"Strangely enough," she wrote, "I liked Eugenie. She was one of my favourites among the girls, but when I had to get rid of her I didn't think of her as Eugenie. She was just an object who was stopping our getting the mansion we had dreamed about. Hans said he felt the same. He didn't dislike his victims. He was quite fond of them and even when he committed the act of killing he did it in a coldblooded aloof sort of way. There was no malice in him towards his victim; it was just part of his grand scheme that they should be removed."
It was a revealing document. It explained so much about which we had hitherto wondered. I could not, of course, understand Elsa. But then who does fully understand another human being?
Two years after my flight to Austria, Teresa married John Markham. She was then nineteen. She was married from Moldenbury for her parents were still in Rhodesia. She adored him and was supremely happy. I was sure it was a perfect marriage, for if John had ever thought of marriage with me - which I believe he had - and if he had been disappointed when I married Jason, he would accept what had happened and find happiness elsewhere. He was the sort of man who would be successful in anything that came his way and that would include his emotional life. He would be the same good-humoured, loving and tender husband to Teresa as he would have been to me. He was just what Teresa needed.
But all this was some time ahead.
For the time there was my own marriage and the joyous realization that Jason and I were the sort of people who could never have been really happy with anyone but each other.
How we laughed at the excitement in the town. The marriage had completely superseded the great murder mystery which had touched the school.
Memories were revived.
"What about his first wife? Does that schoolmistress know? And then there was that Mrs. Martindale. He's a one, he is. Well, didn't they say the Verringers had the devil in them?"
We laughed at the gossip. I was rather glad of it. It showed me and Jason without a doubt that I was ready to accept anything for his sake. I wanted him to know that, and to go on remembering it.
It was round about Christmas time, two years after our marriage. We were the proud parents of a son by that time.
Jason was very anxious that we should go to London.
"You can shop," he said. "There must be lots of things you want."
I was not averse. I had an excellent nanny for young Jason and I had no qualms about leaving him.
When we arrived at the London house, Jason said he wanted to take me to the theatre, for there was a play he particularly wanted to see. I was amused when we arrived to see that it was East Lynne and when I glanced at the programme the names seemed to rush up at me. "Marcia and Jack Martindale. Together again in their original roles."
The curtain went up and there she was. The Lady Isabel.
I don't know how I sat through the play, and afterwards we went backstage to see her and Jack.
"Miraculously risen from his watery grave," I said.
"Oh, he's a survivor," replied Marcia dramatically.
We told her about the speculation in Colby about her departure, which she thought was highly diverting. So did the hardy Jack.
"I tell you what we'll do," she said. "We'll pay a call this Christmas. Won't that be fun, Jack? We'll ride through the streets and show all those dear old gossips that we are still on Earth."
They did. Marcia insisted on showing Rooks' Rest to Jack and going to visit her dear little baby on the moor.
We were delighted to see their departure and we laughed a great deal about them.
"They'll act their way through life," said Jason. "I'm wondering what Mrs. Baddicombe will have to talk about now."
"I'm rather sorry in a way," he said. "I always used to say to myself. She must love me a great deal to marry me when there's this cloud of suspicion hanging over me."
"Well, now you can tell yourself that there was never any reason to doubt it."
"No. And yet it never ceases to amaze me. There's a great deal you don't know about me."
"I'm glad," I said. "I shall look forward to improving my education."