Текст книги "Gossamer Cord"

Автор книги: Philippa Carr

сообщить о нарушении

Текущая страница: 15 (всего у книги 20 страниц)

“She shouldn’t have gone to bathe.”

“I knew. I didn’t think that could happen. People do bathe in the early morning.” He put his hands over his eyes. “She took to it suddenly. For a week or so before. She used to go down to the beach in the early morning. I was surprised, but she was always surprising me. It was what made her so attractive.”

“Yes, I know. Some idea would come to her and she would be all enthusiasm and then she’d forget all about it.”

He nodded miserably. Poor Dermot. He had really cared deeply for her. I had come to realize that he was rather weak, leaving everything in the hands of Gordon Lewyth, wanting a life devoid of responsibility.

“Dermot,” I said. “There is one thing I want to ask you. It is about Tristan.”

He gazed at me questioningly, with tears in his eyes, and I went on: “Dorabella once spoke to me very seriously. I think she must have had some premonition that she was not going to live. It was just before his birth and I imagined she thought she was not going to survive. She and I were exceptionally close…as twins are sometimes. She asked me if I would look after Tristan if she were not here. We would have taken him back to Caddington with us, but your father does not wish it. But I have given my word to Dorabella and I want to keep it. I must keep it. I want to stay here for a while…to look after Tristan.”

“I am glad,” he said. “I feel that is what she would have wanted.”

“She did want it. She made me swear I would. Dermot, will it be all right for me to stay until I can work something out? At the moment I feel so muddled and uncertain about everything. But if I may just stay…”

“But of course. You will be very welcome.”

“If you would tell Matilda and your father that Dorabella particularly wanted me to be with the boy…”

“I will speak to my father and Matilda.” He looked suddenly resolute. “I know it would be what Dorabella would have wanted. Thank you, Violetta. I am glad you will stay.”

My parents left soon after that. They were reluctant to leave me, but everything was so inconclusive. How long did I intend to stay, my mother was wondering. She said I was putting myself into a backwater. She would be thinking that Richard Dorrington could help me to grow away from this terrible grief. At times like this it was better to look ahead to the future.

The baby was too young to miss his mother, and Nanny Crabtree was remaining. She thought in due course the Tregarlands might realize that Tristan would be better off with his maternal grandparents.

When I had said goodbye to them, I felt very melancholy and went to the nursery to see Tristan.

It brought me comfort to hold him in my arms. Nanny Crabtree stood by watching. We were her children…myself as well as Tristan, and she knew what the loss of Dorabella meant to me.

She said: “He knows you. Look at his little face. You and me, Miss Violetta, we’ll see that he’s all right.”

A few days after my parents returned I received a letter from Richard.

My dearest,

I have been talking to your parents. What a terrible tragedy this is! I have heard that you intend to stay with the child. Your mother has explained to me.

I hope you are thinking about our marriage. It is what I want more than anything on earth. Do write to me. I shall come down to see you there as soon as I can arrange it. Then we can talk of the future.

I am feeling this with you. I have heard from Edward, as well as from your mother, how close you and your sister were, and I know what you must be suffering. I wish I could be with you to show you how deeply I feel for you.

Please write to me. I want to be in constant touch.

All my love to you,

Richard

It was a comforting letter. I was reminded of how kind and understanding he was.

It amazed me that, ever since I had heard that devastating news, I had not given him a thought.

I was surprised when Jowan Jermyn called at the house. One of the maids came to tell me that he was in the hall and had asked to see me. I noticed the look of surprise and excitement on her face.

Surprise, of course, that he had the temerity to call, and excitement at the thought of what a stir this news would create when she released it.

It was true that he had been invited to the house for lunch, but that was some time ago, and since then there would have been plenty of rumors. I had no doubt that Dorabella’s death would be attributed to some uncanny connection with the feud.

I went down to the hall, and there he was, standing with his back to the fireplace, his hands clasped behind him.

He came forward and took my hands, holding them firmly in his.

“I am so sorry,” he said earnestly.

I found it hard to speak and he went on: “I had to call. Perhaps I should not have done so. But there is no other way of getting in touch with you.”

“Thank you for coming,” I said.

“I should so like to talk to you,” he went on. “I heard you were staying here for a while, although your parents have left.”

“That’s so,” I said. “There is the baby…”

“Could you come and have lunch somewhere?”

“Do you mean today?”

“If that is possible. I have a car outside.”

I hesitated. My spirits lightened a little at the prospect. I could leave a message for Matilda that I should not be in to lunch today.

As we drove through the country lanes, he said: “I know a quiet place close to the moor. We can talk in comfort there.”

“I suppose you know everything that has happened,” I said.

“I don’t know about everything, but there is no talk hereabouts of anything but this tragedy.”

“It seems incredible to me still.”

I was staring blankly ahead, seeing her face, laughing at me, scorning me because of some priggish sentiment I had just expressed. I would have given anything to hear her laugh like that again.

He took his hand from the steering wheel and placed it over mine for a moment.

“So,” he said, “you have stayed on though your parents have gone.”

“Yes. I am helping with the baby.”

“Yes, with the nanny whose name is Crabtree.”

“She was nanny to my sister and to me. Mother procured her for Tristan.”

“Her name is often mentioned.”

“You mean by the gossips.”

“Oh, yes, she’s something of a dragon by all accounts. At least she hasn’t much time for the people around here.”

“I think she despises most people who weren’t born within the sound of Bow Bells.”

“Ah, I see.”

We were silent for a moment. I sensed that he wished to talk about the tragedy but was not sure what effect it would have on me.

We were seated opposite each other in the small hotel on the edge of the moor, when he regarded me gravely and said: “Do you mind talking about it?”

“It is uppermost in my mind,” I confessed.

“Do you think it was all a little strange…?”

“Yes, I do,” I replied.

“Do you believe in coincidences?”

“I suppose there are such things.”

“Yes, I suppose so, but…”

“You mean the way she died?”

“Yes. Two in the same way. Doesn’t that sound a little odd to you?”

“Yes.”

“You know what they are saying here?”

“I can guess.”

“That it is the revenge of the Jermyns on the Tregarlands, of course.”

“Oh, they can’t really believe that.”

“They can. They seize on this as a proof that the feud is as firm as ever; and the attempt to break it has not pleased my unfortunate ancestor.”

“I suppose it could have come about naturally. Dorabella was not a strong swimmer. Dermot’s first wife was, according to her mother. I cannot understand why Dorabella should have suddenly decided she wanted to take an early morning swim. If only I had been here…I should never have left. She did not want me to. In fact, she pleaded with me to stay. I said I would come back soon and she would be able to come home to us when the baby was older…and this happened when I was not there…”

“Do you think if you had been here you would have been able to prevent it?”

“I just have a feeling that it might not have happened then.”

He was silent for a while.

“It is odd,” he said. “Two of them to die that way. People here naturally put their own construction on it. Of course, it could have happened quite naturally. My ancestor did not want to live and she walked into the sea, never intending to come back; Annette…she could have had a sudden attack of cramp…and your sister, well, that could have happened to her, too. It is just an extraordinary coincidence that a man should have two wives who die by drowning at the same spot.”

“What are people suggesting?”

“I don’t quite know. But…I am a little uneasy. I think…you should be watchful.”

“What do you mean? That you…suspect something?”

“I don’t know what I feel. I just don’t like the thought of your being there…in a place where two such events could take place.”

I looked at him in surprise. He had always struck me as being a practical man who would scoff at fancy.

“What on earth do you think could happen to me?”

“I don’t know. I merely think that you are there where extraordinary things happen. That’s why…I want you to be watchful.”

“What am I to watch for?”

“I don’t know. That’s just it. I have this vague uneasiness, though. If it were anyone else…it wouldn’t occur to me.

I looked at him questioningly and he returned my gaze steadily.

“I care what happens to you,” he said. “Perhaps that is why I am particularly sensitive.”

“That is very kind of you,” I replied.

He shook his head. “It is something over which I have no control. All this seems too contrived to be natural, and I am uneasy because you are in the midst of it.”

“Would you feel better if I went home?”

He smiled at me ruefully. “I was not at all pleased when you stayed away so long. In fact, I was definitely displeased. I had rather you came back for reasons other than this one.”

“How I agree with you on that!”

“Get in touch with me…at any time if you need anything. Telephone me. Do you have the number?”

I said I did not and he gave it to me and I put it into my handbag. I felt an uplifting of my spirits such as I had not known since I heard of Dorabella’s death. I was so gratified that he was concerned for me.

I told him then that I had promised my sister that I would look after Tristan if she were unable to be there.

“It was very strange,” I said, “almost as though she knew she was going to die. She made me swear because she did not want anyone else to look after him. So I am here because they would not allow us to take Tristan back with us.”

“That is something I should be grateful for. If they had allowed you to take him, you would probably never have come here again.”

“That might well have been. At least, the visits would be rare.”

He stretched across the table and took my hand.

“I should have had to come to see you,” he said. “You know I would do that, don’t you?”

“Well, no. It hadn’t occurred to me that you would.”

“Well, it does now, I hope.”

“Since you tell me.”

“Listen,” he went on. “I have been thinking a great deal about this. If at any time you need someone to confide in…to help…”

I tapped my handbag and said: “I have your number. I can get in touch with you at any time…and I will.”

I met Seth in the stables. When he saw me his face changed and he looked almost furtive.

“I did tell ’ee, Miss, ’twere so.”

I knew what he meant. He had warned me of the ghost of the sea and I had shown my disbelief. He was now telling me how wrong I was to be skeptical.

“Poor lady, her be gone…her be gone like t’other. Reckon her was beckoned in, this one…not like t’other.”

His words were thick and slurred and it was not easy to understand what he was saying. I often wondered whether he knew himself; but I supposed there was some reasoning in that muddled head of his.

He leaned his big ungainly body against the walls of the stables.

“ ’Ee be wanting Starlight, Miss?” he asked.

I had changed my mind suddenly.

“No, thanks,” I said. “I think I’ll take a walk.”

He nodded and mumbled: “I did tell ’ee, didn’t I, Miss? Didn’t believe me, did ’ee? Poor lady…who’d a thought. She was a laughing lady, she were…just like t’other. They wouldn’t listen. They laughed…but it got ’un in the end.”

“Did you see my sister go down to bathe?” I asked.

He shook his head. “Not that ’un,” he said.

“Then did you see the first Mrs. Tregarland go down to bathe, Seth?”

A cunning look came into his eyes. “No, no. I didn’t see nothing. Ask her…I didn’t see.”

“Ask whom, Seth?”

He turned away, shaking his head, and I saw a certain fear in his eyes.

“I didn’t see nothing,” he went on. “I didn’t. Her just went into the sea like. Nothing to do with I.”

Poor Seth. He really did not know what he was talking about. He was obsessed by the legend. His eyes were worried, his loose mouth slightly, open. He was puzzled, as though trying to understand something, and my question had clearly disturbed him.

He disappeared into one of the stalls and I heard him talking to one of the horses there.

“All right, my beauty. ’Tis old Seth. Don’t ’ee worry…only old Seth.”

I came out of the stables. I had an hour or so before I need go back. Nanny Crabtree was busy in the nursery and liked to be free at this time. If, as she said, she could get the lord and master off to sleep, she would have the time to do what had to be done.

I came out into the fresh air. It was invigorating with a light breeze blowing in from the sea with its salty tang and smell of seaweed.

I took the cliff road to Poldown and no sooner had I reached the little town than I wished I had gone another way.

There were too many people about and, because of my involvement with the Tregarland tragedy, I was an object of interest.

I passed the wool shop. Miss Polgenny was standing at the door.

“Good day to ’ee, Miss Denver. How be you then? ’Tis a nice day.”

Her little eyes were alert with curiosity. I could see the thoughts in her mind. I was the sister of “her that went for a swim and was drowned.” “ ’Twas all part of the curse.”

They believed that—most of them. Their lives were governed by superstition.

“Good to see ’ee, Miss.” That was one of the fishermen mending his nets. I knew that as soon as I passed, he would be talking to the man beside him. “That was her from Tregarland’s. Her sister it were…”

There was no escape.

I crossed the bridge and started up the west cliff.

The sea looked docile. There was only the faintest ruffle and little white patches of froth on the tips of the waves as rhythmically they washed the black rocks. Back and forth they went, murmuring soothingly as they did so.

I came to Cliff Cottage and paused to look at the garden. There was the plant I had brought from Tregarland’s. It was flourishing, I perceived.

I think she must have seen me from behind the neat lace curtains, for the door opened and she came down the path toward me.

“Hello, Miss Denver,” she said.

“Good morning, Mrs. Pardell.”

She came out and stood close to the fence. She said, rather anxiously, I thought: “And how are you?”

“I am well, thanks. Are you?”

“Looking at the flowers then?” she said, nodding. “Eee…like to come in for a bit? Perhaps a little chat…a cup of tea?”

I said eagerly: “I’d like that.”

Then I was in the sitting room looking at the picture of Annette, while Mrs. Pardell went into the kitchen to make the tea.

She came in with a tray and when she had poured out the tea she said: “It was a terrible thing…”

I knew what she meant and said: “Yes.”

“I know how you are feeling. None could know better.”

“That’s true.”

“It was the same, wasn’t it? It seemed a bit queer to me.”

“It was such a coincidence.”

She looked at me steadily. “I don’t like it,” she said. “It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”

“Wonder…?” I repeated.

She drew her chair closer to mine. “You’re staying there now,” she said.

“It is because of the child.”

“Isn’t there a nanny…from London or somewhere?”

“Yes. She was my nanny…mine and my sister’s. My mother arranged for her to come. She trusts her.”

“That’s good,” she said. “I’m glad she’s here.”

I told her: “I promised my sister that if anything happened, I’d look after the baby.”

She nodded. “So there you are. These people here…they talk about ghosts and things. I’ve never had much patience with that sort of thing. Ghosts…my foot. It wasn’t ghosts who got rid of my Annette.”

“Got rid of her?”

“You’re not kidding me she wouldn’t look after herself in the water. And what about your sister?”

“She wasn’t by any means a champion swimmer. In fact, I was surprised that she went bathing in the early morning.”

“It’s clear to me.”

“What is clear?”

“Well, a man has two wives. They both die in the same way, and not long after he married them. Doesn’t that say something to you?”

“What does it say to you?”

“That it’s a funny business, that’s what. He marries, then gets tired of them, and then it’s goodbye, nice knowing you, but I’ve had enough and it’s time for a change.”

“Oh, no,” I said.

“What else? They both went the same way. Convenient, wasn’t it? There was the sea ready and waiting.”

“But how…?”

“Your guess is as good as mine. It worked once. Why not try again?”

“You don’t know Dermot Tregarland.”

“Don’t know my daughter’s husband, my own son-in-law, you might say.”

“He was that, but you didn’t know him.”

“I was never asked up there, but I knew of him. In any case, they are now gone. My daughter, your sister. Of course he got rid of them.”

“Mrs. Pardell, this is absurd. If he had wanted to get rid of them, he wouldn’t have killed the second in the same way as the first. It makes people wonder. It calls attention…”

“Look here, Miss Denver, you’re too innocent. What about those Brides in the Bath? That man went round murdering women for their money, after he’d married them. He got them in the bath and drowned them. He did several of them that way.”

“This is different.”

“I don’t see how.”

“I know Dermot Tregarland well. He couldn’t commit one murder…let alone two.”

“You’re too trusting, Miss Denver. If you read any of those detective stories you’d see. It’s always the one you’d least suspect.”

“It could have been accidental.”

She shook her head. “You won’t get me believing that. I know how you feel about your sister. Didn’t I go through it all? You’re living up there, Miss Denver. You’ve got to keep your eyes open…that’s what you’ve got to do. You watch out. I reckon something very funny is going on up at that place. Have another cup of tea.”

“No, thanks. I am sure you are misjudging Dermot Tregarland.”

“I wish to God my Annette had never married him. I reckon if she hadn’t she would have been alive today. I’d have got over her having a baby out of wedlock, but I couldn’t get over this. I just want to know…if only I knew…”

“I understand what you mean,” I said. “If one knows, there is nothing to be done, one accepts it.”

“That’s right.” She looked at me shrewdly. “You’re a sensible girl, Miss Denver. You keep your eyes open. See if he’s got another in mind for number three.”

“Oh…I’m sure not. He is absolutely devastated with grief.”

She looked disbelieving. “Well, he would let you think that, wouldn’t he?”

“It’s genuine. I know.”

“Murderers are clever people. They have to be to get away with it.”

“But not two wives, Mrs. Pardell. Not two in the same way.”

“How about that Bluebeard?”

In spite of everything, I could not help smiling.

“Look here,” she said. “Don’t you be too trusting. You watch out. I’m glad you came by. I’ve been thinking about you. It was good of you to bring that plant. I wouldn’t like anything to happen to you.”

“To me?”

“Well, when people start trying to find out what people don’t want brought to light, they’re in danger. It always works that way. You watch out, but don’t let him see you’re watching.”

The picture of Annette smiled at me. She was dead. Her body had been washed up on the beach a few days after she had been drowned. And Dorabella…perhaps one day…hers would be found.

I said goodbye to Mrs. Pardell and promised her I would call again.

I made my way back to Tregarland’s. Poor Mrs. Pardell! I was thinking. We were all the same. Our grief was so intense that we wanted to blame someone, and she had selected Dermot. Poor, brokenhearted, rather ineffectual Dermot. It was difficult to imagine him in the role of Bluebeard. In fact, it was so absurd that I found myself smiling in a way I had not done for some time.

Mrs. Pardell’s words and I thought how very mistaken she was.

He was sitting in the garden looking down the slope to where the sea gently lapped the black rocks.

I went and sat beside him and he smiled at me rather feebly.

I said: “Dermot, you must not brood.”

“And you?” he asked. “Are you brooding?”

“We both have to stop it.”

“I can’t get it out of my mind. Why did she do it? And why wasn’t I here?”

I laid my hand on his arm.

“We have to try to put it behind us.”

“Can you?” he demanded almost angrily.

“No. But we have to try.”

“I keep thinking of her. Do you remember how I first saw you, outside that café place? I looked at her and I knew from that moment. I knew she was the one. She was different from anyone I had ever met. She was so full of gaiety and everything seemed a joke. You know what I mean. You laughed at things just because you were happy, I suspect, not because they were particularly funny.”

“I know what you mean.”

“There was no one like her…and she’s gone. She’s out there somewhere. Do you think we shall ever find her?”

“I just feel that we shall. Poor Dermot, you have been through this…twice.”

His manner changed slightly. He seemed to draw himself up and his face stiffened.

“That,” he said, “was different.”

“She was drowned, too.”

“It wasn’t the same. Dorabella…she was everything.”

“Annette…”

“I don’t talk about that much. But this…I know you cared about her …as I did. She was very close to you, wasn’t she? I was afraid, always afraid that I was going to lose her. Oh, not like this. I thought I shouldn’t be enough for her. She would find someone else. Sometimes…”

“She was your wife, Dermot.”

“I know, but…”

“I don’t understand,” I said. He frowned and I went on: “Tell me…”

“Well, she was not the sort to go on with something just because she was expected to. She had no respect for conventional behavior. She always wanted to break free from it.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

He was silent and I could see he wished he had not said what he had.

He said: “Annette…she was fun. Jolly, good-hearted. But for the child, it would never have been. With Dorabella it was different.”

“I understand.”

“I can’t settle to anything. It all seems blank and not worthwhile. I leave everything to Gordon…more than ever.”

“Well, you always have, haven’t you?”

“Yes. He’s so capable. He makes me feel…inefficient. I was taking more interest when Tristan came. You see, in time, this will all be his…first mine, of course. But Gordon will always be there. But now this has happened, I just don’t care about anything.”

“But there is Tristan to think of.”

He just sat there, staring out to sea.

“I’m glad you’re here, Violetta. I’m glad you’re with the baby.”

“It was her wish, you know.”

“I know. Nanny is good, but she is getting old now. It is better for the baby to have someone young, and you…you’ll be like his own mother. You will stay here, won’t you?”

I said: “Everything is so uncertain at the moment. I suppose it would be better really if I went to Caddington, taking Tristan and Nanny Crabtree with me.”

“My father is against that.”

“I know. He has made it clear. Well, it is all too soon. We’ll see how it works out.”

I sat with him a little longer and we looked out to sea and thought of Dorabella.

Nanny Crabtree was faintly perturbed.

“Tristan’s got a little sniffle. Not much, but I don’t like it and I’m keeping him in today.”

“I’ll come up and see him,” I said.

He was lying in his cot, whimpering a little.

I went over and picked him up. That satisfied him for a few minutes. He had an endearing habit of gripping my finger and holding on to it tightly, as though determined not to let me go.

“He looks a little flushed,” I said.

“A bit,” she replied. “He just wants to be kept warm, that’s all.”

At midday there was a letter from Richard.

He had written, “Dearest Violetta,”

I am arriving on Thursday. I have discovered there is a hotel in Poldown…West Poldown. It’s a place called Black Rock Hotel. I have booked a room and shall be staying for a few days. I have Tregarland’s number and I’ll give you a call as soon as I arrive. There is so much to talk about.

See you soon.

All my love,

Richard

Thursday, and it was Wednesday today!

My feelings were mixed. I wanted to see him, of course, but he would try to persuade me to leave Cornwall, and that was something I could not consider, at least not yet.

Well, I should hear what he had to say and I would make him understand that I had promised Dorabella to take her place with her son and that it had been a sacred promise which I must keep at all costs.

He was reasonable. He would see that.

I thought about him all the afternoon, recalling what a pleasant time we had had in London, and I was definitely looking forward to seeing him again.

The first thing I did next morning was to go to the nursery to see Tristan.

“Still sniffling,” said Nanny Crabtree. “So it is another day indoors for you, my lord.”

In the late afternoon there was a call from Richard. He had just arrived at Black Rock Hotel. He wanted me to have dinner with him that night. Could I come to the hotel or should he come to me? If I came to the hotel we could be alone together. He had ascertained that he could get a car at the hotel and come and pick me up.

We arranged that he should do this.

I told Matilda that he was coming. She seemed rather pleased. She said it would do me good to see him.

She was very friendly when he arrived. Gordon happened to be there and they were introduced; and after a short time I went back with him to Black Rock Hotel.

It was a pleasant place with a lounge overlooking the sea. The black rock, from which the hotel took its name, was very much in evidence and Richard and I sat in the lounge looking out on it.

“You will be coming home soon,” Richard was saying.

“I don’t know what is going to happen. We’re just drifting along at the moment.”

“I know. It was such a terrible shock.”

“Then there is the baby.”

“I understand that he has an excellent nanny.”

“Yes, but it is not the same, is it?”

“Isn’t it?”

“Oh, no. He has lost his mother…and he looks to me, I know.”

“Oh, I am sure he is too young to miss her.”

“In a way. But somehow…I think he needs me.”

Richard looked faintly disbelieving.

“Perhaps it is difficult for you to understand,” I began.

“Oh, no…no,” he said. “I understand perfectly how you feel. All this was so sudden, so absolutely shattering. You can’t really sort things out at first. I have been talking to your mother.”

“What did you say to her?”

“It was she who thought you should leave Cornwall and come home. She thought they might see reason down here and let the baby come with you. She said that would be by far the best for everybody, and she reckons that is what it will come to eventually.”

“I don’t know.”

“It would be the best surely. If you made up your mind…about us…well, it would only be natural that your mother should take the child.”

“He belongs down here, you see. One day he will inherit everything. His grandfather wants him to be brought up here.”

“Your mother tells me that the grandfather is rather an odd character, and she wonders if he is resisting in order to be perverse. She says she is sure that at heart he is quite indifferent about the whole matter.”

“There is, of course, Tristan’s father to be considered.”

“He’s rather a weak person, according to your mother. He goes where he’s put.”

“That’s not entirely true. But at the moment he is suffering deeply from a terrible shock.”

“Of course. But that’s enough of these people. What about you? Tell me…have you thought any more…about us?”

“I haven’t been able to think about anything but all this.”

“You’ll get over it…and then…”

“Dorabella had been with me all my life until she married. And now she’s gone, I can’t believe it. I can’t think about anything else.”

He looked crestfallen, and I fancied just a little impatient.

“I’m sorry, Richard,” I said. “It’s just impossible for me to see very far ahead.”

“I understand,” he said soothingly. “Let me tell you what is happening in London. My mother was hoping you’d come up and stay for a while. There are a lot of things she wants to show you about the house.”

“Oh,” I said faintly.

“As for Mary Grace, she is already very fond of you.”

“Did she do that portrait?”

“Yes, and it was much admired. There are two more people clamoring for her work. You see what you have already done for the family. Oh, Violetta, it can be so good, I know it can. Please, please, do think about it. I am so sure it is the right thing.”

But I was not. It was reasonable, of course, for him to think that my mother should care for the baby, but he simply did not understand. I was glad to see him, of course. But somehow it was not quite as it had seemed in London.

He told me he could stay for only two more days. He just had to be back in London by Monday and would have to leave on Sunday. It was a pity it was such a long journey.

“I’ll come down again soon,” he said. “Give me a ring when you have made up your mind. I shall be waiting for it.”

I felt that he was taking too much for granted. He could not understand my uncertainty. He seemed so sure that I was going to marry him.

I wished that I could want to. He did not seem to realize that what had happened had made me unable to make any plans. My mind was still with Dorabella. If she had died naturally, would it have been different? But I could not rid myself of the strange feeling that she was not dead, because I had not seen that she was.

It was an unsatisfactory evening and I was not sorry when the time came to drive back to Tregarland’s.

The next morning early, Nanny Crabtree came to me in some anxiety.

“I want the doctor to come and look at Tristan,” she said. “I don’t like that cold of his.”

“Why, Nanny, is he worse?”

“He’s wheezing. He’s past the sniffle stage. And now it seems to be getting onto his chest. I’d just like the doctor to see him.”

“We’ll send for him right away. I’ll give him a ring.”

She nodded. “Well, it will set our minds at rest.”