"Perhaps you ought to know," Janet rejoined with some dryness. "Now I come to think of it, you're not always very bright. Anyhow, when she finds the game tiresome, she'll soon get rid of you."
"I meet Miss Osborn now and then and sometimes she stops and speaks. That is all," Kit said sternly.
"I imagine it's enough," Janet remarked. "Well, I don't want to see you made to look a fool; you're rather a good sort, Kit, if you're not very clever. Be careful and remember you have been warned."
She gave him a friendly nod and went off, but after a few moments turned and looked back. Kit was walking down the road with swift angry strides. Janet smiled, but when she entered the mill-house kitchen her face was flushed. Soon after she sat down by the fire, Bell came in and leaned against the table with an angry frown.
"There's two mair trucks o' coal, and I canna find room for t' stuff," he said. "Yards is full and I only sold three or four car loads last week."
Janet knew silence was prudent when her father was disturbed, but he had given her a lead. Kit was a fool, and although she doubted if he were as dull as he pretended, she was angry with him. Anyhow, it might be possible to stop his ridiculous infatuation for Miss Osborn.
"You can't sell coal when the Askews are giving peat away," she said.
"Looks like that," Bell agreed. "I'd ha' broke the others before noo if I hadn't had Peter and Kit against me. Hooiver, if I canna sell coal, I canna pay the rent and landlord will have to do something. Mayhappen it will be easier for him if he kens the Askews started the plot. Osborn's none too fond of them."
"He wouldn't like them any better if he knew what I know," Janet remarked with a malicious smile.
"What do you ken about them?" Bell asked scornfully.