Inheritance Read Online Free Page A

but they didn't really want us there, so a year ago we got our own place. I graduated high school last week."
    After a moment, Leni said, "And what else? Are you going to college?"
    "Oh, I'd love to. If I could get the money . . ."
    Leni nodded. "So you need a job. But why not in New York? Why did you come to the Cape?"
    Laura hesitated an instant; they hadn't rehearsed this part. "Just to get away, you know. We have a tiny apartment, and it gets awftjUy hot in the sunmier and sort of closed in . . . And somebody at school said it was nice here." She looked beyond the porch at the sparkle of the ocean through the trees. "It is. More beautiful than I ever thought."
    Leni was watching her closely. "And how did you get here? Do you have a car?"
    Laura felt a surge of impatience. Why did she keep asking questions? "A friend drove us," she said briefly.

    Inheritance
    "And how will you get back?*'
    "I hope we don't have to." She looked at her hands. **I mean, I was hoping you'd hire us and then we could just . . . stay."
    "Stay where?" Leni asked gently.
    "Oh, we'd find a place. We bought a newspaper and there are some rooms for rent in Osterville and Centerville ... If you'd give us a chance I know we could manage everything. You wouldn't have to worry about us; we can take care of ourselves, you know."
    "Yes, I think you can," Leni murmured. She looked around. "Yes, Allison, is there something you need?"
    "A tennis partner." The young woman who stood at the foot of the porch steps was about Laura's age and looked like a young Leni, as tall and angular, though her long blond hair was straight, while Leni's was short and curled, and she had a touch of arrogance that Leni lacked. "Patricia doesn't feel like playing. Would you like a game?"
    "My daughter, Allison," Leni said to Laura. "This is Laura Fairchild, Allison. She's applying for the job of Rosa's assistant."
    "Rosa's a sweetie," said Allison. "She's also an absolute tyrant in her kitchen; she'll wear you out in a week. Or maybe she'll take you under her wing and then you'll gain fifty pounds." She turned to her mother. "Can't you just hear her telling Laura she's too thin?"
    "Am I?" Laura asked anxiously. She was ashamed of her cotton dress and black patent shoes, bought at a resale shop, and the way her hair hung lankly around her face in the salt air of the Cape, and she knew her face had a city pallor beside these two tanned women, but she hadn't thought about being thin. / won't get the job if I'm skinny and ugly; they only want pretty people working for them. Ben and Clay always told her she was pretty, but they were her brothers. Nervously she pushed her hair behind her ears, tried to look taller on the chair's slippery cushion, and kept her legs close together, her feet flat on the porch.
    But it wasn't just her looks that bothered her, she was envious of the warmth between Allison and her mother. She had never known anything like that, even when her mother was

    Judith Michael
    alive, and she envied them and liked them at the same time. It's too bad we have to rob them, she thought.
    Another one of Ben's warnings came back to her. It's better not to know the mark at all. But if it's unavoidable, don't get close; keep your distance. Laura felt a pang of regret. It might be nice to be close to Leni and Allison.
    *There's nothing wrong with your figure; you mustn't worry," Leni said. "Well, perhaps a few pounds, a little rounding out . . . young girls do seem gaunt these days. They want to be willowy or sway like a reed or some such thing—it always seems to involve some damp and probably unhealthy plant. Yes, I do believe you could use a few pounds . . . Perhaps you don't eat properly. Do you have a hot breakfast every day?"
    Laura and Allison looked at each other and burst out laughing. "Oh, well," Leni sighed. "I suppose you do hear that a great deal." But she wasn't really thinking of her words; she was hearing Allison's laughter and watching it banish the