Read Online The House Above the River by Josephine Bell - Free Book Online Page B

you.”
    â€œHow right you are.”
    On the way up the hill, Giles stopped, pointing to a narrower track on the left.
    â€œThis was where Miriam waylaid me,” he said. “Is it a short cut?”
    â€œYes, in a way,” Susan answered.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œWell, it is actually shorter, but it brings you out at a door in the old stable wall, and unless you have the key, you have to walk right round the wall to the front of the house.”
    â€œI see. There is only one key?”
    â€œI don’t know that. But I haven’t got one.”
    â€œLet’s go up it, anyway. I like exploring.”
    â€œActually, it’s Miriam’s favourite path in the woods. There is a clearing with a seat and a view. The seat is a sort of war memorial, to the local resistance movement. The Germans had officers billeted in the château. They disappeared from time to time, I believe. And then local people were taken and shot.”
    â€œEven in Penguerrec?”
    â€œEverywhere, wasn’t it?”
    They turned into the path and walked up, in single file, Susan leading.
    The clearing, as a beauty spot, Giles found disappointing. It was much overgrown with rank grass; the view, through a gap in the trees, of the distant village of Pen Paluch was restricted. Moreover, the seat was not well placed to enjoy it, for it raced down, instead of across, the clearing. He also noticed that the seat was slightly tilted, for one of the flat iron rings, like feet, that stuck out from its base at either side, was raised from the ground. He pointed all this out to Susan, as they stood at the edge of the grass, looking about them.
    â€œI never noticed that,” she said. “I think I’ve been here only once. Henry showed it to me soon after I came. He told me it was a favourite haunt of Miriam’s. She never talks about things like that, herself.”
    â€œFar too ordinary,” said Giles.
    She looked at him, puzzled and sad.
    â€œYou almost hate her now, don’t you?”
    â€œNo,” he answered, turning his face away from her. “No. Myself. For wasting so many years on a sentimental memory. For not letting myself grow out of it. Till now.”
    Turning to her, he saw her eyes fill with tears.
    â€œDarling,” he said, under his breath.
    Before Susan could recover from the surprise of this address, they were both roused by a voice calling to them from the opposite side of the clearing. They turned their heads quickly, and saw Henry, standing among the trees.
    â€œWe’ve been down to look at Shuna ,” Giles shouted, cheerfully, while Susan started to walk, almost to run, across the grass.
    It happened without any kind of warning. Giles saw the girl hurry on to a rough patch of ground, covered with broken branches. He saw her stumble, beginning to fall forward. He heard her terrified shout as the ground gave way under her feet. And then, even while she was disappearing from view, he leaped forward.
    From where he had been standing he could not now have seen her, but he covered the space between them in a few seconds, and saw her mackintoshed arm, thrown across one log stouter than the rest, which had its ends firmly fixed on either side of a great hole in the ground.
    He flung himself down beside the gap, wondering if his added weight would take them both into whatever depths lay beneath. He reached for her arm, and took it in a firm grip at the wrist. Down the hole he saw her white face lose its look of mad terror.
    â€œI’ve got you,” he said. “But I don’t know how firm it is where I am. Can you bring your other hand up?”
    Without speaking, she did so, and he grasped that wrist, too, in his free hand. Then he began to wriggle slowly backwards, drawing her to the edge of the hole.
    â€œYou’ll have to let go the log,” he ordered, when progress stopped.
    â€œNo. Half a minute.” Her voice was faint, but resolute.