‘Which you heard in your sleep, I suppose?’ Rosalie said drily.
‘Oh, be quiet, Rosalie,’ Julian exclaimed impatiently. ‘There’s no need to doubt what the child says.’ But, whether he believed her or not, Alison could see that he wished her at the other end of the earth. ‘It was stupid of you not to interrupt at once,’ he added sharply.
It was, of course. Impossible to explain her bewildered hesitation which had made her let the minutes slip by. But, in any case, there was no need to treat her like some silly little girl. She put up her chin suddenly with a proud little gesture, and her mouth looked very obstinate.
‘Perhaps it was just as well I did hear what you were saying,’ she told them shortly. It concerns me as well as you, after all. If Rosalie wants any reassuring-’
‘She doesn’t,’ Julian said coldly. ‘Rosalie is now perfectly satisfied about my motives.’
‘Oh, I don’t think I need worry about your motives anymore, Julian,’ Rosalie observed coolly. ‘Perhaps I ought to look elsewhere for the source of trouble.’
‘For God’s sake, Rosalie-’ began Julian, evidently in the last stages of exasperation.
But Alison interrupted furiously.
‘Just what do you mean?’ She faced her cousin, her eyes bright with anger.
‘Julian has assured me most convincingly that he has no interest whatever in you.’ Rosalie mustn’t detect the slightest quiver on her face. ‘I should like to be as sure that you have no interest in him.’
‘Rosalie, are you crazy?’ That was Julian. But neither girl took the slightest notice of him.
Alison spoke into the electric-charged silence.
‘It’s ridiculous that I should even have to say it. I have no interest whatever in Ju-in Mr. Tyndrum. Perhaps that will satisfy you.’
Then she pushed past Rosalie and ran out of the room, her breath coming in little gasps, and her heart-beats nearly choking her.
This was the worst of all. Oh, much the worst! He could never think of her now without distaste and alarm. For he loved Rosalie so blindly, and held her so insecurely, that he was bound to fear anything that threatened his hopes.
And then her own denial. She felt an almost superstitious dread when she thought of that.
Flinging herself face downwards on her bed, she lay there for a long while, almost motionless. And she thought, as she had that time she believed he had played with. her-’I never want to see him again.’
But she meant it no more now than she had then.
She couldn’t tell whether Rosalie said anything to her mother about. what had happened. Aunt Lydia ’s manner was always difficult to read at the best of times. But the fact remained that the following day she said:
‘Alison, my dear, I’ve been thinking it is time you had a breath of sea air. You’ve been in town quite long enough.’ Alison couldn’t help thinking in her turn how very little that fact had disturbed Aunt Lydia up till now. But she tried to look attentive as her aunt went on: ‘I am arranging that the twins shall go straight from school to their old Nannie in Sussex. She has a very lovely cottage on the coast there, and they often spend part of their holidays with her. It will be ideal for you too, and I know how you will enjoy it.’
‘Thank you, Aunt Lydia,’ Alison said dutifully. Then, quite involuntarily, she added, ‘Oh, poor Audrey won’t see Lucifer now.’ But she really thought, ‘And nor shall I see Julian.’
‘Lucifer?’ Her aunt laughed slightly. ‘Don’t be silly. Lucifer will still be here when you all come home.’
‘And so will Julian,’ thought Alison. But that wouldn’t be any business of hers, of course.
She travelled down to Sussex the next day-’so that you’ll be there when the twins arrive,’ Aunt Lydia said. Alison couldn’t see much reason for this quite extraordinary haste, and wondered again if Rosalie had told her mother anything.
But perhaps, in any case, the nicest thing at the moment was to be right away from the whole miserable business.
The twins’ one-time Nannie was a kindly, practical woman, and she said at once that what Alison needed was ‘building. up’. And after a quiet day or two of complete rest and constant care Alison felt more than ready to welcome Theo and Audrey.
They arrived by the same train, laden with luggage, news, and holiday plans.
Audrey gave Alison an entirely unexpected kiss, and Theo, too, seemed very pleased to see her. The world began to look a much pleasanter place at once, for Alison was immediately aware of the fact that the twins had a very definite place for her in their holiday scheme.
Alison found their uncompromising ways very refreshing. More than once in the weeks they spent down there together she looked at them and thought, ‘Are they really Aunt Lydia ’s children?’
It didn’t seem possible that such an insincere and artificial person could have produced anything so downright as Audrey.
‘It must be Uncle Theodore coming out in them,’ she decided amusedly, and her opinion of her uncle went up accordingly.
From time to time Aunt Lydia wrote, sometimes at considerable length, and nearly always about nothing at all. She and Rosalie were paying a round of visits. She spoke of it a little as though it were forced manual labour. But, since she had no wishes but her own to consult in the matter, Alison felt there must be compensations somewhere.
Uncle Theodore, rather to her surprise, wrote regularly once a week to the twins, and very often included a formal but kindly message to herself.
‘He’s quite a good sport really,’ remarked Audrey tolerantly, when she. had read out extracts from one of his letters. ‘I’m sorry we shan’t see him when we go home next week.’
‘Not see him? Won’t you really, Audrey?’ Alison felt sorry for them, but they took it with the rather terrifying callousness of children.
‘No.’ Audrey shook her head. ‘You see, it’ll be September already when we get home, and we go back to school on the twelfth. Still, he says we shall be home for a day or two for Rosalie’s wedding at the end of October. So we shall see him then.’
‘Must we go to Rosalie’s wedding?’ asked Theo gloomily.
And at the same moment Alison said sharply, ‘October? Is Rosalie getting married in October?’
‘So Daddy says in the letter.’ Audrey evidently hadn’t thought it worthy of mention before.
Alison strolled over to the window and stood there staring out. But she saw nothing of the sea and sky beyond the cottage garden.
It was just a matter of weeks now.
Towards the end of the following week they all three returned to London. Alison half envied Audrey her rapturous reunion with Lucifer, and thought whimsically, ‘Lucky child. Her separation is over.’
There were a great many things to be done before the twins returned to school, and Alison had a busy ten days, shopping, arranging, and packing for them.
‘And after this there’ll be the rush for Rosalie’s wedding. You will be busy,’ Audrey said. I do hope she won’t want me to be a bridesmaid.’
‘She won’t,’ said Theo. "You aren’t pretty enough.’
‘No, I expect that’s what she’ll think,’ agreed Audrey, quite unoffended. ‘Anyway, she knows I’d only stand on her train or something as she went up the aisle.’
Alison said nothing. She was thinking of Julian waiting there for Rosalie as she went up the aisle.
She was scared to find herself counting each day as it slipped away.
When she said good-bye to the twins she thought, ‘Next time I see them they will be here for Julian’s wedding.’
When her uncle returned a few days later, she thought, ‘There will scarcely be much time for him to go away again before Rosalie’s wedding.’
Rosalie herself was scarcely ever in the house. Alison supposed she was visiting, or else that she was out with Julian.