She only half realized what had happened on the previous night. She wept bitterly and was in a state of complete mental disorder.

The family doctor came first. He said she needed immediate attention. Then he called another doctor, as was, I believed, usual in such cases; and at the end of the second day, she was taken away. They had to sedate her because she had shown a tendency to violence. Gordon was very sad, indeed, and I was touched because he turned to me for comfort.

He confided in me a good deal and told me that he had been very concerned for her for a long time. He had tried to make her understand that he accepted his position and, because he realized that it was unlikely that he would ever inherit the estate, he had come to terms with that fact.

He loved it and indeed he had complete control of it; and it would be years before Tristan could take it over. He would work with the boy, teach him what had to be taught. He had been content with that.

But it had not been good enough for his mother. She had set her heart on his being recognized as a Tregarland and master of the family home.

“Obsession,” he said. “It can ruin a life…as it has hers.”

“You will see her often,” I said.

“Yes. She will be at Bodmin. I shall go at least once a week. It may be that they will be able to help her. They have all sorts of wonderful treatment these days.”

“I do hope so, Gordon.”

“I shall always be grateful to you,” he replied. “If you had not been there she would have killed the child. I feel it would be something she would never have got over.”

I was thinking then of Annette, for I could not believe that she had deliberately chosen to go into the sea that morning.

I wondered whether there was at least one murder on Matilda’s mind, and whether that had helped her to go completely mad.

James Tregarland was very upset by what had happened. He stayed in his room, and after they had taken Matilda away he sent one of the servants to ask if I would come to his room as he would like to talk to me.

I went to him at once and there I found him like a different person. He seemed old and shrunken.

“Oh, Violetta,” he said. “You have come into a strange household. What are you thinking of us, eh? There has been nothing but trouble. It is strange, is it not? For years we went on peacefully—uneventfully—and then everything erupted like a volcano that has been inactive for years and once it starts cannot stop.”

“A great deal has certainly happened,” I said. “I think one thing has grown out of another.”

He nodded. “My poor Matty. I was fond of her, you know. She was always an interesting girl. That calm exterior hiding her explosive passions. I treated her badly. I have discovered I have a conscience. Not a pleasant discovery at my time of life, when it is too late to do anything about it. She wanted me to marry her. Why didn’t I? It would have given her peace of mind. Those parents of hers—it was the way they had brought her up. Poor Matty. Conventionality was their way of life, and hell fire was awaiting those who strayed. It was implanted in her and nothing could change that. I teased her, though I’m ashamed to say I enjoyed that. Well, I made a will…everything for my legitimate heirs, and if they were unable to inherit, it went to my natural son, Gordon Lewyth. That was when it started…once she had got that out of me. I enjoyed watching it, you see. I knew Matty pretty well. So prim she had been at first, and then not so prim. I didn’t think it would last very long when it started…I thought I’d give her something and say goodbye. But it did not work that way. It went on. There was the boy, you see. I liked him and he was damned useful on the estate when he grew up. He was a worker, different from some of the Tregarlands who’d gone before. I’m to blame for a lot of this, Violetta.”

“You had no idea how far she would go.”

“I should have had. And she tried to murder my grandson! Thank God you were sleeping in the room.”

“Yes. I found out that Gordon was your son. I misjudged him. I thought he might attempt to murder Tristan. There was talk about babies who died mysteriously and it had been mentioned in my hearing. Then Nanny Crabtree and I worked out what we would do.”

“I’m grateful to you both. He’s a bright little fellow, our Tristan. To think he might have been snuffed out like a candle. I’m grateful to you.”

“And to Nanny Crabtree.”

“Yes, indeed. She’s an old stalwart, she is. A real dragon, a battleaxe. I like that. I can’t see anyone getting the better of her.”

His chin started to wag and for a few seconds he looked like his old self.

“She loves those she calls her children dearly,” I said. “I am so pleased my mother arranged for her to come and look after Tristan.”

“Oh, yes, we have to be thankful for that. And most of all we are thankful to you, my dear. I like to feel my grandson is in your hands. And what will happen to my poor Matty?”

“Gordon thinks they may be able to help her.”

“Just now she won’t be aware of where she is and what she has done. It will be better for her to remain in ignorance of that.”

“And what she may already have done.”

“You are thinking of Dermot’s first wife…”

“Yes, Annette.”

“That was a strange affair. I was glad when Dermot brought your sister here. And then…”

“Do you have any idea what happened?”

He shook his head. “I wondered. The first wife was drowned when she was carrying an unborn child. The thought came to me later as to whether Matty had a hand in it. Though naturally it didn’t occur to me at the time.”

“Do you think she could have killed Annette?”

“I don’t know.”

“And Dermot?”

“It would have been easy for her to slip his pills to him, perhaps. I wonder…would she have gone as far as that?”

“He stood in Gordon’s way, just as Tristan did. And it would have been so easy with him…as it would have been with Tristan. But…Annette…and my sister…”

“My dear, you have suffered with us all. Your stay here has been marked by tragedy. Too many tragedies.”

“Too many to be natural,” I repeated. “And now that we see there was a motive…”

He nodded slowly. “I want you to know how grateful I am to you. This household needs you particularly now. Will you promise me you will not leave us?”

“I cannot say what the future will bring. For a time I shall be here. Tristan means a lot to me.”

“I will be satisfied with that. My poor Matty! How I wish this had not happened to her. She has gone, hasn’t she? There will be no coming back. So calmly efficient outwardly, and a raging furnace of resentments within. Does it not show how complex human beings are? It has always been a sort of hobby with me…to observe them.”

“They are, indeed, complex, and I will leave you now, if you will excuse me. I have promised Nanny Crabtree that I will be in the nursery this morning.”

He nodded. “We need you here,” he said. “I…Gordon…Tristan. Yes, we do. I would not feel happy about the child if you left us.”

I said: “I shall stay for a while.”

That satisfied him. He nodded again and closed his eyes. He looked very tired and infinitely sad.

Seth had changed. It was strange to see a big strong man looking like a helpless child. Oddly enough, he seemed to turn to me. I knew that he had regarded Matilda with a kind of awe, coupled with a great admiration and trust. I thought sometimes that he had looked at her as though she were some sort of deity.

She had been kind to him. How strange that she, who had contemplated killing one child, could be so considerate to a poor creature like Seth.

And now she had gone, Seth seemed lost and bewildered. Poor, uncertain Seth, whose life had been blighted when he was ten years old, and he had never really developed after that.

I often found him close to me, and suddenly it dawned on me that I was a substitute for Matilda. He would hurry to me if I were carrying something. He would take it from me, and clearly showed what gratification it gave him to help me.

That was how I came to talk to him and to learn what I had always wanted to know.

I would chat about horses and the work he did in the garden. One day I saw him working there and I went down to the seat which was close by and said: “Hello, Seth. How are you this morning?”

His face creased with pleasure, as it always did when I spoke to him.

“I be well, Miss Violetta.” He slurred my name. He had always had difficulty with it.

“The sea is a little rough today,” I went on. “Is that how it was the morning the first Mrs. Tregarland went in to bathe?”

He had lost that look of anxiety he had always had before when I mentioned that occasion.

“He said: “Oh, ’tweren’t morning…’twere night…weren’t it?”

I was startled. This was a new angle on the case.

“Night?” I said.

“Sea be different by night,” he said, scratching his head. “Don’t know what it be, but it be different.”

“Where were you then, Seth?”

He looked puzzled and I saw the shut-in look come into his face.

“You could tell me, Seth,” I said.

He looked at me steadily and I saw the look I had often in the past seen him bestow on Matilda. Now it was given to me. He looked relieved.

“ ’Twere night,” he said. “ ’Er were there with ’un.”

“Mrs. Lewyth was there…with the first Mrs. Tregarland?”

He nodded and, turning toward the house, pointed to the glass door which opened onto the terrace from which four steps led down to the garden.

“In the drawing room they were.”