The Last of the Kintyres by Catherine Airlie Page A

Whitefarland?”
    Elizabeth’s heart gave an uneasy lurch, because she knew how much Hew cared about the farm.
    “Whitefarland will have to go,” he said briefly.
    “Isn’t that rather a pity?” Stephen asked. “Isn’t there someone who could take it on?”
    “Not anyone who hadn’t a great deal of money to spend on it,” Hew answered. “It’s been ticking over and no more.”
    “I see.” Stephen evidently decided to leave his questioning there. “Well, I guess you’ll have your hands full at Ardlamond,” he mused. “You’ll want to keep everything as it was.”
    “That is my idea,” Hew said, as the waiter came to change their plates.
    During the remainder of the meal Stephen Friend kept up a lively flow of conversation which did not touch too closely on Ardlamond, although it could not entirely avoid some mention of Hew’s home. When they were ready to leave he looked closely at Elizabeth and said:
    “If your brother fancies a day’s sailing bring him over to Glenisla. He can have his choice of dinghy racing or the big stuff. Imogen’s tremendously keen on dinghies,” he added briefly.
    Without quite knowing why, Elizabeth felt that she had made a new friend. The second in twenty-four hours, she smiled, as she remembered Shona Lorimer and the kindness she had been shown at Ravenscraig. Shona’s name had cropped up more than once in their conversation over lunch, and it was evident that Stephen’s respect for her was no less than Hew’s.
    “I’ll see you at the Trials, I expect,” he said as they were about to leave.
    “Yes,” Elizabeth said, “I hope so.”
    Suddenly Stephen stiffened as he looked beyond her to the revolving doors, and she saw his eyes narrow and all the kindness go out of his face.
    “We’ve got company, I’m afraid,” he said in a clipped tone which made his pleasant voice sound cold and distant.
    Elizabeth and Hew turned together to see Caroline coming across the foyer towards them. She was immaculately dressed in the finest of Italian knitwear, her hair blown a little by the wind as she had run up the outside steps from her car.
    “I spotted the Daimler in the car park, Hew,” she informed him after the briefest of nods in Stephen Friend’s direction. “I was on my way back to Ravenscraig.” She glanced from Hew to Elizabeth with slightly calculating eyes. “But perhaps there was no need for me to do that,” she added. “I take it that Tony is all right when you have come away so quickly.”
    “He appears to have been lucky,” Hew told her. “I don’t think there’s any need for you to go to Ravenscraig, Caroline.”
    She took time to study him coolly.
    “I suppose not,” she admitted with a shrug. “I was rather anxious because I believed myself responsible, but now that everything has worked out smoothly we needn’t worry any more.”
    She spread her hands in a small, deprecating gesture which infuriated Elizabeth, who had noticed it before.
    “It may not have worked out quite so smoothly as you think,” Hew was forced to remind her. “There’s still the little matter of your car.”
    “Oh, don’t worry about that,” Caroline assured him. “I’ll get it fixed. You are an old, worrying dear,” she added with a smile, li nking her arm in his. “Come up and buy me a drink and forget about it. I have another car.”
    He glanced at his watch.
    “I must get back,” he said. “I have to phone the po li ce before three, and I think you had better contact them as well. One can’t just go leaving a n unattended car in a ditch without some sort of reference being made to it.”
    Caro li ne bit her li p, but she said contritely enough: “I really am sorry about all this, Hew. You having so much unnecessary trouble, I mean. But I wish you would come with me when I go to see about the car. I know I sha ll speak entirely out of turn and cause a whole lot of needless questioning. I never could resist having a jab at the local constable!”
    “It