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

yourself?”
    â€œOnly in going out in shoes not fitted for walking across the moor.”
    â€œMy fault again!” Gillman said penitently. “I do not know what you can think of me.”
    He certainly was distinctly good-looking, the girl thought as he led the way to the door which, from Spot’s scratching, Cynthia had previously concluded to be her cousin’s. He paused before he opened the door and bent his head nearer hers.
    â€œI shall not leave you more than half an hour to-night, and you must try to avoid exciting her as she is very weak.”
    â€œCertainly, I will be very careful,” Cynthia promised.
    He turned the handle.
    â€œWell, Hannah,” he said in a loud, resolutely cheerful voice, “here is Cynthia, very anxious to see you!”
    The room was a large one, handsomely furnished; a large alcove at the farther end formed a sort of dressing-room, pretty shaded lamps stood on the mantelpiece, a bright fire burned in the fire-place; but Cynthia only had eyes for the quiet figure that lay propped up by pillows in the great, hearse-like looking bed that stood in the middle of the room. She went forward quickly.
    â€œDear Cousin Hannah, how glad I am to see you!” taking one of the stiffened, unresponsive hands in hers and chafing it as she bent over and pressed a warm kiss upon the woman’s cheek. 
    â€œCynthia!” Lady Hannah said faintly, in a low, thick voice. “You should have written—you should not have come like this. Sit down, child, and tell me what brings you here?”
    Feeling chilled and thrown back upon herself, Cynthia took the chair that stood by the bed.
    Gillman leaned against the heavy carved oaken posts at the bottom.
    â€œI think I shall leave you two to have your talk out now,” he said. “You must give Cynthia a better welcome than that, Hannah.”
    â€œDon’t be away long!” the invalid implored, the whispering, husky tones suddenly becoming agitated. “I don’t like to be left with a stranger without you, Henry.”
    â€œCynthia is not a stranger, and I shall not be away long,” Gillman answered soothingly as he moved to the door.
    His wife twisted her head round.
    â€œLock the door, Henry, and take the key away. Yes! Yes! You must!” her manner threatening to become hysterical as Gillman hesitated. “I have told you that I will not be left with the door unlocked!”
    Gillman shrugged his shoulders and glanced deprecatingly at Cynthia.
    â€œShe always will have it so, and it is not for long,” he answered as he passed.
    As she heard the key turned in the lock Lady Hannah gave a sigh of relief.
    â€œThat is better. I hate to think that the door is not fastened, that anybody—anything could get to me, and I could not do anything—could not move—that I should lie like a log ” her voice dying away in a sob of terror.
    Cynthia glanced compassionately at the limbs lying so straight and motionless beneath the bed-clothes.
    â€œNo one will come to you. Mr Gillman—we all—would take care of that.”
    â€œUm! I do not know about that.” The invalid moved her head restlessly. “Should you have known me, Cynthia? Am I like what you expected?”
    Cynthia hesitated. This quiet figure, in which the head seemed to be the only thing alive, was so sadly unlike the Cousin Hannah whom she could dimly remember as a brisk, active woman who carried her about and nursed her as a child. She glanced at the small aquiline features a little drawn on one side, at the grey hair that was brushed back in bands beneath a quaintly-fashioned black lace headdress, at the large tinted spectacles that shaded the eyes, and paused.
    â€œWell?” Lady Hannah went on irritably. “I know I was not a helpless log in those days! You don’t remember me?”
    â€œYes, I do a little,” Cynthia said slowly, “and I have heard of you