Виктория Холт - The Mask of the Enchantress

I nodded and pressed my lips together. It was very important that they should come true.

We then ate tarts with cherry jam in them, and they were delicious, and as I bit into the sweet tart I thought there could not be greater happiness than this.

Joel asked me if I rode.

I told him I did not.

"She ought to," he said, looking at Miss Anabel.

"I could speak to your Aunt Amelia," said Miss Anabel.

Joel stood up and held out a hand to me. "Come and see how you like it," he said.

I went with him to his horse; he lifted me up and put me on it.

He walked the horse through the trees. I thought it was the most thrilling moment of my life. Then suddenly he leaped up behind me and we started going quickly. We came through the trees in the woods and out to a field. The horse cantered and galloped and I thought for one moment: Perhaps he is the Devil and he has come to take me away.

But oddly enough I did not care. I wanted him to take me away. I wanted to stay with him and Miss Anabel for the rest of my life. I did not care if he was the Devil. If Aunt Amelia and Uncle William were saints I preferred the Devil. I had a feeling that Miss Anabel would not be far away from where he was, and if I were with one I would be with the other.

But that exciting ride came to an end and the horse was going slowly again through the trees to the clearing where Janet was packing up the remains of the picnic and putting the hamper into the dogcart.

Joel dismounted and lifted me down.

I was indescribably sad because I knew that my visit to the enchanted forest with its distant castle was over. It was like a beautiful dream from which I was trying hard not to wake up. But I knew I should.

He lifted me in his arms and kissed me. I put my arms about his neck. I said: "It was a lovely ride."

"I have never enjoyed a ride more," he said.

Miss Anabel was looking at us as though she did not know whether or laugh or cry but, being Miss Anabel, she laughed.

He mounted his horse and followed us to the dogcart. Miss Anabel and I got in. He went off in one direction and we went off in another to the station.

We alighted there.

"Don't forget to meet my train, Janet," Miss Anabel said.

It was a sad reminder that the day was almost over, that I would soon be back in Crabtree Cottage and this day's events would move into the past. We sat side by side in the train, holding hands tightly as though we would never let go. How the train rushed on! How I wanted to hold it back! The wheels were laughing at me, saying: "Soon be back! Soon be back!" over and over again.

When we were nearly there Miss Anabel put her arm round me and said: "What did you wish, Suewellyn?"

"Oh, I mustn't tell," I cried. "If I did they would never come true and I couldn't bear that."

"Were they such important wishes then?"

I nodded.

She was silent for a while and then she said: "It's not quite true that you mustn't tell anyone. You can tell one person. That's if you want to ... and if you whisper, it won't make any difference about the wishes coming true."

I was glad. It is very comforting to be able to share things and there was no one I wanted to share with more than Miss Anabel.

So I said: "I wished for a father and mother first. Then I wanted you and Joel to be them; and after that I wanted us all to be together."

She did not speak for a long time and I wondered whether she was rather sorry I had told her.

We had come to the station. The fly was waiting for us, and in a very short time we were at Crabtree Cottage. It looked more dismal than ever now that I had been in the magic forest and seen the enchanted castle.

Miss Anabel kissed me and said: "I must hurry to catch my train." She still looked as though she were going to cry although she was smiling. I listened to the clop-clop of horses' hoofs which were carrying her away.

There were two parcels in my room which Miss Anabel had left for me. One contained a dress of blue silk with ribbons on it. It was the prettiest dress I had ever seen and it was Miss Anabel's birthday gift to me. There was a book about horses in the other parcel and I knew this was from Joel.

Oh, what a wonderful birthday! But the sad thing about wonderful occasions was that they made the days which followed seem more drab.

Aunt Amelia's comment to Uncle William on the outing was: "Unsettling!"

Perhaps she was right.

For the next few weeks I lived in a dream. I kept peeping at the blue dress, which was hung in my cupboard. I had not worn it. It was most unsuitable, said Aunt Amelia; and I had come to the conclusion that she was right. It was too beautiful to be worn. It was just to be looked at. At school Miss Brent said: "What's come over you, Suewellyn? You're very inattentive these days."

Anthony Felton said that I went to covens at night and took off all my clothes and danced round and round and kissed Farmer Mills's goat.

"Don't be silly," I told him; and I think the others agreed that he was romancing. Aunt Amelia would never have allowed me to go out at night and take off my clothes, which was indecent, and to kiss a goat would be unhealthy.

I read as much as I could of the book about horses. It was a little advanced for me; but I was always hoping that one day Miss Anabel would come again and I would be taken to the enchanted forest. I should want to know something about horses by the time I met Joel again. Then I thought how foolish I was not to have wished for something which would have been easy to grant—like perhaps another day in the forest, instead of a father and mother. Fathers and mothers had to be married. They were not in the least like Miss Anabel and Joel.

I grew interested in horses. Anthony Felton had a pony and I begged him to allow me to ride on it. At first he laughed me to scorn, and then I think it occurred to him that if I tried to ride I should surely fall off and that would be great fun. So I was taken to the paddock adjoining the manor house and I mounted Anthony's pony and rode round the field. It was a miracle that I was not thrown off. I kept thinking of Joel and imagined he was watching me. I wanted so much to shine in his eyes.

Anthony was very disappointed and wouldn't let me ride his pony after that.

It was November when Miss Anabel came again. She was paler and thinner. She told me she had been ill; she had had pleurisy and that was why she had not come before.

"It was only that which kept me away," she told me.

"Are we going to the forest again?" I asked.

She shook her head, rather sadly, I thought.

"Did you enjoy that?" she asked eagerly.

I clasped my hands together and nodded. There were not enough words to convey how much I had enjoyed it.

She was silent, looking a little sad, and I said: "It was a wonderful castle. It didn't look like a real one. I think it is one of those which are not there sometimes. Though there was that girl with the boys and they went into it. And there was the horse. I rode on that horse... . We galloped on it. It was exciting."

"You liked it all so much, Suewellyn?"

"Yes, I liked it better than anything I have ever done."

Later I heard her talking to Aunt Amelia.

"No," Aunt Amelia said, "I do not, Miss Anabel. Where would we keep it? We could not be in a position to afford such a thing. There would be more talk than there already is, and there is enough now, I can tell you."

"It would be so good for her."

"It would cause talk. I don't think Mr. Planter would agree to it. There are limits, Miss Anabel. And in a place like this ... There are your visits for one thing. In these cases there are not usually visits."

"Oh, I know, I know, Amelia. But you'll be paid well... ."

"It's not a question of money. It's a question of appearances. In a place like this ..."