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“It—seems a good idea,” Meg acknowledged, but her heart sank. Perhaps, in the future, she might come to stay with Uncle Andra and his wife, but it wouldn’t be the same. Hector and Fiona would be married and the friendliness he had shown towards her of late would be—well, it would be different. Fiona would see to that!

“I think so,” Aunt Ellen replied. “Of course, you’ll live with us—”

But here Meg had her own ideas.

“For a little while—and I’d like to regard it as—as a sort of base,” she explained diffidently because she didn’t want to hurt Aunt Ellen’s feelings. “But I must find a job and I’d rather like to—to strike out a bit on my own—”

To her relief, Aunt Ellen accepted that without argument. Indeed, she nodded approvingly.

“A good idea,” she said placidly. “You’ve had all too much of living with elderly relatives and taking on their burdens. It’s time you had a life of your own!”

A life of her own! That was the last thing Meg wanted. But since she couldn’t share it with the one person who mattered more than all the rest of the world put together, then the sooner she faced up to it, the better.

At least, since Fiona was still away, she would be spared leaving her in triumphant possession. That would have been the last straw!

Time seemed to fly. Before it seemed possible the last full day had come. Most of the luggage was packed, Tom Farmer and Meg had checked up the two cars for petrol, oil and water and then there was nothing to do but fill in time as best one might. That seemed to present no difficulties to Aunt Ellen and Uncle Tom, but for Meg it was another matter. She had cleared up all the backlog of office work for Hector and when she asked him if there was anything more she could do, he told her that there wasn’t and that he’d not been so up to date since the estate had been his.

“You’ve been invaluable, Meg,” he told her, taking her hand in his. “I don’t know what I shall do without you!”

Meg allowed her hand to stay where it was long enough so that it shouldn’t seem as if she was snatching it away. Then she quietly released herself.

“I’m very glad to have been of use,” she told him lightly. “It’s been little enough seeing how much you’ve done for us and really, I’ve quite enjoyed the work. I hadn’t realised before that running an estate is much like running any other business.”

“Much the same,” he agreed absently. “A lot of detail, quite a bit of anxiety but some very real satisfaction. Which reminds me, Bradley has evidently got the job he was after. Not that he told me. Simply, they cleared out yesterday. I wouldn’t have known anything about it, only that Chapman happened to pass that way and, of course—”

“Mrs Chapman, being Agnes’s cousin, passed the news on to her and
she
told
you
\” Meg finished resignedly. “What a place this is for news getting around!”

“It is,” Hector agreed grimly. “But it doesn’t always do to accept it as true on that account. In fact, in my experience—”

He was interrupted by the telephone ringing and Meg went into her own little room, painfully tidy now and reminding her afresh how time was running out. After a time Hector finished his conversation and stood leaning against the frame of the door between their two rooms.

“Meg, I’m going over to Woodvale Farm to see just what sort of a muck they’ve left it in. Will you come with me?”

“Oh—” Meg hesitated. Part of her cried out to say that she would, but suddenly her courage failed her. At all costs she must leave Blytheburn without giving Hector any chance of even suspecting how she felt towards him and the close companionship of another ride with him could so easily break down her defences. “I’d love to,” she said with perfect truth. “Only—” she grabbed at the first excuse which came to her mind, “I’m rather expecting Jeremy to ring up—”

“Fair enough,” Hector said casually. “I’d heard he was back, of course—” and he went back to his own room.

And that was something Meg hadn’t heard. The last she had heard from Jeremy had been a brief note several days previously in which he had said that he would be delayed longer than he had anticipated and once more repeating that he would get in touch with her as soon as he returned. Well now, apparently, he was back and yet he hadn’t let her know. It was rather odd and she wondered whether, seeing that she was leaving the next day, she should ring him up. If so, then the office was the most private place to do it from. But while she was still deliberating, to her astonishment, Jeremy was shown in.

“I’m afraid Sir Hector is out—” Meg said as the maid left. “And I’m not sure how long he’ll be.”

“I didn’t come to see him,” Jeremy replied crisply. “I came to see you, Meg. And I only hope I’m not too late—that is, if it’s true that you’re leaving Blytheburn tomorrow?”

“Quite true,” Meg told him. So, once again, the local grapevine had done its work!

“Then you don’t know?” Jeremy asked urgently.

Meg felt herself tense.

“Know what?” she asked, hardly above a whisper.

Jeremy walked over to the window and stood staring out as if he found it difficult to explain. Then he turned suddenly.

“Fiona lied when she said that she and Heronshaw were going to get married,” he said harshly.

Involuntarily Meg clutched at the edge of her desk with both hands and turned a white face up to Jeremy.

“You’d better hear the whole story,” he said bleakly. “Not that I wouldn’t prefer to hold my tongue, but it’s only fair—” he paused. “Just before I had to go up to Scotland, you all had dinner with Heronshaw— except Fiona, whom he very pointedly didn’t ask?”

“It was more than that,” Meg explained. “She’d been very unpleasant over us staying at Heronshaw House and Hector told her point blank and in front of us all that he wasn’t asking her as he knew she would be bored. She was—very angry, but afterwards apparently they talked things over, or rather, Hector gave her an ultimatum—that he wanted an answer then and there with no more nonsense. And she agreed to marry him at Christmas.”

“Good lord!” Jeremy said disgustedly. “What an appalling little liar she is! No, Meg, the truth is that the ultimatum Heronshaw gave her was on very different lines. He told her that he’d had enough of her and that she was to leave Blytheburn as soon as possible and would not come back here again.”

Meg stared at him blankly.

“But you can’t be right, Jeremy!” she protested. “I mean, Hector went with her up to London—”

“Probably to make sure that she really cleared out,” Jeremy suggested grimly. “What else?”

“That she was going to see about her trousseau—and Hector was going to buy the engagement ring—” Meg explained. “Jeremy, that must be true! I mean, surely she wouldn’t have been so stupid as to tell a lie which events wouldn’t substantiate. It would be so pointless.”

“Not to a person with a mind like Fiona’s,” Jeremy insisted. “For one thing, it saved her face, so far as you were concerned, and for another—she’d always regarded Heronshaw as her property and right from the beginning she’s hated you because she thought you might be able to hook him—”

“Jeremy, don’t!” Meg besought him, sick at heart.

“All right, I won’t. But it’s true, none the less. It was her last malicious attempt to poison your mind—look, Meg, I know it isn’t pleasant to find out just how rotten someone is—of all people I should know! But in fairness to Heronshaw—”

It was the one argument which Meg couldn’t resist and though she didn’t reply, neither did she stop him.

“After that final split with Heronshaw, she came over to see me.”

“Did she?” Meg said in surprise. “But I thought you and she—”

“Were all washed up? So did I, though, like a fool, just at first, I thought that perhaps, after all—” he laughed bitterly. “She was quite convincing, you see. She was overwrought to the point of hysteria, but that she explained by saying that she’d realised that after all she couldn’t possibly marry Heronshaw but that when she’d told him so, he’d threatened her—”

“But what nonsense!” Meg exclaimed indignantly. “He’s her guardian, of course, and he’s got some control over her money, but we’re not living in Victorian times! What could he have done to make her marry him?”

“That’s what I asked,” Jeremy replied grimly, his face twisted and grey. “But she clung to me and insisted that it was me she cared for. She begged me to marry her at once so that she’d be safe—” Again he paused. “I don’t know just why, perhaps it was that she rather overplayed it, or else there was something in her eyes— I don’t know, but suddenly I saw a red light! And she must have realised that she wasn’t convincing me, for she began to talk excitedly about what fun we could have. That once we were married and she had got full control of her money, I could give up the hotel and we could travel—do anything we liked. That was when I reminded her that she had told me Heronshaw could keep his control over her capital if he didn’t approve of her marriage.”

“That’s what she told me,” Meg confirmed.

“Yes, well—she told me I must have misunderstood her. That all Heronshaw could do was insist that she should be engaged for six months before getting married and that all we had to do was swear that we’d been secretly engaged for that period—”

He swallowed convulsively and Meg laid her hand sympathetically on his arm. But he didn’t seem to notice and after a moment he went on :

“I asked her if she seriously meant that I should chuck the hotel and be dependent on her for everything, and she seemed quite surprised. She simply took it for granted that I’d be only too pleased to be a playboy at my wife’s expense! It got me on the raw, Meg. I mean, I don’t claim to be faultless, heaven knows! But I have got my pride and I told her so. She told me that I was being very silly and that I’d be unlikely ever to have such a chance again. That did make me see red! I accused her of simply using me to get control of her money and she admitted it—quite coolly and without the least hint of shame. That finished me. You were right, of course. I had known, all along, that there was something wrong about her, but I’d been shutting my eyes to it. But not any longer. I had a hard time convincing her that there was nothing doing, but when at last I did get it over—” he drew a deep breath. “I tell you something, Meg. Falling in love can be hell. But falling out of it—! I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy!”

For a while both of them were silent. Then Meg said gently:

“I wish there was something I could do to help, Jeremy. But—” she shook her head regretfully.

“No, there’s nothing,” Jeremy said, and squared his shoulders. “I made a fool of myself and I’m paying for it. Actually, I haven’t told you all this just to cadge for sympathy. You had to know for your own sake. Don’t you see, Meg, now that you know it was a pack of lies that there was anything between Fiona and Heronshaw —yes, I got that out of her as well—then there’s no reason on earth why you and he—”

“Oh yes, there is,” Meg said listlessly. “Hector isn’t in love with Fiona and had no intention of marrying her. But that doesn’t mean that he loves me—” and her voice trailed away into a little sob.

“He’s a damn fool if he doesn’t,” Jeremy declared vigorously. Meg made no reply and after a minute he went on reflectively: “You know, Meg, it’s the greatest pity in the world that you and I didn’t fall in love with one another. We’d have made a marvellous team! ”

“What you mean is that I’d make a better job of helping you run the hotel than Fiona ever would," Meg said with something of her old spirit. “But that’s no reason for getting married, as you very well know!"

“It would be quite a bit more than that,” Jeremy told her seriously. “I’m really fond of you, Meg, and I promise you, I’ve got Fiona right out of my system for all time. It
could
work!”

“Oh no, it couldn’t,” Meg said positively. “You’re forgetting, I’m not disillusioned about Hector. It’s the other way round. I began by believing that I’d every reason to dislike and mistrust him. Now I know—” she drew a deep breath. “To me he’s the most wonderful man in the world and I love him with all my heart. What’s more, I’m quite certain that it’s going to stay that way, even though—” she shook her head. “I’ve nothing to give you, Jeremy, and I like you too well to cheat you! ”

“Well, if you say so,” Jeremy replied regretfully. “Though I still think we might make a go of it. Tell you what, Meg,” he went on, brightening up, “if ever you change your mind, will you tell me?”

“But I shan’t,” Meg said so positively that Jeremy didn’t argue any more.

He left her almost immediately then and Meg was left to think over what he had told her. She was thankful for Hector’s sake that he wasn’t going to marry Fiona. Only unhappiness for him could have followed had he done so. But so far as she was concerned, it made no difference because if ever she had been sure of anything it was that Hector didn’t love her.

She sat forlornly at her desk. Soon she. would have to pull herself together so that she could face up to people—and especially Hector—without letting them guess that her heart was tom to pieces, but for the moment she couldn’t find the strength or the courage.

She laid her arms on the desk and buried her face in them. She couldn’t cry—the hurt went too deep for that—but dry sobs racked her whole body.

Suddenly a hand fell gently on her shoulder. She thought that for some reason or other, Jeremy must have come back—

“It’s all right, Jeremy,” she said in a smothered voice without lifting her head. “I’m just being silly—I’ll be all right soon.”

But there was no reply. Only the pressure of the hand increased. And then Meg knew. She jumped to her feet and faced not Jeremy but Hector.

“Oh—oh, it’s—you!” she stammered breathlessly. “I didn’t know you’d—” She broke off, aghast. He was back so much sooner than she had anticipated
—soon enough to have overheard
—? Something in his face confirmed her worst fears. He had heard her say that she loved him, and even if she could bring herself to deny it, he was hardly likely to believe it. Her hands fluttered desperately.