The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley

Author:Susanna Kearsley [Kearsley, Susanna]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Tags: C429, Kat, Extratorrents
ISBN: 9780749010942
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2011-01-20T13:00:00+00:00

Fergal wasn’t in a mood for smiling. Slamming down the plate and cup that he’d just carried downstairs to the kitchen where we sat, he wheeled on Daniel. ‘’Tis hardly something you can laugh about. Have you not thought what she might have faced had she appeared like that in front of Wilson or your brother, or the constable? You’ve seen the way it happens, when she comes and goes. You’ve seen it, Danny. So have I, and I’ll admit it made me fear the devil’s hand, and me a man of reason.’

Daniel told him in an even voice, ‘You know it is not witchcraft.’

‘Ay, I know it. And you know it. But another man might not. You’ve seen a witch trial, have you?’

Daniel didn’t answer. Fergal looked away.

‘Well, I have. And it is not a sight I’d wish to see again, nor yet the evil that the mindless mob does afterwards, the way they kill the wretched—’

‘She is safe with us,’ said Daniel, though his interruption seemed as much a warning to his friend to hold his tongue as it did an attempt to reassure me. From his face I knew he’d thought about the danger, too, before this, and if he had not entirely dismissed it he felt sure it could be managed.

‘Is she, now?’ asked Fergal, challenging. ‘And how can you be sure?’

‘Do you now doubt me?’ Daniel’s tone grew faintly frustrated. ‘Christ, any man who saw you so belligerent would think she was your sister.’

They’d been talking long enough as if I wasn’t in the room, and I decided it was time for me to cut between them. ‘If I may?’

I felt a little like a referee as both men turned their heads to look at me.

I said, ‘There’s not a thing that I can do about the way I come and go, or where it happens. If I could, I …’ Daniel’s eyes were too distracting. ‘Well, I can’t, that’s all. But once I’m here, it seems to me the best thing I can do is to stay close to one of you, because you both know what it looks like when it happens. You would know if I was … leaving. And if someone else was with us you could maybe find a way to draw them off, or stop them noticing.’

I watched them both consider this, each in his way, and Fergal gave a nod.

‘Ay, so we could. Though let us hope it never comes to that.’ He fixed me with a gaze that seemed to recognise I hadn’t really had a proper welcome, yet. ‘So. Did you eat before you came, or will you want a second meal?’

‘A second one?’

‘Ay.’ The empty plate that he’d slammed down before was still in front of him, and he gave it a nudge. ‘See, the first one’s been eaten, I’ve just brought that down from your room, where you’ve been lying ill these past two days.’

‘Oh. I see.’ Of course, I realised, he and Daniel would have had to think up some excuse to give to Jack and Mr Wilson.

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