Cry of a Seagull Read Online Free Page A

them by saying, ‘But we don’t need an outsider. We’ll manage on our own.’
    â€˜How?’ Hilda, Mrs Ardis, Gloria, Dilys … Rose began to panic. Her father never shared the running of the hotel, so how—
    â€˜I’ll help,’ he said. ‘I’ll keep the books, do the ordering, chat up the old fogies.’
    â€˜But—’ Rose and Mollie said together.
    â€˜I’ll take some time off work. Hilda and Gloria can manage a lot of the cooking. I can make omelettes at a pinch, and bake my famous gingerbread.’
    â€˜I can do bread and butter pudding.’ Rose caught his enthusiasm. ‘And remember those barbecued chickens I did, and the curry?’
    â€˜Blew the top of everyone’s head off.’ Mollie was torn between doubt and gratitude.
    â€˜Well next time I’ll use less curry powder.’
    â€˜How can I go?’ Mollie struggled with her two loves and duties. ‘I’ve got to go, but I can’t go.’
    â€˜You can,’ Philip said. ‘You must.’ Rose had never seen him look so noble. ‘We’ll manage together, won’t we, Rose?’ He reached out to her across the table.
    â€˜A team.’ She put the hamster into her jacket pocket and shook his hand.

Chapter Three
    It was unnerving to see Mollie drive away, but it was exciting to be a trustworthy team, and Rose had not felt so close to her father for years.
    He was up early, and spent the morning in the office or behind the reception desk in the hall.
    â€˜Well, I must say.’ Audrey Mumford stopped at the desk for her Sunday paper. ‘It’s nice to see you helping out for a change.’
    â€˜Thank you, Miss Mumford.’ He remembered that he had promised to be nice to the old dum-dums. ‘I’m letting my wife take a few days off. Meanwhile, I am in charge.’
    â€˜Well.’ Audrey’s small, suspicious eyes drilled through him like gimlets. ‘Then I’ll know who to come to if any-thing’s wrong, won’t I? For a start, you can give me my correct paper. This belongs to Mrs Howard. She takes it for the crossword, though she never finishes it.’ Although wrapped up in their own concerns, the twins made it their business to know what everybody else read or ate or did. ‘If you’re to be in charge, you will have to pay a bit more attention to the guests, won’t you?’
    â€˜Ah yes, well well, ha ha.’ Rose, watering plants in the hall, could see that his fists were clenched with the effort to be polite. ‘If they were all as easy and charming as you …’
    â€˜Don’t overdo it, Dad,’ Rose said when Audrey had gone. ‘They’ll smell a rat.’
    â€˜They smell it anyway,’ he said. ‘Miss Angela’s already been along to complain about the bacon.’
    â€˜It was a bit greasy, but Hilda got flustered.’
    â€˜Are you?’
    Rose shook her head.
    â€˜Nor am I. It’s fun.’ He winked at her. ‘We’ll cope.’
    A young man with a beard arrived with a lot of cameraequipment, and a beautiful girl in amazing clothes. He was preparing an illustrated feature about this area for a local magazine, and the girl was his assistant. Philip got them successfully booked in and sent them up to their rooms, calling Jim Fisher, the outside helper, from his tea break in the kitchen to carry the girl’s heavy bag.
    Gloria was not here today, so Rose would have to help Hilda to cook lunches, if only to keep her father, in his first flush of enthusiasm, from having a go at Yorkshire pudding.
    She rang Abigail to say she wouldn’t be able to go riding.
    â€˜Ben there?’
    â€˜Yes, but that’s not why. He’s down at the dock, scrubbing the decks and scraping barnacles.’ Rose told Abigail about the crisis, and good old Ab – what a friend – said at once, ‘Hold everything. I’ll be right