Виктория Холт: The Black Opal

“I’ll just put something on that leg.

Then we’ll see about getting you home. Where do you come from, dearie?”

“I live at Commonwood House with Dr. Marline and his family.”

“Oh,” she said.

“Well, fancy that!” She shook as though with secret laughter.

“They’ll be worried about you, dearie, so we’d better get a message to them.”

“They won’t worry about me … not yet.”

“Oh, all right, then. We’ll get that stocking off, shall we?”

“You all right?” said Jake.

The woman nodded.

“Call you when we want you.”

“Right you are,” said Jake, grinning at me in a friendly way.

“Now then,” said the woman. I had taken off my stocking and was gazing ruefully at the blood which was oozing out of the wound.

“Wash it first,” she said.

“Here.” She indicated one of the children who had followed us into the caravan.

“Get me a basin of water.”

The child ran to do her bidding and half filled a basin, which stood on the overcrowded bench, with water from an enamel jug which also stood there.

The woman had a piece of cloth and began bathing my leg. I looked in horror at the blood-soaked rag and the reddening water in the basin.

“That’s nothing to worry about, dearie,” she said.

“That’ll soon heal.

I’ve got something to put on it. Made it myself. Gipsies know these things. You can trust the gipsy. “

“Oh, I do,” I said.

She smiled at me, flashing her magnificent teeth.

“Now, this might hurt a bit at first. But the more-it hurts the quicker it’ll get better, see?”

I said I did.

“Ready?”

I winced.

“All right? You the doctor’s little girl, are you?”

“No. Not exactly. I’m just there.”

“Staying there, are you?”

“No. I live there. I’m Carmel March.”

“That’s a nice name, dearie.”

“Carmel means garden, and that’s where they found me, and because it was March, they called me that.”

“In a garden!”

“Everyone round here knows. I was left under the azalea bush. The one that gave Tom Yardley a lot of trouble one year.

The woman was staring at me in amazement and kept nodding her head slowly.

“And you live there now, do you?”

“Yes.”

“And they’re good to you?”

I hesitated.

“Sally is and Miss Harley and Adeline … and, of course.

Uncle Toby, but. “

“Not the doctor and his wife?”

“I don’t know. They don’t take much notice, but Nanny Gilroy always tells me I don’t belong there.”

“She’s not very nice, is she?”

“She just thinks I ought not to be there.”

“That don’t sound very nice to me, lovey. Now I’m going to wrap this up.”

“It’s very kind of you.”

“We’re nice people, gipsies. Don’t you believe all the things you hear people say about us.”

Oh, I don’t. “

“I can see you don’t. You’re not a bit scared of me, are you?”

I shook my head.

“You’re a brave little girl, you are. What we’re going to do is take you back. Jake will have to carry you because you can’t walk. But what we’re going to do first is give you a nice toddy, and we can have a little chat while you rest a bit. Your ankle will be all right. It’s only a sprain. It’ll hurt a bit but soon it will be well. Mustn’t walk on it yet, though. This is a drink of herbs … soothing after a shock and you’ve had one of them, dearie.”

The ‘toddy’ was rather pleasant. She watched me closely while I drank it.

“There now,” she said.

“You and me, we’ll have a little chat. You tell me about the doctor and his wife, and Nanny, and all of them. They feed you well, do they?”

“Oh yes.”

“That’s a good thing.”

She listened with great interest while I told her about Commonwood House.

“I don’t like the sound of that Nanny,” she said.

“She is supposed to be a good nanny really. It’s just that she thinks I’m not good enough to be brought up with the others.”

“And you let her know different from that, I’ll be bound.”

Her shoulders shook with laughter and I joined in. Then she said seriously: “Do you mind about that Nanny?”

“Well … yes … a bit … sometimes.”

Then I told her about Uncle Toby and her eyes shone with secret mirth.

“And he gave you the box with the monkeys. My word, he seems a nice man.”

“Oh, he is … he is.”

“And you like him and he likes you?”

“I think he likes me better than the others.”

She nodded her head and again her shoulders heaved.

“Well, dearie,” she said.

“That does not surprise me one little bit.”

It was a wonderful adventure. I liked her. She told me her name was Rosie. Rosie Perrin. Then I explained that I might have been called Rose and why.

“Fancy that!” she said.

“We should have been two blooming Rosies, shouldn’t we?”

I was rather sorry to be taken back to Commonwood House.

There was some consternation when Jake arrived with me in his arms.

“Little Miss has had a fall,” he explained to Janet, the housemaid who opened the door to him.

Janet didn’t know what to do, so Jake stepped into the hall.

“She can’t walk,” said Jake.

“I’d best take her to her bed.”

He followed Janet up the stairs to the nursery quarters. Nanny was horrified.

“My patience me!” she said.

“What next?”

“Little maid’s had a fall in the woods,” Jake explained.

“Can’t stand on her feet. I’ll put her on her bed.”

Sally was there, round-eyed and curious, watching while I was laid on my bed. Then Janet conducted Jake down stairs and the storm broke.

“What on earth did you think you was up to … bringing gipsies into the house?” demanded Nanny.

“She couldn’t walk,” said Sally.

“He had to carry her.”

“I never heard the like. What were you up to? In the woods, were you?

With the gipsies? “

I said: “They found me when I fell over. They were very kind to me.”

“Kind, my foot! They’re always out to get what they can from gentlefolk.”

“They didn’t get anything. They gave me a toddy.”

“What next? What next? I shall go straight down to the mistress and tell her what’s happened.”

The result was a visit from the doctor. Nanny was standing there, her lips tight, her eyes accusing me. The doctor scarcely spoke to her. I had the idea he did not like Nanny very much. He smiled at me rather nicely, I thought.

“Well,” he said.

“What have you been doing?”

“I fell over in the woods,” I told him.

“The gipsies found me. One of them gave me a toddy and put stuff on my leg with a bandage.”

“Well, let’s have a look at it, shall we? Does it hurt?”

“Not now. It did.”

He touched my ankle.

“You’ve strained it,” he said.

“Twisted it a bit. No real damage done.

You must let it rest for a few days. ” He took off the bandage and said, ” H’m, That’s all right,” he went on.

“Let’s keep the bandage on for a while. This will do for now.” He tied it up deftly and gave me that nice gentle smile.

“Not much harm done,” he added reassuringly.

“She shouldn’t have been in the woods,” said Nanny.

“Bringing those people into the house.”

He gave Nanny that rather cool look which confirmed my belief that he did not like her at all.

He said: “Carmel could not have walked back herself. It was good of them to take care of her. I dare say Mrs. Marline will want to write a note thanking them for their kindness.”