"Aiken, Joan - Wolves of Willoughby Chase 01 - The Wolves of Willoughby Chase UC" - читать интересную книгу автора (Aiken Joan)

bright and well-cared-for, its numerous turrets and
battlements stood up sharp against the sky, and the
crenelated balconies, corniced with snow, each held
a golden square of window. The house was all alight
within, and the joyous hubbub of its activity con-
trasted with the somber sighing of the wind and the
hideous howling of the wolves without.

In the nursery a little girl was impatiently dancing
up and down before the great window, fourteen feet

10 Joan Aiken

high, which faced out over the park and commanded
the long black expanse of road.

"Will she be here soon. Pattern? Will she?" was
her continual cry.

"We shall hear soon enough, I dare say. Miss Bon-
nie," was the inevitable reply from her maid, who,
on hands and knees in front of the fue, was folding
and goffering the frills of twenty lace petticoats.

The little girl turned again to her impatient vigil.
She had climbed up on to the window seat, the better
to survey the snowy park, and was jumping on its
well-sprung cushions, covered in crimson satin. Each
time she bounced, she nearly hit the ceiling.

"Give over. Miss Bonnie, do," said Pattern after a
while. "Look at the dust you're raising. I can hardly
see my tongs. Come and sit by the fire. We shall hear
soon enough when the train's due."

Bonnie left her perch reluctantly enough and came
to sit by the fire. She was a slender creature, small for
her age, but rosy-cheeked, with a mass oE tumbled
black locks falling to her shoulders, and two brilliant
blue eyes, equally ready to dance with laughter or
flash with indignation. Her square chin also gave
promise oг a powerful and obstinate temper, not al-
ways perfectly controlled. But her mouth was sweet,
and she could be very thoughtful on occasionЧas
now, when she sat gazing into the fire, piled high on
its two carved alabaster wolfhounds.

"I hope the train hasn't been delayed by wolves,"

she said presently.