Prudence Read Free Page A

no!’
    ‘You’d better hurry, miss. The coach won’t wait on you. You’d best come round the short way.’
    Prue followed her around the side of the house towards the yard. But her mind was on the kitten, clasped strongly to her chest. She could not leave it to be drowned! That horrid man might do so, but not she. But how in the world was she to take it with her?
    A sudden bright notion jumped into her head. Whyshould she not bestow it as a gift upon her two charges? All children loved kittens. There could be no difficulty.
    They had reached the yard. The stage was ready, the horses put to, and the guard impatiently beckoning.
    ‘I am coming,’ she called. And to the maid, ‘Do you think your mistress would mind if I took the kitten?’
    ‘In the coach, miss?’
    ‘I have only a short way to go now. Quickly, tell me if I may take it.’
    The chambermaid grinned. ‘Suit yourself, miss. I’d like fine to see how you manage with it in the coach.’
    But Prue was already at the coach door. Her entry with the kitten was not to go undisputed, however. The guard barred her way.
    ‘Was you meaning to take that there animal inside, miss?’
    ‘Have you any objection?’ asked Prue anxiously.
    The guard nodded dourly. ‘Against regulations, that is, taking livestock inside.’
    ‘But it is only for a little way. I am getting down in three miles. And besides, a kitten is scarcely livestock.’
    The man’s mouth turned down at the corners, and he shook his head. ‘Can’t see my way to it, miss.’
    ‘Oh, pray .’
    But the fellow appeared adamant. In desperation, Prue dived a hand into the pocket of her petticoat, feeling for a coin. She brought out the first one she found. It was a crown piece. Wholly forgetting her straitened circumstances, Prue held it up.
    ‘Will this help?’
    A sniff and a toss of his head, and the coin was in the guard’s fingers. He bit it scientifically, winked at Prue, and pocketed it.
    ‘All aboard!’
    Prue clambered up into the coach as best she could for the wriggling animal tucked under one arm. Fortunately, one of the inside passengers took pity on her and held the kitten while she settled back into her corner. She retrieved it on to her lap, where it mewed for a while, and then curled up and went to sleep under Prue’s stroking hand.
    It was only then that it came home to Prue what she had done. Five shillings! The poor little creature was not worth a tithe of that. Added to which, she could not be sure of its reception when she came to Rookham Hall.
    But this aspect of the matter was less disturbing than the recollection of the spectacle she had made of herself. How angry had been that man. And so sarcastic in his speech. Thank heaven she would never see him again!
     
    At the roadside, Prue juggled with the problem of transporting one mongrel kitten whilst clutching her cloak about her and carrying her portmanteau—an aged item of worn leather that had seen good use and better days—which had been placed by the guard beside her on the ground.
    Her acquisition had woken upon her lifting it from her lap when she had to get out of the coach. Its protests were vociferous, and it continued to emit outraged mewls as she tried to comfort it.
    ‘What in the world am I to do? I do wish you will stop crying!’
    It then occurred to her that the kitten was very likely hungry. She put a finger to its mouth, and it sniffed and licked, but, finding no sustenance there, resumed its complaints.
    ‘Poor little thing! I am afraid you must wait until we have got to Rookham Hall. And still I do not know how to transport you. I do wish Nell were here!’
    But Nell was a world away, and Prue must fend for herself. Clutching the kitten in one hand, she seized up the portmanteau and walked a small way down the lane that led to Little Bookham. The signpost told her it was but a half mile to the village. But even so short a distance presented difficulties in this predicament.
    It would not do. She