‘I’d be happier, ma’am, if a young girl like that, a stranger here, was in the same digs as some of the other women teachers instead of lodging with this Mrs Downton on her own,’ he said. ‘It’s too much of a tie-up, considering what happened to Miss Schumann, to have a good-looking young foreign girl working at the school with nobody really responsible for her safety.’
‘You’re getting fanciful, Phillips, old soul,’ said Laura. ‘Who’s going to murder a girl who’s just come over from France?’
‘That’s what we don’t know, Mrs Gavin. Who’d have thought anybody would murder this last Italian woman? What with the Schumann family and James, I don’t feel like taking chances with anybody foreign connected with that school.’
‘Well,’ said Dame Beatrice, ‘bring the child here. I am entirely of your opinion in the matter of not taking chances, and if the girl is in my charge I can guarantee that she will not be molested. George or Laura can drive her to school each day and pick her up each afternoon, and in this house she will be safe.’
‘The idea would be grand if she were teaching full time at the school, Dame Beatrice, but one day a week she attends classes at Southampton University and she puts in one morning and one evening a week at a college of languages in Bournemouth, so I’m told by the headmaster. It will be more than can be expected of you and Mrs Gavin to keep the tabs on her all the time, I’m afraid, although I’m obliged to you for the kind suggestion.’
‘Nonsense, Superintendent. I will go to the school and obtain a full statement of her commitments from the headmaster, and then we shall see that she is guarded satisfactorily.’
‘While it was Karen Schumann and Maria Machrado who were killed, it seemed to make some kind of sense,’ said Laura, when Phillips had gone, ‘and I would have said that this French kid had no more to fear from the murderer than I have myself, but the unaccountable murder of the Italian maid puts the thing in a different light. It looks – as Phillips himself obviously thinks – that any foreign woman is in possible danger.’
So Marie-Jeanne, a little bewildered and slightly put out by her sudden transition to the realms of glory, came to reside at the Stone House. She was given no explanation at first for the change in her lot, but Phillips had his own story for her bereft landlady to the effect that some of the girl’s relatives had domiciled themselves near Brockenhurst and had invited Marie-Jeanne to stay with them, and she took up her new quarters immediately.
The arrangement worked extremely well. The girl was always under escort on her journeys to her various assignments, talked English with Dame Beatrice and Laura and French with Henri and Celestine, and was a docile, pleasant addition to the household. Dame Beatrice, however, thought it well, after she had settled down and was obviously happy in her new circumstances, to let her know why she was there, and gave the information in terms which were as little frightening as possible, although it was not possible to make them sound completely reassuring. She felt compelled to enlighten the girl because of an innocent admission which Marie-Jeanne made one evening in the course of conversation. This was almost at the beginning of her stay. Dame Beatrice had asked her how she liked the school.
‘Oh,’ said Marie-Jeanne, ‘but very much! The teachers are so kind, especially Mr James. He speaks French very well, quite as well as the French mistress, who also, of course, is English and takes holidays in France each year and was there in the time of Occupation, so she tells me. But Mr James is more interesting because he has much knowledge of the world and I think is very intelligent. I like the French mistress, for she is intelligent, too, but a woman is not as well-informed as a man, do you think?’
‘Oh, golly!’ said Laura, later, to her employer. ‘So James is on the ball already!’
‘He may simply be showing a normal kindly reaction towards the stranger who is within his gates, and little Marie-Jeanne, moreover, is fresh and unspoiled, and really quite charming.’
‘But he has the reputation of being withdrawn and unsociable. Why should he suddenly take up with fresh, unspoiled young girls?’
‘Perhaps because they are fresh and unspoiled, as I say.’
‘All the same, you’ve seen fit to warn her.’
‘Not specifically against Edward James. I could hardly do that, at the present stage.’
‘She seems to be settling down well enough with us, and her time is pretty fully occupied, what with school and her lectures and her private study and essays, but what’s going to happen at Whitsun?’
‘According to the time-table with which I was supplied, the school has Whit Monday and the following day as the Whitsun break, the School of Languages has Whit Monday, and her University lectures are not affected, since she attends them on Fridays only. I suggest we take her to London for the weekend and bring her back on the evening of Whit Tuesday. She can miss one session at the School of Languages – she tells me that most of the students intend to stay away from classes on that Tuesday – and she will enjoy a short stay in Town. She will be under our eye the whole of the week-end and will also be out of the danger zone. What is your reaction to my suggestion?’
The programme was carried out to the satisfaction of all concerned, and Marie-Jeanne, who was a nice child, was profuse in thanks and delight. On the Wednesday morning Dame Beatrice greeted Laura with the latest news as
