The adulteress

"You and your heirs will live here one day. And gradually all the ancestors will be at rest. Oh, it's a very comfortable life here for me. You're a clever girl. You saw how it should be done, didn't you? Life is good here... . You said something to Jessie ... did you?"

"I pointed out that her well-being depended on yours," I said.

He gave a deep laugh in his throat and went on laughing. For a moment I thought he was going to choke.

"That was it. Oh, I'm cosseted, Zipporah. Mustn't be upset .. . they've got to keep me alive, haven't they?"

"They are here to look after you. And you have not signed any more pieces of paper?"

He shook his head and looked crafty. "Nothing," he said. "I've not been asked to. You must have explained it all pretty clearly. Clever girl, Zipporah. You'll be a good mistress of Eversleigh. I feel very pleased with myself."

"You still have the same agent?"

"Oh yes, Amos Carew is still here ... couldn't easily do without him."

"I see. Well, everything seems to have worked out satisfactorily."

"Clever Zipporah!" he said.

I was amazed that he could calmly contemplate keeping a housekeeper who might possibly want to get rid of him—but why couch the language in such terms? Why not say, who would be prepared to murder him if the stakes were high enough?

How could he tolerate such a woman! But it was of course that sexual magnetism. She had that, I was sure, and it would appeal very strongly to a certain type of man. It was her weapon, and heaven knew she used it to advantage.

Still, I no longer felt uneasy. Uncle Carl would be well looked after until the day he died, for it was very necessary for Jessie to keep him alive.

Dickon, true to his word, explored the house from top to bottom. Evalina showed him round. It was Jessie's suggestion that she should. He was completely entranced by the place and when he asked that he be permitted to accompany Amos Carew on his rounds of the estate, and he was allowed to do so, he came back, eyes shining.

"It's worth three of Clavering," he said.

He went out a great deal with Amos Carew and the two of them seemed to be getting really friendly. Amos told Sabrina that he was more than an interested observer. On one or two occasions he had given Amos a hand with the estate work. He really enjoyed it and had a flair for it. "He seems to grasp a problem in no time. He's got a gift for estate management, if you will forgive me saying so, madam," he told Sabrina.

She was very proud of her son. It was the first time Dickon had ever shown interest in work of any kind. We had heard from the curate that he was a reluctant scholar, quite different from Tom Sanders, the vicar's son with whom he shared his lessons.

Quite often Sabrina and I rode together. I think we both shared mixed feelings about these excursions—indeed about the entire visit. Sabrina's memories were not so recent as mine nor so poignant; they were melancholy, though. She hated to go past the lake near Enderby where once she had had an accident while skating and was saved by her mother, whose death, many said, had been hastened by the event. And yet ... her horse always seemed to lead her to Enderby. There was an irresistible urge to go near the place where she had been unhappy. I understood perfectly because it was the same with me. I also found it hard to keep away. When we went out on foot I could never resist stepping over the broken palings and walking into the haunted patch. Perhaps I felt that Gerard would suddenly appear there as he had the first time I saw him.

"It's a gloomy spot," said Sabrina. "I don't know why we come here."

"There's something fascinating about it."

"Fascinating but repelling," agreed Sabrina.

"I'm tired," I said. "Let's sit."

"Here? Within sight of old Enderby and the ghost patch?"

"Why not? I've a feeling we are safe here today."

We sat down leaning against those palings where they were not broken.

"I wonder they don't clear up this place," said Sabrina. "This was a rose garden at one time."

"Perhaps no one wants to have anything to do with it."

Sabrina said: "Sitting here like this when it is so quiet all around I could go right back to my childhood."

I nodded. I was back on that evening at dusk when I had stepped over those palings and first met Gerard.

"You'll have Eversleigh one day, Zipporah," said Sabrina.

"That is if Uncle Carl doesn't change his mind."

"How can he?"

"Well, Jessie might persuade him to yet."

"She'd have to get over those solicitors of his. I reckon they'd soon be up in arms if she tried to do anything like that. His mind seems very lively."

I nodded, thinking of myself going into his room starry-eyed from my encounter with Gerard and Uncle Carl's looking at me and calling me Carlotta. Had that been deliberate or had he really thought for a moment that I was the girl he had once admired so much?

"Your mother and I have talked a lot about ... Dick-on.

I smiled and Sabrina went on: "I know you think we talk about little else."

"You are rather devoted to the boy."