Act of Will by Barbara Taylor Bradford Page A

a smile.
    Taking charge as usual, Gwen rushed on, ‘Well, don’t let’s stand here like three sucking ducks gawping at each other. We’ve an hour to waste before we go to the pictures, so let’s toddle along to Betty’s and have a nice cup of tea.’
    Audra and Charlie readily agreed.
    It had turned even chillier and the snow that had threatened throughout the day began to fall in small fluttering flakes, settling on the ground. The light was being squeezed out of the lowering sky as dusk descended rapidly. Charlie took hold of the girls’ arms and hurried them across City Square in the direction of Commercial Street where the café was located. As they turned into the street they all three stopped abruptly, staring into the windows of Harte’s department store, captivated by what they saw. The windows had been dressed for Christmas and they were dazzling in the gathering twilight, filled with twinkling coloured lights and glittering scenes depicting different fairy tales. One window was devoted to Cinderella, showed her arriving at the ball in her shimmering glass coach, another to Hansel and Gretel, who stood outside the gingerbread house, and yet a third paid tribute to The Snow Queen in all her icy glory.
    ‘How beautiful they are,’ Audra murmured, lingering a moment longer than the other two, thinking of High Cleugh and the glorious Christmases of her childhood.
    ‘Yes, aren’t they just,’ Gwen said, tugging at her. ‘Come on, lovey, the snow’s really coming down now. We’re going to be soaked before we know it.’
    Gwen tucked her arm through Audra’s and kept up a continual stream of conversation as they walked down Commercial Street, living up to her reputation as a chatterbox. Charlie, trudging along on the other side of Audra, interjected a few comments, but Audra remained silent—and reflective.
    She was suddenly feeling mean and uncharitable for having had such unkind thoughts about Charlie, who was harmless really, and meant well.
All
of the Thorntons meant well, and they had
all
been very good to her. Mrs Thornton was forever telling her to consider The Meadow her home, and she had even turned the little box room at the end of the second-floor landing into a bedroom for her. Mrs Thornton had insisted she keep a few clothes there, and when she had visited Gwen in November she had left behind some toilet articles and a nightgown, which she would be able to use tonight.
    Next week she was coming back to Horsforth to spend Christmas with Gwen, and she was well aware that the Thorntons would make her feel like a part of the family, truly one of them, as they always did. They had such a wealth of generosity and kindness in them. And I’m very ungrateful, Audra chastised herself. She knew how much it would please Gwen if she were nice to Charlie, and so she resolved to be pleasant to him, but without leading him on, giving him the wrong impression.
He must not misunderstand
. That would be disastrous. And after the holidays she was going to explain to Gwen, in the gentlest and kindest possible way, that she was not looking for a husband.

CHAPTER 8
    It was a very cold morning.
Icy
.
    Perhaps it
would
turn out to be the coldest day of the winter after all, Audra thought, just as the gardener had warned yesterday when she had been returning from her walk. He had put down his wheelbarrow and looked up at the sky, narrowing his eyes and sniffing, as if he had a way of divining such things in this arcane manner.
    And then he had made his prediction. ‘Yer’ll be nithered ter death termorra, Miss Audra. T’weather’s coming in bad from t’North Sea. Arctic weather, mark my words, lass.’
    She had never been to the Arctic Circle, but she did not imagine it could be any colder than her bedroom at this moment. It was freezing, and it seemed to Audra that her nose, peeping over the bedcovers, had turned into an icicle. An Arctic icicle.
    She slithered further down in the bed, hunching the covers up