Witching Hour Read Free Page A

butcher sent;' Elsa was at the range, busy
    with teapot and kettle. 'Calls it beef, but I dunno. Looks tough as
    ol' boots to me.'
    'Oh dear!' Morgana wondered privately whether the butcher was
    taking some kind of subtle revenge for an unpaid bill she hadn't
    discovered yet. 'Do you suppose pot-roasting would make it more
    tender?'
    'I daresay.' Elsa set the teapot on the tray with an uncompromising
    thud. 'But I don't need any young maid to teach me my business in
    my own kitchen.'
    'Of course not, Elsa darling.' Morgana's smile held its first real hint
    of mischief for some time.
    'That's better,' Elsa said with rare approval. 'Now go and change
    out of that damned ol' frock before that young man gets here.'
    'I'll do nothing of the sort.' Morgana lifted her chin and her green
    eyes flashed. 'It's perfectly suitable. This is' the dress I got for
    Daddy's funeral.'
    'Looks like the next funeral it goes to should be its own,' Elsa
    sniffed. 'But please yourself, though I can't see no sense going
    round looking like something the cat dragged in. You'm not a bad-
    looking maid when you try.'
    'I'd better go before you turn my head completely,' Morgana said
    lightly as she picked up the tray.
    'No danger of that, I reckon.' Elsa's fierce gaze softened • as they
    swept over the girl's slim figure. 'You don't fancy yourself like
    some I could mention.'
    Morgana hid a smile as she carried the tray out of the kitchen. Elsa
    was not usually so forbearing, and Morgana could only attribute
    her unusual delicacy this time to the fact that up to the time of the
    funeral she herself had been seeing a great deal of Robert
    Donleven, and might react with hostility to any overt criticism of
    his sister—because she was well aware that Elaine Donleven was
    the subject of Elsa's veiled remark.
    Yet if she was honest, she had to admit that Elaine Wasn't one of
    her favourite people either, though she would have been hard put
    to it to say why. Ever since Elaine had come to live at Home Farm
    and help Robert run the riding stables there, relations between the
    two girls had been perfectly civil, but no more.
    Perhaps it was inevitable it should be so, she thought as she went
    along the passage. After all, the Donlevens had bought the Home
    Farm, as Robert's mother had made smilingly clear on more than
    one occasion, as an interest for her husband when he retired from
    being 'something' in the City of London. In the meantime it was
    run by an efficient manager, and Robert and his sister had started
    the riding stables there, again as a hobby rather than a living.
    Morgana felt sometimes that Elaine mentioned this rather more
    than was strictly necessary, as if to emphasise the gulf between
    those who had to work, and those for whom the world was a
    playground.
    Apart from exchange trips to France and Germany when she was
    at school, Morgana's holidays had been spent in and around
    Polzion, and she sometimes could not contain a little surge of envy
    when she heard Elaine talk so carelessly of skiing at Klosters, and
    beach parties in the Bahamas. Nor did it help to feel, as she often
    did, that Elaine intended her to feel envious.
    Robert, on the other hand, was very different. For one thing his
    hair was inexorably sandy, instead of being deep auburn like
    Elaine's, but his temperament was far more unassuming than his
    sister's, and he took the day-to-day running of the stables far more
    seriously than she did, although ironically, Elaine was a
    spectacularly better rider. But then, Morgana thought, she did not
    have his patience with beginners.
    For herself, she enjoyed Robert's company. She liked him, and
    suspected that given time her feelings could become much
    warmer. Ever since the funeral, he had been assiduous in his
    attentions, sending her flowers, and phoning nearly every day. She
    was grateful for this, and a little relieved too, if she was honest.
    The Donlevens had always been charming to her, but she had been
    aware all the time