Dark Summer Dawn Read Free

they'd thought that Jennifer might like to help—as it was her roof too.
    But this time Jennifer was not going to allow herself to be bullied. She had booked her cruise and paid for it, and she was going to take it. And when it was over, and she was back with them, things were never the same again. It wasn't just the fact that she was relaxed and sun-tanned and had put on some weight. There were other, subtler differences— a depth to her smile, and a dreaming look in her eyes when she thought she was unobserved.
    And then Charles Riderwood had arrived at the house, tall, powerfully built, a square bluff face lent distinction by the greying hair at his temples.
    He had smiled down at Lisa. 'Hello, love.' There was a faint North-country burr underlying his voice. 'I've got a little girl, a couple of years younger than you.'
    Lisa had smiled back a little uncertainly, but she had recognised the kindness in his eyes, and she also realised that he wanted her to like him, although she didn't understand why.
    Enlightenment was to come after his Jaguar car had driven away.
    'Brazen!' Enid Farrell had stormed. 'The very idea, allowing your—fancy man to come here. How dare you!'
    Jennifer had flushed, but her voice had been calm. 'Before you say any more, Enid, perhaps you ought to know that Charles and I are going to be married.'
    'Married?' Enid's voice had risen almost to a shriek. 'A man you met on a cruise? Why, you know nothing about him. He could be married already—up to no good.'
    Jennifer's face had blossomed into a smile. 'I know enough,' she said. 'He's a widower. His wife died several years ago. He has a son of twenty-four and a daughter of eight. His work is something to do with electronics, and he lives in Yorkshire. Is there anything else you want to know?'
    Enid Farrell looked outraged. 'Why is the son so much older?' she demanded accusingly.
    'I don't know. Perhaps the little girl was an afterthought.'
    Enid's face had become more grimly disapproving than ever. It was clear she considered that after sixteen years people should be thinking of other things.
    She continued to disapprove right up to the day of the wedding. Apart from Lisa, she and her husband were the only guests from Jennifer's side. But there were a number of people at the register office who knew Charles Rider wood, and obviously liked him, and they all went on afterwards to the champagne reception he had arranged at the London hotel where he had a suite.
    Someone was waiting for them there, a tall dark young man who rose slowly from one of the sofas and stood waiting, his hands resting lightly on his hips.
    Charles had said on a sharp note of pleasure, 'Dane, you managed to get here after all!' He turned to Jennifer. 'Come and meet your new son. He's been in America on a postgraduate course or you'd have met him before.'
    Dane Riderwood had said lightly, 'It all goes to show I should never turn my back for a minute.' He had stepped forward to shake Jennifer's hand, and there had been a general laugh, but Lisa, hanging back hesitantly, had known instinctively that this stranger who was her stepbrother wasn't amused. He was smiling, but his smile never reached his eyes. And when Charles drew Lisa forward, his hand warm and heavy on her shoulder, Dane's eyes flickered over her with an indifference bordering on hostility. He had turned away almost at once, leaving Lisa thinking, 'I don't like him—and he doesn't like us.'
    She heard her mother say to her new husband, 'He's very like you,' and she wanted very badly to cry out a denial, because surely Jennifer knew—could see that they weren't a bit alike.
    Oh, they were both tall and very dark, but Dane was a much leaner version of his burly father. His face was thinner too, its lines arrogant where Charles' were genial. His eyes weren't blue like his father's either, but a wintry grey, and his mouth was hard.
    She had been looking forward to seeing Stoniscliffe, the big grey stone house which her