Child Friday Read Online Free Page A

soft soap.”
    Emily frowned in the darkness. Miss Pink had hinted at some unfortunate love affair which had left its mark.
    “That’s a hard view,” she said a little primly. “All women aren’t the same, besides—one never knows all the ins and outs of a broken love affair.”
    “Says you!” retorted Shorty rudely. “Miss Larne give him the air because he went blind, see? Might ’ave changed her tune if he’d come into his money earlier. It only goes to show, don’t it?”
    “Oh, that was cruel!”
    “Of course it was. Like I was telling you, there ain’t no ’eart in females. Well—’ere we are. The governor wants to see you at once. ’E’s ’ad ’is dinner, of course. You’ll get yours later on a tray.”
    A high stone wall had risen suddenly out of the darkness , and the car turned in through a gateway and circled a short I drive to the front of the house. Emily had an impression of a long, gaunt building, unlighted and shuttered. The wind had piled snow against the buttressed walls, and the steps which led to the front door were already covered. As she followed Shorty up them, Emily could feel the snow seeping through the shoes which so badly needed resoling, and the sensation of cold matched the chill round her heart as she stood on the threshold of this new, unknown venture.
    The man pushed open the heavy front door and did not stand aside for her to enter first, but impatiently beckoned her in so that he could shut it. The hall was unlighted except for the glow of a log fire at the farther end. The silence matched the darkness out of which the dim shapes of tall presses and chests loomed with the half-seen menace of shadows.
    “Is there no electricity here?” Emily asked, wondering why, at least, an oil lamp had not been left burning.
    “Oh, yes, but we forgets in this part of the ’ouse,” replied Shorty carelessly, and flicked down a switch somewhere near the door. A blaze of illumination sprang suddenly from a vast crystal chandelier hanging high above them and Emily stood blinking in the light.
    “You’ll get used to the darkness. At least, if you don’t you’ll be no different to the others,” Shorty grinned, but he left the lights on and Emily saw that the hall soared to the roof of the house, and a shallow stone staircase mounted to a short gallery where doors stood open to the darkened bedrooms beyond.
    “This way,” Shorty said, and jerked his head towards one of the ground-floor rooms. “I’ll take up your traps while you’re saying your piece to the governor.”
    Emily would have liked time to wash and remove the traces of her long journey, before being interviewed by her new employer, but Shorty was already opening a door and announcing her.
    “The young lady, sir,” he said in the suddenly expressionless voice of the well-trained servant, and quietly shut the door on Emily.

 
    CHAPTER TWO
    SHE stood just inside the room, feeling suddenly nervous. There were no lights here, either, but the glow from the fire flickered on walls lined from floor to ceiling with books, so it was, presumably, a library. The quietness and the knowledge that a stranger sat somewhere in the shadows, waiting for her, gave Emily a rising sensation of panic.
    “Well?” A voice spoke suddenly and impatiently out of the darkness. “Come to the fire and get acquainted.”
    She had to feel her way across the room, unfamiliar with the placing of the furniture, and as she approached the circle of firelight, a low growl halted her. She could see the bright eyes of an Alsatian bitch watching her from where she lay beside a chair by the fire and her lip lifted threateningly.
    “It’s all right, Bella.” The man sitting in the chair spoke caressingly. “Are you nervous, Miss Moon?”
    “No,” said Emily, who liked dogs. “Though I imagine her job is to guard and—and guide you.”
    “So you’ve heard of the Guide Dogs’ work, have you? Come and speak to her, then. If you don’t get on