The Buccaneer Farmer, page 89 by Harold Bindloss
<< Return to Title Details & Download90
ited in the road and Kit's heart beat fast, but not with fear.
Osborn stopped a yard or two off and looked at them with sternly controlled rage.
"It's obvious that I passed you just now," he said.
"You did; I ought to have stopped you," Kit agreed. "For a moment, it did not strike me that you were looking for Miss Osborn."
Osborn glanced at the hollow in the hedge. "It's curious you stopped at a spot where there was not much chance of your being seen."
Grace turned, as if she meant to speak, but Kit resumed: "After all, I don't know that you are entitled to question what I do on a public road."
"Certainly not," said Osborn, with forced quietness. "I have, however, a right to question my daughter's choice of her acquaintances, and it looks as if I had some grounds for using my authority." He paused and turned to Grace. "Your mother is waiting for you. You had better go home."
Grace hesitated, glancing at Kit. It was her fault that they had hidden and she would have waited had she thought he wanted her. Kit's face, however, was hard and inscrutable, and with something of an effort she went away. It was a relief to Kit that she had gone; he had meant to keep her out of the quarrel and now he was ready to talk to Osborn.
"The matter doesn't end here," the latter remarked. "There's something to be said that your father ought to know. I am going to Ashness and expect you to come with me."
"You must wait. I have some sheep at the beckfoot and it will take me half an hour to drive them home," Kit said coolly.
Osborn looked at him with savage surprise. It was unthinkable that he should be forced to wait while the fellow went for his sheep, but he saw that Kit was not to be moved and tried to control his anger.
"Very well. I will meet you at Ashness in half an hour."
Kit braced himself as he went up the road. In a sense, he was not afraid of Osborn, but he had now to meet a crisis that he ought to have seen must come. In fact, he had seen i