but the girl didn’t seem at all abashed by his coolness. Instead, her eyes sparkled and she ran across the space between them, winding her arms about his neck and kissing him with enthusiasm on his cheek. Adam was flabbergasted, putting up his hands to catch her wrists and press her away from him, while his startled gaze caught Mrs Lacey’s undisguised amusement. But Maria merely stepped backwards, allowing him momentarily to retain his involuntary hold on her wrists, and smiling mischievously, said: ‘Don’t look so disapproving, Adam! Aren’t you pleased to see me?’ Her voice was soft and husky, with a faint brogue that was attractive.
Adam stared at her for a moment, unable to find words to express his feelings, and then he raked a hand through his hair and said: ‘How the hell did you get here?’
Maria shrugged her slim shoulders. ‘By plane, of course.’ She glanced smilingly towards Mrs Lacey. ‘Your housekeeper has been very kind. I arrived about an hour ago.’
Adam heaved a sigh. ‘It was only this morning I received my mother’s letter asking whether you might be allowed to come here,’ he exclaimed sharply. ‘I don’t know why she bothered to write—in the circumstances.’
Maria’s eyes twinkled. ‘Oh, but I do, Adam. You see, she doesn’t know I’ve come.’
‘What!’ Adam was aghast.
Maria raised her dark eyebrows and spread her hands in an eloquent gesture. ‘But don’t you see, Adam, this is why I came! I felt sure that given time to consider the situation you wouldn’t even contemplate such an arrangement, and I so badly wanted to come.’
Adam felt frustrated. ‘But where does my mother—or your father, for that matter—imagine you are?’
‘I told them I was going to stay the week-end with a friend in Dublin. A taxi took me to the station and I took a train to Dublin. But I flew to London as well.’
‘Don’t you realize that was a completely irresponsible thing to do? A girl of your age travelling all that way—alone!’
Maria sighed. ‘I’m not a child, Adam.’
‘No, I can see that. Nevertheless, you’re still not old enough to look after yourself properly.’
‘Oh, Adam!’ Maria pouted, her eyes flashing. ‘Please, I’ve come to London for some freedom, not to be even more confined than I was in Kilcarney!’
Adam looked helplessly at Mrs Lacey, and she said: ‘Don’t you think you ought to telephone your mother, doctor? She may be worried. If they should happen to have tried to contact Miss Maria…’
Adam gathered his thoughts, nodding decisively. ‘Yes, you’re right, Mrs Lacey. I must do that. But as for you, young woman…’ He shook his head. ‘I don’t know what to say.’
Maria tossed her head. ‘Don’t say anything, Adam, except that I can stay, and I shan’t be any more trouble.’
Adam opened his mouth to protest and then closed it again. What was the use? She was here now, and after all, a little earlier he had been on the point of writing to tell his mother she could come. Certainly he had not imagined this situation being thrust upon him, or that Maria should look and act so differently from his expectations. Women were always unpredictable, he thought with male arrogance, and yet he had not expected Maria to appear womanly. He wasn’t at all sure exactly what he had expected, maybe an enlargement of that picture he had of her in his mind’s eye with a ponytail and a gymslip, but definitely not this confident creature, this product of her generation, with silky hair that tip-tilted slightly at the ends, and a taste in modern clothes that the inhabitants of Virginia Grove might find startling. Right now she was wearing a calf-length midi dress in a rather attractive shade of lovat, but its simple lines were not enhanced by the long front opening that revealed slender legs in knee-length soft leather boots. Adam shook his head a trifle resignedly. He could imagine with feeling Loren Griffiths’ reactions to Maria Sheridan…
MARIA awoke with a start, and lay for a while wondering why there were no lace curtains at her windows, and why the coverlet on her bed was not the handwoven one she had always been used to. Then realization of her surroundings came to her, and she moved pleasurably under the soft sheets, a smile curving her lips. Of course, she was no longer in Kilcarney, she was here in London, in Adam’s house.
Her gaze drifted round the room, and she noted with pleasure the lemon striped curtains that matched the lemon bedspread, and the light teak veneer of the furniture. There was a soft, fluffy cream carpet on the floor, into which her toes had curled the night before, which seemed so much more luxurious than the woven carpets they had at home. But then her father was not one for appreciating such things. He was a very practical man in most things, preferring serviceability to artistic merit. Only the advent of Geraldine Massey into their lives had softened his attitudes slightly, and Maria had reason to be grateful to her stepmother for providing her with an ally. Over the years, it had been Geraldine who had interceded with her father on her behalf, and brought some measure of tolerance into their lives. And in this business of Maria coming to England, to take a secretarial course, Geraldine had been the prime mover.
Naturally, Maria had wanted to come. For years she had longed to escape from the confined life in Kilcarney where her father was a pillar of the community, and as such, unable to view any of his daughter’s escapades with forbearance. But until now there had been no opportunity. She had been at the convent school, and surrounded by restrictions of one kind or another. But now she had left school and she was free to do as she wished, at least so long as her father was agreeable.
But it had been hard to convince him that no harm could come to her living with Adam, and she knew that if Adam should have shown any signs of misgivings regarding her proposed visit, her father would have overruled both Geraldine and herself and refused outright to allow her to come. That was why she had taken such a chance and deceived even her stepmother who might have felt it was her duty to inform her husband of what was going on.
Maria sighed and slid out of bed. Thankfully, she was here now, and if her father had sounded distrait on the telephone last evening at least he had not demanded that she should return immediately, and Maria knew that, given time, Geraldine would talk him round.
Now she padded to the window and looked out on to the small cul-de-sac below her windows. Unfastening the catch, she pushed up the window and leaned on the sill. The air was chill, and she shivered, but it was as much with anticipation as with the cold. Suddenly life was immensely exciting, and all sorts of possibilities were presenting themselves.
Suddenly she saw that an elderly woman across the Grove who had been on the point of gathering her milk bottles from her front step was regarding her disapprovingly and Maria glanced down at the scarcity of her attire hastily. She was merely dressed in the shortie nylon pyjamas she had worn to sleep in, and quickly she drew back and dropped the window, chuckling at her reflection in the mirror of the dressing table as she did so. It would never do to scandalize the neighbours on her first morning, and besides, no doubt they were all wondering who she was and why she was staying there. After all, Adam was a very eligible bachelor, and gossip was the breath of life to some people.
Shrugging, she went to wash in the huge bathroom that smelled pleasantly of shaving cream and aftershave lotion and then returned to fling open her suitcases which she had left on the floor the night before. She rummaged through them for something to wear. Later she would unpack, but right now she was hungry. It was after
