"You speak with such conviction that I ask myself if you have already chosen?"

"Matrimony is not uppermost in my mind, and what I wanted to tell you about was a strange thing that happened during the night."

"Last night? Your first at Rosslyn Manor?"

"Yes. I couldn't sleep."

"Natural enough. Your first night in the grand old mansion. Creaking boards ... dark alcoves ... just the sort of house where ghosts would lurk. Was there not someone who threw herself from one of the towers, and wasn't there that unfortunate girl who was built into the walls?"

"That was in the Devil's Tower."

"Of course. Where Kirk hid when that obnoxious Oates man was prowling around. That was an alarming time, was it not? Well, ghosts have their uses when a place like the Devil's Tower can be used. But what about this nightly adventure?"

"As you've guessed, I could not sleep ... but I dozed after a hile, and then I was awake. Something had startled me. Christobel, someone had come into my room."

"You must have dreamed it."

"No. The door was open. I think someone was there, looking at me. I awoke and whoever it was slipped out by the door and did not close it. I thought I heard a step in the corridor, but when I looked out there was no one there."

"You must have forgotten to close the door completely. It moved and awakened you, and because you were a little overexcited to find yourself in such grand, antique surroundings, you thought someone was there."

"I do not believe that."

"But who would want to inspect you by night, when they would have a good chance of doing so by daylight?"

"I do not know. That is why it was rather mysterious ... a little unsettling."

"Well, whoever it was scuttled off when there was a chance of being discovered. The easiest explanation is that the door was not closed properly. Many things in those old houses are a little faulty. Have they not been in place for many years? Forget it. Go to bed tonight and get some untroubled sleep. Life has become exciting for you. You are acknowledged. Maggie will be delighted, I am sure. You will often have exciting times, I'll swear, because your father will not want to keep you in the country. He will take you to London. I'll swear you will be presented to the King. My dear, dear Kate. You have become very grand. Soon you will not deign to visit my lord's estate manager's wife."

"That will never be so," I said indignantly. "It will always be one of my greatest pleasures."

"Bless you," said Christobel happily. "I know it will."

After I had left Christobel I rode over to Featherston Manor. I was told that Kirk well was working in his office, so I went there. I said: "Kirk, you are busy. It is a difficult time."

"Never too busy to see you, Kate," he said. "Come in and tell me all about it."

"You mean first impressions and so on. Well, it is rather an awe-inspiring place."

"And you are regretting leaving the Dower House?"

"It wouldn't have been the same without Christobel. I have just left her."

"She is very happy," he said. "James is a fine fellow."

"It was wonderful that they met. I saw it coming for some time. Did you?"

"Oh yes, it was obvious. I am so glad." He looked at me a little wistfully. "But of course it has brought about this change for you, though I dare say you would have gone up to Rosslyn Manor at some time ... even if not just yet."

"Yes, it was bound to mean change."

"Oh, Kate, I wish you were not there. It is going to change everything. If your father has plans for you ... I mean, if he is going to take you into grand society ... you will not see very much of your old friends."

"Of course I shall. You, Christobel and James ... you will always be my best friends."

He looked a little sad.

"Don't forget us, will you, Kate?"

"What nonsense! As if I would!" I paused and, because I felt emotional, I went on quickly, "How is everything going here?"

"Do you know, I am beginning to feel gratified. My work has not been in vain. We are becoming ... well, scarcely prosperous, but shall I say, showing signs of improvement."

"That's wonderful. You've worked so hard."

"It is very gratifying. It seems that everything is working according to plan. Then this happens, and you go to Rosslyn Manor, and I'm a little anxious about that."

I laid my hand on his arm, and he took it and kept it firmly in his.

"Don't be," I said. "What are you worried about?"

"That you will change. That you won't be our Kate any more, you'll be a grand lady. Your father will have plans for you."

I laughed.

"Nonsense," I said. "Whatever happens, I shall always be your Kate."

Amy and I were becoming good friends. She confessed to me that she had never been in such a grand place before, and she couldn't believe her ears when she was told she was going to be my maid.

"And when I saw you were only a girl ... beg pardon, Mistress Kate, but you are young."

I laughed. "You thought you were going to have some haughty lady, and found it was someone of your own age who was as new to the house as you were. I had been living at the Dower House for a long time."

"Yes, I know that now. Miss. I did not know it when I was told. Mistress Clancy, the housekeeper, only told me I was to look after his lordship's daughter, and that sounded very grand."

"Well, now you see that there is nothing to be afraid of."

She had in a few days become my friend. She was determined to look after me in every possible way, and I was glad of her.

I felt lonely. My father had gone away; and Luke seemed different. He was obsessed by the house, learning all he could about it. He was often in Sebastian's company. I was a little alarmed, for there were times when I caught a slight resentment in him when his gaze fell on Sebastian. I hoped Sebastian was not aware of it.

From Amy I gleaned certain information about the household— quite different from the kind sought by Luke.

I learned about the people who inhabited the house.

There was an army of servants. It was inevitable with a place of that size. Many of them had been there for years, as their parents had before them. Sebastian had said that Rosslyn Manor was like a village, and I saw now how very right he had been.

Besides the grooms, who lived in the stables which were very extensive, there were the servants who lived in the tower and many others who had cottages on the estate, and most of those who worked in the grounds and gardens. There was also the home farm, which supplied most of the household's needs.

It was from Amy that I learned more about Lady Rosslyn.

I often wondered whether I talked too much of this, but the relationship between Amy and myself was not the usual one between mistress and maid, perhaps because of our ages and the fact that I was no more used to this way of life than she was. In any case, it removed any barrier between us that there might have been.

Everyone knew, of course, of the nature of the relationship between the master and mistress of the house. For years they had lived what was referred to as "separate lives." In such a house it was conveniently possible for there to be two separate households, and it had been thus for many years.

"There is talk about it in the kitchens," said Amy. "It has all come up again because you and Master Luke have come here."

"What do they say about that?" I asked.

"That the mistress don't like it and that she knows ... even though she can't speak much, or if she does, it is only Mistress Galloway who knows what she is saying."

Amy was a little hesitant at first, wondering whether she ought to be talking to me thus, just as I asked myself whether, as my father's daughter, I should be having such conversations with a maid.

But, because we were both young and inexperienced in what should and should not be done, the conversations continued.

I was very eager to know about Lady Rosslyn. I felt she had played an important part in my life. It was simple enough to believe that her relations with her husband had led to my father's entanglement with my mother—and, of course, that concerned my very existence. Moreover, I wanted to know, and I did not care enough about the etiquette of behavior if it were going to bar my way to knowledge.

So I learned by degrees that there had always been this aloof relationship between my father and his wife. They each behaved as though the other did not exist, except on those occasions— traditional functions and so on—when they had to appear together. But that was in the past. There would be no more of those now.

For some years now Mistress Galloway had lived with Lady Rosslyn. She was a cousin. They had been brought up together and were like sisters.

It appeared that Mistress Galloway had become a widow and had been left in straitened circumstances. Lady Rosslyn had invited her to come and live at Rosslyn Manor with her, and this she had done. They were close as two peas in a pod, Amy told me, and always had been. Mistress Galloway made a goddess of Lady Rosslyn, thinking nothing but good of her, and she couldn't abide his lordship, because she blamed him for everything.

"For not having children?" I asked. "I thought that was the main trouble between them."

"Mistress Galloway believes that if he had been a good husband to my lady, it would have been different."

"Perhaps if she had been a good wife to him, he would have been," I defended him.

Amy said: "Mayhap neither of them were what they should be. And to get to this pass! And there his lordship was, leading the sort of life lords live in London ... following His Majesty the King, that is." She stopped and hunched her shoulders.

I smiled. "Everyone knows how it stands with the King," I said.

"Well," said Amy, "it seems to be the way of the world. But Mistress Galloway does not like it and she says it is wrong, and so it seems does my lady. But it is a terrible thing that has happened to her, and it is a blessing, they say in the kitchens, that she has Mistress Galloway to look after her. Her ladyship has been good to Mistress Galloway, for they say it would go hard with her if she had no place to go, and then, of course, she has little Francine with her."

"Who is little Francine?" I wanted to know.

"Oh, Mistress Kate, there is much you don't know about this place. But I suppose it's you just coming here, and you being on his side, and little Francine being on hers."

"I should like to hear about little Francine," I said.

"She's Mistress Galloway's granddaughter. She's not been here long. It was good of Lady Rosslyn to let her come, but then I suppose she would, being fond of Mistress Galloway, and a relation too. Little Francine would be connected with Lady Rosslyn. So it is natural, like. So there she is, up in Lady Rosslyn's part, with her grandmother, you see."

"And you say she came here recently?"

"I don't know quite when. Mistress Kate, being new-come myself. Her mother died, you see, and she was left an orphan. And her being what she is ..."

"What is she. Amy?"

"Strange little thing. Not quite natural. They say it was due to her being dropped when she was a little one."

"Dropped?"

"On her head. Some nursemaid, it was. She seemed all right at the time, but there is something about her ..." Amy frowned and looked into the distance, puzzled.

"What is it about her. Amy?"

"I can't rightly say. It is just that she is not quite like other folk, if you get my meaning."

"I don't really, Amy. In what way is she so different from other folk?"

"I cannot rightly say. It is just the way she looks at you and smiles to herself ... and the way she looks about her, as though she can see something you can't."

"Oh. It sounds rather uncomfortable."

"Yes," said Amy thoughtfully. "You might say that. She goes about quiet, like, and suddenly you find she's there, as though she's come from nowhere and is seeing something you can't see. It's creepy, like."

"I understand."

"Her grandmother thinks the world of her. I've seen them together ... it's the way she looks at her."

I said: "I'll watch for Francine."

I did not have long to wait.

I had been a week at Rosslyn Manor but I had not seen my father since my arrival. I gathered that he was often away and that he spent a great deal of time in London. I guessed there was no need for him to stay in the country. James was the most efficient of managers and it certainly suited him to have no interference from the master so that he could do everything his way. I had long guessed that and Christobel had confirmed it.