Kitty said that Lucian must stay the night. The train service was not ideal and they had another spare room which Annie could easily make up. It was no trouble at all. They enjoyed his company. There was so much to talk of, and talking helped in cases like this. That was when ideas came and they could be studied from all points of view. That, said Jefferson, was the way to arrive at the right solution.
So Lucian stayed.
He and I went for a walk in the evening. It had been Kitty’s suggestion. She was aware of our feelings for each other and she guessed we should like to be alone.
Lucian and I walked down to the village and then beyond. I slipped my arm through his and he pressed it against him.
“It is good to be here with you,” he said.
“I couldn’t wait to get here. What delightful, interesting people they are.”
“You look better already,” I told him.
“I should have talked to you before.”
“It is they who have lifted your spirits. You do feel better now, I know. You realize that it is as Jefferson says-just a possibility.
There was nothing you could have done. “
“I’m not sure.”
“But you can see what they mean about the publicity it would raise.”
“It might clear his name.”
“Only if it proved to be true, and how could anyone ever be sure of that? Jefferson is right. It would only bring the case to the fore again. Most people will have forgotten the Marline case by now. Oh, Lucian, don’t you see? We have to leave it. It would only revive it all, and then not many would believe that it was because the pills were mixed. Don’t you see? We can do nothing. We have to forget. In any case, it was an accident. If you could have told what had happened before Dr. Marline died, it would have been different. But you can’t bring back yesterday. It has to be forgotten.”
“I don’t think I can forget that I may have caused the death of two people-and one of them hanged for the murder of the other.”
“You will forget, Lucian, because I am going to make you.”
“You will take that on, then?”
“Most joyfully.”
“A little while ago you were so uncertain.”
“I am no longer so.”
“You have changed suddenly.”
“I don’t altogether understand myself. You were the one I always loved since you found my pendant, took me to tea with the others and repaired the clasp of the chain. I remember every minute of that day.”
“It was nothing much. What about Lawrence Emmerson’s gallant rescue at Suez?”
“It must have been something more than the lost pendant. Of course it was. You have changed everything for me. When my father died, I thought I should never be happy again. You showed me that I can be.
Perhaps that’s it. You ask me why I changed so suddenly. I think it was when I saw you so unhappy with this great burden. You seemed young then not the grand fellow I used to think you. You needed help. Oh, I suppose there are a hundred reasons why one suddenly knows one is in love. “
“Carmel, I know too that I can be happy. I believe I can forget this thing. In any case, I can convince myself that it was an accident and there is nothing I can do about it now. It was the best thing that could have happened when you decided to get in touch with Kitty. I suppose I shall have my dark moments when the sense of guilt overcomes me, but you will be there, Carmel. I have to keep reminding myself of that. You will be there.”
“I shall be there,” I repeated.
“We shall be together.”
“Then we should plan to marry … soon.”
“What will your mother say?”
“She will say. Glory Be! For some time she has wanted me to marry. She is the sort of woman who would like to have a hand in choosing her son’s bride, and I have been receiving hints for some time that she has chosen you for that questionable honour.”
“Don’t laugh at it. It is an honour and I want it more than anything.”
“When, then?”
“I think we should discuss that with your mother.”
“I shall talk to her as soon as I return, and next weekend you must come down so that plans can go ahead.”
I was happy, as I had thought I should never be again. I would go on mourning Toby all my life, and Lucian would remember that, because of an accident, he might have been responsible for the death of two people. That could not be changed. But we had each other. He would comfort me for my loss and I would be beside him when his fears were with him.
We should be happy. We would build our lives together. We knew what we wanted and we were going to do all in our power to attain it.
When we returned there was some consternation in the house. Adeline was agitated. She was saying: “It is dangerous. People could fall over. You know what happened to that lady at Garston Towers.”
“That was different,” soothed Kitty.
“That was the castle ramparts.”
She turned to me.
“It’s nothing much. One of the stakes on the balcony has worked loose. Adeline has only just noticed it.”
She smiled at me, her eyebrows raised to imply that Adeline could be unnecessarily excited over such things.
She went on: “Tom from the stables will be coming over at any minute.
He’ll soon fix it. “
“Shall I look at it?” asked Lucian.
“No need to bother,” replied Kitty.
“Oh, I’ll have a look.”
We went up to my room. The balcony in question was the one shared by Adeline and me.
“Where is it?” said Lucian.
“Oh, I see.” He knelt and examined the faulty stake. It moved as he touched it.
“Tom can usually fix these things,” said Kitty.
“It’s dangerous,” cried Adeline.
“People could fall over. There was that lady at Garston Towers.”
I heard Edwina calling Adeline, who seemed to forget the stake and went off to her.
Kitty said: “Adeline gets disturbed about things that make an impression on her. The Garston Towers affair really caught her imagination. She often refers to it. Tom will soon mend that thing.
The best thing in the meantime is to keep well away from it. “
Tom arrived. He examined the balcony and agreed with Lucian. He said the best thing to do would be to put a new stake in. He’d get Blacksmith Healy to make one. He would have it shipshape in a few days. Meanwhile, he’d patch it up a bit.
While I was dressing for dinner that evening, I again had that feeling of being watched. This time I was not surprised to see Adeline at the balcony door.
“Hello,” she said.
“Are you having a nice time here?”
“Yes, thank you, Adeline.”
“You were away a long time.”
“Yes, I was.”
“Why did you come now? Was it to tell Kitty something?”
“Well, just to be with her again. We were always good friends. Don’t you remember?”
“Yes. I remember it all. Do you know about Lady Garston?”
“Only what I heard you say.”
“It was at Garston. Garston is a castle … very big. She used to walk along the battlements. Do you know what battlements are?”
“Yes.”
“It was dangerous there and they had put up a railing. People used to stand up there and throw boiling oil down on invaders.”
“My goodness! That must have been a long time ago!”
“One day Lady Garston went up there. She leaned over the railing and it broke. She fell down … down … and then she was dead.”
“Poor Lady Garston!”
“She didn’t know the railing was loose.”
“Well, we know ours is, so we have to be careful until it is mended.”
“It would kill us just the same.”
“Oh, let’s be more cheerful. That’s a pretty dress you are wearing.”