Holding On Read Free Page A

talismans which had not quite fitted into the house at Dartmouth. The quilt was a history of the family, her family. Oh, how could she bear to leave them and go so far away? How could she endure it that she and her baby would miss such vital contact? No Grandmother to give her that private smile of approval, no Uncle Theo with his immense inner strength, no Ellen to cluck with joy and pride, no Fox to tell her that the baby was a proper Chadwick, no Caroline with her good sense nor Kit to think up fantastic names for the newest member of the family. No Aunt Prue with her motherly warmth, no Susanna or Mole, the baby’s aunt and uncle. No Hal . . .
    She stood up quickly as the knock at the door was followed by the appearance of Caroline. It was years now since Caroline had ceased to be her nanny and become her friend but Fliss smiled at her automatically, assuming the mantle of bright cheerfulness which she had adopted from the moment she’d arrived at The Keep the evening before.
    â€˜Come down to the kitchen for a chat while I do the vegetables for dinner,’ suggested Caroline. ‘We’re all longing to hear about Hong Kong. It’s wonderful about the baby, isn’t it? Are you as happy as you look or are you being brave? I should be terrified at the thought of going out to Hong Kong to have my first baby.’
    Fliss looked at her quickly. What a fool she’d been to think she could hide anything from Caroline.
    â€˜Have the others guessed?’ she asked anxiously. ‘I don’t want anyone worrying about me.’
    Caroline reached out and gave Fliss’s arm an affectionate little squeeze.
    â€˜You’re probably overdoing it,’ she admitted gently. ‘Just a touch. We can’t quite believe that you’re so delighted at the idea of being so far away from us. We have our pride, you know. We want to think that you’ll miss us. Just a bit.’
    â€˜Of course I shall miss you,’ said Fliss wretchedly. ‘Of course I’m frightened – but what can I do? I don’t want Grandmother worrying. It’s not so much the idea of going to Hong Kong – that’s quite exciting – it’s just the thought of having my baby so far from home. And what if something should happen to any of you while I’m there . . .’
    She turned away, staring out of the window, unwilling to let Caroline see the tears in her eyes.
    Caroline watched her compassionately. She had come to The Keep soon after the arrival of the children when it had been decided that help was needed. Mrs Chadwick had been sixty-two, Ellen sixty, Fox sixty-five; an old household for such young children. So Caroline, had come to look after them and never, in all her jobs as a nanny, had she been so happy as at The Keep. It had been a mutual decision that, when the children no longer needed her care, she should stay on, gradually shouldering the tasks which for fifty years had belonged to Ellen and Fox. Ellen was still fairly active but crippling arthritis prevented Fox from carrying out most of his former duties. There was no question, however, that he should be pensioned off. He remained in his quarters in the gatehouse, pottering about at smaller tasks, content to let the responsibility pass to Caroline and young Josh, who came up from the village to do the heavy work about the grounds.
    These three, Fox, Ellen and Caroline, had formed the framework for the children’s lives and Caroline knew how deeply Fliss’s roots had sunk into the ground from which her family had sprung, sending out tender feelers which climbed and twined themselves about that framework. Of all the children she was most deeply knitted into the fabric of The Keep and the family. She had gone off bravely to school and to college, and later to her job in Gloucestershire, but it was here that she belonged, where she most loved to be.
    Caroline thought: It would be easier for her to go to Hong Kong if she