The Pool of St. Branok by Philippa Carr Read Free Book Online Page A

shouldn’t think Ben would want that.”
    “No. He’s like his grandfather, I daresay. He would want to have complete charge. It will be interesting to see what happens. They’re a strong-willed pair. By the way, Miss Gilmore is settling in well, I think. Don’t you?”
    “She’s so grateful, it’s almost embarrassing.”
    “Poor girl! I don’t know what she would have done if we hadn’t taken her in. She seemed pretty desperate. She has asked me for a day off.”
    “A day off! So soon!”
    “She’s got an old aunt who lives somewhere near Bodmin. She wants to go and see her and tell her that she’s settled and where she is and all that, I suppose.”
    “I thought she hadn’t got any relations.”
    “I don’t think she said that. Well, this is her father’s sister … and I daresay she is very old … as the father was. In any case I have said she may go.”
    “Near Bodmin, you say?”
    “She mentioned Lanivet.”
    “That’s some little way.”
    “She said she would be away one night and she was so grateful when I said that would be all right. I think she is going to be very useful. She’s made a very good job of that alpaca. You know I was very fond of that costume. I didn’t want to discard it, but the bottoms of the sleeves were so marked. She’s done something so that it doesn’t show. And she’s tightened up the skirt which was too loose. It almost looks like new. Dear old Semple was getting a little past it though she would never admit it. I don’t think she could see very well towards the end.”
    “I think you are rather pleased with Miss Gilmore, Mama.”
    “It is nice to be able to do a good turn to someone and find you’ve done yourself one too.”
    “Is she getting on all right with the servants now?”
    “I think they consider her something of an outsider.”
    “Well, anyone who comes from the other side of the river is that.”
    My mother laughed. “She is quiet and causes no fuss. I don’t know what goes on in the kitchen. It’s like the case of Miss Prentiss. They are so strict about levels of society that they are a little complicated to follow. She seems to have become quite friendly with Miss Prentiss.”
    “Perhaps they both feel they can be friendly without upsetting the rules of protocol.”
    “That must be so. However, she is going off in the morning.”
    I often wondered about Grace Gilmore. There was an air of mystery about her which intrigued me. I did not mention it to anyone. They would say—or even if they didn’t say it they would think it—that I was daydreaming again. I imagined her life with the poor old rector—so feeble and demanding. I was sure she had waited on him, caring for him, living for him and letting her own life slip away.
    My mother would say: “You are building up what isn’t there, Angel. That imagination of yours. … It’s all very fine but don’t let it run away with you.”
    I saw Grace Gilmore going to the station to get the train. There was something purposeful about her. I smiled and wished her a good journey.
    I began to wonder whether she would come back. There was a certain unreality about her. It occurred to me that she might suddenly disappear and we would never hear of her again. I was so obsessed by this thought that when I returned to the house I went to her room. Everything was neat and tidy. I looked in the wardrobe. Her clothes were hanging there. Her nightdress lay neatly folded under her pillow. Yes, I was inquisitive enough to look there.
    It was the room of someone who intended to return.
    In the afternoon I went riding with Ben and all thought of Grace Gilmore departed during such a pleasant time.
    He talked about running an estate of his own.
    “Like Cador?” I asked.
    “Just like Cador only bigger.”
    I laughed. “Everything about you has to be bigger than everyone else’s.”
    “I admit it.”
    “Do you realize that this estate has been built up over hundreds of years?”
    “I do.”
    “And you