The Fortunes of Springfield Read Online Free

Barbara had been to the end of the drive to meet the other two, and now all three stared at Caroline suspiciously. She smiled at them in a friendly fashion, and when they all gathered about the kitchen table for their tea, she studied them as unobtrusively as possible.
    They were good-looking children, but they had no friendliness, no openness of manner, except for Wendy at times. She thought that Terence would be a difficult child. His demeanour was truculent, his expression sullen, and he refused stubbornly to meet her eyes or to speak to her. Wendy was a somewhat different proposition, for her reserved watchfulness was sometimes broken by a sunny smile, and a lilting voice which was a joy to hear. She could make conversation with a certain amount of self-possession. Babs was certainly tiresome, with appalling table manners, up and down from her chair half a dozen times, dropping things, spilling things, rudely refusing to do as she was told. Caroline took it all in. “There are no problem children,” she remembered reading. “Only problem parents.” Or problem guardians, she added.
    When tea was finished, and Caroline said she must go, Wendy said:
    “Will you come and see us again, please?”
    “Yes, I will,” Caroline promised, and went out to find Mr. Springfield. David was just coming into the house from outside and stopped at once, facing Caroline in the hall.
    “Well?” he asked her.
    Caroline smiled. How brusque he was, she thought, and, as if her thought had reached him, he added: “Now that you have seen the worst, what do you feel?”
    “I will come,” she said. “Until you can find somebody to replace me.”
    “Good. That is excellent.”
    They discussed the terms of her employment, and then David asked her how she had come, and hearing t hat the bus journey was slow and at most inconvenient times, insisted upon taking her back to the town in his car. As it sped along the lane and then the country road, she said:
    “If you want references, Mr. Springfield, the Vicar or Dr. Barding or Mr. Welford at the Bank will provide them.”
    “Thank you. I think that is good enough.”
    They came to The Hollies. They stood together on the pavement to say good-bye. He was much taller than she. She had to look up, tilting her head a little to see him when he spoke.
    “Good-bye, Miss Hearst. I shall expect you on Monday, and knowing the job you’ve taken on, I wish you luck.”
    He held out his hand to her and she put hers into it .
    “Thank you, Mr. Springfield. May I wish you the same?”
    He smiled down at her.
    “I think we shall both need it , ” he said, getting back into his car. He sketched a brief salute with his hand, and then was gone, back along the road to Springfield.
    Caroline stood on the pavement where he had left her, breathing in the cold, pure night air, lost in thought. It would be a change from Mrs. Webster’s, that much was certain. There was a tremendous amount to be done, in the house, but it was not the house that had first place in her thoughts. There was even more to be done for the children; and more for their mental well-being perhaps, than their physical. “ They are all over the place, poor dears,” she thought, “especially Terence. Drifting about without guidance. No security, that’s the trouble. No guidance and no security; or perhaps it’s even deeper than that . No loving.”
    Yes, she thought, turning to go into The Hollies, I have certainly taken on a job there. And a feeling of excitement mounted in her. There was a challenge here which she was pleased to take up.

 
    CHAPTER TWO
    IT was Caroline’s first morning at Springfield, and Wendy, washed and dressed, came down to the kitchen filled with surprise. Everything had been surprising, ever since Wendy had come back from school the afternoon before, and found Miss Hearst in possession, but the pleasant state of affairs begun then seemed to be continuing this morning. Wendy h ad been woken by a cheerful voice,