The Velvet Room by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Read Free Book Online

anyway?”
    “She used to be my nurse,” the blond girl said, “until she got so crippled with arthritis. Now Daddy lets her live in the old gardener’s cottage. She’s really awfully nice, and she loves kids. It’s too bad the Village kids are all afraid of her.” She smiled at Robin. “Most of them, that is.” She crossed one booted leg over the flat English saddle and leaned her elbow on her leg. Putting her chin in her hand, she just looked at Robin. It was a friendly look, but it lasted too long to be comfortable. After a while the girl said, “I’m Gwen McCurdy. Who are you?”
    “I’m Robin Williams,” Robin said, allowing a small smile.
    The girl smiled back. Then she cocked her head and surveyed Robin critically. “You know something?” she said. “You’re really pretty. At least you could be. You have terrific eyelashes — just like Hedy Lamarr’s. I wish mine were like that,” she wrinkled her nose in disgust, “instead of short and blond. You ought to do something to your hair though…”
    Robin felt her cheeks get hot, and although she tried to stop it, her hand went to her straight dark hair. She turned quickly and started off toward the Village. In a moment there were hoofbeats, and the black horse was walking beside her.
    “I’m sorry,” Gwen said. “I didn’t mean to make you angry.” They walked on side by side. Robin kept her head down, watching her own bare feet and the high proud steps of the horse. “Look! Would you like a ride home?”
    Robin stopped almost in mid-step. Pride was important, but some things were more important. “Come on,” Gwen said, leaning down, “give me your hand.”
    A few minutes later Mama and Theda and Shirley crowded to the door of the cabin in time to see Robin swing down from the back of a dancing black horse. As the horse pranced away sideways, the girl on his back held him in long enough to wave and call, “Good-bye Robin, see you later.”
    “Good-bye Gwen,” Robin called back.
    Mama and Theda and Shirley were speechless with amazement, but not Cary. As Robin started up the steps of the cabin, Cary crawled out from under it holding up his half-burned book. “You promised,” he said.

    A Mysterious Gift

    W HEN ROBIN WENT TO BRIDGET’S the next day, she had permission to go there. The evening before she had finally managed to talk it over with Dad, and just as she had expected, he had been very sympathetic. “Yes, I think that would be a very nice thing for you to do, Robin.” he said. “I’m glad you thought about it. Sometimes lately you’ve been too wrapped up in your own little world. You need to see that other people have problems too.”
    So when Bridget asked Robin in for tea, she was able to say yes. The inside of the cottage was as unusual as the outside. A lean-to addition along the back was divided into a small en try way, a closet, and a small bathroom; but all the rest of the cottage was just one large room. The inside walls were paneled partway up with smooth dark wood. The paneling ended in a little ledge about as high as Robin’s head, and above that there was gray stone, just like the outside of the house. The windows swung out like little doors and were made up of dozens of tiny diamond-shaped panes set in dark metal frames. Because the stone walls were very thick, the window sills were deep, and each sill held a potted plant or a vase of flowers. The floor of the cottage was also of stone, but years of walking and scrubbing had polished it to a marblelike smoothness. There was a fireplace with a deep hearth, a quilt-covered bed, a small iron stove, and a few chairs and tables. On the seat of a rocking chair near the fireplace Damon and Pythias were asleep, looking like a fat fur cushion.
    At Bridget’s request, Robin carried some cups and saucers from a corner cupboard to a small round table near a front window. The cups had pansies and violets painted on them, and they were so thin that you could see the