At the back of my mind was the problem of my feelings for Roderick. I was falling in love with him, and I felt sure he had some special feeling for me.
One morning Gertie came to my room full of excitement. She set down the hot water and turned to me.
“Oh, miss,” she said. “There’s been a fire in the night. What do you think? It was at the cottage … you know … the one where Miss Vance does her work.”
I sat up in bed. “How terrible! Is there much damage?”
“No … hardly any. Thanks to the rain, they say. It’s been pouring cats and dogs all through the night. It must have started just after the fire. Farmer Merritt was driving his dogcart home late at night and saw smoke coming from it. He gave the alarm. Then, of course, there was the rain … heavy stuff, so there wasn’t the damage there might have been.”
“Oh, dear. I wonder what Miss Vance will do.”
“It’s not all that bad, they say. Makes you wonder, though. Good job nobody was there.”
Everyone was talking about the fire.
I saw Roderick at breakfast. He said he had already been over to take a look at it.
“It’s the upper rooms,” he said. “It’s a good thing we had that torrential rain … and of course Tom Merritt’s just happening to be out that way. He’d been coming home late with his wife. They’d been visiting a friend, and they took the shortcut past the remains. He was able to give the alarm and it was soon under control.”
“Poor Fiona.”
“She’ll be there this morning. Why don’t you come along with me? I shall be going over there shortly.”
I said I should like to.
As we walked over, he said: “One wonders how a fire could start in such a place.”
“You don’t think … ?”
“It was deliberate? Good heavens, no. Why should anyone want to?”
“There are people who have odd ideas … disturbing the dead and that sort of thing.”
He laughed. “I don’t know of anyone who would feel all that consideration for the Romans.”
“Well, there must have been a reason.”
“Was there lightning last night? The place might have been struck perhaps.”
“That’s a possibility.”
We found Fiona already there. She was most distressed.
“How could it have happened?” she cried. “I really cannot understand.”
“Never mind,” said Roderick. “What harm’s done?”
“The rooms upstairs are in a mess. Something will have to be done about the roof. Fortunately everything is all right down here.”
“All the artifacts in perfect order?”
“It seems so … just as they were.”
“That’s something to be thankful for.”
“Let’s have a look at the damage upstairs,” said Roderick.
We mounted the stairs. There was a bed in each room and these were decidedly damp. There was one part of the ceiling through which one could glimpse the sky.
Roderick said: “That can be put right today … preferably before there is more rain.”
“We have to be grateful to the rain.”
“And to Tom Merritt,” added Roderick.
“It would have been such a blow if the whole place had been damaged.”
There were footsteps on the stairs and we all looked towards the door, which opened to disclose Mrs. Carling.
“I’ve come over to see the damage,” she said. “Oh, my goodness! You won’t be able to work here, Fiona.”
“Downstairs is all right. You wouldn’t know there had been a fire.”
Mrs. Carling pursed her lips. “This will need a good deal of repairing,” she said.
“There is not a great deal of damage, when you come to assess it,” said Roderick.
“All the same …”
“Let’s go down and have a look,” went on Roderick.
He led the way downstairs, and we stood in the room where Fiona worked.
“You see,” said Fiona to her grandmother, “there is nothing much changed down here. Fortunately farmer Merritt saw it in time … and then there was the rain.”
“I haven’t seen rain like it for years,” said Mrs. Carling.
“Providence looking after us,” commented Fiona lightly. “It would have been a tragedy to have lost anything down here.”
“Oh, sometimes good comes out of evil,” said Mrs. Carling, staring ahead, as though into the future.
Fiona looked at her quickly.
“Well,” went on Mrs. Carling. “You might have had a better place to work.”
“But this is ideal,” cried Fiona. “It’s right on the spot. I have everything at my fingertips. It couldn’t be better.”
“You know I could always find a room for you at the Manor,” said Roderick.
“There, Fiona!” cried Mrs. Carling. “That would be very nice.”
“It is nice of you,” said Fiona, “and thanks for suggesting it. But it is best here. You see, there is nothing like being on the site, as it were.”
“I have offered it before,” said Roderick. “After all, it’s all on Leverson land.”
“I’m perfectly all right here,” insisted Fiona. “And it won’t take long to put the roof right.”
“It will be repaired today,” Roderick assured her. “It must be. Then, of course, the stuff up there will have to be taken out. What do you want in its place?”
“Just a few bits and pieces. A chair or two … a table. Some of what’s up there may still be all right.”
“Well, that will be sorted out. You’re sure I can’t tempt you to come up to the Manor?”
Mrs. Carling was watching her granddaughter intently. “It would be very nice,” she said, almost coaxingly.
“I’m sure it would,” said Fiona firmly. “But I’m perfectly all right here.”
Mrs. Carling pursed her lips. For a moment she looked almost venomous. I could see she was very displeased with Fiona.
She said she had to leave us, and rather abruptly did so.
“Poor Granny,” said Fiona. “She has always thought I shouldn’t be working here in this place. She says it is like a shack.”
“Well, the offer is open,” said Roderick. “I’d find a comfortable room for you.”
“I know. But you do understand, don’t you? It wouldn’t be the same. I want to be here … close to everything.”
“Of course,” said Roderick.
“When it’s all patched up, it will be as good as ever.”
“I’m going off now to arrange that patching-up. We must get the roof done. It looks as though we might be getting some more rain soon. So … it’s imperative.”
When he left us and we were alone together, Fiona said: “The idea of having a room at the Manor doesn’t appeal to me at all.”
“No? Wouldn’t you be more comfortable?”
“Decidedly not. Her ladyship would not like it. As a matter of fact, she is not very fond of me.”
“She does not like me either.”
“Of course not. She does not like any young woman not of her choosing to be friendly with her son.”
“I see.”
“You and I both come into that category. She thinks we have designs on Roderick, and she is preserving him for higher things. It’s rather amusing. She would do anything to keep me from seeing more of Roderick. Just imagine what it would be like if I were on the premises! It’s bad enough having me here. I am sure she wishes that the site had never been discovered.”
My spirits rose a little. It was comforting to find someone in the same position as I was—although I suppose her resentment for me had sprung from Charlie’s relationship with my mother, although she would have noticed my growing friendship with Roderick.
“So that is why you don’t want to have a room in the house?”