Rachel followed her into the hall with Cosmo. He put a kindly hand on her shoulder.
“My dear, for once Ella is right. You take all this too seriously. It’s just a tiff, and Richard will be bringing her back to tea. But I hate to leave you looking like this.”
She turned her head.
“Are you going? I didn’t know.”
“My dear, I must. Poor Lazenby is really very ill. You must have heard me speak of him. Poor fellow-his own enemy, if there ever was one, and I’m about the only friend he’s got left. But I don’t like leaving you.”
Rachel tried to smile. He was probably right. Richard would come back and bring Caroline with him. It was a lovers’ quarrel. There was nothing to be afraid of. But the fear did not move from her heart.
The clang of the front door bell took her back a pace or two into the dining-room. She could not imagine who could be ringing at this hour, but at the sound of Gale Brandon’s voice she came forward with both hands outstretched, so glad to see him that all her reasons for telling him to stay away were scattered and forgotten.
Her hands were taken and held in a grasp that hurt. He said,
“Well, I’m here. Are you going to be angry about it?”
She had tried to smile, but now she did not have to try. She looked up at him with all her heart in her eyes and said,
“I’m glad.”
“The reward of mutiny!” said Gale Brandon. “You told me not to come. I came. You’re glad. What happens to discipline? You’ll never get over with it again.”
They were still holding hands, but at this point a movement from Cosmo Frith attracted their attention. Tact might have indicated a retreat, but men are very seldom gifted with tact. Mr. Frith approached. The hands fell apart. Rachel flushed high and knew a moment of confusion. If it had been anyone but Cosmo. He had been so kind. She would not for the world have hurt his feelings.
But when the moment passed there was no discernible wound. The two men were talking. Cosmo was saying something about Caroline.
“She’s gone off in her car, and Rachel is upset about it-thinks she isn’t fit to drive. She fainted this morning.”
It was all so much in Rachel’s mind that it was only afterwards that she wondered how the subject had come up. She said,
“I’m dreadfully worried, and that’s the truth. She oughtn’t to be driving, and we don’t know which way she’s gone. She hasn’t any money.”
As she spoke, the distress which she had felt before came back like a wave which has retreated only to break with redoubled force. She looked at him piteously, as if for help, and heard him say,
“But we’ll go after her-if you’re worried. She drives a small blue Austin, doesn’t she? If she went through Ledlington, someone will have noticed it. Anyhow we can try. Get your things on.”
The prospect of doing something put heart into Rachel. She nodded, ran upstairs, and was putting on her hat, when she was aware of Louisa behind her looking a good deal like Lot ’s wife. She said as briskly as she could,
“My coat, Louisa-the very thick brown one. I’m going after Miss Caroline.”
Louisa did not move. She stood with folded hands and stared at Rachel’s reflection in the glass.
“Can’t you let well alone?” she said. “Them that’s’ gone from this house, they’d stay gone if you’d let them.”
“Louie!”
Louisa Barnet raised her voice.
“And why did they go, Miss Rachel? Answer me that! Because what they’ve got on their conscience wouldn’t let them stay-that’s why. And no wonder. Who was out on the cliff when you was pushed over? Mr. Richard for one, and Miss Caroline for another. And she come in crying, as Gladys could tell you. And three handkerchiefs soaked through in her clothes-basket that I saw for myself. There isn’t no one cries like that but what they’ve brought it on themselves-you can’t get from it. And why did she faint? Will you tell me that, Miss Rachel? No, you won’t. But Miss Ella, she talked of it free enough-said Miss Caroline just sat there like an image and might have been deaf and dumb whilst you was telling how you was pushed over, but when it came to you being asked whether you had a sight of the one that pushed you and you said, ‘No,’ well, right there and then Miss Caroline fainted.”
Rachel stood up and turned round.
“That will do, Louie. You are hardly in a position to accuse other people, you know. I should like my coat.”
This time Louisa brought it. Her hands shook as she held it for Miss Treherne to slip on. And then she caught a fold of it and spoke in a strained whisper.
“Miss Rachel-you’re not going-to send me away?”
Rachel released herself.
“Where could I send you, Louie?”
The dark eyes flashed.
“To my grave. And that’s the truth, for I’d not live.”
Rachel walked towards the door. Just before she reached it she said without looking round,
“You talk a lot of nonsense, Louie. It isn’t kind, and it isn’t helpful. If you want to stay you mustn’t say everything that comes into your head.”
She went out, and found Cosmo waiting for her.
“Rachel-there’s something I’ve’thought of. Can I speak to you?”
She looked at him doubtfully.
“I’ve been too long already-”
“It’s about Caroline.”
She opened her sitting-room door and went in. “Very well.”
Chapter Thirty
Cosmo Frith shut the door behind him and walked over to the hearth. He stood there, picking up the old-fashioned gilt clock which had belonged to Rachel’s mother and fiddling with the key. He looked troubled and serious. Rachel’s heart sank.
“Cosmo, what is it? Don’t keep me.”
He said, “No, I won’t-I won’t-” But he got no further than that until she made an impatient movement. Then he put down the clock and said, “Don’t, my dear. It’s because it’s so difficult to say.”
“Difficult or easy, I think you must say it, Cosmo.”
He drew a heavy breath that was like a sigh.
“Yes, I know-but one puts off-you will probably be angry-”
“Does that matter?”
He nodded.
“A good deal-to me.”
A bright exasperated color was in Rachel’s cheeks.
“Oh, say it and have done!” she cried.
He gave her a wounded look.
“You see-you are angry already. But I can’t help it. I can’t let you go with that man and not say a word.”
“You said you wanted to see me about Caroline.”
“Yes, but I must say this too. I must beg that you will not go off alone with this man who calls himself Brandon. He is Gale Brent, and if you’ll give me time I’ll prove it. What do you know of him? He was on the cliff when you were pushed over it. Suppose he pushed you. Suppose he had some crazy notion of revenge. Oh, it sounds melodramatic enough, but isn’t your morning paper full of just that sort of crude melodrama? Can’t you believe that a man might grow up under a grudge and nurse it until he was crazy on just that one point? He’d be sane about everything else. He’d look sane-talk, think, and act as sane men do-and all the time there would be that one danger-point.”
“You’re talking nonsense,” said Rachel coldly. “I can’t stop, Cosmo.”
He stood where he was.
“Rachel, this morning you practically accused us all. You called us together, and you called in a stranger, and in front of that stranger you informed us that there had been an attempt on your life. I think we were all under observation. Will you deny that?”
Rachel gave no answer.
“You see,” said Cosmo Frith again. “I say-and you don’t deny it-that we were all under suspicion. Poor little Caroline broke under it. She fainted, and she has run away. I suppose that proves her guilty-”