A Summer Promise Read Online Free PDF

should get Dr Carlton to call.’
    ‘It wasn’t a fall, it was a slip, and Gran’s going to rest all day on the sofa,’ Maddy said quickly. ‘She doesn’t want a doctor, and she doesn’t want people to think . . .’
    Perhaps fortunately, before she could explain more fully, a customer claimed Mrs Grundy’s attention, and when presently Maddy had sold the last of her plums she suggested that she and Alice should do their shopping and then go home. ‘I can’t read
The Water Babies
today – I have to get back to Gran. But why don’t you come with me? You could stay for lunch, though it will only be bread and scrape, I’m afraid.’
    Mrs Grundy, overhearing, picked up a small square wrapped up in greaseproof paper and thrust it into Maddy’s hands.
    ‘Piece of me best cheese for the old lady,’ she said, patting Maddy’s cheek. ‘There’s a heap of things you can make with cheese what’s soft enough for an old lady to chaw on. Give her my regards and tell her I’d be happy to bake her a couple of loaves while she’s laid up. I’ll bring them to market next Saturday.’ She reached across and dug Alice in the ribs. ‘We stick together, you know, help each other out.’ She sighed reminiscently. ‘Though you may find it difficult to believe, m’dear, Mrs Hebditch were a fine figure of a woman once, running her side of farm like clockwork.’ She sighed deeply. ‘Ah, well, age changes all of us.’ Another customer approached and she smiled apologetically before greeting the other woman warmly. ‘Good morning. You’ll be wanting me best cheese if I know you! And some of me unsalted butter . . .’

Chapter Two
    WHEN THE TWO girls reached Larkspur Farm Maddy half expected to find Gran on her feet grumbling away and ready to criticise everything she had bought. Consequently she entered the kitchen with a degree of caution and was disproportionately astonished to find the room empty, the door still propped open and Gran on the sofa in the parlour snoring loudly.
    Maddy tiptoed across the room as quietly as she could, followed closely by Snoops, whose nose was pressed almost on the back of her legs. He was a large and shaggy dog, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but despite his size and friendly nature he was a timid animal and Maddy guessed that finding Gran no longer in command of the kitchen was worrying him more than a little, so she patted his head and rubbed his pricked ears and told him in a low whisper not to bark. ‘For that would wake Gran, and sleeping will be doing her good,’ she told him, approaching the sofa. The mug of tea, she saw, had been drained even though she had not been able to sweeten it. Gran liked her tea strong and sweet, and the fact that she had made do with what Maddy had provided was a good indication that she had not got off the sofa. Maddy found herself wishing that she had popped into the surgery after all and asked the doctor to visit. Still, if the pain was still persisting in a day or two the idea of consulting the doctor might be more acceptable.
    For a moment Maddy stayed by the sofa looking doubtfully down at the sleeping woman. However, she couldn’t stand here like a stock; she had left Alice outside the back door, knowing that Gran would want to be up and properly dressed before she saw anyone save her granddaughter. She decided she would let Alice in and then shut the parlour door very, very gently before starting the preparations for a light lunch, which was all she and Gran ever had.
    But unfortunately Snoops saw fit to bark the moment Alice came into the kitchen, and Maddy, in the very act of closing the parlour door, hastily opened it again. Her grandmother was looking wildly round her as though she could not recognise the room in which she lay, so Maddy crossed the floor, perched on the end of the sofa and addressed the old woman gently.
    ‘Hello, Gran. It’s only me, Maddy, and my friend Alice is in the kitchen. We’re making ourselves a bite to