Fascination Read Online Free

stubbornly at length. ‘Take my advice, Hydee, and let the matter rest where it is.’
    ‘I can’t do a thing like that! He’s expecting me to telephone him and say when I can go down to Surrey.’
    ‘Why does he need an English nanny anyway?’ pursued Ellie, just as if Hydee had not spoken at all. ‘Were those other nannies English?’
    ‘I can’t say. And as to why he wants an English nanny this time—well, he did mention that his children speak our language.’
    ‘What does that signify? Most foreign kids are taught English as their second language.’
    ‘I expect he’ll explain eventually,’ said Hydee.
    ‘If I were you, I’d telephone him this very evening and tell him the whole thing’s off. It’s far too risky, going over there to his home.’ Ellie shook her head emphatically. ‘You mustn’t do it, Hydee!’
    ‘I’m sorry you’re so troubled, Ellie, and it’s certainly gratifying to know that there’s at least one person in the world who cares what’s to become of me. However, I am old enough to take care of myself, but in any case, we’re travelling a little too fast. I haven’t landed the job yet. The children might not take to me—’
    ‘You know darned well they’ll take to you,’ interrupted her friend impatiently. ‘All kids take to you!’
    Hydee had to smile at Ellie’s anger. Yet, as she had just remarked, it was gratifying to know that there was someone who really cared. It meant a great deal to Hydee to know that if she did take this post abroad, she would at least have a contact with home, for she was sure that she and Ellie would keep up a regular correspondence with one another.
    ‘I want to go to Surrey,’ she said at length, almost apologetically. ‘Please bear with me, Ellie, as I’m really anxious to take the job if it’s offered to me.’
    ‘In spite of the mystery?’
    ‘There won’t be a mystery after I’ve been to Surrey. The marquês did say, remember, that we’d talk about these other things. It’s my opinion that he intends to make some alterations in the way he wants the children brought up.’
    Ellie’s eyes flickered thoughtfully, and when she spoke, her voice was not as sharp as before. ‘That would certainly explain what he said about those “other things” which have been worrying us. In fact, he said he had changed his plans for the children’s future, didn’t he?’
    ‘Yes, that’s right.’ Hydee was glad that Ellie seemed a little less hostile towards the marquês, and she hoped to be able to tell her, on her return from Surrey, that everything had been satisfactorily explained and that all her suspicions were unfounded.
    ***
    The house in Surrey was far less pretentious than Hydee had expected. It was of a moderate size with no more than an acre of garden surrounding it and a small paddock to one side. The marquês, who had met Hydee at the station in a chauffeur-driven car which bore a silver crest on each of its four doors and flew a pennant above the windscreen, had spoken very little to Hydee after the first rather cool greeting as he met her on the platform, and she was now experiencing a sort of weighty sensation in the pit of her stomach. The marquês’s strange mood affected her in an uncomfortable manner and she even dwelt on the possibility of his having regretted asking her to come to Surrey to meet his children. Perhaps he had now decided he ought to look for a woman with experience. Undoubtedly there were plenty to be had, women whose careers had started with a two-or three-year course in child care, followed by experience gained in the sort of post for which they had trained.
    ‘Well, here we are,’ the marquês said as the big car turned into the short but well-kept drive. ‘You’ll be meeting the children, but they have no idea who you are.’
    She nodded. ‘I understand,’ she said, smiling.
    The chauffeur, whom the marquês called Casco, opened the door for Hydee to alight, then went round the car to do the