The adulteress

It was true there was plenty to eat. There was fish and pies containing meat. I was not hungry and took a little fish, which was all I could manage. Jessie meanwhile sat opposite me as she had on the previous night.

"My! You eat like a little bird," she said. I guessed she had already breakfasted but she could not resist taking some of the pie and eating it in a way expressive of great enjoyment, smacking her lips and licking her fingers.

I said: "When shall I be able to see Lord Eversleigh?"

"Now, that's what I wanted to talk to you about. He's not so good in the mornings, poor pet. He needs time to pull himself together, you might say. Oh, he's no spring chicken, though he's good for his age." Her eyes sparkled rather reminiscently, I thought, and I was sure that had the table not separated us it would have been an occasion for one of her pushes.

"I am sure he will wish to see me when he knows that I am here."

"Oh yes, I expect you're right. Let's say give him an hour or two, eh? I'll let you know when he's ready. Say about eleven o'clock."

I said I should look forward to eleven.

She stood up. "Well, I reckon you'll want to get those bags unpacked, eh? One or two things you may want to do. Take a walk in the gardens. They're very nice. Don't go too far away, though, and come in at eleven. I reckon he'll be ready then."

I went to my room, unpacked the little I had brought with me and then, taking her advice, went into the gardens. I noticed that they were not as well cared for as they might have been. The general atmosphere of the house pervaded the gardens.

At eleven o'clock I was back in the house and Jessie was waiting for me in the hall.

"His lordship is excited. He wants you to go up at once."

I followed her up the stairs. Memories from my childhood were coming back to me and parts of the house were already seeming familiar to me. I knew that we were going to the main bedroom. I remembered coming here with my mother to see my great-grandmother when she was ill.

Jessie unceremoniously opened the door and I followed her in.

There was the four-poster bed and sitting up in it an old man. His face was a whitish yellow and there was scarcely any flesh on his bones; he might have been a corpse but for his large lively brown eyes.

"Here she is, Lordy. Here's the little lady."

Those bright eyes were turned on me and a thin hand came out to grip mine.

"Zipporah!" he said. "So it's you, Clarissa's girl. You came."

I took his hand and held it firmly. His eyes glistened a little. Here at least was a welcome. I could tell that he was very glad I had come.

"She came because you asked her, pet," said Jessie. "And didn't let me know. Not very nice of you, was it, lovey? Arrived last night in the dark ... and having no welcome ready. If you'd told me I'd have set the bells ringing for her."

He smiled at me almost deprecatingly. "Jessie takes good care of me," he said.

"I should think she does!" said Jessie. "Though sometimes you don't always deserve it, eh, naughty Lordy?"

He smiled at me. Was he trying to tell me something? If he was it was obvious that he wouldn't do so while Jessie was present.

"I am so pleased to see you," I said.

"And your husband?"

"He hasn't come with me. There was a fire in a barn nearby and he broke his leg attempting to put it out."

"So you came alone?"

"Accompanied by seven grooms."

He nodded. "Good of you. Good of you."

His dark eyes were expressive, luminous.

"Tell me," he went on. "Tell me, how is your mother? A dear girl ... always. And your father ... that was a tragedy. I knew him. One of the finest gentlemen that ever lived. And Sabrina ... eh ..."

"They are all well."

"Pity Sabrina married that damned Jacobite. We ... we put paid to them, eh? Traitors all of them."

Jessie had sat by the bed. There was a bowl of sweetmeats on a nearby table. She took one and began sucking it. I guessed they had been put there for her benefit and the fact was borne home to me that she shared this bedchamber with that poor skeleton of a man in the bed. The idea of them together would have been comical if it hadn't seemed so tragic. She sat in a chair smiling at us benignly; yet behind that bland smile was the look of a watchdog. She was suspicious and angry that I had been sent for without her knowledge. I wondered how far he was under her control. Not completely, I suppose; but she was clearly a power in the house.

"Lordy can still get wild over the Jacobites," commented Jessie.

I raised my eyebrows a little and looked at him. Why didn't he send this insolent woman away?

He caught my expression and returned it with an almost apologetic smile and yet there was a message there. He wanted to talk to me in private I knew. Why did he not tell her to leave us!

Could it possibly be that he was afraid of her? A brazen forceful woman; a houseful of servants selected by her and an old man possessed of wealth, enfeebled, spending a great deal of time in his bed.

The situation was becoming clear, but I could not understand his docility.