The Flood-Tide Read Free Page B

knew most of the inn servants, who often came up to the house to bring messages or parcels or casks of ale. ‘Shall we go down, Mother?'
    ‘No, we'll wait until the coach moves on. There will be enough bustle, without our adding to it.’
    The children watched, enough interested in the sight not to mind being kept at a distance, until the coach drew away again and lurched up the road towards the city. Then they saw that the alighted traveller, instead of going inside the inn, was standing outside, giving directions about his boxes to Jack and Abel.
    ‘Why, Mama,' William cried, 'it's—'
    ‘Yes,' said Jemima, who had recognized the traveller at the same instant. 'It's Cousin Thomas.’
    *
    ’But why did you not let us know you were coming?' Jemima asked. She had dismounted to embrace her cousin, and Poppy, poking her mistress in the back with a hard, impatient muzzle, made her voice jerky.
    ‘Oh, the mail is so slow, and I knew I could be here by the stagecoach sooner than a letter, so I did not bother,' Thomas said. In his brown face his eyes were a brilliant blue, and his teeth startlingly white as an irrepressible grin revealed his delight to be home. 'Did I do wrong?'
    ‘My dear Thomas, of course not! We are so glad to see you. Only this morning—'
    ‘We were all talking about you in the orchard,' Charlotte broke in, trying to edge Mouse nearer to the exciting newcomer. 'Flora was saying—'
    ‘But what were you doing on the London coach?' Jemima asked hastily. 'I thought you were to come in to Portsmouth.'
    ‘I was, until I came up with the Channel Fleet off Flushing. When I made my number the Admiral diverted me with dispatches to London Pool, and the Admiralty have decided to give the poor old Hydra one last run up the coast before she's laid up for good. So I have an extra week or so of leave, since the Ariadne is not ready yet.'
    ‘Well, I am entirely delighted, though I'm afraid we have been plum harvesting today, so it will be poor feasting for you tonight. Abram will be most put out, not to have a special dinner ready for you. You know he never feels we keep enough state even on common occasions.'
    ‘Poor Abram! Well, I should not like to upset him. Suppose Charlotte and William ride on ahead and warn him, while you and I walk back together?' He gave her a significant look, and so Jemima agreed and the twins, delighted to be the ones to bring the great news, turned their ponies and dashed away homewards. Thomas took Poppy's reins from Jemima politely, and looked directly into her inquiring eyes. 'I have news for you, which I thought you would like to have first alone.’
    Jemima tried to ask a question, but her mouth had dried, and she could only move her lips soundlessly. Thomas smiled and took her hands.
    ‘Yes,' he said. 'He is home, he is back, safe and sound. He is in London this very moment, and another week should bring him to you. He bid me bring you all the proper messages, and would have written but he has not an instant's leisure from making his reports to the King. But his greetings he bade me bring you, and his love he will bring himself in a week more.’
    Jemima had no words, no words at all; she only gripped Thomas's hands so hard that there were tears in his eyes, to match those in hers.
    *
    ’His lordship is waiting for you in the drawing room, Sir Allen,' said the butler, stepping behind him to lift off his wet cloak. 'Her ladyship has retired.’
    Allen gave a grimace, not at the news, but at the appellation. He had been born Allen Macallan of Braco; in recent years he had been known as Allen Morland, since he had decreed that his children should bear that name so that Morland Place should not pass out of Morland hands; he had gone incognito by various names while on his recent mission; but he had been knighted only at this morning's levee, and was not at all sure he liked it. It was typical of the butler at Chelmsford House that he should not make a mistake even about so new a