He laughed, inviting her to lighten the moment with him. She managed a wry smile and went to where Lilith was placidly cropping the grass.
‘It Petroc comes back will you ask someone to come up to the convent to let me know?’ she asked. ‘If he isn’t back soon then the police will have to be told. You can’t not report a missing child.’
‘We don’t like the police here,’ Conrad said, becoming suddenly all Romany, big hands clenching.
‘It isn’t always possible to have what we like‚’ Sister Joan said, suddenly impatient with the narrow secretiveness of them all. ‘You stay here and send me word as soon as Petroc gets back. And go on helping your mother until your father gets home.’
‘That’ll be for ever then,’ Conrad said, ‘for he isn’t coming back — not ever.’
There was no point in arguing especially since she suspected that he was right. From now on Conrad would have to grow fast into manhood, burdened with a precociously sexual sister and a mother who couldn’t cope.
Remounting, pulling down the skirt of her habit as one of the men loading scrap turned to give her a long, insolent look, she raised her hand to wave what she trusted looked like a cheerful goodbye to Conrad and rode away from the camp. Rode towards the circle of willows that fringed the pool beyond the noisy wagons and the smell of cooking and urine and damp clothes all mixed up together. It was quite illogical since obviously the first place anyone would have thought of looking was the pool but she rode there anyway.
At twilight it had been an enchanted place, a fragment of Eden with the boy and girl beautiful in their awakening sexuality. Mid-morning it was a dark pool, smaller than she had believed, surrounded by the wicker cages of the willows and the dark foliage of the evergreens. There was nothing here, nobody except herself. But when she had stood here with Sister Margaret there might have been another watcher, someone who also had hidden in the blackness of the shadows and watched avidly as the young bodies turned and twisted beneath the surface of the water.
There was no proof of anything at all. Sister Joan chided herself for having an over-active imagination and turned Lilith homeward. For the moment there was nothing more she could do.
‘You re home very early, Sister.’ Mother Dorothy looked up from the letter she was reading as Sister Joan tapped on the parlour door and entered.
The parlour had been a double drawing-room in the days when the Tarquins owned the house. It retained its polished floor, its gilded cornices, even the panels of embroidered silk on the walls, but the great mirrored cabinets, the huge sofas and velvet seated wing chairs had gone. A functional desk and straight backed chairs now furnished the huge, chilly room and no Aubusson carpets softened her footsteps on the polished floor.
‘I decided to close school early, Mother‚’ Sister Joan said, briefly kneeling for the customary blessing. ‘The Romany children hadn’t turned up and then Mr Lee came by to tell me that Petroc had been missing since last night. He offered to take the other children home and I rode over to the camp to see if I could make any sense out of it all. I’m afraid I went there without permission, but I thought it important to begin enquiries as quickly as possible.’
‘And you would naturally want first-hand information.’ Mother Dorothy spoke with a certain dryness. ‘I believe your action was quite justified in the circumstances. What did you find out?’
‘That nobody’s laid eyes on Petroc since he went out last evening. He didn’t take any money with him, and he obviously didn’t return — not even at midnight when it started to rain.’
‘But surely a child would be expected home before midnight?’ the Prioress said.
‘Romany children grow up fast, Mother, and Petroc’s parents aren’t with him. His mother ran off and his father’s in gaol for receiving stolen goods,’ Sister Joan explained. ‘His uncle, Padraic Lee is doing his best but he has two daughters of his own and his wife — she has a drink problem. Petroc’s twelve and very self-reliant, so his going missing wouldn’t cause an immediate outcry.’
‘But the police are now handling it, I assume?’
‘Not yet, Mother. Mr Lee went into Bodmin after he’d taken the other children home, so he might find out something there, and some of the other men in the camp went to search the moors, but they distrust the authorities. However if Petroc doesn’t turn up within the next couple of hours I’ve insisted that his disappearance be reported.’
‘Quite right, Sister. What feckless beings they must be,’ Mother Dorothy said, hunching her shoulders in disapproval.
‘I asked Conrad — he’s another of my pupils — to make sure that someone sends word here as soon as Petroc is found. I hope that was all right?’
‘Very sensible, Sister. You obviously cannot go running round looking for him yourself but you are bound to feel a certain responsibility in the matter. I will tell Sister Margaret to expect a telephone call and I will go myself to the chapel after the midday meal to pray that all is well. You might consider having a word with the local social worker at some future date if conditions at the camp continue to be unsatisfactory. So you have the afternoon free which is most fortunate.’
‘Yes, Mother?’ Sister Joan looked dutifully expectant.
‘Sister Hilaria has lost a filling out of her tooth which is causing her considerable discomfort and may lead to more problems with her other teeth. I rang up the dentist in Bodmin and he very obligingly agreed to fit her in at 2.30 this afternoon. I intended
