Strange Recompense by Catherine Airlie

grew out of years ago, but it should just be about right for you. You’re much slimmer than I am.”
    There was no envy in Ruth, Anna thought, none of the bitterness that spoiled Sara Enman. She was the most straightforward and honest person imaginable, willing to go out of her way to make others happy, but blunt, too, when she came up against the need for expressing her feelings in straight-from-the-s h oulder terms.
    “We could have done without Sara today, couldn’t we?” Dennis observed as he joined the preoccupied Ruth downstairs while Anna ran up for her coat and handbag, one she had bought with her second week’s wages. “I see she’s managed to butt in.”
    “It was too difficult,” Ruth told him with a frown. “Just you try fobbing Sara off with an excuse when she’s made up her mind to do anything! Wild horses wouldn’t move her, and I suppose we have taken her everywhere with us in the past!”
    “She’s gone everywhere with you in the past, you mean,” he corrected. “How long before you see just what the Saras of this world are really like, Ruth? They’d take advantage of their own grandmother if it was going to further the desire of the moment, believe me!”
    “You’re much too hard on Sara,” Ruth protested, “possibly because you have never really liked her. We all have our faults, an d Sara just can’t help organizing everyone!”
    “It wasn’t exactly her organizing abilities I was thinking about,” Dennis returned dryly. “Her r e organizing propensities would be nearer the mark!”
    “No wonder you two can never agree!” Ruth laughed, strapping the picnic hamper for him to carry out to the car. “Why is Noel so keen to go to the coast, by the way? He was positively emphatic about Llangareth when I suggested Lake Bala as an alternative.”
    “He probably thought it would be cooler at the bay,” Dennis prevaricated. “Besides, we haven’t had our first swim of the season yet, which is disgustingly late for Noel, at least!”
    “That was Sara’s main reason for wanting to come,” Ruth said. “She’s a powerful swimmer, isn’t she?”
    “Powerful in a good many ways,” he murmured, picking up crumbs from the breadboard. “ Almost overpowering, in fact!”
    Ruth rapped his knuckles with the back of the breadknife.
    “If I had known you were all that hungry I could have made you a meal before you started!” she laughed, whereupon he swung her round to face him, his hands on her arms, holding her prisoner.
    “Ruth, haven’t I waited long enough?” he demanded passionately. “Haven’t you any other answer for me than that eternal ‘No’?”
    She relaxed against him for a moment, looking younger than her years and curiously vulnerable as he kissed her.
    “Not yet, Dennis,” she said, pushing him gently away. “Perhaps not ever. I’ve told you so often that you should look for, someone else!”
    “That’s no answer,” he told her sternly. “Noel is old enough to look after himself and he would be very upset if he knew your reason for not marrying.”
    “I made a promise,” she said. “How can I do other than keep it?”
    “Those promises!” he said savagely. “They’ve spoiled more lives than enough! I can never, understand why a woman binds her daughter to look after her son till some other woman comes along to marry him!”
    Ruth silenced him with a look.
    “Noel would be the last person to accept a sacrifice,” she said, “but I did promise my mother to wait.”
    “Then you do realize that you are giving more than you need give,” he said grimly. “That’s always something!”
    She put a hand on his arm.
    “Please try to understand, Dennis,” she pleaded.
    “About your loyalty and faithfulness?’ He smiled ruefully. “I guess that’s why I’ve waited so long, Ruthey! I believe I understand you better even than Noel does.”
    “Yes, I think you do.” Ruth turned from him with a brief smile. “That is why I am able to ask you to go