Waiting For Deborah by Betty Neels

Author:Betty Neels [Betty Neels]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781459277052
Publisher: Harlequin Treasury

CHAPTER SIX

UNLKE old Mrs Vernon, Uncle Oscar was neither supine nor patient. Despite his age he was constantly seeking diversions of one sort or another. Since he was also forgetful and might take a fit into his head to walk to the village and get on a bus for no reason at all, or spend a morning in the garden wreaking havoc among the flower beds, cutting bunches of roses and eating the raspberries, Deborah soon understood why his niece had been so anxious to get help. All the same, she was happy; no two days were alike, for she never knew what Uncle Oscar would do next, so that she might spend almost all of one day playing racing demon with him and the next strolling down to the village shop with him because he fancied a bag of humbugs. They would walk back to the house, their cheeks bulging, and she would stop deliberately from time to time because he was puffing and getting tired, and ask him to tell her about some flower or other.

She had almost no time to herself but she didn’t mind that—the Soameses were kind and friendly and the two children were delightful; naughty and noisy and wilful but never disagreeable. She thought how wonderful it must be to be married, like Lottie, to a man who obviously loved her dearly, and to have two healthy and lively children and to live in a lovely house with enough money.

Uncle Oscar liked her; he was rude, of course, but she knew that he didn’t mean it. He would bellow and rage at her because she refused even to let him climb up the church tower or ride the postman’s bicycle, call her names and then roar with laughter. She found him delightful even if rather a responsibility.

On her first day off Mr Soames drove her into Chippenham in the morning and she spent a most satisfactory day going round the shops and, since she had money to spend, buying another dress to wear in the evenings: a rather sober dress, pale grey with a white ruffled collar and white cuffs to its long sleeves. Suitable, she considered, for any future job she might find, its style vague enough to last through several summers if necessary.

She had lunch in a small restaurant in a side street and, obedient to Mr Soames’s request, was waiting for him when he picked her up just before six o’clock.

She found Uncle Oscar in a rage. ‘Where have you been?’ he bawled as she went into the sitting-room. ‘The fools have lost my reading spectacles and Lottie doesn’t know a pawn from a knight. I’m upset and I need a drink.’

‘You know quite well that it’s my day off,’ said Deborah soothingly, ‘and I can see your glasses from here, they’re hanging out of your jacket pocket. We’ll have a game of chess before I go to bed if you like and I’ll fetch you a drink if you’ll say what you want.

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