Show yn ARK D y 11 ll l l I 1 I 1 ice CHAPTER I 1 lark lark drew comfort from his warmth the touch of the horses rank bank under her hand started the fine throbbing pulse in her fingertips she cupped her palm a little drawing his life into hers he turned his head and watched her breathing softly against the coppery cloud of her hair on his neck madoc she whispered darling how can I 1 stand losing you how can I 1 let you go he whinnied softly as if he recognized the urgent tenderness of her tone as if he understood her she flung her arm over his neck and pressed her face against his curving throat they were cloaked together in the gray blanket of the soft wet dawn but sunlight was beginning to thread the dusty windows of the low stable its shining shafts making a forward march through the open door from the muddy cobbled courtyard beyond the horse a thoroughbred sorrel with a fine sleek coat gleaming and warm as polished bronze stood fetlock deep in the hay of the big box stall nearby near by munching his morning oats was a sturdy pony the parsons pony the girl lark shannon had given them both their allotment of food and water but it was in madocs stall that she lingered she had ridden and loved this horse since she was a child he was hers a free living vital part of her very self of her father who was recently dead of their life together the sense of loneliness complete and suffocating came over her bethel north had sold madoc bethel had had the power and right to do this madoc was lost to her and she found it almost as hard to realize this as it had been to accept the fact that her father was lost to her next door across the muddy barn lot beyond the dripping hawthorn hedge she could see bethel moving about in the north kitchen preparing the early sabbath breakfast heating water for baths busy virtuous bethel larks suspicion of her own unworthiness had begun on the very evening weeks past when her father jack shannon had come jogging home in the pony cart dead his thick kindly body slumped against the dashboard the lines trailing on the road A wonderful way to go everybody said so quick like the village stonecutter stone cutter told lark with doleful cheer not a bed rid day for rector shutting her eyes now lark saw again those square sure fingers cutting the final legend in the sandstone john paul shannon march 3 1766 june 30 1816 death where Is thy sting gratitude was a virtue extolled by bethel she was insistently grateful for her own life her moral strength her thrift her acceptance of fate rebelling against bethel was like rebelling against the rain that dripped in spite of the thin sunlight from the stable eaves like rebelling against old age or gravity lark knew that knew that her own foolish outburst last night had cost her madoc leaning against the comfort and warmth of madocs neck where the little muscles ran quivering inquiring under her touch lark relived relieved that time last night heard again every foolish word shed said at the supper table the back taxes will leave very little from the sale of rectors house that had been bethel addressing lark through old jaggers bethels berthels Be kindly ineffectual husband but a little something bethel jaggers had remonstrated glancing at lark and away yet taxes is dear youre right bethel the way they eat into a bit of money is is a caution A rector of the church bethel had gone on who keep his own hour in mind is hard to understand a rector who leaves his child to be a care on neighbors and lark fighting back the tears of helpless anger had said as stupid and perhaps as wicked a thing as she could have concocted after an hours thought she realized now she had put in words a bodiless daydream day dream an impossible vision of escape that she had drawn on more perhaps than shed known 1 I plan to leave england tor for america bethel 1 I 1 I will marry david north I 1 will go to him with the money my father left me my father left it for that purpose even aishe as aishe said it lark knew they believe her knew that she would regret this lip lie as long as she lived knew it with the awful certainty of destruction lest ruction the crimson guilt of a person who distorts the truth kneib knew it and was ashamed and frightened of the thick hick silence you are promised to our son david north bethel had asked why has he never written a word of this to us beyond speech now lark had merely stared at them youre a great girl of eighteen bethel had reminded her you claim to be promised to david cant you speak and though she remembered well enough davids leave taking when he had gone to america ill come back to get you lark when youre old enough to be a mans wife dont cry my little dear ill give you a fine house on a hill and a carriage with four black horses because youre still my little sweet she knew it was only the pretty sentimental speech of a man to a gangling child of thirteen she knew that but she plunged on because she help it because because bethel seemed to will her to and and because she a I 1 III 1 I iove love david he said he would come to me really did love david she was saying it aloud stupidly shamelessly telling them 1 I love david he said he would come for me or send for me I 1 will write to david that I 1 am going out to him bethel jack shannon give david the money to go to america jaggers had spoken up cautiously maybe he knew lark was promised at thirteen bethel had snapped ill tell you what I 1 think husband she promised then ashes not promised now ashes no regard for truth lark be a liar ill take the money from the sale lark had said wildly you cant call me that I 1 love david ill go to him ill ship my horse madoc to america to be a dowry to david my father would have been happy to see me set my feet in the new land with david for a husband and madoc to start a stable madoc has good blood hes worth a lot of money david will be proud to have madoc he will be very glad to have me come to him lark had cleared the table and crept up to bed but nothing further had been said lying in her bed in the silent house she had tried to feel the nearness of her own old home next door but this accustomed comfort was gone it was as if her fathers familiar ghost had faded now with the selling of his property his comfortable old chair his little house his fi fine I 1 ne blo blooded odeil horse frantically lark had tried to call him back jack shannon had loved this simple place never an ambitious man he had been happy here where the farms were poor and isolated where the little stone church often held no more than a dozen people in the congregation he had delighted in far off parish calls had loved to ride across the country to carry comfort to some old granny or to baptize a sickly baby the country people joked among themselves saying it was a caution that the horse madoc invited into the church to kneel down and pray in a front pew where rector could keep an eye on him he was that fond of him always he had been known as the riding parson even in larks former and tand more spacious life when her mother was alive lark remembered m his love of horses his love of life and people his generosity his kindling smile the loss of her mother the leaving of a big 1 and beautiful house vague now in in her memory had been softened by her fathers hand on hers his energy and understanding his special b beliefs im too heavy for a blood horse to carry hed said in late years ill use the pony cart you ride madoc lark bethel north nearest neighbor to the shannona Sh annons had remonstrated with point and vigor your lark is a pretty sight I 1 must say wild hair flying and legs astride that that red beast what kind of talk does she make among the rough men and boys david can tell you he has a softness for her hed never be one to stand a tongue against her hes been in more fights than one over her good name how do you like that jack shannon had let out a rip roaring oath queer man for a parson people said human as any yet with the love of god so sure in him you could see it shining out of his eyes hes apologized to bethel but had let her and the rest of the village know that larks life was her own and he was there to back her up in the living of it it would be well jack shannon had further suggested to bethel it if she allowed her own son david a bit of freedom the boy was set to go to america he and carve a new life for himself why bethel help him she could naturally rector shannon had known very well that bethel owned the north house controlled the money and even collected jaggers small pension from the crown earned by serving with the british army in its war against american independence he mentioned these facts with delicacy but he mentioned them jaggers got himself a knee wound in that trouble bethel had said defensively fen and yet he fills david with his tales why he go and stay in that wild land I 1 want to know he was loyal enough to come back over a lot of ocean water to you bethel and hed like to see his boy follow his dream had you thought about that ive thought jaggers gets a proper heathen look to his very eyes when america is named to him ive thought how fine it would be for people to mind their own affairs even parsons lark remembered that because jack shannon had told her laughing deeply she remembered the day david had left for america too it had been back in 1811 his twenty first birthday and she had covered his cheek with thirteen year old kisses this old friend david north man hero world adventurer this man lark loved with all the fierce sensitive adoration of thirteen he had gone with jack shannona Sh annons money in his pocket bethels berthels Be dismal and larks clear worship her tears on his cheek he would come back she knew that she tell them then because they would have laughed but she knew it knew it when he wrote her an occasional letter was sure of it when he sent her the gift the red silk handkerchief which he said was called a red baskall Ra red the color of love the symbol of a warm heart she had worn wom the red baskall tied about her curls she had been sixteen then almost grown up she could see it now hanging on a nail in the stable there she had heard less often from david lately she was grown up she knew now that he really meant to send for her that his parting words had been fanci ful jaggers came in quickly through the wide flung stable door he nodded to lark and sat down on a bale of hay a slight rugged little man nearing sixty a tired mild little man with shaggy brows and a high forehead and kind unhopeful eyes he pulled a straw from a bale and ran it between his teeth looking once at lark and then away out the door at the pigeons waddling and slipping on the muddy cobbles sure been he said devil beatin his wife was the old sayin when it sunned and rained together that the stage stopping a minute ago lark asked 1 I wonder how it happened to stop here it do stop now and then he took a thick slice of bread from his pocket and held it out to lark you missed your breakfast heres a bit of bread eat it do lark thanked him and accepted it she said are you going to take madoc to the livery stable today 1 I dont know jaggers keen kind little terrier eyes were fixed on lark would you lark would you want it the way you said it last night at supper I 1 mean if it was to come about that david send for you in the new land would you be a scared to go honest now TO BE CONTINUED |