Ross Poldark by Winston Graham Read Free Book Online Page B

shoulders.
    They began to walk round to the stables. “I have just bought a mare,” he said. “You must see her. Old Squire is beyond recall and big Ramoth has not eyes to avoid the stones and ruts.”
    “Tell me about your wound,” she said. “Does it pain you much now? When was it done?”
    “Oh, long ago. At the James River. It is nothing.”
    She glanced at him. “You were always one to hide your hurt, were you not?”
    “This is the mare,” he said. “I have just paid five and twenty guineas for her. A great bargain, don’t you think?”
    She hesitated. “Does she not limp too? Francis was saying… And that right leg, which she holds—”
    “Will get better more quickly than mine. I wish you could heal any injury by a change of shoes.”
    “What is her name?”
    “No one knows. I am waiting for you to christen her.”
    Verity pushed back her hair and frowned with one eyebrow. “Hm… I should call her Darkie.”
    “For any reason?”
    “She has that pretty black streak. And also it is a tribute to her new owner.”
    He laughed and began to unsaddle Ramoth and rub him down, while his cousin leaned against the stable door and chattered. Her father often complained that she was “lacking in the graces,” meaning that she was incapable of the flowery but agreeable small talk which added so much to the savour of life. But with Ross she was never tongue-tied.
    He asked her to dinner, but she refused. “I must go soon. I have far more to see to now that Father is not so nimble.”
    “And enjoy it, I suppose. Walk with me as far as the sea first. It may be days before you come again.”
    She did not argue, for it was pleasant to her to have her company sought. They set off linking as they had done as children, but this way his lameness was too noticeable and he loosed her arm and put his long bony hand on her shoulder.
    The nearest way of reaching the sea from the house was to climb a stone wall and drop down upon Hendrawna Beach, but today they climbed the Long Field behind the house and walked the way Joshua had walked in his dream.
    “My dear, you’d have some hard work to get things shaped up,” Verity said, looking about her. “You must have help.”
    “There is all winter to spend.”
    She tried to read his expression. “You’re not thinking of going away again, Ross?”
    “Very quickly if I had money or were not lame; but the two together—”
    “Shall you keep Jud and Prudie?”
    “They have agreed to work without wages. I shall keep them until some of the gin is sweated out of them. And also this morning I’ve taken a boy named Carter, who called asking for work. Do you know him?”
    “Carter? One of Connie Carter's children from Grambler?”
    “I think so. He has been at Grambler, but the under ground work was too heavy. There's not enough air in the sixty-fathom level to clear the blasting powder, and he says he started coughing black phlegm in the mornings. So he has to have outdoor work.”
    “Oh, that will be Jim, her eldest. His father died young.”
    “Well, I can’t afford to pay invalids, but he seems an acceptable boy. He's starting tomorrow at six.”
    They reached the edge of the cliff where they were seventy or eighty feet above the sea. On the left the cliffs slipped down to the inlet of Nampara Cove, then rose again more steeply towards Sawle. Looking east, upon Hendrawna Beach, the sea was very calm today: a smoky grey with here and there patches of violet and living, moving green. The waves were shadows, snakes undera quilt, creeping in almost unseen until they emerged in milky ripples at the water's edge.
    The gentle sea breeze moved against his face, barely touching his hair. The tide was going out. As they looked, the green of the sea quickened and stirred under the crouching clouds.
    He had not slept well last night. Seen from this side with the pale blue-grey eyes half lidded, and the scar showing white on the brown cheek, his whole face had a strange