Free (12/20) No Holly for Miss Quinn by Miss Read

suddenly. The child had vanished.
    Hazel and Jenny were talking to a boy in the doorway.
    "Probably in the road," said Mrs. Bates. "And the traffic's something awful this morning."
    There was a hint of mournful satisfaction in this remark that reminded Miriam yet again of the distant Mrs. Pringle.
    She rushed to the door, heart thudding, calling his name. The road was clear, except for a scrawny dog carrying a large bone.
    "It's all right!" shouted Mrs. Bates behind her. "He's here."
    The child was sitting on the floor, hidden behind the end of the counter, beside a rolled-down sack containing dog biscuits which he was eating with the voracity of one just released from a concentration camp.
    "Robin, really! " exclaimed his aunt. Like Tabitha Twitchit, she thought suddenly, I am affronted.
    "Don't worry, miss. He's partial to dog biscuits. And these are extra pure," she added virtuously.
    "You must let me pay you," said Miriam, hauling the child to his feet and brushing yellow sulphur biscuit crumbs from his coat.
    "Oh, he's welcome," said Mrs. Bates indulgently. "I'll just add up the other."
    By the time she had visited the butcher to buy steak and kidney for a casserole for the evening meal, and then the post office for stamps and sweets, Miriam seemed to have accumulated three heavy baskets.
    The wind was now boisterous, and carrying rain bordering on sleet. The children did not seem to notice the cold, but Miriam, struggling with the erratic push chair and the shopping, felt frozen through.
    Ah! Dear Holly Lodge! she thought with longing. Tucked into the shelter of the downs, screened by that stout hedge, when would she see it again?
    ***
    "What a lovely, lovely lunch," sighed Jenny, leaning back replete.
    "Excellent!" agreed her father.
    Miriam was secretly amused. If her friends could have seen the meal she had assembled, fish fingers, instant potatoes, tinned beans, and bottled tomato sauce, followed by the bought fruit pie, her standing as a first-class cook would have taken a jolt.
    And yet it had been relished. Perhaps there was a moral here, but there was certainly no time to pursue the thought, with the washing up to be done, the girls to get ready, and Robin to be put down for his afternoon nap. She must put the steak and kidney in a slow oven too, so that it could cook gently while they were at the hospital. How on earth did mothers manage? She was more exhausted now, at midday, than she was at the end of a hard week at the office.
    At half-past two she set out, with the girls in a state of wild excitement in the back of the car. They were carrying their Christmas presents for Eileen, and keeping an eye on Miriam's. Tomorrow Lovell would be the only visitor at the hospital, while Miriam took charge at home.

    Eileen looked prettier and younger than ever, propped against her pillows in a frilly pale blue nightgown. It so happened that Miriam's present was also a nightgown, but a black chiffon one threaded with narrow black satin ribbon. It would make a splendid contrast, she thought, to the one she was now wearing.
    Eileen greeted them all with hugs and kisses.
    "You are a perfect angel to come to our rescue," she said when the little girls had been settled, in comparative peace, with some magazines. "Have you had a terrible time coping?"
    Miriam reassured her.
    "I think all the shopping's done. No doubt I've forgotten something quite vital like bread, but I've remembered stuffing for the bird and even salted peanuts in case people come in for drinks."
    "That's more than I should have done," said Eileen cheerfully, and Miriam began to feel more drawn to her sister-in-law than ever before. There was something engaging about such candor.
    "Is that lady dying?" asked Jenny, in a high carrying voice, her finger pointing to a gray-faced woman dozing in the next bed. Miriam went cold with shock.
    Eileen laughed merrily.
    "Good heavens, no! Mrs. White is getting better faster than any of us. Be very quiet, darling, so