Witch Finder Read Free Page B

settled itself in a neat ring, tail over its nose.
    ‘Watch out if Mama catches you,’ Rosa said warningly. Belle let out a little whine of contentment and closed her eyes, and Rosa turned back to her sketch book and the view from the window, over the rooftops of Knightsbridge. The fog was closing in and she could just see, above the yellow shifting sea, dark rooftops and the tips of chimneys, each trickling the coal smoke that made London’s pea-soupers so deadly. Not for the first time, Rosa was glad that her bedroom was on the top floor of their tall house. Only the maids slept higher than she, in the attics, beneath the slates.
    She swapped pencils for a sharper point and began to fill in the fine detail of the slates and chimneys.
    ‘Down, you god-damn mutt!’ The voice came like the crack of a whip.
    Rosa jumped as hard as the little dog. Belle leapt to the floor and scurried under the bed, and Rosa’s pencil clattered to the floor. She knew who it was, of course, even before she caught sight of him standing in the doorway. He was dressed in riding clothes, his polished boots spattered with mud, and there was a crop in his hand. His face was red with exercise – as red as his hair.
    ‘You might knock, Alexis,’ she said bitterly.
    ‘Your door wasn’t shut. And why should I knock in my own house?’
    Rosa bit her lip. It was true: Papa’s death had left Alexis the legal owner of Osborne House and everything in it, but he didn’t have to keep reminding her about it.
    ‘The bank’s house, don’t you mean,’ she whispered under her breath.
    ‘What did you say, little sister?’ Alexis came into her room, twitching his riding crop dangerously against his thigh. Rosa set her jaw.
    ‘Nothing. Hadn’t you better get changed for dinner? It’s a quarter after six.’
    ‘That’s what I came to tell you. Dinner will be at eight now. And Sebastian is coming, so for God’s sake try to look like something more than an insipid schoolgirl.’
    ‘Sebastian Knyvet?’ she said before she could stop herself. ‘He’s back from India?’
    ‘Yes,’ Alexis said shortly.
    Sebastian. How long since she’d seen him? Four years? More? Her stomach curled and she shivered, thinking of those strange, far-seeing blue eyes that seemed to look right through you. He and Alexis had been friends at school and he’d stayed often in the holidays. She remembered the boys swimming in the great lake at Matchenham, their bodies lithe and brown, shining in the sun. And Sebastian, charming a kingfisher out of the tree by the lake, bringing it up to the house with Alexis, the two of them marvelling over the colours of its wings. She’d been charmed too – until she’d realized it was dead.
    ‘You’re not wearing that dress, are you?’ Alexis broke into her thoughts. Rosa looked down at herself, at the white lawn, and her hand went nervously to the locket hanging at her throat.
    ‘Yes. What’s wrong with it?’
    ‘Nothing, if you want to look like a twelve-year-old novice nun. For God’s sake, Rose, you’re sixteen. It’s time you acted like it. Other girls are wedded by your age – and bedded too. You’ll be lucky if you get either, looking like that.’
    ‘I’m not changing,’ Rosa said furiously. She closed her fingers around the pencil, feeling its point dig into her skin, concentrating on the pain in her hand to distract her from the pain in her heart. Why was Alexis such a beast? Why couldn’t he smile and compliment her as other girls’ brothers did?
    ‘I’ll see you in the drawing room at half past seven. Unless you want bread and dripping for supper, make sure you’re smiling. Wear the green dress; at least that’s passable. And get Ellen to re-lace your corset. You look like a scrawny boy.’
    He turned and stalked to the door. Then he turned back, as if with an afterthought.
    ‘Oh, and take off that bloody locket. It’s ugly as hell – and morbid.’
    He slammed out, the door crashing shut so hard