I swung the door open and returned to the bed, deliberately not looking at my dress in a heap on the floor.
Wenna handed me the tray. ‘It’s a lovely day, Charlotte. You should try to get out for a walk. It will put some colour into those pale cheeks of yours.’
Before I could stop her, she bent down and picked up my dress.
‘Untidy child!’ she reproved me, smiling, and then stared in fascination as a gleaming diamond brooch fell onto the carpet. ‘It’s lovely!’ she said softly. ‘Your mother has been to see you again. No, don’t say anything at all.’ Reverently she placed the brooch beside me on the bed.
‘How could anyone get in here?’ I said in horror. ‘Are they any spare keys, do you know?’
Wenna shook her head. ‘Your mother wouldn’t need a key, child. Come now, don’t be upset. She wants you to be happy.’
I managed to pull myself together. ‘Thank you, Wenna; you are right, of course. There’s no need to get upset.’
I watched as she went out, then took the tea and threw it out of the window as far as it would go.
‘She’s mad! I don’t believe in spirits, especially ones who bring gifts like this,’ I said aloud.
Defiantly I wore the brooch down to breakfast and saw with triumph how Greyson’s eyes rested in amazement on the flashing stones.
‘Another gift,’ I said abruptly. ‘It came in the night, even though my door and windows were locked. Do you believe in the supernatural, Greyson?’
He looked at me through tired eyes, and I was sorry for the hostility in my voice.
‘There must be some logical explanation,’ he said quietly, and the words were like an accusation.
‘Well, one thing is certain,’ I said sarcastically. ‘You only have to wait a little while, and the family heirlooms will all be returned to you. I’ll trade them gladly for the deeds to Winston.’
He stared at me with distaste. ‘Keep them all, if you like. You are certainly putting on a convincing performance.’
Wenna bustled in and placed some fresh tea on the table.
‘Come along now, you two; you are not quarrelling, surely?’ she said brightly, though her eyes missed nothing.
‘Why should we quarrel?’ Greyson said quietly. ‘So long as Charlotte gets what she wants, she is quite amenable.’
I rose and left the table, my colour high and my hands shaking. Obviously, the sight of the brooch had convinced my cousin that I was a fortune hunter who had somehow found the key to the missing riches.
He came up to my room later and checked the windows, then tested the lock on the door.
‘No one could possibly have gotten in,’ he said. ‘Could the brooch have been planted here last night?’
I shook my head. ‘I’ve thought of that. I took my dress off after I’d locked the door and windows, and there was certainly no brooch then.’
Greyson sat down and looked thoughtfully around, his sharp eyes searching the walls.
‘There could, of course, be a concealed doorway,’ he said thoughtfully.
‘The passages!’ I said excitedly. ‘It’s just possible that some of them cross to the house.’
Greyson leaned against the wall and looked at me. He crossed his arms and waited for an explanation.
‘One day Edmund found a trap door in the chapel. Surely you knew it was there?’ I looked at Greyson incredulously as he shook his head. ‘Well, down beneath it, there were passages leading off in all directions. I got shut down there.’
I stopped, not knowing how to tell him that a strange unknown person had taken my hand and led me to a way out.
‘And Edmund?’ Greyson asked, his eyebrows raised.
I smoothed down the skirt of my dress and frowned. ‘He got out somehow. I forgot to ask him about it.’
I looked up and saw that Greyson was considering what I had said. His eyes met mine in a long look.
‘Well, well, it seems as though I’ve underestimated good old Edmund,’ he said. ‘He wants to marry you, doesn’t he?’ He came and sat beside me.
I nodded. ‘I’ve never made any secret of it, and neither has he. It’s probably what Aunt Grace wanted.’
Greyson shook his head. ‘No, that’s not what Aunt Grace wanted at all, Charlotte.’
‘How on earth do you know that?’ I said angrily. ‘I lived with her, remember?’
He smiled. ‘But I was her heir; and along with her papers was a letter for me. She wanted you to marry me.’
Unaccountably, my heart was beating faster. I lowered my eyes, trying to turn away from his penetrating gaze.
‘Why would she want that?’ I asked in a muffled voice.
‘Why indeed?’ he said, and the amusement in his voice was apparent as he continued to stare at me.
Suddenly his lips were close to mine. He turned my face with his hand, and I no longer wished to struggle. I closed my eyes, waiting breathlessly.
His kiss was so light, I hardly felt it. He moved away and disappointed, I looked up at him.
‘There is really no need to play fast and loose with my affections.’ My voice shook in spite of myself, and I flounced angrily past him. ‘I’m going out!’ I said. ‘And when I come back, I don’t want to see you in my room!’
He shrugged mockingly. ‘I was only trying to help, but go on out if you want to. I’m not going to stop you.’
I ran down the stairs and out into the fresh spring breeze. Somewhere behind me I heard a voice calling, but I took no notice.
I followed the road leading in the opposite direction from Graig Melyn. I didn’t want anyone from the town to see me like this. I’d gone only a few hundred yards when I heard someone running behind me. I turned to see Greyson, a grin on his lace and his dark hair driven all over the place by the breeze.
‘Charlotte, you must be cold!’ he called, and caught up with me, gasping for breath.
‘Not a bit!’ I said, staring straight ahead.
He fell into step behind me.
‘What a shame. I seem to have brought my cloak with me for nothing, then,’ he said, and burst out laughing.
‘Oh, give it here!’
I snatched it out of his hands and wrapped it around my shoulders, thankful for its warmth.
‘Where are we going?’ he asked, and his voice had a cheerful ring to it such as I hadn’t heard in a long time.
‘I’m going for a walk,’ I said haughtily.
He caught up with me easily and put his arm around my shoulder, drawing me in closer to protect me from the breeze.
‘We’ll just forget all our troubles and enjoy our walk, shall we?’ he said softly, and I closed my eyes for a moment, drinking in the softness of the air and the drowsy scents that drifted from the mountain flowers.
‘It would be wonderful if things could always be this peaceful and uncomplicated.’ I breathed deeply. ‘I feel I could walk for miles.’
‘Well, let us do just that!’ Greyson smiled down at me in a challenge. ‘We’ll walk until we get tired and then find a place to eat. There are plenty of inns along this road. Then when we’ve had enough, we can turn around and go back again.’
‘Why not?’ I laughed for the sheer joy of being in his company when he was in such a happy mood.
Although we kept the conversation light, there was an instant feeling of communication between us; it was almost as if we could read each other’s thoughts before they were spoken. We found a great deal to laugh at, and by the time we found an inn, I was completely relaxed and very hungry.
It was called The Crow’s Nest, not surprisingly, as it hung precariously on the side of the mountain, looking as if the lightest of showers would dislodge it.
I sat down thankfully and stretched my feet out toward the bright fire which, even on a warm spring day, was a necessity because of the way the wind whistled around the walls. The smiling landlord attended to us immediately, and soon I was ravenously eating a whole chicken and ham pie.
‘I’m glad to see you are bette
r now, Charlotte,’ Greyson said in all seriousness. ‘Several weeks ago you weren’t eating enough to keep a bird alive.’
A cloud dimmed my happiness as I thought of the countless cups of tea I’d thrown away. If I’d been drinking them, I’d have been dead by now, I was convinced.
Aware of my change of mood, Greyson leaned forward. ‘What’s wrong, Charlotte? Have I said something to upset you?’
For a moment, I was tempted to tell him everything, but some sense of caution halted me. How did I know that it wasn’t Greyson himself who had been administering the poison?
‘Oh, no, nothing’s wrong. I’m just more tired than I thought, I suppose.’
‘Come along then; we’ll start back and take it slowly. I’m a fool to have let you do too much.’
With his arm around me, how could I believe him capable of murder? I leaned against him, my eyes closed, feeling the sun strike warmly against my cheeks. I loved him achingly, and yet I hardly knew what to believe.
Suddenly he let me go, and I opened my eyes wide in astonishment to see him run along the road after a small pony and trap.
I hurried as best I could, tripping over the stones and bits of shrubbery that jutted out all over the place, and saw to my horror that Greyson was attempting to leap onto the back of the cart. I held my breath until I saw his legs swing up and over, and then he had a good footing. He brought the pony to a halt and looked back, waving to me to join him.
I was breathless when he almost lifted me off the ground and deposited me on the wooden seat.
‘Charlotte, I want you to meet an old friend of mine,’ he said, and I glanced sharply at the elderly lady covered with a shawl who sat limply holding the reins in her gnarled hands. ‘I hope you don’t mind, but we are going visiting,’ Greyson said, and took over the handling of the pony, flicking him lightly so that he broke into a brisk trot down the uneven track.
I was bewildered, but Greyson seemed so angry that I was afraid to question him. I just sat where I was and waited to see what would happen.
We stopped eventually outside an old cottage, and at once I recognised it as the one he’d brought me to, to meet Mrs Grifiths.
‘Here we are.’ Greyson helped me down and then turned to the old lady. ‘Come along, Mrs Grifiths; I think you’ve got some explaining to do.’
Inside the cottage everything gleamed, a far different picture from the one we’d seen when we’d looked through the window before.
‘Was it money?’ Greyson asked bluntly, and the old lady sank down into a chair, nodding her head.
‘Greyson, will you explain what’s going on?’ I said, watching in amazement as he replenished the fire and placed a kettle of water on it as if every inch of the room were familiar to him.
‘I told you that the Grifiths family were old friends, didn’t I?’ he said quietly. ‘And before you were taken to England, you were left for a few months in this lady’s capable hands. That’s why I knew she could identify the real Charlotte.’
‘But why didn’t Wenna look after me?’ I said. ‘She wanted to!’
I sat down on the small stool of polished oak, holding my hands toward the fire.
‘She was ill,’ Greyson said briefly, and went to stand before the old lady. ‘I was only about eight years old myself, but Father used to bring me here often. We had quite a lot of money in those days, and I don’t think Mrs Grifiths ever suffered from a lack of generosity on the part of my father, or yours, when he was alive.’
Mrs. Grifiths looked down at her hands; so far she hadn’t spoken a word.
Greyson crouched on his heels before her. ‘Why did you frighten me like this? And who was it who paid you?’
She shook her head and stared at him as if he had a viper hidden inside his coat.
‘Go away. Leave decent folks alone!’ she said sharply, and there was something in the way she glanced at the door behind her that brought prickles to my spine.
I don’t know if my nerves were alert, or if my imagination was playing tricks on me, but I thought I heard a noise in the distant room.
‘Come along, Greyson. Leave Mrs Grifiths to rest. Perhaps we can call on her another day.’
I tried to signal to him with my eyes, and he seemed to know there was a reason for my words.
‘We’ll take your pony and trap, if you don’t mind,’ he said, and got to his feet, dropping some money onto the table. ‘You’ll have it back first thing in the morning, don’t worry.’
With an angry gesture, she pushed the coins onto the floor.
‘Take it back!’ she said. ‘There are some things more important than money.’
I was relieved that we didn’t have to walk all the way back to the Plas. Dusk was falling over the mountain tops and creeping across the valley like a dark lace shawl.
‘Well, what did you make of that, Charlotte?’ Greyson asked, and for once he seemed at a loss.
‘She’s got someone in that house, I’m pretty— someone she’s afraid of.’
‘Why do you say that?’ Greyson asked in surprise, glancing back over his shoulder to where the cottage nestled among the trees.
‘A feeling mostly, but I think I heard a movement in the other room. Didn’t you see the way she looked at the door?’
Greyson was silent. I could hear the wind whipping around us like the cry of a hundred birds. I shivered and huddled closer against his shoulder.
‘I’m frightened,’ I said suddenly. ‘I can’t explain it, but I feel we are not alone out here.’
‘Don’t worry, Charlotte; you are safe with me,’ he said. And as the moon began to slide out like a pale moth against the sky, I saw him smile down at me reassuringly.
To my relief, I finally saw the lights of Plas Melyn appear like fireflies along the coastline.
‘Wenna will be worried,’ Greyson said. ‘She’s put candles in every window, I’d say, wouldn’t you?’
‘Look!’ I said, grasping his arm. ‘There on the island. Someone is there with a lamp.’
Unmistakably, there was a light, and the stark arms of a cross rose against the silver sky.
‘Yes, I see it,’ Greyson said. ‘What on earth would anyone be doing out there now? And with a cross?’
‘Thank God I’m not seeing things!’ I was so relieved I could hardly get the words out. ‘I was beginning to think I was going mad.’
The island was hidden from us for some of the way as the road cut deeply into the mountainside. Then we were drawing nearer to the Plas, and as Greyson clucked his tongue to stop the pony, I saw that there was nothing out there but the sea and the little hump of land.
Greyson stood beside me, his arm around my shoulder. ‘It seems we are having visions, my dear Charlotte, except that I, for one, don’t believe in them.’
Wenna was almost hysterical when we went inside. She rushed toward us and fussed around as if we were tiny children who had been lost in the darkness.
‘Come into the kitchen, and I’ll make you something hot,’ she said. Her hands were shaking so much that she was forced to clutch the dark material of her dress to control them.
‘Don’t worry,’ Greyson said easily. ‘You go to bed, Wenna. Charlotte and I will find something for ourselves.’
I turned to say something to her, but there was such a look of hatred in her eyes that it took my breath away. Without another word, she left us, and I followed Greyson into the kitchen, feeling as though I’d been condemned to death.
Chapter Nine
I had almost decided to walk down to the beach when it began to rain. Large dots of moisture spread themselves on the windowpanes as if trying to get into the warmth of the room.
‘Not thinking of going out, are you?’ Greyson asked as he walked past me, dressed in his big coat.
‘No, I’m not now,’ I said. ‘But you obviously intend to.’ I walked with him to the door, breathing in the chill night air.
‘I’m going over to the chapel,’ Greyson said. ‘I don’t want anyone to know I
’m there, so don’t say a word.’
‘But, Greyson,’ I said urgently, ‘it could be dangerous, especially if you don’t know the passages.’
‘Don’t worry about me,’ he said. ‘If you can find your way around, I’m sure I can. I know the lay of the land, for one thing.’
‘Leave it till morning, at least,’ I suggested. But he was gone, striding through the darkness.
I shrugged and closed the door. He was big enough to take care of himself, and anyway, what did he have to fear? I went into the library, chiding myself for my foolishness. But just the same, I couldn’t help being uneasy.
By chance, I took down the same book as before and stared at my name written on the yellow page.
‘My poor father,’ I said aloud, and then laughed at myself and sat before the fire, the book in my lap.
A thought suddenly occurred to me. No doubt my father had imagined I would grow up at the Plas; otherwise why had he left a book with my name on it? Yet he must have known his brother would have his estate. I shrugged. What was one book, anyway?
I leafed through the pages, and most of the words meant nothing to me. Unfortunately, my lessons in Welsh seemed to have come to an end.
A single word was scrawled on the back pages, filling both sides of the book. I couldn’t understand it, but there seemed to be an angry ring to it.
‘“Bradwr,”’ I said softly. ‘Now what does “Bradwr” mean?’
I should have to ask Wenna, if I could catch her in a good mood. I leaned back in the chair and closed my eyes. It was peaceful in the library, and the rain rattling in earnest against the windows made me glad of the warm fire.
I must have dozed a little, because when I opened my eyes again the candles had burned down and the fire was low in the grate. I sat up, shivering, and wondered if Greyson had returned. It was silly of me to worry about him, but somehow I couldn’t help myself.
I looked into the kitchen, and it was silent and empty. It seemed larger than usual in the darkness, and, shuddering, I closed the door.
There was no one in the drawing room, either, and I came to the conclusion it must be very late and everyone was in bed.
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