There was a regular row of gardens on this side. On the other there was a paddock and the long winding drive which led up to Hersham Place, which stood empty because nowadays no one could afford to live in a house with thirty bedrooms. The lodge was let to Jackie Trent’s mother, who was said to be related to the family. She was a good-looking young woman, and the village talked about her. She spent a good deal of her time making herself look smart, but she didn’t mend Jackie’s clothes, and there wasn’t a cottage in the place that wouldn’t have been ashamed of her unweeded garden. It was certainly very untidy – like Jackie.

As Janet passed, Esmé Trent came out. She was bare-headed, and her hair shone in the sun. It had been brightened to something much more decorative than its original shade, and her eyebrows and lashes proportionately darkened. She had chosen a vivid lipstick. Altogether there was more make-up than is usual in the country. For the rest, she wore grey flannel of an admirable cut, and from the fact that she had on nylons and high-heeled shoes, and that she carried a smart grey handbag, it seemed unlikely that she was merely going to fetch Jackie. She went down the road, walking briskly, and by the time Janet had turned back and reached the Vicarage she was to be seen getting on to the Ledbury bus.

Mrs Lenton was out in the front cutting dahlias. She had the same round blue eyes and fair hair as her two little girls, and she had been born with a disposition to laugh and take things easily. In one way it made her very agreeable to live with, but it also involved her in getting behind with the things which she ought to have been doing when she was doing something else. She had meant to do the flowers after breakfast, but there hadn’t been time and she was hurrying over them now with half her mind on the milk pudding she had left in the oven. The sight of Esmé Trent disappearing into the bus distracted her. Her fair skin flushed, and she said in quite an angry tone,

‘Did you see that, Miss Johnstone? There she goes, and goodness knows for how long – hours very likely! And that poor little boy left to go back to an empty house and eat up anything she can be bothered to leave for him! And he’s only six – it’s shocking! I’ve kept him here once or twice, but she doesn’t really like it – told me she had made perfectly adequate arrangements – so I don’t like to do it any more.’

Janet said, ‘It’s too bad.’

Mrs Lenton cut a dahlia fiercely.

‘I wouldn’t mind what she said, but she takes it out on Jackie! And it’s all very well for John to say we must be charitable, but when people do things to children I can’t!’

The three little girls ran out, Jackie lagging behind them. Ellie Page, the Vicar’s cousin who taught them, came as far as the step, but when she saw Janet she turned back. Mary Lenton called to her.

‘Ellie, come here and meet Miss Johnstone.’

She came with some reluctance. Janet couldn’t make her out. She wasn’t pretty, but she had a kind of shy grace. The children enjoyed their lessons, and why on earth should she look at Janet as if she was an enemy, or at the very least someone with whom to walk warily. When she spoke her voice had an unusual tone, sweet and rather high. She said without preliminaries,

‘I expect Stella will have told you about the dancing-class. It’s this afternoon at three. Miss Lane comes out from Ledbury.’

Mary Lenton turned round with the gold and orange dahlias in her hand.

‘Of course – I knew there was some reason why I had to do the flowers! We get about half a dozen children, and most of them stay to tea! Stella does always. Oh, and perhaps Jackie would like to come in. He doesn’t take dancing, but he could watch.’ She caught at him as he went by scuffing his feet. ‘Darling, wouldn’t you like to come back this afternoon and watch the dancing and have tea?’

Jackie kicked at the gravel and said, ‘No!’

‘But, darling-’

He twisted away from her and ran out of the gate. Ellie Page said in a plaintive tone,

‘Oh, dear, he really is a disagreeable child.’

Chapter Thirteen

Adriana came down to lunch with plans made for all of them. It annoyed her a good deal to find that Geoffrey was not there.

‘I shall rest for an hour and then take Mabel for a drive. If Geoffrey intended to go off like this he should have let me know. I suppose he hasn’t by any chance taken the Daimler?’ She fixed a demanding stare on Edna, who fidgeted with her table-napkin.

‘Oh, no – of course not. I mean, how could he, when Ninian had it to meet Mabel?’

Adriana gave her short red hair a toss.

‘Implying that nothing else stopped him from taking my car without so much as asking whether I wanted it myself! And don’t say he couldn’t have known I was going to use it, because that is merely aggravating! If you leave me alone, I shall probably have got over being annoyed by the time he comes home. I suppose he took the Austin. For all he knew, I might have wanted to let Ninian have it. Where has he gone?’

Edna crumbled the bread beside her plate.

‘I really don’t know. I didn’t ask him.’

Adriana laughed.

‘Perhaps it was just as well – men hate it. Especially when they’re up to mischief. Not, of course, that Geoffrey-’ She left the sentence in the air and laughed again.

Ninian struck in with a light ‘Aren’t you being a little severe, darling?’ to which she replied, ‘Probably,’ and helped herself to salad.

‘Anyhow,’ she continued, ‘if Geoffrey isn’t here he can’t drive us. Meriel will have to. No, Ninian – I want you for something else. We will drop you and Janet in Ledbury, and you can change the library books and do some shopping for me. That is to say, Janet will do the shopping and you will carry the parcels.’

Janet said,

‘I shall have Stella to fetch.’

‘It’s the dancing-class, isn’t it? It doesn’t matter how long she stays at the Vicarage. We can pick her up on the way back. Now that’s all fixed, and I don’t want to hear any more about it’

Mabel Preston spoke in a resigned voice.

‘I do usually rest in the afternoon, you know.’

Adriana said briskly,

‘And so do I, but an hour is quite as long as is good for us. One mustn’t let oneself get into bad habits. Well then, it’s all settled, and everyone must be ready punctually at a quarter to three.’

Ninian was allowed to drive the car as far as Ledbury. There was a horrid moment after they got there when Adriana seemed to be in some doubt about letting him go.

‘Meriel is such a jerky driver,’ she said. ‘Yes, you are, my dear, and it’s no good your looking like a thunderstorm about it.’ She beamed at Janet. ‘I hope you are grateful to me for letting you have our only young man. Now, Mabel, I’m going to take you round by Rufford’s Tower. I shan’t attempt the climb myself, but Meriel will go up with you. The view should be perfect today.’

Mabel was still protesting that she hated heights and that nothing would induce her to climb the tower, when with a noisy change of gears they drove away.

Ninian laughed.

‘Adriana at her most peremptory! What’s the odds the wretched Mabel will be made to toil up to the top?’

They changed the books and worked through a dull list of household shopping. There really seemed to be no good reason why they should be doing it, since with the exception of the books everything could have been ordered by telephone.

However, as Ninian said, there wasn’t any point about looking the gift-horse in the mouth.

‘Actually, you know, I think Adriana is trying to throw us together.’

Janet said, ‘Nonsense!’ and was admonished.

‘Now there you are being hasty. And not the first time I have had to tell you about it either! A spot of matchmaking would be a diversion for Adriana, and it would have the added attraction of being quite certain to annoy Meriel.’