Murkmere Read Online Free Page B

good protection against the Night Birds, the
     very strongest.
    I opened the window and leaned out. The room was at the back of the house, overlooking the stable yard; beyond the stables
     I could see a coach house, dairies, the old leaning walls of a kitchen garden. I was looking for the watch-tower where the
     Master kept his books, but couldn’t see it, only scrubby meadows stretching into the misty distance, their flatness broken
     by sheep pens and cowsheds and workers’ cottages.

    I was fastening the latch on the window again when the door burst open and a girl marched in.
    “If you think you’re to be my companion, you’re mistaken,” she announced. “You might as well pack up your things again and
     go home.”
    She could only be Miss Leah.

III
Forbidden
    T he was a tall, gawky thing, with fair, almost white hair, like cotton on a spindle, and so fine and light it blew round her
     head with every movement she made. Her front was as flat as a wooden board, and her skirts, for all their delicate stitching
     and costly material, hung round her in a sadly limp manner.
    “Are you deaf? I said you could leave.”
    I thrust my amulet back into my bodice and raised my chin. Unfortunately, she was at least a head taller and could look down
     her long nose at me.
    “It was the Master who engaged me,” I said, gathering my wits. “Is it the Master who orders me to go now?”
    “It’s my own wish,” she snapped, tossing her head so her hair flew. “My guardian will do as I say, you’ll see. I’ve Doggett,
     my maid. I don’t need anyone else.”

    I took a chance. “If the Master agrees with you, I’ll go,” I said calmly. “Shall we go to him now, Miss?”
    She gave me a long, hard look. “He’s resting,” she said shortly. “He always rests in the afternoon. I’ll ask him at dinner.”
     She looked around, as if suddenly distracted, and wrinkled her nose. “This was where my old nurse slept. It smells of her
     still.” She glared at me again. “I’ve no need of another nurse either!”
    “I’m to be your companion, not your nurse,” I said, standing my ground. Aunt Jennet would have been amused at the idea. In
     spite of myself I smiled, and Leah looked fiercer than ever. Then, suddenly turning on her heel and sticking her head out
     of the open door, she bellowed “Doggett? Doggett?” in a most unladylike way.
    We both waited, she eyeing me sideways and tapping her foot irritably on the floor. It was a large, ungainly foot, clad though
     it was in a fine velvet slipper. “We’ll go out for a walk when Doggett comes,” she said abruptly to me. “If you’re to play
     my companion till dinnertime, you might as well come with us, I suppose.”
    I said nothing, but took my cloak from the wardrobe, glad to turn my back on her. I could still feel her staring at me, her
     eyes boring into me with intense curiosity. After Silas Seed’s remarks, I was relieved that she appeared to have full use
     of her mental faculties. And more than enough of them too, for there was a disconcertingly intelligent gleam in her eyes when
     I faced her again.

    “So — a girl from the village,” she said slowly. “The village I’m not allowed to visit. What’s your name, village maiden?”
    “Agnes Cotter, Miss,” I said, lifting my chin a little, for I wasn’t going to forget my father had been chief thatcher. “But
     you may call me Aggie, if you wish.”
    She burst into loud laughter. I was staring at her, bemused, when there was a knocking on the bedroom door. “Come in, Doggett!”
     she yelled.
    The maid was a sallow-faced girl of perhaps sixteen, with a pursed, prissy mouth as if she’d bitten into a crab apple, and
     small black eyes like beads.
    “My maid, Dog,” said Leah.
    No wonder the maid looks so sour-faced, I thought.
    We left the house through a door in the kitchen quarters. As we trailed across the stable yard, I turned to look up. The back
     of Murkmere Hall was as flat and