Terrible Tide Read Online Free Page A

never did notice much that wasn’t connected with Roger’s needs. Right now she was heading for the grocery store, wondering aloud how she was going to stretch their meager food budget over those seven elegant little dinners Roger expected to be served every week, not to mention breakfasts and lunches. What a life for a woman brought up to affluence!
    Fan did appear to be genuinely distressed at the prospect of Holly’s moving out to Cliff House. Maybe it was just Holly’s board money she was going to miss, but what the heck?
    “Look, Fan,” Holly said, “I’m not taking all my stuff out there, till I see how things are going to work out. How about if I go on paying you, say twenty-five dollars a week, to keep it for me? That way if the deal falls flat and I have to come back in a hurry, I won’t feel I’m imposing on you. Does that sound fair?”
    It wasn’t fair at all, in fact. Holly had every right to leave her own things in her own half of the house. Fan naturally didn’t see it that way. She was just glad and relieved.
    “Sure, Holly. It sounds fine. Look, any time you need a ride or anything, let me know.”
    “There’s one thing you can do for me right now.” It had occurred to Holly that she might have to pass a lot of boring hours at Cliff House. “Mind dropping me at the public library, if there is one? If I’m going to be stuck out there with two old women, I’ll need something to keep me entertained.”
    “They must have books in the house.” Nevertheless, Fan made a detour and pulled up in front of a squarish building with ivy marching in well-disciplined ranks across its red-brick walls.
    Holly opened its door on a smell she always enjoyed: dust and paper and printers’ ink, with gentle overtones of dry rot. Models spend a lot of time sitting around waiting, so she’d developed a passion for reading. Now that she couldn’t squander money on paperbacks, she might as well make use of the public facilities, such as they might be.
    In fact, Jugtown had a pretty good library, for its size. Holly had no trouble selecting some good novels and a couple of biographies she’d been wanting to read. Getting the librarian to let her take them out was another matter.
    “I’m sorry, but you must have a library card.”
    “Then could I have one, please?”
    “Certainly, if you’re a local resident. Just fill out this form and your card will be ready by Wednesday.”
    “But I don’t think I’ll be able to come then.”
    The librarian must be a relative of Claudine Parlett. She didn’t exactly snatch the books away, but she didn’t look very unbending, either. Holly tried another angle.
    “Perhaps I could take them on my brother’s card or his wife’s? I’m staying out at Howe Hill with Mr. and Mrs. Roger Howe.”
    The librarian flipped through her file. “Neither of them is on our list of borrowers.”
    Holly might have known. Roger had his own reference books on antique furniture, he never looked at anything else, and where would Fan find the time to read? She was about to admit defeat when an unexpected rescuer appeared.
    “You may use my card, Miss Howe, if you’ll forgive the liberty. I’m Geoffrey Cawne, and I have had the pleasure of meeting your people, though less often than I’d like. You won’t mind, will you, Marie?”
    “Not if you don’t, Professor.” The librarian smiled at him as she stamped the books and handed them across the desk.
    “Thank you so much,” Holly told her sweetly, “and thank you, Professor Cawne. I do appreciate it, and I’ll be sure to return them on time.”
    “I have every confidence in you,” he assured her in a voice that was a pleasant blend of academic precision and human warmth. “Now can I offer you a lift to Howe Hill? I’m a neighbor of sorts, you know. My house is that odd-looking gray one on the knoll just before the curve in the road. You may not have noticed because it sits rather far back.”
    “I certainly have, and I love