“You know what’s there,” he said. He tried to shake her off but she would not yield. “You’ve been there.”
“I haven’t been there for years.”
“Books,” he said. “Nothing but old books — and — and — a man’s privacy.”
“You’re hiding something!”
“I have nothing,” he cried with sudden anger. “Not even — a—a — a child. I don’t have a child, I tell you!”
Her hands dropped from his arm. She said slowly, “You never forgive me, do you, Richard?”
“No one to — to — take my place … the throne,” he muttered dully.
Wells stepped forward, shaking as if in a palsy, “Sir Richard, please, you’re not yourself.”
He led Sir Richard to a chair and helped him to be seated. “Lady Mary, if I may suggest — Kate, telephone Dr. Briggs, and fetch Mr. Webster. There’s more here than you and I can manage — Don’t stand there like stone!”
She felt like stone. The quarrel between these two whom she had never heard quarrel — what was this quarrel? What throne?
“Kate!” Wells shouted.
She looked into his angry eyes and, terrified, ran out of the room to the telephone and dialed frantically.
“Dr. Briggs? If you please — this is Kate at the castle. We’re in great trouble, sir. … Both of them — like they were dreaming something. … No, sir, I never did see them like this. … Thank you, sir.”
She put up the receiver and knocked on Philip Webster’s door. He opened it immediately and came out dressed in his wrinkled tweeds but smelling of Pear’s Soap. “Ah, good morning, Kate.”
“Please, Mr. Webster,” she said breathlessly, “the Americans are acting as if they’re taking the castle tomorrow.”
“What!” he exclaimed.
“Yes, sir, and Sir Richard and Lady Mary are being very odd, too.”
“Where are they?”
“In Sir Richard’s room.”
He strode off and she followed. When they reached the room, Kate could not believe what she saw. Wells was gone, and Sir Richard and Lady Mary were sitting at the small table by the window drinking tea together out of the same cup, as though there had been no quarrel. Webster paused at the door, unseen, and Kate waited behind him. The two at the table were talking together amicably.
“I tell you, my dear,” Sir Richard was saying, “everything is quite all right. Blayne has my permission to take the measurements and so on. After all, he’s not tearing down the castle. Nothing is settled yet and it’s common sense that his men can’t idle about. He’s paying them, you know, and they may as well be doing something, even if it’s no use in case we do not proceed. But if it troubles you, I’ll have it all stopped, of course.”
Lady Mary handed him the cup. “Do you want to get rid of the castle, Richard?”
Sir Richard waved the cup away. “You finish it, my dear.” He felt for his pipe in his pocket. “It’s you I think of — you couldn’t live without the castle, could you now, my dear? Really, I mean.”
Lady Mary considered. “One never knows,” she said thoughtfully. “One never knows what one can do until one knows one must. In case one doesn’t find the treasure—”
“You’re not giving up, I hope,” Sir Richard said. He lit his pipe and drew on it with enormous puffs of smoke. “It doesn’t do to give up, you know. Certainly I never knew you to give up.”
“I don’t see anything wrong here,” Webster said in a low voice and over his shoulder to Kate.
Nevertheless he entered the room. “Are you all right. Sir Richard?” he inquired.
Sir Richard looked up, surprised. “I? Oh quite! What makes you ask? Wonderful morning and all that! We’ve been having a little chat. Come in, Kate. I haven’t seen you this morning. You’re looking peaked — Isn’t she, my dear?”
Kate had followed Webster into the room and stood there, puzzled, half awkward. Sir Richard reached for her hand.
“You should see the doctor, Kate. Her hand’s hot, Webster.” He fondled it a moment. They were all looking at her and she snatched her hand away. Sir Richard had never before taken her hand.
“Lady Mary,” she said with determination. “You did say that last night you heard a real voice.”
Lady Mary laughed. There was a tinge of pink in her cheeks. “Did I?”
Webster sat down quickly. “Ah yes — you were to find some sort of treasure, weren’t you?”
Kate would not yield. “My lady, you said—”
“Did you or did you not find any treasure, my love?” Sir Richard inquired. “It’s quite possible, you know, Webster. One does find the oddest things — the ruby, you remember — did I tell you I had it set in a heavy gold ring? I must show it to you. Kate, where did I put the ring?”
“I’ve never seen it,” Kate said bluntly. “I never knew you had such a ring, Sir Richard.”
“Oh come now,” Sir Richard said, “Everybody’s seen the ring. I’m immensely proud of it. I don’t wear it all the time — it’s much too conspicuous, unless one’s a king, of course. … There always that chance—”
“What chance?” Kate asked.
Sir Richard smiled. “The chance of — anything,” he said, “the chance of finding a treasure, for example — or of selling the castle — or not selling it—” He flung out his hand in an expansive gesture.
Webster rose. “The next thing you know we’ll be drawing up papers and asking for signatures.”
“Perhaps it’s the only way to break the hold of the past,” Sir Richard said.
“But the treasure—”
“Yes, my love.” He turned to Lady Mary indulgently. “It is said that every castle has a treasure.”
“My lady! Sir Richard!” Kate gasped, but no one seemed to hear her.
“Such a nice young man,” Lady Mary said softly. “I rather think I’d like to call him John. Would it be all right for me to do so, Richard?”
“It would indeed, my dear. After all, you have had some difficulty in remembering his proper name.”
She smiled at him. “Not really, Richard. It’s such a nice name, Blade. It makes me think of that sword lying on the tomb in the church. But John is nicer, so simple, and much easier to say.”
“What are you waiting for, Kate?” Sir Richard asked suddenly and sharply.
Then they were all looking at Kate, smiling, kindly but remote and even cold. They had dismissed her, she knew, and she felt a wall rise between herself and them.
“Maybe I am mistaken in all of you,” she said slowly. “Perhaps I don’t know any of you. … I … I’ve only made a fool of myself … trying to do too much … thinking I was helping. I’ve insulted the American — and he’s the only one who’s been kind, after all.” She heard someone give a sob and realized it was herself and she ran out of the room.
Halfway to her own room in the east wing, tears blinding her as she went, she felt herself suddenly caught in two strong arms.
“Whither so fast?” John Blayne demanded gaily.
“Oh—” She stopped and pulled away. “Please! I was going to find you as soon as I–I must tell you — I was quite wrong this morning.” She was mopping at her eyes with the ruffled edge of her apron. “I overstepped myself. I had no right — being only the maid, to … to … to give orders as though I were …”
“Come here.” He led her into an alcove where there was a stone seat under a high arched window. “Sit down.”
He drew her down and handed her his large clean handkerchief. “Isn’t this what the hero is always supposed to do? Provide a nice clean linen handkerchief to wipe the heroine’s tears away? On second thought, I believe he’s supposed to do the wiping. Kindly allow me — Ah, Kate, you take yourself so seriously, my child!”
What eyelashes she had, long and curling and black — no nonsense here about false ones and mascara and all that! He folded the handkerchief and put it in his pocket again.