Easton's Gold Read Free Page B

shoulders and letting her day dress fall to her knees and then her ankles. The candle flame bobs and nearly goes out as Gabrielle steps out of the clothes now at her feet then stoops to fold them over her forearm. She picks up the candle in her free hand, opens the trunk and lays her folded dress inside. Then, without looking at the silent women at the other end of the room, she blows out the flame. To her surprise, Philippa blows out the one between her and Maria too.
    Gabrielle pulls back the blanket and sheet then slides between the linen until she feels the tickle of the wool blanket on her chin. Suspicious of the silence, she turns to the side and lies dead still so the bedclothes won’t rustle.
    She hears nothing except her own breathing and a halfhearted titter from Maria that stutters into silence. It is as though the mockery has been swallowed by the night.
    Then suddenly there is a voice: “What do you talk to him about, anyway?”
    It’s Philippa and is neither loud nor a whisper. It belongs to another time and place and seems to have no business emerging from the silence of the attic in this present company.
    There is a rustle of bedclothes from Maria, a confused, enquiring sound; the question clearly wasn’t for her because she is waiting too.
    Gabrielle sighs.
    â€œYou’re talking to me?”
    A pause. “Yes. What do you talk to the old man about?”
    Gabrielle lifts her head from the pillow and half turns so she is on her back. This is the second time she has been talked to in a manner not altogether unfriendly. What manner of trap is it this time?
    â€œWhy do you want to know?” Gabrielle asks in tired, careful tones.
    â€œI just do,” Philippa replies. “No reason.”
    There is a long silence.
Should I answer this enemy? What will this intimate space feel like if I don’t
? Gabrielle feels her earlobes burn until she can’t stand it any more.
    â€œHe is a fine old gentleman,” she says quietly. “He likes to talk about his life, that’s all.”
    â€œBut why you?”
    Again her voice is neutral. If Gabrielle didn’t know better, she wouldn’t necessarily know it was a jibe. There is a titter from Maria though.
    â€œI don’t know.” the firmness of Gabrielle’s voice takes even herself by surprise. “I don’t know why he likes to talk to me, but I don’t see anything wrong with it, and I’m more than happy to listen. And I’m more than happy to obey his commands, whether they be to find him medicine or to search for cobwebs.”
    There is another silence. Gabrielle hears the bedclothes rustle from Philippa’s corner.
    â€œDoes he tell you about hidden gold from his pirate days?”
    Now Maria laughs and Philippa joins in.
    â€œDoes he tell you he’ll give you the secret for a price?”
    Gabrielle sighs and feels her heart quicken.
    â€œDoes he promise to give you the secret if you open your legs wide enough?”
    Thunder cracks in Gabrielle’s chest; a rush of action takes over. In a flash, she has thrown off her blanket and is leaping through the darkness. Next she is on Philippa, not pounding with her fists as she had imagined but grabbing her hair and twisting the roots. She hears Philippa gasp and Maria sit up in bed. She twists again hard and feels Philippa’s warm fingertips grope weakly around her own clenched knuckles. There is no resistance in her touch, only a mute plea.
    â€œThat’s the last time you speak of him like that,” she says through clenched teeth. “Do you hear?” She twists for the third time and feels Philippa’s rapid breath against her face. Maria has not moved.
    â€œI said, do you hear?” She loosens her grasp a little, realizing Philippa is in too much pain to speak.
    â€œYes, yes,” Philippa says in the voice of a small child. “I hear.”
    Gabrielle releases Philippa’s hair then sits