Виктория Холт - Time of the Hunter's Moon

"You'll be there by eleven."

"Is it as far as that?"

He raised his eyebrows deprecatingly and nodded.

There was something about the smile which played about his lips which disturbed me. I wished I had tried to find the way myself. I was sure that he had taken me round a long way.

"I shall hope to see more of you, Miss er ..." "Grant."

"Yes, Miss Grant. I hope you will visit the Hall sometimes. We have a concert now and then to which Miss Hetherington comes and allows some of her staff and even pupils to attend. There are occasions when I am invited to the school, so I am sure we shall face opportunities of meeting."

I was silent for a few moments. Then I said: "Are you sure this is the road?"

"I assure you that it is."

We rode on in silence for some time and then with great relief I saw the town ahead of us.

I spurred my horse and we galloped along together until we reached the outskirts of the town.

"You see," he said, "I have delivered you safely. I believe you thought at one time that I was leading you astray."

"I thought it was a long way back."

"For me the time flew."

"I know where I am now. Thank you for your help."

"It was the greatest pleasure."

He remained by my side until we reached the Drake's Drum. Eileen Eccles was already there. She had come out into the porch where she had obviously been looking anxiously for me.

"I lost my way," I said.

Jason Verringer took off his hat and bowed to us. Then he rode off.

I said to Eileen: "I met him when I was wondering which road to take and he showed me the way back. Where shall I put my horse?" "I'll show you."

She led me to the yard and then we went back into the inn parlour.

"He has soon discovered you," she said.

"I was lost. He appeared by chance and offered to show me the way back. It did seem a very long way."

"I daresay he saw to that. Come into the parlour. I'll order some cider for you. I was beginning to get a little worried."

"So was I. I thought I was never going to get back. I wasn't sure of the way but I believe I could have found it myself as easily."

"So you were escorted by the mourning widower." "He didn't seem to be mourning particularly." "Rejoicing more likely from what I hear." The cider came. It was cool and refreshing. "They're noted for it in this part of the world," said Eileen. "So you haven't seen anything of the town. Not that there's much to see."

"Did you find what you wanted?"

"Not exactly what I wanted but what I can make do with. This will help us along for a while. There won't be any time for looking round now. We have to start back as soon as you've finished your cider."

"I wish now that I had stayed in the town."

"He would have discovered you sooner or later. He has a reputation, you know, for assessing the females within his range."

"Oh ... but he is in mourning at the moment. Only yesterday his wife was buried."

"I am sure he was scarcely beating his breast, tearing his sackcloth and scattering his ashes."

"Far from it."

"At least he's honest. He probably feels like killing the fatted calf. No, that's the wrong analogy. He's rejoicing anyway ..."

"Was it as bad as that?"

"There's a tremendous amount of gossip about him. That's one thing the Verringers have always done. Provided the neighbourhood with plenty to talk about. The story is that he married that wife of his ... arranged marriage ... because she brought some big estate with her. But she had an accident in the hunting field, not long after the marriage, which crippled her and that meant that there was no Verringer heir - and as there have been Verringer heirs from 1500 and something, ever since the Verringers took over the Abbey lands, that a matter which could bring no delight to the family. Sir Jason would end the direct line because his younger brother, father of the two girls, died. Would the estates go to a female? Horror throughout the land! And yet, what short of murder could give Sir Jason another chance?"

'Murder!"

"Not a word to be lightly bandied about among ordinary folk. But Verringers? Who shall say? In case the lady dutifully died and, as you arrived, bell was tolling for her." You make it sound very macabre."

"I am told that any adjective may be applied to the and often is. Well, the lady died and there are rumours around ..."

"I thought she was ill for a long time."

"Crippled. Useless for reproduction purposes. But not an illness which is going to prove fatal, you understand. Then Marcia Martindale appears on the scene, gives birth to an infant, and Lady Verringer dies."

"This is all becoming very involved."

"You are going to live here so you will have to something of the local inhabitants; and the t colourful, exciting, dramatic-one might say dramatic- are the Verringers. With Jason e have always been ... women. It is a family and, with an incapacitated wife, what can we expect of such a virile lusty gentleman? He's a house not far from the Abbey. It's called Rooks' Rest - presumably because it is surrounded by elms in which rooks choose to make their nests. It's a small house, Queen Anne and elegant. One of the Verringer aunts lived there for years. Then she died and the place was vacant for a few months. It must have been about eighteen months ago when Marcia Martindale was installed there-strikingly handsome and undoubtedly pregnant. Sir Jason set her up there, and there she has remained. It is rather blatant but, when you are in the position of Sir Jason, you don't have to worry about local reaction. He is after all the powerful overlord, owning all the property and the houses people live in. Such people cannot pass too much judgement on these little peccadilloes. They may be sniggered at, always behind a concealing hand, and little more than a shrugging of the shoulders, and raising of eyes to heaven is permitted."

"Nevertheless a great deal of scandal does seem to be circulating about that man."

"My dear Miss Grant ... may I call you Cordelia? Miss Grant is rather formal and we shall be seeing a lot of each other."

"Please do ... Eileen."

"That's settled. What was I saying? Oh ... little Miranda. Nobody doubts who her progenitor is. It's all so blatantly obvious, and Sir Jason would scorn to cover up any of his actions because he would construe that as weakness. He is the law around here. The rumour is that he has one child and could get more. Who knows, the next might be the longed-for boy. The stage set. And what happens? Lady Verringer dies."

"It sounds diabolical. How did she die?"

`I believe it was an overdose of laudanum. She suffered pain and used to take it. That's the story. You came in at the end of the act to hear the bell Ming for the departed lady. Now the curtain will again ... on what?"

"You do make it sound like a melodrama."

"Believe me, Cordelia. What did I tell you? Where that man is there will be melodrama. Now I have acquainted you with our greatest scandal, and at is more to the point, you have finished your eider. It is time we left."

We paid for the cider, complimented the landlord his brew, and came out into the sunshine. Over the weekend the mistresses began to arrive as Daisy had said they would.

There was Miss Evans who taught geography; Miss Barston who specialized in needlework stressing embroidery and gros point ; and Miss Parker Who instructed the girls in physical exercises. Mathematics was taught by a man, James Fairley, who like the dancing, riding and music masters did live in-as Daisy thought it was quite unsuitable for men to live under the same roof as the girls. She was sure the parents would not like it.

"Not," commented Eileen, "that they could not get up to certain tricks without necessarily sleeping under the monastic roof. But it is the look of the thing that counts."