The Stepson by Martin Armstrong Read Free Book Online

rose opening in the sunlight. The thought of her new home, too, filled her with excited anticipation, and so did the thought of the dresses and hats which she had had made in Elchester with money that Ben Humphrey had given her. She had not seen them since she had tried them on at the dressmaker’s, for she had ordered them to be sent direct to The Grange. For years she had worn only black or grey, but the new dresses were of various colours. ‘My life is beginning at last,’ she said to herself, shivering with pleasure at the touch of the sunshine and the exhilarating movement of the gig.
    Ben turned his head to look at her. Her grey-green eyes were shining and there was a tinge of rose on her cheeks. It was as if her beauty had broken into flower, as if colour and life had suddenly bloomed upon her pale quietude. With his free hand old Ben took one of hers, in its white glove, and pressed it affectionately.
    â€˜Are you happy?’ he asked, his blue eyes and shining red face bright with pleasure.
    â€˜Very!’ Kate replied. She had never before spoken to him with such unrestrained sincerity. ‘Very happy!’ And she returned the squeeze of his hand.
    â€˜You’ll like the house,’ said the old man. ‘I’ll show you round after dinner. We’ll have the whole afternoon before us. I could do with some dinner, couldn’t you?’
    â€˜I could,’ said Kate, laughing. ‘I’m hungry. I suppose you remembered to order some?’
    â€˜Perhaps I did and perhaps I didn’t,’ said Ben roguishly. ‘If I didn’t perhaps you’ll order some for us to-morrow, eh?’
    Their talk died away into the rumble of the wheels and the smart clop-clop of the mare’s hoofs. Now they were passing the gates of Penridge Hall and suddenly, with extraordinary vividness, the memory of young Graham, as he had been on that afternoon when she had met him among the flower-beds in the Hall garden, rushed upon her, and for one moment she felt that it was he, young, handsome, and desirable, who was driving her now to her new home; he whose face she had felt so close to hers as she gazed at the beautiful unknown flower. A wave of deep emotion which was half rapture and half the sense of a hopeless regret swept over her. Exquisite, impossible dream! Why should it come to her to-day of all days? for she had passed those gates time and time again since that evening when she had come out of them and walked home with him. Yes, she knew it now: in some hidden, unconfessed depth of her being she had gone on loving him ever since. If only there were such things as miracles. If only shecould turn her head now and find that old Ben had been miraculously changed into young Graham! A little shivering sigh fluttered her breast, and then the practical side of her nature reasserted itself, and, banishing the dream, she turned her thoughts to the present reality; and soon she had recaptured her former mood of expectant happiness.
    For, after all, her present happiness was real, very real, and immersing herself in it she felt the glow of it permeating her once again. And it was Ben she had to thank for it. Her heart stirred with gratitude to the old man sitting silent at her side. She had no wish to speak, for the silence which had fallen between them was a friendly and contented one; how different from the constrained silence between her and her father half an hour ago.
    Soon they had begun to climb a gradual slope, the trees thinned and fell away behind them, and they came out on to a stretch of open country of fields and hedges over which a strong breeze was blowing. Some of the fields were newly ploughed: their long stripes of rig and furrow showed a moist purplish brown, lustrous on the sunward faces. Others were pasture on which heavy grey sheep were grazing. A ewe which had escaped through a gap in the fence was grazing at the roadside. She started violently as the gig approached