"I am grateful," said Francine with a touch of irony. "It's very gracious of him."

Aunt Grace hesitated. "He will have something to say to you when you come down."

She was looking speculatively at Francine and my heart sank. I knew what our grandfather would have to say. After all, Francine's seventeenth birthday was not far away. Seventeen was a mature age ... mature enough for marriage.

What should we do?

Aunt Grace's efforts to make the prospect sound pleasant failed miserably. She knew what it meant to suffer from our grandfather's efforts to rule our lives.

"I won't do it," said Francine emphatically when Aunt Grace had gone. "Nothing would induce me. Now we had better start thinking of a way out."

The subject lay heavily upon us when next day Daisy came in to us in a twitter of excitement.

"I was leaning over the fence down at the cottage with Jenny Brakes when I saw them arriving... ."

Jenny Brakes occupied the cottage next to the Emmses'; the other cottages were occupied by gardeners who worked at the Manor.

"You can imagine I was all ears and eyes. They'd all come from the station ... just like they did before. I called out to Ma and out she came and we stood there ... watching. They all went into Granter's. Some of the servants, they was ... and there'll be more coming now. It's all set for the transformation scene, that's what it is. We're in for a bit of fun. High jinks up at the Grange."

We forgot what our grandfather was going to suggest to Francine when she appeared downstairs. We talked excitedly with Daisy and she told us what had happened on other occasions when the exotic inhabitants returned to Granter's Grange.

Strangers at the Grange

From that time there was change.

Francine could no longer cling to the refuge of our room and must appear at meals. Our grandfather welcomed her with the faintest glow of warmth in his eyes. Cousin Arthur, though restrained, was clearly pleased to see her back. As for Aunt Grace, she still wore that bemused look which had settled on her since Charles Daventry had carried Francine into the hall and I noticed that she wore a rather pretty lace collar on her dress.

The tension was rising and it was most noticeable in our grandfather, who had become almost benign. He was as near affectionate towards Francine as he could possibly be. He came upon her once in the gardens and said he would walk with her and she told me afterwards that he talked all the time about the estate, how vast it was, how profitable and how it had been Ewell land for centuries. One morning he said he wished her to ride with him to see some of the tenants and they went off in his carriage, Cousin Arthur accompanying them; they took wine at the house of Mr. Anderson the agent who, said Francine, was ominously polite to her. "In fact," she said, "the situation is becoming more ominous every day. Soon I shall be presented with the royal command. What am I going to do, Pippa?"

I had no suggestion to offer, though we had discussed the matter endlessly. Francine was making up her mind that there was only one thing to do and that was run away. That was an easy answer, but the great problem was: Where to?

Our grandmother sensed the growing tension, of which she seemed more aware than sighted people. "Something will turn up, my dear," she said. "Be true to yourself."

Daisy burst into our room one day. She no longer behaved as a servant with us. We were like conspirators. Daisy was no respecter of persons; she was impetuous, affectionate and good-natured. She was resourceful too. Continually in trouble with the housekeeper, Mrs. Greaves, and threatened with dismissal, she was never downcast.

"What is to be, will be," she said with feeling. "And something would always turn up," she added as our grandmother had. She was full of wise sayings and they were all optimistic. "Wait and see. There's something round the corner. The Good Lord will take care of you." I did point out to her once that the only time she mentioned the Good Lord was in his capacity to take care of wayward sinners. "He won't mind," she retorted. "Hell say it's only that Daise."

She was in a state of great excitement. "Hans is back," she told us.

"Hans of the straying hands," asked Francine.

"Oh, he's all that ... worse than he ever was, if you ask me. Is he glad to see me!"

"Tom won't be pleased," I said.

"Oh Tom's got nothing to complain of, I promise you."

"Don't promise us, promise him," laughed Francine. And we were all laughing together. We were glad to forget the shadow looming over us, if only temporarily.

"There'll be grand doings up there, Hans says. This Baron's coming. He's ever so important. He's of their branch of the family. The others, of course, are against it."

"What are you talking about, Daisy?" demanded Francine.

"Well, Hans talks a bit about it, you know."

"Don't become involved in Germanic politics, Daisy," said Francine with mock seriousness. "I hear they are very involved."

"Hans says he'll show us over the house. I told him you'd like to see it. That'll be before they arrive. It'll have to be soon. They're due any day."

"It's nice to be able to send out our agents," said Francine.

"You get away with you," retorted Daisy.

A few days later she told us we could go that afternoon because the family was due to arrive the next day. An air of excitement prevailed throughout the morning. I don't know how we got through our lessons without Miss Elton's suspecting that something was afoot. It was necessary to slip out quietly and we met Daisy, as we had arranged, at her mother's cottage.

"We'll have to go round by the stables," she told us. "Hans says most of the servants will be taking a nap at this time. They do, you know." Daisy clicked her tongue. "Foreigners!" she added.

"Some people do here, you know," said Francine, who could never resist stating a truth.

"Well, they do regular. And Hans says it's safe. He says even if some of them's about, it don't matter. They know who you are, and they'll like to see you there. Hans says that Miss France is schon ... or something like that. When I said you wanted to see the house he kissed his hand and threw it out, just as though he meant it for you. He's a one, he is. Are you ready?"

Daisy, like Francine, always liked to add a touch of drama to a situation, and I thought Daisy's attitude to life was just what Francine needed at this time and I was grateful to her.

When we reached the stables at Granter's Grange, Hans was waiting for us. He clicked his heels and bowed from the waist and it was obvious from the way he looked at Francine that he admired her. When she addressed him in German he was delighted. He was very fair, almost white-haired, and his eyes had a startled look because his eyebrows and lashes were so fair they were scarcely perceptible. His skin was fresh, his teeth good and his smile merry.

"The Baron will be coming," he said. "It's a very important visit."

Daisy insisted that this should be translated for her benefit and Francine asked how long the Baron would stay.

Hans lifted his shoulders. "It is not known," he answered. "So much depends ..." he said in English with a strong foreign accent. "We are not sure. There has been ..."

"Not another of them coops?" suggested Daisy.

"Oh ... a coup ... yes. You could say."

"They're always having them," said Daisy, who was enjoying her role.

"Come," went on Hans. We followed and he led the way through a side door. We were in a dark passage and followed him into a large kitchen with tiled floor and benches round two sides, under which were arches in which stood baskets containing vegetables and food of various kinds-all strange to us. On a chair was a fat man fast asleep.

Hans held his hands to his lips and we tiptoed through.

We were in a lofty and beautifully panelled hall. There was an enormous fireplace at one end with seats on either side, and I noticed very fine linenfold around it. In the centre of the hall was a massive oak table on which stood a candelabrum. There were several wooden seats against the wall and on these walls weapons which must have been used by our ancestors, since this was the home of our grandmother and it had obviously been sold furnished to the foreigners. "The great hall," announced Hans.

"It's a lovely old house," remarked Francine. "Very different from Greystone Manor. Do you feel it, Pippa? There isn't that air of gloom."

"It's our dark furniture," I said.

"It's our grandfather," added Francine.

"There is the staircase," Hans went on. "There are steps down to the chapel. We do not use that. So we will go up. Here is the dining salon."

It was a beautiful room with three large leaded windows. On the big table stood a candelabrum similar to that in the hall; there were tapestries on the walls in blues and cream colours and they matched the tapestry on the chairs.

"It's beautiful," breathed Francine.

"I can understand our grandfather's wanting to buy it," I murmured.

"I'm glad he didn't," said Francine vehemently. "He would have made it as gloomy as the Manor. Now it's a wonderful house. Do you sense it, Pippa? Something in the air?"

Dear Francine, she was really very worried. She was looking for some miracle and she was getting so depressed that she was looking in the most unlikely places.

We mounted some more stairs. "It is here that they come to drink the wine."

"It's where the ladies retire after dinner," said Francine, "when they leave the men at the table with their port."

There were stairs leading out of an archway and we were in a corridor. We went along this, past several doors. Hans lifted a finger to warn us to be quiet. Daisy giggled softly and I wanted to do the same. The fact that we were trespassing could only add to the excitement. I was longing to tell my grandmother that we had seen her old home.

We mounted more steps to the solarium, which was not unlike the one at Greystone. There were windows on each side and my imagination peopled it with glamorous men and women in splendid clothes talking excitedly about what was happening in their country. In the solarium was a hole in the wall, and so discreetly did it merge into the stone that I should not have known it was there if Hans had not pointed it out to us.

"From it you can look down into the hall," he explained. "On the other side is another. You can look down onto the chapel. Very good idea. You can see who comes... ."

"How fascinating!" cried Francine. "Do you remember, our grandmother talked of the Peeps. That's what she called them. She said they sometimes did not go down to the chapel service but watched from the solarium."

Hans was suddenly alert. He stood very still, his head on one side, and the colour slowly drained away from his face.

"What's wrong?" asked Daisy.

"I can hear carriage wheels. Oh, no—no. This must be—"

He ran swiftly to the window and putting his hands to his head looked as though he were about to tear out his hair.

"Oh, what shall we do? They have come. It is too soon. It should be tomorrow. What shall I do with you?"

"Don't worry about us," said Daisy.

"I must go," cried Hans in desperation. "I must be there. The whole staff is assembling. I must not be missing—"

"What should we do?" asked Francine.

"You stay... . You hide... ." He looked about him. "See those curtains? Hide behind them if anyone comes. I will get you out as soon as I can. I will free you. But now ... I must go."

"You go," said Daisy soothingly. "We'll be all right. Leave it to us."

Hans nodded and stumbled out of the room.

Daisy was shaking with laughter. "Well, here's a nice kettle of fish!" she said.

"What will they think of us?" said Francine. "We've no right to be here. We shouldn't have come."

"No use crying over spilt milk, Miss France. No good shutting the stable door when the horse is stolen. Hans will get us out. He's clever, Hans is."

The house, which had been quiet before, was now alive with the sound of the bustle of important arrivals. Daisy tiptoed to the Peep and beckoned to us.

The hall was full of people. The fat cook whom we had seen slumbering in the kitchen now wore a splendid white coat and a tall white hat and gloves. He was standing at the head of a line and opposite him was a woman of very proud bearing whose bodice sparkled with black jet.