Читать книгу Secrets of the Abbey - Elsie Jeanette Dunkerley - Страница 6

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Joy laughed and began to gather up the cushions. “Now you know why Joan wanted you to hear the letter in the Abbey,” she said.

“Yes, of course. It’s Abbey business. Oh, I wonder what Jandy Mac thinks the map-thing is!”

“What about John Miles, Jen? Who do you suppose he was?” Joan asked, as they crossed the garth. “We can only guess, of course.”

Jen looked puzzled; then she gave a shout. “The old man who told Uncle Tony about the Monks’ Path! Is that what you and Joy think, Joan?”

“King’s Bottom Farm is in a hollow running out from the hills, a little way beyond that chalk-pit. There’s a legend that Charles II. hid in a chimney there, when he was escaping; he must have passed our Abbey, you know,” Joy said.

“I wonder he didn’t take refuge in the Abbey! He’d have been safe there,” Jen cried.

“I’m afraid he wouldn’t. The men who were after Charles wouldn’t have respected the Abbey,” Joan said. “And it wasn’t a holy place any longer, in his day. It was in olden times that the Abbey was a sanctuary. It wasn’t even an Abbey in Charles’s day.”

“Perhaps His Majesty did hide in it,” Joy suggested. “But he wouldn’t stay; he was in a hurry to get to France. He’s supposed to have hidden in several places about here, and King’s Bottom Farm is one of them. I expect John Miles was the man who told Uncle Tony about the path. Pity he didn’t tell a little more while he was about it!”

“I don’t suppose he knew any more,” Joan argued, as she locked the garden gate. “It was his ancestor who drew these scribbles that have thrilled Jandy so much—his grandfather’s father! It goes back a long way.”

“How many greats would that be?” Jen pondered. “Those bits of paper must be more than a hundred years old, I should think.”

“Oh, rather! They go back more than a hundred years,” Joan assented. “But the Miles family were living at King’s Bottom two hundred years ago, and even in Charles II.’s reign, you know.”

“Couldn’t you ask at the farm? Isn’t the family living there still?” Jen cried, ablaze with a sudden idea.

Joy laughed. “Too late, my child! We thought of that. The family moved away ten years ago. A son went to America and did well, and the rest went and joined him. The present people don’t know anything about the Miles clan, but they’re very keen to believe that Charles slept in their chimney. They think they could make money out of Charles, by charging twopence to see the hiding-place. Unfortunately they can’t prove it.”

“Horrid creatures!” Jen said. “They won’t know or care anything about the early history of the Abbey!”

She looked up at Joan wistfully. “I suppose I couldn’t hope for something?”

“What’s the matter?” Joan asked laughing. “You sound very sad! What is it that’s past hoping for?”

“You couldn’t arrange things so that I’d be here when Jandy Mac arrives? She’ll show you those bits of paper, and if I’m not here——”

“You’d like to add your guess, and see if it’s the same as Jandy’s,” Joy said. “Seems only fair you should have your share. You’ve been in the whole business all along.”

Jen’s face lit up, and her eyes, which had been fixed hungrily on Joan, flashed a look of gratitude at Joy. “Joy, how lovely of you! I knew Joan would understand, but I never thought you would.”

“Horribly rude of you!” Joy said lightly, but she had reddened, half from pleasure and half from a guilty sense that Jen had not had much reason to look for sympathy from her.

“Oh! I didn’t mean that!” Jen cried, in quick dismay.

Joan interposed. “We’ll try to arrange that with Miss Macey. We must have you here when the great moment comes, Jenny-Wren. But for you we might never have found—oh, heaps of things!”

“The Abbey plate and treasures—and the cave—and my Uncle Tony’s note-book—and the story of Jehane and Ambrose,” Joy said. “All those discoveries came through Mrs. Wren. If there’s another going to happen we couldn’t leave her out.”

“I’ll make Jandy keep her documents till we can get hold of you, Jen,” Joan promised. “I mean it; we won’t look at them till you’re here with us.”

“Oh, cheers! Oh, good! That’s marvellous, Joan!” Jen gave a little skip of delight. “I didn’t like to ask you to wait even a few minutes for me.”

“I guess Jandy Mac would insist on waiting for you,” Joy said.

“I hope Jack and Nora haven’t been teasing you any more about cricket, Jen?” Joan asked, as they went in to tea.

Jen’s face clouded. “Not Jacky-boy; she knows better. Nora looks at me as if I was a frightful slacker, whenever she speaks about the junior eleven.”

“But why?” Joan frowned. “It isn’t fair. The junior team’s very good; I heard Nora say so. She doesn’t need you.”

“She thinks it would be better still with another bowler. I heard her say that,” Joy remarked. “Apparently Mrs. Wren has been tactless enough to give away the fact that she’s something unusual in the bowling line; or she could be, if she liked. Nora feels sore because she can’t use her.”

Jen reddened. “It was mad, but I didn’t think. I was watching Jack at the nets, the day before yesterday; we hadn’t begun work, and there was extra cricket practice for people who weren’t being interviewed about classes for this term. I took the ball, as Jack couldn’t get anybody to bowl to her, and—well, you know that twist Jandy Mac taught me last summer, when we stayed with you in the hols?”

“I know. She said you got it jolly well. So you haven’t forgotten it since last August?”

“The boys were at home these holidays and I tried it on them,” Jen confessed ruefully. “They were frightfully impressed, and they made me work at it till I could be fairly certain it would come off every time. Jacky-boy couldn’t do anything with my balls—said they were almost unplayable till you got used to them; and, of course, in a match against outsiders the other team wouldn’t have time to get used to them. Jack was groaning because she couldn’t have me for this term’s matches, and—and Nora came along and heard her.”

“And she joined in the lamentations, I suppose,” Joy added.

Joan looked troubled. “I do hope——! Jack has good bowlers among the juniors, hasn’t she?”

“Only Doreen and Mary, and Mary’s wrist crocks up now and then. And to-day I heard a frightful rumour about Doreen.” Jen’s face was tragic as she looked up.

“What has Doreen been doing?”

“It’s what she may be going to do! There’s a chance that her people may move, all in a hurry, and go right away, to Manchester. Her father’s been moved to a job there, and if they can sell their house in Wycombe the family will go and live with him; and somebody has been looking at the house and seems likely to buy it. If that happens and Doreen goes away, Jack’s going to be in an awful hole, with only Mary’s crocky wrist to rely on for her bowling.”

“Wouldn’t they leave Doreen as a boarder for this summer, as she’s started the term?”

“She says her mother wouldn’t leave her behind,” Jen said gloomily. “We thought of that; we asked her to stay, for the sake of the team. And she said—oh, she said something dreadful! I simply can’t tell you what she said.”

“Said it would be simpler for you to give up your dancing for the sake of the team, than for her to give up her family for three months. Was that the dreadful thing she said?” Joy asked.

Jen gave her a startled look. “Did you hear her? Where were you?”

“I didn’t hear her, but it’s easy to guess. It’s the obvious thing for Doreen to say. Jack must train another bowler, that’s all. It’s too much to ask you to leave the Hamlet Club.”

Jen sighed. “I’m glad you think so too. But I feel horrid about it. Isn’t it dreadful, Joan?”

Joan’s face was grave. “I’m terribly sorry about it, Jen. It spoils your jolly feeling.”

“That’s what I mean. I’ve loved the club and the dancing so much, and everything’s been so perfect. It won’t be quite perfect if I know the rest are feeling I’m a slacker. You don’t think so, do you, Joan?”

“There’s not one scrap of the slacker about you, kid. But I’m very sorry this has happened. It’s going to spoil your feeling for the dancing, if Doreen goes and Jack really needs you.”

“Jack’s being jolly decent about it,” Jen was sturdily loyal to her chum. “She knows she can’t have me. It’s Nora.”

“Nora’s responsible for games. Jack has only to do her bit with the best team she can find. Nora will be worried,” Joan admitted.

“Can’t blame her,” said Joy. “If she’s discovered that there’s a descendant of Jandy Mac’s magic twist in the school, it’s no wonder if she grouses because she can’t get hold of it. You shouldn’t have let her know about your brilliant bowling, Mrs. Wren.”

“I was an idiot,” Jen sighed. “But Jack wanted a game. I never thought it could matter.”

“Oh, cheer up! Doreen hasn’t gone yet! Couldn’t you get hold of the people who want the house and tell them the drains will give them scarlet fever and the cellars are damp?” Joy suggested.

“Don’t worry too much, Jenny-Wren,” Joan advised. “You won’t dance well unless you’re happy.”

“Oh, I shall forget as soon as I begin to dance! I’m like you; I don’t think of anything else, once the tune starts.”

Joan laughed. “I’m glad to hear it. I shouldn’t like to see you in a set with a face as worried as yours was just now.”

“You won’t. You needn’t be afraid of that!” Jen said vigorously. “I couldn’t dance and worry at the same time!”