re only too likely to get mixed up with the wrong people if someone doesn’t check you. I suppose you imagine you’re in love with this young fellow.”

“No,” said Jennet, facing him squarely. “But if I were, why should it matter? It’s natural to fall in love, and I’m not a child.”

He was silent for a moment, and the anger continued to mount in him. He felt
cheated, as though she had deliberately tried to hurt him by attempting to lead a life that he had not ordered.

“Very well,” he said

then
we’ll agree that you were simply obeying natural instincts. But you’ve got to understand me once and for all. I took you away from Blacker’s, I’ve thought for you, planned for you, taken endless trouble to ensure the right environment for you. I’m not going to have all my plans upset by every ridiculous notion of independence you may get into your head. Is that clearly understood?”

“No,” said Jennet in perplexity. “I never have understood why you’ve done all this, Cousin Julian.”

“Because, you little idiot,” said Julian, both pain and temper goading him to the truth, “I mean to marry you myself. Now d
o
you understand?”

There was a long silence. Julian turned abruptly away and prodded at the fire with his stick, while Jennet stood perfectly still, staring at his back.

“You—you’re going to marry me?” she said at last, and her voice sounded wondering, like a child’s.

“That was my idea. I hadn’t intended telling you just yet, but perhaps it’s just as well you should know now.”

“Does Aunt Emily know?” she asked.

“Oh, yes. She agreed to the adoption business purely for my benefit.”

“Then when
you
came to the orphanage to choose one of us—you
knew
,”
she said.

“Yes, I knew—though, naturally, I scarcely told your estimable matron my intentions!”

“Oh, no, no, no!” cried Jennet, and backed away.

He turned then, and the anger had gone out of his face.

“Is the idea so repellent to you?” he asked, a little bitterly. “Do you dislike me?” She shook her head. “After all, I can do a great deal for you, and marriage is as good a career to look forward to as any other.”

“I don’t understand,” she said, and she felt at that moment as young and inexperienced as he would have her believe she was. “I don’t understand why you, who must know so many women, came to an orphanage to choose a wife. It sounds crazy.”

“Not so crazy,” he retorted with a sudden sardonic smile. “I haven’t been lucky with women to date. They expect too much, and give too little. It didn’t seem unreasonable to suppose that by using a little common sense one might select and achieve one’s own results. Now, do you understand, Jennet, why I’ve seemed to you critical, watchful? You’ve been a very important experiment to
me.”

She felt very tired and very bewildered.

“But why—why did you have to pick me?” she cried.

He smiled.

“Perhaps because you were different from the others—perhaps out of perversity, because you didn’t want to come with me,” he said. “You didn’t, did you, Jennet?”

“No.”

“I wonder why. The orphanage can’t have been a very
attractive alternative.”

“When,” asked Jennet in a very small voice, “do you
want to m-marry me?”

“Oh, in a year or so, when you’re older.” He laughed and held out a hand. His anger seemed to have gone.

“Come here.”

She advanced slowly, and he put his hand under her
chin, raising her face to his.


You are only a child, after all,” he said, an
d the
firs
hint of tenderness she had known in him touched his
mouth. “Run away and forget all about it for another
year.

Her eyes filled with tears and she began to tremble.

“I’ll never understand you
,
” she said, and breaking
away from him she ran blindly from the room.

J
ulian suddenly felt he had been standing for a long
time, and he sat down wearily by the fire and filled a pipe.

He felt no inclination to join Emily and Homer at the tea-table, and presently they returned, Emily glancing at him a little curiously.

“Where’s
J
ennet?” she asked.

“Upstairs, I think. She was a little upset. I told her why we’d brought her here.”

Emily considered, then she nodded.

“Perhaps it was the wisest thing,” she remarked. “It’s best to grow up with an idea.
That should stop this other foolish nonsense.”

“That will stop, anyhow,” said Julian with
a brief return to his old manner. “Jennet quite understands now.”

Emily glanced at him over her needles.

“I shouldn’t be too drastic, Julian. The girl needs a little change—and companionship!

Julian raised an eyebrow.

“I’ll see that she has companionship—mine.” he said.

I’ll avail myself of that old invitation, Aunt Emily, I think, and when I come next week-end, I’ll stop for a week or so. Did you really know nothing about this affair?

“No.” Emily shook her head.

“I knew,” said Homer. “I knew all along
.”

Emily looked at him sharply.

“Then why didn’t you tell me?” she demanded, and added with a smile: “How could you know, Homer? You never go out.”


They
told me,

he said quite simply.

Julian smiled.

“They tell you a lot of things after they’ve happened, don’t They, Homer?” he said with tolerant amusement.

Homer looked at him over his spectacles.

“You could have seen it for yourself, Julian, if you’d only looked,” he said gently. “There was something about her, you know.”

Julian was silent, remembering the day he had met her running home. There had been something about her then.

“How did she take your information?
” E
mily asked with faint curiosity.

BOOK: Orphan Bride
9.08Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Red Crystal by Clare Francis
The Pet Shop by K D Grace
Bill's New Frock by Anne Fine
The Secret Side of Empty by Maria E. Andreu
In the Evil Day by Temple, Peter
Protecting Her Child by Debby Giusti
Los Bufones de Dios by Morris West