Reluctant Relation (6 page)

CHAPTER
FOUR

“
Why, father, how wonderful!” Meg hugged and kissed her father in astonishment and joy. “How on earth did this happen? I thought you were miles away.”

“We were for the early part of our honeymoon. But, as you know, we decided just to drive wherever our fancy took us, and we followed the good weather north. Then Claire suggested we drop in on her brother in Newcastle, as I’d never met him. When we saw him last night, he told us, to our astonishment, that you were here and that he knew you quite well.”

“I could hardly believe it.” Claire took up the tale, but she glanced at Meg with curiosity rather than friendliness, and it was obvious that the discovery had not especially pleased her. “I had no idea that you and, Leigh had even met.”

“We hadn’t until a few days ago.” Meg made herself greet Claire with cordiality. “I expect he explained what happened.
”

“Not in much detail. Something to do with you and 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, particularly if one were to go out to lunch in Claire’s company
.

However, it was obvious that to her father she could not have looked more attractive. He gave her an affectionate little squeeze as they went out to the car, and he insisted that she share the wide front seat with him and Claire.

The proximity to Claire was a little embarrassing. But it was lovely to feel her father’s affection for her undiminished, particularly as he seemed completely unaware of any lack of sympathy between his young wife and his daughter.

Nice men are obtuse
, thought Meg indulgently.
But so long as she’s decent to him and makes him happy, I really don’t care how she feels about me.

Largely owing to Dr. Greenway’s pride in his two companions, the lunch was extremely pleasant and he saw to it that they got away again in good time. Evidently he did not intend this to be the last he saw of his daughter.

“What sort of hours are you working?” he wanted to know, as they headed for Newcastle once more. “Is this job of yours an unofficial one or a completely straightforward engagement?”

“In most ways, it could hardly be more unofficial,” Meg assured him with a laugh. “But I’m definitely in charge of Pearl, and to that extent, I suppose my hours are 24 out of 24.”

“But surely you can get away sometimes in the evening?” her father protested.

“Oh, I expect so. Her mother doesn’t seem to go out much in the evenings, at any rate, while she’s working so hard on this film. And then, of course, there’s the French maid, Cecile. If I did want to go out one evening—”

“ We’ll want to get together more than one evening, if possible,” Dr. Greenway declared. “Perhaps we might make a foursome of and include Leigh, eh Claire?”

Claire said that Leigh made his own social arrangements, to which her husband said, “Of course, of course. But families should get together sometimes.”

Neither of the girls questioned this sentiment, but neither of them expressed enthusiasm for its application in their own case.

But when they reached the hospital, telephone numbers were exchanged and there was a general agreement that they would meet again very soon. Inexpressibly happy to have found that the bond between herself and her father seemed to be as strong as ever, Meg bade them goodbye and went into the hospita
l
.

Something of her happiness must have lingered with her and given her eyes a special sparkle, for as soon as Pearl saw her she exclaimed,

“How pretty you look! Has something nice happened?”

“Yes, it has, as a matter of fact.” Meg laughed and kissed Pearl.

“Apart from my coming home, do you mean?”

“Are you coming home?”

“Yes, the nurse just came in to tell me so.”

“Oh, then everything is perfect!” Meg declared. “And my news is that my father came to see me today, and will be staying in this part of the country for a little while.”

“Did she come too?” inquired Pearl delicately.

“My stepmother, you mean? Yes, of course. They’re still on their honeymoon.”

“Oh. Is she any nicer?”

Immediately Meg found herself regretting those candid comments she had made when the little girl had first inquired about her circumstances.

“Yes, yes, certainly. Everything’s all right now,” Meg declared hastily.

“I’m so glad,” said Pearl. And then Leigh Sontigan arrived to collect them.

His greeting to Pearl contained just the right degree of casual affection, Meg had to admit to herself. Nothing in the least emotional about it, but there was no doubting his pleasure in seeing her.

“Well, Pearl of great price—” he ruffled her hair “—are you ready?”

“Yes. I can go whenever I like,” Pearl declared. “And ... isn’t it
nice? ...
Meg’s had a visit from her father, and she’s very happy about it, aren’t you, Meg? And even her horrid stepmother was kind.”

“You don’t say!” Leigh looked amused, while Meg found herself blushing hotly.

“When I first met Meg,” began Pearl, “she told me—”

“Darling, I don’t think Mr. Sontigan wants to hear about me and my family,” Meg interrupted hastily.

“Of course he does.” Leigh shot her a wicked smile. “Particularly as it happens to be my family too. The horrid stepmother is my sister, Pearl.”

“But—” Pearl’s pretty mouth fell open “—she can’t be, if she’s horrid.”

“Thank you, my child, for the charming implication.” He laughingly kissed the tip of her ear. “But perhaps she can’t be horrid, after all, if she’s my sister.”

“Well—
”
Pearl looked doubtfully at Meg.

“Never mind, love.” Meg had recovered herself. “Relations by marriage don’t always have to like each other devotedly.” She glanced coolly at Leigh, as though to emphasize the particular application of this statement.

“Don’t you think so?” He rubbed his chin reflectively.

“Certainly not! The important thing is simply to be pleasant and civilized to each other. And as I told you, Pearl—” she turned to the little girl again “—everything went very well when I saw my father and Claire this morning. So I think we can consider the subject satisfactorily disposed of.”

“Admirably put,” Leigh said lightly. “Are you both ready to go?”

They were both ready to go. After settling one or two details in connection with Pearl’s discharge from the hospital, they all went out to Leigh’s car.

“I think we’ll give you the back seat to yourself,” Leigh told Pearl. “I’ve brought plenty of cushions, so we can fix you up comfortably. Then Meg—” Meg’s eyebrows rose “—can sit in front with me. How’s that?”

Pearl thought it was splendid, so Meg had no chance to suggest any other arrangement.

At first Pearl was very talkative, but after a while the motion of the car made her sleepy. Interjections from the back seat grew less and less frequent and finally ceased altogether. Glancing back, Meg saw that her eyes were closed.

“She’s asleep,
”
Meg said softly.

“I thought she’d probably go off.” Leigh smiled. “I suspect she had a pretty broken night, in a strange bed and with her arm hurting. The less she excites herself now, the better.”

His tone was so genuinely concerned that Meg was just about to say something congratulatory when, on an entirely different note, he observed, “So you don’t like my sister any more than you like me?”

“I haven’t
said ...
Really, do we have to discuss this?” she exclaimed impatiently.

“Well, it’s a topic that concerns us both,” he pointed out, though good-humoredly.

“It’s an embarrassing one for me, as you must know,” she retorted. “Of course I wouldn’t have said anything to Pearl, in the beginning, if I’d had the slightest idea she would know the people concerned. She was rather ghoulishly interested to hear I had a stepmother, and wanted to know if I liked her.”

“And you said you didn’t?”

“Mr. Sontigan,” Meg spoke dryly, “Claire doesn’t very much like me. She’s perfectly entitled to feel that way, and I might say it doesn’t affect me in the least, so long as she is fond of my father and makes him happy. It’s obvious that she does make him happy, and that’s all that concerns me. I don’t have to like her and she doesn’t have to like me. But I can see no profit in discussing the fact or emphasizing the gap between us.”

“All right.” He turned his head for a moment, to give her that quick, flashing smile which always slightly disturbed her. “But as we’re likely to see a lot of each other now—”

“What makes you think that?” she inquired quickly.

“Blind intuition,” he told her, still with that smile. And, as she did not choose to discuss this absurd statement, they drove the rest of the way in silence.

When they reached home, Meg had to rouse her little charge, who whimpered rather fretfully and said that her arm hurt.

“Never mind, sweetheart. Let’s get you into the house, and we’ll all have tea. That will make you feel better,” Leigh assured her.

Mrs. Parker’s exclamations of sympathy and woe did much to restore Pearl, and as soon as tea was produced, she cheered up completely.

They had hardly finished when Felicity and Cecile returned. Felicity gave a pretty exhibition of motherly concern over the child, and in the expansiveness of the moment kissed Leigh too, presumably for his part in conveying Pearl safely back home. He took it with a faintly cynical smile. But Pearl opened her eyes very wide and asked with artless candor,

“Is everything all right again?”

“How do you
mean ...
everything, darling?” Her mother patted her head. “It’s lovely to have you home, if that’s what you mean, and of course no one is going to scold you for running out into the traffic now.”

“No. I didn’t mean that.” Pearl dismissed her own affairs airily. “I mean did you kiss Leigh because we’re all friends again?”

For a moment even Felicity looked slightly nonplussed. Then she laughed and said, “You quaint child! I suppose that describes the situation. We’re friends again. Note the exact word, Leigh.” And she turned to him, with a slight but significant smile.

“I note it. In the strict sense of having observed that you used the word,” he replied dryly. “No more.”

“What does that mean?” She tossed her head.

“Whatever you like to make of it,” he retorted. “I must be going now.”

He kissed Pearl and bade Felicity a casual goodbye. Then, as he came up to Meg, he paused a moment and said, “I don’t know what arrangements your father and my sister are making, but I shall see you soon.”

“Perhaps.” Meg was deliberately noncommittal.

Then he went away, and Felicity asked with frank curiosity, “What did Leigh mean by that? He seems full of cryptic remarks this afternoon.”

Meg explained briefly about the visit of her father and Claire, and Felicity said vaguely, “How lovely.”

But as she dismissed the matter from her mind in favor of paying some real attention to Pearl at last, Meg very easily forgave her.

She could not decide whether Felicity really had some time to spare from her work for once or whether she had been genuinely shaken by Pearl’s accident. Whatever the reason, she devoted a lot of time to her little girl that evening. And so charming was she about it that, in spite of all previous demonstrations to the contrary, Meg actually found herself thinking that perhaps Felicity was a devoted mother after all.

She even went upstairs to say goodnight to Pearl, and when Meg went out into the garden to collect the chairs, since it looked as though it might rain later, she heard Pearl’s delighted laughter floating from the window of her bedroom.

While Meg was out there, Dick arrived and, with casual efficiency, relieved her of her task.

“Let me take those.” He expertly folded and stacked two or three chairs and carried them toward the garden shed, while she followed with an assortment of cushions.

“So you got Pearl home all right?” he said, when he had fitted everything in.

“Yes. How did you know?”

“I dropped in at Leigh’s place for a drink, and he’d just got back. By the way, I met your father there.”

“Did you?” She smiled and looked pleased.

“And your stepmother, of course.”

“Oh, Claire. Hadn’t you met her before?”

“No. I gather she lived in the south, even before she married your father. And in any case, we haven’t known Leigh all that long, you know.”

“No?”

“About three or four months.”

“I see.”

“In fact—” he glanced thoughtfully at Meg as they went into the house once more “—I don’t think she knows anything about Felicity’s engagement.”

There was a slight question in his tone, so that Meg said, with dry reassurance, “She certainly doesn’t know about it through me.”

“Tactful girl.” Dick smiled and patted her arm. “I don’t think he’d been very communicative either. Which is just as well, considering the way things turned out. Since the whole business is over now, the less said about it the better.”

“I’m sure,” agreed Meg, resisting a desire to say that Leigh’s affairs of the heart had no interest for her in any case.

Felicity came downstairs just as Dick was pouring drinks. As he brought her a glass of her favorite sherry, he said, “You’re engaged for next Tuesday evening. Don’t make any other dates that night.”

“I won’t.” She sipped her sherry absently. “Is it something nice?”

“Oh, nice enough. It’s good publicity. You’re going to the Northern Charities Ball in Newcastle. Miss Greenway’s coming too.”

“Am I?” Meg looked astonished. “How do you know I am?”

“Because I’ve arranged it all.” Dick smiled at her, in a winning way which made him look like his sister. “Quite a family party of us. I’ve roped in your father and stepmother. And Leigh, of course,” he added as an afterthought.

“But I’ve nothing suitable to wear!” Meg explained. “And anyway, what about Pearl?”

“Cecile will look after Pearl. And of course you can get hold of something to wear. Women always can. Don’t you like parties?”

“In some circumstances, yes, of course. But honestly, I haven’t anything for a really elegant occasion, even if the things I’ve sent for arrive in time. I didn’t anticipate anything of this sort and—”

“That’s not a major problem,” put in Felicity, with a smile. “I can lend you whatever you want.”

“But, Miss Manners,
I ...
how terribly kind of you ... I don’t know that I can possibly—”