Free The Runaways by Elizabeth Goudge Page A

now, and Ezra led Rob-Roy and the trap through. Nan and the boys did not get in again, for the drive beyond the gates led into such athicket of evergreens that they had to go ahead, pushing the branches back to make a way through for the trap. But though they made a way through, they didn’t seem to come through. The shrubbery appeared endless, a tangled dark forest of yews, laurels and rhododendrons , and the moss under their feet was so thick and soft that the wheels, and Rob-Roy’s hooves, made no sound. Absolom did not like it very much and kept his tail tucked down.
    ‘Lady Alicia, she don’t like visitors,’ explained Ezra. ‘Moses an’ Abednego, they comes an’ goes over the wall.’
    After that he did not say any more, for the strange twilit place imposed its own silence. It was a relief when they saw light breaking through the thinning evergreens and knew they were coming out into the open again. Presently the moss under their feet turned golden-green and an archway cut in the yews straight ahead was ablaze with sun. The children began to run, full of joy, and then suddenly there stepped into the archway, blocking out most of the sunshine, the most alarming figure.
    He was a coal-black giant with a big head and long loose arms. He had a curved knife in one hand and stood a little crouched, as though ready to spring at them. Absolom growled and the children stopped dead so suddenly that Ezra, leading Rob-Roy, bumped into Timothy.
    ‘Get on then,’ said Ezra, annoyed. ‘What’s come to ee? That’s only Moses Glory Glory Alleluja. Don’t hurt the poor chap’s feelin’s now. Gentle as a dove ’e be.’
    Nan walked bravely forward, for she was a child who would not have liked to hurt the feelings of the devilhimself, the others following, and the nearer they came to Moses Glory Glory Alleluja the less terrible did he appear, and when they were through the arch of yew and quite close to him, he was suddenly changed by some miracle of the sunlight from a figure of fear into one of the most attractive men they had ever seen. He was a black man with white woolly hair, tall but stooped about the shoulders, his face folded into deep lines of age and kindness. His eyes were sad, but his smile, as he looked at the children, was as wide with pleasure as Ezra’s own. He wore the tattered remnants of a coat of dark green livery, from which one brass button still hung by a thread, as though he had once been a coachman or footman, a gardener’s corduroy trousers and a sacking apron tied round his waist. The knife in his hand was a scythe, with which he was trying to clear a path through the mass of grass and docks and nettles in which he stood knee-deep. Nan held out her hand to him.
    ‘The children,’ he said with delight and took Nan’s hand in his. He had a fascinating hand, large as a ham, coal-black but with a pink palm. All the children shook hands and Absolom removed his tail from between his legs and wagged it. How, they all wondered, could they have felt afraid of this glorious man? After their father, Uncle Ambrose and Ezra, he was without doubt God’s masterpiece.
    ‘They’re good children as children go,’ Ezra informed him. ‘An’ Absolom’s a good dog. ’Ave ee got these ’ere beds up the ’ouse?’
    ‘Got ’em at the back door,’ said Moses. ‘Put the children in the cart or their legs will be stung.’

    They piled into the cart again and followed in the wake of Moses and Ezra, swaying through the green sea of grass and docks and nettles. Presently they realised to their astonishment that once it had been an orchard or a garden, for apple trees in full bloom and tall black cypresses grew up out of it, and ahead of them were two great trees of japonica covered with flaming blossom. The sun was bright and hot and there was the hum of bees.

    ‘Our bees?’ Robert asked.
    ‘Aye,’ said Ezra. ‘Powerful fond o’ Linden Manor, our bees be.’
    They came between the japonica trees,