Ross Poldark by Winston Graham Read Free Book Online Page A

striped like a flag. If I ’adn’t just urd—”
    “Get one of they in yer ozle,” said Jud gloomily. “Out come their sting an’ phit— ye’re dead.”
    “Lazy in everything,” said Ross, “but the search for excuses. Like two old pigs in their sty and as slow to move from their own patch of filth.”
    Prudie picked up her apron and began to dab her nose.
    Ross warmed to his theme. He had learned abuse from a master and had added to it while away. Also he knew his listeners. “I suspect it must be easy to convert good stock into cheap gin,” he ended. “Men have been hanged for less.”
    “We thought—twas rumoured—” Jud sucked his gums in hesitation. “Folks said—”
    “That I was dead? Who said it?”
    “Twas common belief,” Prudie said sombrely.
    “Yet I find it only near my own home. Did you begin the story?”
    “No, no; tedn’t true. Not by no means. ’Tis we you should thank for giving the lie to such a story. Nail it, I says. Nail it to the bud, I says. I’ve got the firmest faith, I says; and Prudie can bear me forth. Did we b’lieve such a wicked lie, Prudie?”
    “Dear life, no!” said Prudie.
    “My uncle has always thought you wastrels and parasites. I think I can arrange for your case to come before him.”
    They stood there on shifty feet, half resentful, half alarmed. He had no understanding of their difficulties and they had no words to explain. Any guilt they might have felt was long since overgrown by these explanations which they could not frame. Their feeling now was one of outrage at being so harshly attacked. Everything had been done, or left undone, for a very good reason.
    “We’ve only four pairs of ’ands,” said Jud.
    Ross's sense of humour was not working or he might have been undone by this remark.
    “There is much gaol fever this year,” he said. “A lack of cheap gin will not be your only hardship.”
    He turned and left them to their fears.
2
    In the gloom of the Red Lion Stables he had thought his hired mare had a damaged fetlock, but the light of day showed the lameness to be no more than the result of a very bad shoeing. The mare had an open flat foot, and the shoe was fitted too short and too close.
    He rode into Truro next day on the almost blind Ramoth to see if he could do business with the landlord of the Red Lion.
    The landlord was a little doubtful whether enough time had passed to give him the right to dispose of his surety; but legality was never Ross's strong point, and he had his way.
    While in the town he drew a bill on Pascoe's Bank and spent some of his slender capital on two young oxen which he arranged for Jud to collect. If the fields were to be worked at all, there must be an outlay upon working animals.
    With some smaller things slung over his saddle he arrived back shortly after one and found Verity waiting for him. For a sudden leaping moment he thought it was Elizabeth.
    “You did not come to visit me, Cousin,” she said, “so I must wait on you. That I have now been doing for forty odd minutes.”
    He bent and kissed her cheek. “You should have sent word. I have been to Truro. Jud will have told you.”
    “Yes. He offered me a garden chair but I was afraid to sit on it lest it collapse under my weight. Oh, Ross, your poor house!”
    He glanced up towards the building. The conservatory was smothered with giant convolvulus, which had swept over it, flowered, and was beginning to rot.
    “It can be put right.”
    “I am ashamed,” she said, “that we have not been over, that I have not been over more often. These Paynters—”
    “You’ve been busy.”
    “Oh, we have. Only now that the crops are in have we time to look round. But that is no excuse.”
    He glanced down at her as she stood beside him. She, at least, had not changed, with her trim little figure and untidy hair and big generous mouth. She had walked over from Trenwith in her working dress with no hat and her dove grey cloak pulled carelessly about her