The Black Opal by Victoria Holt Page B

me. Not so for Estella, Henry and Adeline. She found continual fault with them, and particularly Adeline. She could not hide her contempt for the poor girl. She could not forget that she had borne a child who was not normal and, I imagined, she had always seen herself as a woman who achieved perfection in all she did.
    Poor Adeline would invariably resort to tears as soon as she escaped from those sessions with her mother, for she dared not let her mother see them. It was pathetic to realize how she had to hold back her misery. But Miss Carson was always there when she emerged from that dreaded room. She knew exactly how to comfort her; and soon Adeline would forget her mother and accept Miss Carson’s assurances that all was well because she had her dear Miss Carson, who said she was quite clever after all.
    In the summer, the gipsies came to the woods again.
    One morning I awoke to find them there. They often came late at night and settled in the woods.
    Their presence was always a source of excitement to me, I suppose because of my connection with them; and I should never forget my encounter with Rosie Perrin and Jake.
    Soon we were seeing them around with their baskets of
     
    clothes pegs and sprays of dried heather and lavender.
    “Buy a little posy for luck,” they said. They went round the houses in the neighbourhood and some of the girls went to Rosie Perrin and had their fortunes told.
    She would look at their hands and tell them what the future held for them. It did not cost a great deal and Sally told me that, if you wanted to have a really big glimpse into the future, you could pay more and go into Rosie’s caravan where she had a crystal ball. That, said Sally, was the ‘re al thing’.
    I could not resist watching them from the shelter of the trees, just as I had on that occasion when I had hurt my ankle. And one day, when I crouched there, looking at the bare-footed children and, among them, Rosie Perrin on the steps of her caravan, I heard footsteps behind me and I turned and saw Jake grinning at me.
    “Hello, little girl,” he said.
    “Taking a look at the gipsies?”
    I didn’t know how to reply, so I said: “Weller yes.”
    “You’ve got a fancy for us, I’d say. Not like the folk you’re accustomed to, are we?”
    “No,” I replied frankly.
    “Well, change is a fine thing. Don’t you agree?”
    “Oh yes.”
    “You remember me, don’t you?”
    “Oh yes. You carried me back.”
    “Ankle all right now?”
    “Yes, thank you.”
    “Rosie took quite a shine to you.”
    1 was pleased.
    “She was very nice to me,” I said.
    “So you liked her, did you? Didn’t take against her because she was a gipsy and all that?”
    “I liked her very much.”
    “I’ll tell you something. She’d like it if you went to see her.”
    “Would she?”
    “You can bet on that.”
     
    “She might not remember me. It was a long time ago.”
    “Rosie remembers everything, so she’d remember you all right. Come along and say hello to her.”
    He started towards the encampment and I followed. The children stopped in their play to stare at me, and Rosie Perrin cried out in pleasure when she saw me.
    “Why! It’s little Miss Carmel! Come up, dearie. Well, who’d ‘a thought it!”
    I mounted the steps of the caravan, followed by Jake, and stepped inside.
    Rosie said: “Sit down, dearie. Well, well, it’s some time since you were here. How’s that ankle and the leg? All nice and healthy now? I knew it would be. Tell me all about it. How is it at the house now?
    Still treat you all right, do they? “
    “Oh yes. We have a governess now.”
    “That’s grand, that is. Is she good to you?”
    “She is very nice and I like her a lot.”
    She nodded.
    “And what about the lady and the gentleman … doctor I beg his pardon?”
    “She had a riding accident. She can’t walk. There’s a wheelchair and she’s in pain a lot of the time.”
    “Poor soul. That little nurse goes there, don’t she …