”While I am wanted, I am here. When you are older you will have a husband and children … and grand’meres … they are not then of such importance. Never mind. It is natural and right that this should be so. But for the time… we are together, eh? And while I am with you I will watch over you … and you will tell me when you are afraid. I know that in time you are going to be happy. I want you to have all your mother missed, She was thoughtlessly happy … too trusting. Well, that is in the past and this is the present, and we must live in that.”

I woke up next morning with a terrible fear for a moment that I was in the mausoleum. Then the familiar objects in my room began to take shape. Grand’mere came to my bed.

“You have had a good night’s sleep,” she said.

“You’ve been here all the time.”

“I was quite comfortable dozing in the chair. Now I am going to get you something nice and soothing. Some porridge, I think … a little bread and butter. Mrs. Dillon suggested the porridge. She said it was soothing. They are all very anxious to help. Clarkson is annoyed because Charles took the key without asking him for it.”

I ate the breakfast and said I wanted to get up but Grand’mere thought I should rest for a while.

“You were frozen to the marrow. I don’t want you catching a cold.”

I felt limp and unreal and was not averse to agreeing to stay in bed. She brought me Jane Eyre to read. I had read it before but I had enjoyed it so much and always felt so sorry for Jane that it made me feel how fortunate I was.

I told Grand’mere that she must not sit with me all day. It made me feel like an invalid, and if she were in the workroom, 1 knew that she was close.

“You’ve had a big shock,” she said. “I feel that is more to be considered than the cold you endured in that place. You were there for three hours. Enough to chill anyone’s bones … but the fact of your being there was probably the worst. So now you will rest.”

Cassie came to see me. She stood by my bed looking at me with a kind of wondering tenderness.

“It’s all right, Cassie,” I said. “I’m not there now.”

“I can’t tell you how I felt when I heard that you were there for three hours. I should have died.”

“I thought I was going to die there.”

“Your hair hasn’t changed a bit.” She was peering at me, “There’s no white … and it should show … your being so dark.”

“I think I’m getting over it now … though I dreamed of it last night quite a lot and when I woke up I had a terrible feeling that I might still be there.”

“I can imagine nothing more horrible.”

“There are more horrible things.”

“You are very brave, Lenore.”

“You should have seen me shivering … thinking of all sorts of horrors … watching for the ghosts … I was far from brave.”

“There has been a lot of trouble,” she said. “It has been terrible. Mama is most distressed. She is in her room with the curtains drawn and no one but Miss Logan is to go near her.”

”What happened then?”

“Drake … and Charles … they fought. It was all about you. Drake got Charles on the ground and made him tell about locking you in the mausoleum. Charles said it was his affair and he was only teaching you a lesson. You needed to be taken down a peg or two because you gave yourself too many airs for a servant.

”Drake shouted at him and said he was a cad … and worse than that. He said he had sent that stable boy to get you in the place so that he could lock you in. Charles said he didn’t deny it and what business was it of Drake’s? Drake said it was every decent-minded person’s business and as he was so fond of giving lessons he was going to get one himself. We couldn’t believe it. They were quite different from what they are normally. Drake being bigger than Charles was able to pick him up as though he were a dog, and he just shook him. At the end he threw him into the lake. Julia was crying. I was near to it. I have never seen anything like it.”

“What about Charles in the lake?”

“He walked out. He wasn’t very far in but by that time Drake had gone back to the house. He packed his bag and presented himself to Mama and said he had to leave. He was called away suddenly. Mama was in a terrible state. But, of course, she had to say goodbye to Drake, and he came out and asked one of the stablemen to drive him to the station … and then he was gone.”

“How … awful! What about Charles?”

“He’s going tonight. He won’t say where … except that he is going to stay with a friend and he will go straight on from there to the University.”

“So … they’ve both gone … and it was all because of me.”

”Drake couldn’t stay in a house where he had had such a fight with his host. As for Charles, perhaps he is ashamed of what happened. Philip is very worried about you.”

“Philip has always been kind to me.”

“I think he will be along soon. He wanted to see you last night but Madame Cleremont said it was best you were not disturbed.”

“What a dreadful end to the holiday!”

“I don’t suppose anything like this has ever happened before, do you?”

“I should think it would be very rare.”

When she left me I lay back thinking about Drake coming into the mausoleum, picking me up and bringing me back to the house. I should probably never see him again. He certainly would not come to The Silk House as Charles’s guest. They must hate each other. I felt a mingling of feelings. I was gratified that he had defended me; it was almost like fighting in the lists or in a duel. It made me feel important and after the humiliation Charles had inflicted on me, I needed that. But I was sorry that I should not see Drake again.

Philip came to see me.

“My dear Lenore,” he said, “this is most upsetting. What a terrible time you had!”

“It is good of you to come to see me,” I answered. “You might have felt you didn’t want to after all the trouble this has caused.”

”You’ve heard then about Drake?”

“Cassie told me. …”

“I ‘m so ashamed of my brother, Lenore.”

“I always knew he was not as kind as you are.”

“I think he is rather arrogant… going through a phase just now. He wants to assert himself. I’m sure it will pass. He is not such a bad sort really.”

I smiled at Philip. He was one of those people who mean well towards the whole world and think everyone else is like themselves.

“How are you feeling now?”

“I’m being cosseted by Grand’mere, and everyone seems to be very kind. Even Mrs. Dillon said I must eat porridge.”

He laughed, then he was sober. “It must have been very frightening for you.”

“It was. And I should be there now if it wasn’t for Willie and Pepper.”

“Good for Willie. I suppose Drake felt he couldn’t stay after such a violent quarrel with Charles.”

”And Charles is going, too.”

“He’s going this evening.”

“I’m afraid I’ve broken up the party.”

“Charles did that by behaving like a brute. I’m not surprised that Drake was angry with him and gave vent to his anger, too.”

“You can imagine how I feel to be the centre of it all.”

“The centre of it is Charles’s beastly vanity. He’s had a big lesson.”

”But Drake has been driven away.”

“He wouldn’t stay after that. How could he … as Charles’s guest. He’s had a good thrashing and been thrown into the lake. Don’t be afraid of what Charles will do now.

We shan’t see him here for a while, I reckon. All you have to do is get well.”

“I’m not ill… just shaken.”

“It was enough to shake anybody. You’ll be all right in a day or so. I’m going to look after you. Cassie and I have decided we must do that. My father is coming home soon. He wants to talk to us very seriously about the business. He’ll want to talk to Charles as well as to me, of course.”

“But Charles is leaving.”

“I don’t think Charles cares very much about the business, He happens to be the elder, but I am the one my father really wants to discuss things with. I’m going to persuade him to let me finish with my education. I want to go into the business … now.”

“Do you think he will agree?”

”I have an idea he might. He is so pleased that I am interested in it. Charles isn’t in the least and that upsets him. But at least there is one of us.”

It was pleasant talking to him. I liked his enthusiasm and his kindness. There was something very natural about him. When he left me I felt a good deal better. I was glad Charles would be leaving that night and I should not have to see him again perhaps for quite a long time.

I was unprepared for Julia.

After Philip left she came into my room. She looked as if she had been crying and she was very angry. She stood at the foot of my bed glaring at me.

“It’s your fault,” she said. “I thought Drake was going to kill Charles.”

“I’ve heard about it. I’m sorry it happened.”

“You started it.”

”I? I did not ask to be locked in the mausoleum.”

“You told tales. You told Drake. I’ve watched you. You were always trying to get his attention … and you thought this was n good way of doing it.”

“Julia, what are you saying? Do you think I wanted to be locked in that awful place? I was scared almost out of my wits. It was awful… with all those coffins.”

“But Drake came and rescued you, didn’t he? That was what you wanted.”

“He came because Willie heard me there and went to find someone. It just happened that he found Drake.”

“He’s gone and I don’t suppose I shall ever see him again.” Her lips trembled. “We were getting on so well … and you had to spoil it.”