Prudence Read Online Free PDF Page B

Hungry, are you, mite? Well, if these young imps will be quiet for a moment, we’ll see what we can do.’
    She might have been only a short time in this house, but it came as no surprise to Prue that the twins wholly ignored the cook’s request for their silence. Her concern for the kitten was too acute to allow more than a passing fright at the horrid problem of how she was ever to learn to control them.
    The kitten’s need for food outweighed its natural fear, and it attacked with gusto a saucer of milk placed under the kitchen table. While it took the first edge off its hunger, Wincle found some broken meats and chopped them into morsels small enough for consumption. She then placed them in a dish and presented it to the twins, bidding them take themselves off to their nursery where they might give the kitten the remainder of its feed.
    They had perforce to wait while the kitten finished lapping its milk, which gave Prue an opportunity to air a further need.
    ‘Do you think a box might be found, with a littleearth placed in it? I don’t know where it should best be situated, but I feel sure it will be safest to have it, if we are to avoid accidents.’
    ‘I know just what you mean, ma’am,’ said the cook reassuringly. ‘There’s no call to look so troubled. I’ll see to it. And I’ll send up something for the poor mite along o’ the meals for the young ladies. If you ask me, you’d best fret more about what that Frenchie will say to it.’
    These ominous words caused Prue to wonder uneasily about the identity of the ‘Frenchie’ as she was led up the stairs by the girls, and along a lengthy corridor. She had looked for her portmanteau in the hall, but it had apparently been spirited away. Prue supposed she must at length be reunited with it, wondering briefly what sort of accommodation had been allocated for her use. The Duck had warned her to expect no undue favours, and to be grateful if she was fortunate enough not to be housed in the attics with the servants.
    Since Lotty—or so Prue believed—had charge of the kitten, while Dodo carried the dish of meat, she had leisure to look about her as they went.
    The same muted colouring had been washed throughout the house, giving a warm glow to the walls. Portraits and yet more landscapes were interspersed with wall sconces, each fitted with fresh candles, giving evidence that Mr Rookham preferred his house well lit during the night. But presently the way led out into a short vestibule, with corridors leading off both left and right. Straight ahead, the twins took a stairway that turned a corner and led down into a narrower corridor, where there was little light and no visible sign of wall sconces to improve matters when it should get dark.
    ‘This is our part of the house,’ announced Lotty,glancing back over her shoulder. ‘Uncle Julius gived it over to us entirely . So we can do whatever we like here.’
    ‘Yes,’ agreed Dodo, adding with a mischievous giggle, ‘as long as, he says, we keep out of the rest of the place.’
    ‘Except the gardens.’
    ‘ Some of the gardens,’ amended Dodo. ‘You know Uncle Julius won’t let us in his precious tillage garden.’
    ‘Treillage, you noodle, not tillage,’ corrected Lotty scornfully. ‘And that’s only because it ain’t finished.’
    ‘No, and we ain’t allowed in the rose garden neither.’
    ‘But why do you need so many rooms?’ interrupted Prue, more to divert them from argument than anything else. For she had lost count of the doors already.
    The girls halted and turned. Hefting the kitten into the crook of one arm, Lotty proceeded to count on her fingers.
    ‘One for us to sleep in, and one for Yvette.’
    ‘Then there’s Freddy,’ added Dodo, ‘though he ain’t here just now.’
    ‘Who is Freddy?’
    ‘Our brother,’ explained Lotty. ‘He’s older, and Uncle sent him off to school.’
    ‘Only three years older. And we’re nearly nine.’
    ‘There’s a schoolroom for us,