“Then I should go up to her,” Mrs. Ellis said.
Daisy hastily improvised. “I think she’s sleeping. She’s asked for a tray later.”
“Well, then,” Gran said, “there’s no reason to let our own dinner spoil.”
She led the way into the dining room, and as we were taking our places, I saw Roger Ellis watching me with wary eyes.
We didn’t linger over dinner. And when everyone went to the hall to have our tea, Roger Ellis caught my arm and held me back.
We stood there in the dining room, the remains of dinner on the table behind us, and waited until the others were out of earshot.
“What took you to Dover?” he asked in a low voice. “It wasn’t duty. They wouldn’t summon a nursing sister from Sussex to deal with a patient in Kent.”
“I actually did meet a former patient and got him transferred back to the Base Hospital in Rouen.” I pulled my arm from his grasp.
“Rouen? What was he doing in Dover?”
“He’d been badly burned in a fire, and was out of his head. They put him on the ship by mistake.”
“The devil they did! Why did you go to Dover?”
I took a deep breath. He would learn about Sophie soon enough.
“It’s true. As far as it goes. But the fire was in Rouen, a street of houses burning. In one of them lived a handful of dispossessed nuns caring for a number of French orphans. Your daughter was among them. Thank God the children were rescued, and the man who brought her out of the fire knew I’d been searching for such a child. He brought her to me. Only I didn’t know that when I drove to Kent. I only knew that a man I’d treated in France was in Dover without proper papers and in a great deal of trouble. It wasn’t until I’d got there that he told me the rest of the story.”
“You knew when I met you in Rouen where she was. I suspected it then. I know it now. Why did you lie to me?” He was very angry.
“I didn’t lie. I didn’t feel it was the right time to tell you the whole truth. What could you have done? Nothing. Which is all I was able to do. And-to be perfectly honest-I didn’t know what you intended to do when you found Sophie.”
“Did you believe I would harm her? I only wanted to pay for her upkeep, to give her a chance at a decent life.”
“But not to bring her to England.”
“Where is this child now?”
I hesitated. “Here. At Vixen Hill. I didn’t know where else to take her, and I’d already been away from Sussex too long. But I must find a way to return her to France as soon as possible. The nuns will think she’s dead in the fire. Or worse. That’s not right. The Sergeant meant well, he thought he was doing what was best. But he shouldn’t have taken her away. The nuns are the only family she’s ever known. And the other children are her family-”
He cut me short, his voice harsh. “Is she in your room?”
“No. Lydia came into the kitchen when I was trying to feed her and comfort her. She took her to the room above the hall.”
He swore then, and started for the stairs. I went quickly after him, and said, “Whatever you want to say to me or to your wife, you will not frighten that child. Do you hear me?”
“I don’t frighten children.”
But I thought in the mood he was in, he might not remember Sophie. And so I followed him.
When we came to the room Lydia had taken over, he knocked, and then without waiting for an invitation to enter, he opened the door and walked in.
Lydia, startled, looked at him and then her gaze slid to me. “You told him,” she accused.
Beside her on the cushions spread about the floor, the cat and the child were curled up asleep. She moved away from them and stood up to face her husband.
He didn’t look at Sophie. His eyes were on his wife. “Her father’s name is Hebert. She is not my child.”
“You’ve only to look at her to know she is,” Lydia retorted. “Whatever name you used.”
“He was a French officer. He died in the fighting six months before she was born. Her mother died of childbed fever.”
Lydia shook her head. “You can’t deny her, Roger. It would be cruel to try.”
“You can’t keep her,” he said doggedly. “Ask Bess, if you don’t believe me.”
“She’s here. And she’ll stay with me. I don’t care about French law or the nuns or anything else.”
“Lydia,” I began, but she shook her head a second time.
“No, I don’t want to hear it. Roger made his choice. I’ve made mine. I’ll have a child now. It’s what I wanted from the beginning. And you needn’t worry about me anymore.”
“How will you explain her to the world, Lydia?” I asked. “You must think about this practically, not emotionally. Will you let everyone in Ashdown Forest point her out as Roger’s love child? She’ll be under that cloud for the rest of her life, if you aren’t careful. She’s not yours. She must go back to France. If Roger wants her, he can go through the proper procedures. I’ll take her back as soon as possible.”
“You won’t. I won’t let you. Now go away, both of you. I’ve nothing more to say.” And she turned her back on us, walking to the window and looking out into the darkness.
Roger tried to argue with her, to no avail. And then she said, suddenly turning toward us, “There’s a motorcar coming up the lane. I expect it must be the police.”
She turned toward the bed, intent on taking up the sleeping child and going somewhere with her.
I said, “Lydia, stop! The police don’t know anything about this. They’ve come because there was another murder, not for Sophie.”
She hesitated. “You’re lying to me.”
“No. There’s no way they could have discovered anything about her. Even if the French police are searching everywhere, there’s nothing to lead them to Sussex.”
Roger looked at me. “You have more explaining to do,” he said, and then turned and went out of the room. I could hear his steps on the stairs.
Lydia hovered protectively over Sophie, daring me to take her away.
I said, “Are you sure you want a child who looks so much like Juliana?”
“I don’t care what she looks like. It won’t matter.”
“But it might to your husband. Did you see? He never looked in Sophie’s direction. He doesn’t want to know how much she looks like his sister. He doesn’t want to be reminded.”
“He’ll change his mind in time. You don’t know him, Bess.”
I was getting nowhere, and I could just hear the knock at the hall door.
I said, “We’ll have to deal with this later,” and followed Roger Ellis down the stairs.
When I walked into the hall, I saw that Lydia was right. Inspector Rother had just been admitted. He crossed to the hearth and put out his hands to the blaze, saw that I had joined the others, and nodded. “You’re all here then. Except for Mrs. Roger Ellis,” he said. “Will you please bring her down to hear what I have to say.”
“She has a headache. I hope you will allow her to rest now,” I answered him.
“Very well. We’ve come to search Vixen Hill.”
Captain Ellis moved a little from where he stood. “I’ll know the reason why before I allow you to search my house and upset my family.”
Inspector Rother said, “We’ve searched the Forest in every direction. The windmill, the church, the villages, everywhere. This is the only place we haven’t been.”
Roger flicked a glance in my direction. I knew what he was thinking: Had the hue and cry gone up for Sophie Hebert after all? Or was this police business of another sort?
But Sergeant Larimore would never have given us away, even if somehow he’d been connected to her disappearance. I moved my head just a fraction, and Captain Ellis saw it.
He said, “That’s all well and good, Inspector. But you’ve yet to tell me why you must invade my privacy.”
“Very well,” he said grudgingly. “Dr. Tilton went out on his rounds yesterday afternoon. His last patient was Mrs. Jenkins, who lives in Wych Cross and suffers from sciatica. He saw her, and as he was leaving, she offered him tea, but he told her he was expected home for his own. But he never arrived. Someone suggested he might have
