The adulteress

. "Lord Eversleigh will probably want to see you later on. He's still sleeping and I want to keep him like that ... until he wakes naturally. We'll see. I am so glad you have come, Mistress Ransome. It is a relief to me to have someone of the family here."

He looked at me rather helplessly. "Mistress Stirling," he went on, "well, the position I gather is somewhat irregular .. . but I'm afraid Eversleigh was always like that. He enjoyed life in his own way and it was generally rather an unconventional way. Still ... this, er ... Jessie is here. I gather he was quite fond of her... . He seems more at peace if she's there about the place. He got used to her, I suppose, and she's a good manager. The great thing is that Carl shouldn't be worried. He needs rest. You know I feel that with the right treatment he could go on for a very long time."

"It is fortunate that you were able to be here."

"Well, he likes it ... but you know any doctor could have done as much. There's a very good fellow in the town, I've heard. I can't do more than he would ... but there is a point that I'm on the premises."

"Well, thank you, Dr. Cabel."

"Which is your horse?"

"The bay mare. We get on well together."

"You ride a good deal, Mistress Ransome?"

"Yes, I always have done."

"Good exercise."

One of my grooms came up. He was preparing to return to Clavering.

"Master won't be content till I'm back and tell him you've arrived safe," he said.

I smiled. "Will you saddle for me, Jim? I'm taking a ride. When will you be leaving?"

"In less than an hour."

"Well, tell them all it won't be long before I'm sending for you to escort me back."

"I'll tell master that. It'll please him."

The doctor looked on benignly and was still there when I mounted and rode out of the stables.

It was almost as though my horse led me there, for in a very short time I could see the towers of Enderby. I rode up to the haunted patch thinking of the day I had stepped over the palings and found Gerard. I wondered if the people whom I had met at Enderby were still there and decided it might be interesting to call. I dismounted and as I did so my heart started to beat fast, for a man was leaning over that part of the palings which was firm and upright and for a moment I thought he was Gerard. Then I saw that he most certainly was not.

He was tall as Gerard had been but much more loosely built and far from elegant. He wore a small wig, hair drawn back from the face and tied at the back with a black ribbon, as worn by almost every man; his coat was wide skirted and came to just above the knees to disclose the ends of knee breeches and legs in dark brown hose and buckled shoes—his white cravat was plain, so was his waistcoat and of the same brown as the material of his coat. He had a pleasant expression, perhaps a little austere. It was an air of seriousness about him which made me think how different he was from Gerard.

"Good day," he called.

I returned the greeting.

"Are you calling at the house?" he asked.

"Yes, I was going to."

"Oh, you are a friend of the Forsters?"

"A neighbor ... temporarily. I am staying at Eversleigh Court."

"Oh?" he was clearly interested.

"Lord Eversleigh is a sort of uncle," I explained.

"He's very ill at the moment, I believe."

"Yes," I said.

"I too am calling at Enderby," he told me.

I tethered my horse to the palings and we walked together toward the house.

"I hope they will remember me," I said.

"I am sure they will. They have spoken of you."

"To you?"

"Yes," he said. "I'm there often. As a matter of fact I'm Derek Forster's brother."

"Oh ... are you .. . ?"

"The doctor," he said.

I smiled. "I have heard of you."

"Good reports, I hope."

"Nothing to your detriment."

"That is all a doctor can hope for."

"When I came here before, your name was mentioned. You were not here then."

"That must have been a little while ago. I have been here for about two years."

Enderby looked different. A great number of trees had been cut down and there was a new lawn. It made the place brighter, less eerie. It must have been something like this when my mother's aunt Damaris was the mistress of it. It no longer looked the dark, menacing house it once had.

The door opened and the woman I had previously met gave an exclamation of surprise.

"Charles!" she cried. "And ..."

"I've brought a visitor," he said.

"You won't remember me," I put in hastily. "I'm Zipporah Ransome."

"But of course I remember you. You came before ... oh, it was a long time ago. You're related to Lord Eversleigh. Come in. Derek will be so pleased. And, Charles, how are you?"

She kissed his cheek lightly while she kept her eyes on me.

We went into the hall. Yes, it was considerably less gloomy.

"Derek!" she called.

Her husband came running down the stairs past the haunted minstrels' gallery and I immediately remembered him. They had both been so friendly.

"You remember each other," she said.

Derek Forster looked at me for a moment and I said: "Zipporah Ransome." Then his face creased into a smile and he held out his hand.