Читать книгу Gallybird онлайн

79 страница из 87

"Kinder than thy sweetheart?"

"Who's my sweetheart? I've no sweetheart."

"Aye, but thou'st Lambert Relph. He'd never carry wood for thee."

"'At that he wouldn't; but he an't my sweetheart."

"My father says thou art to marry 'un."

"And I say I never will. And if he wur my sweetheart, why didn't he come wud me to fetch yon wood? The Parson said rightly 'twas too much for me. One o' you should ha' come along to help me carry 'un."

Condemnation was no longer the silent little mouse who had crept behind Gervase Alard down the lane. He would have been surprised could he have come back and heard her voice, which ran on swift and husky as a brook.

"So I should have come wud 'ee?" said Sam. "Nay, shouldn't I have brung a pack horse and set 'ee on it wud the wood?"

"Na, but I say the old Parson's been kinder than any of you."

"Why should we be kind?"

"One of you should ha' come along of me to Udgeham. My mother meant it."

"Thy mother! Nay, my mother. Thy mother was a harlot at a fair."

"'T'an't true. Thou durstn't say it."