“I don’t know,” Rose said. “That’s the problem. I just don’t know. Should I just admit defeat, tell him he can have a divorce and go quietly back to my old life, or should I wait around for the ax to fall?”

I didn’t know what to say, but Belinda said, “Rose, I’m sure it’s all in your head. Jonquil had a tragic accident and nothing you’ve said makes me think you are really in danger.”

“The problem is that I have nobody to turn to here,” Rose said. “My mum is far away in Bath. I never lived here, of course. I just came in during the holidays to stay with Mum at your granny’s house. So I was a summer visitor like you. So there is nobody . . . that’s why it seemed like such a miracle when I spotted you yesterday. Now I’ve got allies. Now I’ll have proof.”

No sooner had she finished the words than a pebble bounced down from unseen heights, landing with a thud on the beach beside us. It was followed by another, then another.

Rose grabbed at my arm. “You see,” she whispered. “Someone has followed us. Someone is up there and any minute now a rock will fall on our heads.”

“I’m sure it was just a bird landing on the cliff, dislodging some loose stones. You can hear them calling up there, can’t you?”

“We must go back,” Rose said. “We shouldn’t stay down here any longer.”

And she started toward the steps.

Belinda glanced at me again, then set off after Rose. I followed up in the rear, and found myself peering up into the mist above the cliffs. Like Belinda, I had thought that Rose was imagining things, but when the rocks started to rain onto us, I was not so sure.

Chapter 13

OCTOBER 17

TREWOMA, CORNWALL

Are we really living in a house of horrors? When Tony came home for lunch he seemed jovial and relaxed and I couldn’t believe any of the things Rose was suggesting. But down on that beach—for a moment I wasn’t so sure.