Tabitha in Moonlight by Betty Neels

Author:Betty Neels
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1976-11-27T05:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

THE MORNING had begun for Tabitha with no inkling of the shattering blow she was to be dealt later in the day. True, it was raining, but that hadn’t mattered in the least, for once the invalids were attended to and helped downstairs, they were left to plan the following day’s outing, and Marius was free to fulfil his promise to show Muriel and Tabitha over his home. They had explored it thoroughly and lightheartedly, peeping into his own rather austere room and then into the room below Tabitha’s—a very splendid room indeed with a walnut four-poster bed hung with muted pinks and blues and a carpet as deep and soft as moss under their feet. It had a vast fitted wardrobe along one wall and several very comfortable chairs. The dressing table, between the windows, was inlaid with Dutch marquetry and held a silver-framed winged mirror; Tabitha could imagine how delightful it would be to sit before it, brushing her hair with a silver-backed brush to match the mirror… There was a very modern bathroom too, hidden behind another door so that its streamlined perfection did nothing to detract from the old-world charm of the bedroom. Across the landing was the one-time nursery, small and cosy and as Marius laughingly explained, quite inadequate. ‘This was used by my youngest sister, she was born several years after us—we had your room, Muriel.’

‘Which you plan to use, Marius?’ Muriel had asked the question which Tabitha had longed to put herself; she waited for his answer, wondering if he had minded.

‘That question’s a little previous, isn’t it?’ He was laughing and not in the least annoyed. ‘But yes, since I should hope for a large family I suppose the room you are in now would be converted into a nursery again. Come up and see the attic,’ he went on easily, ‘we used it as a playroom and later on as a bolthole if we wanted to get away from each other.’

He took them on a leisurely tour of the rest of the house and then rejoined the others, still bent over their maps and charts, and by the time they had had their coffee the weather was clearing a little and the two girls decided to make a more detailed inspection of the few shops in the little town. It was on their return, laughing and very pleased with themselves and their purchases from the boutique on the quay, that they walked into the sitting room and found the men sitting where they had left them, only now Lilith, her golden beauty highlighted by a simple white shift dress, was sitting on the arm of Marius’s chair.

Tabitha, who never felt sick, felt sick now. She stood in the doorway staring at her stepsister and listening to the sound of her pathetic little castles in the air tumbling about her ears. She said from a mouth gone dry: ‘Hullo, Lilith—what a surprise.’

‘Hullo,’ said Lilith airily, and got up as Marius rose to introduce her to Mrs Raynard.

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