“No,” she murmured.

“Nothing wrong. He’s here … he’s been here all the time.”

She closed her eyes. Then she opened them very wide and said: “It’s when I look at him … I see him … his little body …”

Her thoughts were jumbled and clearly dropping the doll had unnerved her.

I just said: “Well, everything is all right now.”

She smiled and nodded.

I talked to her for a while until I thought it was time for Lucy’s return. Then I said goodbye and that I would come again soon.

As I came out of the cottage I saw Crispin St. Aubyn. I had not gone far when he was beside me.

“So you have been to the cottage,” he said.

“I think our little subterfuge worked.”

“I don’t think she has completely forgotten.”

“Why do you say that?”

“She seems disturbed.”

“How?” he asked sharply.

“I’m not sure. It was the way she talked.”

“What did she say?”

“Something about his not being there but here.”

“Her mind’s unhinged. You can’t take what she says seriously.”

“No. But there seems to be a pattern to it.”

“What do you mean? A pattern?”

“I mean that what she says one day seems to be linked with what she may say the next.”

“You seem to be a very discerning young lady.”

Young lady! I liked that. Not just the child any more. I felt he would have more respect for a young lady than he would have for a mere child.

“Well, I often go to the House of the Seven Magpies.”

“Where?”

“I mean the Lanes’ house.”

“Why did you call it that?”

“There’s a picture in the nursery …”

“So you named the house after the picture?”

“I think it has a special meaning for Flora.”

“What did you call it?”

“The Seven Magpies. You have been up there in that room. You must have seen it. It’s seven magpies sitting on a wall.”

“What is so special about it?”

“The rhyme. Flora said it came from a book and Lucy cut the picture out and framed it for her. You may know the rhyme about the magpies.

“One for sorrow, two for joy ” and all that. And seven are for a secret which must never be told. Flora knows it. She has said it to me more than once. “

He was silent for a moment. Then in a cool voice he said: “And you think there is something significant about that?”

“Yes, I do. It was the way Flora looked when she told me.”

“Is that why you are so interested?”

“I suppose it is … partly. I am very sorry for Flora. I think there is something worrying her.”

“And you want to find out what it is?”

“I like discovering things.”

“Yes, I see you do. Sometimes though …” He stopped and, as I was obviously waiting for him to go on, he added, “Sometimes it can get you into trouble.”

I was surprised.

“I can’t see …”

“One often does not see trouble coming until it has caught up with one.”

“Is that true or just what people say to the inquisitive?”

“I dare say that in certain circumstances it could be true.”

We had reached The Rowans.

“Goodbye,” he said.

I went in, thinking about him. I hoped all through that holiday that I would see him again and that he might seek me out to talk to me. But he did not. Tamarisk told me that he had gone abroad. I could not help wondering whether Lady Fiona had gone, too.

Soon after that, we went back to school. Our last term had begun. I wondered now and then what was going to happen when we finished. I had been seventeen last May. That was quite a marriageable age. Tamarisk said. She thought there would be a lot of entertaining at St. Aubyn’s and it would all be for the purpose of launching her. Rachel was a little unsure.

There was a certain amount of entertaining at the Bell House now. It had completely changed. In fact, I said to Aunt Sophie, I believed Mrs. Dorian was trying to make everything as different as possible so that she could forget her husband.

Aunt Sophie agreed with that.

Harper’s Green was astounded by the wedding. It was not that of Crispin and Lady Fiona. That had been expected and had not happened.

It was Mrs. Dorian who took a new husband.

This was Archie Grindle - a widower of about fifty who had farmed in the district for many years. He had now given up his farm to his two sons, and was to live in the Bell House with his new wife.

He had a rotund figure, a red face and a booming laugh. He was as different from Mr. Dorian as Rachel’s Aunt Hilda now Mrs. Grindle was from her old self. There was only the stable which was the same and nobody liked to enter it because of grim reminders.

Aunt Hilda continued to wear bright colours and a comb in her hair; she laughed a great deal. And Rachel liked Archie, so that everything was a complete contrast to what it had been before.

But to me the spirit of Mr. Dorian lingered and I wondered what he would think if he knew what was happening in his old home. I should never forget him because I had played a big part in his tragedy.

Aunt Sophie was very amused and glad, for, as she said, Hilda deserved a bit of life after all she had gone through; and now she was taking it with both hands.

The wedding had caused a great deal of stir in the neighbourhood.

“One wedding sparks off another,” prophesied Lily.

But there was still no news of an engagement between Crispin and Lady Fiona.

Schooldays were over and that provided a problem for our respective guardians. Mrs. St. Aubyn did not care to disturb herself greatly in order to launch her daughter into society; Rachel’s aunt had no idea how to; and Aunt Sophie, who had owing to her own youthful experience at Cedar Hall, lacked the means.

Aunt Sophie called a meeting. They must do what circumstances permitted.

While this was going on, I did see Crispin now and then. He noticed me and smiled in a manner which I convinced myself was conspiratorial.

After all, we had had our dramatic encounter, though that was never mentioned, and we had also worked together over the new doll.

I still visited Flora Lane. Lucy was never very welcoming, so I timed my visits to avoid her, reminding myself that it was Flora whom I went to see and she was always glad I came.

At length it was decided that there should be a ball. Aunt Sophie would help to organize it. It would have to be held at St. Aubyn’s, that being the only suitable place and there was actually a ballroom in the house.

Mrs. St. Aubyn was quite interested then. It was like the old days of what Aunt Sophie called “Riotous Living’. We were all excited about it. I guessed Crispin would be there. He would have to be for his sister’s ball although it was really for the three of us.

Lady Fiona’s name had not been mentioned for some time and I believe was forgotten in the neighbourhood. The marriage of Rachel’s aunt and Archie Grindle was the nine days’ wonder at that time.

I was quite often at the Bell House now. It had become a friendly, delightful place. There was only the grim stable to remind me. I believed the others did not think about that as much as I did. The stables were never used because there were no horses at Bell House. Once I went inside, I let the door shut behind me and I stood for some seconds looking up at the rafters. It was horrible. He seemed to materialize. His body was limp . but his eyes looked at me with the same frightening look which had terrified me when I was lying helpless on the ground in Barrow Wood.

I turned and ran out. It was silly. He couldn’t hurt me now. He was dead. He had killed himself because he had been discovered and he could not face living with that.

Shivering, I ran home to The Rowans, promising myself I would never enter that place again. The episode was over, to be forgotten, if that were possible. Crispin had rescued me and we had become friends . of a kind. It was, of course, the affair of Flora’s doll which had done that. But I imagined that he did not dislike me.

Tamarisk had once said that people liked those for whom they had done good turns because every time they looked at them they thought how good they themselves were. Well, he had saved me from something terrible, so perhaps Tamarisk was right and when he saw me he remembered what he had done for me.

There was little talk of anything now between us girls other than the ball. Aunt Sophie took us into Salisbury to buy material for our dresses. I chose a bluish mauve. Tamarisk flame red, and Rachel a cornflower blue. Aunt Sophie was a little wistful, thinking no doubt of the court dressmaker who would have made her gown for her coming-out ball. I had heard all about such things from my mother. The village dressmaker, Mary Tucker, would be entrusted with ours.

“She’ll do a good competent job,” said Aunt Sophie.

“How I wish …”

I was more and more at the Bell House. Archie Grindle was very jolly and there was no doubt of Aunt Hilda’s happiness. She went about the house singing and revelled in the pretty dresses she now possessed. I never ceased to marvel at the change.

Daniel Grindle was frequently there. He was Archie’s eldest son who had taken over the farm with his brother Jack.

Daniel was tall and rather awkward, never seeming to know where to put his hands. I liked him. I called him the Gentle Giant, for he was tall and broad; he spoke little and his father told us that he had a way with animals such as he had never seen in any other living person.

“My grandfather had it,” said Jack Grindle.

“Clan takes after him.”