‘Well, that’s all right. I’m in favour of your marriage.’
‘To a man named Talbot….’
‘No, no – to a man named Nicholas. Don’t you remember? Look, let’s go for a walk and get properly acquainted. I’m told that a charming river flows through this little town. As you know, I am enamoured of water. Beside the Seven Wells we met, and beside the Waters of Comfort will I plight thee my troth. You don’t know how lucky you are. I bring the rain that the earth may be replenished; I water the flocks and herds; I am the May King; I am the tree-spirit; I grant easy delivery to women in childbirth and I bring sustenance to the sick; I am the god of growth to crops and beasts; I am the Grass King and I make the flax to grow. In Silesia I visit the house wherein I find my queen, and with her I open the dance. What have you to say to all that? Will you open the dance with me?’
‘I’m dumbfounded. And now stop talking nonsense. Besides, we didn’t meet – not for the first time, I mean – by the seven springs. I know now that you’re the man who stopped me on Mayering Eve and told me not to go to the hill-fort that night. I did go, though, much later on, when they had the bonfire and all the rest of it.’
‘Yes, I know,’ said Nicholas. ‘It was because of that, and because of something I said to you at the seven springs, that Dame Beatrice got your cousins to invite me here. Well, she may have had another reason, but it wouldn’t become me to mention that at the moment. Anyway, you seem to have reported your adventures to her pretty fully….’
‘She’s like that,’ said Fenella defensively. ‘One finds oneself telling her things. She’s a trained psychiatrist, of course, so that may be the reason.’
‘No doubt. All the same, you were glad to share your experiences with somebody on whom you knew you could lean, weren’t you? I mean, you seem to have told her a great many details which you didn’t give your cousins, fond of them though you are.’
‘That’s quite true. You see, there were points about my adventures, as you call them, that I don’t understand and don’t like. Then, when you hinted that Sir Bathy had been murdered… and you weren’t the first person to tell me about it, either. It seems there was an inquest and—’
T know. That’s what Dame Beatrice mostly wanted to talk to me about. There was an inquest and the verdict was murder by person or persons unknown. It’s all a great mystery, because the old chap was popular in the village and, so far as is known, nobody can gain anything by his death. The property is entailed and of no particular value, and there is a son to inherit it. Now look, darling Fenella, how soon will you marry me? I’ve got a special licence, if it interests you.’
‘Marry you? – But I’ve only just broken off my engagement to Talbot.’
‘That’s what makes everything so beautifully straightforward and simple.’
‘I’m never going to marry.’
‘That’s what you think.’
‘Don’t pick a quarrel with me. Let’s change the subject. Why did you try to stop me in the road on Mayering Eve?’
‘I did stop you. If you chose to be wilful afterwards, that wasn’t my fault.’
‘I saw them bury a skeleton, you know, on that hill. Why do they do it?’
‘I’ve no idea. Some bastard fertility rite, I imagine. The blood from the cock seems to indicate that. The cock represents what was once a living man, and the skeleton the same man when he’s dead, I think.’
‘They’ve used up all the skeletons which were in the cellar at the More to Come.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘I bought an electric torch and went down to take a look. Nothing is left but a small bone or two. What will they do next year, I wonder?’
‘Goodness knows. It won’t matter to us, anyway.’
‘It won’t matter to me. I shall be in London.’
‘It’s a long way to look ahead, but will you bet that’s where you’ll be? I wouldn’t risk it, if I were you.’
‘No,’ said Fenella, ‘I won’t bet on it. I would have betted that I was going to marry Talbot, but I’m not, you see.’
‘Poor fellow! Still, his loss is my gain, isn’t it?’
‘I’ve something to tell you, Miriam,’ said Fenella, a week later. ‘I’m going to marry Nicholas.’
‘At once, I hope, then I can re-issue all the invitations and there won’t have been time for people to make other engagements, so I expect all our friends can come. Thank God Talbot’s impossible relations are out of it, and Nicholas says he doesn’t want to invite anybody except his best man, so that’s all right. I see that Nicholas has got his appointment, but I suppose he’ll have to stay at Saint Crispin’s until the end of the term.’
‘Oh, yes, of course he must work out his notice, but isn’t it grand about Glenbury? It’s a much bigger school than Saint Crispin’s.’
‘He is to be a housemaster, isn’t he? Quite a plum for a man of his age.’
‘He says our marriage will come in handy. It seems that the headmaster likes his housemasters to have wives. It will be lovely to have a ready-made home, too. It wouldn’t have been much fun for me during the next few weeks, though, with him at school and me in London, and I don’t know of any hotel that’s near enough to Seven Wells for us to be able to meet occasionally, so I’ve written to the More to Come to see whether the Shurrocks can put me up from Mondays to Fridays. I’m afraid I took it for granted that you’d have us here for Saturdays and Sundays, Miriam, whenever Nicholas is not on weekend duty.’
‘I should hope you did take it
