The Children of the King Read Online Free PDF Page B

eyes, too, were very black, as if only night-time sights were invited into them. There was something mysterious about him, something beyond the fact that he looked like a sly magician, beyond his wife and baby having died, beyond his intolerance of questioning. There was something about him that made you feel he knew more about you than you did. If he’d had a weasel up his sleeve, a knife in his belt, or the ability to change into a jackdaw, none of it would have surprised.
    Standing before such a man, no handshake or how-do-you-do seemed fitting. Instead, May did an unusual thing: she bowed. She bowed low enough to see Peregrine Lockwood’s feet, which were clad in sloppy brown slippers.
    Cecily screamed. “Oh, she’s bowing — stand up, you silly thing! You don’t have to bow — Uncle Peregrine’s not the king! Mama, did you see — May bowed!”
    “Hush!” hissed Heloise, whose cheeks nevertheless turned rouge on the child’s behalf.
    Jeremy, however, didn’t laugh. He, too, honoured Peregrine. And when May lifted her gaze, she saw that Peregrine wasn’t laughing either. He said, “You are a welcome guest in this house, Miss Bright. I hope we can keep you safe.”
    Cecily used her brains and stopped chortling, and made herself as overlookable as possible by plumping down beside Byron at the end of a sofa. May huddled by the dog’s head and the two girls shared patting duties as the conversation, interrupted by their arrival, resumed.
    Peregrine said, “So Humphrey finally decided it was time you left London. I was starting to wonder what he was waiting for. A submarine chugging up the Thames, perhaps.”
    “Humphrey is my father,” whispered Cecily to May. “He and Uncle Peregrine are brothers.”
    “He shouldn’t have done it,” said Jeremy.
    Peregrine looked at his nephew. “You think you should have stayed?”
    “Not Cecily and Mama — they should be here. But I could have stayed with Father. I’m not a child.”
    Heloise said, “It’s good of you to have us, Peregrine. I’m concerned about Humphrey, of course, but I’m glad we’re finally here.”
    “Humphrey knows how to take care of himself.”
    “It’s a necessary thing for someone in his position to know. But I can’t help feeling that this war will soon put every man, woman and child in peril. No corner of the world will know peace.”
    “Then why have we come?” asked Jeremy. “If it’s not safe anywhere, I should have stayed home —”
    “Jem, don’t be rude!”
    “I’m not being rude —”
    “Don’t be wilfully obtuse, Jeremy. For the time being, we’re safer here than anywhere.”
    Peregrine said, “I shall tell Mrs Winter to keep a truncheon at the ready.”
    Heloise looked wounded. “You may laugh, Peregrine, but it’s not funny. In fact it’s bleak and terrible. France has fallen. This nation stands exposed on every side. Anything could happen now. Invasion. Occupation. Our way of life torn apart by strangers. Our future in such awful, awful hands —”
    “Let’s be quiet!” Cecily smacked the floor. “That’s enough now! May is getting frightened.”
    Peregrine’s eyes lighted down like two hawks. “Are we scaring you, May?”
    “She’s not scared.” Jeremy craned to see past the wing of his chair. “She’s not scared of anything.”
    Alarmed to find herself pulled into the discussion and, worse, made its central object, May changed the subject. “My father went to France,” she offered.
    The statement cooled the room. “Your father’s a soldier?” asked Peregrine.
    “He wasn’t before the war, but he became one.”
    “He volunteered?”
    “Yes, volunteered.”
    “France!” said Cecily. “Are you very worried about him?”
    “Of course she’s worried about him! Don’t be thick, Cecily.”
    May glanced around at her adopted family, who gazed back as if she were a most exotic thing. When she spoke, it was carefully. “My mum says being worried can’t change what happens. It