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Elizabeth stepped forward, clasping the girl's left hand which had been extended towards her and conscious of a moment's direct hostility as their eyes met.

"This is Jenny," Adele explained. "I think you might have a great deal in common when you come to know each other. Since we will all have to live together under one roof, I hope so," she added bluntly.

Charles was standing on the broad step behind them and Jenny's eyes had hardly left his face since she had first recognised him.

"Hullo, Jennifer," he said. "What have you to report since I went away?"

Although his tone had been light there was a deep concern in his dark eyes as they searched the girl's flushed face. Jenny managed a bright smile.

"Nothing spectacular ever happens here," she told him, linking her arm in his. "You know that, Charles. There are two new ponies and the dinghy sprang a leak when we took it out for the first time, but apart from that—nothing."

"We must find you more to do," he teased. "You sound as if you lead a very idle life."

"Not
idle."
Jenny gave his arm a little shake. "We work all the time, but the
excitements
are few and far between. We went to Stilling yesterday, shopping, but that didn't take very long."

"Where's Natalie?" Mrs. Abercrombie asked.

"At the stables, I suppose." Jenny turned to smile at her. "One of the new ponies is a bit frail, but Nat thinks he'll survive. You know how good she is with horses." She tossed her long hair back from her face. "Why are we all standing on the doorstep?" she demanded. "Don't you want to come in, after all this long time?"

She stood aside, watching Elizabeth covertly as they entered the hall with its raftered ceiling and wide oak staircase climbing to the floor above. She was older than she had seemed at first glance, Elizabeth decided, probably seventeen or eighteen, and she looked decidedly frail. Her skin appeared almost transparent, drawn finely across high cheekbones and a wide brow, and her legs and arms were pathetically thin, yet she carried herself with an odd dignity which was somehow touching. The violet eyes which had met Elizabeth's with something like hostility in their depths were turned swiftly back to Charles as he carried in the luggage.

"Have you come to stay?" she asked, looking for his personal belongings among the other cases. "Murdoch says it's high time you were here for a spell."

"Murdoch is getting old," Charles laughed. "He likes to blether."

"Will you stay?" She stood directly in front of him, demanding an answer. "Please, Charles, just for a little while." She took his arm again. "You must have lots and lots to tell me about—Australia."

"I'm here till the week-end, at least," he said.

"We can do so much," she suggested, grasping at the crumbs of his favour. "You can take me to Perth—or Edinburgh."

"We'll see."

Adele led the way across the hall to a small sitting-room where a bright fire burned in the high grate and a table had been set for tea. It had been drawn close to the fire, and Jenny turned to Adele.

"It's how you like it, Grand'mere," she said. "I knew you would want a cup right away."

She stood like a child waiting for approval, and Adele stooped to kiss her on the cheek.

"You know all my failings, little one," she smiled. "We will have tea as soon as your sister arrives."

Jenny frowned.

"Natalie never stops for tea these days," she said, "and I don't think she'll come if the pony is still restless."

"Then we must have our tea without her," the mistress of Kilchoan decided. "Your sister will come when she feels like it, I dare say. You can show Elizabeth to her room in the meantime," she added. "Where have you put her?"

Jenny hesitated.

"Mrs. Murdoch thought the tower room would be best." She looked in Elizabeth's direction for the first time since they had entered the house. "I'll show you where it is," she offered almost grudgingly.

Charles had carried the luggage up to the top landing.

"Your
room isn't ready, but it will only take a few minutes to put it right," Jenny told him. "Mrs. Murdoch is coming up to do the dinner and she'll help me with the sheets."

"I could quite easily help myself," said Charles, "if you brought me the sheets."

She looked at him, her expression humble.

"I'm sorry it wasn't ready for you," she said.

"You worry too much!" He kissed her on the forehead, a mild, brotherly salute which rushed the colour into her cheeks and made her draw away. "See to Elizabeth and I'll join you downstairs in five minutes, if not less!"

Jenny led Elizabeth to a closed door farther along the corridor.

"Mind the step!" she cautioned. "You're in the little turret at the corner of the house."

The single step up led them into a tiny bedroom with a semi-circular wall on which twin windows overlooked the lochan and the rose garden. It was a cosy little room with a single bed, a wardrobe and dressing-table and an old-fashioned wash-stand which now did service as a writing-desk—adequate, Elizabeth decided, for a short stay.

"The bathroom's over there." Jenny nodded across the corridor. "You'll have to share it with Charles and me, I'm afraid. Those side rooms haven't been altered since time began."

Elizabeth went to wash her hands before she joined Mrs. Abercrombie for tea, and when she wait back to her room Jenny was standing in the doorway, waiting.

"How long do you mean to stay?" she asked. "As Mrs. Abercrombie's secretary, I mean?"

"As long as she needs me." The wards seemed to be some form of defence, although Elizabeth could not understand why she should have to explain her presence at Kilchoan to the girl who stood waiting for her reply with such an odd look of intensity about her. "Mrs. Abercrombie has a lot of correspondence to attend to, I understand."

"Yes," Jenny agreed slowly. "I couldn't help her in that respect, could I?" She looked down at her crippled hand. "It was an accident," she explained bleakly. "I was hurt in a car accident. Didn't she tell you?"

"I haven't known her very long," Elizabeth explained. "Perhaps she forgot."

The violet eyes were suddenly raised to hers in stormy protest.

"How could she forget when it meant so much to her? When it meant so much to us all," she amended swiftly. "Did you meet Jason in Sydney? That's where he went after it happened. Natalie says he ran away."

Shocked into silence by the bitter accusation, Elizabeth could not answer her, and while she stood there Charles came along the corridor from his own room to escort them downstairs.

"I've been telling Elizabeth about my accident," Jenny told him. "She didn't know."

Charles's jaw tightened.

"She hasn't been with us very long," he pointed out.

"That's what she said." Jenny heaved a deep sigh. "I suppose it's only important to me. Everyone else has conveniently forgotten."

"You know that isn't true." There was a suggestion of anger in his deep voice which was instantly submerged in pity. "We don't forget so easily, Jenny."

"No, I don't believe
you
do." She searched his face for confirmation of his words. "You'll never forget Claire, will you, and—and what Jason did to her?"

"We won't talk about it," he said. "Not now."

Jenny looked at Elizabeth.

"She's like her, isn't she? Did you notice it as soon as you met her, how like Claire she was?" Jenny's demand was almost a plea. "You couldn't help noticing when you loved Claire so much, could you, Charles?"

It was a dreadful moment for Elizabeth, standing there between them in the silent hall. She could not bring herself to look at Charles, nor could she speak to Jenny, who seemed determined to trample on everybody's feelings in her own despair. She had been hurt and left with a crippled arm in a terrible accident which had somehow involved both Charles and his brother, and her aim was to see that Charles, at least, would never forget.

They crossed the hall in silence, but as they reached the sitting-room door a breath of cold air swept towards them from the stone-flagged passageway which led from the kitchen premises. It had an edge of ice in it, stabbing into the warmth of the quiet house.

"It's Natalie," said Jenny. "She's come for tea, after all. She must be very curious."

Charles opened the sitting-room door.

"In you go," he directed. "I'll tell her we're waiting."

He left them abruptly, walking along the short passageway to shut out the draught.

Mrs. Abercrombie looked up from her task of infusing the tea. She used a beautiful old silver tea-kettle which had been placed ready on a side table near her chair, and she made room for Elizabeth to sit down beside her.

"Come near to the fire, my child," she invited. "You look cold." She drew forward a comfortable chair. "There's a great difference between the temperatures of the Pacific and those of Scotland, and we're only a few days away from Hawaii, after all."

To Elizabeth those few days seemed more like a lifetime because it seemed that Charles had changed out of all recognition. He was now a man with a tragic love story behind him, a man unwilling, by his own admission, to forget.

The door opened and he was standing there with a tall girl by his side. Claire's sister. She knew that this must be Natalie Hodge, but she was hardly prepared for the look of naked hatred in the other girl's eyes as they were introduced.

"Natalie, this is Elizabeth Drummond," Mrs. Abercrombie said. "She will be here at the lodge for some time and I hope you will be willing to show her around."

The tall, dark girl moved from Charles's side into the centre of the room, her eyes turbulent as a storm-racked sky still fixed on Elizabeth, her hands tightly clenched by her side.

"I can't quite see how you are going to fit in at Kilchoan," she said frigidly. "We lead a very isolated life here. Perhaps you hadn't thought of that."

Elizabeth didn't know how to answer her.

"Sit down, Natalie," Mrs. Abercrombie commanded. "Elizabeth is my guest, and I would have you remember it."

Never before had Elizabeth heard her employer speak so sharply and to such apparent effect.

"I'm sorry!" Natalie Hodge apologised abruptly. "I was merely stating a well known fact."

"An opinion would be the better term." Adele turned to pour out the tea. "Charles, will you bring a small table for Elizabeth while Jenny passes some of those delicious sandwiches which have been making my mouth water ever since I came in," she added. "I'm sure everybody is ravenously hungry."

"Not for me," said Natalie, disdaining the tea and taking out a cigarette. "May I?" she enquired of her hostess with a small, hard smile.

"If you must. You smoke too much," Adele reminded her. "How is the pony, by the way? Jenny tells me you have a sickly one on your hands."

"I ought to have the vet in," Natalie frowned. "I was waiting to see what happened over the week-end."

"If it's a question of money you mustn't hesitate," Adele told her. "I don't like to see an animal suffer if we can do anything about it."

"You're very kind." Natalie's tone was dry. "I'll see about it in the morning." She rose to prowl across the room to the window where she could look out at the lochan. "How long are you here for this time, Charles?" she asked.

It was the same question as Jenny had put to him, but probably for a different reason.

"I may stay over the week-end." He bit into a sandwich. "Time I saw how things were going on."

"They're going on very well, even in your absence," Natalie told him. "Murdoch runs the estate like clockwork and I keep the wolf from the door at the stables for Jenny and myself. That's how it is; that's how it will always be, I suppose, unless you think differently one day."

"You know Charles would never turn you out," Adele said in an exasperated tone. "Don't be difficult, Natalie. He made you a promise and he'll keep it."

"A promise to Claire," said Natalie. "Yes, I know, but I also know how life can change, how circumstances can alter people. Even Charles," she added bitterly.

Charles put down his half-empty cup.

"If you would like me to take a look at that pony, Natalie," he suggested pointedly, "we'd better go down before it gets too dark. I'll get into touch with the vet in the morning if it really is serious."

Natalie swung round from the window.

"Thank you, Charles," she said, her face brightening. "We'll go right away, if you really don't want any more tea. I'm worried about the poor thing, and I can't afford a death at the moment. The season is just beginning, as you know."

Charles excused himself and they went out together, two tall, rather distinguished-looking figures in the failing light, while Elizabeth was left to wonder what they could possibly have in common. Jenny, too, seemed disturbed by their apparent intimacy, her uncertainty taking her to the window to watch them on their way to the stables. Mrs. Abercrombie sat bolt upright in her chair, frowning.

"For goodness' sake, Jenny, sit down!" she exclaimed after a moment. "You know how I hate people prowling when something is bothering them. What's the trouble?"

Jenny glanced in Elizabeth's direction.

"Nothing," she declared, coming back to stand beside the fire. "Nothing that can easily be put right, anyway. Did you have a wonderful time in Australia?" she asked as if the question led naturally from the previous one. "Did everything go according to plan?"

"You know nothing ever does!" A quick smile erased the frown from the old lady's brow. "We stopped off at Hawaii."

"Stopped off?" Jenny laughed. "You mean you stayed for several days, quite unexpectedly!"

Adele's eyes darkened.

"Henri Duroc died while I was there," she said.

"What a blessing Charles was with you .'" Jenny sank into the chair on the other side of the hearth. "He sent me a postcard from Waikiki," she explained. "Gorgeous dancing girls in grass skirts with flowers in their hair!"

The words stabbed into Elizabeth's heart, renewing the moonlit scene on the beach at Waikiki when she had stood alone with Charles, watching the sea.