Read The Homecoming for Free Online Page B

southern end of the garden, marking its boundary, was a small stream. On the other side of the stream was a large oak tree with wide spreading branches. His eye caught a glimmer of white among the shifting leaves.
    He smiled and strode across the flat stepping-stones in the stream.
    He stood under the tree and looked up. “You are discovered, Miss Lizzie.”
    The leaves above him parted and her face looked down. “Fiddle,” said Miss Lizzie Beverley crossly.
    “Come down,” he commanded.
    A pair of neat ankles came into view. She slipped, and missed her footing. He caught her in his arms as she fell, feeling for one moment her soft pliant body against his own. A strand of that red, silky hair had come loose from its pins and blew across his mouth.
    “Have you found Mr. Bond?” asked Lizzie when he had set her on her feet.
    “Neither Mr. Bond nor Miss Trumble.”
    “Then you must play properly.”
    “Very well. For your information, Miss Trumble is in the tack-room and Mr. Bond is behind the hedge at the front of the garden, which is cheating because that is out on the road.”
    “But if you did not tell them they had been seen, then they may have moved somewhere else.”
    “Possibly. Let us go and see.”
    “How clever of you to find me,” said Miss Trumble when they opened the tack-room door. And Mr. Bond, when called, came sheepishly out from behind the hedge.
    “Now it is your turn, Lizzie,” said Miss Trumble.
    Lizzie obediently sat down at the table and covered her eyes. When she uncovered them and looked up, it was to find her mother standing there. “The duke’s carriage is outside. His crest is on the panel,” said Lady Beverley. “Why was I not informed, and what are you doing here with your hair in a mess and leaves in your gown?”
    “We are playing hide-and-seek, Mama.”
    “Who is ‘we’?”
    “The duke, his secretary, Miss Trumble, and me.”
    “What will he think of such inelegant behaviour?”
    “He is playing as well, Mama,” said Lizzie patiently. “I must go and find him and the others. You were not informed of his visit because you are unwell.”
    “I shall wait here,” said Lady Beverley crossly. “But when this stupid game is over, go inside and get Betty to tidy your hair and change your gown.”
    Lizzie ran off. She quickly discovered Miss Trumble, only half-hidden by a bush. Peter had decided to change his hiding-place from behind the corner of the house to a bush opposite and Lizzie caught him as he ran across.
    “Now for your master,” she said.
    She searched diligently in all her own hiding places without success. Where on earth could he be? He was so tall. Where would he hide?
    Where would he expect her
not
to look for him?
    She smiled suddenly. She was sure he would hide where she had hidden herself, being sure she would never think of looking there.
    Lizzie made her way through the garden, over the stepping-stones, and stood under the oak tree.
    “Come down!” she called.
    She could not possibly see him, he thought. He had climbed to the topmost branches, those that could bear his weight, and knew he was well-screened by thick leaves. It was childish, but he wanted to win the game.
    And then he heard her begin to climb. She cannot climb this far up, he thought. But he heard a rustling in the leaves and branches until, like an elfin jack-in-the-box, her head popped through the screen of leaves and she grinned up at him. “Caught, Your Grace. Well and truly caught.”
    “Very well, you win,” he capitulated. “I trust you can get down.”
    “Easily,” said Lizzie. She peered down through the branches and gave a little gasp of fright. The ground seemed to be a terribly long way away. Her head disappeared but then her shaky voice reached his ears. “I cannot. I am stuck.”
    He cautiously left his perch and edged down. “You will stand on me!” screeched Lizzie.
    He looked down on her red head.
    “I will slide down onto that branch next to you and then