“I just looked in to see whether you was awake, miss,” she said. “And if you’d like something. I thought I wouldn’t knock, which might wake you if you wasn’t already awake like.”
“Thank you, Gertie. I am awake.”
She came towards the bed, her eyes wide, looking at me as though I were a different person from the one I had been before.
“I’m ever so thankful you’re safe, miss.”
“Thank you, Gertie.”
“And it was because of me, in a way. It was an awful thing, and to think, if I hadn’t been able to … well, miss … I can’t tell you how pleased I was to be the one … after all you did for me. I was able to do something for you.”
“What do you mean, Gertie?”
“Well, it was her, wasn’t it? … Kitty. Her coming here like that … to me. All upset she was. She knew, you see. She’s here now … won’t go back. Mr. Roderick said she was to be given a room. Reckon there might be a job for her here. And her ladyship wouldn’t say no to that, seeing it was her who saved her, too.”
“I don’t understand what all this is about, Gertie.”
“Well, it was her that come here. She was in a terrible state. She didn’t know what to do, so she came to me. I told you how we got on, after I’d helped her with the bag and she looked on me like I was something special. So when she was frightened she came to me. She told me old Mrs. Carling had taken away the notice.”
“What notice?”
“Warning people not to use the path.”
“There was a notice?”
“Not when you was there, because she’d taken it away, hadn’t she? Real mischief. Kitty reckons it was so’s you’d fall in. Mrs. Carling knew you went almost every afternoon to see Miss Vance, and she guessed you’d be along. And there you was … just as she’d planned it.”
“Gertie. I can’t believe this. Mrs. Carling took the notice away in the hope that I would be trapped!”
Gertie nodded and looked wise. “She’s been off her head these last weeks. They’ve had a terrible time with her. She set fire to the cottage because she wanted Miss Vance to come up and work at the Manor.”
“Set fire to the cottage!”
Gertie looked knowledgeable. “She wanted Mr. Roderick for Fiona. She goes about muttering to herself. Kitty heard. So she wanted her up at the house, and you out of the way. I reckon that’s the long and the short of it.”
“It cannot be true.”
“Well, why did she take the notice away? Kitty saw her go out on the night of the fire and she knows she took paraffin with her. Then she actually saw her take the notice away. She went out and waited there. She saw you go down. She didn’t see Lady Constance, but she saw you. She didn’t know what she ought to do. After a time she came to me. You could have knocked me down with a feather. I soon spread the news. They got Mr. Roderick right away, and he called the men all together with ropes and things. So they got you out. But Kitty was afraid to go back after what she’d done. That’s why she’s here. I’ve got her in my room. I have to keep telling her it’s all right and she’s done a good thing in telling on her old mistress. I tell her she’s not got to worry about going back to Mrs. Carling anymore. I’m going to look after her.”
“Oh, Gertie …”
She rushed to me and flung her arms round my neck. We hugged each other for a few moments.
“I’m that glad you’re safe, miss, I’m forgetting my place. You’re safe and sound and I had a part in bringing you back. Now, can I get you something to eat? Some coffee … some toast?”
“Just that, Gertie, and some hot water. I’m longing to get up.”
“I’ll see to it,” she said.
I lay back in bed, marvelling at what I had heard and wondering if it could possibly be true.
I hastily washed and dressed and ate a little breakfast. I must admit I felt light-headed, but that was due to everything which had happened in such a short time rather than any physical disability.
My mind was a jumble of memories: those horrifying moments when I had fallen, my conversation with Lady Constance, the rescue, all that Gertie had told me—and all dominated by Roderick’s telling me he loved me.
More than anything I wanted to see Roderick.
When I was ready to go down, I went to the window, and there he was, seated on the wicker seat, looking up at my window. He saw me immediately.
“I’m coming down now,” I called.
I ran out of the room and down the stairs. He was striding towards me, taking my hands in his.
“Noelle … how are you this morning? It’s wonderful to see you! I have been sitting here … waiting … since Gertie told me you were going to get up.”
“I wanted so much to talk to you.”
“And I to you. Did you sleep well?”
“I knew nothing since I took the doctor’s sedative and woke to find the sun streaming into my room.”
“I’ve had nightmares … dreaming that we couldn’t get you out.”
“Well, forget them, because here I am.”
“And you are always going to be here, Noelle. Let’s sit down and talk. I love you, Noelle … so much. I’ve been wanting to tell you for a long time. I was afraid it was too soon … your mother was so recently dead, and I knew you were still living with your grief. I was afraid you could not think of anything else. I told myself I must wait until you had recovered a little. But yesterday it came out. I couldn’t stop it.”
“I’m glad.”
“Does that mean you love me, too?”
I nodded and he put his arm round and tightened his hold on me.
“We shan’t want a long engagement,” he said. “My father will be pleased. He’ll see it as a way of keeping you here.”
“I’m so suddenly happy,” I said. “I never thought to feel like this again. It all looked so grim. I hated being in London. There were so many memories of her … and I was away from you. Then you came and it was bearable. I was wondering what I should do … and now there is a chance to be happy again.”
“We certainly shall be.”
“What of your mother? Have you heard how she is this morning?”
“Still sleeping. She is very shocked. She will need a long rest.”
“She has other plans for you.”
He laughed. “Oh,” he said. “Marriage. She will come round when she sees it’s inevitable. Don’t think of obstacles. There are not going to be any … and if there are, we shall quickly overcome them.”
“I’m thinking about it all the time.”
He kissed my hair gently. I thought: How can I be so suddenly happy? Yesterday was so different. Today I am in another world … and all because yesterday I nearly lost my life. The birds were singing more gaily; the grass glistened with tiny globules of morning dew; the flowers were more colourful and fragrant because of the recent heavy rain: the whole world had become more beautiful because I was happy.
For a few moments we were silent. I believe he, as I, was savouring the beauties of nature around us while we thought of the future which would be ours.
I said at length: “Gertie told me a strange story this morning.”
“Yes,” he said. “About Kitty the maid and Mrs. Carling.”
“Is it true, then?”
“That she took the sign away? It seems so. Tom Merritt had put it up during the morning with four or five others in those places he considered to be dangerous. It was warning people not to use those parts until someone could get to work to test their safety.”
“Gertie said that Kitty saw her take it away and didn’t know what she ought to do about it.”
“Yes, that’s so. It had certainly been removed. Kitty saw her do it. These people watch what goes on and Mrs. Carling knew … and so did Kitty … that you often went to the cottage in the afternoons. So Kitty waited and saw you fall. She didn’t know what she ought to do, but she eventually told Gertie. Thank God she did. We should have found you eventually, but she helped us get there more quickly.”