Tom All-Alone's by Lynn Shepherd Read Free Book Online Page A

country village. But that was only to be expected.
    â€˜We have been looking forward to your arrival, Hester,’ said Miss Darby, ‘and I am sure you will find the Solitary House a congenial home.’
    â€˜The Solitary House, ma’am?’
    She smiled. ‘It has acquired that name over the years, though I believe it was once known as The Peaks or Three Peaks, or some such. It has, as you will find, a rather secluded situation for a house so close to London and hence, I suppose, the name. Those of us who have lived there a long time hardly think it strange any more.’
    Presently we drew up to a little lodge, and waited for the keeper to open the gate, before trotting up a long avenue of trees to a broad sweep before a large porch. It was a tall redbrick house with yellow-framed casements, and squares of blue and green glass in the windowpanes. On one side a bay had been thrownout one floor up, creating a view over what seemed to me to be a large and very pretty lawn, bordered with flowers, with beyond it an orchard and a vegetable garden. I heard a bell ring as the trap stopped, and I found my heart beating very fast as Miss Darby got down and helped me to descend. The door opened, and a man appeared. It was not the same person I had seen at Mrs Millard’s but another gentleman. He had a broad smile and a full beard, and came down the steps briskly and took me by the hand.
    â€˜Welcome to the Solitary House, Hester. I think you will be very happy here.’
    I felt the colour flood my face as I tried, without much success, to say some words of thanks, but Mr Jarvis seemed determined not to notice anything was amiss, and drew my hand through his arm as if it was the most natural thing there could be.
    â€˜Come,’ he said. ‘Let me show you your new home!’
    From that moment I felt quite at my ease with him, and knew in my heart how blessed I was to have found someone I could trust so completely, and in whom I could confide so unreservedly.
    He showed me to my little room, and truly I felt myself at that moment the luckiest girl in the world. It was a bright, homely room, with a well-tended fire in the hearth, and a high metal-framed bed with smooth white pillows. The window looked down upon the flower-garden, and across the heath to the faraway steeples and towers of London, almost ethereal that day under a light silvery cloud. I turned to Mr Jarvis with tears in my eyes, wondering how all this could be, and almost overcome, saying ‘Oh, thank you, thank you!’ again and again. But he merely placed his arm about my waist, and made me sit down on the little chair by the fire and take some of the tea that had been thoughtfully placed there in preparation for my arrival.
    â€˜My dear Hester,’ he said kindly, a few moments later, ‘how you are a-tremble! Your cup quite clatters against the saucer.’
    How could I not be moved? Sitting there with him, seeing him smile upon me, and feeling, for the first time since my mother died, that I was valued and cherished, and had a place in the world.
    I put my arms about his neck and kissed him, and he gently patted me on the head and handed me a handkerchief scented with lavender. ‘There! There!’ he said. ‘There is no cause for tears. This is your home now, and you will find no one here but those who wish you well.’ At least, that is my memory of what he said. ‘Wish’, I am sure it was.
    He got up presently and stirred the fire, then sat back once again in the easy-chair. I had by then folded my hands upon my lap and quite recovered myself, and Mr Jarvis started to talk to me as naturally and easily as if we were acquaintances of long date. The look on his face at that moment was the very image of his innate and generous goodness – I saw that expression for the first time in that moment, but for many years now I have seen it every day, and when I close my eyes it is there