The Seeing Stone Read Online Free PDF Page B

Lady Alice and my cousins Tom and Grace will not be able to stay with us next week because they are ill.
    My aunt says they all have a hot, dry fever and it is three days since they ate a mouthful, but they are drinking milk and lots of willow-bark soup.
    When he heard the news, my father said, “Well, I can’t say I mind. We’re planning to shear the sheep next week, so Hum and I will be very busy.”
    I mind, though. I was looking forward to seeing Grace. We both think that our parents mean us to be betrothed, and I promised to take her up Tumber Hill, and show her my secret climbingtree. It’s best at this time of year, when all the new beech leaves have opened their hands, because then you can look out but no one can see in.
    When Grace and Tom stay with us, my father doesn’t make me study or practice. But we all go to the Yard anyway. Each of us can choose one skill, and Grace is the judge. Sian is her assistant.
    Serle always makes us tilt at the quintain, and that’s what I’mworst at. The sandbag has hit me on the head so often I’m surprised it hasn’t knocked out my brains. Tom likes swordplay best, and I choose archery because it’s the one skill I know I can win at. Then it’s Grace’s turn to choose, and last time she made us balance our lances, and aim their points, and run at the ring.
    I was looking forward to seeing Lady Alice as well. I want to be sure she hasn’t told my father our secret. If he does know, there’s no point my asking him again whether I can serve Sir William. He’ll never agree.
    Tom and I worked out something strange. Serle is double Sian’s age, because he’s sixteen, and Lady Alice, who is Sir William’s second wife and Grace and Tom’s stepmother, is double Serle’s age, but her skin’s still as soft as a peach and she doesn’t look as old as that. And then Sir William is exactly double Lady Alice’s age.
    Thomas told us Sir William is away from home. No one knows where. He is meant to be visiting his estate in Champagne but, for all my aunt knows, he may be fighting at the siege where King Richard has been wounded.
    â€œThe man’s never at home for one month on end,” said my father. And he gave my mother a long look, and then cracked his fingers.
    â€œAsk Slim to give you something to eat before you go,” my mother told Thomas.
    â€œQuite right!” said my father. “And drink as much ale as you like.”
    I can see my father likes and trusts Thomas, and I think he wished Thomas worked at this manor and not at Gortanore.

13
KNOWING AND UNDERSTANDING
    T HE VERSES OF THE BIBLE THAT I READ WITH Oliver are often tedious, and so is the way he talks. He uses twice as many words as anyone else, and pretends to know everything. But all the same, I quite enjoy my lessons with him.
    Our church is like the cave at the back of Tumber Hill. When it’s hot outside, it stays cool. And when it’s bitter outside, it’s not quite so cold inside the building. All the same, my toes grow numb when I have to sit for hours in the vestry. One of Oliver’s lessons was so terribly long that I made my head twitch and my teeth chatter. Oliver was worried then. He shut the Book and sent me straight home.
    Today, I brought Oliver a rabbit—the second one Storm has caught, and this time it was a buck—but he told me to leave it on the porch.
    â€œThe crows will get it,” I said.
    â€œHow are rabbits wise?” Oliver asked me.
    â€œTheir bodies are weak but they make their burrows among the rocks.”
    â€œHow are ants wise?”
    â€œThey are weak, too, but each summer they lay in stores for the winter.”
    â€œAnd how are spiders wise?”
    â€œBecause they know how to use their hands, and some of them are courtiers, and live in kings’ palaces.”
    â€œWho says so?” asked Oliver.
    â€œThe Book of Proverbs says