She stopped suddenly at the sight of me and murmured: ‘Mon Dieu!’
Lance said: ‘Clarissa has been attacked in the woods. Let’s get her to bed.’
He went on up the stairs, Sabrina still at his heels with Madame Legrand joining her.
‘Attack, you say? What is this attack? This dear child… is she well? The little bébé…’
‘Everything is all right, I think,’ said Lance. ‘I’ll have the woods scoured to see what prowlers are about. Everyone must be warned.’ We had reached our bedroom and he laid me gently on the bed. ‘I shall get the doctor,’ he said. ‘I think that wisest.’
Madame Legrand said: ‘I will nurse her. I will see that she is well again. No harm must come to this little baby.’
Sabrina said: ‘I’m staying with her.’
‘No… no…’ murmured Madame Legrand, ‘she must rest. It is best for her to be quiet.’
Sabrina insisted stubbornly: ‘I shall stay.’
I smiled at my little defender. ‘I should like Sabrina to sit by my bed,’ I said.
Madame Legrand started to protest and Lance said: ‘If that is what you want, Clarissa…’
Sabrina smiled complacently.
Nanny Curlew had come in. She had heard what had happened. It always astonished me how quickly news travelled. She said a hot sweet dish of tea was what was wanted and she was brewing one immediately. I had had a nasty shock and that would help until the doctor came.
Lance went off to send someone for the doctor. Then he came and sat by my bed. Sabrina sat on the other side. When the tea came she took it from Nanny Curlew and tasted it.
‘It is not for you, Miss,’ said Nanny Curlew.
‘I know,’ retorted Sabrina, ‘but I’m the taster.’
I wanted to tell her how she comforted me; how happy I was to have her with me. It was to her I turned before I did to Lance, and that was significant. I could not feel suspicious of him as he sat there at my bedside, looking so anxious and tender, and yet… lurking at the back of my mind there were still a few doubts and fears.
Those shapely white hands of his with the Clavering crest on the signet ring he wore on his little finger… were they the hands which had dragged me along? I kept thinking how much he would have gained by my death. He had had plenty of time to discard the monk’s robe… perhaps leave it somewhere in the woods… and then appear sauntering casually towards the stables.
And so I turned to Sabrina… the only one of whose fidelity I could be absolutely sure.
The doctor arrived. He shook his head gravely. It was a nasty blow I had had on the back of my head. My arms and legs were grazed too; but fortunately the baby appeared to be unharmed by the adventure. As for myself, I was very shocked—perhaps more than I realized just now. I must rest for several days and take nourishment. If I did so, he believed I would be myself in a week or so.
The news spread. Madame Legrand had been chased by a gipsy and now I had actually been attacked in the woods. The next day Aimée came running in from the woods in a breathless state. She had been chased by a figure in a dark cloak with a concealing hood which hid the face. She had been terrified and just managed to make the edge of the woods before the apparition caught up with her. As she came into the open, her pursuer disappeared.
‘It is some madman disguising himself with the hood and cloak,’ declared Lance. ‘I’ll set people to watch in the woods. He has to be caught.’
This he did but the apparition seemed to have learned that he was being looked for and made no appearances.
I recovered quickly. Sabrina was constantly with me, and I began to be glad of what had happened because of the change it had wrought in her. She had never forgotten that it was her disobedience which had cost her mother her life. Now she had saved mine and felt she had expiated her sin. Through her a life had been lost; now, through her, one had been saved.
I loved to have her near me, tasting my food as she insisted on. She was now even talking about the baby, and admiring the clothes which were being prepared for the child.
I found that I had lost a garnet brooch during my adventure. It wasn’t very valuable but was precious to me because Damaris had given it to me long ago.
I told Sabrina. I said: ‘The clasp was weak, and when I was dragged along the ground it must have come undone.’
‘I’ll find it for you,’ said Sabrina, confident in her powers to do everything she set her hand to.
‘It’s lost for ever, I dare say. Don’t go into the woods alone.’
She was silent, nodding her head.
It was two days later while I was having my afternoon rest when she burst in on me.
That she was excited was obvious. Her hands were grubby and she looked as if she had been digging up the earth.
‘Oh, Clarissa, what do you think I’ve found!’
‘My brooch?’
She shook her head and for once even Sabrina was at a loss for words. Then she said slowly: ‘Look. I found it near the dene hole. It’s Jeanne’s Jean-Baptiste.’
I stared down at the little plaque with the chain attached. Soil was sticking to it. As I took and held it memories of Jeanne came flooding back, of her showing me this when I was a child, her Jean-Baptiste which had been put about her neck when she was born and which she must wear until the day she died.
I felt sick. And it had been found near the dene hole.
Thoughts crowded into my mind. I was there again… lying on the ground… I was being dragged along with obvious intent. Someone had planned to throw me down the dene hole. Could it have been that Jeanne had met the same murderer and that there had been no one to rescue her?
But no. Her clothes had gone. My jewels had gone and only the bezoar ring had been recovered.
There was some mystery here and wild thoughts were racing through my head.
Lance said the dene hole must be searched. No one, as far as he knew, had ever been down there before, but that was no reason why someone should not go down now.
All the men on the estate were with him. They all knew of Jeanne’s disappearance and now that this ornament had been found near the dene hole, it seemed significant, for I could testify and so could others that Jeanne had taken off her Jean-Baptiste only to wash and she had always said that she would wear it till she died.
Several men volunteered for going down the dene hole. Stakes were brought, with a thick rope-ladder. There was excitement throughout the community and everyone was talking about the prowler in the woods. They were certain that Jeanne had been his victim.
I remember that afternoon well. It was hot—the beginning of July—and in the woods practically the entire neighbourhood had gathered. Lance had said I must not be there. In any case the doctor’s orders were that I should rest every afternoon. Sabrina stayed with me, although I knew she was longing to be in the woods.
At length Lance came to my room. His face was pale and for once very serious.
‘Poor Jeanne,’ he said. ‘We misjudged her. She’s hardly recognizable… but her clothes are down there and her old cloth bag… do you remember? The one she brought with her from France.’
I covered my face with my hands; I could not bear to look at Lance or Sabrina.
Jeanne, dear, good, misjudged Jeanne, how could we ever have thought she was a thief? We should have known,
‘It’s a mystery,’ said Lance. ‘The jewellery was missing. What can it mean?’
Aimée had come into the room.
‘I heard you come in, Lance,’ she said.
He told her that Jeanne’s body had been found.
‘In the dene hole!’ Aimée was almost disbelieving.
Lance nodded.
‘It must have been this gipsy… or prowler… all that time ago…’