Read Online The Captain's Daughter by Minnie Simpson - Free Book Online Page A

the note did not even mention her name.
    When they arrived home, her mother
hurried in the house to get warm, since it was now completely overcast and had
turned chilly.
    “Come with me,” Emma invited Amy.
    “What is it, Emma?”
    Emma retrieved the telescope from
the wagon. Assuming she wanted help to take it into the house, Amy lifted the
stand declining Daniel’s offer to assist. But instead of taking the telescope
into the house Emma put it in the trap.
    “What are you doing, Emma?”
inquired Amy.
    “I, or rather we , are going
to take the trap back to Camp Hill and try out my telescope.”
    “We can’t, Emma, Mother will never
allow it. She thinks we’re headed for a storm and would get struck down by
lightning or drown in a torrential downpour.”
    “We won’t tell mother,” Emma
declared. “You’ve dragged me around repeatedly in the last two weeks, now it is
my turn. You have to come with me.”
    Amy glanced uncomfortably at the
house. But she knew that right now her mother would be sitting in front of a
nice roaring fire thawing out from the picnic. Emma had a point. She did owe
her after what she had put her through of late.
     
    They only went part way up the
slope at Camp Hill but it was high enough for Emma to get a good view with the
telescope mounted on the trap. While Emma examined the landscape, Amy was deep
in thought. How would she get back on Ben’s good side after what she said? She
recalled a recent sermon the minister had delivered on the very subject of
speaking with care and discernment.
    She didn’t remember where the
scripture was except that it was near the end of the Bible, but she remembered
clearly what it said mainly because she didn’t quite understand it at first. Even
so the tongue is a little member, and boasteth great things. Behold, how great
a matter a little fire kindleth! The minister said it was saying how great
a woodland a little flame can set ablaze, and the tongue is just like that. She
had to agree her tongue was indeed like that. She had really started a forest
fire, in fact...
    “Who is that?”
    Emma’s excited exclamation brought
her train of thought to a shattering halt.
    Amy jumped to her feet and looked
through Emma’s telescope. A figure was riding in the direction of Hillfield
House. From the distance she could not make out the face but the figure looked
familiar. To Amy it was unmistakable. The rider was clearly Ben.
    Quickly pushing Emma on to the seat
of the trap and setting the telescope and its stand on the floor, Amy grabbed
the reins and urged Pansy forward even before she had sat down. She had to
catch up with Ben before he reached the house and hid from her, which she
convinced herself he would try to do.
    Bouncing furiously down the slope
while Emma hung on for dear life to the seat and to her precious new
possession, they soon reached the road and then Amy drove poor Pansy in the direction
of Hillfield House.
    When they reached the house the
figure was coming from the stables and about to go up the steps to the front
door. But he turned around as she ran towards him yelling: “Ben!”
    It was not Ben. The rider who she
convinced herself looked like Ben was a stranger.
    “Oh,” she spoke in a gasping voice.
She had never seen this man before.
    He did have a similar build to Ben,
in fact, he looked just a little like Ben, at least from the distance. And he
appeared to be wearing Ben’s clothes.
    “You’re not Ben,” she said in a
small voice.
    “That is true, Mademoiselle, I am
not Sir Benjamin if that is who you mean by Ben.”
    “Who are you?” she asked deeply
puzzled, and then almost immediately realized that might be considered an
impertinent question to ask someone who did not know her and was, she supposed,
going into what was in some respects his own house.
    “Mademoiselle, I might well ask
that of you.”
    Once again she felt that she was
slipping into her ‘setting mighty woodlands aflame’ mode. She apologized