"I'm no lightskirt, miss, there weren't no one else. He promised he'd marry me. I'm that sorry, miss,

honest I am, to be such a trouble to her la's.h.i.+p. Oh miss, what am I going to do?"Selena sat down on a footstool and took one of Polly's twisting hands. "Do you still want to marry SirAubrey, after this?"

"I dunno, miss. He's ever so handsome, and there ain't no one else'll marry me now."

"We'll see what we can do, then. You can rest a.s.sured I shall not marry him! All the same, I doubt he'l come up to scratch."

Lady Whitton concurred. "You need not fear we'll abandon you, Polly," she comforted. "You will not

need to take advantage of Dimbury's kind offer."

"Mr. Dimbury's been that good to me, my lady. He seen I was moped right off, and bin like a real fatherto me. You won't throw me out, my lady, and the baby? I'll work ever so hard to earn its keep.""We'll decide what's to be done when we know what Sir Aubrey will do," said Selena. "Do you want to be present when we talk to him?"

"Oh no, miss. I never want to see him again, lessn he'll marry me. You'll tell me right off, miss?"

"Of course, Polly. You run along now, and tell Bannister I wish to see Sir Aubrey in here."

"Right, miss. Bless you, miss, and you too, my lady."

Polly jumped up, bobbed a curtsey, and scurried out.

"Poor child!" murmured Lady Whitton.

Grim-faced, Selena arranged a second chair behind the desk and invited her mother to join her.

"Like a court of law," she explained. "I hope it will make it more difficult for you to sympathise with the

defendant."

"In this case I cannot sympathise, or rather, only with Polly. If he will not marry her, he must go. I will nothave a . . . a loose fish in the house.""Bravo, Mama! Stick to your guns, now, I hear him coming." The baronet's eager antic.i.p.ation faded to puzzlement as he entered the library and found himself face to face with a pair of stern ladies.

"Did you not send for me, Cousin?" he asked plaintively, looking about for a chair with a helpless

expression on his handsome features. Selena had taken care to move all the chairs to an uncomfortable distance from the desk, forcing him to stand.

"I did, Cousin. Or more precisely, my mother did."

"Aunt?"

"We have just now spoken to Polly," said Lady Whitton with an austerity foreign to her nature. "She is in

great distress, and her story has greatly distressed us, also.""I didn't do it!" cried Sir Aubrey at once."Do what, Cousin?""Seduce the wench," he answered sulkily."Then how do you know that is what we are speaking of?""I suppose some other fellow has put a bun in her oven.""Don't be vulgar, Aubrey," admonished Lady Whitton. "Polly has always been a good girl. You grossly deceived her with your promises of marriage."

"She cannot have supposed that I meant it! I, a baronet, to wed a serving maid! It is unthinkable. She pretended to believe me in order to have a ready excuse for indulging her animal pa.s.sions."

"Aubrey!"

"I never realised how excessively vulgar you are," said Selena wonderingly. "I always knew you for a

fool, but this is beyond anything."

"Selena, marry me! Nothing like this will ever happen again, I swear it. Give Polly her notice and we will forget she ever existed and live happily ever after."

Selena was too astonished to answer.

"Indeed you won't!" said her mother, standing up, her face pink with indignation. "You will marry Polly at once or you will leave this house for ever."

"Dear Aunt, you cannot have considered the scandal. Whether I marry the creature or you bar me from the Manor, people will talk. The family name will be dragged through the mud."

"I do not care that for scandalmongers," said Lady Whitton, snapping her fingers under his nose and making him jump. "Do you marry Polly or do I call the servants to throw you out?"

"I'll not wed a low-born s.l.u.t." Sir Aubrey was petulant but determined. "You need not throw me out, I'l go. But you'll call me back when Selena realises she's on the shelf, I'll wager."

"Go!" chorused the ladies.

"I'm going, I'm going. I'll need some time to pack my things and order a carriage."

"You have an hour," said Lady Whitton inexorably as he backed out, this time as if he expected a knife in the back.

"If you are ever seen on my property after that," added Selena, "I shall have you taken up as a vagrant."

"You'll regret this!" muttered the baronet, and fled, not even pausing to close the door.

Pale and shaken, Lady Whitton sat down.

"I blame myself," she said. "By my age I ought to be a better judge of character. Poor Polly! I must go and tell her."

Bannister appeared in the open doorway, looking alarmed.

"My lady!" he exclaimed, "Sir Aubrey just came rus.h.i.+ng out with a face like a thundercloud and told me to send to the Oak for a carriage. And here's the chaise from the Crown just come for Mr. Hastings and him and Miss Delia playing least in sight. And Polly, what's usually such a levelheaded la.s.s, she's in hysterics and Mrs. Tooting's thrown another fit and Mr. Peabody's sent to say he has to see Miss Selena this afternoon urgent and what shall I do, my lady?"

"Coming!" answered Lady Whitton and her daughter in unison.

Polly was soothed, Mrs. Tooting put to bed with a draught of vervain, Jem sent to the Royal Oak for a carriage, and Mr. Hastings found. While Mr. Hastings distributed his loose change in vails for the servants and said his farewells to the Whittons, Dimbury packed his luggage into the smart yellow chaise from Abingdon. As they set off, none too soon for the impatient postillion, they met in the drive the shabby gig from the Royal Oak, the only vehicle for hire in Kings Milford. The postillion turned up his nose, but Ted, the ostler's boy, scarce returned from Iver, was too tired to do more than stick out his tongue in response.

"Young varmint," said Jem, sitting beside him, from the lofty height of three years advantage in age. "You won't never be a gentleman's groom if you don't behave proper."

Bannister instructed Ted to wait, and went off. Jem suggested that he tie up the horse and come round to the kitchen for a drop of something to warm him.

"'Tis a raw day," he said, and Ted, agreeing, followed him.

Bannister sent one of the housemaids to inform the baronet that his carriage had arrived.

"Ooh sir, do I 'ave to?" she wailed.

"You can't come to much trouble in half a minute, Doris, now can you?" he asked. "You come right back down straightaway. I've a nasty feeling, what with all the commotion, as all the servants is too busy to help the Bart with his bags."

Not only the staff but the family was invisible when the baronet descended the stairs. He rang the bell in the hallway several times, with as little result as his chamber bell had produced. Scowling, he managed to bring down all his luggage in four trips. As he stowed the last portmanteau in the rear of the gig, young Ted appeared, rubbing his hands.

"Ready to go, guv?" he asked, examining with interest Sir Aubrey's hot and fl.u.s.tered face. "Cold day, innit. 'S a rug inna back 'fyou wannit."

"Devil take the rug," growled the baronet as his driver swung up onto the box. "Let's get moving!"

Its breath steaming, the bony piebald horse hauled him away from the silent Manor.

The Whittons gathered in the dining room for luncheon.

"How cosy," said Lady Whitton brightly. "Just family again."

"I'm going to Bracketts this afternoon, Mama, if you do not need me," announced Delia, helping herself to a large slice of cold chicken and some bread and b.u.t.ter.

"I believe I shall go to John Peabody's, instead of waiting for him here," said Selena. "I need to get out of the house." She cut up an apple, took two bites, and pushed her plate away.

Their mother sighed. "It does seem quiet, does it not? I expect we shall soon become accustomed again. You may go, Delia, if you make sure to return by dark. And both of you dress warmly."

"Yes, Mama."

By the time Selena returned to the Manor it was raining, a cold, steady, drenching downpour. She changed out of her wet riding habit, putting on a round dress of Thibet cloth in a muddy green colour she despised. She had had it for years and generally wore it for inspecting the cow byres and pigpens, but it looked the way she felt at the moment: drab.

She went to see Peter, suddenly realising that she had not told him of Sir Aubrey's dismissal. How right he had been! Uncle Aubrey was a bad man and she and Hugh would suit perfectly. What did she care if he was going to marry her for Peter's sake? That would have been part of her motive too, after all, quite apart from the fact that she loved him desperately. Only it was too late now. She opened the nursery door. Mrs. Finnegan, snoozing in her rocking chair, blinked owlishly at her. There was no sign of her nephew.

"Where is Peter, Nurse?"

"He went down to his granny a few minutes ago, dear. Oh my, but it's nearly dark! I must of dropped off. Forty winks just don't seem to be enough at my age.

"When did he go, Finny? What time?"

"Right after his lunch, it was. He says he sees a carridge in the drive and he's got to say good-bye to Mr. Hasty. That's what he calls Mr. Hastings."

"But that was hours ago! He was not with us when Mr. Hastings left. What did he do after I talked to him this morning?"

"He were ever so quiet for a while, then he goes to his treasures," she pointed at the carved and painted wooden chest in the corner, "and sorts out his favourites. He says he wants to play d.i.c.k Whittington and the cat and will I tie his stuff up in a bundle, which I does. Then Doris come up with lunch, saying all's at sixes and sevens below, so when Peter's ate, not that he did eat much, being downright fidgety, and he says he's going to see his granny I says not on your life while they're all in a fuss. Then a whiles later I catches him a-trying to sneak out with his bundle. He says kind of desperate like as he's got to see Grandmama now, so I lets him go, first taking the bundle off of him, for Mrs. Tooting don't like toys all over below stairs, as well you know, Miss Selena, having tried that trick on your own account a dunnamany years agone."

"He's run away!" said Selena. "He asked me if Mr. Hastings was leaving today. I wonder if he thought he would take him to Iverbrook? But he cannot have hidden in the chaise-Mr. Hastings would surely have found him by now and brought him back."

"Likely he got in the wrong carridge by mistake. There were his Uncle Aubrey's carridge too, weren't there?"

Selena paled. "That's right. And I have no idea where he was going. That was hours ago!" She picked up her skirts and ran out of the room.

Half way down the stairs she met Bannister, somewhat out of breath, coming to find her.

"Miss Selena!" he panted. "There's a boy from the Crown brought a letter. He says as how 'tis urgent and he won't give it into any hands but yourn."

"Where is he?"

"In the kitchen, miss, and dripping all over Cook's nice clean floor."

Selena was nearly at the bottom of the stairs before he finished his sentence. She hurried to the kitchen and found the lad steaming in front of the fire. a.s.sured that she was Miss Whitton, he handed her a soggy paper.

She unfolded it with care. The ink had run but the writing was still plainly legible. She read it, and put out a hand to the table to steady herself, her face white.

"How did you come by this?"

"A man brung it, and paid to have it delivered tonight, miss. Dunno who he were. Di'n't think to ask, miss."

"No, of course not. What, Cook? No, I'm all right. I must see my mother at once.

"My lady's in the drawing room," said the butler, who had just caught up with her. "Miss Delia too."

"Thank you, Bannister. Tell Jem to come to me there, if you please." She walked slowly this time. There was no need to hurry. As she entered the drawing room she heard Delia.

"Honestly I'm not wet, Mama. Clive brought me home in the carriage. I'll change later."

"Yes, don't go yet, Dee," said Selena, her voice sounding strange in her own ears. "You'll have to know sooner or later."

They turned to her.

"Know what?" Delia asked.