The colour rushed into Rosamond’s face, only to drain away again and leave her blanched.
Miss Crewe gave a short hard laugh.
“I see you do know. May I ask how long it has been going on?”
“Aunt Lydia, I didn’t know. Someone told me-yesterday- that she had been seen-”
“Who told you?”
“Craig Lester.”
“And who told him?”
“He saw her-himself.”
“In the middle of the night?”
“He had gone for a walk-he couldn’t sleep-”
“Where did he see her?”
Question and answer had come so fast that there had been no time to think. It wasn’t thought that checked her now, it was the instinct to protect, to cover up, to make as little of Jenny’s escapade as she could. She said,
“She was coming into the drive.”
“And what was Mr. Lester doing there?”
“He was passing by, but when he saw Jenny he followed her until he saw her go into the house again.”
Lydia Crewe said grimly,
“By the side door. I believe that is how she comes and goes. She was lucky not to find it locked against her. If I find it open again, that is what I shall do. Well, now that you have admitted this propensity, will you maintain that it can be allowed to continue? Do you think it is safe or suitable to have Jenny wandering heaven knows where in the middle of the night? You are not very sensible or very experienced, but I suppose you read the papers. You must have some idea of what might happen to a girl wandering about alone. She wasn’t walking in her sleep, I suppose?”
Rosamond shook her head.
“Craig said not.”
“Where had she been?”
“I don’t know.”
“What did she have to say for herself?”
“I haven’t asked her anything-yet. It-it was a shock. I wanted time.”
Miss Crewe looked at her with something like a smile.
“Oh, yes, of course-you must have plenty of time. And now that you have had it, are you still going to tell me that there is any to lose? This is Wednesday. If I could have had my way, I would have packed Jenny off today. As it is, you will lock her into her room the next two nights, and you will travel down to Brinton with her by the nine-thirty from Melbury on Friday morning.”
Rosamond got up. She felt the pressure of a formidable will and she had nothing to set against it. It was Jenny herself who had plucked the weapon of reason out of her hand. Lydia Crewe had only to tell her story and everyone who heard it would say that she was doing the right thing. As she took a step towards the door, the harsh voice pursued her.
“You understand me, Rosamond-Jenny leaves this house on Friday morning.”
She said, “Yes,” and went out of the room. There was nothing else for her to say. It was an ultimatum, and they both knew it. Jenny was being turned out. If they had had any money or anywhere to go, it would have been an order of release. The plain fact was that they had nothing. When Jenny left Crewe House on Friday morning Rosamond would have no choice but to take her to the school which Lydia Crewe had chosen. She would have no choice at all.
CHAPTER 27
She turned away from Jenny’s room and ran down the passage into the hall. She had the feeling that she couldn’t run fast enough. Lydia Crewe and her harsh dominant will reaching out to her, ruthless, compelling! It was like knowing that there was a fierce animal shut up in that oppressive room, and that it might at any moment be loosed and follow her. She snatched her old coat from the cupboard under the stairs and ran out by the side door and down the garden into the wood. To be alone in the dusk had no terrors. It was the house that frightened her-and Lydia Crewe. Out here in the wood she would not hear, however stridently the summoning bell might ring, however persistently Jenny might call to her. She wasn’t ready to face her yet. She must have time to put herself out of the way, and to get her to see the whole thing as an adventure. She must keep Jenny from getting hurt, and that was the way that would hurt her least.
It was very dark in the wood. There was still some light outside, but here the trees moved with their shadows and shut her in. They gave her a feeling of safety. They were the walls of her house of defence. It was her own place, where she could be quiet and steady her thoughts. She walked to and fro in the little clearing at the heart of the wood. Presently she would have to think, but for the moment all she wanted was to stop thinking, to be quiet, and above all to be away from Crewe House.
She did not know how long it was before she heard the footstep. It was a man’s step, quick and vigorous. She heard Craig calling her.
“Rosamond! Are you there?”
For a moment she was any wild wood creature. She had an instinct to stay quite still where she was and let the silence cover, her, but when he said her name again, she was Rosamond and he was Craig. She moved and went to meet him.
“Jenny said you might be here.”
There was a roughness in his voice. He had had the unreasoned thought that she might have just walked out of his world and been lost. His arm came round her.
“Why on earth do you go off by yourself like this? I don’t like it.”
She said, “I must-have somewhere-”
“That barrack of a house has rooms enough!”
She shook her head. He could see the movement, but not how she looked.
“I have to get-right away-sometimes-”
“And this was one of the times?”
“Yes.”
“Rosamond, what has been happening?”
He was too close to her not to know when she was in trouble. He felt the trouble now, but he didn’t know what it was. He had to know. He spoke her name again insistently,
“Rosamond-”
She said on a quick uneven breath,
“She’s sending Jenny away-”
“Where?”
“A school at Brinton. She’s got it all fixed up.”
“Without telling you?”
“She never said a word. Craig, I knew she would have to go sometime. But not like this. Even if she hadn’t been ill, I ought to see the place first. No one has seen it. A woman she knows sent some orphan cousins there-that’s how she heard of it. It’s just any place to send Jenny away to, and she has done it all behind my back.”
He said in a controlled voice,
“You must certainly see any place she suggests before Jenny goes there.”
He felt the tremor that went over her.
“There isn’t time-she’s planned it so that there shouldn’t be time. She says I’m to take her there on Friday-day after tomorrow! We’re to take the nine-thirty from Melbury-it’s all fixed up. And there’s nothing I can do. She’s got the whip hand and she knows it. She’s always had the whip hand. We haven’t got any money. There is no one who would take us in, and she won’t keep Jenny any longer. She is to go to school, and I am to stay here and do what I can to make up for the fees Aunt Lydia will have to pay.”
He said in his strong voice,
“Well, it’s not going to work out that way, so don’t worry. Even Miss Crewe can be made to see that she can’t just bundle Jenny off like this at a moment’s notice. Why don’t you stand up to her?”
He felt her stiffen.
“You think I’m afraid. Well, I am, but I wouldn’t let that stop me. If I were on my own I’d just walk out. I’d have done it long ago. In fact I wouldn’t ever have come. It’s like being in prison. But what can I do with Jenny? The specialist said she would need care for some time. I don’t know what I could earn-not very much, because I’m not trained for anything. It would have to be housework, or a shop-and how could I leave Jenny alone all day? I did think if I could find a really nice school they might take Jenny for less and let me work there. I’ve heard of that sort of thing. But this doesn’t give us any time. And, Craig, you say she can’t do it all in a hurry like this-but she can, and everyone would back her up. You see, she knows about Jenny getting out of the house at night.”