Page 143 of The Mistress of Ashmore Castle

‘Looks like snow, my lady,’ Josh said again. ‘You don’t want to get caught in it.’

‘I’ll turn for home as soon as the first flake falls,’ she promised. ‘But I don’t think it will. It’s too cold for snow.’ And she turned the reluctant Pharaoh and drove him firmly out through the gate and into a canter up the hillside.

The sombre sky was like pewter, and the sun, reaching weakly for its winter zenith, showed as a swollen red ball through the indigo brush-strokes of bare branches. The last part of the route to Castle Cottage was under the lee of the woods, and by then rider and horse were warmed up, though Alice’s hands were burning with cold. She turned down the track under the trees at last, and into an eerie stillness and twilight. Pharaoh’s hoofs made no sound, and the birds were all silent, huddled away somewhere.

But there was sound coming from the cottage, the intermittent thud and crack of logs being split; and at the same moment she smelt the delicious tang of woodsmoke. As she rode into the yard, Dolly gave a single welcoming bark to announce her, and Axe came out from the smaller barn.

‘Wasn’t expecting any visitors today,’ he said. ‘Colder’n a witch’s curse.’

‘Josh says it’s going to snow,’ she replied, halting Pharaoh and loosing her foot from the stirrup.

‘Might do,’ he said. ‘Hard to say.’

‘I said it was too cold to snow. Anyway, I’ve been cooped up indoors for days. My sister’s back, and she had so much to tell me, I had to sit and listen to her.’

He stood his long-handled axe carefully against the door frame and came to jump her down. He was a patch of cheerful colour in the grey day, wearing a red woollen shirt – he had taken off his jacket when the exercise made him warm.

‘My hands are frozen,’ she said. ‘The rest of me’s all right, though.’

‘Give ’em here,’ he said. She pulled off her gloves and held out her hands, and he folded them between his own, which were hot from the axe-handle. ‘Bet ol’ Pharaoh didn’t like coming out.’

‘He tried to bite Josh, then he tried to kick him.’

‘We’ll put him in with Della, she’ll like the company. Hands all right now?’

‘Yes, thanks. Have you been out today?’

‘Course we have. Bit o’ cold don’t stop us. Ready for a cup of tea now, though.’ They led Pharaoh towards the stable. ‘Heard Lady Rachel was back, and his lordship and her ladyship. Weren’t long in Germany, were they?’

‘You always know everything,’ she marvelled. ‘I think the birds must tell you.’

He gave his most cat-like smile. ‘How was the wedding?’

‘Rachel said it was odd. I can imagine – it’s strange to think of one’s mother marrying someone else.’

‘She’s not that old, your mother.’

‘It’s not age so much as – well, they sort of come as a set, you know, mother and father. When you’ve grown up with them.’

‘I expect we’ll see him here some time, your mother’s new husband. Prince of somewhere?’

‘Usingen. It’s near Frankfurt.’ His smile said he didn’t know where Frankfurt was, either. ‘They’ll be in England some time next year. They’re doing a sort of grand tour of all their relatives, and he has a lot, according to Rachel, so it’ll take a while before they get round to us.’

She spent a few minutes petting Della, then had to say hello to Cobnut, who was in the barn, and the cats who were keeping him company. ‘Like a hot-water bottle he is to them,’ Axe said. ‘Sit on his back when he’s standing up, then when he lies down they curl up along his belly.’

‘I expect they keep him warm, too,’ Alice said.

‘True. Nothing so warm as a cat on your lap of an evening.’

Inside the house it was warm and welcoming with the fire glowing in the range and the kettle steaming thoughtfully on the slow plate. Dolly hurried past them straight to the hearth. Another cat, a smart ginger tabby, that had slipped in with them, darted into the scullery to see if there was anything left in Dolly’s food bowl, then stalked daintily, with a slight swerve to rub Axe’s legs, to the fire, sat down beside the dog and started a thorough wash.

‘What’s in the satchel?’ Axe asked, as she pulled it off over her head.

She showed him. ‘A new book for you. I’ll take back Oliver Twist if you’ve finished it.’

‘Not quite,’ he said. ‘But ’nother couple of these long evenings’ll do it.’

‘I’ll take it next time, then.’