Here Comes a Candle by Jane Aiken Hodge Read Free Book Online Page A

money, wishing he had never agreed to bring her?
    She had turned on the hard seat to look at him sideways and try to read the expression of the closed, brown face that gave so little clue to what he was thinking . Now, disconcertingly, he turned from gazing at the hills ahead, and the piercing, sea captain ’ s blue eyes met hers directly. Absurd and irritating, to feel herself color under the calm, impersonal, and yet somehow questioning gaze.
    Had he, too, felt that the silence was drawing out too long between them? Certainly, what he said was commonplace enough. “ You will begin to see a change in the landscape, I think, when we ’ re over the mountains and into New England. ”
    “ It ’ s changing already. ” She, too, could play at general conversation. “ It ’ s good to be in country that ’ s been cleared awhile, away from the forest, with those forlorn tree stumps left standing, and the pall of woodsmoke over everything. But will it be tidier in New England? ” More than anything, so far, she had been impressed by this element of untidiness in the landscape. However grand the remoter prospect might be, the immediate neighborhood of the road seemed always to be marred by evidence of man ’ s carelessness. And it was the same in the towns. Even in Albany, the capital of New York State, pigs had roamed the streets at will. “ They ’ re the best street-cleaners we have. ” It had evidently seemed sufficient explanation to Jonathan Penrose.
    “ Untidy? ” Her comment had surprised him. “ I suppose it is. Yes, I remember your English countryside: those neat hedgerows and landscaped parks. And how do you do it? By what ’ s as good as slave labor—starvation wages and soup doled out graciously by the lady of the manor. I tell you, Mrs. Croston, we ’ ve too much to do here, and to independent a citizenry for that kind of refinement. You must take us as you find us. ”
    “ Of course. ” Somehow a new warmth in his tone made it possible to ask the question that had been haunting her all morning. “ But that ’ s not the point, is it? It ’ s how you take me. Mr. Penrose, I must ask you, have you regretted bringin g me? Will I do, do you think? ”
    Now again, and more disconcertingly than ever, he turned to gaze at her with deep-set eyes that seemed to see everything. “ I hope so, ” he said at last, after a silence that had seemed to her interminable. “ It all depends ...”
    And then: “ No, that ’ s not fair. To be frank with you, there have been moments when I have wondered whether you have the strength for the job. Whether I have not done you an injustice in bringing you so far from your friends. ”
    “ Friends? What friends? That ’ s what worries me, Mr. Penrose. I ’ m so afraid of turning out a useless charge on you. Just think what I ’ ve cost you already! ”
    “ Cost me? ” The heavy eyebrows drew together. “ You mean the expenses of this journey? Absurd! I ’ ve got more to worry about than what you cost me. ” And then, more gently: “ Don ’ t worry about the future. If it doesn ’ t work, and God knows it ’ s a forlorn enough hope, I ’ ll look after you. ”
    “ That ’ s not the point! Why should you look after me? I persuaded you to bring me. I had no right— ”
    Her voice rose on the last words, and the driver turned around in his seat to give her a curious glance. “ Coolly does it, Mrs. Croston. ” Jonathan ’ s imperturbability was more galling than anger. “ When you speak like that, I do find myself wondering whether you will have the patience for my poor Sarah. And yet, ” thoughtfully, “ who knows? Maybe it will be a good thing. Perhaps if you scream right back at her ...”
    “ Scream? ”
    “ She does. Endlessly, meaninglessly, dreadfully. Perhaps I should have made more of it. It ’ s as if she were in a world o f her own, poor lamb, with an invisible barrier between us. We ’ re just not there to her, most of the time. And