Read Everything to Gain for Free Online Page A

Ma!" he had exclaimed when I first voiced this opinion. "She's busier than a one-legged toe dancer doing Swan Lake alone and in its entirety. She's up at the crack, behind her desk at the antique shop by six, cataloguing her stock of antiques, bossing her staff around, and floating over to Paris to buy furniture and paintings and objects at the drop of a hat. Not to mention wining and dining her posh clients, and fussing over us, her dearest darlings. Then there's her life in Yorkshire. She's forever racing up there to make sure the old homestead hasn't tumbled down." ,
    Shaking his head emphatically, he had finished, "Ma, lonely ? Never. She's the least lonely person I know."
    At that time I had thought that perhaps she keeps herself so frantically busy in order not to notice her loneliness, perhaps even to assuage it. But I hadn't mentioned this to Andrew. After all, he was her son, her only child, and he ought to know her well, if anybody did. And yet there have been times over the years when I have noticed a wistful expression on Diana's face, a sadness in her eyes, a look of longing, almost. A yearning, maybe, for Michael? Or for that love who was not entirely available? I wasn't sure, and I have never had the nerve to broach the subject.
    Nora startled me, and I jumped in my chair as she came crashing into my office. I sat bolt upright, gaping at her.
    "Sorry I'm late, Mal," she exclaimed, striding forward and flopping down in the chair opposite my desk.
    For a dainty, petite person she could certainly make a lot of noise.
    "Phew! It's hot today! A real scorcher!" She fanned herself energetically with her hand and gave me a smile. Then her face dropped as she took in my expression.
    "Oh, sorry, did I give you a start when I came in?"
    I nodded. "You did. But then, I was miles away, I must admit. Daydreaming."
    A look of incredulity swept across Nora's face. Narrowing her eyes, she uttered a dry little laugh. "Daydreaming! Not you, Mallory Keswick! That's the last thing you'd be doing. You're a human dynamo. I've never seen you waste a minute.?'
    Her words amused me, but I made no comment.
    Rising, I said to her, "How about a glass of iced tea, before we get down to the task of putting this house in order for the weekend?"
    "Sounds good," she answered, immediately jumping up and leading the way out of the office. "I didn't stop at the market stand on the way here. It's better I buy your vegetables and fruit tomorrow, Mal. They'll be fresher for Monday's barbecue."
    "That's true. Listen, are you and Eric coming? You haven't really given me a proper answer."
    She swung her head, looked over her shoulder at me, gave a quick nod. "We'd love to, and thanks, Mal, for including us. It's good of you."
    "Don't be so silly, you and Eric are like part of the family."
    She didn't say anything, just moved on into the kitchen, but there was a small, pleased smile on her face, and I knew she was happy that I'd asked her again, that I had not taken no for an answer.
    Nora, who was about forty, was a slender pixie of a woman, with unusual, prematurely silver hair, an intelligent but merry face, and silvery-gray eyes. She had been my helper for the past year and a half, almost since we had moved in, and her husband, Eric, who worked at the local lumberyard, did carpentry and outdoor chores for us on weekends. Married for nearly twenty years, they were childless, and both of them doted on the terrible twins, as I jokingly called Jamie and Lissa at times.
    Nora was a practical, down-to-earth, no-nonsense woman, a real Connecticut Yankee with her feet on the ground, which made us totally compatible, since I tend to be pragmatic and plain-speaking myself.
    Utterly without pretension, she refused to be called a housekeeper. "Too fancy for me," she had said the day I had hired her. "Let's just say I'm your helper, Mal. All right if I call you Mal, isn't it?"
    I had nodded, and she had continued, "It's friendlier. Anyway, that's the way it is in