“What did you think of her?”
She was silent. Then she said: “With a woman like that around, things happen. There’s something dangerous about them. Some said she was a witch. They go in for that sort of thing round here. They like to think of people riding out on broomsticks and cooking up mischief. Well, there was mischief at Perrivale after she appeared on the scene.”
“So you think she was involved in it?”
“Most seem to think so. We hadn’t seen many of her sort down here. She looked different even. All that red hair and them green eyes that didn’t go with the hair somehow. All of a sudden there was this widow among us with a child … and she was almost as strange as her mother. Now her father, he was different. Oh, everybody liked the Major. He was jolly with everybody. Always passed the time of day. A very nice gentleman. Quite different from her.”
“Tell me about the child. You know a great deal about children. What did you think of her?”
“It’s my own I know … all their little ways and habits … I can read them like a book. But that one … well, I never had much to do with her nor should I want to. I reckon she’ll be another like her mother. Kate, her name is, I think. A nice, ordinary sort of name.
Different from her mother’s. Mirabel. What sort of name is that? “
“Hers apparently. And mine is Rosetta. You probably think that’s odd.”
“Oh no. That’s pretty. It’s Rose really and what’s nicer than a nice rose?”
“Tell me what you found out about Mirabel and Kate?”
“Only that they were a peculiar pair. They came with her father and took Seashell Cottage and it was clear that the widow woman was looking for a nice rich husband. So she settled on the Perrivales. They said she could have had any of them and she settled on Cosmo. He was the eldest. He’d get the estates and the title … so it had to be Cosmo.”
“Did the family approve of this woman coming from nowhere? I should have thought Sir Edward, with his conventional tastes, might have objected.”
“Oh, Sir Edward was too far gone. As for Lady Perrivale, she was as taken with Mirabel as any of them. Story was that the Major was an old friend of hers. He’d married her old schoolfriend and Mirabel was the result of that marriage. She had wanted them to come and settle in Cornwall in the first place. I don’t know how true that is but that’s how the story goes. The Major was always up at Perrivale. Oh, she was very taken with him. He’s the sort who’d get on with anyone. Oh yes.
Lady Perrivale was all for the marriage. “
“And then … it happened.”
“They all thought Simon, like the others, was smitten by her. That was where the motive came in.”
“He didn’t do it. Nanny,” I said earnestly.
“Why should he have done?
I don’t believe h& was in love with that woman. “
“No,” she said.
“He’d have too much sense. Besides, it didn’t mean that because Cosmo was dead she would turn to him. No … that was not the answer. How I wish I knew what was.”
“You believe in Simon’s innocence, don’t you. Nanny? I mean, you believe absolutely?”
“I do. And I know that boy better than any.”
“Do any of us really know other people?”
“I know my children,” she said staunchly.
“If you could help him, would you. Nanny?”
“With all my heart.”
And then I told her. I went through the whole story, beginning with our encounter on deck, to the time when we parted company outside the Embassy in Constantinople.
She was astounded.
“And you’ve been here all this time and not told me before?”
“I couldn’t be entirely sure of you. I had to protect Simon. You understand?”
She nodded slowly. Then she turned to me and gripped my hand.
“Nanny,” I said solemnly.
“More than anything, I want to solve this. I want to find the truth.”
“That’s what I want,” she said.
“You know a great deal about them. You have access to the house.”
She nodded.
I said with a sudden upward surging of hope: “Nanny, you and I will work together. We’re going to prove Simon’s innocence.”
Her eyes were shining. I felt happier than I had for a long time.
“We’ll do it,” I said, ‘together. “
What a difference it made to share my secret with Nanny Crockett. We talked continuously, going over the same ground again and again; but it was surprising how ideas occurred to us as we did so. We had convinced ourselves that someone in that house knew who had killed Cosmo Perrivale, and we shared the burning desire to find out the truth and prove Simon’s innocence.
A few days after I had taken Nanny Crockett into my confidence. Jack Carter left a message at the house to say he was taking a load over Upbridge way and if Nanny Crockett would like a lift he’d be more than happy with the company and do her a good turn at the same time, for he knew how she liked the little trip.
It seemed like an answer to our prayers. Nanny Crockett said that if I would look after the children, she would go; and she set off in a state of great excitement.
It seemed a long day. I did not see Lucas, as I spent the whole time with the children. I played with them, read to them and told them stories. They were quite content, but I was counting the minutes till Nanny’s return.
I do not know what I expected she would find out in that short time.
She came back in a mood of suppressed excitement, but she would tell me nothing until the children had had their supper of milk and bread and butter and were safely tucked up in bed.
Then we settled down to our chat.
“Well,” she said.
“It was a blessing that I went. It seems that Madam up there is in a bit of a state.”
“You mean Lady Perrivale?”
“I mean young Lady Perrivale.”
She folded her hands on her lap and surveyed me with great satisfaction, and, like some people who have exciting news to impart, she seemed to derive a certain pleasure in holding it back for a while, savouring the pleasure she was going to give me.
“Yes, yes. Nanny,” I prompted impatiently.
“Well, it’s nothing unusual to them up there. It happens regular, but they are getting desperate. It’s Madam Kate.”
“Do tell me what she’s done. Nanny, and what has it to do with us?”
She pulled herself back in her chair and smiled at me knowingly, which was irritating to me being so very much in the dark.
“Well,” she went on, ‘it’s like this. The governess up there has walked out again. It’s a regular way with governesses up there. None of them can stand young Kate for more than a week or so. But it throws the household in a turmoil. Really, this Kate must be a bit of a demon if you ask me. Well, there’s Mrs. Ford telling me that they’re all
praying to get a governess who gives Kate the education she ought to have . and keeps her out of the way of the grownups, I wouldn’t mind reckoning. And how they can’t, how they’re all in despair and young Kate is laughing her head off because the last thing she wants in the house is a governess. There’s been goodness knows how many . and not one stayed. Mrs. Ford reckons that soon it will get round and they wouldn’t even give it a trial. She’s a little imp, that Kate. Wants her own way. Mrs. Ford said if they don’t get someone to control her sometime, governesses won’t be the only ones who are leaving. Well, that’s how it was up at Perrivale. ” She paused and
