Read Online The Secret of Greylands by Annie Haynes - Free Book Online Page A

her sake. Now I shall leave you to your scolding!” And with an elfin laugh she pushed Cynthia forward and rushed back.
    Gillman was standing by the fire-place, apparently reading a letter and balancing himself backwards and forwards on his toes.
    He looked up as Cynthia entered; she went forward timidly.
    â€œI am sorry to have given you so much trouble, Mr Gillman. I quite thought—”
    â€œOh, my dear child!” The genuine concern in his tone made Cynthia forgive the familiarity of the words. “I have been so worried about you. I shall never forgive myself; but I did think if you bore to the left when the roads divided you could not make a mistake.”
    His evident distress disarmed Cynthia’s resentment. She smiled a little as she raised her eyes.
    â€œYou told me the right,” she remarked.
    Gillman looked thunderstruck.
    â€œSurely I could not have been so stupid? Oh, it is impossible. You must have misunderstood me.”
    â€œI think not,” Cynthia said positively. “I am certain you told me the right.”
    â€œWell, really”—with a gesture of despair Gillman ran his hands through his hair—“I believe the distress and worry I have had lately must be turning my brain. To think that I should have made such a mistake! How can I apologize to you?”
    Cynthia nearly laughed at the tragic reproach in his tone.
    â€œOh, please say no more about it! It must have inconvenienced you far more than it did me. After all, I had a very pleasant walk and the air on the moor was delightful.”
    â€œYou are very good to make excuses for me, but how did you find your way? That path is rather complicated.”
    â€œI called in to ask directions at a pretty, ivy-covered cottage, and a man who was working in the garden offered to guide me,” replied Cynthia disingenuously.
    â€œOh, I know where you mean!” Cynthia fancied for a moment that Gillman did not look pleased. “The people have only just come there to live. Well, I am very glad that matters are no worse, and that you found a guide of a sort. Now, I am just going up to see how my wife is, and then, if she feels equal to it, I am going to let you in for half an hour.”
    He smiled down on her as he spoke, and then with a little nod left the room.
    Cynthia nestled in her chair with a sigh of content; she slipped her feet out of her shoes and held them out to the warmth of the fire, they felt so sore and swollen. As she contemplated them ruefully she thought that life at Greylands had promised to become distinctly more attractive since Sybil’s arrival. She was pleased too that she was going to see her Cousin Hannah; it seemed to her that when she was able to explain matters to her cousin and ask her advice the worst of her difficulties would have disappeared. The parrot’s harsh voice broke across her meditations:
    â€œPoor Hannah! Now stop that snivelling! Poor Hannah!”
    Startled, Cynthia turned. With its head cocked rakishly on one side, the bird was surveying her with one beady, unwinking, black eye.
    â€œPoor Hannah!” it repeated raucously. “Stop snivelling, will you?”
    As the last word died away Gillman opened the door.
    â€œYour cousin would like to see you, Cynthia,” he said.
    With a heightened colour the girl shuffled into her shoes. “Poor Hannah!” the parrot interjected, almost, as it seemed to Cynthia, with sarcastic emphasis. She laughed as she stood up, in spite of her obvious embarrassment.
    â€œPolly seems to think that Cousin Hannah is to be pitied for having this interview forced upon her,” she said lightly.
    Gillman frowned.
    â€œI shall kill that wretched bird before I have done with it, I know!” he said. “I hate parrots and this is a particularly disagreeable one.”
    He held the door open and Cynthia limped through.
    â€œWhat is the matter?” he asked, looking at her. “Have you hurt