Black Ship Read Free

person to get along with.
    “You will stay for tea, won’t you, Mrs. Fletcher? And Jonathan? Audrey, ring the bell, please.”
    “You must excuse me, ladies,” said Mr. Irwin. “I have another appointment. The taxicab should be at the door any minute. Mrs. Fletcher, you’ll let me know when your husband returns to town?”
    “Of course. In the meantime, please arrange for a surveyor to inspect the house.”
    “When Mr. Fletcher—”
    “I see no need to wait.” Daisy was growing impatient with his incomprehensible delaying tactics. “You said yourself that it would have to be surveyed anyway if we decide to sell. I should like to have a report to show Alec when he gets home.”
    “I’ll see what I can do,” he promised glumly. “These thingstake time. Audrey, you’d better telephone for a taxicab when Mrs. Fletcher is ready to leave.”
    “Thank you for the thought, Mr. Irwin, but I don’t need one. I left my car in Well Walk.”
    “Your car!” Shaking his head at the shocking state of the modern world, the solicitor departed.
    “I’m afraid Father is frightfully old-fashioned,” said Audrey Jessup as they all sat down on chairs upholstered in gold brocade. “What kind of car is it?”
    “An Austin Chummy. Alec didn’t need it today, and I was in a bit of a rush. I don’t usually drive in town, but it’s nice for a ride in the country, just big enough to squeeze in my twelve-year-old stepdaughter, two babies and their nurse, and a picnic.”
    “Good heavens!” the elder Mrs. Jessup exclaimed, laughing.
    “You have little ones?” her daughter-in-law asked. “You absolutely must come to live here. How old are they?”
    “Seven months.”
    “And the other?”
    “Both seven months. They’re twins, boy and girl.”
    “Double trouble,” said the elder Mrs. Jessup with a smile. Daisy had heard the comment often enough to be mildly irritated without feeling any need to retort.
    “Double joy, Mama Moira! Marilyn, my five-year-old, will be thrilled to death. She adores babies. Percy’s getting too old to appreciate being smothered in kisses.”
    The parlour maid brought in the tea trolley. As Mrs. Jessup poured, Daisy and Audrey Jessup compared notes on their children.
    “They change so fast,” said the elder Mrs. Jessup with a sigh. “Aidan, my eldest, was such a staid, sensible child. Then he went away to school. Next thing we knew, we were being congratulated on his becoming a positive demon on the Rugby football field!”
    Daisy believed her. Her friend Lucy had married a quiet,mild-mannered man who turned into a ravening beast on the rugger field.
    “But Aidan’s very staid and sensible now,” Audrey observed with a touch of wistfulness.
    “I should hope so, with a growing family of his own. My youngest, on the other hand, was a rough-and-tumble boy, always looking for trouble.” A shadow of anxiety crossed Mrs. Jessup’s face, and Daisy wondered if her youngest was still looking for trouble. “Yet he took up cricket, which has always seemed to me a rather sedate affair.”
    “Compared to rugger, positively placid!” Daisy agreed.
    “And my daughter, Deirdre, wasn’t at all like Audrey’s little Marilyn. She never cared much about dolls or babies. All she ever wanted was a horse, and though we couldn’t manage that, she took riding lessons for years. Somewhat to my surprise, she’s turned into a devoted mother.”
    “How many grandchildren have you?”
    “Five. Just wait until you’re a grandmother, Mrs. Fletcher. The pleasures of motherhood are nothing to it.”
    Daisy wished her mother and Alec’s could bring themselves to enjoy Belinda, Miranda, and Oliver instead of always finding fault. She also envied the easy relationship between the two Mrs. Jessups, so different from her own with her exacting mother-in-law.
    She finished her second cup of tea and was about to say regretfully that it was time she was going, when the maid came in.
    “There’s someone to see the