King of the Castle by Victoria Holt Read Free Book Online

some separated from each other by trellises about which vines climbed; and the whole was bordered by fruit trees.
    The place was deserted. I guessed that the workers were taking a siesta, for even at this time of the year the sun was hot. At three o’clock they would be back at work and continue until dark. There must be many of them to keep the place in such good order.
    I was standing under the fruit trees when I heard a voice calling:
    “Miss! Miss!” and turning saw Genevieve running towards me.
    “I saw you from my window,” she said. She laid her hand on my arm and pointed to the chateau.
    “You see that window right at the top there that’s mine. It’s part of the nurseries.” She grimaced. She had spoken in English.
    “I learned that off by heart,” she explained, ‘just to show you I could. Now let’s talk in French. “
    She looked different now, calm, serene, a little mischievous perhaps,
    but more as one would expect a well-brought up, fourteen-year-old girl to look, and I realized that I was seeing Genevieve without one of her moods.
    “If you wish,” I replied in that language.
    “Well, I should like to speak to you in English, but as you pointed out, mine is not very good, is it?”
    “Your accent and intonation made it almost unintelligible. I suspect you have a fair vocabulary.”
    “Are you a governess?”
    “I am certainly not.”
    “Then you ought to be. You’d make a good one.” She laughed aloud.
    “Then you wouldn’t have to go round under false pretences, would you?”
    I said coolly: “I am going for a walk. I will say good bye to you.”
    “Oh, no, don’t. I came down to talk to you. First I have to say I’m sorry. I was rude, wasn’t I? And you were very cool… but then you have to be, don’t you? It’s what one expects of the English.”
    “I am half-French,” I said.
    “That accounts for the spirit in you. I saw you were really angry. It was only your voice that was cold. Inside you were angry, now weren’t you?”
    “I was naturally surprised that a girl of your obvious education could be so impolite to a guest in your father’s house.”
    “But you weren’t a guest, remember. You were there under…”
    “There is no point in continuing this conversation. I accept your apology and now I will leave you.”
    “But I came down specially to talk to you.”
    “But I came down to walk.”
    “Why shouldn’t we walk together?”
    “I did not invite you to accompany me.”
    “Well, my father didn’t invite you to Gaillard, did he, but you came.”
    She added hastily: “And I’m glad you came … so perhaps you’ll be glad if I come with you.”
     
    She was trying to make amends, and it was not for me to be churlish, so I smiled.
    “You’re prettier when you smile,” she said.
    “Well,” she put her head on one side, ‘not exactly pretty. But you look younger. “
    “We all look more pleasant when we smile. It is something you might remember.”
    Her laughter was high and quite spontaneous. I found myself joining in and laughing at myself. She was pleased and so was I to have her company; for I was almost as interested in people as I was in pictures. Father had tried to curb that interest. He called it idle curiosity but it was strong in me and perhaps I had been wrong to suppress it.
    Now I was eager for Genevieve’s company. I had seen her once in a mood and now as a lively but extremely curious girl; but who was I to criticize curiosity, who had more than my fair share of it?
    “So,” she said, ‘we’ll go for a walk together and I will show you what you want to see. “
    “Thank you. That will be very pleasant.”
    She laughed again.
    “I hope you will enjoy being here, miss. Suppose I talk to you in English, will you speak slowly so that I can understand?”
    “Certainly.”
    “And not laugh if I say something silly?”
    “Certainly I shall not laugh. I admire your desire to improve your English.”
    She was smiling again and I knew