Orphan Bride Read Online Free PDF Page B

need, and plenty of good food.”
    She looked out of the window to the expanse of lonely moor beyond.
    “ Now?” she asked, the habit of obedience too strong to query any order, however strange it might seem.
    “Yes, now,” he replied, seeming to lose interest. “I'm leaving immediately after lunch, but I shall see you again before I go.”
    She had got to her feet and stood looking at him with her solemn stare. She had not felt at ease with him since he had first taken her out of the orphanage, but he was more familiar than the others, and he was going back to streets, and lights and people.
    “I suppose,” she began with great courage, “you wouldn ’ t take me with you”
    “What!” he exclaimed.
    “—and change me for one of the other orphans, I mean,” she finished earnestly. “Katy Green, perhaps.”
    He looked at her with sardonic amusement.
    “Don’t you like it here?” he enquired.
    She was silent, not wishing to be rude.
    “I’m afraid,” said Julian with a wry smile, “I don’t w a nt to change you for another orphan. I think you will suit my purpose admirably. Now, fetch your coat and go for a walk.”
    She hesitated for one moment more, then she murmured: “Yes —C ousin Julian,” and ran out of the room.

 
    CHAPTER T H R E E
    It seemed to Jennet during her first weeks at Pennycross that people were always saying to her: “Fetch your coat and go for a walk.” There seemed little else that she was required to do.
    Jennet, left much to herself, read with avidity, but even here, sooner or later, someone would discover her and say brightly:
    “Now, fetch your coat and go for a nice walk. ”
    It was a long time before she got used to the loneliness. Tears were infrequent at the orphanage, for hard facts were learnt and faced early, but Jennet lay and wept in her big tester bed and longed for the bustle and noise of Blacker s.
    She still woke at six every morning, but now; she stayed in bed until she was called, reading by the light of her candle until Emily discovered her and forbade it.
    Emily was kind in her way, but her affections were given to her dogs. Jennet could have grown fond of Homer, for he was gentle and scholarly, and liked to talk to her in his vague fashion, and she soon discovered that his eccentricities were very harmless, but he had lived for so long in a world of his own that it was difficult to interest him in current matters for very long.
    Of Julian, she saw nothing for several weeks after he had first brought her to Pennycross, but to her surprise Emily made her write to him at regular intervals, short, colorless little letters which were an agony to compose and which he never acknowledged.
    At the beginning of December, Emily told her that the adoption papers were now completed and Jennet must realize that the Danes were now legally responsible for her. Jennet’s face lit up and she looked a little awed. “You mean I really belong—like any other girl with a family?” she asked.
    Emily nodded kindly.
    “Yes. Blacker’s no longer has any claim on you. Until y ou are of age you can look to us for support and a home.”
    “ Cousin Julian and myself. Mine is the legal responsibility of course, but Julian’s is the financial. He will pay all your expenses for the next few years, so you must try and do him credit. ”
    Jennet’s eyes grew wide.
    “But why—why Cousin Julian?” she asked.
    “ That’s very simple,” said Emily briskly. “Cousin Julian can afford it and I cannot. It was his idea that you should come here, you know.”
    “ Didn’t you want a companion then?”
    “ Well, of c ourse, dear. I was very pleased to have you.”
    “ I ’ ve often wondered—” Jennet said slowly. “I mean I don’t seem to be any real help to anybody.”
    Emily patted her thin cheek .
    “ Cousin Julia n has plans for you,” was all she said.
    T hings were not much clearer for Jennet after this conversation, but at least it had brought Julian into a