Free Unknown by Unknown Page A

and, if she was, if she was reaching the same conclusion.
     
    She went to bed soon after the evening meal. It had been a long and very amazing day and she found she was tired.
    For a while, however, sleep eluded her. Gemma always had had a distinct feeling about houses. She had visited a lot of houses in her school days. When you are a boarder, day girls frequently take pity on you and invite you home. Many homes she had liked at once, felt at case in at once, but others somehow repelled her.
    She could not go as far as to say that Bruce’s house repelled her and she certainly liked Hannah very much, but—
    But I haven’t come home , Gemma thought.
    She sighed, turned over, and when she opened her eyes again, it was dawn.
    Gemma showered, dressed quickly, then went along to the kitchen. Early as she was, Hannah was there before her. But then she had expected that of Hannah. Hannah obviously had not expected Gemma, though, and she looked at her in disbelief, and then she smiled. ‘‘I v\as just thinking of taking in an early cup.” ‘’Early breakfast will be even better. Breakfast with you.” Gemma put enough emphasis on that to discourage Hannah from making any protests.
    Hannah began breaking eggs into a pan.
    “Didn’t the Mannering girls get up early?” Gemma asked later, buttering toast.
    “As soon as Mr. Bruce left college, he set up house here. I came to look after him. So you could say, having left the main homestead, I didn’t see much of the girls. But as young teenagers, they were not so keen on early rising, I recall, but Mrs. Mannering was strict about that. She wouldn't permit any layabouts, as she called it.” Hannah added loyally : “And rightly so, too.”
    “But at times—” Gemma heard herself excusing. Surely the girls hadn’t been entirely paragons, she was thinking privately; even the most righteous child occasionally kicks over the parental traces.
    Almost as if she spoke aloud, Hannah said:
    “Miss Janet was a little inclined to rebel, I recall. There were a few protests. Just as later when she had her eye on— Well, all the girls did, and I don’t blame them. But of course, it couldn’t be considered.”
    What couldn’t? And whom had Janet had her eye on?
    But Gemma would not have dreamed of asking Hannah. Hannah was far too nice to probe. Also, Gemma suspected, already Hannah was feeling a little guilty. She would not want to make her feel worse.
    “I’m going out in my car this morning. I’ll take a run round Mannering Park.” To cheer Hannah, Gemma added, and hated herself for it, for she had no intention of carrying it out: “I might call on Janet.”
    Hannah, encouraged, said : “There’s petrol in the bowser, dear. Lunch will be whenever you get back.” Gemma went down to the bam and released, then led Harriet to the car.
    “I’m going to skip you somewhere, Harriet, how do you like that? I can’t promise you buttercups to tread on like a nice little cow should tread, but we should find something better than all this cement.”
    Mannering Park, she decided an hour later, was like a vast showground, or even a small village. There were roads and buildings and settlements everywhere, j One road led towards the master house ... no, in | this instance it would be a mistress house. In spite of Bruce, there was no doubt that Mannering Park was a matriarchy.
    Gemma drove near, but not too near. It was the same as Bruce’s house, only larger, which it would need to be for a family. Later on when she and Bryce had their family, they would need more rooms than in the satellite cottage, so would they move into the mistress house instead? Make it a master house? After all, Bruce as the only male representative .. .
    Gemma looked long at the house. She had not fallen in love with Bruce’s house, she remembered, but this place ...
    She stopped a little shiver of distaste, thanked her lucky stars, as she had thanked them many times before this, that Mrs., Mannering was not