Read Online The Shadow of the Lynx by Victoria Holt - Free Book Online

lifeboat drill and then hiding himself in one of the cupboards where spare life-jackets were stored. He had prowled about the ship at night looking for food and had found a little now and then. He had almost died of exposure and hunger. So at least for a time he was comfortable, well cared for and too sick to contemplate what trouble might be awaiting him when he was well enough to be judged.
    I thought of him constantly, and was troubled to think, of the punishment in store for him.
    I spoke to Stirling as we sat on deck.
    “I want to do something about that boy.”
    “What?” he asked.
    “I want to save him. He is very young. All he has done is run away. It must have been something terrible he ran from. I’m going to help him.
    I must. “
    “How? Will you build a ship and make him your captain?”
    “Be serious. You must help me.”
    “I? This has nothing to do with me.”
    “It has to do with me and I’m your sister … or rather your father is my guardian. Surely that makes some sort of relationship between us?”
    It doesn’t mean I have to take part in your crazy schemes. “
    “If his fare was paid, if you employed him as your servant, if you took him with us, I am sure your all-powerful father could find some employment for him. You’ll help, of course.”
    “I can’t think why you should assume that for one moment.”
    “I don’t believe you’re as hardhearted as you would like me to believe.”
    “I hope I’m a practical man.”
    “Of course you are. That’s why you’ll help this boy.”
    “Because you have made a rash promise you can’t keep?”
    “No. But because the boy will be grateful to you forever, and in your father’s many concerns he must find it not always easy to discover good servants. The boy can be given work on your father’s property, in his hotel, or in some place in the Lynx Empire. So you see it is to your benefit to rescue him from his present dilemma.”
    He laughed so much that he could not speak. I was uneasy. There was a hardness about him which I am sure he had inherited from his father. I was very worried about my poor
     
    little stowaway tor wnom no one from myself seemed to nave any sympathy.
    “Well,” said my cabin companion, “Mr. Mullens says that this is an encouragement for people to hide themselves on ships. He said he never heard the like. We shall have half the riffraff stowing away if they are going to be rewarded for doing so.”
    “One can hardly say the poor boy has been rewarded,” I retorted, ‘simply because he has been put to bed and nursed back to health. What did Mr. Mullens expect? He would be invited to walk the plank? Or perhaps be clapped into irons? These are not the days of the press gang, you know. “
    She tossed her head. I was very odd, in her opinion. I suppose she discussed me with the Mullenses.
    “Mr. Herrick has rescued him they say,” she smirked.
    “So the boy is to become his servant.”
    “Servant!” I cried.
    “Doesn’t he confide in you? I heard Mr. Herrick is paying his fare, so all is well and our young rascal has been turned into an honest boy overnight.”
    I smiled happily. I went to Stirling’s cabin and knocked on the door.
    He was alone and I threw my arms about his neck and kissed him.
    Embarrassed, he took my hands and removed them but I was too excited to feel rebuffed.
    “You’ve done it, Stirling,” I cried.
    “You’ve done it.”
    “What are you talking about?” he demanded. But he knew.
    Then he tried to excuse himself.
    “He’s travelling third. It may be rough but it’s all he deserves. The fare was only seventeen guineas but naturally they don’t need that since he’s been sleeping in the lifeboat and hasn’t been fed. I’ve paid seven pounds for him and he’ll have quarters in the third class until Melbourne.”
    “And then you’ll find work for him?”
    “He can act as my servant until we find something for him to do.”
    “Oh, Stirling, it’s wonderful! You’ve got