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“Nothing very much,” Rosamund said frankly. “I told her that we fully appreciated what a difficult situation it was and that we would be very glad if she could suggest a solution. So then she told me about there being two kitchens, which, of course, I didn’t know before.”

“I see—but are you absolutely sure you didn’t get it wrong way round—that she intends to stick to the big kitchen?”

“Quite sure,” Rosamund said confidently. “Because she did make one proviso—that she hoped she wouldn’t be expected to cater for big dinner parties with only a small kitchen to work in but that she’d do her best if we wanted to entertain a few friends.”

“To which, I suppose, you replied that if anybody could manage it, she could?” John suggested drily.

“Oh no,” Rosamund answered composedly. “It’s probably true, but I haven’t known her long enough to know from personal experience, so it would have been rather insulting. As if I thought she was the sort of person who couldn’t tell genuine appreciation from when someone was trying to curry favour with her.”

“I see,” John commented. “You seem to have taken her measure pretty accurately !”

Rosamund didn’t answer. Did John mean that he thought she had acted with sincerity or did he think that she had simply been rather unpleasantly shrewd? She didn’t know and she couldn’t bring herself to ask.

After a moment or so John stood up.

“I’d better go and clean myself up for lunch,” he remarked. “And I can do with it, seeing that I missed breakfast. Or is there anything else—?”

“Only you spoke of Dr. Milward’s being a courtesy visit. Well, it was, for the most part. But he did tell me he’s rather worried about Miss Fletcher.”

“Oh?” John said without much interest. ‘‘What’s wrong with her—other than that she’s an infuriating old twitter-pate?”

“She’s apparently had a grumbling appendix for some time and he’s afraid it may be coming to a head. But she won’t do anything about it—not even let him make a proper examination.” '

“Stupid old idiot,” John said unsympathetically. “Why the deuce not? Can’t Milward scare her into being sensible?”

“Apparently not.”

“Well, where do you come in, anyhow?”

“Dr. Milward thinks there’s some reason that she won’t tell him why she’s so scared, and he thought perhaps I might persuade her to tell me,” Rosamund explained.

“Now look here, Rosamund, you can’t take everybody’s problems on your shoulders!” John protested. “If you do, you’ll be regarded as Public Relations Officer to the whole shooting-match ! ”

“Well, why not?” Rosamund demanded, stung to sudden defiance. “Do you think I want to have time to sit and twiddle my thumbs and—think? Believe me, that’s the last thing I want to do !”

Deliberately she turned her back on him and picked up her pen. John accepted the dismissal without comment. She heard him close the door behind him and she blinked back the tears she had been too proud to let him see.

 

“I’m desperately sorry, Rob,” Miss Alice said heavily. “I’ve let you down badly.”

“No, you haven’t, my dear!”

They were sitting opposite one another at the table of the
Pride of London’s
cabin, and he put out a hand to grip hers as it lay inert before her.

“There’s nothing you could have done. I shouldn’t have gone away, no matter how important it seemed that I should. Though, to be quite honest, I don’t think I could have done anything either.”

For several moments neither of them spoke. Then Dr. Rob picked up one of the newspapers that lay on the table and frowned at it.

“You know, Alice, there’s something that puzzles me. Neither you nor I like this marriage. But why? I mean, on the face of it, what is there to dislike? Other, I mean than that we feel rather hurt at having been left out. But that’s unreasonable. After all, they had every right to make their own decision—”

“Oh, but it goes deeper than that, Rob,” Miss Alice said quickly. “Much, much deeper.”

“Yes, but why?” Dr. Rob asked impatiently. “You tell me that they’re very much in love with one another. Then, from a worldly point of view, Rosamund has done very well for herself. In addition, Ruth must know that she’s met her Waterloo now.”

“Has she?”

Dr. Rob looked at her sharply,

“You don’t agree? Why not?”

“Because I can’t see Ruth missing an opportunity like this,” Miss Alice explained. “Don’t you see, Rob, that as the wife of a very wealthy man, Rosamund could be a very valuable client? No, Ruth will do everything in her power to prevent there being a breach.”

“But can she do that?” Dr. Rob frowned. “I mean, from the very little Rosamund did tell you, and what we’ve been able to read between the lines, won’t she seize the opportunity for making a clean break with her aunt?”

“If she can.”

In her turn, Miss Alice picked up a newspaper and studied it.

“I don’t like the sound of what Ruth told the reporters. About Rosamund not knowing how well off John is.”

“You don’t believe it? Why not? Simply because Ruth said it?”

“Partly,” Miss Alice admitted. “But what I wondered was, true or false, why does she lay such emphasis on it? She does, you know. It’s not just coincidence that every report features that aspect.”

“H’m,” Dr. Rob pondered. “Well, there’s one reason you can dismiss out of hand. It wasn’t because Ruth is a romantic at heart and believes in true love! There’s nothing sentimental about Ruth!”

“Then there must have been another reason why she took such a definite line,” Miss Alice insisted. “And there’s only one I can think of that fits—I don’t think it was because she believes it but because she’s convinced that it’s what Rosamund wants John to believe !”

“Do you mean to say. that after all, you don’t think Rosamund married for love?” Dr. Rob asked sharply. “That she married him for his money?”

“Of course I don’t mean that,” Miss Alice denied indignantly. “And you ought to be ashamed of yourself for even suggesting such a thing! Rosamund just isn’t the mercenary type. I’ve no doubt about that! But I’m equally sure that John didn’t tell her he’s well off.”

Dr. Rob scowled.

“That sounds rather unpleasant to me,” he remarked distastefully. “Deceitful—underhanded—”

“Rubbish!” Miss Alice declared robustly. “If it were the other way round, if he’d pretended to be rich when he wasn’t, then you’d have reason for criticism. But that isn’t the way of it at all. You know, Rob, you and I are inclined to look at this purely from Rosamund’s point of view. But how about John’s? That young man is what is vulgarly described as a catch. And while I don’t believe that Rosamund would have married him for his money, I’m afraid there are lots of girls who would. And then, how about friends? How could he ever be sure that they really cared for
him
? Pretty humiliating and disillusioning for a young man to believe that, without his money, nobody would be interested in him.”

“I grant you that,” Dr. Rob admitted grudgingly. “But even so—”

“Wait a minute, Rob, let me finish. You and I come here for relaxation—to escape from the pressures of our normal lives. We live simply, well below the standard we could easily afford. Are we being deceitful because we don’t go about trumpeting how much money we earn? Of course not! And nor was John. He came here for the same reasons that we do. Not perhaps exactly the same, but near enough. And it didn’t occur to us to ask questions. Why should it?”

“All right, you’ve made your point,” Dr. Rob admitted. “It wasn’t our business. But not telling us and not telling the girl he wanted to marry are two very different things. Surely she had a right to know ! What was he afraid of?”

“Himself, I think,” Miss Alice said simply. “Just imagine, Rob, how marvellous it must have seemed to him to know, absolutely for certain, that Rosamund really loved
him\
Oh, can’t you see? Perhaps it was foolish, but I do feel that in the circumstances, it was natural. Besides—” she added reflectively, “just imagine how difficult it would have been for him to broach the subject! Rosamund is very sweet. She’s also very sound. She’s got her priorities right, and what’s more, she’s willing to fight for them. And unless John is an utter fool, he must surely realise that. So how could he, in effect, tell her that it didn’t really matter she was quite happy to share love in a cottage with him because he’s got lashings of money? Of course he couldn’t!”

“He’s told her since,” Dr. Rob commented, picking up a single sheet of notepaper that lay among the newspapers and reading from it.

“Dear Miss Alice,

John and I decided that to avoid any fuss, we would get married very quietly at once. But we hadn’t expected things to turn out quite the way they did.

“We had fully intended coming back to the
Seven Stars
after our wedding, but John took me to see Lindacres and as I expect you will have seen from the newspapers, we had no sooner arrived than we became involved in an emergency and simply had to stay to get things sorted out.

“To make everything more difficult, reporters came to Lindacres because of the children being there and when they heard of our marriage they made a big story of it.

“Will you forgive us for having caused you anxiety and for not having taken you into our confidence? If we could have told anyone of our plans it would have been you, but for family reasons, this just wasn’t possible.

“I
shall never be able to thank' you enough for your kindness to me.

Yours affectionately Rosamund Lindsay”

“Yes,” Miss Alice agreed judicially, “he must have told her. Judging by the picture in the papers, Lindacres is the sort of place that only a very rich man could afford to run. I wonder if he told her spontaneously or whether—” she paused and shook her head. “To my way of thinking, Rob, there’s something missing in that letter!”

“Is there? It seems to me to cover everything.”

“I don’t agree. For one thing, she makes no mention of them coming back here sooner or later, as would surely be natural, particularly as there’s quite a lot of their gear here.”

“That’s true.” Dr. Rob glanced down at the letter again. “There’s a suggestion of finality about the way she finishes off—as if it really is ‘good-bye’.”

“Exactly! And then there’s this—the two of them, very much in love, have just got married. Wouldn’t you have expected there to have been some reference to how happy they are?”

“I suppose you would,” Dr. Rob agreed. “So what you’re saying, Alice, is that you think something has gone wrong?”

“If I’m right in the conclusions I’ve drawn from the letter, then yes, I’m afraid that’s what I do think !”

“H’m—of course, one can’t help jumping to the conclusion that if that is so, then in some way this money question is at the bottom of it.” Dr. Rob pondered. “Do you think the reporters let the cat out of the bag and Rosamund was hurt—no, that won’t do. They were already at Lindacres before the Press turned up.” Again he considered. “She speaks of wanting to avoid fuss. That could simply mean that they didn’t want the publicity that they ran right into. On the other hand, she also refers to family reasons. Well, John, one gathers, isn’t afflicted with relatives. But Rosamund—” he shook his head.

“Ruth?”

Dr. Rob nodded.

“I can’t for the life of me see how she was involved at that stage,” he confessed. “But I’m convinced that she was. There’s something about this whole business that strongly suggests she had more than a finger in the pie!”

“But even if she did, does that matter now so long as Rosamund is happy?” Miss Alice demurred.

“But is she? Do you really think so? No,” as Miss Alice shook her head. “And neither do I! But I grant you, I haven’t, as things stand, the right to find out. So—” his face grew grim—“I shall do the only other thing possible—I shall go and see Ruth and get at least some of the truth out of her.”

“But can you? I mean, until now, I thought you didn’t feel that it would be any good to try direct methods of that sort. What’s made you change your mind?”

“Partly it’s the result of sheer desperation,” Dr. Rob acknowledged. “There’s still no result from my enquiries about Rosamund having been registered at birth as Dexter—nor, for that matter, as Hastings. But there is something that Ruth will find difficult to lie about— something that, like a fool, I’ve forgotten until very recently. Ruth is Rosamund’s aunt. Rosamund’s surname is—or rather, was—said to be Hastings. But since Celia and Ruth had no brother, that can’t be true! And that Ruth will have to admit. It gives me something of an advantage, even if only a slight one.”

“When will you go?”

“Tomorrow.”

“Well, I wish you luck, Rob!” Miss Alice sighed as she began to fold up the newspapers.

“Meaning that you think I’ll need it?” Dr. Rob suggested grimly. “So do I.”

 

Within twenty-four hours of her arrival at Lindacres, Rosamund’s problem about clothes had been solved in a totally unexpected and far from welcome way.

All her London clothes were delivered, beautifully packed and obviously sent at Ruth Hastings’ orders, though no message had accompanied them.

Now, a fortnight later, as she stood in front of her open wardrobe, Rosamund surveyed the beautiful clothes hanging there with mixed feelings.

There was no doubt about it, she would have been in a quandary without them, particularly at this moment. John had invited Sir George Parks to dine with them so that they could finalise arrangements for the renting of Lindacres by the Orphanage authorities. It would be an informal affair, but none the less, she needed to dress the part of the mistress of Lindacres as she could not have, done without these dresses to choose from.

But though John had made no comment when they had arrived, Rosamund felt sure that he took it for granted the clothes had been sent at her request. The inference which he drew from that was only too clear—he assumed that she and her aunt were not only still on friendly terms, but also that they certainly had been in collusion right from the start. And, helplessly, Rosamund was beginning to feel that she could hardly blame him for his scepticism. Conclusive evidence, as it appeared, had piled up so against her—the interview which Aunt Ruth had given the Press had added considerably to it. And to counter it, all she had was her own bare word. What was more, the longer they remained in this strange state of armed neutrality, the more difficult it would become to make any real contact with one another.

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