Виктория Холт - The Mask of the Enchantress

"No, no," she said. "Far, far away. On a ship. We're going to sail away from England."

On a ship! I was so excited that I started to bounce up and down on the seat involuntarily. She laughed and hugged me and I thought then that Aunt Amelia would have told me to sit still.

We got out of the train and waited on a platform for another train. Miss Anabel brought bars of chocolate from her bag.

"This will stay the pangs," she said and laughed; although I did not know what she meant I laughed with her and dug my teeth into the delicious chocolate. Aunt Amelia had not allowed chocolate in Crabtree Cottage. Anthony Felton had sometimes brought it to school and took great pleasure in eating it before the rest of us and letting us know how good it was.

It was night when we left the train. Anabel had traveling bags of her own and with mine there seemed to be a good deal of luggage. There was a fly which took us to a hotel where we had a big and luxurious bedroom with a double bed.

"We must be up early in the morning," said Miss Anabel. "Can you get up early in the morning?"

I nodded blissfully. Some food was brought up to our room-hot soup and cold ham, which was delicious; and that night Miss Anabel and I slept in the big bed together.

"Isn't this fun, Suewellyn?" she said. "I always wanted it to be like this."

I didn't want to go to sleep. I was so happy but so tired that I soon did. I awoke to find myself alone in the bed. I remembered where I was and gave a cry of alarm because I thought Miss Anabel had left me.

Then I saw her. She was standing by the window.

"What's the matter, Suewellyn?" she asked.

"I thought you'd gone. I thought you'd left me."

"No," she said, "I'm never going to leave you again. Come here."

I went to the window. I saw a strange sight before me. There were a lot of buildings and what looked like a big ship lying in the middle of them.

"It's the docks," she told me. "Do you see that ship? It will sail this afternoon and we are going to be on it."

The adventure was getting more and more exciting every minute. Not that anything could be more wonderful than being with Miss Anabel.

We had breakfast in our room and then the porter took our bags down and we went in a fly to the docks. All our luggage was taken and we went up a gangway. Clutching my hand tightly in hers, Miss Anabel took me up a flight of stairs to a long passage. We came to a door on which she knocked.

"Who's there?" said a voice.

"We're here," cried Miss Anabel.

The door opened and Joel was standing there.

He just caught Miss Anabel in his arms and held her tightly. Then he picked me up and held me. My heart was beating very fast. I could only think of the wishing bone in the forest.

"I was afraid you wouldn't be able to ..." he began.

"Of course I would be able to," said Miss Anabel. "And I wasn't coming without Suewellyn."

"No, of course not," he said.

"We're safe now," she said, a little anxiously, I thought.

"Not for another three hours ... when we sail... ."

She nodded. "We'll stay here till then."

He looked down at me. "What do you think of this, Suewellyn? A bit of a surprise eh?"

I nodded. I looked round the room, which I learned was called a cabin. There were two beds in it one above the other. Miss Anabel opened a door and I saw another very small room leading from it.

"This is where you'll sleep, Suewellyn."

"Are we going to sleep on the ship then?"

"Oh yes, we're going to sleep here for a long time."

I was just too bewildered to speak. Then Miss Anabel took my hand and we sat together on the lower bed. I was between the two of them.

"There's something I want to tell you," said Miss Anabel. "I'm your mother."

Waves of happiness swept over me. I had a mother and that mother was Miss Anabel. It was the most wonderful thing that could happen. It was better even than going on a ship.

"There's something else," said Miss Anabel; and she waited.

Then Joel said: "And I am your father."

There was a deep silence in the cabin. Then Miss Anabel said: "What are you thinking, Suewellyn?"

"I was thinking that chicken bones are magic. All my three wishes ... they've come true."

Children take so much for granted. It was not long before I felt I had always been on a ship. I was soon accustomed to the rolling and lurching, the pitching and tossing, which had no effect on me though it made some other people ill.

As soon as the ship had been a day at sea and England was far behind us I noticed the change in my parents. They had lost a certain nervousness. They were happier. I vaguely sensed that they were running away from something. But I forgot about that after a while.

We were on the ship for what seemed like forever. Summer had come quite suddenly and quickly when it shouldn't have been summer at all—moreover it was a very hot summer. We sailed on calm blue seas and I would be on deck with Joel or Miss Anabel ... or perhaps both ... watching porpoises, whales, dolphins and flying fish—such things which I had never seen outside picture books.

I had anew name. I was no longer Suewellyn Campion. I was Suewellyn Mateland. I could call myself Suewellyn Campion Mateland, suggested Anabel. Then I wouldn't lose the name I had had for seven years altogether.

Anabel was Mrs. Mateland. She said she thought I shouldn't call her Miss Anabel any more. We discussed what I should call her. Mother sounded formal. Mamma too severe. How we laughed about it. She said at last: "Just call me Anabel. Drop the Miss." That seemed best and I called Joel Father Jo.

I was so happy to have a father and mother. Anabel I loved slavishly. I worshiped her. Joel? Well, I was very much in awe of him. He was so tall and important-looking. I think everyone was a little afraid of him ... even Anabel.

That he was the finest, strongest man in the world I had no doubt. He was like a god. But Anabel was no goddess. She was the most lovely human being I had ever known and nothing could compare with my love for her.

I discovered that Joel was a doctor, for when one of the passengers fell sick he cured her.

"He has saved a lot of people's lives," Anabel told me. "So one ..."

I waited for her to go on but she did not, and I was too busy thinking how wonderfully it had all turned out for me to ask. I had gained not ordinary parents but these two. It was indeed a miracle after having none.

The journey continued. It was always hot and I had to think hard to remember the east wind blowing across the green and how in winter I had to break the thin layer of ice to get the water to wash from the ewer in my bedroom.

That was all far away and becoming more and more hazy in my mind as my new life imposed itself on the old.

In time we came to Sydney, a town of beauty and excitement. As we passed through the Heads, I watched with my parents on either side of me and my father told me how many years ago prisoners had been brought here to get them out of England. This coast was rather like the one we had in England ... or Wales rather, and it had therefore been named New South Wales.

"The finest harbor in the world," said my father. "That's what they called it then and it still is."

It was too much for a child of my age to absorb. A new family; a new country; a new life. But because I was so young, I just lived from day to day and each morning when I awoke it was with a sense of excitement and happiness.

I learned a little about Sydney. We were there for three months. We found a house near the harbor, which we rented for a short period, and there we lived very quietly. A vague uneasiness had crept into the household which had not been there when we were on the ship. Anabel was more frequently affected by it than my father. It was almost as though she were afraid of too much happiness.