It was still dark. The fire was dead. There was no light in the room. But she thought she heard a sound. She thought that there was someone outside her door-an ear against the panel-a hand upon the latch. Noisy’s basket creaked. She heard him move, stand up, go pattering over the floor. And then she heard him growl. It was the faintest sound, a mere thrum in the throat. She called him, and he came running, to jump on the bed and flounce joyously in under the eiderdown. Rachel let him stay.

Presently she slept again.

Louisa brought her tea with an air of tragedy which was daunting in the extreme. Rachel’s heart sank, but years of practice had given her a certain technique; she managed to postpone the impending scene.

The next thing that happened was more cheerful. The telephone bell rang beside the bed, and there was Gale Brandon to say good-morning and ask how she felt.“Stiff,” said Rachel.

“Are you getting up?” He sounded eager.

“Not at the moment, but I’m going to.”

“I’d like to come over and see you if I may.”

“Of course you may. I haven’t thanked you for saving my life.”

“You don’t want to do that.”

“But I do.”

“I mean, you don’t need to. I’ve been doing the thanking. Well, I’ll be over. Is eleven o’clock too early?… All right, I’ll make it half past.” He rang off.

As she hung the receiver up, there came a gentle tapping on the door and Caroline Ponsonby came into the room in a green dressing-gown. Perhaps it was the color that made her look so pale. She came and leaned on the foot of the bed, and Noisy pushed his nose out from under the eiderdown and made a little snuffling sound of welcome. Caroline said, “Bad spoilt one!” and stretched a hand to pull his ear. After a moment she straightened herself and looked at Rachel.

“Are you all rights darling? I worried about you in the night.”

Rachel thought, “She looks as if she had seen a ghost. What is it?” She said,

“Was it you who came to my door?”

Caroline flushed.

“I did-once-when it was nearly morning. Did you hear me? I didn’t mean to wake you. I couldn’t sleep.”

Rachel put out her hand.

“Come here and tell me why you couldn’t sleep.”

But Caroline stood where she was.

“I was frightened-about you-about the fall you had. I was afraid to go to sleep. You know how it is when you feel as if a horrid dream was waiting for you.” She gave a pretence of a laugh. “I thought I wouldn’t give it a chance, that’s all. But you are all right?”

“Perfectly all right.”

Caroline opened her mouth as if she was going to say something, and then shut it again and ran out of the room. Her eyes were full of tears.

Chapter Twenty

Rachel went down to breakfast as the lesser of two evils. If she shared the family meal she would get all the family questions over at once, whereas to stay upstairs was to invite separate visits from Ernest, Mabel, Ella, Cosmo, and Richard, with the same solicitous inquiries from each visitor in turn. She put a little color in her cheeks and hoped for the best.

Everyone certainly did ask an inordinate number of questions. Ernest Wadlow’s chief preoccupation appeared to be a desire to establish the exact spot where she had fallen. He arranged spoons and forks to represent the line of the cliff, with a breakfast cup for Nanny’s cottage, and lumps of sugar to simulate the broken wall.

“If you came out here you would switch on your torch at the gate-I suppose you did switch on your torch?”

“The battery had run down,” said Rachel.

Ella Comperton coughed.

“Well, Rachel, I should have thought you would have made sure of having a good battery before attempting that dangerous path.”

Ernest transferred his attention to Ella.

“I do not think one can fairly describe the path as dangerous-not with a good torch.”

“But it wasn’t a good torch, and nothing would induce me to attempt it, Ernest.”

“I can’t imagine why you didn’t let the car fetch you,” said Mabel Wadlow in her fretful voice. “It could perfectly well have met Miss Silver’s train and then picked you up.”

Rachel felt her color rise.

“But I like walking,” she said, and wondering how many of them would guess that she liked walking because Gale Brandon sometimes walked with her.

“But without a proper torch!” said Ernest. “Do you mean to say that the battery was quite run down?”

“It wasn’t much use.”

Richard looked over the top of the Daily Mail.

“But I put a new battery in for you yesterday morning.”

Rachel said, “Yes.”

Cosmo Frith lowered the Times and observed genially,

“In that case, my dear, you must have taken the wrong torch.”

One of those arguments peculiar to families developed. The condition of the battery became the subject of a heated debate which culminated in Cosmo bursting out laughing and declaring that the culprit should be allowed to give evidence on its own behalf. He went out into the hall for the torch, and came in switching it on and off.

“Nothing much wrong with it, my dear, to my mind. A good thing you didn’t lose it when you fell. Of course it’s not so easy to tell in daylight, but the battery seems pretty hearty to me. I’ll try it inside the china-cupboard.”

A moment later he was calling from behind a half closed door.

“Here, Richard, come and see! Rachel, I’d like you to take a look. I’ll swear there’s nothing wrong with this battery.”

Rachel looked, and saw a bright beam and a brilliant ring of light. Over her shoulder Miss Silver saw them too.

“Nothing wrong with it-eh, my dear?”

Rachel said in a puzzled voice,

“It wasn’t like that last night.”

She drew away from the cupboard door and back to her place, to be immediately pounced on by Ernest.

“Now let us suppose that you had walked as far as this-the first lump of sugar represents the beginning of the wall-how much farther had you gone before you fell? I am allowing a yard to each lump of sugar.”

“I really don’t know, Ernest.”

He gazed reproachfully over the top of the crooked pince-nez.

“But, my dear Rachel, you must have some idea. I do not expect complete accuracy-we are not in a court of law-but you must surely be able to hazard a guess.”

“I don’t know that I want to, Ernest. I would really so much rather not have to go on thinking about it.”

“Or talking about it,” said Cosmo Frith. “And you shall not, my dear. We’re all much too thankful you weren’t hurt to worry about might-have-beens.”

Ella Comperton pushed back her chair,

“Well, it all seems to me to be a good deal of fuss about nothing. I’m sure I had a nasty tumble myself the other day, and nobody made any fuss about it. I don’t know what everyone is going to do, but I am going to write letters, and then later on I shall take a little constitutional. Caroline, you look as if you would be none the worse for some fresh air and exercise.”

“Caroline is coming into Ledlington with me,” said Richard.

But if there was relief on Caroline’s face, there was no gratitude. The defenceless look which had brought Richard to her rescue sank a little deeper into her eyes, but it was still there.

He spoke to her for a moment as they came out of the dining-room together.

“You needn’t come, but-I won’t worry you-”

She took a quick breath.

“It’s not that. I’ve got to pack.”

She walked off towards the stairs, but he caught her up.

“How do you mean, you’ve got to pack?”

She took hold of the banisters and stood half turned from him.

“I think-I’ve got-to go away-”

“What do you mean? You needn’t-I’ll go.”

She said “No” in a heart-broken voice, and ran from him up the stairs.

When Rachel came up after seeing the housekeeper she found Richard in her sitting-room. He turned from the window as she came in and said without any preamble,