Crossing To Paradise Read Free Page B

said. “I rather thought so. You and…” she hesitated, and her pale brow creased. “You and…”
    â€œMacsen,” Gatty said in a loud voice. “Saxon, I call him!”
    â€œWelcome back,” Lady Gwyneth told Macsen. “You do both look rather the worse for wear.”
    â€œMucky!” said the pretty girl standing behind Lady Gwyneth.
    Gatty frowned. “No,” she said. “I’m Gatty.”
    â€œI said mucky. Baw isa’r domen! That’s what you are.”
    â€œThat’s enough, Nest,” Lady Gwyneth said sharply. “How do you think you’d look after three days traveling?”
    â€œIn January,” sniffed Macsen.
    â€œQuite so,” said Lady Gwyneth. “And it’s a very long journey.”
    All at once, Gatty felt most terribly tired. She opened her mouth so wide she could have swallowed half the hall, and gave a noisy yawn.
    Lady Gwyneth lowered her eyes. “Up here, Gatty, we cover our mouths when we yawn.”
    Gatty looked quite mystified. “What for?” she asked.
    Lady Gwyneth smiled. “This is Nest,” she said, gesturing to the pretty girl, who had pale arms and long gold hair. “My first chamber-servant. And this is Snout, my cook.”
    Snout nodded in a friendly way and raised his right paw. He was a large man with a mop of copper-colored hair, and eyes to match. But the most striking thing about him was the way his upper lip was split halfway up to his flaring nostrils.
    â€œWe were just about to kneel for my retiring prayer,” Lady Gwyneth said. “Will you join us?”
    Around the fire they all knelt, and in her clean, light voice, that seemed to sharpen each syllable, Lady Gwyneth prayed:
“May groaning Sword Wood and Wepre Wood praise you,
May the speckled quarries praise you,
May the hills of Clwyd rise and praise you,
Clod, grain, bough, bud, may each one praise you,
May each one of your children praise you
As, Shining Lord, we greet you in this hall.”
    Lady Gwyneth got to her feet and, wearily, Gatty and Macsen followed her.
    â€œNow,” said Lady Gwyneth. “First things first. Warm fingers. Warm toes. And you, Snout, find our guests some food and ale.”
    â€œI certainly will, my lady,” said Snout, and when he spoke he sounded as if he had a cold.
    Gatty rubbed her red eyelids, and wiped her dripping nose on her sleeve.
    â€œYes,” said Lady Gwyneth. “Well, we’ll talk in the morning.”

4
    Nest screwed up her pretty face. “Lady Gwyneth says you’re to have a bath first,” she told Gatty. “Then you should go up and talk to her.”
    Gatty burst into laughter. “A bath!” she exclaimed. “Me!”
    So before noon, Snout warmed vats of water in the castle kitchen. Then he and the kitchen-boy carried them into the hall and Gatty had a bath, the first one in her life.
    What warmth! What heat! It made Gatty stretch each limb, like a cat. Before long it made her yawn and yawn again. It seemed to make her stronger and weaker, both at the same time.
    While Gatty was lying in the tub, naked as a needle, Snout and the kitchen-boy arrived with another vat of seething water, and they tried to walk right in. Nest shouted at them, and blocked the way, so they put it down and retreated, laughing. Then Nest told Gatty to pull up her legs, and she tipped it into the tub herself.
    â€œHere,” she said, giving Gatty a small pot. “Mutton fat soap. I made it with my own fair hands. Now scrub yourself all over.”
    Ruefully, Gatty inspected her own chapped red knuckles and the grime under her nails. It’s true, she thought drowsily, Nest’s hands are fair.
    Nest picked up a pair of tongs from the hearth. “Your clothes are filthy,” she said. “How could you have slept in them?”
    â€œWhat are you doing?” asked Gatty, alarmed.
    â€œBurning them.”
    â€œNo!” cried