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THE HEIRESS OF WYVERN COURT
by
E. SEARCHFIELD
Author of "Claimed at Last"
Illustrated
[Illustration: "'GOOD MORNING, MADAME GICHE'" (p. 65).]
Cassell and Company, Limited
London, Paris, New York & Melbourne
1900
All Rights Reserved
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAPTER I.--In the Railway Carriage--New Friends 9
" II.--Willett's Farm--Tea in the Dining-room 21
" III.--Dr. Willett--The Nutting Expedition--The Fire 35
" IV.--Oscar's Burnt Arm--Black Hole 47
" V.--Inna at the Owl's Nest--More Wrong Steps 61
" VI.--Inna's Firstfruits--On the Tor 73
" VII.--Oscar Lost--A Fruitless Search 86
" VIII.--At the Owl's Nest--The Song--The Surprise 96
" IX.--Oscar's Return--The Mystery Cleared--On the Tor Again 109
" X.--The Expedition to Swallow's Cliff--Caught by the Tide 119
" XI.--The Rescue--Cloudy Days--Good News at Last 133
" XII.--New Thoughts and Ways--The Heiress of Wyvern Court 146
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
"'Good morning, Madame Giche'" Frontispiece
"A donkey and cart came driving up" To face page 40
"It snapped, and he was gone" " 130
"Dick shook her by the hand" " 144
THE HEIRESS OF WYVERN COURT.
CHAPTER I.
IN THE RAILWAY CARRIAGE--NEW FRIENDS.
"Well, little friend, and where do you hail from?"
The speaker was a merry-faced, brown-eyed boy of eleven, with curly
brown hair--just the school-boy all over.
He had leaped into a railway carriage with cricket-bat, fishing-rod, and
a knowing-looking little hamper, which he deposited on the seat beside
him; then away went the snorting steam horse, train, people, and all,
and out came this abrupt question. "Little friend" was a mite of a girl
of nine, dressed in a homely blue serge frock and jacket, with blue
velvet hat to match: a shy little midge of a grey-eyed maiden, with
sunny brown curls twining about her forehead and rippling down upon her
shoulders, nestling in one corner of the carriage--the sole occupant
thereof until this merry questioner came to keep her company.
"I don't quite know what you mean," was the little girl's reply--a
sweet, refined way of speaking had she, and her eyes sparkled with shy
merriment, although there was a startled look in them too.
"Well, where do you come from, my dear mademoiselle?" and now the merry
speaker made a courtly bow.
"From London--but I'm not French, you know," was the retort, with the
demurest of demure smiles.
"No--just so; and where are you going?" One could but answer him, his
questions came with such winning grace of manner.
"To Cherton--to uncle--to Mr. Jonathan Willett's."
"Cherton! why, that's not far from my happy destination. I get out only
one station before you."
"Little friend" smiled her demure little smile again, as if she was glad
to hear it.
"So you're going to Mr. Willett's--Dr. Willett he's generally called,
being a physician," continued the boy, after glancing from the window a
second or two, as if to note how fast the landscape was rushing past the
train, or the train past the landscape.
"Yes; do you know him?" inquired the silvery tongue of the other.
"Oh yes; I know him!"--a short assent, comically spoken.
"I don't," sighed the little girl, as if the thought oppressed her.
"Then you'd like to know what he's like," spoke the boy, using the word
like twice for want of another.
"Yes--only--only would it be nice to talk about a person--one's uncle,
one doesn't know, be----" she did not like to say behind his back, but
the faltering little tongue stuck fast, and the small sensitive face of
the child looked a little confused.
"Ah! behind his back," spoke the boy readily. "Well, perhaps not; but
you'll know him soon enough, I'm quite sure, and all about Peggy, too.
Peggy is the best of the couple," he added.
"Do you mean Mrs. Grant, my uncle's housekeeper?"
"Yes, that very lady--only, you see, I like to call her Peggy."
"Yes," returned the child, supposing she ought to say something.
"'Tis a farm, you know--jolly old place. Do you know that?"
"Yes--that is, I know 'tis a farm; mamma told me that. But I didn't know
'twas jolly; mamma said 'twas very pretty, and home-like, and nice."
"Ah, yes! just a lady's view of the place," nodded the boy approvingly.
"The farm is the best part of it all, and so you'll say when----"
"Perhaps we'll not talk about it," broke in "little friend" timidly.
"Well, you are a precise little lady not to talk about a farm, your
uncle's farm, behind its back," laughed the boy.
"It's mamma's uncle," corrected the little maiden.
"Ah, yes! and your great uncle. Well, I thought he was an old fogey to
be your uncle--I beg your pardon--old _gentleman_ I mean." He laughed
and made a low bow, but his cheeks took a rosier tint at that real slip
of his tongue.
"Well, suppose we talk about ourselves; that wouldn't be behind our own
backs, would it?"
"Oh no!" came with a pretty jingle of laughter.
"Do you know my name? Dick."
"I thought so," replied the little girl.
"You did!--why?"
"You look like a Dick."
"Well, that's just like a girl's bosh--but still, you're right: I am
Dick Gregory, son of George Gregory, surgeon, living at Lakely, next
station to Cherton, where you get out, you know."
The girl nodded.
"Now, mademoiselle, what may your name be?" he asked, as the train
carried them into the station with a whiz.
"Inna Weston."
"Inna: is that short for anything?"
"Yes--for Peninnah: papa's mother's name is Peninnah; and so, and
so----"
"And so your father chose to let you play grandmother to yourself in the
matter of names?"
"Yes," a little ripple of a word full of laughter--her companion was so
funny.
"Now guess what's in this hamper?" was Dick's next proposition; "that's
safe ground, you know, to guess over a hamper when the owner bids you,"
he added, by way of encouragement.
"A kitten." The train was carrying them on again, without any intruder
to cut off the thread of their talk, except the guard, who put his head
in at the window, and beamed a smile on Inna, as her caretaker; then he
shut the door, and locked them in, and here was the train tearing on
again.
"Well, now, you are a good guesser for a girl," said Dick.
"I didn't guess: I knew it. I heard her mew," smiled Inna.
"Ah! Miss Inna is a little pitcher, pussy; she has sharp ears," said
pussy's master, peering and speaking through the hamper.
"Me--e--e--w!" came like a prolonged protest against all the
hurry-scurry and noise, so confusing to a kitten shut up in a hamper,
not knowing why nor whither she was travelling.
"Now, who am I taking her to? guess that; and if you guess right, I
should say you're a seventh daughter of a seventh daughter, and of gipsy
origin"--so the merry boy challenged her.
"To your sister."
"Right!" laughed Dick.
"But I'm not a seventh daughter--I'm only daughter to mamma, and so was
mamma before me; and I'm not a gipsy." Inna's face was brimming over
with shy merriment.
"Well, you ought to be, for you're a clever guesser of dark secrets,"
returned the boy. "Yes: I'm taking pussy home to my sister. Her name
is--now, what is her name?"
Inna shook her head.
"Something pretty I should say, but I don't know what."
"Oh! you're not much of a witch after all," said Dick. "No, it isn't
anything pretty--it's Jane."
Inna smiled, and looked wise.
"Well, what is it, Miss Inna? Out with it!" cried Dick, watching her
changeful little face.
"Mamma says, when one has an ugly name one must try to live a life to
make it beautiful."
"Hum! Well, that isn't bad. And when one has a beautiful name--like
Dick, for instance," said he waggishly, "what then?"
"Then the name should help the life, and the life the name--so mamma
said when I asked her."
"Well, your mother must be good," said Dick to this.
"Yes, she is." Wistful lights were stealing into Inna's eyes, and Dick
had a suspicion that there were tears in them.
"I'm not blest with one," spoke he, carelessly to all seeming.
"With no mother?" inquired his companion gently.
"I'm sort of foster-child to Meggy, our cook and housekeeper--ours is
Meggy, you know, and yours is Peggy, at Willett's Farm."
"Yes," smiled Inna, "yes." She had tided over that tenderness of spirit
caused by speaking of her mother.
The train was steaming into a station again, but no passenger intruded;
only the guard peeped in, as caretaker, to see if she was safe, as Dick
remarked, when they were moving on again.
"Has he got you under his wing?" asked he.
"The guard has me under his care; ma--mamma asked him to see me safe."
The wistfulness was coming into her eyes again.
"So she has a mother; I thought perhaps she hadn't," thought Dick. Aloud
he said bluffly, "'Tis well to be a girl, to have all made smooth for
one. Now here am I, come all the way from Wenley, turned out of school
because of the measles, and never a creature as much as to say, 'Have
you got a ticket, or money to buy one?'"
"Oh, but they'd not let you come without a ticket," smiled Inna.
"I mean our chums at school, and father at home. Of course my father
knew I was all right about money, because he'd just sent my quarter's
allowance."
"And have they got the measles at your school?"
"Yes: are you afraid of me? Infection, you know."
"Afraid? oh no!"
"Well, if you caught it you'd be all right, your uncle being a doctor. A
doctor at a farm--queer, isn't it, now?" So Dick went skimming from
subject to subject, very like a swallow skimming over the surface of
water after flies and gnats.
"Yes," Inna could but confess it was--very guardedly, though, lest they
might verge upon gossip again.
"But Peggy's the farmer; your uncle has enough to do to look after his
patients. He's a clever fo--man--so clever that some say he's got
medicine on the brain."
Inna's lips were sealed conscientiously; but out of the brief silence
that followed she put the safe question--
"What colour's your kitten?"
"White. Wouldn't you like to take a peep at her?" and good-natured Dick
held the hamper so that she might catch a glimpse of the small
four-legged traveller.
"She's a beauty!"--such was Inna's opinion of her.
"And, according to you, she ought to have a beautiful name. But what of
my sister Jane? I call her Jenny, and Jin; and that reminds me of the
other gin with a g, you know; and that carries me on to trap, and
trapper. I sometimes call her Trapper. That sounds quite romantic, and
carries one away into North American Indian story life. Have you ever
read any North American Indian stories--about Indians, and scalps, and
all that?"
"No," was the decisive, though smiling, reply.
Ah! they were steaming into a station again.
"Lakely at last, and this is my station!" cried Dick, gathering his
belongings together, so as to be ready to leap out when the train
stopped, while a porter went shouting up and down the platform, "Lakely!
Lakely!"
"Well, good-bye, little friend; mind, Cherton comes next, then 'twill be
your turn to turn out." He wrung her hand, and was out on the platform
in a twinkle, loaded like a bee, happy as a boy.
"I say, Miss Inna, I should like you to come over to our place to see
Jenny, or Trapper. I shall ask the doctor to give you a lift over in his
gig," he put his head back into the carriage to say.
Now he was scudding away down the platform, and claiming a trunk and
portmanteau from a medley of luggage, had it set aside by the porter,
who seemed to know him; this done, he darted back again, smiled in at
the carriage window, where that sweet girlish face still watched him,
and then vanished.