Read Online Band of Angel by Julia Gregson - Free Book Online Page B

for a ride? I’ll help Aunt Gwynneth this morning with the mending and the flowers, but I must have some air.”
    He had his back to her but she could tell by the set of his shoulders that he was furious.
    “You must do as you please,” he said.
    “I will,” a small cold voice inside her said. “I must now.”

Chapter 9

    After an almost silent lunch, Catherine saddled up Juno for the first time in over a year and rode out. It had rained all morning, and the sun shone on wet grass and shorn fields. She rode in the direction of Aberdaron where Eleri Holdsworth lived in a spartan house overlooking the bay. Catherine had roughly three hours between now and suppertime to carry out the plan that Miss Holdsworth was part of.
    It was lovely out, with Juno striding beneath her. Beyond the fields, the sea creased out in silver and pearl folds toward the horizon. Thanks to the horses and to Deio, she knew all the tracks and the fields. She rode past the hollow tree where she and Deio used to play animal doctors with Lily, his spaniel, who adored being handled and who rolled her eyes and swooned with pleasure when they wrapped her in sheets and pretended to bleed her, to lose her, to rescue her. And there, near the stream, was the place where Deio had once made her laugh until she’d nearly wet her drawers, by jumping on a stone and holding out his hat and singing
Ooover tha weengs oh the weengs of a doooove
in the warbly voice of Miss Pitkeathly, who did recitals at the church.
    Going down the steep, slippery sheep track that led to Eleri’s house, she was glad of Juno’s sure tread. A foot or so away from the path was a sheer drop down to the beach, and you could hear the sucking and pounding of the surf below. As a child, when sudden moods of voluptuous misery had come without warning, she had loved it up here, where the whole world—the gulls crying in theempty air, the howling wind off the sea—seemed as lost and lonely as she.
    Eleri Holdsworth’s house was built in the side of a hill, with an uninterrupted view of the sea. As the gate closed behind her with a click, Catherine felt suddenly nervous and almost changed her mind. Then she saw Eleri, sitting on her own outside her cottage, perfectly still in a battered chair. Beside her, a table with a drink on it, some paint, and what looked like a bundle of sketches. It would be rude to turn back now.
    “Good afternoon, Miss Holdsworth.” She had to shout above the sound of the sea. “Forgive me . . . are you working?”
    Eleri looked at her calmly. “Yes, but I’m very happy to see you.” The hand she put on Juno’s shoulder was sunburned and splattered with paint.
    “I’ll take him. You go inside and make yourself at home.”
    She pointed toward the door and Catherine walked into the cottage to find herself in a kind of studio-cum-bedroom with a beamed roof and simple whitewashed walls. The worktable, on which were neatly arranged sheets of paper, pens, and paints, was set in a bay window overlooking a huge sweep of sea and dominated the room. Beside it were bookshelves bursting with books, a collection of bird feathers arranged in three small glass vases, and some seashells.
    “I like your room,” she said when Eleri joined her.
    “I too,” said Eleri. “Would you like a glass of elderflower cordial?”
    “Thank you,” murmured Catherine. She sat down on the bed, but leaped up with a screech as her hand encountered something bristly and alive.
    “Oh dear, I’m sorry, it’s Flo.” Eleri pulled a badger out from under the cushions. “The hunt gave her to me; one of the hounds holed her up by mistake. She likes to get me up at midnight to run around in circles on the cliff tops.”
    Catherine smiled at the thought of this old lady (Eleri was at least fifty) dancing in the dark with a badger. Mother would have loved that.
    “That’s better, your face looked as long as a boot before. Nowtake your hat off and unlace your boots. You’re trussed up