داستان لورنا

CHAPTER FOUR

Lorna’s story

I went home with my head in the clouds, and my heart on fire with love. All that week I could not stop thinking about Lorna, and I did my work on the farm in a dream. Soon, I went to see her again.

This time when she saw me, she came quickly towards me. ‘Mr Ridd, are you mad?’ she said. ‘There are men on guard all-round the valley. We must hide at once.’ She took my hand and led me to her secret place, which was a kind of room hidden in the rock of the mountain. It was a green, peaceful place, open to the sky above, but the only way into it was through a narrow entrance in a cave.

I gave her the eggs I had brought her as a present, and at this she began to cry.

‘What have I done?’ I asked.

‘It’s nothing you’ve done,’ she said. ‘It’s just a sadness that I feel when I see anything from the world outside-and you’ve been very kind, and I’m not used to kindness.’

I wanted to put my arms around her, and kiss her, but I knew this would be wrong. So I sat and listened, and I think this made her like me more, because she began to tell me her life story. She told me everything - everything except what her feelings were towards John Ridd.

‘Only two people ever listen to me, or try to help me,’ she began. ‘One is my grandfather. Sir Ensor Doone, and the other is my uncle, a clever man, whom they call the Counsellor. My grandfather is a very old and very hard man - except with me. He seems to know what is right and wrong, but not to want to think about it. And the Counsellor smiles a lot and talks about what is right and good - but he never does a good thing himself.

‘My Aunt Sabina used to take care of me, and she taught me very carefully. She was a good person, honest and kind, and when she died, it was like losing a mother. Now there is only one woman I can talk to - Gwenny, my servant. She is my closest friend.

‘I don’t remember my father, but they say he was the eldest son of Sir Ensor Doone, and the bravest and best of them all. They say, because of that, that I am their “Queen”.

‘I dream of a world outside this one, Mr. Ridd - a world of peace. This valley is green and beautiful, but all around me is violence and robbery, and stupid behaviour. I can’t come down to their level. I can’t forget myself and live like them; And strange questions come to me, that they can never answer. When I try to think about the past, about my early childhood, I can’t remember anything. I want to know what I am, and why I am in this place. I suppose you think that’s strange. Perhaps people who are happy and at peace don’t need to ask questions like those.’

Here, Lorna began to cry again. I could think of nothing to say, but I dried her eyes for her.

‘Mr. Ridd, I am ashamed and angry at myself for talking so much, like this. But you, who have a mother who loves you, and sisters, and a quiet home, can’t tell how lonely it is to live as I do.

‘I have this secret place to come to, because I begged them for it. Only grandfather and the Counsellor come here - and sometimes Carver, the Counsellor’s son. No one in the valley is as strong or brave as him. But he is not like his father. He is rough and violent, always quick to be angry, and will listen to no opinion except his own. There is talk of him wanting to marry me, but I would rather die than marry Carver Doone.

‘Now you see how unhappy I am here. I would escape, and go anywhere, but I know it would hurt my grandfather.’

This was too much for Lorna, and she couldn’t tell me anymore. She broke down and cried. I talked to her gently and kindly until she began to worry again about the danger I was in. I said I would come back and see her again, but she made me promise not to come back for another month - so that I would not add to her problems with fears about me. During that time, we agreed that if she were in any danger, she would put a dark coat over a white rock, near her secret room. I would be able to see this from a hill above the valley, and then I would come.