ever received. “
“It’s honest, anyway.”
“Yes, I grant that.”
“And it is not so unusual either. It’s just that people don’t tell all the truth. Most people love themselves passionately and when they declare their love for someone it is always for their own comfort and pleasure. So you see, I am just the same as most other people except that I am more honest.”
“Oh, Lucas, it is good of you, but…”
“It’s not good at all and but… I knew there would be a but.”
“I really can’t take you seriously.”
“Why not? The more I think of it the better solution it seems. You are in the doldrums … which ever way you turn. Everything has changed for you. Your forthright aunt has entered your old home and changed it. You have recently come through an almost incredible adventure.
Nothing like it will ever happen to you again, so therefore life seems a little flat. You are not sure which way to turn. But turn you will anything . anywhere to take you out of the slough into which you have fallen. If governessing in a house of somewhat shady reputation is
considered, why not marriage with a curmudgeon who is a poor thing, but at least cares for you and understands? “
“You don’t put it very romantically.”
“We are not discussing romance but reality.”
I couldn’t help laughing again and he joined in with me.
“Oh come, Rosetta,” he said.
“Give up this mad idea … and at least consider the other proposition. It has certain advantages. We are good friends, aren’t we? We’ve faced death together. I understand you as few people ever will. And do you want to go back to Aunt Maud and her plans for you?”
“I certainly don’t want to do that,” I replied.
“You are right in a way. You do understand me … to some degree.”
“Then abandon this idea. I’ll send Dick Duvane over to Perrivale to tell them to look for a new governess. Think about what I suggested.
Stay here for a while. Let’s enlarge our acquaintance. You don’t need to leap into this. Let’s make plans. “
“You are so good to me, Lucas.”
I placed my hand in his and he put it to his lips.
“It’s true, you know, Rosetta,” he said earnestly.
“I am fond of you.”
“I really am second with you?”
He laughed and held me against him for a moment.
“But…” I went on.
“Yes, I know about that ” but”. You’re going to Perrivale, aren’t you?”
“I must, Lucas. There’s a reason.”
Warnings of danger flashed into my mind. Once again I was on the point of telling him why I must go to Perrivale. He would understand then.
He saw that I was really determined.
He said: “Well, I shall be close. We’ll meet at The Sailor King. And when you find it quite unbearable, you only have to walk out and come to Trecorn.”
“That is a great comfort to me,” I told him.
“And, Lucas … thank you for asking me. It means a great deal to me.”
“It’s not the last time I shall ask. There’ll be others. I don’t give in as easily as that.”
“It was a great surprise to me. I think it was to you.”
“Oh, it has been smouldering in my mind for a long time … even on the island perhaps …”
“Do you think often of that time now?”
“It’s always there … in the background. I am constantly ready to be reminded. I often think of John Player, too. It would be interesting to know what happened to him.”
I was silent, apprehensive as I always was when he referred to Simon.
“I wonder if he is still in the seraglio. Poor devil. He came out the worst of the three of us … though none emerged unscathed.”
His face had hardened. The grudge against fate for making a cripple of a healthy man was never far away.
“I’d give a good deal to know what became of him,” he went on.
“We must remember we should not be here if it were not for him,” I said.
“Perhaps one day we shall hear some thing.”
“I doubt it. When that sort of thing happens people disappear from your life.”
“We didn’t disappear, Lucas.”
“It is rather miraculous that we are here like this.”
“Perhaps he will come back, too.”
“If he escaped … which seems impossible.”
“I did, Lucas.”
“That’s quite a story, but who is going to let him out? No, we shall never see him again. Yes … while we were there … that island . the three of us … we became very close to each other. But that is over now. We’ve got to grow away from it. And let me tell you, you’ll do that far better as Mrs. Lucas Lorimer than as governess to some hateful little brat in a household which was once the centre of a murder case.”
“We shall have to see, Lucas,” I said.
My first days at Perrivale Court were so crowded with impressions and suppressed emotions that they left me quite bewildered. The house itself was fascinating. It was full of unexpected features. It seemed vast, like a medieval castle in some places, a Tudor manor in others, and in some rooms a note of modernity had crept in.
Lady Perrivale had greeted me warmly but briefly and had handed me over to Mrs. Ford, who from the first showed herself to be my ally. I was her protegee; she had won the gratitude of Lady Perrivale for producing me and she was going to take me under her wing and do her utmost to keep me in the house.
She took me to my room.
“If there’s anything you want, Miss Cranleigh, let me know. I’ll see you’re as comfortable as I can make you. Nanny Crockett said I was to take care of you, and I promise you, I will.”
My room was next to the nursery, and Kate’s was next to mine. It was a pleasant room with a window that looked down on to a courtyard. Across the courtyard other windows faced me. I immediately had the impression that I was being watched and I was glad of the heavy drapes.
From the first I felt as though I had slipped into a dream. I was overwhelmed by the knowledge that I was actually living in the house where Simon had spent the greater part of his boyhood, and my determination to prove his innocence intensified.
It soon became clear that Kate felt an interest in me. She was certainly determined to find out all she could about me.
No sooner had Mrs. Ford left me to unpack than she came into my room. She did not knock, feeling, I was sure, that there was no need to stand on ceremony with a mere governess.
“You came, then,” she said.
“I didn’t think you would, and then I did . because you wouldn’t have said you’d come if you didn’t mean to, would you?”
“Of course not.”
“A lot of people say they’ll do things and don’t.”
“I’m not one of those.”
She sat on the bed.
“Horrible old room, isn’t it?”
“I think it’s pleasant.”
