The Ugly Sister by Winston Graham Page A

you’ve created a lot of talk; this is only a little local community though it may think otherwise. I’m always embarrassed by having a sister who looks so peculiar, but I don’t want to be associated with someone who brings a bad name on the family.’
    â€˜Maybe you won’t have to be embarrassed by me much longer!’
    â€˜What d’you mean?’
    â€˜Never mind.’ Suddenly the prospect of going somewhere to earn my living had become not so much a threat as an opportunity.
    She waited for me to say more, and then evidently concluded I was just being emotional and self-pitying. ‘ Well don’t ever forget that Mama is an actress, and that suggests to the Mrs Grundys of this world a rather brassy woman with loose morals. If you go off the rails it won’t do my reputation any good, and I can’t afford to have my life ruined by your pranks. I have to live here.’
    I stared through one of the hall windows at the slanting sunshine outside. I was thinking of the brooch in the drawer and only half attending. Then it soaked in. ‘Why should you have to live here?’
    She said: ‘Desmond has just asked me to marry him.’

Chapter Six
I
    I T WAS a reasonable solution, as I had part foreseen, as far as my mother was concerned; though she had had much higher hopes for her pretty daughter. Tamsin was still very young and becoming no less beautiful, and even though the prospect of a Boscawen had fallen through, there were others to look for. A Molesworth, a Lemon, a Courtney Vyvyan, would do very well; but either no sons of suitable age seemed to be about or there were evidences that an actress’s daughter, and penniless at that, did not quite come up to snuff.
    Time would tell. A little farther afield in the county were many other families, such as the Prideaux-Brunes and the Pole Carews, as yet virtually unknown and therefore unplumbed. But now a decision was on her.
    Desmond as a ‘ second son’ might never inherit Place House, though he seemed to be the only one of the four children who wanted to live here. Nor since his father died had Desmond seemed short of money, and he already had some men repairing the church. They could live a comfortable life in one of the most delightful situations in the county. Apart from our mother, who was often away, and our aunt muttering in the mad house, she would be the only Mrs Spry. She would certainly be entertained as such. Even if Samuel survived the Navy, Place House was not an ideal position from which to pursue a parliamentary career, and if he suddenly changed his mind and decided to marry and be a country gentleman, there was room aplenty for two families in the house. Samuel had always been fond of his younger brother and would probably be unwilling to displace him.
    Of course it all depended on Tamsin. Though much influenced by her mother, she had a decided will of her own and would make her own choice on such an important matter as a husband.
    A few weeks passed. My mother was not yet on full speaking terms with me: Tamsin never referred to Desmond’s proposal again, so I did not know whether she had accepted him or not; but I thought not. I had my period but concluded that it would stop next time. Desperate for news of Bram, I went over to St Mawes a couple of times, accompanied by a formidable housemaid who had none of Fetch’s compliant companionship; but there was no sign of him there, and Falmouth was strictly out of bounds. I didn’t even know where he lived . He seemed to spend his time in and out of people’s houses and have no fixed address. I could, I suppose, write to him care of Mrs Elizabeth Fox, but so far could not summon the courage to do so. I began three times, thanking him formally for the gift of the starfish brooch, but each attempt ended in the kitchen fire.
    It was not a time for ordinary fires. The weather had set fair – as often happened after fog; the creek was