The Reluctant Widow Read online

  ‘Yes, decidedly. In fact, he spoke of being aware of the confusion your cousin’s affairs must be in, and he offered to assist me in getting his papers into order.’

  Nicky looked fixedly at her. ‘He did, did he? Now, why should you need the help of some stranger when it is perfectly well known that my cousin had any number of relatives whom you would apply to if you needed help? By Jove, you have hit upon it, ma’am! Your precious visitor came here to get something from Eustace, and his wanting to go through his papers proves it! Oh, this is famous! Let us go downstairs at once, and hunt for what it may be!’

  ‘No, that you shall not!’ declared Elinor roundly. ‘Your brother left all those papers in my charge, and no one must look at them but himself and the lawyer who is joined with him as an executor to your cousin’s Will! Besides, it is nonsense! What could there be that anyone should want?’

  ‘I don’t know, but I’ll swear there is something! Of course, it may not be a paper: I wonder if Eustace had stolen something of value? He was always under the hatches, and –’

  ‘I will not allow it to be possible!’ said Elinor. ‘Do you wish me to believe that your cousin was a common thief? Such a notion must be absurd!’

  ‘Well, he stole Harry’s best fishing-rod once,’ argued Nicky. ‘Harry drew his cork for it, what’s more, and he ran to my aunt saying how brutally he had been used. He was the most cow-hearted fellow imaginable!’

  ‘I dare say, but there is a difference between a boy’s borrowing what does not belong to him, and –’

  ‘He didn’t borrow it! He stole it, and swore he had no notion where it was! Only Harry had a pretty strong guess where he had hidden it, and he found it. If you don’t believe me, you may ask Ned! And though it is not a thing we speak of in a general way it was for stealing that he was expelled from Eton. At least, he would have been, only that Ned prevailed on them to let him remove him, with nothing said as to the cause.’

  ‘Good God!’ said Elinor bitterly. ‘A pretty husband I was married to, to be sure!’

  ‘Oh, he was a shocking fellow!’ said Nicky cheerfully. ‘So you see –’

  ‘I do not care how shocking he may have been, I will not permit you to tamper with his papers!’ said Elinor, with resolution. ‘It would be most improper in me. Besides, I do not set the least store by all this nonsense! You have refined too much upon what must have some quite simple explanation.’

  ‘I’ll lay you odds you are wrong!’ offered Nicky. ‘Of course, if you think I should not look at Eustace’s papers I will not do so. I think I should go back to the Hall, and tell Ned what we have discovered. I dare say he may have returned by this time.’

  ‘Yes, I think you should,’ said Elinor thankfully. ‘But I wish you will secure that door before you go!’

  ‘No, no, we must on no account do so!’ he replied. ‘I am in great hopes that that fellow will come back again. Indeed, I would wager a pony he will, and we don’t wish to scare him off!’ he smiled engagingly at his fascinated hostess. ‘Now, do we, Cousin Elinor?’

  ‘Certainly not!’ she said, rising nobly to this occasion. ‘If he should come again, I will offer him refreshment. If only I had thought of it earlier! I do trust my inhospitality may not have given him a distaste of this house!’

  ‘I knew you were a right one!’ Nicky said. ‘But do be serious, ma’am! You see, if I am in the right of it, and I do think I may be, he will come to get whatever it is he wants, and we must lie in wait for him, and catch him red-handed. I know Ned would say so!’

  ‘I can readily believe he would,’ said Elinor sardonically.

  Nicky replaced the trap-door, and shut the cupboard. ‘I do not see that there is anything more we can do here at this present,’ he said. ‘Let us go downstairs again, cousin. And you must not say a word of this to the Barrows, you know, for besides that we do not wish anyone to know what we have discovered, ten to one they would take fright, and run away, leaving you alone here, and that would not do at all.’

  ‘At last you have uttered a sentiment with which I find myself in profound agreement!’ said Elinor. ‘But do not delude yourself into fancying that I mean to spend another night in this house with that dreadful door unsecured, for nothing would induce me to do so! Though, to be sure, I have not the least expectation of receiving another such visit from that man!’

  He followed her down the stairs. ‘Well, if you have not, you cannot have the least objection to my leaving that door open,’ he said reasonably.

  She entered the book-room, and sat down by the fire. ‘I should not, I know,’ she confessed. ‘But females have such unaccountable fancies! You will think me as paltry a creature as your cousin, I dare say, but I must own that there is something very disagreeable to me in the thought that there is a way into this house which is used by one whom you have assured me must be an ugly customer. In fact, even now, in broad daylight, I find I cannot be easy in my mind, and quite dread being obliged to go upstairs.’

  ‘Oh, you need be under no apprehension, ma’am!’ he assured her. ‘There can be no fear of anyone’s entering that door during the daylight! But I’ll tell you what! While I ride back to the Hall to tell Ned about this, I’ll leave Bouncer to guard you. You will be quite at your ease then, for he is pretty fierce, I can tell you! He took a bite out of the blacksmith’s leg only the other day. He is a splendid dog, and only quite young yet!’

  She looked dubiously at the dog, who was stretched out before the fire, fast asleep. ‘Well, if you think...But perhaps he will not stay, if you go.’

  ‘Yes, he will. I have been training him to do all manner of tricks! Here, Bouncer! Here, boy!’

  The hound awoke, and sat up, dipping his ears, and panting fondly at his master. Nicky patted him invigoratingly. ‘Good dog, Bouncer!’ he said. ‘Now, you stay here, and guard her! Do you understand, sir? Sit! That’s it! On guard, Bouncer, mind!’ He straightened himself, regarding his pet proudly. ‘You can see how he understands me, can you not?’ he said. ‘I’ll be off at once. Don’t put yourself to the trouble of coming to the door with me! And don’t be in the fidgets, will you, cousin? I shall be back almost directly, and I will bring Ned to you, Sit, Bouncer! On guard!’

  He left the room as he spoke, taking the precaution of shutting the door behind him. The faithful Bouncer bounded over to it, sniffed long and loud at the crack, uttered a whine, and scratched at the panel. Finding it immovable, he returned to the fire, and lay down with his head on his paws, and his eyes fixed on Elinor.

  She leaned back in her chair, really a good deal upset by the discovery of the secret stairway, and feeling the need of a period of quiet during which she might compose her mind. Common sense assured her that Nicky’s theories could be nothing more than the products of an ardent imagination, but try as she would she could not hit upon a more reasonable explanation of the Frenchman’s presence in the house on the previous night. He had not seemed to her at all the sort of young man to have made use of the secret door from a high-spirited desire to give his host a fright; nor could she believe him to have been a common housebreaker. Some motive he must have had, but what this was she was much inclined to think no one but himself would ever know. That he would return in the same manner seemed to her to go beyond the bounds of probability, yet however irrational it might be she could not think of that secret stair without feeling her pulses beat fast with trepidation.

  She did her best to shake off such foolish fears, and told herself she would be better employed in sorting the linen than in sitting thinking herself into nervous spasms. She got up out of her chair, and would have walked over to the door had it not been unmistakably brought home to her that the intelligent hound at her feet was labouring under some confusion of ideas. He too rose, and with bristles lifting all along his back, and his lips curling away from a set of admirable teeth, placed himself before her, growling.

  Elinor stood still, lo