Roses for Christmas by Betty Neels

Author:Betty Neels
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 1975-07-30T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIX

ELEANOR WAKENED to find a fresh-faced young girl by her bed, holding a tray. She smiled when Eleanor sat up, put the tray on her knees, went to open the long brocade curtains, saying something friendly in a soft voice as she did so, and went away.

Eleanor shook the last wisps of sleep from her head, registered that it was light and morning, even if a grey one, and saw that the little Sèvres clock on the table beside her showed the hour to be half past eight.

She bounced out of bed and, dressing gown askew, no slippers on her feet, tore silently into the next room. Fulk was exactly as she had left him, the sheets of closely written paper scattered round his chair bearing testimony to his industry. There was a tray of coffee on the small table drawn up beside him; fragrant steam rose from the cup he was about to pick up. Henry was asleep.

Fulk raised his head and looked at her; at any other time she would have been furious at the mocking tilt of his eyebrows, but now she had other things on her mind. ‘Why didn’t you call me?’ she demanded in a whispered hiss.

The eyebrows expressed surprise as well as mockery. ‘Did Tekla not bring you your breakfast? I asked her to do so.’

‘Yes, she did.’ She added a belated thank you. ‘But it’s half past eight.’ She paused to survey him; he looked tired, but perhaps that was due to his unshaven chin and all the writing he had done. ‘You have to go to Groningen,’ she reminded him.

‘How tedious that remark is becoming, Eleanor.’ His voice was tolerant but his eyes still mocked her. ‘I’m quite capable of organising my own day without your help, you know, and in any case at the moment you are being nothing but a hindrance. Go and eat your breakfast and put some clothes on.’ The glance he gave her left her in no doubt as to what he thought of her appearance. ‘You can have half an hour.’

He began to write once more, pausing only to add: ‘Henry has slept soundly. We will discuss his treatment before I leave the house.’

She looked at him blankly, realizing dimly at that moment that her childish opinion of him had undergone a change, which considering his arrogant manner towards her was a little bewildering. She bit her lip and drew in her breath like a hurt child, murmured incoherently and turned on her heel. Fulk reached the door a second or so before she did and caught her by the shoulders. ‘Why do you have to look like that?’ he asked her harshly, and when she asked: ‘Like what?’, he went on: ‘Like you used to when I wouldn’t let you climb trees.’ He gave her a little shake. ‘I never thought…’ he began, then went on in quite a different voice: ‘I’m sorry, Eleanor—I had no right to speak to you like that. You’ve been wonderful—I whisked you away with no warning and then allowed you to sit here all night.

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