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much.
As they got deeper into the countryside it stopped raining and a rainbow
broke; watery, shimmering, a blue sky behind it. The fields were full of ripe,
golden wheat and barley just being harvested; they passed several machines
trundling back and forth behind the berried hedges. Black wings flapped
above the tumbling barley; crows following the harvester and watching for
disturbed mice and perhaps a baby rabbit. Donna frowned, looking away.
She didn't like crows. Ominous birds.
She glanced over her shoulder at her brother who was also staring out of the
window. Gavin was wrapped in thought; not very happy thought, from his
drawn face.
'How does it feel to be back?' asked Brodie, abruptly.
She started, looking at him. 'Odd. Like going to 'he dentist.'
'You'll feel better once it's over,' he deduced, a wry smile curving his mouth.
'Does my father know we're coming?'
'No, I decided not to tell him anything in case I didn't get Gavin back here.'
'You thought he might bolt again before we arrived?'
'It occurred to me.'
It had occurred to her, too, and she was relieved that her brother hadn't
slipped off before they got into the car.
'That's really why you insisted that I came, wasn't it?' she said, watching his
profile. It had a carved authority in the afternoon light. He wasn't smiling;
he could have been a statue.
'One reason,' he admitted drily. 'I thought it might make sure Gavin actually
went home.'
'What were the other reasons?'
His eyes slid sideways, a glint in them. 'I'll tell you when we're alone.'
Her nerves jumped. What did he mean by that? 'I can't stay long.' she said
hurriedly. 'I have to be in Lyons next weekend, remember.'
Brodie's face changed, the smile going, a harsh frown taking its place. 'You
can't be serious!' His voice was curt. 'I don't believe you're having an affair
with that little creep.'
'I didn't say I was yet,' said Donna, finding it ridiculously hard to lie to
him.
He shot her a hard look. 'And you're not going to!'
The peremptory tone made her bristle. 'That's my decision, not yours.'
'We'll see about that,' he muttered, turning into the drive of her father's
house. She hadn't even noticed that they were almost there, she had been too
absorbed in arguing with Brodie.
'You'll mind your own business,' she told him through her teeth, staring at
the house ahead of them. It was a simple late Georgian house with a classic
façade: flat windows, a columned portico, the local pargeting on the stucco
covering the bricks, in a pattern of curved lines.
'I'm not letting you go,' Brodie said, and hot colour stung her face.
'You're not letting me go? I don't remember asking for your permission it's
nothing to do with you who I sleep with.'
He pulled up outside the house with a screech of tyres on gravel and swung
round towards her, rage in his face. She had never seen him that angry
before; she had never seen the usual calm of his face broken by such
violence. It made her flinch, as if she thought he was going to hit her.
Then he turned away and got out of the car, slamming the door with a thud
that made the glass in the windows rattle.
Gavin whistled. 'Hey, what's up with him?'
She looked round and her brother was very pale; trying to smile, to hide his
nerves.
'Come on, Gavin, let's go in together,' she said, smiling at him. 'Father
doesn't know anything yet, Brodie says so let me tell him later. Don't you
say anything to him.'
Gavin groaned. 'I couldn't if J tried. I've been sitting here all the way from
Heathrow, wondering what to say.'
'Just leave it to me,' soothed Donna. She was afraid that even at this late
stage, Gavin might bolt for it.
Brodie was under the portico, ringing the front doorbell. By the time Gavin
and Donna joined him, the door was opening. Their father's housekeeper,
Mrs Eyre, looked incredulously at Donna.
'Good heavens!' she exclaimed.
'Hallo, Mrs Eyre. How are you?'
'Well, I never,' the woman babbled, laughing. 'Oh, I'm fine, your father
didn't tell me you were coming, Donna he must be getting absent-minded.
Don't you look brown? No need to ask how you are. I can see. I'd say your
hair's fairer than it used to be too; bleached by the sun, I suppose. I've never
been to France. Is it very hot there? Good heavens, this i s . . . well, I'm
speechless. It's been such a long time. You've changed, yes, you have. But
it's lovely to see you again. Come in, come in, we mustn't stand here all day,
your father will be wanting to see you.'
Donna wasn't so sure about that. Brodie had just brought the cases from the
car; his ironic eyes met hers as she glanced away from the housekeeper's
excited face.
Attracted by the commotion in the hall, James Cowley suddenly came out of
his study at the far end, pulling his glasses off, his eyes irritated.
'Really, Mrs Eyre! What is all the noise? You know I can't work with ...' His
voice broke off as he recognised his daughter. 'Donna?' he whispered, as if
unable to believe his eyes.
She hadn't expected to be so overthrown by seeing him. He looked older
than she had remembered, older than she had feared. His hair had gone quite
white, his face was thin and lined, and he looked ill. She could see the [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]