‘How is Mrs Pendean?’ Josephine asked. ‘It must have been a terrible shock for her.’ 258

‘Yes, it was, but she’s remarkably resilient. I’ve just been down to see her, and she’s insisting on coming back to work to keep busy, even though there’s very little for her to do. This isn’t quite the house party we were planning.’ Hilaria smiled sadly, then added: ‘She’s a strong woman, and she knows her own mind. That hasn’t always made for the easiest of working relationships, I have to admit, but I can’t fault her loyalty.’

‘And she has a daughter?’ Josephine said.

‘Jenna, yes. She left us earlier this year, so it’s the Pendeans’ first Christmas without her. That can’t be easy.’

‘Do you mean she died?’

‘What? Oh no, that wasn’t a euphemism. Jenna took holy orders.’

‘She’s a nun?’ Josephine had to hide a smile at the unabashed horror in Marta’s question.

‘A novice, yes. She takes her final vows in a couple of months.’

‘Then she might as well be dead as far as her mother’s concerned,’ Marta said. ‘I’m not surprised Mrs Pendean’s upset.’

‘Upset?’

Josephine repeated their conversation from the night before, and Hilaria sighed. ‘Yes, she’s still grieving, I suppose – that is the only word for it. It’s put a great strain on them both, but on her in particular. She and Jenna were always so close.’

‘It’s not the sort of loss you expect to have to deal with, is it?’

‘No. It’s a great source of pride for the island, of course, a link back to our past, but at what personal cost?’ She paused for a moment, and Josephine wondered what she was going to say. ‘The convent asked me for a letter of testimony,’ she 259admitted. ‘It’s standard procedure, apparently, to ask people about the candidate’s life, but it put me in an impossible position.’

‘Because she wasn’t suitable?’

‘No, precisely the opposite. It felt like a betrayal either way – the girl’s wishes, weighed against the mother’s love. I was having that very conversation with poor Richard only last night.’

Josephine was quiet for a moment, struck by the intense, everyday sadnesses that were simultaneously hidden and aggravated by Christmas, borne stoically behind closed doors. ‘Did Mrs Pendean know Emily Soper well?’ she asked.

‘Oh yes, they’ve been friends for most of their lives. She was telling me just now how guilty she felt about her death, when—’

‘Guilty?’

‘Yes. She was punishing herself for not checking on Emily as soon as she realised that she wasn’t at the morning service. She wouldn’t have missed that for the world. I told her it would have made no difference by then, but she wouldn’t have it.’

‘Did you tell her that Mrs Soper was missing from church?’

Hilaria looked surprised by the question. ‘No, I didn’t mention it. She brought it up, so she must have noticed herself.’

‘But she couldn’t have done,’ Josephine insisted. ‘The Pendeans arrived late, if you remember, and they never got to the church. Mrs Pendean was so upset by what she saw on the tower that she went straight back to the castle. She wouldn’t have had a chance to look at the congregation, so how could she possibly know that Emily Soper wasn’t there?’