Rule Britannia by Maurier Daphne Du

Author:Maurier, Daphne Du [Maurier, Daphne Du]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Dystopia, Political, Alternative History, Novel
Publisher: Little, Brown & Co.
Published: 1972-01-16T02:00:00+00:00

13

It started blowing hard during the night, and by the time it was light a force seven gale was in progress. Slates clattered down from the roof, a tree fell in the shrubbery, the rain seeped in at the spare room window, and when Emma went to take her father an early cup of tea she found him sitting up in the four-poster bed, shielding himself from the draft with an open umbrella.

“The appalling discomforts of this house,” he complained. “I haven’t slept a wink since six, I don’t know how you endure it. Why don’t you come back with me to London? I could take you on as secretary in my office, or as a P.A. I could do with a P.A., with all the pressure. We could fly together to Zurich…” He sipped his tea thirstily, like somebody deprived of sustenance for more than twenty-four hours. “Sit on my bed, I don’t see enough of you.”

Emma perched cross-legged at the end of the bed that in days long past had been the central feature of one of her grandfather’s most successful comedies, in which Mad, naturally enough, had played the lead. The long run over, she had bought it for sentimental reasons.

“You know I can’t leave Mad,” she said, “especially now, since all this hullabaloo. I do exercise a little restraint, though I admit not much.”

“Then both of you come,” he urged. “Plenty of room at the flat, I’m out all day, she can do just as she likes, walk in Kensington Gardens, feed the ducks, go to the Zoo…”

“Pa, darling,” Emma protested, “Mad isn’t Ben. Honestly… Far from walking in Kensington Gardens she would be more likely to stage a one-woman demo in front of the American Embassy or the Houses of Parliament. Chain herself to railings, or whatever suffragettes did at the beginning of the century.”

“No problem,” said Pa, filling up his cup, “no problem. Certify her as being irresponsible, a menace to society. There’s a wonderful place in Surrey, food out of this world, color TV in every bedroom. Bobby Wilborough’s old mother is there, gives no trouble…”

“Pa, you know you wouldn’t!” Emma hit her father’s leg under the bedclothes, making him spill his tea on the eiderdown.

“Now look what you’ve done!” he exclaimed. “Dottie will think I have a shaky hand. What’s the matter with her, incidentally? Not the usual welcome. I suppose Mad gives her slave wages and expects to be waited on hand and foot. Her cooking’s gone off too, the fish last night was only fit for the cat.”

“Oh, no…” His daughter hit him again.

“Well, perhaps not the cat… The trouble is that standards become lower every mile you travel west, I’ve noticed it for years. Passable in Hampshire, shaky in Wiltshire, doubtful in Dorset, on the definite down-grade in Devon, and once you cross the Tamar you might as well be in Tibet—in fact, I would think conditions are superior in Tibet, especially with the Chinese in control.”

Emma flounced off the bed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.