King and Joker by Peter Dickinson Read Free Book Online Page A

once-forbidden neighbour.
    A sob in the shadowed dark, and another. Nurse Durdon is awake at the first and sliding her sheets back at the second. For a moment the shadows seem to lie in the wrong direction, and then she remembers that Bignall is gone, and the smell of her and the fear of her, and now she is Nurse Durdon and has the tiny room between the Blue Nursery in which the baby Prince has his cot and the Pink Nursery where the Princesses and Catriona sleep. Their nightlights cast shadows through the two open doors, making angular patches, of dim yellow on the ceiling of the middle room. It is icy cold. The glitter of moonlight off snow-swathed slopes is sharp as a spear through a crack in the shutters. The sobs half-stifle, then still completely as Nurse Durdon creeps bare-footed into the girls’ room.
    Vicky is deep in dreams and no mistaking, though she sleeps frowning as always. Rosie has actually missed Bignall for a couple of days but in her sleep she has forgotten the loss and lies like a child made by God to express His pleasure in children, a sinless joy. Nurse Durdon has never heard Louise cry, or even sigh, and she sleeps with that look on her face as though she were already Queen of a flat kingdom full of honest, dull subjects. Catriona …
    Her eyes are shut, but her pretty little features are taut and even in the dimness a tear glistens on her long lashes. Nurse Durdon crouches by the bed.
    â€œHush, hush,” she whispers. “You’ll wake the children. It’s only a nightmare.”
    â€œOch, but I’m frightened.”
    â€œIt’s only a nightmare. Go back to sleep, you silly girl.”
    â€œI canna sleep. I havena slept a’ nicht. I’m frichtened.”
    â€œThe idea! Here of all places!”
    â€œAye, here of a’ places.”
    â€œI’m getting cold. Listen. If it will help for this one night I’ll treat you like one of the little girls and take you into my bed. That’s what I do when they have nightmares. But I won’t do it again, I promise you that.”
    Nurse Durdon tries to imitate Bignall’s gait as she stalks back to the middle room. Of all things! As if nursing four children weren’t enough, to have to nurse the nursemaids too! But Catriona’s body is so beautifully warm, as warm as fresh bread and as easy to hold as little Rosie, that the stiffness and irritation quickly ebb away.
    â€œIf only there was never any men in the world,” sighs Catriona.
    â€œGod made them for a purpose,” whispers Nurse Durdon. “We must not question His ways. Are you worried about some young man in your town?”
    â€œOch, no!”
    â€œWhat’s the matter, then?”
    â€œI canna tell ye.”
    â€œIt’s not anything to do with the children?”
    â€œNo.”
    â€œAnd you haven’t, stolen anything?”
    â€œNo, no!”
    â€œOr done anything else like that?”
    â€œThen there’s no harm in telling me. I’ll help you, whatever it is.”
    â€œYe canna.”
    â€œOf course I can. I know—one of the men here has been pestering you.”
    Silence, but the sudden stiffness of the soft body gives the answer. Poor child. Abergeldie is full of male servants, stifling in the musty rituals of their duties and then idle for hours. How their eyes must follow a child like Catriona. How, given the chance, they will tease her—and worse.
    â€œNever mind, child. I can look after you. I can see that your duties are changed so that you aren’t left alone.”
    â€œYe canna. Ye canna.”
    â€œOf course I can. The duties of the nursery staff are my responsibility now.”
    A sob.
    â€œYou’re being silly, Catriona. You will be all right, now you’ve told me.”
    â€œOch, didna ye speir what he did to Nurse Bignall?”
    â€œThe Prince!”
    â€œAye. Him.”
    â€œOh, you poor child! Yes, I see. No doubt that’s why he came up