Above Rubies Read Online Free Page A

yet.”
    “Och, that will come in time,” the older woman told her. “I’m real glad to see you here, as a matter of fact. I couldna thole the place empty. I know you’re not kith and kin to Miss Ellen, but there’s a likeness between the pair of you. I like fine to see you here. I was feart it would all get into other hands when Miss Ellen died.”
    Mrs. Cameron paused to give her nose a quick wipe, then briskly cleared away Merry’s porridge plate and put a large dish of eggs and bacon before her.
    “Oh, goodness !” gasped Merry.
    “Eat it up, do,” she was told. “You look like a wee orphan, all skin and bones. It’s time somebody looked after you properly !”
    Merry found the task surprisingly easy, and after breakfast she accompanied Mrs. Cameron round the old cottage. The sitting-room was lovely, with fine, well-polished furniture and charmingly faded carpets and curtains. At the far end was an archway which led into a tiny room furnished with a large desk, two comfortable chairs and multiple bookshelves. A long low window gave a lovely view of the garden at the side of the cottage.
    Merry had rarely sat in Aunt Ellen’s study, except to write now and again, as the older woman had considered it a private domain, and now she wandered round, looking at it all with pleasure . The pale leaf green carpet blended beautifully with gold brocade curtains and pretty cretonne covers for the chairs. She loved the atmosphere of the tiny room, and felt she could work well here.
    “I won’t disturb you in here, Miss Merry,” Mrs. Cameron was telling her. “Miss Ellen liked it that way, too, and if you don’t want to be disturbed by callers, then you can always be out.”
    “Thank you, Mrs. Cameron,” laughed Merry.
    “Can we go upstairs now? I put you in Miss Ellen’s bedroom, but moved your things.”
    “Yes, I saw. Thank you, Mrs. Cameron. It ... it was very thoughtful of you.”
    “It will seem like your own room in no time,” the older woman comforted her. “T his is a friendly house, and has always given succour to its owner. There’s been no sadness or evil here in living memory, and nothing but good tales are told of the place.”
    “I know. I’m sensitive to atmosphere,” said Merry, climbing the old polished stairs. “It was always a happy house to me, and I loved staying with Aunt Ellen.”
    Together they inspected the three bedrooms and tiny boxroom.
    “Will you want to see my rooms?” asked Mrs. Cameron diffiden tl y, and Merry assured her that she didn’t, so long as she was quite satisfied.
    The bathroom was new and luxurious in pale aquamarine tiles with deeper green fittings. Ellen Blayne had loved green, saying it was nature’s own colour, and she certainly hadn’t skimped when it came to her new bathroom. However, Merry felt happy with her choice, and delighted Mrs. Cameron by admiring its immaculate appearance. The day before she had still been too tired to take it all in.
    Back downstairs, Mrs. Cameron indicated a small table covered with notebooks and papers.
    “Will you look through these, Miss Merry?” she asked. “They were in a small chest of drawers Miss Ellen decided to give to an old lady in the village. She went to see her when she was ill, and found the puir sowl had nowhere to keep her claes.”
    Merry picked up the notebooks and leafed through them.
    “Miss Ellen took ill after that,” Mrs. Cameron told her, “and couldna attend to them hersel’, so I kept them. I didn’t want to bu rn them till you saw them.”
    Already Merry was reading the small, neat writing, turning the pages with interest. They had been written when Aunt Ellen was young, in the nineteen-twenties, and something at the back of Merry’s mind was responding to the small gay snippets of nonsense they contained. Already the whole personality of Ellen Blayne, whom she’d loved so dearly, was catching her I imagination.
    “I’d like all this put in the study, Mrs. Cameron,” she said,