The Enchantress (Book 1 of The Enchantress Saga) Read Online Free PDF Page B

and ease. Suddenly, in imagination she was no longer a gypsy, but a grand lady surrounded by servants, adorned in silks and wearing fine jewels ... Analee shook herself; for a moment it had seemed like a vision. It was the thought of the nobleman, the beautiful gadjo who would gladly have taken her in the forest. But what then? Would he have carried her off to his home, set her up in style? Why, no! He would have cast her aside, or at least ...
    Suddenly Brewster halted and pointed into the distance with his crop where, on the outskirts of a forest, was a large pile with crenallated battlements, gothic spires and a square Norman tower. Surrounding it were lawns and paddocks, a church and various small cottages and outbuildings such as belonged to a great house.
    ‘See, the village of Delamain and its castle! Minus a horse or two, and seeking us doubtless!’
    Brewster gave a harsh laugh and Analee felt her flesh grow cold and her heart miss a beat.
    ‘Ah, but we’ve put them off the scent,’ Brewster continued, resuming his walk. ‘They’ll have gone off to Appleby looking for us, and see, yonder lies Penrith.’
    Brewster pointed ahead and in the distance Analee saw a town perched on a forested hill; they were entering wooded country.
    No, he would have given her to the magistrate, the tall stranger with the bold eyes. Analee tossed her head and decided to put him forever out of her mind.
    Though but twenty, in her short life Analee had lived through experiences not known to some in a whole lifetime. She glanced at Nelly walking beside her, Brewster’s eldest daughter with whom she had found an affinity. Nelly was a pale, almost ethereal looking girl, taller than average, and with an air of delicacy and sensitivity about her lacking in the rest of his brood.
    Nelly was a dreamer, forever gazing into some imaginary world seen only by herself. Compared to sturdy Jane who was only thirteen, Nelly was considered useless by her Mother and father alike, having no aptitude for cooking and cleaning and mending on the one hand, or horse riding on the other. Nelly said little, but Analee was aware of an unspoken sympathy between them from the way Nelly’s great sorrowful eyes followed her about.
    Nelly had stopped with her father, and stood, her head on one side, her eyes fastened hungrily on Delamain Castle which looked like some fairy palace in the haze of noon.
    ‘Imagine living some place like that,’ Nelly said as the procession moved on. ‘Even being a servant there would be a paradise. Imagine, enough to eat, a comfortable place to sleep, clean dry clothes to put on. I would settle for such an existence.’
    ‘Aye, ‘tis very different from our own,’ Analee agreed, looking again at Nelly, noting her pale tired face – the girl looked almost sickly – her eyes great dark circles as though she slept badly.
    Analee, so used to a roving life, never thought of anything different. She could have slept on a bough hanging over a lake such was her adaptability; she could curl up under a hedgerow with only the stars for light, her bundle for a pillow and her cloak for warmth and slumber until the birdsong which lulled her to sleep awakened her again. Analee was used to a completely natural life and, because of it, enjoyed a rude health which she took entirely for granted. The pale countenance and thin body of the girl beside her awakened her curiosity as much as her sympathy.
    In the weeks she had spent with the Driver family Analee had experienced her first period of stability for over a year. Until then a ruthless need to move on, to escape from bad memories, had kept her permanently mobile. But in time memories fade and motion, obsessive motion, defeats its own purpose. Analee had become aware of such an exhaustion that when at last she did bed down with the Drivers she realized she was at the end of her tether. Now, after two weeks of good regular meals and sleep under cover, she felt strong, vibrant and healthy, in