Kingdom Lost by Patricia Wentworth Page A

value, and if Mr. Brand had not been able to leave his son some hundreds a year from other sources, Timothy would have been forced to take his farming tastes to one of the Dominions.
    As Valentine jumped out, the door opened and a girl in a bright blue cotton dress ran to meet them. She had fair hair rather like Timothy’s, and a peaked thin face which looked pretty when she was flushed with excitement; her eyes were a very bright pale blue. She looked at her coat on the strange girl. And then Valentine made one of her quick movements.
    â€œOh, Lil! You are Lil, aren’t you? Timothy has brought me to breakfast. And I’ve made your coat wet—and Timothy says you’ll lend me some proper clothes.”
    â€œShe’s drenched,” said Timothy. “Take her away and give her something dry to put on.”
    Valentine followed Lil Egerton up a staircase with heavy oak newel posts into a whitewashed bedroom that had bright blue curtains at the casement windows.
    Lil stared as the coat came off. What clothes!
    â€œHave you been in the river?”
    â€œNo—only in the woods. I didn’t think there was anything so lovely—” She broke off, slipping out of the wet smock and displaying a pink Parisian undergarment to Lil’s astonished eyes. “And there were creatures—do you think I had better wash my feet?—There was one with a bushy tail that ran up a tree and held up his paws and made such a funny scolding noise. Do you think he was a squirrel? Edward told me about squirrels, but I’ve never seen one. Oh, thank you! It was the long thorny things that scratched me.”
    â€œWhat does it feel like?” said Lil suddenly.
    She had poured water into a bowl and was watching Valentine’s quick movements.
    â€œWhat do you mean?”
    â€œEverything,” said Lil with a wave of the towel she was holding. “I wanted to see you before you got used to it all. I’d have given anything to be there when you arrived yesterday, but of course Mrs. Ryven—”
    â€œWhy do you call her Mrs. Ryven?”
    Lil tossed her head.
    â€œI’d like to see her face if I were to call her Helena!” She laughed. “She’s Timothy’s half-sister, and I’m Timothy’s half-sister. But she’s always taken particular pains to make it quite clear that I’m not a relation, so I wondered when I was going to be allowed to see you.”
    Her antagonism to Helena Ryven was so plain that Valentine was abashed. She took the towel and sat down on the floor to dry her feet. After a moment she looked up sideways, as a bird looks at a crumb which he does not feel quite sure about.
    â€œI’ve never talked to a girl before.”
    â€œHow do you get on with Mrs. Ryven and the great Eustace?” Lil never took hints; when she wanted to know things she asked about them and went on asking.
    Valentine finished drying her left foot in silence.
    â€œWell—how did you get on with her? Of course Eustace is frightfully good looking. But I never know what to talk to him about—he won’t be bothered, you know. Did he talk to you?”
    Valentine looked up with a faint, fleeting gleam in her eyes.
    â€œHe said, ‘How do you do, Valentine?’ and he shook hands with me. And directly after Timothy had gone he said ‘Good-night, Valentine,’ and he shook hands again. He has a very large hand to shake—hasn’t he? And then he got into his car and went back to London.”
    â€œAnd left you all alone with Mrs. Ryven? Goodness! How frightful!”
    Valentine stood up.
    â€œShe was very kind. She told me stories about the house.”
    She came down to breakfast with a neat shining head, curls disposed in an orderly fashion, eyes and cheeks very bright above an old brown jumper of Lil’s. She wore shoes and stockings, and an air of being very clean and on her best behaviour.
    The dining-room was small and