Poinciana Road by Margaret Way

Author:Margaret Way [Way, Margaret]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

Her father had not gone to bed as Mallory had supposed or, closer to the mark, hoped. Her father’s lack of love for her had worn her down. She found him sitting in Uncle Robert’s favourite wingback chair, which she resented. He was nursing a crystal brandy snifter overfilled with the finest cognac.

“Ah, there you are my dear.” Nigel James turned his handsome, silver-streaked dark head towards her. He couldn’t and wouldn’t tell her she looked beautiful, so much acrimony and bitter resentment was in him. She looked flushed. He might even say, enraptured. Ah, Forrester, the local king of the heap! She was wearing her dark golden mane loose, increasing her stunning resemblance to her mother. Mallory was a very stylish creature. Just like his treacherous Claudia. “Lover boy gone?” he asked in his bitingly mocking voice.

Don’t let him upset you. You’re used to him by now.

Only tonight Mallory found her father’s manner appallingly offensive. “I thought you’d be in bed,” she murmured. He wouldn’t find Rachael cuddled up waiting for him. She now had a clear sense of his vengeful, frustrated, angry mood.

“I daresay Rachael confided we had a little tiff.” A sharp dismissive flip of the hand signalled his current feelings for Rachael, who had actually dared to remonstrate him. “Sanctimonious old bag took exception to the way I behaved today. Bloody cheek of the woman. What would she know? I should never have brought her.”

“So why did you?”

“What?” He reared back in his chair as though she had asked a highly impertinent question.

“It had a good outcome at least,” Mallory said. “Rachael saw you in your true colours, Father.”

Affront altered the composition of his hard, handsome face. “You bloody well amaze me, Mallory! Who are you to talk about seeing people in their true colours? When did you ever see through my dear brother?”

Mallory remained standing, though little tremors were running down her legs. Was there no end to this awful day? “All I ever saw from Uncle Robert was love and endless kindness.”

Two brothers.

Polar opposites.

Nigel James almost choked getting his words out. “Are you going to shut up so I can tell you the truth?”

Mallory remained outwardly calm and collected. “Please don’t shout at me, Father. This isn’t your house. This is my house, you understand? Anyway, you wouldn’t know the truth if it fell out of the sky and bounced off your arrogant head. When have you ever tackled your fatherly duties? You abandoned me almost from the day my mother died. How does that make you feel about yourself? You have no heart. There’s no direct line between your heart and your brain. The only person who matters to you is yourself. You can’t abide the slightest criticism without flying into a rage. You demand constant admiration. No, make that adulation. Rachael is a smart woman. I believe she has broken free. My mother didn’t. You crushed the life out of her before she was ever hit by that car.”

Enraged, Nigel James

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