Aura Read Free Page A

to do it all at the same time.  Thank you father."  The relief in her voice was shown plainly on the expression on her face.

"Three trips Aura?"  He asked inquisitively.    

"Well, I did mean to make sure that I was fairly comfortable as well as provided for."

"That sounds more like Monica, not you Aura.  How long did you plan on being gone anyway?"  He hated to sound suspicious, but he couldn’t help himself.  He was!

She just shrugged a shoulder as she answered noncommittally. "Two, three weeks or so."

"Somehow Aura, I think someone would have noticed that you were missing in that amount of time.  As it is, I am glad to know about it.  I will spend some time with you now, helping you set up your camp, then I will check up on you from time to time as you work.  It is the least I can do."

"Why?"

The question was asked innocently enough.  Aura just took it for granted that she would be on her own.  No one had ever taken the time to check on her before, why should they now?

To make things simple, her stepfather replied:  "Because I like my tea, and nobody makes it better than you do.  There is a price to my vigilance, you know."  He did not want to tell her it was because he cared and felt it was past time someone showed her that she did matter.

Aura took the joke in the mien it was intended and teased back.  "Perhaps it will do some good for me to be gone, even if it is to be missed for my talent at making you your favorite beverage."

"It would help your mother to miss you a bit as well."

"Father, mother has plenty of time to miss me.  I am only home for the summer holidays.  The rest of the year I spend at school, or helping out at the hospital.  I am not even home for Christmas."

He nodded sadly as he conceded her point.  She had a valid complaint and he hated to admit it.  He did, however, find something new out about her, something he would talk to her about as they sat about drinking their tea.  He had never heard about any training or studies or time spent in the hospitals before.  It was a possibility of course.  The convent did service a small sized hospital that was connected to the grounds.  Aura could have spent a lot of time there for all he knew.

They moved on, loading her camping gear and supplies into the boot of the car then she ran back into the house, calling, not too loudly, back, as she raced up the stairs.  "Only one more thing father and I will be back."  She returned a few moments later with Roger.

Her step father laughed his amusement and commented:  "I think you will be well guarded Aura, I will not have much to worry about.  He is not only very protective of you, he seems to be very fond of you as well, if snakes are capable of such feelings."

She smiled as she stroked the head of the snake wound about her torso, and answered:  "I never did thank you properly for him, and I suspect how much you probably had to go through to get him for me.  Mother made it very clear to me what she thought of the idea of your buying him."

"She feared running into him in other parts of the house."

"I know.  I have attempted to keep him contained so nobody would have any complaints about him.  Roger really has been a very good snake."

They left, taking the next hour and a half to get her campsite set up with her pop-up tent and portable, but primitive, cook stove.  She never went on any camping expedition without her little hibachi.  After everything was set up to her satisfaction she started up a small fire and boiled some water for their tea.

"Did either of the girls, or your mother, tell you about the party we are giving on Saturday night Aura?"  Her stepfather spoke, giving himself an opening to approach her about her way of dressing and how he planned to change it, and her, a little.

It was not as if she dressed shabbily or had ever gone about dirty, but she needed dressing up.  He wondered how she would react to his offer to help her