“Well, not busy with people. It’s the point for the goods trains because of its situation. One of the clerks told me that in all the times he’d filled in at Ardsley, he’d never sold a ticket on his middle term. I wish I could show it you, my notebook, only it’s disappeared.”

“When?”

“I looked for it when that business happened. I keep my stuff in a biscuit tin, up where I sleep. Everything was there except my railway notebook. Mr. Raynor said not to mention it. He said it’ll turn up.”

Alec suddenly grew quiet, as he glanced over my shoulder. Barely moving his lips, he said, “And he said not to tell anyone.”

As if mention of his name had conjured the butler, Raynor bore down on us. “I saw you coming back, Mrs. Shackleton. Has this young scallywag been wasting your time?”

“On the contrary, Raynor. I was taking up Alec’s time, insisting that he pose for me, but we’re done now.” I put away my camera. “Am I holding up lunch?”

“No, madam. Mrs. Brockman prefers a late Sunday dinner. The gong will be in about half an hour.”

“Thank you, Raynor.”

When he was out of earshot, I said, “Didn’t the landowner mind that you watched the trains?”

“Nobody ever chased me off. They all know me.”

“Who does own the land over there?”

“Some of it belongs to the railway, where the rails are—obviously. On this side it belongs to the Brockman estate and on the other side, that’s part of the Dell estate. But Mr. Dell’s a friend of the family here, so he wouldn’t have me turfed off.”

Chapter 20

Chapter Twenty

Milly claimed a bad head. She sat on her bed in the room at the top of the house, biting her nails, wishing herself somewhere else. She hated this room with two old oil paintings on the wall. Stags at bay. She felt sorry for the stags. The frames were backed with brown paper that had come loose and sometimes rattled when the door opened or if the wind blew through the top part of the window that wouldn’t ever shut right.

She told herself that she wasn’t biting her nails. She was biting the skin around one nail. Her mam said that she would not be kept on if she bit her nails. She didn’t want to be kept on. She wanted to be at home. But then she wouldn’t have met Stephen. Besides, there wasn’t enough food at home for everyone.

Milly felt proud of herself for speaking up today. When she arrived back at the manor, the housekeeper pointed to the clock. “What time do you call this?”

Milly answered that Mrs. Brockman’s guest had asked to go to chapel, and walk with the band.