Mrs Grose poured tea and said, “Master James being in France, as is usual with him in spring, I took on myself to receive you gentlemen here. He hates being bothered and I know as much about the place as he does. Anything that attracted sightseers would be disagreeable to him. If Miss Temple’s visions became gossip, we might have folk coming to stand and stare, when summer’s here.”
“And Major Mordaunt would not care for that,” Holmes said firmly.
“I should think not!” She looked at him as if they were sharing a joke. Then she became solemn. “To be fair, though, when Miss Temple was in trouble, he did everything for her. He was away in Paris at the time but he never begrudged a penny of what it cost to save her from prison—or worse. Still, he’d rather those ghosts should be delusions of her poor frightened mind than horrors for the world and its wife to come tripping after.”
“And Miss Temple?” I inquired.
Her pause told me that she disliked this question more than the ghosts.
“Of course, sir, we all hope she’ll be well again and they’ll set her free.”
Holmes listened, his left thumb under his chin and two fingers curled across his mouth. Then he lowered his hand and took the tea-cup. “What about you, Mrs Grose? You are not a believer in apparitions?”
She put down the pot and spoke carefully.
“Not exactly, sir. But I was by the lake with Miss Temple and Miss Flora, the second time Miss Jessel was supposed to appear. The little girl had gone ahead of us. Perhaps she unhitched the boat and rowed to where we found her. She was alone. The boat was almost out of sight, tied to the fence where it comes down to the water.”
Holmes nodded, saying, “Miss Temple described seeing Miss Jessel on the far bank, beyond the Middle Deep. On the island. Flora, I believe, was positive she saw no one. You neither saw nor noticed anything?”
“Saw? No, sir. Noticed? It felt for that moment as if the world had stopped. As if you might look at your watch five minutes later and find the time just the same as when it all began. Everything motionless. Just like the figure of Miss Jessel herself was said to be.”
“How long did this last?”
She looked at him awkwardly.
“That’s just it, sir. I couldn’t say.”
“Of course not,” he said courteously. “And what else?”
“Looking at Miss Temple, I’d take my oath she saw something. Or perhaps she only thought she saw it, but she was not making up a story. Like when she saw Quint at the dining-room window, just before evening church. I never saw anyone then but I was afraid without knowing why. Even Miss Temple said I was white as if I’d seen a ghost myself.”
“Was she afraid of these apparitions?”
“Angry, more like.”
“And you were there with the children present?”
“Only when Miss Flora was with us by the lake. Just once.”
“Of course,” said Holmes kindly. “Flora was there, before you and Miss Temple. We shall never know what may have passed between her and the vision of Miss Jessel before you both arrived.”
“Something happened to that child, Mr Holmes, while the world was so quiet and still. Something she was glad of. I stood to one side but Flora was with Miss Temple. And Miss Temple was pointing her to look across to where there was a gap between the bushes on the far bank. I couldn’t see because of a rhododendron bush immediately beside me.”
She paused, glancing towards the window with the garden view beyond, recalling her thoughts. Then she spoke firmly.
“Miss Flora vowed she never saw anything. But I know children. That child was too upset for nothing to have happened. She clung to my skirts, crying to be taken from her hateful governess! When we were alone together the poor little mite told me horrors. What she heard Miss Temple had said and done at other times. How Miss Temple was in league with the dead, if you please! You may be sure she got that from Master Miles and his loose talk. And she talked scandal of Miss Temple misbehaving with the master! How could she when he was in France? But that child’s words shocked me, sir. I can’t think where she picked them up, not even from her brother.”
Holmes nodded, as if all this was to be expected. To me, such talk of a league with the dead reeked of Miles Mordaunt.
“After the incident at the lake, you took the same route back?” I asked.
“We did.”
“And you passed the boat which the little girl had moored there?”
Mrs Grose stiffened, as if caught in an untruth.
“No, sir. We went through the gate in the fence but the boat had gone. Most likely, Master Miles took it while we were further on. It’s a little thing, convenient to handle.”
Holmes returned to his ghosts.
“At other times, did Miss Temple herself think the children behaved as if they had seen Maria Jessel or Peter Quint, even though she had not?”
She looked from one to the other of us.
“I know children! These two were up to some mischief or other. I’d catch them whispering and laughing together. They’d smile at us, as if they knew what we were thinking. As if saying they’d have their way with us and nothing we could do would prevent it.”
It was almost exactly what Victoria Temple had said to us. Perhaps she had got it from Mrs Grose.
“But, so far as you know,” Holmes asked, “they did not misbehave behind your backs?”
She looked a little awkward.
“I never told Miss Temple, Dr Watson. They used to creep after her, making a noise, sniggering and mewling. But she’d look round and they’d just be sitting there with their books or games, good as gold. As soon as she looked away they’d start again It was as if they wanted to make her think there might be an animal hidden close by. As if it might be calling for her.”
I thought of Quint’s policy of drowning kittens so that they should not grow into cats, and my spine tingled. Perhaps sensing something of this, Mrs Grose added, “It was nothing to Miss Temple, sir. She never condescended to notice it.”
Without thinking sufficiently, I asked a question that sounded ill-judged as soon as it was spoken.
“If it was ever necessary to drown unwanted kittens on the estate, would Miles have been allowed to do it?”
Mrs Grose gave a soft, surprised laugh.
“Bless you, sir, no! A child? Never!”
“Who then?”
“If ever it came …” She paused. “Quint the handyman. Who else?”
That was the last thing I wanted to hear.
“And the boy might be there with him?”
“There was no reason for it.”
“But he might let the boy be there as a special favour?” I persisted.
I caught her sudden realisation, quickly masked by a grimace of distaste.
“Oh,” she said awkwardly, “it might happen. Anything like that might happen.”
Holmes interrupted.
“What did the children talk of between themselves? Did you ever overhear them?”
She shook her head.
“Miss Temple swore they talked of horrors, hearing the voices of the damned. She only saw visions of Quint and Miss Jessel, but the children might hear their voices as well. Just as a dog or a cat can hear sounds a man can’t.”
I had blundered a moment ago and now I must intervene on behalf of common sense.
“Suppose that there were no ghosts, Mrs Grose. Suppose the two figures were common intruders, as Miss Temple first thought. Could they not stand where she could see them but you could not? Could not trespassers reach the places where she saw them, without being challenged?”
The cautious soul reckoned this up. Then she replied.
“Anyone can come up the drive or over the meadow. They might be seen and asked their business—or not. Keeping to the path through Bly woods, they need not be seen.”