Free The Shadow of the Lynx by Victoria Holt

thought her kind.
    She sat down on the armchair and I took my place on the bed.
    “This must be very strange to you.”
    “Strange things have happened since my father died.”
    “It is terrible to lose a father. I know what it is to lose a mother.
    I lost mine when I was eight years old. It’s a long time ago, but it’s something I shall never forget. “
    “She died when Stirling was born. He told me.”
    She nodded.
    “Don’t be afraid of my father,” she said.
    Why should I be? “
    “Most people are.”
    “Perhaps that is because they are dependent on him. I shall not feel that. If he wants to be rid of me I shall go away. I suppose it would be possible to find a post here-perhaps with a family who need a governess and are going to England. Perhaps …” I was making situations to fit my needs, Stirling would say—just as my father had.
    “Please don’t talk of leaving us just as you have come. You’ll give it a fair trial, won’t you?”
    “Of course. I was only thinking of what I should do if your father decided he didn’t want me here.”
    “But he has promised to look after you and he will. Your father was insistent that he should.”
     
    “My tamer seemed 10 tall under his spell.”
    “They were drawn to each other from the start. Yet they were so different. Your father dreamed of what he would do;
    my father did it. In a short time they had become great friends;
    your father had come into the mine and managed it with an enthusiasm which we had never known before. My father used to say: “Now Tom Tamasin is here we’ll strike rich. He believes it so earnestly that it will come to pass.” And then he died bringing gold from the mine. “
    “So they have found gold.”
    “Not in any quantity. There is a lot of hard work; a lot of men to be employed; and the yield is hardly worth the effort and expense. It’s strange. In everything else my father has prospered. The property which came through my mother is worth ten times what it was when he took it over. This hotel which was just a primitive inn is now flourishing. As Melbourne grows so does the hotel with it. But I believe he loses money on the mine. He won’t give up, though. In his way he is as obsessed by the desire to find gold as those men you saw downstairs tonight.”
    “Why do men feel this urge for gold?”
    She shrugged her shoulders.
    “As we were saying tonight, it is the thought of being rich, fabulously rich.”
    “And your father … is he not rich?”
    “Not in the way he wishes to be. He started years ago to search for gold. He’ll never give up the search until he makes a fortune.”
    “I wonder people can’t be content if they have enough to make them secure, and then enjoy living.”
    “You have a wise head on your shoulders. But you would never get some men to see it your way.”
    “I thought your father was a wise man. Stirling talks of him as though he is Socrates, Plato, Hercules and Julius Caesar all rolled into one.”
    “Stirling has talked too much. My father is just an unusual human being. He is autocratic because he is the centre of our world—but it is only a little world. Stand up to him. He’ll respect you for it. I understand you, I think. There is a little of your father in you, and you are proud and not going to bow to anyone’s will. I think you will be well equipped for your new country. I hope you will get along with Jessica.”
    “Jessica? Stirling did not mention Jessica. Who is she?”
    “A cousin of my mother’s. She was orphaned early and
     
    lived with my mother since their childhood. They were like sisters and when my mother died she was nearly demented. I had to comfort her and that helped me to get over my own grief. She can be rather difficult and she is a little strange. The fact is she never quite got over my mother’s death. She takes sudden likes and dislikes to people.
    ”
     
    “And you think she will dislike me?”
    “One never knows. But whatever she does, always