“Ah, it’s good to be home,” she cried.

“Come along, my dear. Come in and see the old house which will always be home to me.”

I met Mrs. Hanson, who expressed no surprise to see her mistress home, and Deborah gave orders in her gentle but competent way.

” Mrs. Hanson, this is my nephew’s bride. She’s going to stay for a night or two. I want Carrie to get the blue room ready for her.”

“The blue room?” repeated Mrs. Hanson.

” Yes, please. I said the blue room. Carrie, put two hot-water bottles in the bed. You know how the first night in a strange bed always seems. And we should like something to eat, Mrs. Hanson. It’s a fair journey from Pendorric.”

She made me sit down, for I was tired, she was sure.

” I’m going to cos set you,” she told me. ” Oh, it is fun to have you here. I’ve always wanted to bring you.”

I sat down in a chair near the big window which gave me a view of a neat lawn and flower-beds.

“Hanson’s a good gardener, but it’s not so easy to grow things on the moor as it is at Pendorric. The ground here is stony and it can be very cold in winter. Snow’s a bit of a rarity at Pendorric; you should see it here in winter. There were times when Barbarina and I were kept in for a whole week—absolutely snowed up.”

I looked round the large room with its ingle-nook and pleasant furniture, and the large bowl of chrysanthemums on a gilt and marble console table.

” I’ve told Mrs. Hanson always to keep flowers in the house,” she told me, following my gaze. ” Barbarina used to look after the flowers, until she married. Then I took over. I didn’t arrange them as artistically as she did.” She lifted her shoulders and smiled. ” I’m longing to show you your room. They should have it ready very soon.

But first I’m hungry. Aren’t you? It’s our moorland air. Oh, it’s good to be home. “

” I wonder you spend so much time at Pendorric,” I said, ” when you so clearly prefer it here.”

” Oh, it’s because of the family … Morwenna, Roc, Hyson and Lowella! Pendorric’s their home and if I want to be with them I have to be at Pendorric. I’ve brought Hyson here quite a lot. Lowella prefers the sea, but Hyson certainly has a taste for the moor.”

” She was very eager to come with us this time.”

” I know, dear child. But I did feel you needed a thorough rest. And with her mother in the hospital she should be there. When I’m here I feel young again. There’s so much to remind me. I can almost imagine that Father is still alive and that at any moment Barbarina will come in through that door.”

“Did Barbarina come here often after her marriage?”

” Yes. She felt the same as I do about this place. After all it was home to her. She had spent the greater part of her life here. How I do harp on the past. It’s a failing of the aged. Do forgive me, Favel. I want you to be happy here.”

” You’re very kind.”

” My dear, I’m so fond of you.”

We were silent for a few moments and I thought that if I were with Deborah in some small country hotel I could have felt at ease. It was a pity that to escape from Pendorric I had to come to the house where Barbarina. had spent the greater part of her life.

Mrs. Hanson came in to tell us that the meal was ready. ” An omelette, madam,” she said. ” If I’d had more time …”

” It’ll be delicious, I’m sure,” smiled Deborah. ” Mrs. Hanson is one of the best cooks in Devon.”

The omelette was certainly delicious, and there was apple pie with clotted cream to follow.

“The real Devonshire cream,” Deborah told me gleefully. ” Now don’t you agree it’s better than the Cornish?”

I really couldn’t tell the difference, so I said it was very good indeed.

” They copied it from us,” said Deborah; ” but they say we copied it from them!”

We were both growing more lighthearted, and I was sure it was a good thing that Deborah had brought me here! I could see quite clearly now that it would have been most unwise for me to have gone to the Clements’.

When the meal was over we went back to the drawing-room for coffee, and when we had finished, Deborah took me up and showed me my room.

It was right at the top of the house, very large and an odd shape.

There were two windows, and the ceiling sloped slightly in a way which was charming and told me that we were immediately under the roof. The single bed at the opposite end of the room was partly in an alcove; and there was a desk, wardrobe, bedside table and dressing-table; on the bed was a blue coverlet, and the carpet was blue. ” This is delightful,” I said.

” And right at the top of the house. It’s so light and airy, isn’t it.

Come and look out. “

We went to one of the windows, and because there was a half-moon I could see the moor stretched out beyond the gardens. ” You should see it in daylight,” Deborah told me. ” Miles and miles of moor. The gorse can be a picture, and the heather too. You can pick out the little streams. They look like flashes of silver in the sunlight.”

” I shall enjoy a good walk tomorrow.”

She didn’t answer. She gazed, enraptured, at the moor. She turned to me. ” Shall I help you unpack?”

“There’s no need. I’ve brought very little.”

” There’s plenty of room for your things.” She opened the door of the wardrobe.

I took out my night things and the two dresses I had brought with me, and she hung them on hangers.

“I’ll show you the rest of the house,” she said.

I enjoyed my tour of the house. I saw the nursery where she told me she and Barbarina had played, the music room where Barbarina had learned the violin, the big drawing-room with its grand piano, and I had peered through the window at the walled garden outside. ” We used to grow lovely peaches on that wall. Our gardener saved all the best for Barbarina.”

“Weren’t you a little jealous of her?” I asked.

“Jealous of Barbarina—never! Why, she and I were … close, as only twins can be. I could never really be jealous.”

” I think Barbarina was lucky to have you for a sister.”

” Yes, she was the lucky one … until the end, of course.”

” What really happened?” I felt compelled to ask. ” It was an accident, wasn’t it?”

Her face crumpled suddenly and she turned away. ” It’s so long ago,” she said almost piteously.

“And you still feel …?”

She seemed to pull herself together. ” There was a suggestion that someone was with her in the gallery at the time.”

“Did you believe it?”

Yes. “

” Then who …?”

” It was never said, but lots of people had tike idea that it was”

” Her husband?”

” There was scandal about that woman. He was still seeing her. He never gave her up when he married Barbarina. He’d married Barbarina because of the money. He needed money. Houses like Pendorric are great monsters … they need continual feeding.”

” You think he killed her because he wanted to have Barbarina’s fortune and marry Louisa Seflick?”

” It entered the minds of some people.”

” Yet he didn’t marry her.”

“Perhaps he dared not.” She smiled at me bravely.

“I don’t think we ought to be talking like this. It isn’t fair to . Petroc. “

” I’m sorry. It’s being here in her old home that reminded me.”

” Let’s change the subject, shall we? Tell me what you would like to do while you’re here.”

” See as much of the country as possible. I intend to be up early tomorrow. After all, I shall be here such a short time. I want to make the most of it.”

” Then I hope you get a good night’s sleep. It’s not always easy in a.

new bed, is it? I’ll send Mrs. Hanson up with a nightcap. What do you like? Horlicks? Milo? Cocoa? Or just plain milk? ” I said I should prefer plain milk.

We sat talking a little while and then she said she would order the milk and take me up.

We mounted the lovely staircase right to the top of the house. ” One thing,” she told toe, ” you’ll be very quiet up here.”

” I’m sure I shall.”

” Barbarina always used to say that this was the room she liked best in the whole of the house. It was her room until she went to ” Barbarina’s room? ” I said.

” The most charming of the bedrooms. That’s why I gave it to you.”

” It was kind of you.”

” You … like it, don’t you? If you don’t I’ll give you another.”

“I like it….”

She laughed suddenly. ” It’s Pendorric she’s supposed to haunt. Not the old Manor.”

She drew the curtains across the windows and the room looked even more charming. Then she switched on the lamp which stood on the hexagonal bedside table.

“There! That should be comfortable. I hope you’ll be warm enough. They should have put two bottles in the bed.” She prodded it. ” Yes, they have.”

She stood smiling at me. ” Good night, dear. Sleep well.” Then she took my face in her hands and ksised it. ” The milk will be coming up. When would you like it—in five or ten minutes?”

“Five, please,” I said.

“All right. Good night, dear.”

She went out and left me. I undressed and, drawing back the curtains, stood for some seconds looking out over the moor. Peace, I thought.

Here I shall be able to think about all the strange things which have been happening to me. I shall be able to make up my mind what I have to do.

There was a knock on my door and I was surprised to see Deborah, who came in carrying a glass of milk on a small tray. She put this down on the hexagonal table.

” There you are, my dear. I thought I’d bring it myself.”

“Thank you.”