The Blue Mountains of Kabuta by Hilary Wilde

weekend? Have you any idea how hard a farmer works? Even if he has employed staff, he has to organize and check everything. As for the wives, they often help run the farm, handle the accounts or have children to look after. Jon, you have one big fault. You judge people, but never yourself.’
    She was startled and hurt. ‘That’s a horrid thing to say!’
    He smiled. ‘But true.’
    â€˜It isn’t true! I don’t judge people . . .’
    â€˜Yes, you do. I watched you last night. What you must guard against, Jon, is getting smug. There’s no one so unpleasant as a smug woman unless—’ he chuckled, ‘it be a smug man.’
    â€˜I’m not smug!’ Jon could hardly speak, she was so upset. ‘I don’t judge people.’
    â€˜You do, you know. Nor have you much sense of humour. You see everything from a personal angle, but not from the other person’s. For instance, you say you want your mother to marry. Right? But why? Not because you want her to be happy but so that you can be free.’
    Jon’s eyes widened with dismay as she stared at him. Was he right? She had often wanted to be free to work her way round the world. Was that the sole reason she wanted her mother to marry again—in order to be free?
    â€˜I don’t blame you in the least,’ Alex went on, his voice casual as if they were discussing the weather. ‘Girls of your age need to break away and see the world. The last thing they want to do is to sit at home and look after Mummy—especially when Mummy is so young and attractive.’
    Jon’s mouth was dry, but she let him go on. He was right, in a way, though she had never realized it before. In England she had often resented her mother’s dependence on her and her fussing if Jon came home late. After all, as Jon knew she had often thought, surely at twenty-three years of age, you were capable of looking after yourself?
    â€˜Another thing, why do you get so upset when you’re teased?’ Alex went on, putting his empty plate on the table and leaning forward.
    All round them there was laughter and voices, but to Jon, it was as if she and Alex were in a small world of their own from which she wanted to escape but knew he would not let her.
    â€˜Jon,’ he was saying, ‘surely you must be used to being teased about your name by now, but you still get angry. Why? Your job, too. How upset you were about that. Why? We all know how important a job a pharmacist has. After all, people’s lives are in your hands. We know this, so why did you get so angry? Have you an inferiority complex?’
    Jon stared at him. Suddenly she knew the truth. She had an inferiority complex. But only since she met him! Yet how could she tell him that? ‘I don’t think so, but everything’s happened so fast and . . . and I’m not used to being teased. Most of my friends know me well and . . . well . . .’
    â€˜You don’t mind when they tease you.’ He stood up. ‘I’ll get us ices. Like chocolate? Good. I won’t be long.’
    â€˜Alex, what about Mum?’
    He smiled. ‘She’s being looked after. I’ve seen to that, so don’t worry,’ he said, and walked away.
    She sat very still, looking at her hands. Was he right? Was she quick to judge others? Perhaps despise them? Was she growing or had she grown smug? She wriggled uncomfortably in the chair. The way he had spoken to her was like a benevolent but exasperated father.
    Catching her breath, she examined the thoughts that flooded her mind. Was that why he had spoken like that? Did he see himself as her father?
    After all, he had gone out of his way to be nice to them, particularly to her mother, Jon thought as she sat alone. Could he be planning to marry her? She had already wondered, and now the way he had spoken to her . . .
    Suppose one day Alex was her stepfather? she asked herself. Would she mind?
    It