A Rose for the Crown Read Online Free PDF Page A

you.” She wagged her finger at the boy. “I fear Geoff has not the sense to mind the river. Now, sit here with Matty until I give you a sign.”
Johnny felt a thrill of fear run through him. His sister looked scared,and if the truth were told, he was, too. He was more scared of his father’s wrath if they were discovered than of his brother falling into the river, but he did as he was told and sat next to Matty with the basket between his knees.
“I promise,” he called after Kate, who was already running through the spiky wheat in pursuit of Geoff.
“Stop, Geoff, stop!” she cried, lifting her cumbersome skirts up to her waist to move faster. She could no longer see her brother, though where he had ploughed through the field was perfectly obvious. The field ended at a steep bank on the other side of which was the river. She had made so much noise in the wheat that she could not have heard a splash. Her heart was beating faster and faster as she topped the riverbank and expected to see the worst. Fenris had waded through the reeds and was up to his underside in the muddy stream, lapping the water with his oversized tongue. There was no sign of Geoff. Kate panicked.
“Geoff, Geoff! Say you be safe,” she screamed, running along the bank. “Blessed Jesu, please say he be safe!”
She did not get far before a half-buried tree branch tripped her, and she tumbled headlong down the bank and landed facedown in the reeds and murky water.
“Ha, ha, ha!” laughed Geoff, as he stepped out of his hiding place in the reeds. His face was a picture of glee as he watched his sister pick herself up and attempt to effect a dignified retreat from the sucking mud. Kate forgot all prudence, all ladylike behavior and rushed at her brother, pushing him backwards into the stream. The glee was instantly wiped off his face, much to her satisfaction until she realized the implication of her act. Now both of them were wet and filthy, and she had lost one of her pattens in the mud.
“Blessed Jesu,” she said, using the adult expression for the second time in three minutes. “I fear we be undone.”
She helped Geoff out of the water, and they both clambered up the bank and began wringing the water and slime out of their clothes. Fenris bounded up the bank, carrying Kate’s missing shoe, and proceeded to shower them with a shake from head to tail. Kate was glad to have her shoe back and hugged the dog gratefully.
“I be sorry, Kate,” whimpered Geoff, beginning to shiver half withcold, half with fear. “I just thought to hide from you. ’Tis the truth, and I will not do it again.”
Kate’s sunny nature could not be dampened by a dip in the stream, and her frown soon turned into a smile and then a laugh at the sight of them both. She put her arm around her brother.
“’Twill teach us both a lesson, Geoff,” she said. “We must stop being deceitful. Acting in secret can bring naught but trouble. And you must not feign drowning again—for you see the consequences. Now we must tell our mother why we are wet, and I fear she will not trust me to take care of you again.”
“Can we still have our feast?” ventured Geoff, not having listened too closely to this philosophizing. “Look, the sun be coming out again, and I warrant we shall soon dry. Maybe mother’ll not notice our clothes if they be dry.”
“Halloooo!” echoed over the field to the two bedraggled children on the bank.
“Johnny! Matty! I quite forgot them.” Kate jumped to her feet and ran down into the field, waving and shouting. “We be here. Wait there for me.”
Johnny giggled when he saw his sister soaking wet, with mud and wheat stuck to her skirt and hair. Kate glared at him and then explained what had happened. “But don’t you dare tell on us,” she warned. “I will think of something.” She wrapped cheerful Matty up in the food cloth, to protect her from the wet gown, and the three of them made their way through the wheat to where Geoff and Fenris sat