Fanny shook her head. 'No, only a brother, so I can't really borrow anything much. It must be nice to have a sister.'
'Yes, it is-most of the time. Although I think I might have liked a brother, too. I have some cousins, only I hardly ever see them.'
'So have I-but they're mostly boys as well. At least the ones I see are. They're second cousins really, but it's much the same.' Her face became sober. 'One of them just died. It was all rather horrible. He got killed. I don't really understand what happened, and nobody will tell me. I think it must be something disgusting, or they'd say-don't you think?'
Her words were quite casual, but Charlotte saw behind the puzzled, rather offhand look the need to be reassured. And reality would be better than the monsters created by silence.
Apart from her own need to press for information, Charlotte did not want to insult the child with comfortable lies.
'Yes,' she said honestly. 'I should think there's probably something that hurts, so people would rather not talk about it.''
195
Fanny looked at her for several moments before speaking again, measuring her up.
'He was murdered,' she said at last.
'Oh, dear, I'm so sorry,' Charlotte answered with perfect composure. 'That's very sad. How did it happen?'
'Our tutor, Mr. Jerome-everyone says he killed him.'
'Your tutor? How appalling. Did they have a fight? Do you suppose it was an accident? Perhaps he did not mean to be so violent?'
'Oh, no!' Fanny shook her head. 'It wasn't like that at all. It wasn't a fight-Arthur was drowned in the bath.' She screwed up her face in bewilderment. 'I simply don't understand it. Titus-that's my brother-had to give evidence in court. They wouldn't let me go, of course. They don't let me do anything really interesting! Sometimes it's awful being a girl.' She sighed. 'But I've thought a lot-and I can't imagine what he knows that would be any good!'
'Well, men do tend to be a bit pompous,' Charlotte offered.
'Mr. Jerome was,' Fanny said. 'Oh, he was very stuffy, too. He had an expression as if he was eating rice pudding all the time! But he was an awfully good teacher. I hate rice pudding-it always has lumps in it and it tastes of nothing, but we have to have it every Thursday. He used to teach me Latin. I don't think he liked any of us very much, but he never lost his temper. I think he was sort of proud of that. He was terribly-I don't know.' She shrugged. 'He never had any fun.'
'But he hated your cousin Arthur?'
'I never thought he liked him a lot.' Fanny considered it carefully. 'But I never thought he hated him either.'
Charlotte felt a quickening of excitement.
'What was he like, your cousin Arthur?'
Fanny wrinkled up her nose and hesitated.
'You didn't like him?' Charlotte helped.
Fanny's face ironed out, the tension relieved. Charlotte guessed it was the first time the decencies of mourning had allowed her to speak the truth about Arthur.
'Not very much,' she admitted.
'Why not?' Charlotte pressed, trying to hide at least some of her interest.
196
'He was awfully conceited. He was very good-looking, you know.' Fanny shrugged again. 'Some boys are very vain- just as vain as any girl. And he behaved as if he was superior, but I suppose that's just because he was older.' She took a deep breath. 'I say, isn't that piano dreadful? It sounds like a maid dropping
