Free The Australian Heiress by Margaret Way Page B

shopping, too. Do you like shopping?”
    The little girl stared at her. “I’m not allowed to go shopping,” she said in a husky whisper. “Miss Larkins takes me to school. Miss Larkins brings me home. I hate all the mean things she does to me.”
    “Oh, dear. What exactly has she done?”
    Melissa crossed her legs like a little Buddha. “Tons of things. Don’t worry. She hates me, too. She says I’m a very complex child. One of these days I’m going to kill her.”
    Camille sucked in her breath. The child could just as well have said, One of these days Miss Larkins andI are going to play tennis. “But, Melissa, it’s very wrong to want to kill someone.”
    Melissa started banging her bony little knees together. “I said I want to kill her. I know I can’t.”
    Camille was relieved. “We all say things from time to time we don’t mean.” Her voice was soothing. “It’s a way of getting rid of our anger.”
    “Oh, I mean it all right!” Melissa sounded very sure. “She thinks I’m a dummy. When she speaks to me in front of Daddy, she’s pretends to be nice. But when it’s just us, she’s nasty.”
    Camille studied the child carefully. For some reason she believed her. “Have you told your daddy this?”
    “No.” Melissa shook her head. “It would only make things worse. Nannies won’t stay with me.” She paused. “I’ve run away a couple of times.”
    Camille wasn’t surprised by this announcement. “Oh, where?”
    “Quite a way!” Melissa crowed with remembered triumph. “I get so mad. Oh, why can’t I be happy?” The child sighed as if she had an oppressive weight on her shoulders.
    “We’ll have to find a few things to make you happy.” Camille drew an unresisting Melissa against her shoulder. Whether the child approved of this new development or not was hard to say, but she didn’t draw away. “What about getting rid of this big heavy braid for a start? It could be draining your strength. Your hair’s curly. Short, it would frame your face. Make you feel lighter and brighter.”
    “It won’t happen,” Melissa said flatly. “Braids are tidy.”
    “That’s all very well, but they can look dreary.”
    “Nothing can make me look pretty.” Melissa puckered her face into a fierce scowl. “It’s really a tremendous pity,” she added in an uncannily adult voice. “Clare said that. She brings me pencils and paper to draw with. Miss Larkins thinks she’s wonderful. So rich and glamorous!” More imitating the adult tone. “I think they’re both nasty people.”
    They might well be, Camille thought. “Have you any pets?” she asked, trying to distract this unhappy and precocious little girl. For only six she had an excellent command of language.
    Melissa’s expression was smeared by memory. “I had a kitten, but Miss Larkins said I was hurting him. That was a lie. I wasn’t. I only put him in my toy box because Miss Larkins was coming. Salty bothered her. She used to take a swipe at him if he ever sat on the sofa.”
    “And where is Salty now?” Camille suspected the worst.
    “They blamed me because he ran away.” The child’s voice was shrill. “He didn’t run away. She got rid of him. She despised Salty. He was a bit ugly. One eye was white and the other was black.”
    “Why didn’t you call him Pepper or Patchy?”
    “I was thinking about calling him Pepper when he disappeared. Miss Larkins told Daddy it would be better if we waited a while before I got another pet.”
    “Daddy didn’t agree, did he?” Camille’s harsh feelings about Nick Lombard almost broke through.
    “Daddy’s idea of pets are big black dogs. He told me we’d talk about getting another kitten again.”
    “So he didn’t believe your story?”
    “I didn’t tell it very well,” Melissa said loyally. “She wouldn’t leave us alone. Daddy wouldn’t like me to hurt an animal. As if I ever would. I like animals lots more than people.”
    “All the more reason to get to the