Jessica Read Online Free Page B

“Miss Jess! Well, I’d not have known you. My, you’re the fine lady now right enough.”
    “Not really. I’m still Jessica Durleigh. I’m no different.”
    He grinned. “That’s hard to swallow when I look at you.” He indicated the crisp brown and white gown and bonnet and the dainty white slippers peeping from below the frilled hem of the gown.
    “They say you should not tell a book by its cover, and so I look at you in your rough old clothes and needing a good wash, and I say to myself that it is hard to remember that Jamie Pike had the sharpest tongue and mind in Henbury and that even as Sir Francis’ shepherd you are wasting your talents.”
    His eyes were steady. “I’m happy like this.”
    She raised her eyebrows. “Perhaps you are. I wouldn’t know.”
    Nipper began to bark suddenly, staring up the hill to the summit. A smart scarlet curricle skimmed over the brow from Varangian, its team clipping briskly at the expert touch of the driver. The whip cracked as Francis brought the horses in a spanking pace along the hilltop and then down the incline. Nipper was almost beside himself as the bright red object hurtled toward him, its two large wheels crunching on the little stones and pebbles.
    “Nipper!” Jamie called urgently, but the puppy cavorted in the middle of the track.
    Francis seemed not to have seen it, for the whip cracked again and the horses’ hooves clip-clopped more swiftly. Jessica ran forward, beating at the surprised and indignant puppy with her parasol and knocking him head over heels into a clump of foxgloves. Then she stumbled in a rut and almost fell beneath the hooves of the team that reared and nearly upset the curricle.
    Winded, she lay there, her brown and white gown ripped and her bonnet tipped forward over her eyes, the ribbons slithering undone. Nipper recovered his aplomb and bounced from the foxgloves, snarling and snapping at the ribbons as if he would like to shake the life from them. Gritting her teeth Jessica snatched her parasol and clouted the pup.
    “Oh, go away, you stupid beast! Go and chase your tail somewhere else!”
    Jamie stood rooted to the spot, his eyes moving from Jessica to Francis.
    At last the team calmed sufficiently for Francis to climb down and tether them to a tree. They shuffled a little, their eyes on the puppy, but Nipper was cowed at last and his tail was between his legs as he slunk back to Jamie.
    “Pike! Is that creature yours?”
    “Yes, Sir Francis.”
    “By all that’s holy! You’ve not had your position with me for long, and you’ll lose it if you go abroad with so unruly a beast again.” Francis reached down to help Jessica to her feet. “Are you all right?”
    “Yes. I fear my dignity is ruined though.” She glanced down at the rip in the brown and white muslin with a rueful smile.
    “Permit me to take you home, if you will trust my capabilities after so near a disaster.”
    “Oh, I am certain that you are quite the tippy with the ribbons, good sir.” She laughed.
    His smile faded a little. “I do not like to hear such foolish society tattling on your lips, Jessica.”
    “And I do not like being corrected by you, Francis.”
    He nodded. “I asked for that. Shall I help you into the curricle?”
    She placed her hand in his and in a moment was perched in the high seat behind the two bays. He nodded peremptorily at Jamie who still stood at the roadside, cap in hand. Nipper sat by his feet gazing at the curricle with soulful, melting eyes.
    Francis climbed beside her, flicking the whip a little. The horses moved away and the curricle swayed alarmingly on its large springs. Francis glanced at the cloak of trees on either side. “It’s another dark night tonight,” he said, glancing at her.
    “You are thinking of the smugglers?”
    “Yes. They use the path across Applegarth, you know.”
    “I know. I saw something of what happened last night. Is there nothing to be done to stop them?”
    “Only rebuilding the wall,