Vikings and Vampires by Sandra Hill

Author:Sandra Hill
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: HarperCollins

CHAPTER EIGHT

Some family ties are meant to be broken . . .

It was ten o’clock, and Meredith was still on the telephone—this time with her mother and father.

Seated at separate desks in the office they’d fashioned for themselves years ago in the walnut-paneled library of their Princeton home, her parents managed to harangue her with a three-way phone conversation.

How many times over how many years had Meredith been called into that inner sanctum to account for her frivolous ways? As if she’d known how to be frivolous! Had she ever really lived up to their high standards of personal and academic excellence? No matter how hard she tried to please them, she was as much a failure in their eyes as Jillie, who didn’t try at all.

Meredith’s queasy stomach roiled, probably portending an ulcer. Coward that she was, instead of fighting back, she took refuge in calling up the invisible wall that screened out their condemnations. If she refused to listen, they couldn’t hurt her.

Meredith instead concentrated on the sounds of Thea moving around upstairs, preparing for bed. Outside, the rhythmic rasp of sandpaper against wood reflected Rolf’s obsession to work till he dropped so that he could hasten his trip home. When Meredith considered his inevitable departure, a dullness of spirit weighed her down. Why, she couldn’t imagine. Rolf had been in her life only two days, and yet he filled such a need in her . . . one she still didn’t understand and certainly never realized was there.

Who was he? And why had he come into her world? There had to be a reason.

“Do you hear me, Meredith Ann?” her mother chided. “You were a daydreamer as a child. Apparently you haven’t lost the nasty habit. Pay attention, dear. This is important.”

“Now, Lillian, don’t upset the girl,” her father interrupted. Her father always referred to her as “the girl.” She wondered if he knew how offensive that sounded. Probably not. “The girl doesn’t understand the importance of the information she transmitted to us this afternoon. She never did take her work seriously enough.”

“She’s probably still fixated on that worthless ex-husband of hers. I told you from the beginning, Herbert, that their marriage would never work. Didn’t I?”

“Yes, Lillian, you did.”

“I was never impressed with Jeffrey’s Mensa I.Q. After all, he was only a graduate of a state university. And vain . . . my goodness, that mustache of his was a clear giveaway.”

“Well, now, Einstein had a mustache, Lillian. We must be tolerant.”

“Hmpfh! Einstein didn’t chase after young girls and impregnate them. Einstein didn’t toss his wife aside because she couldn’t have babies. Einstein didn’t—”

“Enough!” Meredith shouted into the telephone and surprised even herself. In a softer tone, she said, “I have to go. Is there a reason for your call?”

“I don’t care for your tone at all, Meredith Ann,” her mother said icily.

“The girl always had a problem with self-control,” her father agreed.

“Just like Jillian.”

“Aaarrgh!” Meredith contributed.

“The reason we called,” her mother said with exaggerated patience,

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