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in a few weeks.’
    He nodded briskly. ‘Yes, of course. I was forgetting.' He leaned across and opened her door for her and as he did so she could smell the tang of the sea clinging to him. ‘School, of course, is the answer. She should be sent away to school.’
    ‘If you did that she might feel that you were rejecting her altogether,' Rachel said thoughtfully. She smiled. ‘She's obviously very attached to Ben, I’ve seen her with him several times .....'
    Richard started up the car. ‘As you say, you're only here for a holiday. Melanie’s not your problem, so there’s no need for you to worry about her.’ His mood seemed to have changed abruptly and he was impatient to be off.
    Rachel got out of the car. ‘That’s not what I meant at all and you know it,’ she said. ‘If I can help with Melanie I will, but it would be a mistake to gain her confidence and then go away and leave her.’
    ‘Yes, of course, you’re right.’ Richard drove off, leaving Rachel to gaze after him. She felt so sorry for him; even with so many people around he was a solitary figure, and she wished there was some way she could help, but however hard she tried, whenever she was with him she always seemed to end up saying or doing the wrong thing. Was she simply tactless, or was it just that he heartily disliked her?
     
    ‘You’re very quiet tonight, my girl.’ Aunt Rose was sitting on one side of the fire in the cosy cottage kitchen, crocheting busily, while Rachel sat on the other, a book in her hand, gazing into the fire, which, although the day had been warm, was cheerful and bright. Rachel looked up; her thoughts had been far away on her conversation with Richard earlier. ‘Mind,’ Rose went on, ‘I believe your holiday is doing you good. You’re certainly beginning to look healthier—in fact, I believe you’re putting on weight.'
    ‘Oh, Auntie, I hope not,’ Rachel laughed. ‘That would mean I’d have to cut down on your delicious baking, and I’d hate that.’
    Aunt Rose smiled. ‘It’s good to hear you laugh. There was barely a smile on your face when you first came. You like it here?’
    ‘I love it. But who wouldn’t? It’s all so incredibly beautiful.’
    ‘She didn’t.’
    Rachel looked up, startled at the vehemence in her aunt’s tone.
    ‘Who do you mean?’
    Why, Richard’s wife, of course. She hated it.’ Aunt Rose’s crochet hook seemed to fly even faster as she spoke. ‘Said she found it boring. Missed the social life she’d been used to. She should never have ... but never mind.’ She looked up at Rachel and smiled. ‘Tell me about the family, my girl. It’s so long since I saw your father.’
    Although she was puzzled at the older woman’s outburst Rachel took the hint and didn’t question her further. ‘You could come back with me to see them; I know Dad would love to see you,’ she suggested. ‘And I’m sure you could do with a holiday. Sometimes you don’t look at all well. Are you working too hard, Auntie? Or worrying too much over Melanie?’
    Aunt Rose nodded. ‘It’s true, I do worry over the child, she’s been through so much.’
    ‘She misses her mother?’
    ‘She spends far too much time running wild over the Estate. She's becoming like a wild creature, like the roe deer that you glimpse in the woods.’
    ‘Ben seems to understand her. She loves to be with him, it seems.’
    ‘Ben is the last person she should trust.'
    ‘Whatever do you mean, Auntie?’ Rachel asked in surprise.
    ‘Nothing. Nothing at all.’ Rose gathered up her crocheting and busied herself with the supper.
    Rachel didn’t question her further. It was obvious from her manner that her aunt had already said more than she had intended. But she was puzzled.
    The next day Rachel went up to the Big House, as Rose called it, with her aunt, and Rose proudly showed her over it. All the rooms were cared for in strict rotation, even the parts that were seldom used. One wing was like a small stately