The Secret of Killimooin. Страница 8

“It will be much cooler in Killimooin Castle,” said Ranni. “It is built in a cunning place, where two winds meet round a gully! It is always cool there on the hottest day. You will soon get back your rosy cheeks.”

Everyone climbed back into the cars when lunch was finished, and off they went again. “Only about an hour more and the road ends for us,” said Pilescu, looking at his watch. “It goes on round the mountains, but leaves Killimooin behind. I hope the ponies will be there, ready for us.”

“How is the baby going to ride a pony?” asked Nora. “Won’t she fall off?”

“Oh, no,” said Pilescu. “You will see what happens to the little ones.”

After about an hour, all the cars slowed down and stopped. The children looked out in excitement, for there was quite a gathering in front of them. Men with ponies stood there, saluting the cars. It was time to mount and ride, instead of sitting in a car!

It took a long time to get everyone on to the sturdy, shaggy little ponies. Nora soon saw how the little children were taken! The bigger ponies had a big, comfortable basket strapped each side of them — and into these the younger children were put! Then with a man leading each pony, the small ones were quite safe, and could not possibly fall!

“I’m not going in a basket,” said Nora, half afraid she might be told to. But all the other children could ride and were expected to do so. Each child sprang on to the pony brought beside him or her and held the reins. The ponies were stout and steady, very easy to ride, though Nora complained that hers bumped her.

“Ah no, Nora — it is you who are bumping the pony!” said Pilescu, with a laugh.

The little company set off. The nurses, who had all been country girls, thought nothing of taking their children on ponies to the castle. The smaller boys and girls chattered in high voices and laughed in delight at the excitement.

The men leading the ponies that carried baskets or panniers leapt on to ponies also, and all the little sturdy animals trotted away up the rough mountain path that led to the new castle. The people who had come to watch the royal family’s arrival waved goodbye and shouted good wishes after them. Their cottages were here and there in the distance.

The little company turned a bend in the path, and then the children saw the towering mountains very clearly, steep and forbidding, but very grand. Up and up they had to go, climbing higher little by little towards the castle Paul’s father had built the year before. No houses, no cottages were to be seen. It was very desolate indeed.

“Look at those goats!” said Peggy, pointing to a flock of goats leaping up the rocky slopes. “What a lot of them! Where’s the goatherd?”

“Up there,” said Paul. “Look — by that crooked tree.”

The goatherd stared down at the company. He had the flaming red beard that most Baronians had, and he wore ragged trousers of goat-skin, and nothing else.

“He looks awfully wild and fierce,” said Nora. “I don’t think I want to talk to goatherds if they look like that!”

“Oh, they are quite harmless!” said Ranni, laughing at Nora’s scared face. “They would be more frightened of you than you would be of them!”

It was fun at first to jog along on the ponies for the first few miles, but when the road grew steeper, and wound round and round, the children began to wish the long journey was over.

“There’s one thing, it’s lovely and cool,” said Jack.

“It will be quite cold at nights,” said Ranni. “You will have to sleep with thick covers over you.”

“Well, that will be a change,” said Jack, thinking of how he had thrown off everything the night before and had yet been far too hot. “I say — I say — is that Killimooin Castle?”

It was. It stood up there on the mountain-side, overlooking a steep gully, built of stones quarried from the mountain itself. It did not look new, and it did not look old. It looked exactly right, Nora thought. It was small, with rounded towers, and roughly hewn steps, cut out of the mountain rock, led up to it.

“I shall feel as if I’m living two or three hundred years ago, when I’m in that castle,” said Peggy. “It’s a proper little castle, not an old ruin, or a new make-believe one. I do like it. Killimooin Castle — it just suits it, doesn’t it?”

“Exactly,” said Jack. “It’s about half-way up the mountain, isn’t it? We’re pretty high already.”

So they were. Although the mountains still towered above them, the valley below looked a very long way down. The wind blew again and Nora shivered.

“Golly, I believe I shall be too cold now!” she said, with a laugh.

“Oh, no — it’s only the sudden change from tremendous heat to the coolness of the mountains that you feel,” said Ranni. “Are you tired? You will want a good rest before tea!”

“Oh, isn’t it nearly tea-time?” said Mike, in disappointment. “I feel so hungry. Look — we’re nearly at that fine flight of steps. I’m going to get off my pony.”

The caretakers of the castle had been looking out for the royal arrivals. They stood at the top of the flight of steps, the big, iron-studded door open behind them. The children liked them at once.

“That is Tooku, with Yamen his wife,” said Pilescu. “They are people from the mountains here. You will like to talk to them sometime, for they know many legends and stories of these old hills.”

Tooku and Yamen greeted the children with cries of delight and joy. They were cheerful mountain-folk, not scared at the thought of princes and princesses arriving, but full of joy to see so many little children.

It seemed no time at all before the whole company were in their new quarters. These were not nearly so grand and luxurious as those the children had had in the big palace, but not one of them cared about that. The castle rooms were small, but with high ceilings. The walls were hung with old embroidered tapestries. There were no curtains at the narrow windows — but, oh, the view from those windows!

Mountains upon mountains could be seen, some wreathed in clouds, most of them with snow on the top. The trees on them looked like grass. The valley below seemed miles away.

“Killimooin Castle has quite a different feel about it,” said Jack, with enjoyment. “The palace was big and modern and everything was up to date. Killimooin is grim and strong and wild, and I like it. There’s no hot water running in the bedrooms. I haven’t seen a bathroom yet — and our beds are more like rough couches with rugs and pillows than beds. I do like it.”

It was great fun settling down in the castle. The children could go anywhere they liked, into the kitchens, the towers, the cellars. Tooku and Yamen welcomed them anywhere and any time.

It was deliciously cool at Killimooin after the tremendous heat of the palace. The children slept well that first night, enjoying the coolness of the air that blew in at the narrow windows. It was good mountain air, clean and scented with pine.

Next morning Ranni spoke to the five children. “You have each a pony to ride, and you may ride when and where you will, if Pilescu or I are with you.”

“Why can’t we go alone?” said Paul, rather sulkily. “We shan’t come to any harm.”

“You might lose your way in the mountains,” said Ranni. “It is an easy thing to do. You must promise never to wander off without one of us.”

Nobody wanted to promise. It wasn’t nearly so much fun to go about with a grown-up, as by themselves. But Ranni was firm.

“You must promise,” he repeated. “No promise, no ponies. That is certain!”

“I suppose we must promise, then,” said Jack. “All right — I promise not to go wandering off without a nursemaid!”

“I promise too,” said Mike. The girls promised as well.

“And you, little lord?” said big Ranni, turning to the still-sulky boy.

“Well — I promise too,” said Paul. “But there isn’t any real danger, I’m sure!”