Drew caught on at once. “That does fit in, Kim. It seemed as if Corinne was always shutting Jane up. I used to feel that she must be jealous and was trying to stop Jane and me having any real contact with one another.”
I hung back from the question that had been with me ever since the night of Corinne’s attack on my life. With an uncanny understanding, Drew gave me the answer now.
“All along I’d been afraid that Corinne must have killed Brian. That evening she had deliberately kept Jane out late, and I went to fetch them back. When I got there Corinne had already left. It was a lot later, though, before she turned up at Mildenhall. I was determined to have it out with her once and for all, but she arrived home in a sort of shocked daze. I couldn’t make out what was the matter with her, not until next morning when Bill found Brian’s body in the pond. It was then I began to suspect Corinne.”
There was a fearful anguish in his voice as he went on: “Can you understand, Kim—I really knew in my own mind, and yet I wasn’t certain. I dared not be certain. As long as there remained the slightest chance that I’d got it all wrong, Corinne and I could carry on somehow. And we had to carry on somehow, Kim, for Jane’s sake.”
I listened to him in silence, watching his face, feeling an enormous compassion. His burden must have been almost beyond bearing. The terrible fear that Corinne—his wife and Jane’s mother—had killed her lover.
He shook his head sadly. “That poor child! Above everything I was trying to preserve her chance of happiness, not realizing that the atmosphere at Mildenhall was the worst possible thing for her.” He looked at me suddenly. “Kim, will she ever be free of this appalling handicap?”
I was thankful I could reassure him with such honest conviction.
“Jane is already over the biggest hurdle—she has confidence in herself now. I think you’ll find her stammering will get less and less, until eventually it disappears altogether.”
“You’ve been wonderful, Kim!” He reached out and touched my scarred cheek gently. “And you had to go through so much!”
Odd that my ordeal in the water seemed suddenly remote, something long past. I knew that I would be able to sleep now without fear of terrible dreams.
Drew’s hand came down to cover mine. “You must know how much we need you, Kim, both Jane and I. You won’t leave us?”
There was so much we wanted to say to one another. But so much that couldn’t be said. It was too soon. Too soon.
“I won’t go away, Drew,” I said softly. “I’ll stay as long as you want me.”
From the beach below us came the soft insistent lapping of the waves. An eternal sound. It meant forever.
Copyright © 1969 by Nancy Buckingham
Originally published by Lancer as Secret of the Ghostly Shroud
Electronically published in 2014 by Belgrave House
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
No portion of this book may be reprinted in whole or in part, by printing, faxing, E-mail, copying electronically or by any other means without permission of the publisher. For more information, contact Belgrave House, 190 Belgrave Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94117-4228
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This is a work of fiction. All names in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to any person living or dead is coincidental.
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