Joan Wolf Read Free

saddle.
    David stared at her for another minute before following suit. She was not quite what he had expected. For one thing, she wore breeches and boots just like a boy, and for another, she looked very much at home as she picked up Mindy's reins and turned her toward the heath.
    "Wait a minute, Lady Jane,” said Tuft, “and I'll get Thompson to go with you."
    "That won't be necessary,” Jane said imperiously. “David will show me.” She nudged Mindy with her heels and cantered sedately out of the yard; David followed.
    They passed the paddocks at the same easy pace, but once they were well out in the open Jane turned to David. “Let's gallop,” she said.
    By the time they pulled their ponies up by a wooded copse, David had banished every unpleasant thought he had ever had about the “Irish brat.” Jane Fitzmaurice could ride!
    He turned to her, laughing with pleasure, and she laughed back. Suddenly he leaned over to her, his hand extended. “I'm glad you've come, Jane,” he said. She took his hand, vaguely aware that it was some sort of a peace offering. “I'm glad, too,” she said. And meant it.
    * * * *
    The first morning of Jane's arrival they had spent three hours out on the heath. Tuft had been very worried; if something happened to Lady Jane he knew he would get the blame for letting her go off with just David. He had been deeply relieved when they rode in, slightly dirty and obviously on very good terms with each other.
    "I'll show Jane around the stables,” David offered after they had dismounted and she had given a small piece of carrot to each pony.
    "Lady Jane, David,” Tuft corrected the boy firmly.
    Jane stared at the groom. “What David calls me is none of your affair, Tuft,” she said haughtily. “Besides, he's my friend."
    David looked at her small, flushed face and grinned. “Come on, Jane,” he said. “Let's start with Pharaoh."
    The next day they rode out again together and this time David had a treat for her. “Do you want to see my secret place, Jane?” he asked, and for the first time she noticed that his eyes turned golden when he was excited.
    "Your secret place? Your very own?” she said in hushed tones.
    "Yes. No one knows about it but me."
    "I'd love to see it,” Jane said solemnly, suitably impressed by the honor he was bestowing on her.
    "Come on, then,” and David moved off toward a thick wood in the distance. They entered the wood by a narrow trail, but soon David veered off among the trees, Flash's hooves making snapping sounds as he trod on fallen branches and old dried leaves.
    Jane followed, filled with admiration for his sure sense of direction. As they came out of the woods and into a small clearing, she gasped with surprise.
    There was a small lake, hardly more than a pond, fed by a stream that tumbled down a narrow waterfall into a smaller pool and then disappeared among the trees in a swiftly-running river. The water in the pond looked still, reflecting back the brightness of the sky. The only sound to be heard was the splash of water from the falls. “Oh, David,” Jane said reverently, as she dismounted from Mindy and walked to the edge of the water which was banked by a stretch of grass. “It's just excellent."
    He smiled as he remembered his feelings the last time he had heard that word. Now he was pleased by her praise. “I found it two years ago,” he told her. “I come here when I want to be alone."
    Jane nodded in perfect comprehension. “Will you let me share it?” she asked humbly.
    "Of course,” he answered matter-of-factly. “That's why I brought you here."
    She smiled at him as if she had been given a fabulous gift, as indeed she had been.
    From then on they were Jane-and-David, a twosome, linked together against the outside world. There was never a time when either child had put into words their need of each other; it was something they understood instinctively. Jane was temperamental and David was serene. Jane was the niece of a Marquis