“I am sure he would be most distressed if you did. I know it sounds ridiculous, but if you came to the house the shock would be so great for him that I would fear the consequences. He is really deeply devoted to this woman and I am sure it is only some inborn sense of duty to his family which makes him refrain from leaving everything to her. He relies on her. It is incongruous and if I hadn’t seen it for myself I should not have believed it. Lord Eversleigh trusts me to do this for him and I must do it in the way he wishes.”

Mr. Rosen looked grave.

“How soon could you get him to sign the will and return it to me?”

“I was driven into town by a neighbor. If I could get him with one of his servants to Lord Eversleigh’s room and the will was signed, then I could bring it back to you tomorrow.”

“Could you do this?”

“I could try.”

“Very well … though it is unorthodox. I don’t like it at all. You say he has signed something for this woman. She must be quite unscrupulous. Lord Eversleigh could be in a dangerous situation.”

“You mean that she …” I was looking at him in horror and he said gravely: “I do not say that she would shorten his life. But considering the circumstances … with someone of that kind … not of very high morals, we must admit … it could be dangerous.” He looked at me quizzically. “It is a very strange case. I have from time to time heard rumors of what is going on at the Court. It was never so in the old days. Everything was in such perfect order. You as a member of the family know that. You understand that the will must be signed by two witnesses who are not beneficiaries. You are one, you know that, I am sure.”

“Yes, Lord Eversleigh told me.”

“As the daughter of Lady Clavering you are in the line of succession, as it were, and I understand it is Lord Eversleigh’s desire that you should inherit the estate. That is natural … it is the only course. Your ancestors would rise in their graves if it should pass to that vulgar creature.”

“It won’t,” I said. “I will get the will signed and returned to you tomorrow,”

Mr. Rosen senior shook his head doubtfully. It was all very unethical in his view and I believe he was contemplating even then returning with me and making sure that the will was effectively dealt with.

However, I did impress on him that in view of Uncle Carl’s trust in me I must try to do it as he wished. I left him and went back to the inn. There I told Gerard what had happened and he agreed with me that we should return immediately without waiting for refreshment. He would get his valet or one of his trusted servants and we would get the will signed before Jessie’s return.

There was just time to do it—if we made haste and were lucky.

It was very exciting driving back at full speed and exhilarating too as Gerard talked all the time of how best we could get the will signed quickly and back to the solicitor. It was wonderful the way in which he had made my problem his.

I had thought he dramatized the situation in order to amuse me but he was beginning to convince me that it could be something far removed from a joke: an unscrupulous woman and her lover with a doting old man in their grasp, who, although he was not senile, was really a little unbalanced surely and ready to pay too dearly for peace and comfort in his last days.

Gerard took a watch from his pocket. He said: “We could be back at Enderby just before half past three. I could get my man and we’d go straight to the Court. We’ll sneak upstairs and get the will signed and witnessed, and then if you would trust me I would take it back to the solicitors immediately.”

“I could take it tomorrow.”

“Well, so we could. But in view of the people in that house … I mean the kind of people they are … the will should be in the solicitor’s hands and I don’t like the idea of your having it in that house.”

“Do you think they would come and murder me to get possession of it?”

“Gad!” he said. “That would be monstrous. I couldn’t let that happen. I would never be happy again for the rest of my life.”

I laughed. “You do make the most extravagant statements.”

He was silent. Then he said: “Seriously, I am uneasy. Let’s try it.”

He whipped up the horses and we rattled along to Enderby.

It all happened quickly from then on. It seemed to me a breathtaking mad sort of adventure—different from anything that had ever happened to me before. Gerard took charge and I couldn’t help admiring the speed and efficiency with which he arranged everything.

“You are making a diplomatic incident of it,” I said.

“I am, after all, a diplomat. But I assure you … this is the best and safest way to get this matter settled.”

It was still a quarter of an hour to four o’clock when I took the two men to my uncle’s bedroom. He expressed little surprise when I introduced them and explained why they had come. I produced the will and the necessary signatures were affixed. Gerard rolled the paper up and put it under his arm.

Uncle Carl patted my hand and said: “Clever girl!”

“And now,” said Gerard, “it is for us to get this into town.”

“We must go,” I said, “quickly.”

“Yes,” said Uncle Carl, “before Jessie wakes up.” He was smiling and his eyes danced with excitement. There was a certain mischief in him and for a fleeting moment I wondered whether he had conjured up the whole thing out of a fairly ordinary situation. In the moment I couldn’t believe that even Jessie would hope for an instant that she could inherit Eversleigh Court.

It seemed then that we were all playing a part in some sort of farce which the old man had contrived to make his dull life more exciting.

However, we must continue with it, so we took our leave and went silently down the stairs.

As we came into the hall there was a movement on the stairs. I turned sharply. Evalina was coming down.

“Oh?” she cried. “Have we visitors?”

“This is the housekeeper’s daughter,” I said to Gerard.

Evalina had run up to us and was smiling innocently at Gerard.

He bowed and turned away and I led them out of the house.

I saw them into the carriage and went back into the house. Evalina was still in the hall.

“I didn’t know we had callers,” she said. “I know who they are. They’re from Enderby.”

I went past her. She was looking at me curiously, as though she was waiting for an explanation. I was determined not to give her one. It was so impertinent for the housekeeper’s daughter to interrogate me about callers.

I went to my room and to the window. I saw that Jessie was just returning to the house. Evalina would tell her about the callers. She might be suspicious because she was very shrewd. But by this time Gerard would be on his way to the solicitors.

At supper that night there was a faint atmosphere of suspicion which I detected immediately. Jessie ate with her usual gusto then she smiled at me ingratiatingly and said: “Evalina said them people from Enderby called today.”

“Just being neighborly,” I said.

“They never called before.”

“Oh?”

“I reckon they heard you was here. They never called on Lordy before.”

I lifted my shoulders.

Evalina said: “One of them was a fine-looking man.”

“H’m,” I murmured.

She was wary: she was watchful: I could see she was puzzled and did not like the idea of callers.

I escaped to my room immediately after the meal. I wondered whether Gerard had deposited the will with Messrs. Rosen, Stead and Rosen. If he had my mission was accomplished. It was a comfort to think that the documents would be safe at the solicitors’ and my responsibility was over.

But I couldn’t rest. I had an eerie feeling that there was something rather sinister building up in this house, that Uncle Carl was aware of it in a way and that he encouraged it. Perhaps he found life dull, confined to his room as he was; perhaps he wanted dramatic things to happen.

I was getting fanciful, and I felt an irresistible desire to get out of the house. I put on my cloak and went out. My steps took me toward Enderby. I wanted to see Gerard, to make sure that he had deposited the will at the solicitors’. If I had his word for this I would sleep more easily.

I paused awhile at the haunted patch looking beyond the broken pales to that spot where he had seemed to rise up from the earth before I went on toward the house. There was definitely something eerie about it. It had such a repelling air that I almost turned and fled. The wind in the trees seemed to be moaning something. If I listened and let loose my imagination I could believe they were saying Go away. I had a feeling then that I should go away and I could go into town tomorrow morning and see Mr. Rosen. I could ascertain whether the will had been deposited with them and if it had been, plan to go home at once, my mission accomplished. Should I feel sorry for Uncle Carl in such a situation? I thought not. After all it was of his own making and he clearly wanted it as it was.

He could turn out both Jessie and Amos Carew if he wanted to. The agent could be replaced; and as for Jessie, well, I am sure it would not be difficult to find a good hardworking housekeeper who would run the house and servants as it used to be in the days of my great-grandparents.

While I was musing thus the door opened and a man came out.

He looked surprised to see me and I said quickly: “I wondered if Monsieur Gerard d’Aubigné was at home.”

He said he would inquire and, taking me into the hall, went away.

Enderby certainly had what people called atmosphere. One was aware of it on taking the first step inside the place. The great hall with its vaulted ceiling and minstrels’ gallery at one end and the screens to the kitchen at the other seemed full of shadows. I remembered that it had always looked like that. It was as though there were ghosts waiting to spring out. One was aware of an impending sense of doom in the house. Happiness never stayed there long, I had heard someone say. I knew my mother’s childhood had not been an unhappy one; but that seemed to be the only period when people seemed to live normal lives within those walls.

While I brooded thus Gerard came down the stairs. He ran when he saw me and came toward me, his hands outstretched. He took mine and kissed first one then the other.

“I was expecting you,” he said.

“Expecting me?”

“Yes, you wanted to make sure, didn’t you? You were tormented with doubts. Should you have trusted me with such a mission? Oh … Zipporah, have I not shown you that I will serve you with my life if need be?”

“How you do love to make everything dramatic. Did you deliver the will?”

“To Mr. Rosen senior himself. He studied it, approved and has it in his safekeeping.”

“Oh …thank you.”

He smiled at me quizzically. “You can trust me, you know.”

“I know it really. I am just a little anxious. I know we were laughing about it all … but I’ve suddenly felt that it is not such a laughing matter.”

“You will have some refreshment?”

“No. I have just had supper. I must get back now.”

“Oh, stay awhile.” He had taken my hand and was drawing me toward him.

I felt the house beckoning me … almost as though it were waiting, drawing me in … and I was afraid. All I had ever heard about Enderby seemed to be warning me. Was it a premonition? Perhaps.

“No,” I said firmly. “I just wanted to make sure nothing had gone wrong.”

He looked disappointed but resigned. “I will walk back with you,” he said.

We came out of the house together and I could not suppress a feeling of relief as we walked away from it.

It was growing dark now. It reminded me of the first time we had met. We passed the haunted patch and he pressed my arm.

“A wonderful moment,” he said. “That first encounter of ours.”

“I don’t know how to thank you for what you have done for me.”

“There is no need for thanks. I would willingly do anything you asked me.”

“That is being a little rash. How do you know what I might ask?”

“The more difficult the request the more I should enjoy it.”

“I suppose at the French court you are well versed in extravagant conversation.”

“Perhaps, but what I say to you, I mean.”

“Well, I am grateful. And I think that now my mission is accomplished I should go home.”

“Please don’t say that,” he said.

“I must go.”

“Not yet. I have a feeling that this matter is not yet completed.”