Demelza Read Free Page A

tearing off mouthfuls of sea and flinging them to join the clouds. At another time he would have been upset at the damage to his crops, but now that seemed a small matter. It was not so much a gale as a sudden storm, as if the forces of a gathering anger had been bottled up for a month and must be spent in an hour. The branch of an elm came down across the stream. He stumbled past it, wondering if he could make the brow of the hill.
    In the ruined buildings of Wheal Maiden he sat and gasped and groped for breath and rubbed his bruised hand, and the wind blew bits of masonry from the gaunt old granite walls and screamed like a harlot through every slit and hole.
    Once through the pine trees, he met the full force of the storm coming in across Grambler Plain, bringing with it a bombardment of rain and dirt and gravel. Here it seemed that all the loose soil was being ploughed up and all the fresh young leaves and all the other small substances of the earth were being blown right away. The clouds were low over his head, brown and racing, all the rain emptied out of them and lying like torn rags before the frown of God.
    Down in Fernmore, Dr Choake was beginning his breakfast.
    He had finished the grilled kidneys and the roast ham and was wondering whether to take a little of the smoked cod before it was carried away to be kept warm for his wife, who would breakfast in bed later. The early ride had made him very hungry, and he had set up a great commotion because breakfast was not waiting when he returned. Choake believed servants should not be allowed to get fat and lazy.
    The loud knocking on the front door was hardly to be heard above the thunder of the wind.
    'If that is anyone for me, Nancy,' he said testily, lowering his eyebrows, 'I am from home.'
    'Yes, sir.'
    He decided after a sniff to take some of the cod, and was irritated that it was necessary to help himself. This done, he settled his stomach against the table and had swallowed the first knifeful when there was an apologetic cough behind him.
    'Begging your pardon, sir. Captain Poldark…'
    'Tell him…' Dr Choake looked up and saw in the mirror a tall dripping figure behind his harassed maid.
    Ross came into the room. He had lost his hat and torn the lace on the sleeve of his coat; water followed him in a trail across Dr Choake's best Turkey carpet.
    But there was something in his eyes which prevented Choake from noticing this. The Poldarks had been Cornish gentlemen for two hundred years, and Choake, for all his airs, came from dubious stock.
    He got up.
    'I disturb your breakfast,' said Ross.
    'We - er - .... Is something wrong?'
    'You'll remember,' said Ross, 'that I engaged you to be with my wife in her lying-in.'
    'Well! She is going on well. I made a thorough examination. The child will be born this afternoon.'
    'I engaged you as a surgeon to be in the house, not as a travelling pedlar.'
    Choake went white round the lips. He turned on the gaping Nancy. 'Get Captain Poldark some port.'
    Nancy fled.
    'What's your complaint?' Choake made an effort to outstare his visitor; the fellow had no money and was still a mere youngster. 'We have attended your father, your uncle, your cousin and his wife, your cousin Verity. They have never found reason to call my treatment in question.'
    'What they do is their own affair. Where is your cloak?'
    'Man, I can't ride out in this gale of wind. Look at yourself! It would be impossible to sit a horse.'
    'You should have thought of that when you left Nampara.'
    The door opened and Polly Choake came in with her hair in pins and wearing a flowing cerise morning gown. She gave a squeal when she saw Ross.
    'Oh, Captain Poldark. I'd no idea. Weally, to see one like this! But the wind upstairs, faith, it upthets one to hear it! I fear for the woof, Tom, that I do, an' if it came in on my head I should be a pwetty thight!'
    'You're not a pretty sight peeping round the door,' snapped her husband irritably. 'Come in or go out as you please,