Читать книгу Dimanche Diller at Sea - Henrietta Branford - Страница 7

Three

Beyond the summer meadow, Polly Cockle’s kitchen window caught the morning sun, and winked. Dimanche smiled as Polly left her cottage and crossed the meadow, stopping now and then to enjoy the flowers that grew beside the path.

Polly had come to Hilton Hall during the dark days of Valburga Vilemile’s rule, to be Dimanche’s nanny. She had arrived on Dimanche’s third birthday, and until the day that Verity Victorine arrived, and Valburga Vilemile departed, she never left Dimanche’s side. They even took their holidays together, pony trekking in the New Forest, and rock climbing on the beautiful island of Skye. They had been through victory and defeat together, and they were more than ordinary friends.

Polly’s husband, Cosmo Cockle, was the gardener at Hilton Hall. He, too, was a true friend to Dimanche, and often brought her little presents – a bunch of earthy carrots, a yellow pear, and once, a mysterious pupa that Dimanche kept in a jar until the creature within was ready to emerge and fly free. When Polly and Cosmo were married in the church at Hilton in the Hollow, Dimanche was their bridesmaid.

Polly smiled hello to Verity and Dimanche as she came into the kitchen. Dimanche poured her a cup of hot chocolate and passed her the Rockford Record.

“Will you listen to this!” Polly exclaimed, after a moment’s reading.

RAIDERS ROB ROCKFORD

WHILE CITIZENS SLUMBER!

“IT’S CRIMINAL!” SAYS

CHAUNCEY COIN.

Thieves broke in last night and robbed the bank in Rockford Market Square. Valuable old documents have gone astray.

Dimanche and Verity turned suddenly pale.

… “This is the first time in the history of our little bank that we have sustained a loss due to criminal activity,” said distressed Manager Chauncey Coin, fifty-year-old grandfather of seven. “Fire we’ve suffered. Flood too, when the Fenny burst its banks in 1855. But crime? Never!”

“Dimanche! Verity!” Polly cried. “Whatever is the matter?”

Verity phoned the bank at once, and Chauncey Coin confirmed her worst fears.

The Diller Deed was gone.

Barely ten minutes later, Verity, Polly and Dimanche were bumping anxiously along between dusty summer hedges on the Rockford Market bus.