Castle Of Bone Read Online Free PDF Page A

cupboard?”
    “I put something in. I wanted to see.”
    “What, Anna, what did you put in?”
    “Whatever’s happening ?” begged Jean.
    “It was Hugh’s sweater; your red woollen one.”
    “My wallet was leather; pig skin,” shouted Hugh, at last remembering it.
    “ Pig skin,” said Anna, with triumph in her voice.
    “I suppose you think,” said Penn sarcastically, “I suppose you think –”
    “Wool comes from sheep,” Jean cried excitedly.
    “Well, fancy, as if we didn’t know,” said Hugh.
    “Well, Anna, are you expecting a sheep now?” But though Penn’s voice was light, amused, he and all of them turned simultaneously to stare at the cupboard doors.
    “I can’t hear anything,” said Jean after a moment, tentatively.
    “Did you expect to? I bet nothing happens at all.”
    But they watched the cupboard, all of them. They waited painfully, anxiously – in hope – fear – anxiety that something would or would not come out of it. They waited for such sounds as they had heard yesterday, but there was only the commonplace chirping of the sparrows in the ash tree and the low plaint of a car coming up the road. (Hugh could tell it was up, not down, because cars going down made lighter sounds that disappeared more quickly.) The front gate clashed behind the milkman. They heard the whine and rattle of the red milk float.
    Penn looked at Anna triumphantly; stared round, boldly, at the rest of them. Then he marched to the cupboard and pulled open the door. No red sweater lay on the shelf now, where Anna must have put it, only a heap of fluff such as a sheep leaves behind in a hedge; except that there was more of it and yellow; the sheep must have been recently dipped.
    “You see,” said Anna. “You see, Penn?”
    “And you put a woollen sweater in? Are you mad, Anna, we might have got a sheep. Coping with that pig was just about enough.”
    “A moment ago you were saying nothing would happen. You can’t have it all ways, Penn,” said Hugh.
    “Poor Anna,” Jean said.
    But Anna had begun to laugh. A moment later so had Hugh and Jean, and then, after staring round all of them in turn, slightly red-faced, rather indignant, Penn followed too, if not with much amusement. Hugh was watching Anna more; slightly pink, dishevelled, laughing, she looked quite different suddenly. She noticed his eyes and turned away, jerking her head down sideways, so that hair fell across her eyes, and when Hugh saw her face again all the colour had ebbed, leaving it as pale as usual above the short, unsuitable black dress.
    They retired to the garden shortly afterwards. The sky was entirely blue, and the sun beginning to be hot. They lay full in the sun, near the old climbing frame which had half its rungs missing and leaned at an angle of forty-five degrees. Jean’s cat got up from it when they appeared and took to the more adequate shade that was made by Hugh.
    Penn, though still noticeably annoyed with Anna, had regained his composure and was at his bossiest; suggesting what he called a controlled experiment; they should each, he said, bring a selection of objects to put in the cupboard; they would see then what came out of it. They would have to be careful, naturally. There were things made from animals much more dangerous than pigs.
    “No elephant’s feet,” said Jean, inclined to giggle still.
    Hugh irritated by Penn took up the game at once.
    “Or leopard skin.”
    “Or shark’s teeth necklaces,” said Jean.
    “Sharks wouldn’t be dangerous unless they brought the sea as well,” said Hugh.
    “Do you remember the one in the Natural History Museum? That’s huge. One that size would split up the cupboard walls.”
    “It would split my room.”
    “Suppose it wouldn’t get into the cupboard in the first place?” said Jean.
    “How would we ever manage to explain a shark?”
    Anna said nothing. Penn stiffly, red with annoyance, said they weren’t here to talk about sharks, and what time would they meet