The Last of the Kintyres by Catherine Airlie Page B

if he would prefer that.” She gave Elizabeth a long, direct look. “It will make a change for him,” she added.
    “It would be a most sensible idea,” the kindly, middle-aged doctor agreed. He was thoroughly at home at Ravenscraig and had sat down to coffee and home - baked scones “to help him on his way,” as Shona put it. “Maybe he won’t feel so confident in a car for a while after yesterday’s amazing performance.”
    “We can bring him with us when we come down for the Trials,” Shona suggested, still looking steadily at Elizabeth. “That will give him a week.”
    “If you promise to make him work for his keep,” Hew said, “I think it’s a very good idea.”
    Shona laughed, having won her point.
    “That’s Hew’s infallible recipe!” she declared. “ Tony will be all right. Everyone has his fair share of work to do at Ravenscraig, and they accept it quite naturally. You know you always did, Hew, when you were here.”
    . He agreed, although there was a hint of reserve in his eyes as he rose to go. He hadn’t a great deal of confidence in Tony, Elizabeth decided, which was hardly to be expected after the events of the past forty-eight hours.
    She knew that he must want to get back to Ardlamond as quickly as possible and that she would have to return with him.
    “I’d like to say good-bye,” she suggested, looking from Hew to the doctor. “I won’t be more than a minute or two.”
    “Of course, go ahead,” Doctor MacTaggart agreed. “When I was up there just now he was busy getting outside a large breakfast, so a few sisterly words of advice won’t do him a bit of harm!”
    Nervously Elizabeth looked back to where Hew stood, but he obviously did not intend to accompany her to her brother’s room. Apparently what he had to say to Tony could wait till he returned to Ardlamond.
    Tony, looking slightly guilty now, was sitting up in bed with a tray across his knees.
    “I say, I’m terribly sorry about this, Liz,” he apologized in the spontaneous manner he could adopt at times and which generally won instant forgiveness from the offended party. “I had no idea you would be dragged all this way to pull me out of a ditch!” Elizabeth relieved him of the tray, noticing with some relief that he had just finished a substantial meal.
    “It doesn’t matter so much about me,” she said, sitting down on the edge of his bed when she had put the tray on a convenient table between the two windows. “It’s all the other people you’ve upset that make it so annoying—Mrs. Lorimer—”
    “And Hew Kintyre?” he supplied for her. “I expect he’s madder than a hatter about all this. Still, it wasn’t his car, thank goodness!”
    “Which is entirely beside the point,” Elizabeth reminded him. “You had no right to be driving anybody’s car—not without L-plates, anyway.”
    “I’ve got to learn some time,” he argued.
    “Not outside the law, Tony. What you did may cause endless trouble for Hew.”
    “Why should it? Unless he’s been a fool and told the police I was driving.”
    Elizabeth could scarcely hide her irritation, for this had been exactly Caroline’s attitude.
    “I don’t know what Hew has done,” she said, trying to keep her temper, “but, whatever it is, it won't be dishonest.”
    “Surely you’ve changed your mind about him?” he mocked. “You resented his dictatorial attitude as much as I did in the beginning—remember?”
    “Yes, I remember. But that doesn’t affect the present situation. You owe him an apology, at least.”
    “Why should I apologize?”
    “Because, whether you like it or not, Hew has taken his father’s place and he is now your legal guardian,” Elizabeth explained as evenly as possible. “You are entirely answerable to him now.”
    “What utter rot!” Tony was indignant. “The days of guardians and that sort of thing are over. They went out with antimacassars and side-whiskers and Income Tax at sixpence in the