Carola Dunn Read Online Free PDF Page B

I am sure.”
    “Well, yes, except that sometimes I try to shield Mama. Only she has Papa to look after her. Of course, there is always Sir Gregory. What thought you of him, Catherine?”
    “He is very large and looks sleepier than he is. What is your opinion?”
    “At first I thought him fine enough to be your suitor. Do not smile, I told you I meant to look out for a husband for you. He is certainly tall enough! Then I thought him by far too dull, for he just stood there looking bored. But afterward it seemed to me that he was laughing at me, and that I did not like at all. It would be odious to be married to a man who laughed at one.”
    “Do you think so? He is certainly a great tease.” Catherine considered warning her cousin that her disguise had already been pierced, then decided against it.
    “I think it very likely that he is sly,” Angel suggested, “for he hides behind that bored face and makes you think he is not listening, and then makes fun of you. Of all things, I abhor slyness.’’
    “I do not think him sly, but you may have the right of it. One should not judge on such short acquaintance. Look, we cannot follow the stream any further.”
    They had walked half a mile or so, and now the track swung to the right and the stream’s course continued through a gap in a high stone wall, which barred their path.
    “I shall climb over it,” said Angel at once.
    “Pray do not! You will certainly dirty your gown and probably rip it, if you do not fall and break your leg.”
    “Oh, very well. Perhaps I can go around the end by the stream.”
    “Has it not occurred to you that someone built the wall to keep you out?” protested Catherine as her cousin pushed through a tangle of hazel bushes overgrown with sweet-scented honeysuckle.
    “It must be Grisedale Hall. They will not mind.”
    “I daresay you are right,” Catherine sighed. “I beg you will not fall into the water.”
    She made her way around the edge of the thicket and found Angel contemplating the proposed passage. There was a two-foot drop from the grassy bank onto a jumble of boulders of various sizes, most of them wet with spray. They looked alarmingly slippery, but supposing that one managed to stay upright it would be possible to climb past the end of the wall. Until this was accomplished, it was quite impossible to see how high the bank was on the other side.
    Before Catherine could protest again, Angel picked up her skirts in one hand and jumped.
    “Come on,” she said. “It’s easy.” Balancing with her unoccupied hand, she proceeded, and heaving another heavy sigh, her cousin followed.
    Three minutes later they were sitting on a conveniently fallen tree trunk. Angel took off her shoe and emptied water from it.
    “I came off better than you,” said Catherine. “I declare I do not know what comes over me when you propose these adventures. I am by far too old for such pranks.”
    “Let us walk a little further.” Angel bounced up, ready to go. “Oh, Catherine, do not turn your head a minute, but guess what I can see.”
    “A raging bull.”
    “No.”
    “Lord Grisedale’s gamekeeper with a shotgun.”
    “No, guess again.”
    “I cannot imagine.” She looked round. “Angel, a gate! If we had just walked a little further along the track, we might have entered comfortably!”
    “It would have been vastly less amusing. Come on.”
    They had not walked very far when three figures on horseback rode over a rise a quarter of a mile distant, and they recognised Lady Elizabeth and Sir Gregory, with an unknown gentleman. Angel immediately waved and hallooed.
    “We cannot speak to them!” cried Catherine. “I do not know how I look, but you are the very image of a ragamuffin.”
    “Then they will not guess that I am the daughter of a marquis. You are a pattern-card of propriety, not a hair out of place, I promise you.”
    There was no time for further remonstrances, for already the riders were drawing near.
    “Hello,” Angel