Whisper Of Darkness

by Anne Mather

  ‘Oh, I see.’ The air of disapproval, if that was what it was, disappeared like magic. ‘I’m sorry, Miss Seton, I didn’t notice you were wet. Of course you must get changed, and while your trousers are drying, we’ll have a cup of tea.’

  Joanna hesitated. ‘I was on my way to the village,’ she began, realising this was going to take longer than she had thought, but Mrs Trevor was not perturbed.

  ‘Paul will run you down to the village,’ she declared, and her son exchanged an I-told-you-so look with Joanna. ‘There’s plenty of time. Now, come along upstairs with me, and I’ll sort you out something to wear.’

  It was kind of them to bother, but as the afternoon wore on, Joanna began to get uneasy. What time had Matt said Jake would be back? Four o’clock? Five? She couldn’t remember, and she hoped he would not disapprove of her taking tea with the Trevors.

  Mrs Trevor liked to gossip, that much was obvious, but Joanna succeeded in turning most of her questions without giving too much away. Strangely, she was reluctant to tell them of the lack of success she was having with Anya, and their evident interest in Jake’s affairs was tinged with an unusual amount of hostility. It was this Joanna had sensed on her arrival, she realised, and she guessed his isolation, his detachment from the community, had aroused resentment as well as curiosity.

  In the event, Paul went down to the village alone, carrying with him the list of things she needed. The trousers Mrs Trevor had loaned her proved to be much too big for her slim hips, and as her own pants were not yet dry, he suggested the alternative. Joanna had no choice but to agree, though the feeling was growing stronger every minute that she should not be here.

  It was about a quarter to five when Joanna heard the sound of the Land Rover returning, and rose to her feet in some relief, eager to be on her way. But when a man in his early fifties, and wearing a warehouse coat and rubber boots, came into the living room where they had been taking afternoon tea, her disappointment was almost palpable. This, of course, was Paul’s father, she realised, having heard from Mrs Trevor about her husband, and her married daughter, whose trousers Joanna had borrowed, and a younger son, Andrew, who was presently away at agricultural college, and she endeavoured not to look as crestfallen as she felt. But Mr Trevor was not alone. Another man was following, and her heart flipped a nervous beat as she recognised the hard, unyielding features of her employer. In the shadows of the hall his scarred face possessed a brooding malevolence, and she gazed at him helplessly as Paul’s father made the explanations.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  ‘I MET Mr Sheldon in the lane,’ Mr Trevor said, exchanging a meaningful glance with his wife. ‘He—er—he said he was looking for this young lady, I think.’ He favoured Joanna with a smile. ‘Leastways, when I told him young Paul had brought a young woman up to the house, he seemed to think she might be the same.’

  ‘Hello, Mr Sheldon.’ Joanna decided to remove any doubt as her employer halted in the doorway. ‘I didn’t realise you’d be back yet. I’m sorry if you were beginning to wonder where I was.’

  Jake’s mouth was set in a straight, uncompromising line. ‘Do you have a coat?’ he demanded harshly, showing little regard for the demands of courtesy, and Joanna had barely started to explain when Mrs Trevor interrupted her.

  ‘Joanna got her trousers wet climbing up from the beck, Mr Sheldon,’ she exclaimed, getting to her feet. She had adopted the familiarity during the course of the afternoon, and Joanna had had no objection until now when Jake’s lips thinned accordingly. ‘I’m sure you can see, the slacks she’s wearing at the moment belonged to my daughter Barbara, and they’re miles too big for her.’ She allowed herself a small, slightly nervous chuckle. ‘It’s our fault she’s been delayed. I insisted she stayed for tea, and Paul’s down at the village this moment, getting the things you needed.’

  Joanna’s face was a blaze of colour, but Jake showed no sign of remorse at her discomfiture. ‘I’m sorry you’ve been troubled, Mrs Trevor,’ he observed flatly. ‘I had no idea—Miss Seton had any intention of going to the village, or I would have saved her the trouble.’ Brooding yellow eyes turned in Joanna’s direction. ‘Now, if you’re ready …’

  His meaning was obvious, but Joanna couldn’t understand why he should be so angry with her. What had she done after all? Just taken tea with a neighbour! Nothing so very dreadful about that, surely! He had no right to come here and act like she was some kind of kept creature who had managed to escape from custody.

  ‘I can’t go yet,’ she declared tersely, trying to keep her temper in spite of her indignation, and his brows arched.

  ‘No?’

  ‘No,’ she retorted, glancing apologetically at Mrs Trevor. ‘Er—Paul’s not back yet.’

  Jake’s lips compressed. ‘Then perhaps you could change your trousers, and I’ll take you to meet him,’ he suggested, his eyes as bleak as his tone, and with another silent plea for understanding to the Trevors, she hurried out of the room. She had to pass him to do so, and her heart pounded a trifle erratically as she met that hard unflinching gaze. It didn’t help to know that despite the discrepancy in their ages—Paul was at least ten or twelve years younger than Jake—the older man possessed a strength and virility the younger man did not, and Paul’s good looks faded into insignificance when compared to Jake’s hard features.

  She heard Mrs Trevor endeavouring to make conversation with their unexpected guest as she hastened up the stairs, but she could not hear Jake’s monosyllabic responses. She guessed he resented having to come here after her just as much as she resented the feeling of constraint his arrival had put upon her, but she couldn’t excuse his treatment of her, or forgive his curtness in the face of the Trevors’ cordiality.

  Her trousers had dried over the radiator in the bathroom. The radiators here were slightly more modern than those at Ravengarth, but the antiquated appointments of the bathroom were not. The cistern still gurgled ominously when any water was run off it, and the clawlike feet of the bath were an obvious hazard to unguarded toes.

  But Joanna scarcely noticed these things as she hurriedly changed from Barbara’s stretchy slacks into her own corded pants, and gave her reflection a hasty appraisal. Her cheeks were flushed, as well they might be after sitting by the fire all afternoon, she thought, although Jake’s advent had not helped, and curling tendrils of honey-brown hair had escaped from the knot to stroke her tender nape. She looked doubtful and slightly apprehensive, but she tried to school her features into some semblance of composure before going back downstairs.

  Her jacket was hanging on the banister at the foot of the stairs, and she hastily slipped this on before making her presence known again. Jake was still standing in the doorway to the living room, resisting all offers the Trevors were making to take tea, or something stronger, or even to sit down. When Joanna appeared he turned in evident relief, and with a brief nod of farewell urged her impatiently towards the kitchen and ultimately the yard beyond.

  Joanna tried to offer her thanks, and was relieved to see that Mr and Mrs Trevor did not appear to be offended by her employer’s brusque behaviour.

  ‘Come and see us again,’ exclaimed Mrs Trevor warmly, ‘and bring the little girl with you. Now that we’ve all got to know one another, perhaps we can be good neighbours.’

  ‘Perhaps she’d like to ride one of the horses,’ suggested Mr Trevor thoughtfully. ‘They’re not thoroughbreds, you understand,’ this to Jake, ‘but they’d give her a comfortable ride.’

  ‘It’s very kind of you, Mr Trevor, but——’

  ‘We may just do that,’ Joanna interrupted him, before he could refuse their offer, casting him a look af angry resentment. ‘I doubt if Anya’s ever had a chance of riding. Thank you very much.’

  The Range Rover was standing in the yard, and Joanna guessed that this was what she had heard earlier, when she had imagined it was Paul. However, before Jake could impel her across the pavings and into the vehicle, the Land Rover did indeed pull into the yard behind
it, and Paul climbed out carrying a cardboard box containing the groceries she had ordered. He looked astonished to see Take standing impatiently beside Joanna, but he managed to hide his reaction, and came confidently towards them.

  ‘I got everything you asked for, Joanna,’ he said, giving her the benefit of his warm smile. Then he looked at Jake. ‘Hello, Sheldon. How are you? We don’t often see you around here.’

  Jake thrust out his hands and took the box from the younger man. ‘Thank you, Trevor, I’m very grateful to you.’ But he didn’t look it when his hard gaze quizzed Joanna. ‘Did you pay for these things? Or have you opened an account?’

  ‘I paid for them,’ declared Joanna resentfully, giving Paul a rueful smile. ‘We’ll sort it out later,’ she added, making an expressive gesture which she hoped he would understand. ‘When we have more time.’

  ‘How much did you spend?’ Jake persisted, turning back to the younger man, but Paul merely shook his head.

  ‘I’ll give Joanna the change later,’ he remarked, obviously enjoying the other man’s frustration, and without another word, Jake strode towards the Range Rover.

  ‘See you soon,’ Paul murmured, taking one of Joanna’s hands between both of his, and grinning conspiratorially down at her. ‘Don’t let him bully you. You’re not his possession. I’ll get in touch in a day or two.’

  ‘All right.’ Joanna smiled again, and with another word of thanks to Paul’s mother and father, she hastened after her employer.

  Jake’s face was grim as he reversed out of the yard, and then accelerated down the track to the lane Joanna had seen from the field earlier. It was obvious they would have to drive round by the village to reach the road that led up to Ravengarth, and she prepared herself to answer the censure she was sure was to come.

  Jake didn’t speak, however. He seemed totally absorbed with driving the vehicle, and in the end Joanne herself had to break the uneasy silence between them.

  ‘Was there any need for you to be so rude to the Trevors?’ she demanded, unable to prevent the indignation she felt from spilling over from her tongue. ‘I may be your employee, but I’m not your slave, and there was no need for you to treat them as if they were to blame for my absence! Perhaps you’d have been better pleased if I’d come back to the house as Anya intended, soaked to the skin and shivering with——’

  ‘If you had had the decency to inform me that you intended to spend the afternoon gossiping with the Trevors, then perhaps you would have some excuse for that statement!’ he snapped angrily, overriding her passionate tirade. ‘Are you aware that for fully an hour after my return, I was convinced you must have been swept downstream into the lake, and I was on the point of calling out the rescue services when I met Trevor coming down from the farm!’

  Joanna gulped, and stared at him disbelievingly. ‘Swept downstream into the lake!’ she echoed. ‘Don’t be ridiculous!’

  The Range Rover lurched to a shuddering halt as Jake stood on his brakes, and she trembled a little fearfully as he turned fully to look at her. ‘Don’t you ever say that to me again!’ he grated angrily, long brown fingers punishing the steering wheel, as he would probably have liked to punish her throat. ‘How dare you sit there and reproach me for my conduct at the farm, when only minutes before I’d suspected you were dead! How do you think I felt, walking in there and finding you sitting drinking tea, as if we weren’t out of our minds with worry about you!’

  Joanna swallowed rather convulsively. ‘That—that’s silly,’ she exclaimed. ‘I—Matt knew I was going to the village. So did Anya.’ Her lips tightened in remembrance.

  ‘But you didn’t get to the village, did you?’ demanded Jake savagely. ‘And Matt told you to use the field path, not the path by the stream, that’s already subsided into the water in places.’

  Joanna held up her head. ‘I didn’t use the path by the stream,’ she declared, and his mouth hardened.

  ‘Then how did your trousers get wet?’

  Joanna sighed. ‘Does it matter? They did. And that’s all there is to it.’

  Jake’s fingers released the wheel to slide wearily through his dark hair. ‘I know about Anya directing you to the stream,’ he declared. ‘You needn’t imagine you’re protecting her by remaining silent on that score.’ He looked at her broodingly, one hand resting at the nape of his neck. ‘In God’s name, why did you do it?’

  ‘Why did I do what?’ Joanna found she was more disturbed by the probing appeal in his lean face than by the angry aggression he had exhibited previously, and he moved his broad shoulders in a helpless gesture.

  ‘You knew we would worry about you,’ he stated slowly. ‘You must have known that when you didn’t come back, Anya would get frightened.’

  ‘Frightened?’ That contingency had not occurred to her. ‘But why frightened? The stream’s not like a river. It’s not deep enough to drown anyone!’

  ‘No?’ Jake’s tawny eyes bored into hers. ‘Then let me offer you an alternative. Suppose you’d taken the path by the stream. Suppose Matt hadn’t warned you about its being flooded, and you’d gone on?’ He paused to allow his words to sink in. ‘Suppose a section of the path had crumbled beneath you, and you’d been thrown into the water? What kind of chance do you think you would have had, if you’d hit your head on a stone and been knocked unconscious? The force of that stream in flood is capable of carrying a body down into the lake. I know. Sheep have been drowned that way.’

  Joanna pressed her unsteady lips together. ‘I didn’t know that.’

  ‘You didn’t think, did you?’

  Joanna sighed. ‘How was I to know what you’d think?’ She shook her head. ‘All right, so I may have thought of teaching Anya a lesson, but I never intended to frighten her—or anyone.’

  Jake studied her anxious face for another long moment, then he turned slowly back to the wheel. ‘So you understand now why I was in no mood to exchange pleasantries with my neighbours.’ He thrust the car heavily into gear once more. ‘I had more—pressing things on my mind.’

  Joanna looked at him unhappily. ‘And you’ve been searching for me for an hour?’

  ‘Something like that,’ he agreed offhandedly. ‘I found your footsteps in the mud by the stream, but then they disappeared. It didn’t occur to me that you might have climbed up to the Trevors’ place. It’s a steep ascent, and the grass is almost waist-high. You must have got soaked!’

  ‘I did,’ Joanna agreed with a sigh, and he gave her another assessing glance.

  ‘That’s how you got wet.’ It was a statement, not a question, but she nodded. ‘How foolish of me not to think of that.’ He shook his head. ‘I seem to have jumped to all the wrong conclusions.’ His lips twisted. ‘Still, I’ve no doubt you enjoyed yourself. The Trevors have no love for me. I don’t invite confidences and I don’t give them, and they, like the rest of the village, imagine I’m mentally as well as physically scarred.’

  ‘Don’t say that!’ Joanna’s response was angry, a reason to expunge some of the helpless frustration she was now feeling. ‘They’re curious about you, of course, but that’s just their way. They didn’t mean any harm. And if you think I’ve spent the afternoon discussing you, you’re very much mistaken.’

  ‘Ah, no, I didn’t say that,’ he contradicted sardonically. ‘I’m sure you and—Paul, is it?—had more interesting things to talk about. However, I’d deem it a favour if you didn’t encourage Anya to go there. Kind though they may be, I have no desire for her to get involved with any of the people around here, but of course, I can’t dictate what you do in your own time.’

  ‘Thank you.’ Joanna pursed her lips. It was scarcely a concession, and she wished she dared ask why he was restricting the child in this way. Maybe if Anya met more people, had more interests, she would be less of a problem, but obviously right now was not the time to make her feelings felt.

  The journey back to Ravengarth was soon over. They bumped down the track to the copse, and Jake opened and closed the gate befor
e driving the last few hundred yards to the house. He turned into the cobbled yard, switched off the engine, and then thrust open his door without saying another word.

  Joanna shook her head as she gathered her belongings preparatory to getting out also. Was it really only yesterday she had come here? she asked herself incredulously. Somehow it seemed so much longer than that since she had met Jake Sheldon.

  It was in bed later that she found the time to review her situation once again. She had had little opportunity since Jake brought her back from the Trevors to permit herself such a luxury, but at last, in her room, she was able to assimilate and digest the events of the day.

  Her only contact with Anya since her return was a muttered apology, delivered in her pyjamas, in the presence of her father. Jake had brought his daughter down from her room, where apparently she had been sent on pain of a beating should she disobey him again, and she had stood before Joanna and mumbled the words, with tears of mortification and resentment glimmering in her blue eyes. She knew Joanna had won another battle, and her defences were crumbling in the face of this concerted onslaught.

  Of Jake himself Joanna had seen almost as little. Her return had been greeted with obvious relief by Matt Coulston, and she had given the old man a special smile of apology, that he should have been worried, too.

  ‘I didn’t realise you’d be so anxious,’ Joanna told him, feeling contrite. ‘I’m sorry if I’ve wasted your time.’

  ‘Oh, I did some digging like you said,’ Matt assured her airily, and it was left to Jake to look puzzled at this unexpected announcement. ‘The young lady suggested I should start digging the vegetable plot over,’ Matt went on to explain, much to Joanna’s chagrin. ‘Just to keep me busy, so to speak. While you were away.’

  Jake’s mouth had compressed at this, but he had made no comment, and Joanna had gone indoors, realising with a pang that there was no one but herself to prepare the evening meal.

  In the event, Jake did not eat at home. He took Anya back upstairs after making her apologise, and then came down again as Joanna was unpacking the groceries Paul had collected for her. He came into the kitchen as she was putting some cheese into the refrigerator, and noticing the pans already set on the cooker, asked what she thought she was doing.