Kingfisher Morning

at once?' Amanda asked him abruptly, ignoring the others. 'I tried to ring, but your telephone was out of order.'

'Is it? I didn't know.' Ross sounded abstracted. 'Look, is it really necessary for me to…I'm in no mood for another of those scenes.'

'Your father has had a stroke,' said Amanda.

Emma had been watching Ross. She saw the colour leave his skin, his jaw clench. 'Is it serious? Is the doctor there?'

'The doctor got there within ten minutes. We put your father back to bed.' She looked at Ross sombrely. 'I think it's serious this time, Ross. Judith ought to be here. Could she leave hospital? Should I send a car for her?'

Suddenly Emma knew. She saw in a painful flash all that had been dark before. Leon Daumaury was not the father of Judith's husband—he was Judith's father. Ross's father.

Ross would be the next owner of Queen's Daumaury.

CHAPTER TEN

So many things which had puzzled her now fell into place. Ross, as heir to Queen's Daumaury, must have been considered quite a catch by ambitious young women, and his story about the girl who pursued him and tried to blackmail him into marriage now made even more sense—with such a rich prize at stake no wonder the girl had been desperate enough to try any method, however wild and wickedly unscrupulous.

Emma could imagine Ross, hurt and angry, when his father refused to believe his version of events, storming out of the house and staying away. Yet he must care deeply about his father, or he would not have stayed so close at hand here in the village. He could have gone anywhere. His profession made him a free man. He could have got work in any part of the world. He had preferred to stay, and that said a great deal for how he really felt about Queen's Daumaury and about his father.

And Leon Daumaury was not as coldly set against Ross as he had appeared whenever she saw them together. He had come here, he had sent for Ross from time to time, and even if they had always quarrelled on these occasions, clearly there was an underlying concern between them, a feeling for each other, which remained despite all the quarrels.

Amanda, too, was more comprehensible. Her unswerving pursuit of Ross, her cryptic hints about him…

No wonder Ross had been evasive, despite his obvious attraction towards Amanda. He probably suspected her motives to be more mercenary than loving, and his other experience of predatory young women must have made him even more determined to steer clear of all such traps.

Ross and Amanda left hurriedly with barely a word, and Emma faced the future with a bleak feeling of emptiness.

Fanny followed her into the kitchen, questions bubbling on her lips, but Emma was not disposed to talk much.

'We must go,' said Guy, seeing how things were.

Fanny opened her mouth to protest, then fell silent, catching his stern eye.

'Shall we see you tomorrow?' she asked Emma. 'We could drive over here.'

'We'll be in the way if there's family trouble,' Guy told her quietly. 'It's a pity, but perhaps we ought to go back to London.'

'No,' Emma said hastily, dragging her mind back to the present with a sigh. 'No, of course you must come over here. Please, do come.'

Fanny kissed her, then kissed the children. Tracy was pale and very quiet. She went with the others to wave goodbye to Guy and Fanny, but Emma noticed that she looked miserable. Bending down, she put an arm around the little girl.

'What's the matter?'

Tracy looked up at her anxiously. 'I heard what Amanda said. Is our grandfather going to die?'

'I hope not, darling,' Emma said gently.

'But he's very old.'

'Yes, but he's strong,' Emma reminded her. 'And he has a very good doctor.' She was sure that a man as rich as Leon Daumaury would have the best doctor that could be found.

The news of his illness actually made its way into the news bulletins that evening. The Daumaury fortune was immense, and share prices began to fall when the news hit the stock market. Any change in the direction of his many companies must make alarming news for shareholders.

Ross did not return that evening. Telephone engineers arrived to work on the telephone, and discovered some trouble with the outside wiring. They rapidly repaired it, and the telephone at once began to ring. Many of Ross's friends were trying to find out the true situation, and Emma grew weary of explaining her own total ignorance.

Mrs Pat popped up during the evening, leaving Edie in charge at the inn, to talk to Emma about the reporters who had descended upon her. They were making the inn their headquarters while it was open.

'It's only a matter of time before one of 'em makes his way up to see you,' Mrs Pat warned her. 'They're like hungry ferrets, they jump at anything. Don't you talk to 'em.'