Free Laura Possessed by Anthea Fraser Page B

gateway of Four Winds he drew up and waited for her to climb out. She said through shaking lips, ‘Can I see you tomorrow?’
    â€˜Not tomorrow, Harry’ll be here. Leave it till the weekend—perhaps Saturday.’
    She nodded vaguely, turned away and walked up to the house. For a moment he sat staring frowningly after her. Then with a shrug he started up the car.

Part 2
    Caroline

CHAPTER FIVE
    â€˜You mean to tell me you let Laura go and hang those infernal curtains?’ On Edward’s face incredulity battled with growing anger. ‘Really, Caroline, I’d have given you credit for more sense! No wonder the child’s exhausted!’
    Caroline’s temper snapped. After all the anxiety, disappointment and frustration of the day behind her, Edward’s righteous indignation was more than she could stomach.
    â€˜She’s not a child, to start with, though the way you all dance attendance on her she might well be, and a backward one at that! I told you I took her in the car and Lewis brought her back. She was only out for a couple of hours.’
    â€˜And you can see the state she returned in!’ Edward retorted angrily. ‘An hour or more bending and stretching and holding up the weight of those curtains would wear anyone out, let alone someone who—’
    â€˜Oh, for God’s sake, Edward, let it drop! Heaven knows, I wanted to go myself—’ It was rich, she thought on a spurt of furious, inward laughter, that she should have to explain to Edward that she had wanted to go to Lewis. Lord, how she had wanted! She remembered, with a belated twinge of conscience, that her thoughts on the way to the hospital had been more of disappointment at missing Lewis than worry about her injured son.
    â€˜Apart from anything else,’ Edward went on, ‘I always have the impression she doesn’t care for Lewis anyway. I’ve caught her watching him like a rabbit does a snake.’
    â€˜Charming!’ She spun the wheel of her lighter furiously. ‘A nice way to speak of our friend, I must say! The way you’re carrying on I might have been guilty of pushing Trilby into Svengali’s clutches! She
offered
to go, I keep telling you!’
    Edward looked at her for a moment and she saw the fight drain out of him. He turned away wearily. ‘Do you have to dramatize everything?’
    â€˜I?’ She gave a hard choke of laughter. ‘My dear Edward, where Laura’s concerned, you’re the one who dramatizes endlessly—probing, sifting, worrying. God, don’t you know how sick I am of having that girl in the house, and she’s only been here a fortnight!’
    Edward said flatly, ‘You’ve always been jealous of Laura, heaven knows why.’
    â€˜Jealous?’ She paused in the act of denial. ‘Perhaps I have, in a distorted kind of way, but in all conscience the reason’s plain enough. She always comes first with you, before me or any of the children.’
    â€˜Now you’re just talking nonsense.’
    â€˜I’m not, you know, and it’s time you faced up to it.’ She threw back her head and exhaled a cloud of smoke. Her eyes when they came down to his were hard and bright. ‘Do you know what my first memory of Laura is? No doubt you’ve forgotten the occasion, but it was hardly designed to set us off on the right foot, looking back on it.’
    He met her brilliant, challenging gaze warily. ‘I can’t say I remember, no.’
    â€˜It was the day we became engaged. You took me back to meet your parents and I was a bundle of nerves. I hadn’t slept at all the night before. After the initial ordeal of the introductions, you took me over to where Laura was sitting on a stool in the corner. I can see her now, she could only have been about six or seven. And you took my hand and said, “This is Caroline, Laura. What do you think? Shall I marry her?”’ She broke