The Beaufort Sisters. Jon Cleary

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      ‘He’s not supposed to be.’

      But Tim was sitting in an armchair on the wide rear porch, a book open on his knees, a pitcher of lemonade on the cane table beside him. Inger, the maid, hovered over him, a Swedish angel who would gladly have fallen if the master had tempted her. Nina had already decided that, if she and Tim had not been leaving, then Inger would have had to go.

      The maid went back into the house and Nina and Margaret sat down on either side of Tim. ‘Who helped you out of bed? Inger Nightingale?’

      ‘Only after she’d given me some Swedish massage. They have some marvellous ways with their hands – ’ He grinned at her, then at Margaret. ‘When you marry, Meg, don’t be jealous of your maids. No husband in his right mind would ever dally so close to home. What do you think of our news?’

      ‘I’m heart-broken. But I think you’re doing the right thing. I just wish you didn’t have to go all that way, to England.’

      Nina picked up the book from his lap. ‘All the King’s Men.’

      ‘I thought it was about your father.’ Then he pressed her hand. ‘Sorry. I shouldn’t make snide remarks like that.’

      She kissed him and went inside to supervise Michael’s lunch. Tim watched her go. ‘I hope she knows what she’s doing, Meg. It’s going to be a bigger wrench for her than she realizes.’

      Tears suddenly sprang into Margaret’s eyes, surprising him: she had always struck him as the least emotional of the sisters. ‘Oh Tim, why did it have to happen?’

      ‘I don’t really know. The fault isn’t all your father’s. Just learn from our mistakes. Be sure the man you marry will be one your father approves of. You may have to wait till the right one comes along, I mean a chap you love who also meets your father’s approval, but it’ll be worth it. Don’t let some chap bugger up things for you the way I have for Nina.’

      ‘You haven’t – buggered up things for her. She loves you – isn’t that all that matters? I just hope I’m as lucky as she is.’

      ‘You’re sweet.’ He put a finger against her cheek. ‘Just take care. You Beaufort girls have got everything in the world but a guarantee of happiness. And nobody has that.’

Chapter Three

       Nina

      1

      By the time the Davorens were ready to leave for England, Lucas had thawed out towards both of them. It was not in his nature to beg forgiveness and he could only go just so far in his rapprochement with them. He left it to Edith to make a last-minute effort to talk Nina and Tim into staying.

      ‘I’m sorry, Mother. I’m glad we’re friends again with Daddy, but I think we need to get away from him. For a while, anyway. Once we’re on the other side of the Atlantic, maybe he’ll learn not to be so possessive.’

      Edith, standing amidst the Sèvres china, the Persian rugs, the silk drapes, said, ‘I feel like a mother must have felt a hundred years ago when her family left her and headed West.’

      Nina laughed, a little too heartily; but it was a good excuse to let out some of the emotion in her. ‘You don’t really think you’re a pioneer woman!’

      Edith had not lost her sense of humour. She looked about her, then laughed and took her daughter, the pioneer sailing for England, in her arms. ‘You know what I mean. I never dreamed I’d be losing any of you – ’

      ‘You’re not losing us, Mother. You’ll just have to get used to the idea that the world has got bigger.’

      Even Lucas, when it came time to say goodbye, conceded that fact. ‘We’re investing overseas – in oil, for a start. I suppose it was inevitable. Can’t get used to it, though. I don’t like the thought of foreigners telling me what I can do with my money.’

      ‘Why are you doing it then?’ said Tim, more at ease with Lucas than Lucas was with him. ‘You don’t need the money.’

      ‘Washington approached us. I never thought I’d be doing that feller Truman a favour, but he is the President, God help us. They want us to expand over there in the Middle East before the Russians get in. Beaufort Oil is going into a place called Abu Sadar on the Persian Gulf.’

      ‘You can stop off and visit us in England when you’re on your way to the Gulf.’

      ‘I won’t be going out there, I’ve got fellers to do that. But Edith and I will come and visit you – ’ He put out his hand, for a moment looked as if he was going to break down and plead with Tim to stay, not to take his favourite daughter away from him. ‘We’ll come whenever you ask us.’

      The departure was a quiet one, with no farewell parties. Nina went round and said goodbye to her friends, discovering only as she was leaving them that none of them was really close to her. Tim went back to the stockyards only once, to say goodbye to Bumper Cassidy, who wished him well and invited him back for the next strike – ‘Next time we’re gonna get what we ask for.’

      Magnus McKea, home now from Europe, glad to have Nuremberg behind him, came to say goodbye to both of them. ‘My father is retiring and I’m taking over the law office. That means I’ll be dealing with your father direct, Nina. If there’s anything – ’

      ‘We’ll let you know if there is, Magnus. Will you handle my funds for me, send money across when we need it?’

      She was alone with McKea for the moment. There was a tacit agreement between her and Tim that they would need her money to live comfortably in England, but she had become self-conscious about it, as if it were some sort of family birthmark better left ignored. She welcomed the idea of Magnus as her own lawyer, even if he was also her father’s.

      Magnus himself was a little dubious. ‘I’m your father’s lawyer first. If there’s any conflict of interest, I’m afraid I’ll have to take his side.’

      ‘We’ll risk that. I’m hoping any disagreement between Daddy and us is over for good.’

      The final farewells were said at home, then George drove them to Union Station. Lucas had decided against a public goodbye, in case there should be a reporter or two waiting. It was as if he saw Nina’s going away as some sort of defeat for himself: he didn’t want it spread across the newspapers for all to see. It was bad enough that people in their own circle knew what had happened, even if they could only guess at the reason for the Davorens’ departure.

      George carried Michael into the station. ‘I’m gonna miss him, Miz Nina.’ Michael, a year old now, laughed without restraint, the only one young enough not to feel the pain of the occasion. ‘Gonna miss you and Mister Tim, too.’

      The Davorens crossed the Atlantic on the Queen Mary, a booking that Nina had sentimentally insisted upon. They spent a month at the Savoy while they looked about for a place in the country. Tim raised no objection to their staying at the hotel, even though Nina was footing the bill; she wondered if he was letting her indulge them before СКАЧАТЬ