Winter at Cray Read Free

interviewed or is it only Grand - mama they ’ re interested in? ’ The speaker sat in the window the other side of the room, but the deep voice carried easily to Louise, who looked across at her and smiled. She was very fond of Jessie Ross and knew she shared her own love of the little island.
    ‘ I think we ’ ll all come in for a share of the limelight, Aunt Jessie, ’ she informed her aunt, her former misgivings returning twofold at the thought of it, ‘ but Great-gran will be the centre of attraction, of course. ’
    Jessie Ross was the daughter of Robert Kincaid the younger and bore a remarkable resemblance both to her father and her .grandfather, a fact which endeared her to old Emma Kincaid, who had loved her late husband devotedly. She chuckled at Louise ’ s answer, her eyes dancing. ‘ And she ’ ll love every minute of it, bless her. Tell me, is the young man from the press as personable as Diamond claims? ’ she asked, her eyes on Louise ’ s studiously blank face.
    ‘ Yes, I suppose he is, ’ Louise admitted. ‘ He ’ s quite good-looking. ’ Good-looking was not quite the way to describe Jonathan Darrell ’ s attraction, she supposed, but it was as far as she was prepared to go. It was with relief that she turned to welcome a newcomer to the room.
    She adored her grandfather and smiled at the round, wind-flushed face he presented. Hector Kincaid was old Emma ’ s youngest son, a short, wiry, white-haired man, very much like his mother except that he had inherited his father ’ s brown eyes. ‘ It ’ s blowing up for something pretty foul, I should say, ’ he remarked as he moved across to the fireplace and extended cold fingers to the blaze. ‘ We shall probably be snowed in by this time tomorrow. ’
    ‘ Oh, darling, don ’ t be such a pessimist, ’ Diamond pouted at him, and Hector Kincaid merely cast her a look that would have quelled anyone less thick skinned than the tiny blue-eyed blonde. The old man had never had much time for Colin ’ s choice of a wife and he made little effort to disguise it.
    For one thing he held rather old-fashioned views on stage people and on young ladies of the chorus in particular, and that was what Diamond had been before Colin married her. For another she looked far less than her twenty years, and Hector considered that Colin should have married someone nearer his own age and not a girl little more than a child.
    ‘I’m afraid it may be true, Diamond, ’ Louise told her. ‘ It looks very much like snow and the wind ’ s in the right direction; if it ’ s very bad we shall be stranded here if not actually confined to the house. The boats can ’ t make the crossing if it ’ s dangerous. ’
    ‘ Talking of boats arriving, ’ Hector said, ‘ has the press arrived in force? I thought I saw someone in a red coat .come off the boat with a man. ’
    Louise nodded. ‘ It was the magazine people, ’ she confirmed. ‘ There ’ s a writer and a photographer. The girl is the photographer, she seems rather nice. ’
    At the mention of the girl Diamond ’ s fine eyebrows jiggled expressively in a suggestion that was unmistakable. ‘ Cosy, ’ she commented, and Louise bit her lip, remembering her own thoughts in that direction.
    Before anyone could comment on the likely truth of the suggestion, there was a brief knock and the grey head of Hannah Grayston the housekeeper appeared round the door. ‘ Miss Nostrum and Mr. Darrell are here, Miss Kincaid. ’ She addressed herself to Louise, then withdrew immediately to allow the two visitors into the room.
    Louise felt a sudden and inexplicable shyness as the two strangers came in, Jonathan Darrell ushering his companion politely in first. He looked rather stiffly formal in a well-cut grey suit with a collar and tie and not nearly as much at home as he had in the more casual wear he had arrived in.
    The steady gaze of the brown eyes sought and settled on her and she sensed again, but briefly, the hint