The Blue Mountains of Kabuta Read Free

plenty of water, if you feel like a bath. Sorry I’ve been so long, but I suddenly felt so wet and sticky in this dreadful heat,’ she said, and sat down with her usual gracefulness.
    Alex passed her glass to her. ‘I’ve arranged a cold lunch for you about one o’clock. That’ll give Jon time to have a bath. Then I suggest you both rest this afternoon and I’ll be along later to show you round the place and I hope, if you’re not too tired,’ he smiled at Jon’s mother, ‘I would like you and your daughter to come to dinner tonight. First nights in strange houses are always dismal and there are a few people I’d like you to meet. That is, of course, if you’re not too tired,’ he repeated, looking anxiously at Jon’s mother.
    Ursula Hampton’s eyes shone. ‘We’d love it, wouldn’t we, Jon?’ she said, and sounded so pleased that although Jon felt more like curling up in bed for the next twenty-four hours, she had to agree with a smile.
    They watched the car drive down the rutty earth track, over the cattle trap and then on to the wide earth road.
    Ursula Hampton turned to her daughter with a smile. ‘Maybe life here won’t be so bad after all, darling. He seems quite nice, doesn’t he?’
    Jon yawned. ‘He’s all right, I suppose. I must go and bath,’ she said, and went inside.
    *          *          *
    After Jon had had her bath, the lunch was served in a square shaped room where there was a fan bringing in the breeze. It was a pleasant but simple room with white walls and dark brown antique furniture. The table was circular, there was a Welsh dresser and a long sideboard. The curtains were yellow and there were yellow grass mats on the polished brown boards.
    Dorcas, a thin African girl in a yellow and white check overall with a white apron, waited on them. She moved lightly and silently, but smiled when they thanked her It was a simple but delicious meal of cold ham and salad with sliced onions, tomatoes and lettuce. Afterwards they had ice cream.
    â€˜Your Uncle Ned certainly lived well,’ Jon’s mother said dryly.
    Jon looked up quickly, but fought back the words she wanted to say. Why shouldn’t Uncle Ned live well? she asked herself silently. He had earned the money. She still could not get over the fact that it had been Uncle Ned’s money they had lived on for these long nine years. She longed to tell her mother, but Alex Roe had been very definite about Uncle Ned’s desire for it not to be known. Surely the knowledge would make her mother think more kindly of poor Uncle Ned? On the other hand, her mother might say it was a sign of his feeling of guilt—or even that as Uncle Ned was the eldest of the family, it was his duty . . . That was something her elderly parents had taught her.
    But Jon herself knew that she would never forget it. How good of him, how thoughtful and understanding.
    Dear Uncle Ned who had given her the farm and the money. That had annoyed her mother.
    â€˜He should have left it to me. You’re too young, Jon,’ she had said angrily.
    Jon had tried to find a logical reason to remove the hurt her mother obviously felt. ‘He knew you were a city girl, Mum, and that my dream has always been to live in the country.’
    How startled her mother had looked! ‘Has it? I never knew,’ she had said, but Jon had changed the subject, for it was true, her dream had always been to live near mountains where there were wide open spaces and a lake or sea. Here—the first two parts of her dream had come true, but, so far, there was no river or lake in sight!
    Now, as they ate their lunch with Dorcas moving quietly round the room, Jon’s mother talked of their new home.
    â€˜It’s quite nice, but I had no idea we’d be so isolated, Jon. Your uncle should have thought of that. Two