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Chapter 1 THE BRIDGE AND ITS miraculous instruments did not seem to capture his daughter's interest. Frank, knowing that his wife would make quite a meal of poor Miss Harding, began to cast around desperately for some other distraction. "Would you care to visit the engine room?" he asked. "You could see the other end of this telegraph system." "Is it different?" she inquired. He had to admit it was identical. "What then?" he asked. "I know! You never saw my cabin, did you! Would you care to take tea with the captain, Miss Morgan? I tell you, there are ladies on this boat who would fight for the privilege tonight." or there will be by Proudly she offered him her arm and let him lead her below. He asked her what sort of day she'd had, and she, forgetting that her original suggestion about taking the ferry out to Atlantic Highlands had been a ruse to cover an excursion up the Hudson to Michael's favourite woods, blurted out what a wonderful walk they'd had besilenth the trees, and the deer they'd seen, and how crisp everything had been in the snow and she only managed to keep it up, after she realized her error, because, incredibly, he didn't seem to notice at all! He was distracted over something; she wondered if this wouldn't be the moment to tell him what she knew. After all, to save it for a later day might smack of duplicity when the truth finally emerged. On the other hand, he of all people, would also appreciate her ability to speak of it, even to him. She decided against it for the moment. The rituals of tea time were sufficient diversion for a while; then, when the steward had withdrawn, her father said, rather sternly, "I can't pretend to know what's going on, but perhaps you can enlighten me? Does the name Michael Harding mean anything to you?" A slice of caraway cake was poised half-way between her plate and her teeth; it required a supreme act of will to force it all the way. "So Mama recognized her," she said flatly, in a voice that seemed remote and alien. "Kathleen!" he barked. She forced her eyes to look at his, which were pitiless. She forced herself not to flinch. "Yes," she said. "I did know." She smiled. "But so did you. Larry told me he told you about her." He hadn't expected that! He shook his head. "Not her name and certainly not her history. Otherwise, d'you think I'd have allowed her to set so much as one toe on board?" Typical Larry, she thought glumly - always a little braver in his memory than he was in fact. "But with you it's different." His finger stabbed the air a fraction of an inch short of her breastbone. "You knew! So kindly explain, miss and you'd better have very good reason." "I hope I have, sir," she replied as meekly as possible. "At least they seem good to me - and by principles I have learned from you and Mama." He nodded tersely. "That much I doubt but I'll give the benefit of it for the moment." She described, in the most neutral terms she could manage, the circumstances surrounding Michael's dismissal, implying without putting it in so many words that it had been grossly unfair of Mama not even to give Michael the chance to explain her ambiguous remark. She described Michael's movements up until the moment she set her bags down at the tram stop, and then, as if the question referred to her present tale, said, out of the blue, "Do you think members of the same family should have secrets from each other, Papa? Important secrets, I mean? Me from Larry? Larry from me?" Then, pointedly avoiding his eyes, she added, "Me from you? You from me?" He realized at once that she knew something. The daughter he had left behind in London a month ago would never have dared pose such a question. "Perhaps not," he replied cautiously. Then he realized that the paterfamilias who had left London a month ago would never have responded so mildly to such a piece of impertinence, either. "At least I hope you would keep no important secrets from me, my dear," he added. "I'll tell you then." At last she laid the piece of cake back on her plate; her finger and thumb had actually met inside it. She licked a few crumbs and seeds off her hand and went on to tell him how Michael, smarting with the injustice of her dismissal, had resolved to revenge herself on the family through Lawrence, who had always shown a sort of young mannish interest in her. "Except that, alas, she really fell in love with him and he with her." "So it was he who gave her a good character. That's what he was working his way round to confessing that day!" Kathleen drew a deep breath and said, "No, Papa. I'm afraid that was me. I gave her a reference in the name of a Miss Kathleen Dowty." "I can hardly believe what She nodded gravely. He shook his head at her folly. Kathleen, who had expected a bolt of wrath from the heavens at her confession could hardly believe what she was hearing. She went on with the defence she had prepared against his anger. "And I'm not ashamed of it, either. I considered I was doing no more than right a terrible wrong. I wouldn't expect you, or even want you, to agree openly, but Mama did do her a terrible wrong. Anyway, has Michael ever let you down? Has she ever been anything other than an exemplary stewardess?" "She has been an exemplary stewardess," he agreed evenly. "As to whether or not she has let me down... "I didn't mean letting you down. I meant the Pride of Liverpool." "As to her letting me down," he insisted, "that remains to be seen." Until that moment the determination had been growing within Kathleen to tell him all she knew; but now, for some obscure reason, every instinct she possessed warned against it. He was too calm, too watchful. It was as if he had suddenly leaped ahead of her and was waiting to catch her - whether in jest or otherwise she could not tell. "The way I judge Larry," she said carefully, "is ... all right, he had a secret to guard. And, or so he imagined, he had good reason to keep it from me. But the truth is, it very nearly led to disaster for both of them." He licked his lower lip and nodded for her to continue. "She had to get away from him, or they'd have destroyed each other." "Why?" "Because they loved each other but expected completely different things from it. She had no illusions about marrying him. In fact, he's asked her time without number and she's always refused." His eyebrows rose in surprise. "Indeed she has. She thinks he'll make a great career on the Baltic and ought to marry someone of his own class." He pursed his lips. "But he's going to run away to sea, isn't he? That's what I've been expecting." "You should tell him that, not me." He smiled at last the first warm and genuine smile for some time. "I feel I've never really known you, Kathleen." For a moment she was too moved to go on. Then she swallowed the incipient lump in her throat and resumed her tale. "I think he will run away. But Michael's equally sure he won't." "Perhaps she'll give in and marry him now," he said. "She sounds like one of the most sensible young ladies imaginable. Just what the boy needs." Kathleen frowned. "Why now?" she asked. "Never mind. You were saying about Lawrence's secret and why it almost spelled ..." "Oh yes. She wouldn't marry him but she'd happily have settled for" she cleared her throat awkwardly - "the next best thing." He nodded almost imperceptibly. "Whereas Larry oh, I don't know what he wanted of her, but not that. Something huge and romantic and impossible. Something she had no idea how to give him. So they were destroying each other. And I could see it happening so clearly. That was why I persuaded her to apply for the position here - and why I perjured my immortal soul to help her." "I see." He nodded, as if he were sorting this information into the proper regions of his mind. "And ... his secret?" "Well, don't you see? He thought it was secret from me, but really I knew it. I not only knew it, I approved. Absolutely. I know what the world would make of it." She smiled as if she'd made a silly error. "I mean I knew what the world would make of it, but even so I saw no wrong in it. So... well, if only he'd had the sense to tell me, it would have saved so much heartache." After a silence she added, "Or d'you think that just shows how young I am?"