Read Online The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken - Free Book Online
Authors: Joan Aiken
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down. Do not speak until you are spoken to.’
Bonnie paid not the slightest attention. ‘Who said you could wear my mother’s best gown?’ she repeated. Sylvia, alarmed, had slipped into her place at the table, but Bonnie, reckless with indignation, stood in front of the governess, glaring at her.
‘Everything in this house was left entirely to my personal disposition,’ Miss Slighcarp said coldly.
‘But not her clothes! Not to wear! How
dare
you? Take it off at once! It’s no better than stealing!’
Two white dents had appeared on either side of Miss Slighcarp’s nostrils.
‘Another word and it’s the dark cupboard and bread-and-water for you, miss,’ she said fiercely.
‘I don’t care what you say!’ Bonnie stamped her foot. ‘Take off my mother’s dress!’
Miss Slighcarp boxed Bonnie’s ears, Bonnie seized Miss Slighcarp’s wrists. In the confusion a bottle of ink was knocked off the table, spilling a long blue trail down the gold velvet skirt. Miss Slighcarp uttered an exclamation of fury.
‘Insolent, ungovernable child! You shall suffer for this!’ With iron strength she thrust Bonnie into a closet containing crayons, globes, and exercise books, and turned the key on her. Then she swept from the room.
Sylvia remained seated, aghast, for half a second. Then she ran to the cupboard door – but alas! Miss Slighcarp had taken the key with her.
‘Bonnie! Bonnie! Are you all right? It’s I, Sylvia.’
She could hear bitter sobs.
‘Don’t cry, Bonnie, please don’t cry. I’ll run after her and beg her to let you out. I dare say she will, once she has reflected. She can’t have known it was your mother’s
favourite
gown.’
Bonnie seemed not to have heard her. ‘Mamma, Mamma!’ Sylvia could hear her sobbing. ‘Oh, why did you have to go away?’
How Sylvia longed to be able to batter down the cupboard door and get her arms round poor Bonnie! But the door was thick and massive, with a strong lock, quite beyond her power to move. Since she could not attract Bonnie’s attention, she ran after Miss Slighcarp.
After vainly knocking at the governess’s bedroom door she went in without waiting for a summons (a deed of exceptional bravery for the timid Sylvia). Nobody was there. The ink-stained velvet dress lay flung carelessly on the floor, crushed and torn, so great had Miss Slighcarp’s haste been to remove it.
Sylvia hurried out again and began to search through the huge house, wandering up this passage and down that, through galleries, into golden drawing-rooms, satin-hung boudoirs, billiard-rooms, ballrooms, croquet-rooms. At last she found the governess in the Great Hall, surrounded by servants.
Miss Slighcarp did not see Sylvia. She had changed into what was very plainly another of Lady Green’s gowns, a rose-coloured crêpe with aiguillettes of diamonds on the shoulders. It did not fit her very exactly.
She seemed to be giving the servants their wages. Sylvia wondered why many of the maids were crying, and why the men looked in general angry and rebellious, until she realized that Miss Slighcarp was paying them off and dismissing them. When the last one had been given his little packet of money, she announced:
‘Now, let but a glimpse of your faces be seen within ten miles of this house, and I shall send for the constables!’ Then she added to a man who stood beside her, ‘Ridiculous, quite ridiculous, to keep such a large establishment of idle good-for-nothings, kicking their heels, eating their heads off.’
‘Just so, ma’am, just so,’ he assented. Sylvia was amazed to recognize Mr Grimshaw, apparently quite restored to health, and in full possession of his faculties. He held a small blunderbuss, and was waving it threateningly, to urge the departing servants out of the great doors and on their way into the snowstorm.
‘What a strange thing!’ thought Sylvia in astonishment. ‘Can he be recovered? Or was he never really ill? Can he have known Miss
Bonnie paid not the slightest attention. ‘Who said you could wear my mother’s best gown?’ she repeated. Sylvia, alarmed, had slipped into her place at the table, but Bonnie, reckless with indignation, stood in front of the governess, glaring at her.
‘Everything in this house was left entirely to my personal disposition,’ Miss Slighcarp said coldly.
‘But not her clothes! Not to wear! How
dare
you? Take it off at once! It’s no better than stealing!’
Two white dents had appeared on either side of Miss Slighcarp’s nostrils.
‘Another word and it’s the dark cupboard and bread-and-water for you, miss,’ she said fiercely.
‘I don’t care what you say!’ Bonnie stamped her foot. ‘Take off my mother’s dress!’
Miss Slighcarp boxed Bonnie’s ears, Bonnie seized Miss Slighcarp’s wrists. In the confusion a bottle of ink was knocked off the table, spilling a long blue trail down the gold velvet skirt. Miss Slighcarp uttered an exclamation of fury.
‘Insolent, ungovernable child! You shall suffer for this!’ With iron strength she thrust Bonnie into a closet containing crayons, globes, and exercise books, and turned the key on her. Then she swept from the room.
Sylvia remained seated, aghast, for half a second. Then she ran to the cupboard door – but alas! Miss Slighcarp had taken the key with her.
‘Bonnie! Bonnie! Are you all right? It’s I, Sylvia.’
She could hear bitter sobs.
‘Don’t cry, Bonnie, please don’t cry. I’ll run after her and beg her to let you out. I dare say she will, once she has reflected. She can’t have known it was your mother’s
favourite
gown.’
Bonnie seemed not to have heard her. ‘Mamma, Mamma!’ Sylvia could hear her sobbing. ‘Oh, why did you have to go away?’
How Sylvia longed to be able to batter down the cupboard door and get her arms round poor Bonnie! But the door was thick and massive, with a strong lock, quite beyond her power to move. Since she could not attract Bonnie’s attention, she ran after Miss Slighcarp.
After vainly knocking at the governess’s bedroom door she went in without waiting for a summons (a deed of exceptional bravery for the timid Sylvia). Nobody was there. The ink-stained velvet dress lay flung carelessly on the floor, crushed and torn, so great had Miss Slighcarp’s haste been to remove it.
Sylvia hurried out again and began to search through the huge house, wandering up this passage and down that, through galleries, into golden drawing-rooms, satin-hung boudoirs, billiard-rooms, ballrooms, croquet-rooms. At last she found the governess in the Great Hall, surrounded by servants.
Miss Slighcarp did not see Sylvia. She had changed into what was very plainly another of Lady Green’s gowns, a rose-coloured crêpe with aiguillettes of diamonds on the shoulders. It did not fit her very exactly.
She seemed to be giving the servants their wages. Sylvia wondered why many of the maids were crying, and why the men looked in general angry and rebellious, until she realized that Miss Slighcarp was paying them off and dismissing them. When the last one had been given his little packet of money, she announced:
‘Now, let but a glimpse of your faces be seen within ten miles of this house, and I shall send for the constables!’ Then she added to a man who stood beside her, ‘Ridiculous, quite ridiculous, to keep such a large establishment of idle good-for-nothings, kicking their heels, eating their heads off.’
‘Just so, ma’am, just so,’ he assented. Sylvia was amazed to recognize Mr Grimshaw, apparently quite restored to health, and in full possession of his faculties. He held a small blunderbuss, and was waving it threateningly, to urge the departing servants out of the great doors and on their way into the snowstorm.
‘What a strange thing!’ thought Sylvia in astonishment. ‘Can he be recovered? Or was he never really ill? Can he have known Miss
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