Bride of Pendorric

Chapter V

I could now no longer delude myself. I had to face up to all the fears which I had refused to look in the face during the last weeks.

Someone had deliberately lured me into the vault and locked me in, for I refused to believe Roc’s theory that the door had jammed. In the fast moments it was true that I may have panicked; but when I had discovered Hyson and sought to comfort her, I had regained my composure. We had both tried to open that door with all our strength and had failed. And the reason was that it had been locked. This could mean only one thing. Someone wanted to harm me. Suppose Deborah had not come by? Suppose she had not heard our call, how long could we have lived in the vault? There was a little air coming in, it was true; but we should have starved to death eventually, because it was a fact that few people came that way, and if they did we should not have heard them unless they had come close to the grating and called us.

It might have been one week. two weeks. We should have been dead by then.

I believed that that was what someone was trying to do: kill me, but in a way which, when my death was discovered, would appear accidental.

Who?

It would be the person who would benefit most from my death. Roc? I couldn’t believe that. I was perhaps illogical, as women in love are supposed to be; but I was not going to believe for one moment that Roc would kill me. He wouldn’t kill anyone—least of all me. He was a gambler, I knew; he might even be unfaithful to me; but he could never in aay circumstances commit murder.

If I died, he would be very rich. He had married me knowing that I was the granddaughter of a millionaire; he had brought me back to my grandfather, and it must have occurred to him that I would become his heir. He needed money for Pendorric, and Roc and I were partners so that my fortune would make certain that Pendorric remained entirely ours. This was all true; and whether I died or not, Pendorric was safe.

I refused to look beyond that; but I did believe that some one had locked me into the vault in the hope that I should not be discovered until I was dead.

That brought me back to the all-important question: Who?

I thought back over everything that had happened and my mind kept returning to the day when Roc had first come to the studio. My father must have known who he was as soon as he heard his name—there could not be many Pendorrics in the world—yet he had not told me. Why?

Because my grandfather had not wanted me to know. Roc was to report on me first, take pictures of me. I smiled ruefully. That was typical of my grandfather’s arrogance. As for Father, he had probably done everything he did for what he would believe to be my good. And the day he died? Roc had seemed strange that day. Or had he? He had come back to the studio and left my father to bathe alone. And when we knew what had happened had he seemed . relieved, or had I imagined it?

I must stop thinking of Roc in this way, because if I was going to find out who was seeking to harm me I must look elsewhere. There had been an occasion when I had taken the dangerous cliff path after the rain, and the warning had been removed. I remembered how uneasy I had felt then. But it was Roc who had remembered the path and dashed after me. It was reassuring to remember that. But why should it be reassuring? Because it showed that Roc loved me and wanted to protect me; that he could not possibly have had a hand in this. But of course I knew he hadn’t.

Who, then?

My mind went at once to those women in whom, I believed he had once been interested . perhaps still was. One could never be quite sure with Roc. Rachel? Althea? And what of Dinah Bond?

I remembered that she had once told me that Morwenna had been locked in the vault. What of the conversation I had heard between Morwenna and Charles? Oh, but it was natural that they should talk of my inheritance, that they should be pleased because Roc had married an heiress instead of a penniless girl. Why should Morwenna want to be rid of me? What difference could it make to her?

But if I were out of the way my fortune would go to Roc and he would be free to marry . Rachel . Althea?

Rachel had been there when we had talked about the bride in the oak chest; and if I could believe Dinah Bond, she had, long ago, locked Morwenna in the vault. She had known where to get the key; but there was only one key and Roc had that; it was an enormous key that hung in his cupboard, and the cupboard was kept locked. When they had unlocked the vault they had had to find Roc first because he had the only key.

Rachel had known this and she had managed somehow, all those years ago, to get the key from Roc’s father’s cupboard. Rachel, I thought.

I had never liked her from the moment I had first seen her.

I was going to watch Rachel.

Morwenna said that such an experience was bound to have shocked me, and I ought to take things easily for the next few days. She was going to see that Hyson did.

” I’d rather it had been Lowella who was locked in with you,” she told me one day when I came out of the house and saw her working on the flower-beds on one of the front lawns.

“Hyson’s too sensitive as it is.”

“It was a horrible experience.”

Morwenna straightened up and looked at me. ” For both of you. You poor dear! I should have been terrified.”

A shadow passed across her face and I guessed she was remembering that occasion, so long ago, when Rachel had locked her in and refused to let her out until she made a promise.

Deborah came out of the house.

“It’s a lovely day,” she said.

“I’m beginning to wonder what my own garden is looking like.”

” Getting homesick?” asked Morwenna. She smiled at me. ” Deborah’s like that. When she’s on Dartmoor she thinks of Pendorric, and when she’s here she gets homesick for the

“Yes, I love both places so much. They both seem like home to me. I’ was thinking, Favel, this horrible affair … it’s been such a shock, and you’re not looking so well. Is she, Morwenna?”

” An experience like that is bound to upset anyone. I expect she’ll have fully recovered in a day or so.”

” I thought of going to the moor for a week or so. Why not come with me, Favel? I’d love to show you the place.”

” Oh … how kind of you!”

Leave Roc? I was thinking. Leave him to Althea? To Rachel? And how could I rest until I had solved this matter? I must find out who had a grudge against me, who wanted me out of the way. No doubt it would be very restful to spend a week with Deborah, but all the time I should be longing to be back in Pendorric.

” As a matter of fact,” I went on, ” I’ve got such lots to do here .. and there’s Roc….”

” Don’t forget,” Morwenna reminded Deborah, ” they haven’t been married so very long.”

Deborah’s face fell. ” Well, perhaps some other time—but I thought that you needed a little rest and …”

” I do appreciate your thinking of it and I shall look forward to coming later on,” ” I wish you’d take Hyson,” said Morwenna. ” This business has upset her more than you think.”

” Well, I must take dear Hyson,” replied Deborah. ” But I did so want to show Favel our old home.”

I laid my hand on her arm. ” You are kind, and I do hope you’ll ask me again soon.”

” Of course I shall. I shall positively pester you until you accept.

Were you going for a walk? “

“I was just going over to Polhorgan. There are one or two things I have to see Mrs. Dawson about.”

” May I walk with you?”

” It would be a great pleasure.”

We left Morwenna to her flowers and took the road to Polhorgan. I felt rather guilty about refusing Deborah’s invitation and was anxious that she should not think me churlish.

I tried to explain to her.

” Of course I understand, my dear. You don’t want to leave your husband. As a matter of fact I’m sure Roc would protest if you suggested it. But one day perhaps later on you’ll come for a week-end when he has to go away. He does sometimes, on business, you know. We’ll choose our opportunity. It was just that I thought, after that”

She shivered.

” If it hadn’t been for you we might be there still.”

“I’ve never ceased to be thankful that I happened to go into the graveyard. It was just that I was determined to search every square inch. And when I think how chancey it was I shudder. I might have walked right round the vault and you might not have heard me, nor I you.”

” I don’t like thinking of it … even in broad daylight. It’s so extraordinary, too, that Roc says the door wasn’t locked … only jammed. I must say I feel a little foolish about that.”

” Well, of course a door could get jammed.”

” But we were so desperate. We hammered with all our might. It seems incredible. And yet there’s only the one key and that was locked in Roc’s cupboard.”

” So,” she went on, ” the only one who could have locked you in would have been Roc.” She laughed at the ludicrous idea; and I laughed with her.

“There used to be two keys, I remember,” she went on. ” Roc’s father kept one in the cupboard there where Roc keeps it now.”

” And who had the other?”

She paused for a few seconds, then she said: “Barbarina.” We were silent after that and scarcely spoke until we said good-bye at Polhorgan.

I had never enjoyed going to Polhorgan since my grandfather’s death.

The place seemed so empty and useless without him; it had an air of being unlived-in, which I always think is so depressing—like a woman whose life has never been fulfilled. Roc often laughed at me for my feeling about houses; as though, he said, they had a personality of their own. Well, at the moment Polhorgan’s personality was a negative one. Of course, I thought, if I filled it with orphans who had never seen the sea, had never had any care and attention, what a different house it would be!

Idealistic dreams! I could hear Roc’s voice. ” Wait until you see how the bureaucrats are going to punish you. This is the Robin Hood State, in which the rich are robbed to help the poor.”

I didn’t care what difficulties I should encounter, I was going to have my orphans—if fewer than I had first dreamed of. Mrs. Dawson came out to greet me.

” Good morning, madam. Dawson and I were wondering if you’d come; and as you have, would you be pleased to take a cup of coffee in our sitting-room? There’s something on our minds….”

I said I should be delighted to, and Mrs. Dawson told me she would make the coffee at once and send for Dawson.

Ten minutes later I was in the Dawsons’ comfortable sitting-room, drinking a cup of Mrs. Dawson’s coffee.

Dawson had some difficulty in getting to the point, which I quickly perceived was an elaboration of the suspicions which had occurred to him the night my grandfather died.

” You see, madam, it’s not easy to put into words. A man’s afraid of saying too much … then again he’s afraid of not saying enough.”

Dawson was the typical butler. Dignified, and self-assured, he was the type of manservant my grandfather would have insisted on having, because he was what Roc would have called a cliche butler in the same way that my grandfather was the cliche self-made man.

“You can be perfectly frank with me, Dawson,” I told him. ” I’ll not repeat anything you say unless you wish me to.”

Dawson looked relieved. ” I would not wish, madam, to be taken to the courts by the woman in question. Although if it should be true that she had been there before, that could we” be counted in my favour. “

“You mean Nurse Grey?”

Dawson said mat he meant no other. ” I am not satisfied, madam, about the nature of his lordship’s death; and having talked together, Mrs. Dawson and I have come to the conclusion that it was brought about by a deliberate act. “

“You mean because the pills were discovered under the bed?”

“Yes, madam, his lordship had had one or two minor attacks during the day, and Mrs. Dawson and I had noticed that often attacks would follow closely on one another, so it seemed almost certain that he would have another attack some time during the night.”

” Wouldn’t he call the nurse when he had these attacks during the night?”

” Only if the attack got so bad he needed morphia. Then he’d ring the bell on his side table. But first he’d take his pill. The bell was on the floor too, madam, with the pills.”

” Yes, and it looked as though he knocked them over when reaching for the pills.”

” That may have been how it was intended to look, madam.”

” You are suggesting that Nurse Grey deliberately put the pills and the bell out of his reach?”

” Only within these four walls, madam.”

” But why should she wish him dead? She has lost a good job.”

” She had a good legacy,” put in Mrs. Dawson. ” And what’s to prevent, her finding another job where she’ll get another legacy?”

” But you’re not suggesting that she kills off her patients for the sake of the legacies they leave her?”

” It might be so, madam, and I feel impelled to explain my suspicions regarding this young woman, and they are that she is an adventuress who needs to be watched.”

“Dawson,” I said, “my grandfather is dead and buried. Dr. Clement was satisfied that he died from natural causes.”

” Mrs. Dawson and I don’t doubt Dr. Clement’s word, madam; but what we think is that his lordship was hastened to his death.”

“This is a terrible accusation, Dawson.”

” I know, madam; and that is why I would not want it to go beyond these four walls; but I thought you should be warned of our suspicions, the young woman still being in the neighbourhood.” Mrs. Dawson stared thoughtfully into her coffee cup. ” I was talking to Mrs. Greenock,” she said, “who owns Cormorant Cottage.”

” That’s where Nurse Grey is living now, isn’t it?”

” Yes, having a little rest between posts, so she says. Well, Mrs. Greenock wasn’t very keen on letting to her. She was really after a long let that would go on all through the winter, and Nurse Grey wanted it for what she called an indefinite period. But it seems Mr. Pendorric persuaded Mrs. Greenock to let Nurse Grey have it. “

I was beginning to understand why the Dawsons had wanted to talk to me. They were not only underlining their suspicions as to why my grandfather had died when he did, but were telling me that we had an adventuress in our midst, who was none too scrupulous, and was more friendly with my husband than they considered wise.

If they had wanted to make me feel uneasy they had certainly succeeded.

I changed the subject as inconspicuously as I could; we talked about the problems of Polhorgan, and I told them that I wanted them to go on as they were until I made up my mind what to do about the house. I assured them that I had no intention of selling and that I wanted them to remain there and hoped they always would.

They were delighted with me as their new employer. Mrs. Dawson told me so with tears in her eyes and Dawson implied, without sacrificing one part of his dignity, that it was a pleasure to serve me. But I was very unhappy because I knew that they had spoken as they did out of a genuine concern for my welfare.

That afternoon I went to see the Clements because I wanted to talk to the doctor unprofessionally about my grandfather.

Mabell Clement was emerging triumphant from what she called the pot house when I arrived, her hair half up, half down, and she was dressed in a cotton blouse and bunchy yellow skirt.

” Nice surprise,” she declared breezily. ” Andrew will be pleased.

Come in and I’ll make you a cup of tea. It’s been one of the most successful days I’ve had for a long time. “

Andrew came to the door of the house to meet me and told me that I’d come at a fortunate time because it was his afternoon off, and his partner, Dr. Lee, was on duty.

Mabell made the tea, and, because she couldn’t find the cosy, put a woollen balaclava over the pot. There were tested scones—a little burned—and a cake which had sagged in the middle.

” It tastes rather like a Christmas pudding,” Mabell warned. ” I like Christmas pudding,” I assured her.

I liked Mabell too; she was one of the few people who were unimpressed by my sudden wealth.

While we were having tea I told Dr. Clement that I was disturbed about my grandfather’s death.

” Could he have lived much longer if he hadn’t had that attack?” I asked.

” He could have, yes. But we had to expect such attacks, and their consequences could be fatal. I was not in the least surprised when I got the call.”

” No, but he might have been alive now if he had been able to reach his pills in time.”

“Has Dawson been talking to you again?”

” Dawson spoke to you about this, didn’t he?” I countered. ” Yes, at the time your grandfather died. He found the pills and the bell on the floor.”

” If he had been able to reach his pills … or his bell …”

” It seemed perfectly clear that he had tried and had knocked them over.

In the circumstances a major attack developed, and . that was the end.”

Mabell brought over the cake which was like a Christmas pudding and I took a piece.

” It’s over now,” she said gently. ” It’s only disturbing to go over something that’s finished.”

” Yet I would like to know.”

“Actually I think the Dawsons didn’t get on with the nurse,” Mabell went on. ” Nurses are notoriously bossy; butlers notoriously dignified; housekeepers tend to regard the house as their domain and resent anyone but their employers. I think it was just not very unusual domestic strife; and now the Dawsons see a chance of settling an old score.”

” You see,” said Andrew, ” Dawson could suggest she deliberately put the pills and bell out of reach; she would emphatically deny it. There could be no proof either way.”

” She looks like a piece of Dresden china but I reckon she’s as sturdy as earthenware,” mused Mabell. ” It must have been a pleasant job she had with Lord Polhorgan. In any case she seemed to like it. How long had she been with him?”

” More than eighteen months,” said Andrew.

“Was she a good nurse?” I asked. ” Quite efficient.”

” She seemed .. hard,” I suggested. ” She was a nurse, and as such had had Some experience of suffering. Nurses … doctors … you know they can’t feel the same as someone like yourself. We see too much of it.”

” I know I can trust you two,” I said, ” so I’ll say this: Do you think that she discovered she would get a thousand pounds when my grandfather died and that made her hasten his death?” There was silence. Mabell took a long amber cigarette holder, opened a silver box and offered me a cigarette.

“Because,” I said slowly, “if she would do a thing like that, it’s rather a sobering thought that she’s going into other sickrooms, and the lives of other patients will be put into her hands.” Dr. Clement watched me intently. Then he said: ” At the moment she’s resting.

She’s taking a holiday before going to a new post, and I think it would be very unwise to talk of this matter beyond this room. “

Mabell changed the subject in her blunt way. ” I suppose you’ve quite recovered from that midnight adventure of yours.”

” Oh … yes.”

” An unpleasant experience,” commented Andrew.

” I shiver even now when I think of it.”

“The door was jammed, wasn’t it?”

” I was certain that we were locked in.”

” All the rain we’ve been having might make the door jam,” said Andrew.

” Yet …”

Mabell thoughtfully knocked the ash from her cigarette.

“Who on earth would have locked you in?”

” That’s what I’ve been wondering ever since.” Andrew leaned forward.

“So you don’t believe the door jammed? ” I hesitated. What impression was I giving them? First I was repeating Dawson’s suggestions against Nurse Grey, and now I was hinting that someone had locked me in the vault. They were two intelligent, uninhibited people. They would think I had a persecution mania if I was not careful.

“The general opinion seemed to be that the door had jammed. There was only one key anyway, and that was locked in a cupboard in my husband’s study. He brought it down to the vault and it was he who found the door wasn’t locked at all.”

” Well, thank heaven they did discover you.”

” If Deborah hadn’t happened to come that way—and it was really purest chance that she did—goodness knows how long we should have been there. Perhaps we should be there now.”

“Oh no!” protested Mabel.

” Why not? Such things have been known to happen.” Andrew lifted his shoulders. ” It didn’t happen.”

” In future,” Mabell put in, ” you must be very careful.” Andrew leaned forward and there was a puzzled expression in his eyes.

” Yes,” he repeated, ” in future you must be very careful.” Mabell laughed rather nervously and began to talk about a pot she had made which she thought was unusual. When it was fired she wanted my opinion.

I felt that when I was not there they would talk of my affairs. They would say it was surprising that the door of the vault had been jammed and not locked and, perhaps, that Roc had the only key. They would undoubtedly have heard that Roc had persuaded Mrs. Greenock to let Althea Grey have Cormorant Cottage; and they would ask themselves:

What is happening at Pendorric? My uneasiness was deepening.

I didn’t want to talk any more about the disturbed thoughts which were turning over in my mind; I feared that I had already said too much to the Clements. I wished that I could have talked to Roc of my fears, but I imagined he would laugh at them—besides, he himself was so much involved.

I tried therefore to go on as normally as possible. So exactly a week after my unfortunate adventure I called on Jesse Pleydell again. He greeted me with more than his usual warmth and made it very clear that he was glad I had come. So he too had heard the story. We no longer sat outside his cottage—the afternoon was too chilly. I was in his own armchair, which he insisted on giving up to me while he made me a cup of tea.

He did allow me to pour it out, and when we were sitting opposite each other he said: ” I was worried like when I heard ‘em talking.”

” You mean about …”

” Twere the last time you did come and see me.”

” It was very unfortunate.”

He shook his head. ” I don’t like it much.”

” I didn’t either.”

” You see, it’s like as though …”

” We decided the sexton left the door open when he was last there, and that it must have been open for some time. Nobody noticed because .. nobody went near it.”

” Oh, I don’t know,” murmured Jesse.

We were silent for some time, then he said: “Well, me dear, I reckon you should take extra care like. I reckon you should.”

” Jesse, what are you thinking?”

” If only these old eyes hadn’t been so blind I should have seen who was up there in the gallery with her.”

” Jesse, have you any idea who it was?”

Jesse screwed up his face and beat on his knee.

“I’m feared I do,” he whispered.

“You think it was Lowella Pendorric, who died all those years ago.”

“I couldn’t see like. But I be feared, for she were the bride, and ‘twas said after, that she was marked for death as soon as she was the ” And you think that I . “

” I think you have to take care, Mrs. Pendorric. I think you haven’t got to go where harm can come to ‘ee.”

” Perhaps you’re right, Jesse,” I said, and after a pause: ” Your Michaelmas daisies are looking a picture.”

“Aye, reckon so. The bees be that busy on ‘em. I was always one for Michaelmas daisies, though ‘tis sad to see them since it means the end of summer.”

I left him, and as I came past the cottages and saw the church ahead of me I stopped at the lych gate and looked into the graveyard. ” Hello, Mrs. Pendorric.”

There was Dinah Bond coming towards me. ” I heard about ee,” she said. “Poor Mrs. Pendorric. I reckon you was scared in that place.”

She was almost laughing at me. ” You should have let me read your hand,” she went on. ” I might have warned you.”

“You weren’t anywhere around when it happened, I suppose?” I asked. ” Oh no. My Jim had taken me into market with him. We didn’t get bade till late. Heard about it next morning though. I was sorry because I can guess what it feels like to be in that dark place.” She came up to the lych gate and leaned on it. ” I’ve been thinking,” she went on, ” there’s something strange about this. Has it struck you that things seem to be happening twice?”

“What do you mean?”

” Well, Morwenna was shut in the vault, wasn’t her? And then you were, with Hyson. Looks as though someone remembered that and thought to try it again.”

” Do you think someone locked me in, then? The general belief is that the door jammed.”

“Who’s to say?” She shrugged her shoulders.

“Then there was Barbarina being an heiress and marrying a Pendorric, and there was Louisa Sellick, who had to go and live near Dozmary because of it. Now there’s you—awful rich, they tell me you be, Mrs. Pendorric—and you’re the New Bride while …”

“Please go on.”

She laughed.

“You wouldn’t let me read your hand, would you? You didn’t believe I was any good. All right, you wouldn’t believe what I could tell ‘ee. But ‘tis all of a piece and so seems as though it was meant, if you get what I mean.”

” I’m afraid I don’t.”

She came through the lych gate and walked past me, smiling as she went.

” You be awful rich, Mrs. Pendorric,” she murmured, ” but you hain’t very bright, I’d say.”

She looked over her shoulder at me; then she began to walk towards the forge, swinging her hips in the provocative way which was second nature to her.

AU this did not comfort me. I was longing to have a talk with Roc and tell him what was in my mind, but something warned me not to. It was of course the fact that I was not at all sure where Roc fitted into this.

The house seemed quiet. Deborah had taken Hyson and Carrie with her to Devonshire; and Lowella had refused to do any lessons since her sister was having a holiday.

“It wouldn’t be fair to Hyson,” she explained piously. ” I should go so far ahead of her that she’d never catch up.”

Morwenna, declaring that this was hardly likely, at the same time gave way, and Lowella, who had become suddenly attached to her father—her affections changed as frequently as the winds—insisted on spending a lot of time at the home farm with him.

I found myself constantly listening for the sound of singing or the playing of a violin, and I became aware that that adventure in-the vault had upset me more than I cared to admit. I wanted to get away from the house to think, so I took the car one afternoon and went on to the moor.

In the first place I had no intention of going the way I had before. I merely wanted to be alone to think; and I wanted to do my thinking right away from the house, because I was beginning to suspect that the house had an effect on me, making me more fanciful than I should otherwise have been.

I drew up on a lonely stretch of moor, shut off the engine and, lighting a cigarette, sat back to brood. I went over every detail of what had happened from the first day I had seen Roc; and whichever way I looked, one thought kept hammering in my mind: He knew that I was an heiress when he married me.

Dinah Bond had marvelled how events repeated themselves. Barbarina had been married for her money when her husband would have preferred Louisa Sellick. Had I been married for mine when my husband would have preferred .

It was something I refused to accept. He could never have been such a good actor as to deceive me so utterly. I thought of the passion between us; I thought of the ways in which he had made love to me.

Surely that could not have been all lies. I could hear his voice coming back to me: “I’m a gambler, darling, but I never risk losing what I can’t do without.”

He had never pretended to be a saint. He had never told me that I was the first woman he had ever loved. He had not denied that he was a gambler.

What had happened that day when he went down to swim with my father?

What was I thinking now! My father’s death had nothing to do with all this. That had been an unfortunate accident.

I threw away my cigarette, started up the car and drove on for some miles without noticing the direction in which I was going; then suddenly I was aware that I was lost.

The moor looked so much the same whatever road one took. I could only drive on until I came to a signpost.

This I did, and when I saw Rozmary on it I discovered I was very eager to have another glimpse of the boy who looked so like Roc. After all, I told myself, Louisa Sellick had played a part in the story of Barbarina, and it seemed as though her story was very closely linked with my own.

When I reached the Pool I left the car and went down to the water’s edge; it looked cold and grey and the place was deserted. Leaving the car I started to walk, until I found the road which led to the house.

I started up this, then it occurred to me that if I met the boy again he might recognise me and wonder why I had come back; and as there was another path branching from this one—nothing more than a cart track—I took this and found I was mounting a slight incline. Now I had a good view of the front of the house, although there were several large clumps of bracken between me and me road in which it stood. I sat down beside one of these clumps and looked at the house, which I could now study at my leisure. I saw a stable, and I guessed that the boy had his own horse; there was also a garage, and the garden at the front and sides of the house was well kept. I caught a glimpse of greenhouses. It was a comfortable house set in rather unusual surroundings, for it didn’t appear to have any neighbours. It must be rather lonely for Louisa Sellick when the boy went away to school, which I supposed he must do. Who was the boy? Her son? But he would be too young. He couldn’t be more than thirteen or fourteen; surely Petroc Pendorric had been dead longer than that.

Then who was the boy? That was another of those questions which I didn’t want to think too much about. There was beginning to be quite a number of them.

Suddenly the door of the glass-roofed porch opened and someone came out. It was the boy again. I could see the resemblance to Roc even from where I was. He seemed to be talking to someone in the house; then she came out. I think I must have cowered into the bracken, for I was suddenly afraid of being recognised, because the woman who had come out of Bedivere House was Rachel Bective.

She and the boy walked towards a car, and I recognised it as the little grey Morris from the Pendorric garages.

She got into it, and the boy stood waving while she drove away. In a moment of panic it occurred to me that she might pass my car and recognise it. I ran down the cart track, and as I came to the main road I was relieved because she had gone in a direction away from where my car was parked.

I walked slowly back and drove thoughtfully home. Why, I asked myself, was Rachel Bective visiting the boy who was so obviously a Deborah and Hyson and Carrie returned to Pendorric after a few days. I thought the child looked pale and that the holiday had not done her much good.

” She misses Lowella,” Morwenna told me. ” They’re never completely happy apart although they quarrel almost all the time when they’re together.”

Deborah smiled sadly. ” When you’re a twin you understand these things,” she said. ” We do, don’t we, Morwenna?”

” Yes, I suppose so,” replied Morwenna. ” Roc and I were very close always, though we rarely quarrelled.”

” Roc would never take the trouble to quarrel with anyone,” murmured Deborah. She turned to me: “My dear, you’re not looking as well as I should like to see you. You should have come with us. My moorland air would have done you the world of good.”

” Oh come, it’s not as good as our sea ah-surely,” laughed Morwenna.

” It’s change that’s good for everyone.”

” I’m so glad you’ve come back,” I told Deborah. ” I’ve missed you.”

She was very pleased.

“Come up with me. I’ve brought you a little present from home.”

” For me I How charming of you !” “It’s something I treasure.”

“Then I shouldn’t take it.”

” You must, my dear. What point would there be in giving you something I want to get rid of?”

She slipped her arm through mine and I thought: Perhaps I can ask Deborah. Not outright, of course, but perhaps indirectly. After all, she would know what was happening better than most people.

We went up to her bedroom, where Carrie was unpacking. ” Carrie,” cried Deborah, ” where’s the little gift I brought for Mrs.

” Here,” said Carrie without looking at me.

” Carrie hates leaving her beloved moor,” Deborah whispered to me.

She was holding out a small object wrapped in tissue paper. I opened it, and although it was one of the most exquisite things I had ever seen, I was dismayed. For in a frame set with jade and topaz was a delicate miniature of a young girl, her hair falling about her shoulders, her eyes serene.

” Barbarina,” I whispered.

Deborah was smiling down at the lovely face.

“I know how interested you have always been in her and I thought you’d like to have it.”

” It’s a beautiful thing. It must be very valuable.”

“I’m so glad you like it.”

” Is there one of you? I would rather have that.”

My words evidently pleased her, for she looked very beautiful suddenly. “People always wanted to paint Barbarina,” she said. ” Father invited lots of artists to the house—he was interested in the arts—and they used to say: We must paint the twins, and we’ll begin with Barbarina.” They sometimes did; and when it was my turn, they forgot. I told you, didn’t I, that she had something that I lacked. It drew everyone to her—and because I was so like her, I seemed like a pale shadow . a carbon copy, you might say, a little blurred, much less attractive.”

” Do you know, Deborah,” I said, ” you underrate yourself. I’m sure you were every bit as attractive.”

” Oh Favel, what a dear child you are! I feel so grateful to Roc for finding you and bringing you to us.”

” It’s I who should be grateful. Everyone’s been so kind to me … particularly you.”

“I? Boring you with my old photographs and chatter about the past!”

“I’ve found it immensely interesting. I want to ask you lots of things.”

” What’s stopping you? Come and sit in the window. Oh, it is good to be back. I love the moor, but the sea is more exciting, perhaps. It’s so unpredictable.”

“You must have missed the moor when Roc and Morwenna were young and you were looking after them.”

” Sometimes, but when they went away to school I’d go to Devonshire.”

“Did they go to Devon for school holidays?”

” Almost always they were at Pendorric. Then of course Morwenna started bringing Rachel for holidays, and it seemed to be a natural thing that she should come to us every time. Morwenna was extraordinarily fond of her for some reason. And she wasn’t really a pleasant child. She locked Morwenna in the vault, once. Just for fun!

You can understand how terrified poor Morwenna was. She had a nightmare soon after it happened and told me about it when I went in to comfort her. But it didn’t make any difference to the friendship, and when Roc and Morwenna went to France, Rachel went with them. “

“When was that?”

“It was when they were older. They would have been about eighteen then. I always hoped that Morwenna would drop her, but she never did.

And at that time the three of them became very friendly. “

” When they were about eighteen …”

” Yes. Morwenna was anxious to go to France. She wanted to improve her accent; and she said she’d like to go for two months. She had finished at her English boarding school and I was thinking that she might go abroad to school; but she said it would be much better for her to stay in some pension where she would learn the language, by mixing with people, more easily than she ever would at school.”

” And Morwenna went to France for two months.”

” Rachel went with her. So did Roc for a while. I was a bit alarmed at that time. Roc was with them so much and I was beginning to be afraid that he and Rachel …”

” You wouldn’t have welcomed … that?”

” My dear, I expect I’m being rather mean, but somehow I should not have liked to see Rachel mistress of Pendorric. She hasn’t the … charm. Oh, she’s an educated girl, but there’s something I don’t like about her … something I don’t altogether trust. This is strictly between ourselves, of course! I wouldn’t say it to anyone else.”

” I think I know what you mean. “

” She’s too sharp. One gets the idea that she’s watching for the main chance all the time. I expect it’s my stupid imagination, but I can tell you I had some very deep qualms at that time, because Roc was so anxious to see the girls settled in their pension comfortably. And he actually stayed there for a while and went back and forth while they were there. Every time he returned I was terrified that he would announce his intentions. Fortunately it all fell through.”

” It was a long time ago,” I said.

Deborah nodded.

I was thinking. They were eighteen, and the boy could be about fourteen now. Roc is thirty-two.

I had often felt that Rachel had some hold on the Pendorrics. She gave that impression. She was like a person with a chip on her shoulder and yet at the same time there was a certain truculence about her. It was as though she was continually implying: Treat me as a member of the family or else . And she visited the boy who was living with Louisa Sellick! I said:

“I suppose at that time their father was dead … I mean Roc’s and Morwenna’s.”

” They were about eleven when he died. It was six years after Barbarina …”

So the boy was not his, I thought. Oh Roc, why do you keep these secrets from me? There’s no need.

My impulse was to talk to Roc at the earliest opportunity, to tell him what I had conjectured.

When I went to my room I put the miniature on the mantel shelf and stood for some minutes looking into the serene eyes depicted there.

Then I decided to wait a while, to try to find out more about the nature of this web in which I was becoming entangled.

In the midst of this uncertainty Mabell Clement gave a party. When Roc and I drove over, we were both a little subdued; I felt weighed down with thoughts of the boy who lived on the moors, and conjectures as to what part Roc had played in bringing him into the world. I longed to talk to Roc and yet I was afraid to do so.

Actually I was afraid to face up to the fact that Roc might not tell me the truth. I was pathetically eager that he should not lie to me, and at the same time I was desperately trying to keep intact that wonderful happiness which I had known.

As for Roc, he was telling himself that my adventure in the vault had naturally upset me a good deal and that I should need time to recover.

He treated me gently, and reminded me of those days immediately following my father’s death.

Mabell, ear-rings swinging, was a wonderful hostess and there was an informal atmosphere about the party. Several of the local artists were present, for our scenery had made the district an artists’ colony; and I was gratified when one of them mentioned my father and spoke with reverence of his work.

From the other side of the room I heard Roc’s laughter and saw that he was the centre of a group, mainly women. He seemed to be amusing them, and I wished that I was with them. And how I wished that there were no more doubts and that I could escape from my misgivings into that complete and unadulterated happiness which no one on earth but Roc could give to me.

” Here’s someone who wants to meet you.” Mabell was at my elbow and with her was a young man. I looked at him for some seconds before I recognised him.

” John Poldree, you remember?” be said.

“Why yes. The ball …”

Mabell gave him a little push towards me and then was gone. ” It was a wonderful ball,” he went on.

” I’m so glad you enjoyed it.”

” And very sad of course that …”

I nodded.

“There was something I wanted to tell you, Mrs. Pendorric. Though I don’t suppose it matters much now.”

“Yes?”

” It’s about the nurse.”

“Nurse Grey?”

” M’m. Where I’d seen her before.”

” And you remember? ” “Yes. It was something in one of the papers. It came back to me. Then I remembered that I was in Genoa at the time and it wasn’t all that easy to get English papers. Having fixed the date I went and looked up old copies. She’s the one all right. Nurse Althea Stoner Grey, Nurse Stoner Grey, she was called. If I’d heard the double-barrelled name I’d have remembered. But I couldn’t mistake (he face. It’s rarely that you find a face as perfect as that one.”

” What did you find out?”

” I’m afraid I misjudged her. I’d got it into my head that she’d committed some crime. Hope I didn’t give you the wrong impression. All the same it wasn’t very pleasant. She was lucky to have a name like Stoner Grey. She could drop the first part and seem like a different person. After all, Grey’s a fairly common name. Coupled with Stoner, far from it. She lost the case.”

” What was the case, then? ” ” She’d been nursing an old man and he’d left her money; his estranged wife contested the will. It was only a few para graphs and you know how disjointed these newspaper reports can be.”

” When did all this happen?”

” About six years’ ago

“I expect she’s had a case or two in between that and coming to my grandfather.”

” No doubt of it.”

“Well, she must have brought good references to my grandfather, I imagine. He was the sort who would make sure of that.”

” That wouldn’t be difficult with a woman like that. She’s got a way of getting round people. You can see that. She’s pretty hard-boiled, I should think.”

” I should think so too.”

He laughed. ” I wanted to tell you ever since I solved the mystery. I expect she’s far away by now.”

” No. She’s still living fairly near us. She’s taking a little holiday and renting a cottage for a time. My grandfather left her a small legacy, so she probably feels she can afford a rest.”

” Must be a lucrative job—private nursing—providing you have the foresight to choose rich patients.”

“Of course, you couldn’t be sure that they would conveniently die and leave the legacy.”

He lifted his shoulders.

“Smart woman, that one. I think she’d be the sort who’d choose with care.” He had picked up one of the pieces of pottery which were lying about the studio. ” Good, this,” he said.

And for him the subject was closed; but not for me. I could not get Nurse Grey out of mind, and when I thought of her I thought of Roc. I was very quiet during the drive back to Pendorric.

I had noticed a change in Morwenna; there were days when she gave me the impression that she was walking in her sleep; and her dreams seemed to be happy ones, for at times her expression was almost rapturous. She was absentminded, too, and I had on one or two occasions spoken to her and received no answer. She came up to our room one evening when we were changing for dinner. ” There’s something I want to tell you two.”

” We’re all ears,” Roc told her.

She sat down and did not speak for a few seconds. Roc looked at me, his eyebrows raised.

” I didn’t want to say anything to any of you until I was absolutely sure.”

“The suspense is becoming unbearable,” commented Roc lightly. ” I’ve told Charles, of course, and I wanted to tell you two before it became generally known.”

” Are we soon to hear the patter of little feet in the Pendorric nurseries?” asked Roc.

She stood up. ” Oh … Roc!” she cried, and threw herself into his arms. He hugged her and then began waltzing round the room with her.

He stopped abruptly with exaggerated concern. ” Ah, we have to take great care of you now.” He released her and putting his hand on her shoulder kissed her cheek solemnly. ” Wenna,” he said, reverting to his childhood’s name for her, ” I’m delighted. It’s wonderful. Bless you.”

There was real emotion in his voice, and I was touched to see the affection between them.

” I knew you’d be pleased.”

I felt as though I were shut out of their rejoicing; and it occurred to me how very close they were, because Morwenna seemed to have forgotten my existence and I knew that when she had said she wanted to tell us first she had meant she had wanted to tell Roc. Of course, they were twins, and how true it was that the bond between twins was strong!

They suddenly seemed to remember me, and Morwenna immediately brought me into the picture.

“You’ll think we’re crazy, Favel.”

” No, of course not. I think it’s wonderful news. Congratulations I” She clasped her hands together and murmured: “If only you knew!”

” Well pray for a boy,” said Roc.

” It must be a boy this time—it must.”

“And what does old Charles say?”

” What do you think! He’s rapturous. He’s already thinking up names.”

” Make sure it’s a good old Cornish name, but we don’t want any more Petrocs about the place for a while.”

Morwenna said to me: ” After all these years. It does seem marvelous.

You see, we’ve always wanted a boy. “

We all went down to dinner together, and after the meal Roc proposed the health of the mother-to-be, and we all became quite hilarious.

Next day I had a talk with Morwenna, who had become more friendly, I thought; I liked her new serenity.

She told me that she was three months pregnant and had started to plan the child’s layette; and she was so certain that it was going to be a boy that I was a little afraid for her, because I realised how disappointed she would be if it should be a girl.

“You probably think that I’m behaving like a young girl about to have her first baby,” she said with a laugh. ” Well, that’s how I feel.

Charles wanted a boy so much . and so do I, and I always felt I was letting him down in some way by not producing one. “

” I’m sure he didn’t feel that.”

“Charles is such a good man. He would never show resentment. But I know he longed for a son. I’ll have to be careful nothing goes wrong.

It did about five years ago. I had a miscarriage and was very ill, and Dr. Elgin, who was here before Andrew Clement, said I shouldn’t make any more attempts . not for some time in any case. So you see how we feel. “

” Well, you must take the greatest care.”

“Of course one can take too much care. Some people think you should carry on as normally as possible for as long as possible.”

” I’m sure you’ll be all right; but suppose it should be a girl?” Her face fell.

“You’d love it just the same,” I assured her.

“People always do.”

“I should love her, but it wouldn’t be the same. I long for a boy, Favel. I can’t tell you how I long for a boy. “

” What name have you decided to give him?” I asked. ” Or haven’t you thought of that?”

” Charles is insisting that if it’s a boy we call him Ennis. It’s a name that’s been given to lots of Pendorrics. If you and Roc have a son you’ll call him Petroc. That’s the custom: the eldest son of the eldest son. But Ennis is as Cornish as Petroc. It’s rather charming, don’t you think?”

” Ennis,” I repeated.

She was smiling, and the intensity of her expression disturbed me. ” He’s certain to be Ennis,” she went on.

I tamed to the book of baby patterns which was lying on her lap and expressed more interest in it than I really felt.

So even Morwenna’s news added to my uneasiness. Ennis was a family name; and the boy on the moor had the looks as well as the name; Morwenna had taken Rachel away and Roc had been at hand to help make arrangements; he had visited them during their sojourn abroad, and Deborah had been afraid that Roc was going to marry Rachel. I thought I was controlling my suspicions, but I couldn’t hide them from Roc.

One day he announced that he was going to take me out for the day. I mustn’t imagine I knew Cornwall just because I had seen our little corner; he was going to take me farther afield. There was an autumnal mist in the air when we left Pendorric in the Daimler, but Roc assured me that it was only the pride of the morning; the sun would break through before long; and he was right. We drove on to the moor, and then turned northward and stopped at a country hotel for lunch.

It was over this meal that I realised Roc had brought me out to talk seriously to me.

” Now,” he said, filling my glass with Chablis, ” let’s have it.”

“Have what?”

” What’s on your mind?”

“On my mind?”

” Darling, innocence, in this case, is unbecoming. You know perfectly well what I mean. You’ve been looking at me for the last week or so as though you’re wondering whether I’m Bluebeard and you’re my ninth wife.”

” Well, Roc,” I replied, ” although you’re my husband and we’ve been married quite a few months, I don’t always feel I know you very well.”

” Am I one of those people who don’t improve on acquaintance?” As usual he caught me up in his mood; and I was already beginning to feel gay and that my suspicions were rather foolish. ” You remain .. mysterious,” I told him.

” And it’s time you began to clear up the mysteries, you’re thinking?”

“As you’re my husband I don’t think there should be secrets between us.”

He gave me that disarming smile which always touched me deeply. ” Nor do I. I know what’s disturbing you. You discovered that I haven’t lived the life of a monk before my marriage. You’re right in that. But you don’t want details of every little peccadillo, do you?”

” No,” I told him, ” not every one. Only the important ones.”

” But when I met you I realised that nothing that had happened to me before was of the slightest significance.”

” And you haven’t taken up the old way of life since you married me?”

“I can assure you that I have been faithful to you in thought and deed. There! Satisfied?”

” Yes, but …”

“So you’re not?”

“There are people who seem to regard you in a certain way and I wondered whether they realise that any relationship which existed between you is now … merely friendship.”

” I know. You’re thinking of Althea.”

“Well?”

” When she first came here to look after your grandfather I thought her the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. We became friends. The family was always urging me to marry. Morwenna had been married for years and they all implied that it was my duty to marry, but I had never felt that I wanted to settle down with any woman.”

” Until you met Althea Grey?”

” I hadn’t actually come to that conclusion. But shall we say the idea occurred to me as a possibility.”

” And then my grandfather asked you to come and have a look at me, and you thought I was the better proposition?”

” That sounds a little like your grandfather. There was no question of ‘propositions.” I had already decided that I did not want to marry Althea Grey, before your grandfather suggested I should come out and look at you. And when I did see you, it happened. Just like that. You were the only one from then on. “

” Althea couldn’t have been very pleased.”

He lifted his shoulders. ” It takes two to make a marriage.”

” I begin to understand. You must have come very near to being engaged to Althea Grey before you changed your mind. And what about Dinah Bond?”

” What about Dinah? She assisted in the education of most young men in the district.”

” I see. Not serious?”

” Absolutely not.”

“And Rachel Bective?”

“Never!” he said almost fiercely. He filled my glass.

“Catechism over?” he asked.

“Favel, I’m beginning to wonder whether you aren’t somewhat jealous.”

” I don’t think I should be jealous … without reason.”

” Well, now you know there is no reason.”

” Roc …” I hesitated, and he urged me to go on. ” That boy I saw at Bedivere House …” “Well?”

” He’s so like the Pendorrics.”

” I know; you told me before. You’re not imagining that he’s the living evidence of my sinful past, Favel!”

” Well, I did wonder who he was.”

“Do you know, darling, you haven’t enough to do. At the week-end I want to go out to one of the properties on the north coast. Come with me. We’ll be away a couple of nights.”

” That will be lovely.”

” Something else on your mind?” he asked.

” So many things are not clear. In fact when I go back to the first time I saw you … it seems to me that that was when everything began to change.”

” Well, obviously things couldn’t be the same for either of us after we’d met. We were swept off our feet.”

“No, Roc. I didn’t mean that. Even my father seemed to change.” He looked grave suddenly; and then he seemed to come to a decision.

“There are certain things you didn’t know about your father. Favel.”

” Things didn’t know.”p>

‘ Things he kept from you. “

” But he didn’t. He always confided in me. We were so close … my mother, he and I.”

Roc shook his head.

“For one thing, my dear, he didn’t tell you that he had written to your grandfather.”

I had to agree that this was so.

” Why do you think he wrote to your grandfather?”

” Because he thought it was time we met, I suppose.”

” Why should he think that was the time when for nineteen years he hadn’t considered it necessary? I didn’t want to tell you, Favel. In fact, W made up my mind not to … for years. I was going to wait until you were fifty.

A nice cosy grandmother with the little ones playing at your knee.

Then it would have seemed too far away to be painful. But I’ve come to the conclusion—in the last half-hour fhat there shouldn’t be secrets between us. “

” I’m certain there shouldn’t be. Please tell me what you know about my father.”

” He wrote to your grandfather because he was ill.”

“I’ll? In what way?”

” He had caught your mother’s disease through being with her constantly. She wouldn’t go away from him, nor he from her; they wanted to pretend that there was nothing wrong. So they stayed together and he was her only muse until she was so very ill. He told me that if she had gone away she might have lived a little longer. But she didn’t want to live like that.”

” And he too…. But I was never told.”

” He didn’t want you to know. He was very anxious about you. So he wrote to your grandfather telling him of your existence. He hoped that your grandfather would ask you to Cornwall. He himself would have stayed in Capri; and when he became really ill you wouldn’t have been there.”

” But he could have had attention. He could have gone to a sanatorium.”

” That’s what I told him. That’s what I believed he would do.”

” He told you all this … and not his own daughter t”

” My darling, the circumstances were unusual. He knew of me, and as soon as I turned up at the studio he knew why I had come. It would have been too much of a coincidence for a Pendorric to arrive only a month or so after he had sent off his letter to Polhorgan. Besides, he knew your grandfather’s methods. So he guessed at once I had been sent to look round.”

” You told him, I suppose.”

” I had been asked by Lord Polhorgan not to, but it was impossible to hide it from your father. However, we agreed that we would say nothing to you, and that I should write and tell him what I had seen; then he would presumably write to his granddaughter and invite her to England.

That was what your father hoped. But, as you know, we met . and that was enough for us. “

” And all the time he was so ill…”

” He knew that he was on the point of becoming very ill. So he was delighted when we said we were going to get married.”

” You don’t think that he was made a little uneasy by it?”

“Why should he be?”

” You knew that I was the granddaughter of a millionaire.” Roc laughed. ” Don’t forget he’d had some experience of your grandfather.

The fact that you were his granddaughter didn’t mean that you would inherit his fortune. He might have taken an acute dislike to you, and me as his son-in-law, in which case you would have been cut off with a shilling. “

No, your father was delighted. He knew I’d take care of you; and I fancy he was happier to think of you in my care than in your grandfather’s. “

” I thought he was worried about something … just before he died. I thought he was uneasy … about us. What really happened on the day when you went down to bathe?”

” Favel, I think I know why your father died.”

“Why .. he died?”

” He died because he no longer wished to live.”

“You mean …?”

” I believe he wanted a quick way out, and found it. We went down to the beach together. It was getting late, you remember. There were few people about; they were all having lunch behind the sun blinds; soon they would be deep in the siesta. When we reached the beach he said to me: You know you’d rather be with Favel.” I couldn’t deny it. Go back,” he said, leave me. I would rather go in alone.” Then he looked at me very solemnly and said: I’m glad you married her. Take care of her. “” ” You’re suggesting that he deliberately swam out to sea and had no intention of coming back?”

Roc nodded. ” Looking back, I can see now that he had the look of a man who has written The End’ to his life. Everything was in order.”

I was too filled with emotion to trust myself to speak. I could see it all so clearly; that day when Roc had come back to the kitchen and sat on the table watching me, his legs swinging, the light making the tips of his ears pink. He didn’t know then what had happened, because it was only afterwards that one realised the significance of certain words certain actions.

” Favel,” said Roc, ” let’s get out of here. We’ll drive out to the moor and we’ll stop then and talk and talk. He trusted me to care for you, to comfort you. You must trust me too, Favel.”

When I was with Roc I believed everything he said; it was only when I was alone that the doubts set in.

If only my father had confided in me, I would never have let him do what he did. I would have cared for him, brought him to England; he could have had the best possible attention. There was no need for him to die so soon.

But had it been like that?

When I was alone I faced the fact that the talk with Roc had not really eased my fears; it had only added to them.

I couldn’t help feeling that some clue to the solution of my problem might lie in that house near Rozmary Pool, and I found myself thinking of it continually—and the boy and the woman who lived there. Suppose I called on Louisa Sellick. Why shouldn’t I? I could tell her who I was; and that I had heard of her connection with Pendorric. Or could I, considering the nature of that connection? I had caught a glimpse of her and she had appeared to be a kindly and tolerant woman. Could I go to her and say that I was constantly being compared with Barbarina Pendorric and that I was interested in everyone who had known her?

Scarcely.

And yet the idea that I should go kept worrying me. Suppose I pretended I had lost my way. No, I didn’t want to pretend. I would go and find a reason when I got there.

I took out the little blue Morris which I had made a habit of driving and which was now looked upon as mine, and I went out to the moor. I knew the way now and was soon passing the Pool and taking the second-class road which led to the house.

When I pulled up I was still undecided as to what I should say. What I really wanted to ask was: ” Who is the boy who is so like the Pendorrics?” And how could I do that?

While I was looking at the house the door of the glass-roofed porch opened and a woman came out. She was elderly and very plump; she had evidently seen me from a window and had come out to inquire what I wanted.

I got out of the car and said ” Good morning” as she approached. I began: ” My name is Pendorric. Mrs. Pendorric.” She caught her breath and her rosy face was immediately a deeper shade of red.

“Oh,” she said.

“Mrs. Sellick hain’t here today.”

“I see. You’re …?”

” I’m Polly that does for her.”

” You’ve got a wonderful view here,” I said conversationally.

” Us don’t notice it much. Been here too long, I reckon.”

” So … Mrs. Sellick is not at home today.”

” She’s taking the boy back to school. She’ll be away tonight, back tomorrow.”

I noticed that the woman was trembling slightly.

” Is anything wrong?” I asked.

She came closer to me and whispered: ” You ain’t come for to take the boy away, have ‘ee?”

I stared at her in astonishment.

“You’d better come in,” she said.

“We can’t talk here.” I followed her over the lawn to the porch, and into a hall; she threw open the door of a cosy sitting-room.

“Sit down, Mrs. Pendorric. Mrs. Sellick would want me to give you something, like. Would you have coffee or some of my elderberry wine?”

“Mrs. Sellick didn’t know I was coming. Perhaps I shouldn’t stay.”

” I’d like to be the one to talk to you, Mrs. Pendorric. Mrs. Sellick, she’d be too proud like. She’d say, Yes … you must do what you wish …” and then when you’d gone she’d break her heart. No, I’ve often thought I’d like the chance to do the talking if this day ever come, and it seems like Providence that it has come when her’s off with the boy. “

” I think there’s some misunderstanding….”

“There’s no misunderstanding, Mrs. Pendorric. You’re from Pendorric and ‘tis what she’s always feared. She’s often said: ” I made no conditions then, Polly, and I’ll make none now. ” She talks to me about everything. I knew her from the first … you see. I came with her when she first come to Bedivere. That was when he married. So we’ve been through a lot together.”

” Yes, I see.”

“Well, let me get you some coffee.”

” I’d rather not. Mrs. Sellick might not be very pleased if she knew I’d come in like this.”

” Her’s the sweetest, mildest creature I ever saw, and I don’t mind telling you I’ve often thought her too mild. The likes of her gets put upon. But I couldn’t bear it to happen, see. Not twice in one lifetime . first losing him and then the boy. It ‘ud be too much. Well, she’s had him since he were three weeks old. She were a changed woman when Mr. Roc brought him here.”

“Mr. Roc …” She nodded. ” I remember the day well. It was getting dusk. I reckon they’d waited till then. They’d come straight from abroad…. Mr. Roc was driving the car and the young woman was with him … nothing more than a girl, though I didn’t see much of her. Wore a hat pulled down over her face … didn’t want to be seen. She carried the baby in and put him straight into Mrs. Sellick’s arms; then she went back to the car and left Mr. Roc to do the talking.”

Rachel! I thought.

” You see, she felt guilty like. She’d loved Mr. Roc’s father and had thought he was going to marry her. So he would have done, it was said, but the Pendorrics wanted money in the family so he married that Miss Hyson instead. He never gave up Louisa, although there were others too, but she were the one he really cared for, and when his wife died he begged her to marry him. But she wouldn’t—for some reason. She used to think that because his wife had died as she did it wouldn’t be right. Then he was away a lot but he came back to see Louisa. No one could be to him what she were. You’re a Pendorric yourself now and you’ve heard tell of all this, so there’s no need for me to repeat it.

When he died she were heartbroken, and she always longed for a child of his . even though ‘twould have been born out of wedlock. She took an interest in those twins of his and they were a mischievous pair.

They’d heard about their father and this house and they came out once to have a look at Louisa. That was after he was dead; and she brought them in and gave them cakes and tea. And after that they came now and then. She told them that if they were ever in trouble—and they were the kind who might well be . of course they’ve sobered down now, but ‘twas different when they were young-she’d help them if it were in her power. Well then she got this letter from Mr. Roc. Here was trouble all right. A baby on the way and could she help? “

“I see.”

” Of course she could help. She wanted to help. So she took little Ennis and she’s been as a mother to him ever since. It was a turning point like. She began to be happy again when that little boy came into this house. But she never stopped being afeared. You see, he grew up such a beautiful child and he weren’t hers. She’d take no money for what she did; she’d make no conditions. So you see, she was always afraid that one day Mr. Roc would come and claim that boy.

When she heard he was married she was certain he’d want the boy. She was terrible frit, I can tell ‘ee. And I’m telling ‘ee all this because I’ve got to make ‘ee see. “

” Did he come to see the boy?”

“Yes. He comes every now and then. Terrible fond of him he be, and the boy of him.”

” I’m glad that he didn’t desert him entirely.”

” No question of that. But it’s puzzling. The Pendorrics were never ones to care much about scandal. There was his father coming to see Louisa. Didn’t keep it as dark as some thought he should. But I reckon it was because Mr. Roc was so young. Not much more than seventeen and Louisa advised him not to let it be known… for the boy’s sake. He’s known as Ennis Sellick and thinks Louisa’s his aunt.” She stopped and looked at me beseechingly.

“Please, Mrs. Pendorric, you look kind .. please understand that he have been here nigh on fourteen years. You can’t take him now.”

” You mustn’t worry about that,” I told her. ” We have no intention of taking him.”

She relaxed and smiled happily. ” Why, when you said as who you were

” I’m sorry I frightened you. As a matter of fact it was very wrong of me to call. My visit was one of curiosity. I’d heard of Mrs. Sellick and wanted to meet her. That was all.”

” And you won’t take the boy?”

” No, certainly not. It would be too cruel.”

” Too cruel,” she repeated. ” Oh thank ‘ee, Mrs. Pendorric. It’ll be a weight off our minds. Now won’t you let me give you a cup of coffee?

Mrs. Sellick wouldn’t like you to leave without. “

I accepted the invitation. I felt I needed it. While Polly was in the kitchen I was thinking: How can I trust him again? If he could deceive me about the boy, he could about other things. Why hadn’t he told me?

It would have been so much easier.

Polly returned with the coffee; she was quite happy now; at least my visit had done much to restore her contentment. She told me how she and Louisa had grown to love the moor, and how difficult it was to cultivate the garden, which was so stony.

“Moorland country hain’t the most fertile ground, Mrs. Pendorric, I do assure you,” she was saying, when we heard the sound of a car drawing up outside the house.

” Why, it can’t be Mrs. Sellick back already,” said Polly, rising and going to the window.

Her next words sent the blood drumming in my ears. ” Why ‘tis Mr. Pendorric,” she said. ” Oh dear, I reckon he thought they wasn’t going till tomorrow. “

I stood up, and my knees were trembling so much that I thought they would give way as I heard Roc’s voice. ” Polly, I saw the car outside.

Who’s here? “

” Oh, you’ve come to-day, Mr. Pendorric,” answered Polly blithely. ” Well, Mrs. Sellick thought it ‘ud be better to take two days over the driving, seeing it’s so far. They’m staying in London and then they’ll go on to the school tomorrow. Reckon you thought they wouldn’t be leaving till today.”

He was coming through the glass-roofed porch; striding into the sitting-room in the manner of someone who well knows the way. He threw open the door and stared at me. ” You!” he said; then his expression darkened. I had never seen him so angry.

We stood staring at each other and I think he felt the same about me as I did about him; that we were both looking at a stranger. Polly came into the room. ” Mrs. Pendorric’s been telling me as you won’t want to take the boy away….”

” Has she?” he said; and his eyes took in the used coffee cups. ” I was that relieved. Not that I thought you’d do it, Mr. Roc. It was that pleasant meeting your bride.”

” I’m sure it was,” Roc answered. ” You should have waited, darling, until I drove you over.”

His voice sounded quite cold, as it had never been before when he spoke to me.

” And you came to-day unbeknownst to each other, and there’s two cars outside. Well it is a day!”

” Yes,” echoed Roc almost viciously, ” it is a day.”

” I’ll heat up this coffee, Mr. Roc.”

“Oh, no thanks, Polly. I came to see the boy before he went to school, but I’m too late. Never mind. I’ve met my wife instead.”

Polly laughed.

“I’m sorry Mrs. Sellick didn’t warn you, but she doesn’t care about telephoning the house, as you know.”

” I know,” said Roc. He turned to me. ” Are you ready to go?”

” Yes,” I said. ” Goodbye, Polly, and thank you for the coffee.”

” It’s been a pleasure,” said Polly.

She stood at the door smiling as we went out to the cars. Roc got into his, I into mine. I drove off and he followed me. Near that bridge where it was said Arthur fought his last fight against Sir Mordred, Roc drove ahead of me and pulled up. I heard the door of his car slam and he came to stand by mine. ” So you lied to me,” I said.

” And you saw fit to pry into matters which are no concern of yours.”

” Perhaps they are some concern of mine.”

” You are quite wrong if you think so.”

” Shouldn’t I be interested in my husband’s son?”

” I would never have believed you’d do anything so petty. I had no idea I’d married a spy.”

“And I can’t understand why you should have lied. I should have understood.”

” How good of you! You are of course extremely tolerant and forgiving, I’m sure.”

“Roc!”

He looked at me so coldly that I shrank from him. ” There’s really nothing more to be said, is there?”

” I think there is. There are things I want to know.”

” You’ll find out. Your spy system seems excellent.” He went to his car, and drove on towards Pendorric; and I followed him home.

Back at Pendorric, Roc only spoke to me when necessary. I knew that he was planning his trip to the north coast, but there was now no question of my going with him.

It was impossible to hide from the household that we had quarrelled, because neither of us was good enough at hiding our feelings; and I was sure they were all rather curious.

The next few days seemed unbearably long and I had not felt so wretched since the death of my father. Two days after that disastrous visit to Bedivere I went into the quadrangle and sat under the palm tree thinking ruefully that the summer was nearly over, and with it the happiness I had believed was mine. The sun was shining but I could see the spiders’ webs on the bushes, and beautiful as the Michaelmas daisies and chrysanthemums were they did underline the fact that winter was on the way. But because this was Cornwall, the roses were still blooming; and although the hydrangeas did not flower in such profusion, there were still some to brighten the quadrangle.

One of the twins must have seen me for she came out and began to walk unconcernedly towards the pond, humming as she came. ” Hallo,” she said. ” Mummy says we’re not to sit on the seats because they’re damp. We’ll catch our deaths if we do. So what about you?”

” I don’t think it’s really damp.”

” Everything’s damp. You might get pneumonia and die.” I knew this was Hyson, and it occurred to me that since our adventure in the vault her attitude towards me had changed; and perhaps not towards me only; it seemed that she herself had changed.

“It would be one way.. ” she said thoughtfully. ” One way of dying, you mean?”

Her face puckered suddenly. ” Don’t talk of dying,” she said. ” I don’t like it … much.”

” You’re becoming awfully sensitive. Hyson,” I commented. She looked thoughtfully up at the east windows as though watching for something.

“Are you expecting someone?” I asked.

She did not answer.

After a while she said: ” You must have been very glad that I was in the vault with you, Favel.”

” It was rather selfish of me, but I was.”

She came nearer to me and putting her hands on my knees, looked into my face. ” I was glad I was there too,” she said.

“Why? It wasn’t very pleasant and you were horribly scared.” She smiled her odd little smile. ” Yes, but there were two of us. That made a difference.”

She stepped back and put her lips in the position to suggest whistling.

” Can you whistle, Favel?”

” Not very well.”

” Nor can I. Lowella can.” She stopped, looking up at the east windows. ” There it is,” she said. It was the sound of the violin.

I stood up and caught Hyson’s wrist. ” Who is it?” I asked.

“You know, don’t you?”

” No, I don’t. But I’m going to find out.”

” It’s Barbarina.”

” You know Barbarina’s dead.”

” Oh Favel, don’t go in there. You know what it means. s> ” Hyson!

What do you know? Who is playing the violin? Who locked us in the vault? Do you know that? “

For the moment I thought I saw a madness in the child’s eyes, and it was not a pleasant sight. ” It’s Barbarina,” she whispered. ” Listen to her playing. She’s telling us she’s getting tired. She means she won’t wait much longer.”

I shook her a little because I could see that she was near hysteria. ” I’m going to find out who’s playing that violin. You come with me.

We’ll find this person together. “

She was unwilling but I dragged her to the east door. As I opened it I could distinctly hear the sound of a violin.

” Come on,” I said, and we started up the stairs. The violin had stopped playing, but we went on to Barbarina’s room; I threw open the door. The violin was lying on the chair; the music was still on the stand. The room was just as it had been when I had last seen it. I looked at Hyson, but she had lowered her eyes and was staring at the floor.

I was more frightened than I had ever been, because never before had I felt so utterly alone. First I had had my parents to care for me; then—as I thought—a husband; finally a grandfather. I had lost them all, for now I could no longer rely on Roc to protect me from the danger which I felt was close.