Free The Mask of the Enchantress by Victoria Holt Page B

a great future, you have, missy. Now let me look at the other little lady.
    Jessamy hesitated, and I held up her hand. I noticed how brown and grubby the gypsy was compared with Jessamy.
    ooh. Now youe going to have the luck, you are. Youe going to marry a lord and have silk sheets to sleep in. Therel be gold rings on your fingers finer than this here chain.She had taken the chain in her other hand and was examining it. h yes, youe got a fine and bonny future before you.
    A man had strolled up. He was dark like the woman.
    ou been telling the ladiesfuture, Cora?he asked.
    less their little hearts,she said softly, hey wanted to hear their fortunes. This little n comes from the big house.
    The man nodded. I did not much like the look of him. His eyes were sharp like a ferret, whereas the woman was fat and comfortable-looking.
    ope they crossed your palm with silver, Cora,he said.
    She shook her head.
    The little ferret eyes were gleaming. h, that terrible unlucky, that is. You must cross the gypsy palm with silver.
    hat will happen if we don?I asked with curiosity.
    t would all turn topsy-turvy. All the good would be bad. Oh, that terrible unlucky not to cross the gypsy palm with silver.
    e haven got any silver,said Jessamy, aghast.
    The man had his hands on the chain. He tugged at it and the clasp came undone. He laughed and I noticed what unpleasant teeth he had; they were black, like fangs.
    It occurred to me that our elders had been right and it was unwise to go walking in the woods.
    The man was holding up the chain and looking at it intently.
    t my best chain,said Jessamy. t was given to me by my papa.
    our papa is a very rich man. I reckon hel give you another.
    hat was for my birthday. Please give it back to me. My mother will be angry if I lose it.
    The man nudged the woman. reckon Cora would be angry if we didn have it,he said. ou see, she given you a service. She read your fortunes. Now that something that has to be paid for. You have to cross the gypsy palm with silver if you don terrible disaster will befall you. That so, ain it, Cora? Cora knows. She got the powers. She in touch with them that knows. The Devil a great friend of hers, too. He says to her, f any don treat you right, Cora, you just let me know.Well, telling fortunes without crossing the gypsy palm is all against the rule. But gold will do gold will do just as well.
    Jessamy was standing as though transfixed with horror. She was staring at her chain in the man hands. I sensed danger. I could see his little eyes looking at our clothes, particularly Jessamy. She was wearing a gold bracelet too. It was mercifully hidden by her sleeve.
    I suddenly knew we had to get away quickly. I seized her hand and dashed away, running as fast as I could, dragging her with me. From the corner of my eye I saw the man start after us.
    The woman shouted. et m be. Don be a fool, Jem. Let m go, and put the horses on the van.
    Jessamy was panting behind me. I stopped and listened. The man had taken Cora advice and we were not being followed.
    e gone,I said.
    o is my chain,said Jessamy mournfully.
    el tell them he came up to us and snatched it.
    hat not quite true,said Jessamy. Oh dear, I thought, these sticklers for the truth, how trying they could be!
    e did snatch it,I insisted. e mustn tell them how far into the woods we went. Well just say he came up and snatched it.
    Jessamy was very unhappy. However, I was the one who told the story, keeping to the truth as far as I could, not telling them how deeply we had penetrated into the woods and eliminating the woman and her fortunetelling.
    There was great consternationore, I realized, because we had been molested, as Aunt Amy Jane put it, than because of the loss of the chain. They sent men into the woods, but the caravan had gone, though there were the wheel marks and the remains of the fire to show where they had been.
    Aunt Amy Jane, who managed most things in the village as she did at Seton Manor, had respassers Will Be