Read Robyn Donald – Iceberg for Free Online Page A

face with interest.
    'Well, actually I do mind,' she confided, Td like the other girls to like me, but they're so stupid, and you have to
    be stupid too for them to like you, and I'm not. Where are you going?'
    'Shopping.'
    'I'd like to go with you, but Anna won't let me go out. How long will you be?'
    Linnet smiled. 'An hour or so, I suppose.'
    ‘I’ll probably be dragged inside by then. Can I come to see you in the flat?'
    "Yes, if you're allowed.'
    'Oh, I'll be allowed.'
    As she walked down the street Linnet wondered at the existence of Justin's daughter, astounded that neither
    Bronwyn nor Stewart had mentioned her. Incredible, she thought, feeling a sudden compassion for the
    motherless child, who couldn't be much more than eight or nine. Such a pretty child, too, with her pale gold hair
    and those unusual eyes, as pale as her father's but without the chilling hauteur which hardened his. No doubt she
    looked like her dead mother with those sensitive features; Linnet found herself hoping rather fervently that
    Justin didn't dislike her because of it.
    She arrived at the flat five minutes after Linnet.
    'I saw you from my bedroom window,' she announced, smiling triumphantly. 'You were an hour and a half.'
    There followed an enjoyable couple of hours. Sarah must have been starved for conversation, for she chattered
    and chattered as if Linnet were her own age, revealing an oddly mature mind and an imperious will which, no
    doubt, was the cause of most of the tension she engendered among her own age group. The easiest way to deal
    with it, Linnet discovered, was a cool refusal to give in to her demands; when she realised that linnet had no
    intention of being dominated she conceded victory gracefully and generously.
    Altogether an interesting child.
    But Bronwyn dismissed her with a careless remark.
    'Spoiled little brat! Justin dislikes her because she reminds him of her mother, so he bends over backwards to
    give her what she wants. A good boarding school would do her the world of good.'
    'She's only a baby,' Linnet protested, appalled at her sister's callousness.
    'Old enough to be a damned nuisance,' Bronwyn eyed her, then smiled. 'Remember the sparrow you rescued
    from the cat and nursed back to health? And the grasshopper which had lost it’s leg? You cared for it all one
    summer. You haven't changed. Keep Sarah happy, by all means, if she's taken a fancy to you, but don't let her
    monopolise you.'
    Linnet let the subject lapse, realising that once more she and her sister shared no common ground. But she could
    not prevent herself from thinking about Sarah, and what Bronwyn had told her made her even more sympathetic
    towards the child.
    So when she appeared the next afternoon, bathing suit over her arm, requesting her company in a swim, Linnet
    asked merely, 'Does Anna know?'
    'Oh yes. She said I wasn't to bother you, but if you wanted to go it would save her from having to watch me.'
    Anger spun a small web about Linnet's brain. 'I'll come, then. Just wait while I get into my togs.'
    The pool was at the back of the house, carefully planted so that it almost appeared to be a natural feature of the
    landscape. Surrounded by split sandstone and beds of greenery, with tall tree ferns arching overhead to give
    shade to the comfortable chairs and loungers, it looked like something out of a very exclusive magazine.
    'You go in,' Sarah told her. ‘I’ll get into my togs in the dressing room. This is the deep end.'
    The dressing room or rooms were covered in a gold-flowered creeper; everywhere there were trees and flowers
    and something discharged a soft, sensuous perfume in the air.
    Very easy to get used to, Linnet told herself drily, then dived in. The water was warm, not at all a shock to the
    system. She swam three lengths before Sarah appeared, her slender little body clad in a bathing suit which
    emphasised her too obvious bones. Linnet wondered if she was always so thin or whether her illness had
    reduced