Why, I wondered? He had known I was anxious to get back. Because he was perverse? Because he knew that I was anxious? Because he wanted me to feel lost and dependent on him? He was not really a pleasant man, and I hoped that I should not have to see him often. It was a pity that the school was so near the Hall.
I turned away from the town taking a road which I had not taken before, making a special note of the landscape as I passed so that I should know my way back. I passed a tree with its bare branches standing out starkly among others which were in full leaf. It must have been struck by lightning or blasted in some way. It was dead. But how beautiful it was! Strange, in a way it looked ghostly, eerie, menacing even with its bare branches lifted to the sky.
It was a good landmark.
I went up a lane and came to a house. I noticed the tall elms about it and looking up I saw the rooks' nests high in the trees.
Something someone had said flashed into my mind. I had heard of this place.
And there was the house-simple but beautiful clearly built at the time when architecture was at its most elegant-uncluttered, with long windows symmetrically placed on its brickwork, very plain so that the door with its fluted Doric type columns and glass fanlight seemed particularly handsome. The house was shut in by intricate ironwork which looked like lace and made a perfect frame for this charming residence.
I couldn't help pausing to admire and as I was about to ride on, the door opened and a woman came out. She was holding a child by the hand.
"Good afternoon," she called. "You can't go any further. It's a cul-de-sac."
"Oh thank you," I replied. "I was exploring and I paused to admire your house."
"It is rather pleasant, isn't it?"
"Very"
She was coming towards the railing. "You are from the school, aren't you?" "Yes. How did you know?"
"Well, I've seen most of them, but you are new." "I came at the beginning of the term."
"Then you must be Miss Grant."
"Yes, I am."
"One hears quite a lot in a place like this," she said. "How are you liking the school?"
She was up to the fence now. She was strikingly handsome in her dress of lilac-coloured muslin. Tall, willowy, she carried herself with an almost studied grace. Her abundant reddish brown hair was piled high on her head; her eyes were enormous, light brown, heavily lashed.
The child surveyed me with interest in her bright dark eyes.
"This is Miranda," said the woman.
"Hello, Miranda," I said.
Miranda continued to regard me with an unblinking stare.
"Would you like to come in? I'd show you the house. It's quite interesting."
"I'm afraid I haven't time. I have a class at three thirty."
"Perhaps another time. I'm Marcia Martindale."
Marcia Martindale! Sir Jason's mistress. Then the child was his. I felt myself recoil a little. I hoped she did not notice. I felt an immense pity for her. It must be most unpleasant to be a woman in her position. She would have placed herself in it, of course, but in what circumstances? My dislike for Sir Jason Verringer increased in that moment. What sort of man could he be to bring his mistress so near to his home and blatantly set her up in her own establishment with their child?
"Thank you," I heard myself say. "Another time ..."
"I'd be so glad to see you at Rooks' Rest."
I looked up at the tall elms. "Do the birds disturb you with their cawing?"
"One gets used to it. It wouldn't be the same without them."
"It is a beautiful house. It looks cool ... and aloof, as it were ... almost modern when compared with the Abbey and the Tudor Hall."
"It is very confortable and I am fond of it."
"You have lived in it for a long time, I suppose?"
"No. I came here just before Miranda was born. We're on the Verringer estate, you know. Well, most of the land about here is."
"Yes," I said coolly.
"Do come again. I like to hear about the school. Come when you have time. Have a cup of tea or a glass of something ... whatever you fancy. I hear that you are doing well at the school."
"Oh, where did you hear that?"
"One hears ..." She turned to the child. "I don't think we are going to persuade her to come in, Miranda," she said.
Miranda continued to regard me stolidly.
"She seems very interested in me at least," I said.
"Miranda is interested in everything about her and particularly people. Do promise to come and see me. I love to see people and I see so few."
"Thank you. I will. I'll wait until I have a free afternoon. That doesn't happen often but it does come round now and then."
"Do please do that."
"Goodbye," I said.
She stood waving to me, raising the child's arm and urging her to do the same.
I came quickly out of the lane past the dead tree which was raising its arms to the sky, despairingly it now seemed to me.
What a friendly woman! I thought. She is really beautiful. How could she so demean herself? His mistress... bearing his child ... perhaps in the hope that because she could bring about such an achievement, when he was free he would marry her. Well, he was free now.
My revulsion against him was increasing every minute. He was arrogant, I knew. Could it really be that he was a murderer. He appeared to believe he had a right to take what he wanted no matter what he did to others who were in his way.
Thinking of that woman I felt very depressed. I wished I had not let my afternoon's relaxation take me past Rooks' Rest.
June was almost over and at the end of July we should break up for the holidays. I was very much looking forward to seeing Aunt Patty and how she had settled into her new home, although of course she wrote often and told me the details of her new friendships and the frolics and mishaps which for her turned out to be hilarious adventures.
That afternoon I had a free session and was to take the girls on their ride. Miss Barston was to accompany me. I would rather have had Eileen Eccles or Miss Parker because Miss Barston was not the best of riders and was, I fancied, more nervous on a horse than she should be.
On another occasion she had made excuses so I was not surprised when Daisy called me to her study just as we were about to leave.
"Miss Barston says she has a great deal of preparation to do if she is to get the samplers ready for next lesson. She was planning to do it this afternoon. None of the others has any spare time."
"That's all right," I said. "I can manage. It is the older girls and most of them are good riders."
Daisy looked relieved. "I am so glad you add this accomplishment to your others."
"The riding sessions are very enjoyable," I said.
And that was how we came to set out that afternoon with only one mistress in charge-myself.
There were ten girls. Teresa was there. I knew that she would be riding close to me. She had never lost her nervousness but seemed to feel that I was a sort of talisman or lucky charm, and when she was close to me she lost much of that tension which conveyed itself to the horse-and that could mean trouble.
Charlotte was there with the two Verringer girls.
We trotted through the lanes in good order, Charlotte keeping up the rear with Fiona and Eugenie. I often had a niggling fear that when Charlotte was of the party she would attempt to show her superiority in some way and cause trouble. She was quite capable of urging some of them, who did not have her skill, to take risks. I had warned her of this with the only threat which would work with her. Unless her behaviour was beyond reproach she would find she was not riding so often.