The Cottage Tales of Beatrix Potter #05 - The Tale of Briar Bank by Susan Wittig Albert

Author:Susan Wittig Albert [Albert, Susan Wittig]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9781597228923
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2008-01-02T06:00:00+00:00

13

In Which Mr. Heelis and Miss Potter Make a Surprising Discovery

After Deirdre left, Beatrix got out her watercolors and began coloring the drawing she had made of Mrs. Tittlemouse and the humblebees. She was troubled, though, wishing she had not been so quick to agree to help Deirdre with her scheme to collect the money owed to Mr. Sutton. Money was always such a troubling subject—as she very well knew from her own experience with Harold Warne. But she had agreed, and she would honor her promise, no matter how awkward she felt about the business.

After a while, she put down her brush and put on her blue coat and her favorite floppy-brimmed felt hat and went out to the barn to say an affectionate hello to the farmyard creatures: Kitchen and Blossom, the Galloway cow and her calf; Aunt Susan and Dorcas, the pigs; and Kep the collie. She still occasionally kept pets at Bolton Gardens, for the times when she needed models for her drawings. But her latest books had been about the farm animals and the village dogs and cats, and she was beginning to feel very close to them. They had more freedom than caged pets, and their lives seemed more mysterious, somehow—fuller, richer, more various, more real. And what’s more, they were part of the farm life she was learning to love. So as she said hello, she gave each of them a careful looking-over, to make sure that they were all in good health and seemed happy. She lingered to collect a few eggs from Bonnet and Boots—only a few of the older and more experienced hens went on laying through the winter—and exchange greetings with the Puddle-ducks, noting that Jemima was nowhere around.

“That preposterous duCK has flown off with that QUACK ridiculous fox again,” said Jemima’s sister-in-law, Rebecca. “An unnatural union. Heaven only knows what they see in each other.”

“Our Jemima hasn’t been QUACK right in the head since she hatched that nestful of QUACK tortoises,” said Rachel Puddle-duck in a tone that mixed sympathy with disapproval—rather more of the latter.

“She wasn’t right before then, either,” retorted Rebecca snappishly. “Always wanting to go off on her own, instead of staying in the barnyard, tending to QUACK business.”

Beatrix shook her head. Jemima seemed to come and go as she chose, although no one could quite think how she got out of the various coops into which she was put. One almost suspected magic. (You’ll find the full story of Jemima, the fox, and the tortoises, in The Tale of Hawthorn House.)

In his stall, Winston, the shaggy brown pony, lifted his head with a pleasant whinny. “Mornin’, Miss Potter. Up from London again, are we?”

“Good morning, Winston,” she said, scratching his ears. “I’ve given you a holiday today, but tomorrow, you and I are taking the sleigh up to Briar Bank House, with a stop at Tidmarsh Manor.”

“Nay!” Winston tossed his head obstinately. “You need a horse for that sleigh! I’m a mere pony. It’s too heavy for me.

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