The Uninvited Guests Read Free Page B

a mind to accompany me. I think the weather’s on the turn, so the sooner the better, I’d say. At what hour is the train that will bear your beloved to my revels?’
    Clovis uttered a groan and rolled onto his back. He stared up at the plaster curls of the ceiling.
    ‘Patience Sutton,’ he said. ‘ At what hour will the train bearing Patience Sutton and her mother arrive? Is that what you meant to ask? She’s not my beloved – and won’t be.’
    ‘She’s a very fine girl. And anyway, we’re grown up, she won’t baby you now…’
    Clovis ran his fingers through his hair as a poet might, one who is in the agony of creation, but Clovis was not in the agony of creation, he was in the throes of a worse pain, hubris.
    ‘As if I care what she does. Insignificance Sutton,’ he said roughly.
    ‘I can’t think why you’ve taken against them! I’ve missed them awfully since—’ She broke off, then, ‘Don’t you remember the fun we all used to have? If you’re unkind to Patience , or her mother—’
    ‘Her mother is the death of hope.’
    ‘ Or her mother , then I shan’t have you at my birthday party, do I make myself clear?’
    ‘Yes, Officer.’
    ‘And it isn’t much of a birthday as it stands, I have to admit… But I’m counting on you to be a gentleman.’
    ‘Yes, Officer.’
    ‘You know that I love you beyond reason – and for no good reason. I’m going to talk to Mrs Trieves about my cake.’
    ‘Make it chocolate, would you?’
    ‘I don’t believe we have any.’
    Clovis groaned again and returned to plucking at the newspaper. The dogs laid their chins on their silky paws and gazed at him with love.
    At the threshold Emerald changed her mind and returned, like a whirlwind.
    ‘That fire is obscenely hot!’ she exclaimed, crossing the room and waving the air in front of her with violent movements.
    ‘I’m freezing to death.’
    She slammed the guard down in the grate. ‘Have you any idea of the price of coal?’
    Clovis rolled onto his back. ‘No – and nor have you.’
    ‘Sterne cost us more than twelve guineas in fuel just this last winter, actually. ’
    ‘Aren’t you going to add “so there”?’ he said.
    Emerald plumped down on the chaise next to the dogs, looking about the room. She pinned a stray lock of hair back to the majority. ‘So there’, she said.
    Clovis had covered his face with his arms in self-defence, but Emerald, surprising him, withdrew her attack.
    ‘The horses’ summer coats are coming through,’ she remarked, conversationally. ‘Levi is beginning to look quite glossy, and Ferryman would be, if he hadn’t been clipped out so late in the year. You know, outside feels rather grand once you’re in it – and I saw a swallow this morning whilst I was gardening…’ She was pulling the spaniels’ speckled paws absently as she talked. ‘I thought I might go down past the tithe barn and around the edge of Hurtle… Won’t you come, too?’
    ‘Not to oblige him. ’
    ‘No, Clovis, for me, your ever-loving sister – for Ferryman who shall swell up like a balloon on spring grass if he doesn’t have a bit of work soon, and for—’ She stopped.
    Clovis glanced at her slyly from beneath his forearm. ‘For …?’ he murmured.
    ‘Yourself, because you are the greatest of all wet blankets recently.’
    ‘Oh I am, am I?’
    ‘Yes, you are.’
    ‘The very greatest?’
    ‘You know you are. I can’t think what’s got into you.’
    ‘Oh you can’t, can’t you?’
    ‘Stop that! Stop that silly questioning! You did it when you were eight years old. It’s singularly annoying. You do it to annoy.’
    ‘Oh, I do, do I?’
    Emerald threw a cushion at him, and he dodged it, rolling smartly away and laughing. Finding himself against the fender, he sat up and rubbed his face.
    ‘You know very well “what’s got into” me. How d’you think it feels for a man to have his position usurped by a sneaky, one-armed, Irish lawyer—’
    ‘Point of