“I am afraid that it is a bit late for the housemaid to unpack all your trunks tonight,” she said, “but I will send one up in the morning, if that will be all right.”

“I shall want very little tonight,” Carina answered, “but it would be very pleasant if someone could help me tomorrow.”

“They will be up in the morning,” Mrs. Barnstaple promised. “I ordered you some scrambled eggs, just in case you felt hungry.”

“That was most kind of you,” Carina exclaimed.

She looked down at the tray on the table and was too tactful to say that she felt too tired after the long difficult day to eat anything.

Mrs. Barnstaple seemed to hesitate for a moment in the doorway.

“Have you been teaching for long?” she enquired, almost as if she had been debating with herself as to whether or not she could ask the question.

“Not very long,” Carina answered.

“Perhaps this is your first position?” Mrs. Barnstaple hazarded.

Carina felt that there was no point in lying.

“Is it so obvious?” she asked with a smile. “I hoped that I was looking very experienced.”

“You look very young,” Mrs. Barnstaple said, moving towards the door. “If you will pardon me for offering you advice, I suggest that you lock your door.”

There was something in the dry cryptic sentence that made Carina stare after her, a little frightened.

What had she meant by that?

Then she remembered the men downstairs and the look in Sir Percy Rockley’s eyes as he had come into the hall and found her there. It was quiet up here. She could almost hear her own breathing.

She gave a little shiver and poured herself out some tea.

She tried to think that the darkness, the great house, the fantastic behaviour of Lord Lynche and his mother and the long journey had made her too tired and too emotional for her to be able to see anything clearly.

All she knew was that she was afraid – although why, she was not certain. There was something strange about the whole adventure which was making her heart seem to thump in her breast and her breath come unevenly.

“Why am I so foolish?” she asked herself pathetically out loud.

As she spoke, there was a heavy step outside the door and she felt her throat contract with fear as she waited for the knock.

Chapter 4

The sun was shining on the lake and the swans were gliding majestically to and fro on the smooth waters. There were ducks of exquisite plumage among the reeds and small birds singing in the bushes.

Carina felt her heart lighten and she chided herself for being so ridiculous the night before.

“How could I have been so stupid as to be frightened?” she asked aloud.