and serious trouble for us. So … take care. Act as normal. We’ve done all we can for tonight. He’s safe temporarily. Tomorrow we’ll get some more food to him. We’ll ride out as usual … but we must take care.”
They tiptoed quietly out of my room and went to their own. I could not sleep. I doubted whether any of them would. Leigh was right when he said we were involved hi a serious matter. I kept thinking of that young man. There was something noble about him, something which had made me want to help him more than anything else.
My thoughts stayed with him hi White Cliff Cave.
44
We all rode out together the following morning. I had told them in the kitchens that we were going into the woods and wished to take food with us as we did not want to go to the inn. This was reasonable enough but not something we could do every day.
I supervised the packing of a basket and was a little shaken when Ellen said: “You’ve got enough food there to feed a regiment.”
“There’ll be three hungry men to provide for,” I reminded her, “for when it comes to eating Carl can do as well as any grown man. One gets an appetite riding you know, Ellen.”
Sally Nullens, who was there because Carl was going with us and she still thought of him as her charge, said: “He’s eating too much of that pastry. More good red meat is what he wants.”
She was going over the provisions with a sharp eye and I felt uneasy. I was afraid of Sally Nullens-and Emily Philpots, too. She was more sullen than ever because Christabel was being treated as a member of the family-something which she had never achieved.
“After all I did for those children!” was her continual plaint; and I knew she spied on Christabel, longing to catch her out in some misdemeanour, and was, in any case, critical of everything she did. It might be a joke in normal times but we could not afford such spying now.
However, we got away all right, and I was wondering whether it would be wiser to warn Carl to be careful or to let it alone. He was heart and soul in the adventure, but it was true that he might be overzealous.
I shall never forget that late November day with the mist hanging in the air and the gulls shrieking overhead and the strong smell of seaweed in the air. We dismounted and managed to tether our horses to a rock and went down towards the cave, our footsteps loud on the shingle.
I imagined Jocelyn cowering in the cave, wondering who was coming.
Leigh went to the mouth of the cave. “All’s well,” he cried.
Jocelyn came out then and I saw him more clearly than I had the previous night. He was tall and slender with very fair skin, faintly freckled, and light blue eyes.
He had very white teeth and was indeed handsome. His breeches were light brown velvet and of the fashionable Spanish cut, and his leather buskins were of the same colour.
His coat, also of velvet, came to his knees. It was rumpled from the night spent lying in the cave, but he was clearly a very fashionable gentleman who had obviously ridden off in a hurry before he had been able to attire himself for a journey.
45
Leigh said: “Come out into the open. We’re a party of picnickers. We shall hear anyone approach and in any case we can see for a long way. If necessary you can go back into the cave, but it won’t be necessary.”
We settled down and I opened the hamper.
“I don’t know how to thank you all,” said Jocelyn. “Thank God I remembered your place, Eversleigh. I guessed you would help.”
“Of course,” said Edwin. “You were right to come. It was luck that Priscilla happened to be in the garden.”
Jocelyn turned to me, smiling. “I’m afraid I scared you.”
“I thought you were a ghost,” I admitted. “In any case I always wanted to see a ghost.
I’m glad I was the one and not our old gardener.”
“You had come all the way from your home?” Leigh asked.
“Not from the country. From London. It was to the Piccadilly house that they came
They tiptoed quietly out of my room and went to their own. I could not sleep. I doubted whether any of them would. Leigh was right when he said we were involved hi a serious matter. I kept thinking of that young man. There was something noble about him, something which had made me want to help him more than anything else.
My thoughts stayed with him hi White Cliff Cave.
44
We all rode out together the following morning. I had told them in the kitchens that we were going into the woods and wished to take food with us as we did not want to go to the inn. This was reasonable enough but not something we could do every day.
I supervised the packing of a basket and was a little shaken when Ellen said: “You’ve got enough food there to feed a regiment.”
“There’ll be three hungry men to provide for,” I reminded her, “for when it comes to eating Carl can do as well as any grown man. One gets an appetite riding you know, Ellen.”
Sally Nullens, who was there because Carl was going with us and she still thought of him as her charge, said: “He’s eating too much of that pastry. More good red meat is what he wants.”
She was going over the provisions with a sharp eye and I felt uneasy. I was afraid of Sally Nullens-and Emily Philpots, too. She was more sullen than ever because Christabel was being treated as a member of the family-something which she had never achieved.
“After all I did for those children!” was her continual plaint; and I knew she spied on Christabel, longing to catch her out in some misdemeanour, and was, in any case, critical of everything she did. It might be a joke in normal times but we could not afford such spying now.
However, we got away all right, and I was wondering whether it would be wiser to warn Carl to be careful or to let it alone. He was heart and soul in the adventure, but it was true that he might be overzealous.
I shall never forget that late November day with the mist hanging in the air and the gulls shrieking overhead and the strong smell of seaweed in the air. We dismounted and managed to tether our horses to a rock and went down towards the cave, our footsteps loud on the shingle.
I imagined Jocelyn cowering in the cave, wondering who was coming.
Leigh went to the mouth of the cave. “All’s well,” he cried.
Jocelyn came out then and I saw him more clearly than I had the previous night. He was tall and slender with very fair skin, faintly freckled, and light blue eyes.
He had very white teeth and was indeed handsome. His breeches were light brown velvet and of the fashionable Spanish cut, and his leather buskins were of the same colour.
His coat, also of velvet, came to his knees. It was rumpled from the night spent lying in the cave, but he was clearly a very fashionable gentleman who had obviously ridden off in a hurry before he had been able to attire himself for a journey.
45
Leigh said: “Come out into the open. We’re a party of picnickers. We shall hear anyone approach and in any case we can see for a long way. If necessary you can go back into the cave, but it won’t be necessary.”
We settled down and I opened the hamper.
“I don’t know how to thank you all,” said Jocelyn. “Thank God I remembered your place, Eversleigh. I guessed you would help.”
“Of course,” said Edwin. “You were right to come. It was luck that Priscilla happened to be in the garden.”
Jocelyn turned to me, smiling. “I’m afraid I scared you.”
“I thought you were a ghost,” I admitted. “In any case I always wanted to see a ghost.
I’m glad I was the one and not our old gardener.”
“You had come all the way from your home?” Leigh asked.
“Not from the country. From London. It was to the Piccadilly house that they came
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