Читать книгу The Abbey Girls on Trial - Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley - Страница 4

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“I say!” Rosamund caught Elspeth by the arm. “Maid’s going to feel awfully bad about this! Don’t be too hard on her. She goes off into dreams; you can’t expect her to think like an ordinary person. She’s a singing genius, and she has an artistic temperament and all that sort of thing.—Don’t tear your pretty apron on those thorns!”

Elspeth had darted off again, but a gooseberry branch had caught her. She stooped to loosen her overall from the thorns, and her fair hair fell on her cheeks and hid her face.

“Maid will feel dreadful,” Rosamund said again. “She thinks about things afterwards, and wonders why she did it and what she should have done, till she drives me nearly crazy. I shall have an awful time with her unless you tell her it’s all right. Be a sport, and save us from that, Miss Squirrel! I don’t know your name. Will ‘Miss Lilac Squirrel’ do?”

“It doesn’t sound pretty—a lilac squirrel. I’m Elspeth,” Elspeth’s voice was unsteady.

“That’s pretty! And your sister—isn’t she Audrey? That’s prettier than ‘Green Squirrel.’ Don’t you ever forget what you’re doing, Lilac Squirrel? Maid’s dreadful.”

Elspeth’s cheeks burned. “Audrey’s always telling me off for dreaming. What do you call her—your friend? Maid? What does it mean?”

“Short for Maidlin, which is short for Madalena. She was Maidie as a kid, but now I call her Maid. Does that gate lead into the woods?”

A wicket gate in the hawthorn hedge had caught Rosamund’s eye. She wandered down the path, and stood gazing into dark depths of woodland.

“That’s where the squirrels live,” Elspeth said shyly.

“Couldn’t we slip through and see them? But it wouldn’t be fair to the others. Do you watch the squirrels sometimes?”

Elspeth’s cheeks burned again. “Yes, and the rabbits. I do it when I ought to be helping Audrey. I ought to go and help her now.”

“Wait another sec.! You will forgive Maid, won’t you? She’ll be so dreadfully cut up. She’s keen on girls; she’s a Camp Fire Guardian, and all that sort of thing. But she’s dreamy too, and sometimes her temperament lets her down. She never meant to hurt you. She’d hate to hurt a caterpillar.”

Elspeth’s eyes were fixed on a point in the depths of the wood, where a red-brown body with a bushy tail had darted across the fallen leaves.

“Look! Did you see?” she whispered, and caught Rosamund’s arm and pointed. “Look, up the tree like a flash!”

“Rather! He was a pet! What a fascinating place!”

“We love it. There’s a pond among the trees, and little paths. It’s best in the early morning or at night.”

“That’s like our Abbey,” Rosamund agreed. “It’s really our own when there are no trippers. We’re very glad for them to see it, but we like it best when they’re not there.”

“That’s how we feel about the woods. Where is your Abbey? Is it a ruin?”

“Grace-Dieu. Yes, a very fine old place. It belongs to Joan—Mrs. Raymond, you know.”

“Her very own?” Elspeth’s eyes widened.

“All her own. She comes to see if we’re taking care of it properly.”

“Why doesn’t she live in it?”

Rosamund laughed. “Because she’s married. She lived in it before she was married. It was rather romantic; she made friends with the old man who owned it, and he left it to her.”

“And do you live in it now?” Elspeth gazed at her, fascinated.

“Oh, not in the Abbey! There are only three rooms. I have slept in it,” Rosamund said laughing. “We live at the Hall, with Lady Marchwood; the Abbey is in the grounds of the Hall. Lady Marchwood is Joan’s cousin.”

Elspeth looked puzzled. “Is it Lady Marchwood who has the new baby—Rosemary Jane?”

“No. Yes, of course it is. Not that one, though! Oh, my hat! It’s too complicated!” Rosamund groaned, as Elspeth stared at her. “Don’t worry about our family, Miss Lilac Squirrel. There are two Lady Marchwoods. The one we live with has lost her husband, so the title went to his brother. Ours has twin girls of four years old, Elizabeth and Margaret. Rosemary Jane belongs to the other Lady Marchwood, also Andrew and Antony. They all live next door to us, at the Manor.”

“It seems rather mixed,” Elspeth admitted. “I’d love to see the Abbey. But I must go and help Audrey, Miss—Marchwood, is it?”

“Oh no! I’m only an adopted friend. I’m Rosamund. Joy Marchwood adopted Maid and me when we were school kids, because our people were abroad. Then Maid lost her father and I lost my mother, and we just stayed on at the Hall. I have a father, but he’s been abroad for years. He doesn’t really know me. He isn’t half as real to me as the Abbey crowd.” Rosamund’s tone was intentionally light, to cover a sore place in her heart.

“It must be horrid to feel like that,” Elspeth spoke with shy sympathy as they went up the path together.

“Oh, rotten! But there’s no help for it. I don’t care as much as I might do, because Joy and the rest are such tremendous sports. They’ve made me feel they want me to stay with them always. I don’t suppose I shall, but I do feel the Abbey is home. I’ve lived there since I was fifteen.”

“I’ll take tea out to your man in the car,” Elspeth paused at the cottage door. “That will help Audrey and be easier than waiting on the others,” she finished in her heart.

“There isn’t any man. I drove the car.—Miss Green Squirrel!” and Rosamund stood in the doorway and called to Audrey. “Elspeth and I are going to be your waitresses. But you ought to lend me a blue pinafore.”

Audrey was cutting bread and butter. She laughed and nodded. “There’s a clean one in that press.”

Rosamund dived into the cupboard with a whoop of triumph. “Blue, for me! Come on, Elspeth! You and I will carry things out. What shall I take, Miss Green Squirrel?”

Audrey laughed again, and handed her the bread and butter. “I’ll bring the eggs. Elspeth, the warm plates.”

“It’s a procession!” Rosamund proclaimed, and bore the tray aloft. “Couldn’t we sing a triumphal song? We want Jen and her pipe!”

“Maidie, sing the Helston Furry!” Joan Raymond suggested laughing, as the procession, led by Rosamund, circled among the tables by a round-about route and at last stood in a ring round her chair, presenting their offerings.

Maidlin sprang up and helped to arrange the table. Her eyes sought Elspeth’s shyly.

Elspeth felt her look and raised her eyes and smiled bravely, in a friendly if watery effort.

Maidlin’s face filled with relief. “Thank you so much. I couldn’t have enjoyed my tea,” she whispered. “And I’m starving. It all looks so nice.”

“Don’t let the eggs go cold,” Audrey warned her, and drew Elspeth away. “Come and clean the egg-pan, my child!”

“Oh, let it soak! It will be easier,” said Maidlin unexpectedly.

In blank astonishment Audrey gazed down at her. Rosamund lay back in a chair with a shout of laughter.

“Maid, you are the limit! Miss Audrey knows all about washing-up.”

“But it’s true,” Maidlin said stoutly, colouring a little. “It will be easier if she doesn’t do it at once.”

“It was jolly decent of you to think of it,” Elspeth said, in eager gratitude. “You wanted to save me trouble, didn’t you?”

“ ‘Cleaning the egg-pan’ was only a figure of speech,” Audrey explained, a twinkle in her eyes. “I meant ‘clean up the mess in the kitchen.’ Our afternoon washing-up isn’t finished yet.”

“I’m sorry. I thought you meant it,” Maidlin reddened. “I’ve been practising washing and cleaning up lately, for Camp Fire honours; and I found out about soaking pots, and not putting soda into aluminium saucepans. So when you told Elspeth to clean the pan——”

“It was too much for your housewifely mind,” said Joan.

“My mind isn’t a housewife. That’s why I have to work so hard at my Home Craft stunts,” Maidlin sighed.

“We don’t understand about Camp Fire and Home Craft. But there isn’t time for you to tell us just now. Eggs for you, and washing-up for us,” Audrey’s voice was firm. “Elspeth will bring you more bread and butter and cakes presently.”

The sisters went together across the flags of the courtyard, Audrey determined, Elspeth reluctant. She went so slowly, indeed, that she heard Rosamund’s exclamation, as she served the eggs—“Joan, what topping people! Why did you never bring me here before? Fancy keeping a dinky place like this all to yourself! I’m going into those woods before I’m much older!”

Elspeth came out presently with a big tray. Rosamund sprang up to help her.

“I must live up to my blue pinafore. Yes, please, I’d love to. Joan wants more hot water, if you have any.”

Elspeth set cakes on the table and laid a green plate and a green-handled knife before each guest. “Would you like fruit salad? We haven’t any ices left.” She looked at Joan and Maidlin, her shy eyes brave.

“I’d love fruit salad!” Rosamund assured her.

“May we?” Maidlin looked up, shyly also. “Will it give you much trouble?”

“Bring us anything you have,” Joan said laughing. “These children are still hungry.”

“Those cakes are enough to make any one hungry,” Rosamund protested. “Does the Green Squirrel Lady make them herself?”

“Audrey’s cakes are always good,” and Elspeth escaped to the cottage again.

“She’s a little sport. She’s as shy as——”

“As a squirrel,” said Maidlin. “It’s nice of her not to be frightened of us.”

“She’s frightened, but she won’t let her sister down,” said Joan. “Poor kiddy! It’s difficult for her.”

“She wants shaking up. Then she’d grow out of it,” Rosamund remarked. “Which is your sploshy cake, Maid? I could be quite happy with about six off that plate.”

“I should be most unhappy if I had six,” Joan suggested.

“Oh well——! Isn’t this dinky china? Mary and Jen would go wild over this place. We’ll have to bring them.”

The fruit salad disappeared as quickly as the cakes, and then Joan rose to go. “No time for more to-night. Good-bye, Miss Abbott! It has been a delightful evening and we’re very grateful. You’ll see us here another time.”

“Oh, rather!” Rosamund agreed. “The Squirrel House hasn’t seen the last of me!”

Maidlin looked at Elspeth, an unspoken apology in her eyes. As the cars set off down the lane, she looked back and waved her hand to Audrey, who was leaning over the gate. Then she gave a special wave to Elspeth, standing in the doorway under the climbing roses and the Squirrel sign.