Crossed Bones by Jane Johnson Read Free Book Online Page A

ability to do so, and the thought of that set her hand to trembling.
    She took a deep breath, firmed her resolve and swept the writing stick in a light, curving line from top to bottom of the page. The first mark on the virgin surface broke the spell; and suddenly she was free. The outline of the tree’s trunk was quickly achieved, her hand moving swiftly and decisively, marking in branches here and there, twining in graceful counterpoint to one another; a flourish of leaves, a spray of berries, buds, flowers. The design unfurled itself like a young bracken frond – elegant, curvilinear, iconic – its symmetries both powerful and reassuring. From a base of twisted roots out of which peered tiny creatures – a hare, a frog, a snail – the Tree of Knowledge stretched heavenwards. Adam on one side, Eve on the other, the apple hung above them. In the branches near Eve’s head, the serpent writhed and smiled.
    ‘Cat, Cat!’ came a voice through the crack of the door. ‘Why have you not come down? Are you sick?’
    Sighing, Cat shut the book and pushed it out of sight underneath the bedclothes. The other girls already thought she had ideas above her station; it would not help the ease of her day to have them sniggering about her unnatural aspirations. ‘I am coming,’ she called back. ‘I will be down directly.’
    ‘Cook won’t have you in the kitchen if you don’t go now: she’s got dinner to prepare for the Master’s guests. You’ll have nought to break your fast, and we’ve already been told there’ll be no noonmeat today, that we must take now what bread and cheese we need to get us through till supper.’ Matty sounded aghast at the idea: she was a chubby girl, and to miss a meal was close to being the worst thing she could imagine.
    ‘What guests are those?’ Cat asked, her interest piqued.
    There was a moment of puzzled silence from the corridor, then: ‘Don’t rightly know. Just some men come to see the Governor. Do hurry up, or there’ll be nothing left.’
    Cat rolled her eyes. Trust Matty not even to inquire. ‘In truth, I am not hungry,’ she said, pulling on a clean chemise, then hesitated. If Sir Arthur had guests, perhaps she should make a greater effort. She tossed her plain work dress aside and out of her oak chest drew a dress of scarlet wool that had belonged to her mother. ‘Come, help me with my corset.’ It would do no harm to have two pairs of hands narrow her already small waist.
    Matty pushed the door open gingerly. ‘You are sure you are not ill?’ she said again, looking over the older girl as if searching for signs of pox or plague.
    Cat caught her too obvious scrutiny. ‘No, you goose. Now hurry, or I will be late waiting on our mistress, and you know how she frets.’
    Lady Harris was indeed in a fretful mood, but it had nothing to do with the tardiness of her maidservant that morning.
    ‘I do wish my good husband would give me a little more warning before inviting important guests to the manor,’ she declared, as Cat took up the poke stick and began the complex business of plaiting her mistress’s ruff. ‘I already had my day planned out, and now I must oversee Cook and set the dining room to rights; and the best linen is all packed up and is no doubt the breeding ground of a thousand moths; and Polly is suffering with a cruel cold and cannot serve; and I must dress in a manner befitting my husband’s post. Oh, and the box must be trimmed; the garden is in a state of disarray ever since we lost poor Davey, and what will Sir Richard think of us, coming from Lanhydrock to our poor house?’
    Out of her mistress’s sight, Cat made a face. Sir Richard Robartes lived the best part of a day’s ride to the east from tucked-away Kenegie, just outside the county town of Bodmin. She wondered what had brought him so far. She took a keen interest in knowing all she could of the gentry, and she knew that this gentleman had a few years back acquired the much neglected estate