The Adultress Read Online Free PDF Page A

listened. All was quiet in the bedroom. Then I knew. It was a startling idea. Why should I not go alone?
    The more I pondered it, the more feasible it seemed. There would be a great shaking of heads. Young women did not travel alone. I was not such a young woman. I didn’t propose to go quite alone, of course; I could take the two grooms and another for the packhorse just the same. The only difference would be that Jean-Louis would not be with me.
    I was too excited to sleep after that, but lay in bed making plans for going to Eversleigh even though Jean-Louis would not be able to accompany me.
    There was a great deal of excitement the next morning because the pail was traced to our garden. A pail was missing from one of the sheds, and in spite of its buckled and scarred appearance the one found in the barn was undoubtedly that one which was missing.
    That dispensed with the tramp idea. It was one of our people who had caused the fire.
    Farmer Hassock had declared that he’d beat the daylights out of the culprit when he found him, for this bit of mischief would cost a pretty penny.
    Having discovered the identity of the pail the search for the culprit was a simple one. In the early afternoon Ned Carter came to see me—as Jean-Louis’s deputy—dragging with him his son, Jake.
    Jake’s face was white and frightened and there were tear stains on his cheeks.
    “This is the young imp of mischief, mistress,” said Ned Carter. “I got it out of him. It was him what took the pail … to cook some meat, he said. And where does he get the meat? I ask. That’s something I can’t beat out of him. Though I will. When he has another taste of my belt! I’ll find out. Well, it was him, see. It was him that had this wicked notion to steal the pail and take it in the barn where he tries to cook the meat what he got from who knows where. I tell him it’ll be transportation for him or a gibbet fore long.”
    I felt sorry for Jake Carter. He was only a boy—a nervous child overcome with terror.
    Memory stirred in me. I remembered the last time I had seen him and he had not been alone. Of course! It was an hour or so before the fire had started.
    I knew then that the idea of taking the pail and the meat would not have been Jake’s. He would have been ordered to do so and join in the expedition.
    I said: “Jake, was somebody with you when you went to the barn?”
    Jake looked more frightened than ever.
    “No, mistress, ’twas by myself, I was. I didn’t mean to do no harm. … There was this bit of meat like …”
    “Where did you get the meat?”
    He was silent. Of course I knew. I could picture how it happened.
    “Answer mistress,” said Ned, giving the boy a blow at the side of his head which sent him staggering across to the wall, which saved him from falling.
    “Just a minute, Ned,” I said. “Don’t be hasty. Please don’t hit the boy until I have made some inquiries.”
    “But he’s done it, mistress. Good as said so.”
    “Just a minute. I want to go over to the Hall.”
    Jake looked as if he were preparing to run and I was more convinced than ever.
    “Come,” I said, “we’re going now.”
    My mother was surprised to see me marching in with Ned Carter and his terrified son.
    “What’s the trouble?” she cried.
    “Is Dickon here?” I asked.
    “He’s out riding with Sabrina, I think. Why?”
    “I want to see him rather urgently.” It was fortunate, for at that moment they came in flushed from the ride. It couldn’t have been more convenient.
    Dickon betrayed himself in the first seconds, so taken off his guard was he to see the Carters there.
    He turned to the door.
    “I’ve forgotten my …”
    He paused, for I was barring his way.
    “Just a minute,” I said. “Jake has been accused of starting the fire at Farmer Hassock’s barn. But I don’t think he was alone.”
    “I reckon he was,” said Dickon.
    “No,” I said, “I reckon he had a companion, and that it was you.”
    “No,” he