Free The Carousel by Rosamunde Pilcher Page B

estuary, the deserted sands. But at the far end of the seawall we could discern the two distant figures: Phoebe, unmistakable in her hat, and the child beside her, wearing a scarlet anorak. They had taken camp stools with them and sat side by side, very close. There was something touching about the pair of them. Oblivious to the rest of the world, they looked as though they had been washed up by some unimaginable storm and forgotten.
    As we stood there, there came the first sharp rattle of raindrops against the glass of the window, and Lily said, "There now!" as if she had forecast this very thing happening. "That's the dratted rain come on. And Miss Shackleton won't even notice. Once she starts her sketching, that's the end of it. Might as well shout your heart out, and she'd never take notice. And her with that cast on her arm, poor soul . . ."
    The time had obviously come to intervene. "I'll go and get them," I said.
    "No." Daniel laid a restraining hand on my arm. "It's pouring. I'll go."
    "You'll need a mackintosh, Daniel," Lily warned him, but he found an umbrella in the hall and set off armed with that. I watched his progress, the umbrella held high over his head, as he walked down across the lawn and disappeared through the gate in the escallonia hedge. Moments later he came into view once more, making his way along the edge of the seawall towards the two unsuspecting artists.
    Lily and I turned away from the window. "What can I do to help you?" I asked.
    "You could lay the table for tea."
    "Let's all have it in here. It's so nice and warm."
    "I'm making a batch of pancakes." She picked up her bowl and started whisking again. She looked more cheerful, having aired her grievances, and I was grateful for this.
    I said, "Tomorrow I'll do something with Charlotte. Take her somewhere in the car, perhaps. She's been on my conscience ever since I arrived, only there doesn't seem to have been much time to arrange anything."
    "Mind, she's a nice enough little girl."
    "I know. But somehow that only makes it worse."
    The table was laid, the drop scones made, and the kettle boiling, and still they had not returned.
    "That Daniel," observed Lily. "He's as bad as the rest of them. Probably forgot what he went for, and he's sat down with them to paint a picture for himself . . ."
    "I'd better go." I found an old raincoat of Phoebe's and a man-eating sou'wester that had once belonged to Chips and let myself out the garden door. It was now raining hard and very wet, but as I crossed the grass Daniel and Phoebe appeared at the gate, Daniel holding the camp stools under one arm and the umbrella high over Phoebe's head with the other. Phoebe, except for her hat, was dressed as though for a sunny outing, and her cardigan, buttoned bulkily over her plaster cast, was sodden, her shoes and stout stockings mud-splashed. She carried in her good hand her painting bag, a sturdy and familiar piece of equipment made of canvas, and as Daniel opened the gate for her, she looked up and saw me.
    "Hello! Here we are, a lot of drowned rats!" "Lily and I wondered what had happened to you all." "Charlotte hadn't quite finished, and she wanted to." "Where is she?"
    "Oh, coming. Somewhere," said Phoebe, airily.
    I looked past her, down the hill, and saw Charlotte at the foot of it. She stood with her back to me, peering into the depths of a dripping bramble bush.
    I said, resigned, "I'd better get her," and set off down the wet and slippery slope. "Charlotte! Come along."
    She turned and looked up and saw me. Her hair clung to her head, and her glasses were misted with rain. "What are you doing?" 
    "I'm looking for blackberries. I thought there might be some."
    "You're not meant to be looking for blackberries, you're meant to be coming up to the house for tea. Lily's made pancakes."
    She moved reluctantly. "All right." Even the lure of hot pancakes did not kindle much enthusiasm. I thought that it would be easy to be maddened by her, and yet I understood