Bridle the Wind (33 page)

I said: ‘I never knew. I thought, the whole time, that she was a boy!'

‘She must be quite a doughty young lady, this Juana,' said my grandfather.

‘Oh, Grandfather! If you knew the things she had done – the things she dared. There is nobody like her!' Surely, I thought, she is not intended to be a religious? Expiation for the tragic death of her Aunt Laura? And then another blinding flash of revelation came to me. Her Aunt Laura –

‘Is she a handsome young lady?' my grandfather was inquiring suavely.

‘You could hardly say so. Oh, I don't know – I have only seen her thin and scrawny and half starved, with her hair cut off – '

And her lies and her thefts, I thought; her deceits and her poetry and her nonsense and her kindness. No, there is nobody like her. I have to see her again.

‘Well, you must tell me all about her,' said the Conde. He added, half to himself, ‘Very old, honourable race, the Euskara.
“Notoriamente hidalgos”
Hmm. Also about the Abbot of St Just. I have had a most singular letter from a worthy man who signs himself Fr. Antoine at that establishment. He tells a strange rigmarole. But that, I think, must wait until tomorrow, perhaps, for you are beginning to look somewhat weary.'

Could I ever tell that tale to Grandfather? I
wondered. It seemed, here, like news from another world.

‘I suppose that as soon as you are rested you will be wanting to gallop off and visit all those other disreputable friends that you seem to have made on your travels.'

‘Oh, yes, Grandfather, I shall! Sam, and Don Enrique – the good sisters who are looking after my mule in the convent at Santander – and Don Jose Lopez and Nieves – I hope that some of them may come and visit me here.'

‘Well, well,' he said indulgently, ‘We can do with the sound of young voices about the place. It has been quiet for too long. Run along, now, however, to your bed. It is a great happiness to me to have you back with us, Felix.'

But after I had kissed him good-night and left his presence, I did not go directly to bed. I was too restless for that. I went out into the courtyard and looked up at the stars – the huge, cold, blazing stars of north Spain.

Those same stars, I thought, were blazing down on Juana in the Forest of Iraty – or wherever she was now.

I remembered her poem:

I had left out a couple of lines, the poem
was not quite fast in my head yet, but I would scan them when I went in. I felt the paper crackle in my jacket pocket.

Repeating those four lines again, I wandered on into the stableyard. And there a purring shadow detached itself from a pile of sacks and came to rub its head against my leg.

My old cat Gato, waiting for me. I picked him up, buried my nose in his hay-scented fur, and made much of him, thinking of all that awaited me in the coming days: there were friends to see, visits to pay, old tasks and occupations to resume.

And now, as well, I had another journey to make.

About the Author

Joan Aiken was born in Sussex in 1924. She wrote over a hundred books for young readers and adults and is recognized as one of the classic authors of the twentieth century. Amanda Craig, writing in
The Times
, said, ‘She was a consummate storyteller, one that each generation discovers anew.' Her best-known books are those in the James III saga, of which
The Wolves of Willoughby Chase
was the first title, published in 1962 and awarded the Lewis Carroll prize. Both that and
Black Hearts in Battersea
have been filmed. Her books are internationally acclaimed and she received the Edgar Allan Poe Award in the United States as well as the Guardian Award for Fiction in this country for
The Whispering Mountain
.

Joan Aiken was decorated with an MBE for her services to children's books. She died in 2004.

 

Also by Joan Aiken

Other titles in The Felix Trilogy:

Go Saddle the Sea

The Teeth of the Gale

The Wolves Chronicles:

The Wolves of Willoughby Chase

Black Hearts in Battersea

Night Birds on Nantucket

The Stolen Lake

Limbo Lodge

The Cuckoo Tree

Dido and Pa

Is

Cold Shoulder Road

Midwinter Nightingale

The Witch of Clatteringshaws

Lady Catherine's Necklace

For further details on these and other

Joan Aiken books, see:
www.joanaiken.com

BRIDLE THE WIND

AN RHCP DIGITAL EBOOK 978 1 446 43075 0

Published in Great Britain by RHCP Digital,

an imprint of Random House Children's Publishers UK

A Random House Group Company

Red Fox edition first published 1997

This ebook edition published 2013

Copyright © The Estate of Joan Aiken, 1983

Cover artwork copyright © David Frankland, 2013

First Published in Great Britain by Jonathan Cape, 1983

The right of Joan Aiken to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

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