Read Forbidden for Free Online

was having.
    The few people at the other end of the beach were coming this way. They seemed to know one another. They were gesticulating, sometimes slowing to talk.
    I hobbled back to the house. When I reached the door, I paused. Where was Lamb? Would he be as permissive as he had been earlier? Would he remember that I was friend to Aunt Minnie? Was the quill still in my pocket?
    It was. I took it out and held it at the ready. In my other hand, I clutched my shoes. One would be good as a stout club.
    I opened the door an inch. “Lamb?” I called, cajolingly. “It’s Josie.” I took a deep breath. There I was, talking as if the dog understood, as if he knew my name! That was all right for my aunt Minnie, who I had already decided was slightly strange. But not for me.
    Listening, I heard nothing.
    I opened the door a little wider and saw Lamb lying in front of the lintel. To get in, I would have to step over him, which I did, holding my breath.
    He made no move.
    “Good dog,” I whispered.
    He lifted his head and gazed at me. His tail wagged peacefully.
    Whatever he’d been told of me, he remembered.
    I edged to the stairs and climbed to my room. The brimming basin of water was where I had left it. I bent over it. Yes, little bits of roofing that might be a hundred years old floated on top. There was pebbly dirt too, scattered across the bottom. I had been foolish to use it.
    The foot of my stocking was wet and sandy. I eased the stocking off and peered closely at my ankle. The redness had spread alarmingly across the top of my foot, and it hurt simply to look at it.
    The bite needs more than salt water, Eli with the blue-green eyes had said. The blue-green eyes and the hair black as a crow. I was beginning to think he was right.
    Where were my uncle and aunt? On this, my first day, one would have thought they would have stayed with me or at least informed me of their plans. But they had not. I felt a rush of self-pity and pushed it away. There was no need to be childish.
    When I went back down, the sitting room was still empty, save for the dog, who appeared oblivious to me. There must be something I could find to dull this pulsating pain. Some salve or unguent. My uncle had been an apothecary, after all. He still was. Wouldn’t he have brought some of his medicines with him?
    Lamb lifted his head and watched me.
    The sharpened quill in my pocket did not reassure me. But there was a knife on the draining board. I moved it to where I could easily reach it, should the need arise.
    When I looked at him again, he had closed his eyes. I breathed more easily.
    Shelves were stacked in the kitchen corner. On them were bags of flour and sugar, a drum of salt, cornstarch, treacle, a round of butter sitting in a bowl of water. There was potato bread tied up in a cloth. Carrots and parsnips in a gaping sack underneath.
    No salves or balms there.
    I took a triangle of potato bread to ease my hunger.
    There was one last cupboard, small and undistinguished. It was high above the shelving, out of my reach. I hopped to the nearest chair, one foot raised. It was the chair my aunt Minnie had sat on last night.
    Across from me, too close, Lamb moved, and I froze. But he had only stretched sleepily and put his head down again.
    It was hard to drag the chair and place it underneath the small, high cupboard. I struggled and got it in place, then hiked my dress up and tucked it into my pantaloons so it would not trip me. I clambered onto the chair, uncertain still if I could reach the cupboard.
    A large Toby Jug depicting a scowling pirate with a dagger in his teeth watched me from the high shelf, as if forbidding me to proceed. I looked away from him and stretched up my arms, my fingers touching a lock.
    There was a sudden growl behind me.
    I stiffened, arms raised, too afraid to lower them and turn around. I moved my head cautiously and saw Lamb. He was right beneath me, and I stifled a scream as he put both front paws on the chair and