“Is anyone there?” I called.

Silence. A frightening silence. I thought to myself: I’m not atone in this tower. I am sure of it. Someone is dose . not far behind me.

Someone who doesn’t answer when I call.

Sometimes I think there is a. guardian angel who dogs our footsteps and warns us of danger. I felt then that I was being urged to watch, that danger was not far behind me.

I ran to the top of the tower. I stood there, leaning over the parapet, gripping the stone with my hands. I looked down below, far below and I thought: Someone is coming up the stairs. I shall be alone here with that person . alone on this tower.

Yes. It was coming. Stealthy footsteps. The creak of the door which led to the last steps. Three more of those steps and then . I stood there clinging to me stones, my heart thundering while I prayed for a miracle.

Then the miracle was there below me. Maud Mathers came into sight with her quick, rather ungainly stride.

I called: “Maud! Maud!’ She stopped and looked about her.

Oh God help me, I prayed. It’s coming dose. Maud was looking up.

“Minta! What are you doing up there?” Hers was the sort of voice which could be heard at the back of the hall when the village put on its miracle play.

“Just looking at the work that’s being done.”

“I’ve brought your gloves. You left them at the vicarage. I thought you might want them.”

I was laughing with relief. I turned and looked over my shoulder.

Nothing. Just nothing! I had experienced a moment of panic and Maud with her common sense had dispelled it.

“I’ll come right down,” I said.

“Wait for me, Maud. I’m coming now.”

I ran down those stairs and there was no sign of anyone. It was fancy, I told myself. The sort of thing that happens to women when they’re pregnant.

I didn’t think of that incident again until some time afterwards.

By the end of January I was certain that I was going to have a child.

Stirling was delighted—perhaps triumphant was the word—and that made me very happy. I realized then that he had become more withdrawn than ever. I began to see less of him. He was constantly with the workmen; he was also buying up land in the neighbourhood. I had the feeling that he wanted to outdo Franklyn in some way, which was ridiculous really because the Wakefields had been at the Park for about a hundred years and however much land Stirling acquired there couldn’t be a question of rivalry.

Lucie cosseted me and was excited about the baby. She wanted to talk about it all the time.

“It will be Druscilla’s niece or nephew. What a complicated household we are!”

I was very amused when I discovered that Bella, the little cat which Nora had given me, was going to have kittens. I had grown very fond of Bella. She was a most unusual cat and Nora assured me that Donna was the same. They followed us as dogs do; they were affectionate and liked nothing so much as to sit in our laps and be stroked. They would purr away and I always smiled when I was at Mercer’s to see Donna behave in exactly the same way as Bella did. And when I knew Bella was going to have kittens I couldn’t resist going over to tell Nora.

I was a little uneasy with Nora nowadays. I hadn’t felt like that before my marriage, but now there seemed a certain barrier between us which might have been of her erecting because it certainly wasn’t of mine.

She was in the greenhouse where she was trying to grow orchids and Donna was sitting on the bench watching her at her work.

“Nora, what do you think?” I cried.

“Bella’s going to have kittens.”

She turned to look at me and laughed and she was how I liked her to be—amused and friendly.

“What a coincidence!” she said.

“You mean … both of us.”

Nora nodded.

“Poor Donna will be piqued when she knows.”

At the mention of her name Donna mewed appreciatively and rubbed herself against Nora’s arm.

“So she’s stolen a march on you, eh?” said Nora to the cat. And to me.

“What will you do with them?”

“Keep one and find a home for the others. I think they’d like one at the vicarage.”

So we went in and Mrs. Glee served coffee in that rather truculent way of hers which amused Nora and was meant to show how much better things were done at Mercer’s that at Whiteladies.

“I’m giving a dinner-party next week,” said Nora.

“You must come, Minta.”

“I’m sure we should love to.”

“It’s going to be a rather special occasion.” She didn’t say what and I didn’t probe. I was sure it was no use in any case. Nora was the sort of person who could not be coaxed into saying what she did not want to.

While we were drinking coffee we heard the sounds of a horse’s hoofs on the stable cobbles.

“It’s Franklyn,” said Nora, looking out of the window.

“He calls in frequently. We enjoy a game of chess together. I think he’s rather lonely since his parents died.”

Franklyn came in looking very distinguished, I thought. I wondered whether there would be an announcement of their engagement and this was what the party was going to be for. One couldn’t tell from either of them. But Franklyn’s frequent visits to Mercer’s seemed significant. After all, I knew him very well and I was sure he was in love with Nora.

I really looked forward to the dinner-party. It seemed to me that it would be such a pleasant rounding off if Nora married Franklyn and we all lived happily ever after.

But on the night of the dinner-party I had a shock. There was no mention of an engagement. Instead Nora told us that this would be one of the last dinner-parties she would give because she had definitely decided to go back to Australia.

Bella was missing. We guessed of course that she had hidden herself away in order to have her kittens, but we had no idea where. Lucie said it was a habit cats had. I was rather worried because I thought she would need food, but, as Lucie said, we shouldn’t worry about her for she would know where to come when she wanted it.

She appeared after a day and night and it was clear that she had had her kittens.

“We’ll have to follow her,” said Lucie, ‘and find out where they are.”

We did, and, to our amazement, Bella led us to the tower. Work had had to stop up there because some special wood was needed and it was hard to obtain. Stirling had said that there could be no makeshift so that part of the work had had to be postponed. The door leading to the tower must have been left open, so Bella had found her way up there.

She had gone right to the top where workmen had left a piece of sacking and on this were four of the loveliest little kittens I had ever seen. They were tawny like Bella and I was enchanted by the little blind things and touched by Bella’s devotion to them. She purred while I admired them but showed her disapproval when I touched them and she was very uneasy if anyone else approached.

“We’d better leave them up there,” said Lucie.

“She won’t like it if they’re moved. She might try to hide them. Cats have been known to do that.”

“I’ll look after them,” I said.

“I shall bring Bella’s food up here myself.”

I went over at once to tell Nora about the kittens and where they’d been found and she said she would be over in a day or so to see them.

I went up the spiral staircase every day and I often thought of that occasion when I had taken fright. The feeling of fear had completely vanished now. The fact that Bella had used the tower for her kittens had made it marvellously normal. I made a habit of going up every morning at about eleven o’clock with a jug of cream for Bella and her food. She expected me and would be delighted each morning when I would inspect the kittens to see how they had progressed.

I was going up one morning when Nora arrived.

“To see the kittens?” I asked.

“You too,” she told me. She had become more friendly since the day I had ridden over and told her about the kittens.

“I was just going to feed them,” I said.

“Come up with me.”

It really seemed as though I had a guardian angel, for I believe that might very well have been the end of me if Nora hadn’t come with me. I put the saucer on the stone ledge as I always did while I poured out the milk. It saved stooping. Nora was standing slightly behind me and as I put the saucer in its place and started to pour out the milk there was a sudden rumble. Nora had caught at my skirts and was clinging to them. The stone ledge on which I had placed the saucer seemed suddenly to crumble. I heard the crash of falling masonry. I didn’t know what had happened because Nora had pulled me backwards with such force that we both fell.

Nora was on her feet first, her face ashen.

“Minta! Are you all right?”

I wasn’t sure. I was too dazed. I could think of nothing but that sudden collapse and myself being hurled forward, Nora with me . down from the topmost point of Whiteladies as the nun had gone long ago.

“The fools!” cried Nora. They should have warned us. That balustrade was unsafe. ” Then she was kneeling beside me.

“Minta …?” I knew she was thinking of my baby. I could feel the movement of the child and I was filled with relief because it was still alive.

“I’ll get help quickly,” went on Nora.

“Stay there. Don’t move.”

I half raised myself when she had gone. Bella was licking her kittens, unaware of the near-tragedy which had just been enacted. I shivered and waited again for my child to let me know that it continued to live. I was afraid to get up lest I did some harm to it and it seemed a long time before Nora came back. Lude was with her, her face strained and anxious.