We travelled back to Edinburgh on the Tuesday.

When I was unpacking Zillah came into my room. She sat on the bed regarding me slightly sardonically.

She said: “The McCrae affair progresses with speed. What a charming gentleman he is. Is he beginning to wean you from the impecunious but oh so charming Jamie?”

“What do you mean?”

“Oh, just is it going to be Papa’s choice or yours?”

I was alarmed. It was obvious, of course, but I had refused to think of it too seriously.

Alastair McCrae would be a suitable husband. He had wealth and standing in the city. Jamie was a humble student. He had his way to make and there was the question as to whether he would make it.

I had been stupid, while I was enjoying my riding lessons under the benevolent eyes of my father, not to accept the fact that this was part of a well-laid scheme.

How incredibly innocent I was! My father disapproved of Jamie, whose existence had brought home the fact that it was time I married and settled in life out of the path of penniless students who in his view were in all probability grasping adventurers.

There would be no questioning that with Alastair McCrae; he was probably more wealthy than my father.

Zillah was watching me through half-closed eyes. There was a smile about her lips.

I should be grateful to her. She was making me see life through her somewhat cynical but highly sophisticated eyes.

IT WAS SOON AFTER OUR RETURN that my father was taken ill. It happened during the night, but I did not hear about it until the morning.

Zillah said he had awakened her at about three o’clock feeling very sick. She had been up with him half the night. She had given him a powder to settle his stomach, she said. It was a well-known recipe for that sort of trouble. It had not been effective immediately, but after a while he had felt better; and now he was sleeping peacefully.

“Shall I send for the doctor, Madam?” asked Kirkwell.

“I think we might wait awhile,” said Zillah. “You know how he hates the thought of the doctor coming. He kept saying he didn’t want him. He’d be better soon. I’ll watch him carefully. And if there is a return of the symptoms … yes, certainly we’ll get the doctor. It’s just that he hates a fuss and we don’t want to upset him. It’s something he’s eaten most likely, so … let’s wait awhile.”

She kept him in bed all day.

I heard Mrs. Kirkwell mutter something about old men’s marrying young wives. Sometimes it was too much for them. “A man’s as old as his years and it’s not going to do him much good to fancy he’s a young one … when he is not. He’s going to pay for it … sooner or later.”

I think everyone was surprised by how assiduously Zillah played the nurse; and he had recovered the next day, except that he felt a little weak, which was natural.

“You were wonderful, my dear,” he told Zillah. “I’d never thought of you as a nurse, but you played the part perfectly.”

“I’m good at playing parts,” she replied lightly. “There’s a lot you have to discover about me, my dear husband.”

The next day I met Jamie.

He was working hard, he said. He had had to forget the thesis for a while. He had to think of passing his exams with honours and setting out on his career as soon as possible.

He asked about the weekend and I told him of the riding lessons.

He was somewhat gloomy.

“What castle was this?”

“It belongs to Alastair McCrae, a friend of my father.”

He wanted to know about Alastair; and I told him we should be going to the castle again the weekend after next.

“If my father is well, of course,” I added. “He has been ill.”

“He’ll recover in time for this visit, I daresay. What is the man like?”

“Alastair McCrae? Oh, he’s quite pleasant. He’s old, of course.”

“Your father’s age?”

“Oh … not quite. Late thirties, I imagine.”

“Oh,” said Jamie with relief. “Some twenty years older than you.”

“About that, I imagine.”

That seemed to satisfy him. I did not tell him of Zillah’s hints and what was becoming more and more obvious to me.

He asked after Zillah. She had clearly made a great impression on him.

I told him how she had looked after my father when he was ill … not seriously ill, of course, only mildly so, but it had left him a little weak. It seemed she had been very efficient in the sickroom.

“There’s something very nice about her,” he said.

“Yes, I’m beginning to think so. I resented her, of course, when she first came. It was because I was so fond of Lilias …”

And then I was telling him about Lilias’ departure.

He listened intently. “Do you really think that someone put the necklace in her room to incriminate her … deliberately?”

“I have to think that because I know Lilias would never have stolen anything. She had been brought up in a religious way. Similar to your upbringing, I should say. She came from an English vicarage … you from a Scottish manse. People like Lilias don’t steal, do they?”

“People do strange things … unexpected things. You can never be sure what anyone will do.”

“Well … she did say something about the necklace’s being a nest egg for me. I keep remembering that. What she wanted desperately was a nest egg for herself, for she was always worried about the future.”

“Most people whose future is insecure worry about it. You mean that perhaps in a moment of temptation she took it? It had not all that material value to you. Sentimental, of course, because it had belonged to your mother. But you were not in need of a nest egg.”

“All that has occurred to me, but nothing will make me believe that Lilias stole the necklace.”

“If she did not, the implication must be that there was someone in the house who did this terrible thing. Ruined her life to a large extent, you could say. Who could have done that?”

“Why should anyone? There seemed to be no reason.”

“Reasons can often be obscure.”

“I can think of nothing. But at the same time I am convinced that Lilias did not take the necklace.”

“It has to be one thing or the other. Either she took it or someone put it there.”

“Oh, Jamie, I can’t bear to think of it. I can’t get anywhere … Don’t let’s talk of it. One just goes over and over the same ground. But I had to tell you. I don’t want there to be any secrets between us.”

“I wish that I were two years older,” said Jamie.

“They say it is foolish to wish your life away.”

“Well, I can’t help wishing the next two years away. If they were over I should be in a different position. I wish we could be at least officially engaged.”

“You mean announce it?”

“I do not think your father would approve. I think he would try to stop us.”

“Zillah is on our side.”

“She knows?”

“She guessed. She’ll help us.”

“I daresay she has a great deal of influence with your father.”

“He dotes on her. I have never seen him with anyone as he is with her. What of your family?”

“I’ve written to tell them.”

“And what do they say?”

“My father has sent me a long letter. He wishes me all that is good. They want to meet you, of course. I am sure you will like them. The manse is a bit shabby.”

I turned to him indignantly. “You think I would care about that?”

“Well, your home is rather grand … and you visit castles …”

“There was only one castle, and that was quite a small one. But tell me about your father.”

“They are all delighted. I told them about our meeting and they enjoyed hearing about that. I said that I had dined at your house. I may have given the impression that I have been accepted by your family.”

“Zillah thinks it better if we don’t say anything just yet.”

“She’s probably right. Oh, how I wish everything was settled. You see now why I wish I were two years older.”

“Are you working very hard, Jamie?”

“Yes, burning the midnight oil. Trying not to think too much of you because that is very distracting.”

“Isn’t it wonderful that we have met? If I hadn’t happened to be in the wynds that day … lost … you would have gone on with your walk and we should not have known each other.”

“You haven’t any regrets?”

“What a foolish question! Everything is going to work out well for us, Jamie. I believe that, don’t you?”

“Yes, I believe it. I’m sure of it … because we are going to do everything to make it come right. And because of that we can’t fail.”

WE WENT TO CASTLE GLEESON for another weekend as we had arranged and the second visit was as successful as the first. I had some riding lessons and Alastair said that during our next weekend he would take me out hacking. If he were with me I should have nothing to fear.

I must say that I did enjoy being in the saddle. He was a wonderful teacher and it gave me a sense of security to have him riding beside me.

“You’re doing amazingly well,” he told me. “You must come down again very soon so that we can continue.”

My father smiled indulgently when he heard this. He said he could think of no way of spending a weekend more agreeably than at Castle Gleeson.

And, of course, when we were in Edinburgh Alastair was frequently asked to dine with us.

Zillah watched it all with an amusement which bordered on the cynical.

“We are working up to an interesting situation,” she said. “I have no doubt of the worthy Alastair’s intentions, have you?”