Bartolomé Read Online Free Page B

to Isabel. She didn’t protest.
    On this day, Juan made the family continue with their journey after only a short lunch break. Looking into Ana’s tired eyes, he comforted her: ‘We’ll be at the forest soon. It’s cool and shady there.’
    Ana shrugged her shoulders. She couldn’t care less any more that the sun was burning, that she was thirsty even though she could drink as much as she wanted, that her feet were blistered and that her legs hurt.
    Juan tried to encourage his children: ‘In the middle of this wood is Torre de la Parada, the king’s hunting lodge. We’ll lodge there for the night.’
    Ana nodded without interest. She couldn’t work up any enthusiasm for this castle as long as it was far away, out of sight. Beatríz cheered up, however. She’d had a good rest. She looked at her father with big eyes.
    â€˜Does the king live there?’ she asked.
    Juan said that he didn’t. ‘If he were there, we wouldn’t be allowed to sleep there,’ he said.
    â€˜Are we going to sneak in secretly?’ Joaquín’s eyes were bright with excitement. He’d forgotten how tired he was.
    Juan frowned crossly. He wasn’t a vagabond.
    â€˜The royal master of the hunt, Don Pacheco, has given me permission to stable the donkey and cart and to spend the night in the castle.’
    The king, his castle, a hunt master , thought Isabel. She hadn’t realised that Juan had such a high position in court and that he knew such important people personally. She gave him a thoughtful look, which pleased Juan.
    â€˜Can’t we go on?’ said Beatríz impatiently.
    Ana sighed. ‘You don’t have to walk,’ she said sharply. ‘You’re getting a lift.’
    Juan laughed. But when he saw that Ana had tears in her eyes, he lifted Beatríz down from the cart.
    â€˜You rode the whole morning. Now you can walk for a bit, and Ana can ride,’ he decided, taking no notice of Beatríz’s protestations. He took her by the hand and they walked on. Ana climbed up quickly on to the cart.
    They reached the forest late in the afternoon. Juan stopped the cart in the shade and Bartolomé was finally able to get out of the chest. He was amazed. He would never have thought that so many trees could grow in one spot. ‘They’d take the sight from your eyes,’ he murmured in surprise. Even the road, which yesterday had wound like a long white ribbon up hill and down dale, disappeared here between the tree trunks.
    Ana and Beatríz swapped places again, and even Joaquín seemed to find new strength. He and Ana led the donkey together.
    â€˜When will we get to the castle?’ he asked.
    â€˜Soon,’ answered Juan.
    â€˜What does it look like?’ Now Ana was asking questions too. ‘Is it very big? Are there many servants there?’
    â€˜Torre de la Parada is only a little hunting lodge, and the king is hardly ever there. But there’s a big staff all the same. They take care of the building, the garden and the game park. For this reason, Bartolomé will have to sleep in the chest tonight, in the stable.’
    â€˜But …’ Isabel started to say.
    â€˜Nothing will happen to him,’ Juan interrupted her. ‘But I can’t bring a locked chest into the castle in full sight of Don Pacheco. It would look as if I had something to hide from him.’
    Isabel said nothing, though she didn’t think it was right to let Bartolomé spend a whole night alone in a strange place.
    But it was Juan who had made these decisions, and it wasn’t her place to criticise him.
    As Joaquín led the donkey around the next bend in the road, he came upon a long low stone wall.
    â€˜Does this wall belong to the castle?’ he asked curiously.
    â€˜Yes. The park is behind it,’ explained Juan. ‘We’ll come to the entrance shortly.’
    And sure enough, after a few hundred