I felt it was rather eerie walking up that staircase following Jessamy. Along the gallery we went. The pictures looked different in candlelight and one could imagine they were living people who looked down on us.

"We couldn't very well have gaslight in the castle," said Jessamy. "It would be rather incongruous, wouldn't it?"

I agreed.

"On some occasions we have flares in the main hall. I can tell you they look very fine."

"I am sure they do. Jessamy, you love your castle, don't you?"

"Yes. Wouldn't you?"

"I believe I would," I replied.

We reached the room in the tower and she lighted two candles on the dressing table.

I did not want her to go yet. I knew I should not sleep well that night.

"Jessamy," I said, "do you like living here with all these people?"

She opened her eyes wide. "But of course I like it. Joel is here."

"But it's like sharing a home, isn't it? There's David and Emerald... . It's two households. You know what I mean."

"Families like this have always lived together. In the old days there were more of them. When Esmond grows up and marries he'll live here with his family."

"And your children too, I suppose."

"Of course. It's tradition."

"And you get on all right with David and Emerald?"

She hesitated a moment. "Yes ... yes ... of course. Why shouldn't I?"

"Methinks you do protest too much. And why shouldn't you, you say? I should think there is every reason why you shouldn't. People don't necessarily have to get on because they are forced to be together. In fact it is more likely that they don't than that they do."

"Oh, Anabel, that's just like you. I can't say that I'm exactly fond of Emerald. She is rather vague and wrapped up in herself. It's being as she is. It's so dreadful. She was always riding before. It can't be very pleasant for her, can it? And David ... well, I don't altogether understand him. He's too clever for me. He says sharp things ... sometimes... ."

"Sharp things?"

"Wounding things. He and Joel don't get on well. Brothers don't always, do they? Sometimes I think David is jealous of Joel."

"Jealous! Why? Has he designs on you?"

"Of course not. But there is something... . And then ... Elizabeth."

"She seems a very self-contained young woman."

"She's wonderful with Emerald. I think David is very grateful to her for what she does for Emerald. And she of course is so glad to be here. You see, she's a widow with a son. He's about eight ... four years or so older than Esmond. He's away at school and she's so grateful that he can come here for his holidays. It solves a big problem for her. Anabel, you do like Joel, don't you?"

"Yes," I said quietly, "I do like him. I like him very much."

She put an arm round me.

"I am glad, Anabel," she said. "So very glad."

The next morning Jessamy took me on a tour of the castle. She told me that Joel had already left for the town.

I was enchanted by everything I saw.

She said we should start at the bottom, which we did, descending a stone spiral staircase with a rope banister to which one had to hold firmly as the stairs were not very wide and narrowed almost to nothing on one side.

The dungeons were horrifying with their little cells, small and airless, many of them without even the tiny barred window.

Jessamy said: "I hate it down here. No one ever comes here ... except when we show people, that's all. Every castle in the old days had its dungeons. There was one Mateland, in the time of Stephen, I believe, when the country was in a turmoil, who used to waylay travelers and hold them here to ransom. His son was even worse. He tortured them."

I shivered. "Let's go and see the rest," I suggested.

"I agree with you. It's horrible. I suggested having the dungeons walled up, but they won't hear of it. Egmont goes purple in the face at the mere mention of it or any alteration to the castle."

"I can understand it in a way. But as for this place ... I should think what happened here is best forgotten."

We mounted the stairs with the aid of a rope banister and were in a stone hall.

"This," explained Jessamy, "is just below the main hall. You ascend that stone staircase and you are in a little passage, and there facing you would be the door to the main hall. This is a sort of crypt. When people die the coffin is kept here for a while."

"It reeks of death," I said.

She nodded. "Look how it is groined with blocks of hard chalk. And just feel these massive pillars."

"Impressive," I said. "This is the very ancient part of the castle, I am sure."

"Yes, it's part of the first structure."

"How grim it must have been to have lived in those days."

I could not get the dungeons out of my mind. I was sure I should think of them even when I went upstairs to my luxurious room.

We went back to the hall where Jessamy pointed out the fine carved stonework and truly magnificent timbers in the vaulted roof. She showed me the exquisite linenfold which had been put in when Queen Elizabeth visited the castle and the intricate carvings at the foot of the minstrels' gallery which depicted scenes from the Bible. Then we went to the long gallery where I studied pictures of ancient and modern Matelands. It was interesting to see Grandfather Egmont there and to have some indication of the man I was to meet. He was remarkably like David. He had the same thick brows and penetrating eyes. There was a picture of Joel and one of David.

"The little boy has not yet been painted," I said.

"No. They are not painted until they are twenty-one."

"How exciting to be able to look back to your ancestors all those years. Oh, Jessamy, perhaps your descendants will inherit all this one day."

"It's hardly likely," she said. "First of all I'd have to have the child ... and then of course there's Esmond. His children will inherit. David's the elder."

"Suppose Esmond died ... or didn't marry ... and therefore had no legitimate heirs."

"Oh, don't talk of Esmond's dying! He's the loveliest little boy."

She seemed eager to get out of the picture gallery.

We explored the rest of the house. There was the drawing room, the dining room in which we had eaten last night, the library, the armory, the gun room—I had never seen such a selection of guns—the Elizabeth room, the Adelaide room—both queens had honored the castle with their presence—and there were all the bedrooms. In fact I wondered how anyone ever learned to find his way about the castle.

Finally we came to the nursery and there I made the acquaintance of Esmond. He was, as Jessamy had said, a beautiful little boy. He was sitting in a window seat with Elizabeth Lark-ham and she was reading, pointing to the words with her finger as she did so.

He stood up as we entered. He came towards us and Jessamy said: "This is Esmond. Esmond, this is Miss Campion."

He took my hand and kissed it. It was a charming gesture, and I thought how pretty he was with his dark hair and his fine dark eyes ... undoubtedly a Mateland.

"You're Jessamy's cousin," he stated.

I told him I was and that I was looking at the castle.

"I know," he told me.

Elizabeth laid a hand on his shoulder. "Esmond has been asking about you," she said.

"It's nice of you to be interested," I said to the boy.

"Can you read?" he asked. "This story is about three bears."

"I believe I know it," I said. " "Who's been sitting in my chair?' 'Who's been eating my stew?""

"It wasn't stew. It was porridge," he corrected me solemnly.

"I dare say it changes with the years," I replied. "Stew or porridge, what does it matter?"

"It does matter," he insisted. "Stew's not like porridge."

"Esmond is a stickler for detail," said Elizabeth.

"Am I a stickler?" asked Esmond. "What is a stickler?"

Elizabeth said: "I'll tell you another time. I was just going to take him out," she told us. "It's time for his midmorning walk."

"Not yet," said Esmond.

She held him firmly by the hand.

"You'll have more time to talk to Miss Campion," she said.

"Well, we'll continue with our tour," Jessamy replied.

"It's a fantastic place, isn't it?" Elizabeth looked straight at me, and again I felt that she was summing me up.

I agreed that it was.

"We'll go out to the battlements," Jessamy announced. "I want to show you the stone walk."

"I shall see you later then," I said to Esmond, who nodded and said rather sadly: "It wasn't stew."

Jessamy and I climbed the stone stairs—another of those tricky spiral ones—and were on the battlements.

"Esmond is a very serious little boy," she said. "He should be more with boys of his own age. It's only when Garth and Malcolm are here that he sees other boys. And they are both older than he is."

"I've heard of Garth," I said. "Who is Malcolm?"

"He's a cousin of some sort. His grandfather was Egmont's younger brother. You can work it out. I gather there was some feud between Egmont and his brother. They quarreled or something. Egmont has relented and Malcolm pays periodic visits. I think Egmont likes to regard him as an unlikely but possible heir to the castle. You see, if Esmond were to die and Joel and I had no children, I imagine Malcolm would be the next in line. Malcolm's about Garth's age ... sometimes we have them both here together. It's good for Esmond. Elizabeth is of course devoted to him. I think she's a bit jealous if he takes notice of anyone else."