"Here she is, my dear," he said. "Jessamy's cousin Anabel. I suppose we may call you Anabel? You're part of the family now."

So this was Emerald of the brilliant name. Anyone less like a precious gem I could not imagine. She was pale and her hair was a dusty brown. Her light blue eyes were sunken, and I wondered if she suffered much pain. Her legs were covered in a blue fleecy rug and her thin blue-veined hands lay limply on it.

She smiled at me and her smile was kind.

"We are glad to have you at the castle," she said. "It will be nice for Jessamy. Elizabeth, my dear, come and meet Anabel."

A tall youngish woman had come into the room. I imagined her to be in her late twenties. She was slender, with sleek dark hair parted down the center and brought to a nob at the nape of her neck. She had large rather sleepy blue eyes and full red lips which somehow did not match the rest of her face. Her nose was rather thin, which gave her a shrewish look. It was an interesting face.

She held out her hand and gripped mine tightly.

"We have heard so much of you from Jessamy," she said. "She has been determined that you should come here for a long time."

"We have always been good friends as well as cousins," I said.

Her eyes were assessing me and I imagined there was a glitter of speculation in the sleepy blue eyes.

"Where is Joel?" asked David. "Is he coming?"

"He knew I was coming home today," said Jessamy. "I am sure he will be here."

"I should hope so," said David. "He has not been a husband long enough to stay away. Let us have a drink while we are waiting. I wonder if Miss Anabel would like to sample our Mate-land cup. It's a special brew, I assure you, Miss Anabel."

"Thank you," I said. "I'll try it."

"Don't drink too much of it, Anabel," warned Jessamy. "It's very potent."

"You shouldn't have warned her," said David. "I was hoping to see the gates of restraint opened and the real Anabel emerge."

"I can assure you I'm myself now," I said. "There is no other one to be let out."

He came to stand beside me. I could feel his eyes on me. He made me rather uncomfortable. "Is that so?" he said. "I felt from the first that you were a very unusual lady."

Elizabeth Larkham brought me a pewter goblet in which was the Mateland cup.

"I'm sure you'll like it," she said. "David brews it himself. He won't let anyone else."

"Only I have the magic formula," he said, looking into my eyes.

"I shall be interested to try it," I said, and put it to my lips.

"I hang on your words," he said.

"It's good ... very good."

"Then drink up and have another."

"I have been warned," I reminded him.

He grimaced and Jessamy came to my side. "I never drink much of it," she said.

"I won't either."

She smiled at me, a little anxiously. Dear Jessamy, I thought. She deserves everything of the best. A castle, a husband who loves her and whom she loves. And surely everyone must love Jessamy.

As we were going in to dinner Joel arrived.

He took my hand and I felt a tremor of excitement run through me. We seemed to stand facing each other for longer than was customary in such circumstances, but perhaps that was my imagination.

"I'm so glad you came," he said.

"Thank you. I'm glad to be here."

Then we went in to dinner. I was seated beside him and I had rarely felt so excited in the whole of my life.

"I hope there were no complications," he said.

For a moment I was bemused and he went on: "The fall. Your ankle ... your wrist ..."

"Oh no. None whatsoever." And then I thought: That's not true. There were complications, but not the kind I could mention because I don't think anything is ever going to be quite the same again.

He said to the rest of the company: "The first time I met Miss Campion she was lying on the altar steps."

"There is some significance in that surely," said David.

"I was surrounded by roses."

"A kind of sacrificial lamb?"

"Hardly. I was wearing a big overall. You see, I was about to decorate the altar."

"Ah, bent on good works."

"For Jessamy's wedding," I went on.

"The flowers were lovely," cried Jessamy. "I'll never forget the scent of those roses."

"I am sure they were most artistically arranged," said David.

"They were, but not by me. My talent in that direction is nil."

"But you are very good at falling down altar steps since you came through the ordeal without damage to ankle or wrist."

I could not understand David Mateland. That he was obviously interested in me was a fact which made me feel rather uncomfortable. He seemed eager to be friendly and yet at the same time there was something mocking in his attitude.

"I hope you will be comfortable in the castle," said Emerald.

"I am going to make sure of that," said Jessamy.

"It's a little drafty," Emerald remarked. "Not so bad at this time of the year."

"They say that in the winter when the wind blows from the east you could sail a battleship through our corridors," added David.

"It's not quite as bad as that," Joel told me, leaning towards me and laying a hand lightly on my arm. "Moreover, it's not winter yet."

"I remember when I first came here," said Emerald, "I thought it was quite bleak. I came from Cornwall, Anabel, which is a more benign climate."

"But damp," put in Elizabeth Larkham. "I prefer it here."

"Oh, Elizabeth loves the place and everything connected with it."

"I just think I am lucky to be here," said Elizabeth to me. "Emerald is so good to me. And it is such a relief to have my son here during school holidays."

"Dear Elizabeth," murmured Emerald.

The conversation went on in that vein during the meal. I was conscious of a certain tension in the atmosphere. The setting was so strange to me. To be dining in a room with tapestries on the walls and a suit of armor in the corner, to be in a medieval castle with strangers ... all except Jessamy—it was certainly a new venue for me. But it was more than that. I had the feeling that these people were leading complicated lives which were not as they seemed to be.

There was Emerald in her chair, assiduously cared for by Elizabeth Larkham, who was almost catlike in her movements, with those strange eyes which seemed so sleepy and yet to take in all that was going on. Then there was David. I felt I understood him a little better than the others. It was clear that he was a man who liked the company of women. His glances were too bold for my comfort; and there was a hint of cruelty in his mouth and this, I think, showed itself in his conversation. There was a touch of asperity in his words, and I could believe that he derived a certain pleasure in saying wounding things. Perhaps it was wrong to make hasty judgments; but I had always done that. How many times had I been obliged to adjust my assessment of someone! He had an invalid wife and that must be a trial to a man of his—or so I imagined—sensual nature. But foremost in my thoughts was Joel. Joel was an enigma. He betrayed little. He seemed apart from the others. He was a doctor and it seemed strange to find a doctor pursuing his profession in a place like this. He had his rooms in the town, which I gathered was about two miles from the castle. According to Jessamy, he was dedicated to his work, and sometimes he stayed in his place in the town. I could not quite understand why he had married Jessamy.

Again I was jumping to conclusions. Who can know what it is that attracts people to each other? That Jessamy adored him was plain and most men enjoy being adored. When he was present I found my attention was focused on him. I was conscious of every time he spoke to me, every time he looked my way; and I do not think I imagined that he did that rather often.

He excited me. I wanted to be near him. I wanted to attract his attention, to talk to him, to find out everything about him. I wanted to know what it had been like to have been born into a castle, to have lived one's life in a place like this, to be brought up with brother David. I was obsessed by him.

We went into a small parlor to drink coffee. There was a great deal of talk. Tomorrow I was to be introduced to Grandfather Egmont and I should meet young Esmond. He was four years old and, I learned, had been born a year before Emerald's accident.

At ten o'clock Jessamy said she would take me to my room. She said she was tired after the journey and she was sure I must be. Tomorrow she would show me the castle.

I said good night and Jessamy took me to my room, lighting me up the stairs with a candle in a brass candlestick.

I felt it was rather eerie walking up that staircase following Jessamy. Along the gallery we went. The pictures looked different in candlelight and one could imagine they were living people who looked down on us.

"We couldn't very well have gaslight in the castle," said Jessamy. "It would be rather incongruous, wouldn't it?"

I agreed.

"On some occasions we have flares in the main hall. I can tell you they look very fine."

"I am sure they do. Jessamy, you love your castle, don't you?"

"Yes. Wouldn't you?"

"I believe I would," I replied.

We reached the room in the tower and she lighted two candles on the dressing table.

I did not want her to go yet. I knew I should not sleep well that night.

"Jessamy," I said, "do you like living here with all these people?"

She opened her eyes wide. "But of course I like it. Joel is here."

"But it's like sharing a home, isn't it? There's David and Emerald... . It's two households. You know what I mean."

"Families like this have always lived together. In the old days there were more of them. When Esmond grows up and marries he'll live here with his family."

"And your children too, I suppose."

"Of course. It's tradition."

"And you get on all right with David and Emerald?"

She hesitated a moment. "Yes ... yes ... of course. Why shouldn't I?"

"Methinks you do protest too much. And why shouldn't you, you say? I should think there is every reason why you shouldn't. People don't necessarily have to get on because they are forced to be together. In fact it is more likely that they don't than that they do."

"Oh, Anabel, that's just like you. I can't say that I'm exactly fond of Emerald. She is rather vague and wrapped up in herself. It's being as she is. It's so dreadful. She was always riding before. It can't be very pleasant for her, can it? And David ... well, I don't altogether understand him. He's too clever for me. He says sharp things ... sometimes... ."

"Sharp things?"

"Wounding things. He and Joel don't get on well. Brothers don't always, do they? Sometimes I think David is jealous of Joel."

"Jealous! Why? Has he designs on you?"

"Of course not. But there is something... . And then ... Elizabeth."

"She seems a very self-contained young woman."

"She's wonderful with Emerald. I think David is very grateful to her for what she does for Emerald. And she of course is so glad to be here. You see, she's a widow with a son. He's about eight ... four years or so older than Esmond. He's away at school and she's so grateful that he can come here for his holidays. It solves a big problem for her. Anabel, you do like Joel, don't you?"

"Yes," I said quietly, "I do like him. I like him very much."

She put an arm round me.

"I am glad, Anabel," she said. "So very glad."

The next morning Jessamy took me on a tour of the castle. She told me that Joel had already left for the town.

I was enchanted by everything I saw.

She said we should start at the bottom, which we did, descending a stone spiral staircase with a rope banister to which one had to hold firmly as the stairs were not very wide and narrowed almost to nothing on one side.

The dungeons were horrifying with their little cells, small and airless, many of them without even the tiny barred window.

Jessamy said: "I hate it down here. No one ever comes here ... except when we show people, that's all. Every castle in the old days had its dungeons. There was one Mateland, in the time of Stephen, I believe, when the country was in a turmoil, who used to waylay travelers and hold them here to ransom. His son was even worse. He tortured them."