Free A New Dawn Over Devon by Michael Phillips Page B

asleep on a pile of hay.

 5 
Hector’s Surprise
    Hector Farnham, longtime faithful groom and servant to the Rutherfords of Heathersleigh Hall, awoke, as was his custom, an hour before the rest of the household.
    He rose, dressed, went downstairs, and ambled out into the kitchen, where he stoked the coals in the stove and added two fresh chunks of oak to make the fire ready for the housekeeper, Sarah Minsterly, and Lady Jocelyn when they awoke. He put water on for his own tea, then left the house by the kitchen door and made his way toward the barn to give the horses their first installment of breakfast, two fresh piles of fragrant alfalfa hay.
    He moved more slowly than in previous years. But even at sixty-one he still put in nearly as long a day as twenty years ago, and was more devoted than ever to his mistress and her two daughters now that the war had taken their men from them.
    He opened the barn door and entered. The familiar aromas and a few snorts and stamps of waiting hooves greeted him, the very sounds and smells of heaven to one who loved these majestic beasts as Hector did.
    He paused. Something was different this morning. The animals seemed jittery and agitated.
    Hector glanced about in the semidarkness. Could one of the horses be down? he wondered. Or had one somehow managed to get out of the barn during the night? Slowly he made his way farther inside,checking each of the stalls. He petted each long nose as he went, mumbling a few words of affection to each, while the breathy snorts of the occupants indicated their impatience to be about the business of breakfast.
    A sound disturbed the quiet behind him.
    â€œWhat’s that?” he exclaimed, spinning around with a start. “Who’s there!”
    Had a weasel or fox managed to get in and mistaken the barn for the chicken shed?
    His hand fell upon a nearby pitchfork as he crept toward the corner farthest from him. He didn’t want to come upon any uninvited guest unprepared.
    Another sound. Louder this time. Whatever the intruder was, it was too large for a fox.
    Hector squinted into the darkness. Suddenly a form darted out of the shadows toward the door.
    â€œNot so fast!” shouted Hector, deftly lunging to the right with his fork and blocking the way.
    â€œWhatever you are, this is—”
    The broken light from the door behind him fell on the face of the creature he had roused from its hiding place. The sight momentarily silenced his tongue.
    â€œWhy . . . why you’re a bit of a girl!” he exclaimed.

 6 
Bath and Breakfast
    Hector walked into the kitchen with the waif in tow. Sarah had just come down to begin her morning duties. She took one look at Hector, then turned and ran back upstairs to fetch the lady of the house.
    It took less than a minute of his attempted explanation of the dirty, cold, straggly haired, wild-eyed thirteen-year-old at his side before Jocelyn’s mother-heart took over. While Hector still stood with a bewildered expression on his face, Jocelyn and Amanda were already climbing the stairs with the girl. Catharine had disappeared ahead of them to begin preparing water for a bath.
    â€œWhat is your name, child?” were the last words Hector heard his mistress say as they disappeared around the landing. He turned, still shaking his head at the strange affair, and went out for a second time that morning to attend to his creature friends.
    Meanwhile, in the first-floor bathroom, after the bath had been prepared, Jocelyn handed their new guest, whose name she had at last managed to ascertain, a towel, a stack of fresh clean undergarments, and a nice fluffy robe.
    â€œWhen you are finished with your bath, Elsbet, dear,” she said, “come out and I will be waiting for you right here. We will find you a dress and then have breakfast together.”
    Still too bewildered at the turn of events that had so suddenly come over her, and hardly knowing what to think at