“Oh,” said Lady Courtney sounding a trifle put out. “Splendid, meanwhile may I introduce my gel, Sally. Sally, say hello to Mr. Newman.”
Newman clasped her hand enthusiastically. “Hello, Sally. Gee, this is swell. I can see you and my daughter Veronica will get on just fine. Why, here she is…Veronica, my dear, I want you to meet…”
Disregarding the introductions, his daughter interrupted impatiently, “Oh, there you are, paw. I’ve been looking for you all over. The van’s loaded up waiting, come along…what a mob…”
Wheedling, her father tried to sooth her. “O.K, Vee, just coming. First, just say hello to my good friend, Lady Courtney and her daughter, Sally. I’m sure you’re going to get on just fine…”
Thawing slightly at the mention of a title Veronica allowed, “How do, Lady Courtney…?”
“Charmed, I’m sure…,” beamed Lady Courtney. “And this is my gel, Sally. “You two must get together – I’m sure you’ll find a lot in common…”
“Hello,” greeted Sally politely. The two girls glanced at each other warily – Sally feeling slightly upstaged by the sophisticated outfit Veronica was wearing, and Veronica in turn feeling immediately jealous of the wholesome image that Sally presented.
“Say, paw,” Veronica returned to her immediate problem, ignoring the proffered hand. “Let’s get going, you know what these removal men are like.”
“Ah, sure, if you say so, Vee. If you’ll excuse us, Margery, I guess we’d better see what they’re up to – we don’t want to upset anyone before we’ve even moved in.”
“Moved in?” faltered Lady Courtney, “you mean you’re planning to live here…in the village?”
“Why sure, anything wrong in that? Where is the place, Vee honey, I forget?”
Veronica consulted a piece of paper. “It says here, “The Forge, High Street” Come on, let’s go see.”
“The Forge”? puzzled Sally, turning to her mother. “Isn’t that the cottage next to Hettie and the smallholding?”
Veronica wrinkled her nose in disgust. “Yeah, that’s something we need to take up with the agents, paw. There’s some sort of pig farm alongside. They didn’t tell us about that.”
“Pig farm?” paled Lady Courtney. “That’s almost next door to the village shop…” her voice trailed off aghast.
“That’s great,” said Newman enthusiastically, beaming around happily at the mixed reaction to his news.. “Why we’ll have all our stores available on tap. I call that real neighbourly…”
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.