Free Dubious Legacy by Mary Wesley

engaged has made you poetic, you must keep your head Antonia teased. On the far side of the yew hedge a mistlethrush burst into song, to be answered by a rival in the distance.
    ‘I feel so much older,’ whispered Barbara.
    ‘You are a prototype; we are both prototypes, Henry said. Do you know what a prototype is?’ Antonia teased.
    ‘I know what a tangle is.’ Barbara watched Henry. ‘Why did he suggest tangle?’
    ‘Because his marriage is a tangle,’ hissed Antonia. ‘It doesn’t mean yours will be—or mine.’
    ‘Perhaps not,’ Barbara whispered, then, ‘Of course not,’ more robustly. ‘Listen to that bird, and the cuckoo is nearer this morning.’
    ‘Do you want children, Barbara?’
    ‘Not much.’
    ‘Me neither. But it’s another way to earn a living and a better way than working in a boring office. I loathe typewriters. Anyway,’ said Antonia, ‘if I can’t have a nanny, if Matthew can’t afford one, I shall have an au pair.’
    ‘Antonia, you think of everything.’
    ‘I am not going to allow myself to be blocked,’ Antonia muttered between gritted teeth. ‘My mother,’ she said, ‘gives in to my father in everything. I don’t want to be like her.’
    ‘No need for you to worry. Matthew isn’t masterful, like your pa.’
    ‘Of course he’s masterful—’ Antonia protested.
    ‘Not like your pa, that’s all I meant.’
    ‘Oh. And James?’
    ‘Not so’s you’d notice.’ The girls giggled, leaning shoulder to shoulder, elbows on the windowsill, blond hair brushing against brown as they watched the activity below.
    ‘The best silver,’ said Pilar. ‘I clean the chandeliers. Tall white candles.’
    ‘Chandeliers!’ whispered Barbara. ‘Candle-light.’
    ‘Don’t go overboard.’
    Standing immediately below the girls’ window, Henry surveyed the scene. They heard him murmur, ‘Flowers?’
    ‘A beautiful setting for beautiful people,’ said Pilar, hands on hips. ‘They have the best.’
    ‘Beautiful girls.’ Ebro steadied a table. ‘Eh, Trask?’
    Trask, who had not spoken, smiled, shrugged and walked away.
    ‘Hear that?’ Antonia nudged her friend. ‘We are beautiful.’
    ‘Here comes that exotic bird—’ Barbara pointed.
    They watched the cockatoo insinuate itself through the bars of the garden gate and approach Henry with its sideways hop. Henry put his hand down, offering his wrist. ‘I think you had better be shut in tonight. Don’t nip,’ he said, as the bird clawed itself up onto his shoulder. ‘Sit tight.’
    The bird put its head on one side, raising and lowering its yellow crest.
    ‘Matches the tulips,’ murmured Barbara.
    ‘He invited our children here,’ whispered Antonia. ‘Shall you—’
    ‘Probably—oh certainly, yes. I wish —’
    ‘What?’
    ‘Nothing.’
    Antonia glanced sharply at Barbara. I wish it too, she thought, drawing in her breath, don’t I just. ‘I think,’ she said, ‘that Henry is a prototype himself.’
    ‘Do you?’ said Barbara. ‘Really? But what about the horses? Was she pulling our legs?’
    Antonia giggled. ‘It’s not possible,’ she spluttered.
    ‘Are you two girls going to stay up there all morning tittering, or would you like to come for a swim or a ride before breakfast?’ Henry neither raised his voice nor did he look up.
    ‘Oh!’ the girls exclaimed, ‘Oh!’ and sobered, wondering what Henry had overheard.
    Henry said, ‘Well?’
    Looking down at Henry, Antonia said, ‘We shall have to telephone our parents and tell them about getting engaged. That is, if you don’t mind us using your telephone.’
    Henry said, ‘Please do. And what will they say?’ He smiled up at them.
    Antonia said, ‘My mother will say, “Oh, goodness. I must break it to your father,” and he will say, “What about your job?” and “You are awfully young, darling, for such a big decision.”’
    ‘And what will yours say?’ Henry asked Barbara.
    ‘The same tell your father bit and, “Isn’t it rather