Call of the Kiwi Read Free Page B

the girl just as she was closing the piano.
    “Very nice, Lily. We’re all deeply moved by Annabel’s fate. Could you and Rube set the table now?”
    Once the children had left the room, Elaine pulled a letter from the folds of her housedress.
    “Here, this came today. From my grandmum, Gwyn. She’s rather beside herself. William and Kura want to take her Gloria away.”
    “Now? They’ve only ever cared about Kura’s career and suddenly they want to be a family?”
    “Not exactly,” Elaine said. “They want to send her to boarding school in England, supposedly because my grandmother is letting Gloria’s ‘artistic-creative’ side wither.”
    Tim laughed. “They’re not entirely wrong there. Nothing against Kiward Station, but it’s not exactly a bastion of art and culture.”
    “I didn’t get the feeling Gloria was missing out on much. The girl seemed totally happy to me. A little shy, though. In that respect I can understand my grandmother. She’s worried about sending the girl alone on such a journey.”
    “And?” Tim asked. “What does that have to do with us?”
    Elaine handed him Gwyneira’s letter. “She’s asking if we wouldn’t like to send Lilian with her. It is a renowned boarding school. And it would make it easier for Gloria.”
    Tim studied the letter carefully. “Cambridge is always a good address to have,” he said. “But isn’t she a little young? Besides, boarding school costs a fortune.”
    “The McKenzies would bear the costs,” Elaine said. “If only it weren’t so far away.”
    Lilian entered the room wearing an apron that was much too big for her. Though Lily’s freckled face was impish, her eyes were dreamy. She wore her fine red hair in two long braids, and in her giant apron, she looked like a sprite playing at being a maid.
    “The table’s ready, Mummy. And I think the casserole is too.”
    “We’ll talk more later,” Tim said, letting Elaine help him out of his chair. “First we need to feed the hordes.”
    After setting her youngest down in his high chair, Elaine went into the kitchen to get the food. Just as she was about to call everyone in, Lilian appeared in the doorway. The girl’s whole face was radiant, and she was waving Gwyneira’s letter, which Tim had carelessly left on a table in the living room.
    “Is it true?” she asked breathlessly. “Grandmum Gwyn is sending me to England? Where the princesses live? And to a boar i . . . boarn i . . . to the kind of school when you can annoy the teachers and throw midnight parties and things like that?”
    Tim Lambert had described his boarding school days to his children as a series of escapades and adventures. Lily could hardly wait to follow her father’s example.
    “I may, mayn’t I? Mummy? Daddy? When do we leave?”

    “You don’t want me here anymore?” Gloria’s wounded look flitted from one adult to the other, and tears glimmered in her large, porcelain-blue eyes.
    Gwyneira could not bear it. She could have cried herself as she embraced the child.
    “Gloria, how can you say that?” James said, yearning for a whiskey. Gwyneira had decided to inform Gloria of her parents’ decision after dinner.
    “Everybody goes to school,” Jack said, trying to placate the girl. “I was in Christchurch for a few years myself.”
    “But you came back every weekend!” Gloria sobbed. “Please, please, don’t send me away! I don’t want to go to England. Jack—”
    The girl looked imploringly at her longtime protector. Jack sat uncomfortably in his chair. It wasn’t his fault. On the contrary—Jack had spoken out unequivocally against sending Gloria away.
    “Don’t do anything right away,” he had advised his mother. “A letter can go lost. And if they write again, tell them in no uncertain times that Glory is still too young for the long journey. If Kura insists, she should come and get her.”
    “But she wouldn’t be able to, just like that,” Gwyneira had objected. “She has