Free The Fairbairn Girls by Una-Mary Parker

should have forced her to tell us then none of this would have happened.’
    ‘We didn’t because we didn’t want to face the fact that something might be really wrong,’ Laura pointed out. ‘Looking back, Papa has been much grumpier since that man came here. What did he want? Why did Papa send him away like that?’
    ‘I wish I knew. What are we going to do?’ asked Diana. ‘I don’t want to go through life with a curse on my head.’
    ‘You won’t be the only one,’ Georgie remarked succinctly.

Five
Lasswade Hall, 1907
    Caroline came hurtling across the lawn to where her parents were having afternoon tea. Pretty in a white lawn dress and bonnet, the three-year-old was smiling with excitement at being home again.
    ‘Mama! Dada!’ she shrieked, waving her arms. ‘Look what Aunt Di gave me.’ She was clutching a doll in her tiny hand. Her nanny came hurrying after her, trying to catch up.
    ‘I’m sorry, M’Lady. Sir. She’s that thrilled to be back and there’s been no stopping her since dawn,’ she panted apologetically.
    Laura and Walter smiled as their child threw herself into Laura’s arms.
    ‘Hello, my darling. I believe you’ve grown,’ Laura exclaimed, settling Caroline on her lap. ‘Did you have a wonderful time with Aunt Di? And did you have fun playing with Nicolas and Louise?’
    Caroline nodded vigorously as she pulled off her bonnet, revealing long, flaxen hair which fell into curls down her back.
    ‘I saw Punch and Judy!’ she squealed. ‘And I sat on a pony.’
    ‘What a busy little girl you’ve been,’ Walter observed warmly.
    Caroline looked around. ‘Where’s Neil, Dada?’ He was her six-year-old half-brother by Walter’s first marriage; his mother had died five years ago.
    ‘He’s been away too, staying with his aunt,’ Laura said quickly, flashing a knowing look at Walter.
    ‘That’s right,’ Walter agreed. ‘You’ve been staying with your aunt Di and he’s been staying with his aunt Rowena.’
    ‘Why doesn’t she ask me to stay with her? Doesn’t she like me?’ Caroline’s eyes, so dark like her father’s, looked fretful.
    ‘She will when you’re a bit older,’ Laura assured her soothingly. ‘After all, Neil is six, nearly seven.’
    Tears sprang to Caroline’s eyes and her mouth drooped at the corners. ‘I don’t want to be three.’ A dry sob caught in her chest. ‘Mama, I want to be seven!’
    ‘You will be but how about a slice of cake first? Shall Mummy cut you a piece?’
    The child nodded sulkily.
    Laura spoils her
, Walter thought.
Probably to compensate
. Neil was rather spoilt, too. It was what parents did when they felt guilty.
    ‘Shall I push you on the swing when you’ve had your cake?’ he asked gently.
    Caroline jumped down from Laura’s lap, her cheeks bulging with sponge and jam cake.
    ‘Finish your cake first,’ Laura said, grabbing her by the arm and attempting to wipe her mouth with a table napkin, but the child was off, running defiantly on her little legs to where Greg the gardener had hung a home-made swing from one of the branches of a tree near his hut.
    Laura watched her with anxious eyes.
    ‘Is everything all right?’ Walter asked.
    ‘Yes.’ What else could she say? Her voice was flat, though, and she sounded desperately tired. ‘Is Rowena bringing Neil back this evening?’
    ‘I suggested she might come to luncheon tomorrow and bring him with her. I thought that would give Caroline time to settle down.’
    Laura looked at him directly. ‘Neil is going to ask questions, you know. He’s getting too big to have the wool pulled over his eyes any more. What are you going to tell him, Walter?’
    ‘Leave him to me, my dear,’ he said quietly.
    ‘This has been the longest time you’ve been . . . away,’ she pointed out.
    ‘I know.’
    A silence hung over them like a poisonous cloud, stinging their eyes and breaking their hearts so they could scarcely breathe.
    How much longer can I bear this