Read Online The Return of the Gypsy by Philippa Carr - Free Book Online Page A

stayed at Enderby till at least the worst was over …
    I shivered. My thin damp dress was clinging to me, but I was not really cold. It was just the thought that there was someone in that house who was aware of me … and that it was very lonely here.
    I turned to the door and put my hands against it. To my amazement it opened.
    How could that be? It had been shut. I had leaned against it. I had rapped on it and now… it was open.
    I stepped into the hall.
    It was dark because of the weather. I looked up at the vaulted ceiling which was rather like ours at Eversleigh but smaller.
    “Is anyone there?” I called.
    There was no answer and I had the feeling that I was being watched.
    I advanced cautiously, crossing the hall to the staircase. I heard a movement and hastily turned round. There was no one in the hall. The door swung shut with a bang. I ran over to it. Someone was in the house and I had to get out quickly. I had to run home as fast as I could, never mind the storm.
    A figure appeared at the top of the stairs. I stared.
    “Are you alone?” said a voice.
    “It’s … it’s …” I stammered.
    “That is right,” he said. “You remember me.”
    “Romany Jake,” I murmured.
    “And the lady Jessica.”
    “What are you doing here?”
    “I’ll tell you. But first are you alone … Is anyone with you? Anyone coming after you?”
    I shook my head. I was no longer afraid. Waves of relief were sweeping over me. I could not feel afraid of Romany Jake—only a tremendous excitement.
    He came down the stairs stealthily.
    “It was you who were behind the door. You were at the window … You opened the door so that I would come in. What are you doing here?”
    “Hiding.”
    “Hiding? From whom are you hiding?”
    “The law.”
    “What have you done?”
    “Killed a man.”
    I stared at him in horror.
    “You will understand when I tell you. You will not betray me, I know.”
    “Why did you come here?”
    “I thought Dolly would help me. There was no one in the house so I got in through an open window on the first floor. I was hiding until she came.”
    “She is staying at Enderby.”
    “Where are the servants?”
    “They are there, too. They only come now and then to see that the place is all right.”
    “What does it mean?”
    “Aunt Sophie is looking after her until the baby comes.”
    “The baby?”
    “Your baby,” I said, watching him closely.
    He stared at me incredulously. “What do you mean?” he asked.
    “Dolly is going to have your baby. She wants it very much and so do Aunt Sophie and Jeanne, and my mother says it is not such a bad thing.”
    He was silent, running his fingers through his thick dark hair. Then he murmured: “Dolly!”
    I said: “You say you have killed someone.”
    “I want you to understand. But first… Dolly? Is she all right?”
    “She is with my Aunt Sophie.”
    “And she told you that?”
    “That it was your baby, yes.”
    “Oh … my God,” he said quietly. “What a mess.”
    “She wants it. She’s happy about it. She’ll be all right. They’ll look after her and the baby, and my mother says she has never been so happy in her life. Tell me what you have done.”
    A loud clap of thunder seemed to shake the house.
    “No one will come here in this storm,” he said. “Sit down here and let us talk.”
    I sat beside him on the stairs.
    “You must decide whether you will go straight back to your father and tell him I am hiding here … or whether you will say nothing and help me.”
    “I want to hear all about it. I don’t think I would tell my father. I think I should want to help you.”
    He laughed suddenly and he was like the merry man I had known before he went away. I was happy to sit close to him.
    He said: “First Dolly. It happened you know, suddenly … These things sometimes do. You won’t understand.”
    “I think I do.”
    He took my chin in his hands and looked into my face. “I believe you are very wise,” he said. “From the