Clovelly by Max Brand
Author:Max Brand [Brand, Max]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Historical Fiction
Publisher: Roy Glashan's Library
Published: 2018-09-27T22:00:00+00:00
* * *
CHAPTER XIX. â TO SERVE THE SUMMONS
CLOVELLY stayed no longer in inn or taverns along the way to Medhurst Park, or rather to the town near by it. If the kingâs men had so nearly taken him in the beginning of his ride, they would set many a trap for him on the rest of his journey so long as he kept straightforward along the road as he had begun.
That was by no means his intention, however. He swung aside from the main highway and continued throughout that morning and the early part of the afternoon to ride toward his goal. In mid- afternoon he reached the town and found the house of Oliver Perth.
It looked like a Puritanâs habitation. It was built perfectly square, of new gray stone, which promised to endure forever unless it were pulled down by his neighbors because its harsh face ruined the mellow beauty of the rest of the village street with curving lines of thatch, and moldering walls of soft yellow sandstone.
Clovelly looked up and down this street for a moment as he stood beside his panting horse, patting White Harryâs nose. It had been a terrible journey, and White Harry had performed nobly; to the very end his driver had been forced to keep a tight rein, and even now, dripping and blackened with sweat, the noble stallion kept his head high and looked down the street with a far-off eagerness as if he yearned to be on toward a still more distant goal.
Then the master regarded the house of Oliver Perth. Whereas the rest of the town seemed drowsing along its winding street, the house of Perth presented a brisk and wide-awake face to the day. One could smell even from the outside, as it were, the prosperous and shining newness of the furniture.
When Clovelly rapped with the knocker, an empty echo passed with a hollow and mournful progress through the hall and down the stairs, but at length a woman opened the door. She was the type which Clovelly easily could have suspected as the servant of a Roundhead.
Her middle age gave promise of developing into the features of a very witch before she had passed through another ten years. Her form was wide and squat. The sharp slope of her forehead was partly masked by her hair, which began to grow only immediately behind her eyebrows.
Her face was built like a side of a pyramid, the jaw thrusting out and each feature above retreating; but the back of her head was well-nigh a straight line up and down. This repulsive creature was made formidable by the appearance of arms as long and as brawny as those of a hard-worked man.
She regarded Clovelly with a gloomy intentness, running her eyes boldly up and down his body. It could be seen that she loved the world no more than the world loved her.
âWhat will ye have?â she asked.
âA word with Mr. Perth.â
âYou must eâen wait,â said she. âAre ye from Bristol?â
âNo,â said Clovelly.
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