No longer could people run away from the truth. The storm clouds were gathering fast over Europe. How long would it be before Hitler decided to move into Poland?
He was already stating his claims to that country.
We waited for the news every day and there was a feeling of intense relief when nothing happened.
I rode often with Jowan. We loved to go onto the moors and, if the weather was warm enough, would tether our horses and sit close to an old disused mine while Jowan told me of some of the old legends of Cornwall. He would point out the prehistoric stones, so many of which had a story attached to them.
I arranged to meet him one day and when I went into the stables Seth was there.
He was always interested in me. I think it was because I was Dorabella’s sister and he believed she was one of the victims of the ghostly lady of the house of Jermyn.
Only the day before, I had walked down to the beach. I found a certain fascination there. I liked to stand close to the sea and watch the waves advance and recede, while I thought of Dorabella.
Seth had seen me there. I had looked up and there he was in the gardens looking down at me. I lifted my hand in greeting. He had returned the gesture, shaking his head at me. I think he must have meant it as a warning, telling me I should not be there.
I realized that afternoon in the stables that he was referring to this incident when he said: “Shouldn’t go down there, Miss. ’Tain’t good.”
“Do you mean the beach?” I asked. “I always make sure that the tide is not coming in and in any case I could get back into the garden. It was quite different on that day I was caught.”
He shook his head. “ ’Tain’t right. One day ’er’ll be after you. You was the one as brought him here.”
Knowing the way his mind worked, I realized that he was talking about Jowan and my breaking the feud between the houses of Tregarland and Jermyn.
“I’m all right, Seth,” I said.
He shook his head and I thought for a moment that he was going to burst into tears.
“ ’Tweren’t I,” he said. “I had naught to do with it. Not really like…”
I had lost the train of his thought, but he looked so worried that I wanted to pursue it.
“Didn’t do what, Seth?” I asked.
“I didn’t ’elp to get ’er in, like. Not really, only…”
Something was worrying him very much. This was a different turn to the conversation.
“Who, Seth?” I asked. “Who was the one you did not help?”
He was silent for a moment. Then he murmured: “Not to say. Not to tell. It’s a secret.”
“Do you mean….my sister…?”
“No. Don’t know naught about her. T’other.”
“The first Mrs. Tregarland?”
He looked at me and half nodded. “Not to say,” he went on. “ ’Er was beckoned, ’er was. ’Er had to go in. It was what ’er wanted.”
“I don’t understand, Seth. Who wanted what?”
“Wasn’t what ’er wanted. ’Er had to, didn’t ’er? But ’tweren’t I, Miss. ’Er ’ad to and ’er went.”
Gordon had come into the stable. I wondered how much of this conversation he had heard.
“Oh, hello, Violetta,” he said. “Are you going for a ride?”
“Yes.”
“It’s a good day for it.”
I wondered whether he would understand what Seth was trying to say.
I began: “Seth was telling me…”
A look of terror came into Seth’s face.
“I didn’t say nothing,” he mumbled. “I didn’t know nothing.”
“About the first Mrs. Tregarland’s accident, I think it was, Seth,” I said.
“No. No, I didn’t say nothing.”
Gordon was watching him intently. Seth lowered his eyes and shuffled away.
Gordon turned to me. He patted Starlight’s flank and helped me to mount.
“Poor Seth,” he said quietly. “He’s worse some days than others. Enjoy your ride.”
As I went out I heard him say to Seth: “I want to have a look at Black Eagle. I thought there might be something wrong.”
I rode on, thinking of Seth’s words. It was a pity he was so incoherent. One could never be sure whether what he said was actual fact or some figment of his addled mind; but I did feel he was trying to say something which was worrying him and for which he must make excuses.
Jowan was waiting for me. As always he looked delighted to see me. We rode onto the moors and, finding a sheltered spot, tethered our horses.
We sat leaning against a stone—one of a little group of six clustered round one of a much larger size. I remarked that they looked like sheep around the shepherd.
I could not forget my conversation with Seth and, as Jowan noticed my preoccupation, I told him about it.
“Poor Seth,” said Jowan. “It is sad that he had that accident. He would have been a bright young boy but for that.”
“It is sobering to think that one small incident can change our lives. I wish I knew what he was trying to say. It was almost as though he were making excuses.”
“For what?”
“Something he had done in connection with the first Mrs. Tregarland.”
“Oh…what did he say exactly?”
“It’s hard to tell what. Something he didn’t do. It was almost as though he were making excuses for some action. He kept saying it was the ghost who called her into the water.”
“He was excusing himself?”
“Well, it was so muddled, almost as though he were being blamed for something he hadn’t done.”
“Did he say he was there?”
“He never says anything as straightforward as that.”
“Did he sound as though he had been there?”
“Well, yes. And he might have gone on but Gordon came into the stables just then and he stopped.”
“Did Gordon hear?”
“Some of it, I suppose.”
“I wonder what he thought of it.”
“Well, no one takes much notice of Seth.”
“Sometimes people like that know more than you think they would. It is just possible that he might have some information, something the rest of us don’t know.”
“You mean about Annette’s death?”
“H’m. It always seemed a bit odd to me…that the champion swimmer should be drowned. It was not as though there was a gale.”
“I thought it might have been cramp.”
“Possibly. But why should Seth say it wasn’t his fault?”
“He’s obsessed by it.”
“Why?”
“Because he believes that ancestress of yours who drowned herself wants other young women to do the same…if they are connected with Tregarland. It’s a sort of revenge on the family.”
“I suppose that’s so. It mightn’t be a bad idea to find out what is in Seth’s mind.”
“I’ll see what I can do. What is happening in the outside world?”
“You mean that part in which we are all extremely interested at the moment?”
“I do indeed.”
“Well, things don’t get better. They are moving toward some climax. The latest news is that, for the first time in British history, there is to be military conscription in peacetime.”
“That sounds as though they are really expecting war.”
“If Hitler moves into Poland, there will be. I don’t think there is any doubt about his intentions, and now the days of appeasement are over, equally there can be no doubt about ours and those of the French.”
“Conscription? Does that mean…?”
“Able-bodied young men will be called up for military service.”
I looked at him in dismay.
“I expect they would say I was doing useful work by running the estate. On the other hand, if it came to conflict, I should have to be there.”
I continued to look at him. He laughed suddenly and, taking my hand, kissed it.
“It is nice to know you care,” he said.
It was a beautiful day. May had come and there was warmth in the air. When I came out of the house I saw Dermot sitting on a seat in the garden. I went over and sat beside him.