He stood up as we entered. He came towards us and Jessamy said: "This is Esmond. Esmond, this is Miss Campion."
He took my hand and kissed it. It was a charming gesture, and I thought how pretty he was with his dark hair and his fine dark eyes ... undoubtedly a Mateland.
"You're Jessamy's cousin," he stated.
I told him I was and that I was looking at the castle.
"I know," he told me.
Elizabeth laid a hand on his shoulder. "Esmond has been asking about you," she said.
"It's nice of you to be interested," I said to the boy.
"Can you read?" he asked. "This story is about three bears."
"I believe I know it," I said. " "Who's been sitting in my chair?' 'Who's been eating my stew?""
"It wasn't stew. It was porridge," he corrected me solemnly.
"I dare say it changes with the years," I replied. "Stew or porridge, what does it matter?"
"It does matter," he insisted. "Stew's not like porridge."
"Esmond is a stickler for detail," said Elizabeth.
"Am I a stickler?" asked Esmond. "What is a stickler?"
Elizabeth said: "I'll tell you another time. I was just going to take him out," she told us. "It's time for his midmorning walk."
"Not yet," said Esmond.
She held him firmly by the hand.
"You'll have more time to talk to Miss Campion," she said.
"Well, we'll continue with our tour," Jessamy replied.
"It's a fantastic place, isn't it?" Elizabeth looked straight at me, and again I felt that she was summing me up.
I agreed that it was.
"We'll go out to the battlements," Jessamy announced. "I want to show you the stone walk."
"I shall see you later then," I said to Esmond, who nodded and said rather sadly: "It wasn't stew."
Jessamy and I climbed the stone stairs—another of those tricky spiral ones—and were on the battlements.
"Esmond is a very serious little boy," she said. "He should be more with boys of his own age. It's only when Garth and Malcolm are here that he sees other boys. And they are both older than he is."
"I've heard of Garth," I said. "Who is Malcolm?"
"He's a cousin of some sort. His grandfather was Egmont's younger brother. You can work it out. I gather there was some feud between Egmont and his brother. They quarreled or something. Egmont has relented and Malcolm pays periodic visits. I think Egmont likes to regard him as an unlikely but possible heir to the castle. You see, if Esmond were to die and Joel and I had no children, I imagine Malcolm would be the next in line. Malcolm's about Garth's age ... sometimes we have them both here together. It's good for Esmond. Elizabeth is of course devoted to him. I think she's a bit jealous if he takes notice of anyone else."
"She needn't be jealous of me. I'm just one of those ships that pass in the night."
"Don't say that, Anabel. I want you to come here often. You don't know how your coming cheers me up."
"Cheers you up! Surely you don't need cheering up?"
"What I mean is that you add that much more."
But she had alerted my senses. Things were not quite what they seemed at the castle. Jessamy was not completely happy. I was sure this had something to do with Joel.
I had been three days at the castle. I had made the acquaintance of Egmont, a rather ferocious-looking old man with the Mateland bushy brows, gray in his case. He was affable to me. "He has taken a fancy to you," said Jessamy.
She told me he had a reputation for being fond of women and in his youth he had had mistresses all over the countryside. There were numerous Matelands all over the district.
"I don't think he ever attempted to deny paternity," she said. "He was proud of his virility. He always looked after them, too."
"What of his wife? How did she react to these bastards all over the countryside?"
"She endured and she accepted. There was nothing else she could do. Of course, in those days that sort of thing was taken as a matter of course, more than it is today. The Queen sets such a good example."
"She sets the fashion for virtue," I commented, "but that sometimes means drawing a veil over immorality rather than suppressing it."
She frowned slightly, and I wondered what she was thinking. I was becoming very sensitive to her moods. For the first time in her life Jessamy was hiding something from me. I was certain that everything was not what it seemed on the surface. But try as I might I could not get her to tell me her innermost thoughts, and the longer I was at the castle the surer I was becoming that there were secrets there.
I saw Joel frequently, but never alone. Sometimes I thought that we both contrived that this should be so. But there did come a day when we were thrown together.
I had done a little riding at the castle. Jessamy rode a good deal. She always had at Seton and Aunt Amy Jane had grudgingly allowed me to share her lessons. I had loved riding and some of the happiest days of my childhood had been spent galloping and cantering over the fields and walking the lanes in Jessamy's made-over riding clothes. There had been nothing quite as exciting in those days as galloping along, a horse beneath me and the wind buffeting me.
So it was pleasant to ride at Mateland, where there was, of course, a large stable and several horses to spare. The right mount was found for me and Jessamy and I rode every day.
Once when Jessamy and I were riding we met David. He had been going round the Mateland estate, which he spent his days looking after, and when he saw us he rode with us.
He chatted amicably, wanted to know what I thought of the Mateland stables and the particular mount which had been found for me, how much riding I had done and so on.
There came a moment when Jessamy slowed down to talk to a woman at the door of one of the cottages. I managed to catch a strange smile about David's lips. He quickened pace a little, and I kept up with him. He turned up a lane, and then I realized that he was trying to get ahead of Jessamy.
I said: "Does she know we're going this way?"
"She'll find out," he answered.
"But.. "
"Oh, come on, Anabel. I never get a chance to talk to you."
There was something in the tone of his voice which warned me to take care.
"We shall lose her," I protested.
"That could be the object of the enterprise."
"Not mine," I reminded him.
"Anabel, you are a very attractive young lady. You know it. And you are not as prim as you would have me believe. You have bewitched us all."
"My father, myself and my newly wedded brother."
"I am flattered to have made such an impression on your family."
"Anabel, you would make an impression wherever you went. You have something more than beauty. Did you know that?"
"No, but I am interested to hear a catalogue of my virtues."
"There is vitality in you ... a response... ."
"A response to what?"
"To that which you arouse in men."
"I am learning a great deal, but I think I must say here endeth the first lesson and the first lesson shall be the last."
"You amuse me."
"Another talent? Really, you will make me very conceited.*
"I tell you nothing you do not know. Since you have come to the castle you have been constantly in my thoughts. Have you thought of me?"
"Naturally I think of people when I am in their company. Now I think we should join Jessamy."
"Let me show you round the estate. There is a great deal you would be interested in, Anabel... ."
I turned and called out to Jessamy, who was looking for us. I rode back to her.
"I didn't see that you had gone up the lane," she said.
I felt very shaken. I thought that clearly I could not stay on at the castle. It seemed to me that there was something a little sinister about this man. I wanted to get away from him.