“What a take-in,” Lady Jane declared the next morning, disgruntled. “A night spent on a lumpy mattress in a strange room, all to no avail. There is no point in my hanging about here all day long. I’ll go over to see how Harold does, and return to you for dinner this evening, but I shall leave the footmen, just in case. Those two are to be trusted completely. Dissenters, both of them. They will not take so much as a glass of small ale, let alone approve of brandy.”

“I must be home in case creditors come. Perhaps Miss Milne will bring Bobbie to visit me. There can be no danger in the middle of the day.”

“I’ll send Harold over to entertain you later on. Just ask him what he thinks of Pliny, and that will set him off.”

This sounded more tedious than being alone, but Delsie was too polite to request that Jane keep her boring husband at home, and said she would be happy to see him.

“Happier to see him go,” was the knowing answer. Lady Jane managed to be content with very little, in her friend’s view. Even a refractory husband would be better than a Harold.

Sir Harold did indeed call that same morning, confirming the opinion that he must have provided the lively Lady Jane an unsatisfactory companion all these years. As he found the lady of the house with an apron wrapped around her skirt, busily polishing her own windows, he did no more than sit for fifteen minutes watching her, and uttering a few comments on the invention of glass, the difference it had made to civilization, and how it had eventually been taxed, as might be expected.

Miss Milne did not bring Roberta, but at three deVigne dropped around, looking heavy-eyed, grouchy, and holding his head at an odd angle.

“You mean to continue with this nonsense?” he asked in a surly tone, taking up a post at the fireplace and declining a seat, to indicate that his call was a courtesy merely.

“Certainly I do,” he was told by a good-natured widow, much easier in her mind since her action had the approval of Lady Jane.

“It would serve you well if they came in force,” he answered.

“I hope they may. We had a flat time of it yesterday, and Lady Jane assures me they are not at all a bad lot who bring in the brandy these days. She feels a tap on the head is the worst we have to look forward to.”

“I might have known there would be no counting on her to act with propriety when it was necessary.”

“I think it very bad of you to be picking on Lady Jane. She has Sir Harold to contend with, and that is enough for one woman.”

“There is half the trouble! Harold has never controlled her as he ought.”

“You forget she is of the same blood as yourself, quite set on having her own way.”

He glared belligerently at this speech, then began pacing the room. Delsie smiled to see him perform exactly as had been described. “How does my stepdaughter go on?” she asked, to divert him.

“Miss Milne has taken her over to the Dower House for luncheon. They worked upstairs in the nursery this morning.”

“Which she could have done with perfect safety here. What is the matter with your neck? Have you got a crick in it?” He held it to the left.

“Yes, I must have slept with it at an odd angle last night.”

She wondered on what log or rock he had rested it, and felt a qualm of compassion, for the weather was not kind in December. “You look tired. I don’t think you can have slept well.”

Pity was not desired. He stated in a flat voice that he had enjoyed an excellent night’s repose, while he walked briskly from grate to window and back.

“It would be a result of all the exercise you get, pouncing around the room,” she suggested lightly.

He sat on the edge of a chair. “I think you should go to the Dower House with Lady Jane tonight. It is hard on her, an older woman, being out of her bed. It is clear the smugglers don’t intend to come while you are here. You are causing everyone a vast deal of bother with this cork-brained scheme.”

“It is no such thing. Lady Jane enjoyed herself excessively. She agrees with me it would be very mean-spirited to let them go without finding where they have been hiding the brandy.”

“We’ll discover that all right!” He rose again from the chair and paced in the other direction across the room this time.

“It has already been arranged. Lady Jane comes to me again tonight. You waste your time, deVigne, trying to bring us round your thumb.”

They were interrupted by a knocking at the front door. “My first creditor!” Mrs. Grayshott exclaimed.

“I’ll get it,” deVigne said, heading to the door. When he came into the saloon, it was no creditor who accompanied him, but Andrew’s uncle, Clancy Grayshott, known slightly to the widow from his having been presented to her at the time of Andrew’s funeral. He resembled Andrew, but was older, an altogether bigger man, and less refined.

After a few common civilities, Clancy said, “Where is Bristcombe today?”

“The Bristcombes are no longer with me,” Delsie answered. “Mrs. Bristcombe’s mother required them in Merton. They left yesterday.”

His nod held no surprise, and she took the idea that Clancy Grayshott already knew this. As he lived in Merton himself, it would be odd if he did not know it. Certainly in Questnow all items of gossip were known in an hour. “Ah, then you are left short-handed, ma’am. Perhaps you will be inclined on that account to accept the offer I am come here to make you.”

“What offer is that, Mr. Grayshott?” she asked, suspicious.

“I am eager to have my great-niece come to me for a few days. I had expected the pleasure of being her guardian, as you may have heard, but, being deprived of that, I would ask you to bring her to visit my wife and myself at Merton till the weekend.”

“I’m afraid it is impossible for us to go at the present time,” she answered promptly. A visit to this man’s home would be her last choice at any time. She was sure that on this point, at least, deVigne would agree with her. Her marriage had been arranged to keep Bobbie away from Clancy Grayshott, but she soon found herself to be in error. Really there was no accounting for the strange quirks deVigne took into his head.

“I see no harm in your taking Roberta to visit the Grayshotts for a few days, cousin,” he said.

“She is not here,” Delsie pointed out.

“She is only at the Hall,” she was reminded.

“The Hall!” Clancy was immediately on his feet. “Roberta was left in Mrs. Grayshott’s care! It was her father’s express wish that she not be under your guardianship, Lord deVigne.”

“She is not under my guardianship, but only paying a short visit of two days to her uncle-myself-as she will soon be doing with you. Nothing forbids that.”

“No, no! She lives here with me,” Delsie explained hastily, yet she felt foolish. It must appear to Grayshott as though her marriage had been a ruse to get Roberta into the hands of deVigne.

Clancy appeared to accept her explanation. “If you can let her visit her maternal uncle, I see no reason why you cannot bring her to me. My wife is particularly eager to see her.”

Delsie was not happy to see Roberta go off to Clancy Grayshott’s home, yet his request seemed justified. She noticed too that he had not asked her to send Roberta, but bring her. This was hardly more pleasing, but it removed her one excuse to forbid the visit. Clearly he was not trying to get Bobbie away from her. No, he wanted a short visit from her, along with her stepmother.

“I shall take her to you one day, Mr. Grayshott. I promise that, but this happens to be an impossible time for me to leave home.”

“On the contrary, it is a perfect time,” deVigne said. “You are without a housekeeper. I shall undertake to find you one during your absence. A few days in Merton will be a pleasant change for you, and when you return, you will find your house in order.”

“I cannot leave now. There will be creditors, after the notice in the papers,” she parried. His reason for wishing the visit was becoming clear to her. He wanted to get her out of the house to let the smugglers come and get their brandy. He would even send her and Roberta off to this horrid Clancy Grayshott to achieve his aim. She dug in her heels.

“I’ll be happy to meet the creditors for you,” he said.

“I had hoped to bring you and the child to my wife today,” Clancy went on, unconvinced that he had failed, with the unexpected support from deVigne. “She has not had the pleasure of your acquaintance, ma’am, and you may imagine how eager she is to meet Andrew’s wife.”

‘I could not possibly be ready to make the visit on such short notice,” Delsie insisted.

“Tomorrow, then. I’ll put up at the inn in Questnow for the night…”

“Stay at the Hall,” deVigne invited. Delsie directed an incredulous stare at his speech. DeVigne loathed Clancy. To offer him the hospitality of the Hall was done only to make her position more difficult.

“I fail to see the great urgency for this visit,” she said angrily. “I have promised to take Roberta to you in the near future, Mr. Grayshott. In a week or two-”

“With winter coming on, it’s best to do the thing before the roads become bad,” Grayshott pressed on urgently.

“It is only early December. I cannot think we’ll be snowbound within the next week. I’m sorry. I am very busy-everything in a mess here. It is impossible to leave at this time.”

“My wife will be very disappointed,” Grayshott said, peering at her to see how this new tack was working.

“I will be happy to receive her here at any time. I cannot leave at the present.” The mulish set of her chin at last convinced him that his errand had failed.

“I’ll tell her, then,” he said, arising. DeVigne too arose, and together the two men left the Cottage. From the window, Delsie saw them stroll together down the walk and off towards the stable.