And then wished she hadn’t.
It was at the far end, and the mouth of it was covered by a heavy oak lid, but when Geoffrey drew this aside, there was no parapet, no defence against a sheer black drop. It just went straight down to its own deep hidden spring.
Geoffrey was telling her how deep it was.
“A hundred and eighty feet, and it never runs dry. That would be why Robert the Falconer built his house over it. Nobody knew when they might have to stand a siege in those days, and if you hadn’t got an unfailing spring inside your defences, you just couldn’t stay the course. Here-listen!”
He pushed a hand into his pocket, came up with a penny, and leaned forward over the middle of the well to drop it in. It was a long, dizzy time before Ione heard the faint, the very faint, sound it made when it touched the water. She said with conviction,
“Horrible! Geoffrey, I’m sorry, but I can’t do any more wells or cellars. I’ve never liked underground places, and you make it all much too vivid. So if you don’t want me to begin to scream for help-”
“Nobody would hear you if you did, my dear girl,” he said. But he was laughing and he looked pleased, so she hadn’t put her foot in it. And whether she did, or whether she didn’t, she couldn’t have endured another five minutes in this frightful place.
From half way up the steps she looked back to see Geoffrey pushing the heavy oak cover into position. She was glad to know that she need not think of the well with its black mouth gaping in the darkness when they were gone.
Geoffrey stood up, took out a handkerchief, and rubbed his hands. He came running after her, still with that laughing look on his face.
CHAPTER 8
So you think I make a good guide?”
“Much too good. You made me feel as if I was back in the fourteenth century.”
“And you didn’t like it?”
His tone was light and teasing. She let her own answer it.
“Not a bit.”
They came up into the daylight, and she exclaimed.
“I’ve got some of that horrible slime on my hands. I must wash!”
He held up his own, which were a good deal worse.
“I ought to have warned you not to touch anything. Look here, I’ll get clean, and then I’ll go along and see if Allegra is dressed. She ought to be by now.”
When Ione had washed and been thankful that the water was just as hot this morning as it had been last night, she went to her room. It had been done and left in perfect order, but to her annoyed surprise it was not empty. Margot Trent was there, standing just inside the door and looking down at the damp patch on the carpet. She giggled as Ione came in.
“Did you get the sponge on your head?”
“I did.”
“It’s a gorgeous big one, isn’t it? The place on the carpet shows quite a lot! Looks like a bloodstain! I say, it would be a joke if someone thought it really was one! It would have been better if I had filled the sponge with red ink, wouldn’t it? Oh, what a pity I didn’t-then it would never have come out!”
“The carpet would have been spoilt, to say nothing of anything I happened to have been wearing. But I suppose that wouldn’t matter.”
It was obvious that sarcasm meant nothing to Margot. She stared at Ione out of the bright blue eyes which were rather like Geoffrey Trent’s and said,
“Oh, well, I could have got them another carpet if they were stuffy enough to want to bother about it. I’ve got plenty of money.”
“Have you?”
“Oodles! I dare say I could buy a hundred carpets if I wanted to, only I don’t suppose Geoffrey would let me. He is supposed to look after my money until I’m twenty-one. And he really is the limit! He knows perfectly well that I’ve simply set my heart on having a racing car! There’s some stupid fuss about not getting a licence until you’re seventeen, but I’m going to be soon and I’ve got it all planned. And Geoffrey says he won’t give me a single penny of my own money to buy one! What’s spoiling a carpet or two to that?” Ione had an inward shudder at the thought of Margot at the wheel of a racing car. She said,
“Well, you know, if you had an accident, they might take away your licence for years, and you wouldn’t like that.”
“No, I shouldn’t, should I?”
The creature was as open and transparent as a child. The angry frown of a moment ago was gone. She beamed and said,
“But he can’t expect me not to have any fun at all-now, can he?”
“So you will go on spoiling carpets?”
She got a vigorous shake of the head.
“Oh, no-that would be dull. I’ll have to think up something else. As a matter of fact-” She broke off, laughing and shaking her head. “No-no-I’m not going to tell you. I’m not going to tell anyone. People can’t keep anything to themselves, and it’s a lot too good to be spoiled!” She began to laugh immoderately. “You just-wait-and see!” She caught her breath, choked, went off into a fresh paroxysm, and finally, stuffing a not very clean handkerchief into her mouth, ran out of the room. She very nearly collided with Jacqueline Delauny, and ran away still hooting with laughter.
Miss Delauny hesitated for a moment, and then knocked on the half open door.
“Miss Muir-may I come in? I do hope Margot hasn’t been doing anything foolish. I am afraid she laid a booby-trap for you last night.”
“And I walked into it! Fortunately I had on a bath-cap and a towelling-robe, so there was no harm done except to the carpet. But Margot has just been lamenting over the fact that she didn’t think of filling the sponge with red ink until it was too late.”
Miss Delauny made a small vexed sound.
“Miss Muir, I do apologize. I thought she was safely in bed and asleep by the time you went to your bath. We are doing our best to break her of these tricks. And they are not malicious. She is the most good-tempered girl. It is just that she thinks this sort of thing amusing. It is her idea of fun, and she just can’t see why other people are not amused by it.” Ione sat down on the edge of her bed.
“Of course she wants fun. Every girl does. She is a healthy creature and simply bursting with vitality. Why on earth doesn’t Geoffrey send her to school? She wants gym, and games, and dancing. Hockey or lacrosse a couple of times a week would do more to stop her practical joking than any amount of scolding.”
Jacqueline Delauny looked offended.
“Margot is never scolded. The appeal is always to her reason.”
“Has she got any reason to appeal to? I shouldn’t have thought she had. Of course it’s not my business, except in so far as it affects Allegra-and I don’t think anyone would say that she is in a fit state of health for rough practical joking. But to come back to where I started-why doesn’t Geoffrey send her to school?”
Jacqueline Delauny had gone over to the window. Standing there with her back to Ione, she said in an expressionless voice,
“They won’t keep her.”
CHAPTER 9
Geoffrey Trent came whistling along the passage.
“Are you ready? Allegra has just gone down, and there’s a fire in the drawing-room. I hope you won’t find it too warm, but she feels the cold a good deal.”
Allegra had been like any other country girl, in and out of the house all day and healthily impervious to the weather, Ione had the thought in her mind as she followed Geoffrey to the drawing-room where some winter sunshine straggled in and quite a large wood fire smouldered upon the hearth.