The conversation had taken place in Lady Constance’s office and once again Venetia had been the other side of the panelled door, her ear pressed against it.
‘The last thing we need is for the police to be involved while Lady Constance is away,’ Miss Selby said. ‘It wouldn’t do at all.’
‘You just need to admit what you did and say sorry,’ Mr Grafton said. ‘I know from what you’ve said in the past that you don’t like Terry and that you’ve deliberately made up things about him, but you have to be more of a man now and admit towhat you did. Do that and you won’t have a black mark against your name.’
‘But I didn’t do anything!’ Lucien had shouted angrily.
‘That’s enough,’ intoned Miss Selby. ‘Mr Grafton has offered to accompany you to Terry’s cottage after tea today. And that’s an end to it.’
‘I don’t have any choice, do I?’ Lucien said to Venetia a short while later. ‘If I don’t do as they say, this will go on and on and what if the police believe Terry’s story and not mine? I could end up in a borstal!’
Desperately upset for Lucien, Venetia went up to the sick room to confide in Edie Buckle in the hope that she might be able to help. ‘It’s not fair,’ she said, ‘how could anyone believe a word that horrible man, Terry, ever says, he’s vile!’
Jiggling a whimpering baby on her shoulder, a recent arrival to Hope Hall, Edie sighed and let out a series of alternate tuts and oh dears, none of which really helped.
‘He just wants to humiliate Lucien,’ Venetia went on.
‘But why? What has Lucien done to invite such dislike from Terry?’
‘I can’t say,’ said Venetia, ‘it might make matters worse for Lucien and me.’
‘Come on now, tell me what’s been going on,’ Edie said, her hand tenderly patting the tiny baby’s back. ‘Otherwise, how can I help you?’
Wanting so much for Edie to do just that, to make everything right again, Venetia forced herself to give her all the details, how she and Lucien regularly went up on the roof even though it was strictly out of bounds, and of their time spent alone in the woods late at night. Then she explained how Terry had caught them kissing and that it had looked far worse than it really was.
‘Worse?’ Edie had enquired. ‘In what way?’
Venetia knew she had to be brave. ‘We’ve never done … youknow …it.We swore to each other we would never take that kind of a risk, no matter how much we wanted to.’
‘I’m very pleased to hear that,’ Edie said with a rare look of sternness on her face.
‘So you see how bad it is for Lucien and me. When it comes out that we’ve broken these rules, which Lady Constance is so strict about, nobody will believe us when we say that Terry is lying about what he saw us doing, and about the tin of money. Lady Constance might decide we can’t stay on to finish our education. She might think we’re not worth it because we didn’t respect the rules.’ She was babbling now, but she couldn’t stop herself. ‘You do believe that Lucien didn’t steal the money, don’t you? He would never do anything like that.’
Putting a finger to her lips to hush Venetia, Edie gently laid the now sleeping baby into a crib. ‘I do believe you,’ she said quietly. ‘Lucien is a decent young man; I’ve always thought that. A little headstrong at times, and stubborn like you, but he’s not a thief. I’m disappointed though that you’ve both been up to … to no good,’ she added. ‘I thought you knew better than that.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Venetia said, and meaning it. She hated knowing that Edie was disappointed in her. ‘But will you go and speak to Miss Selby?’ she asked. ‘She’ll listen to you. Please say you will!’
‘I’ll try.’
‘Thank you,’ Venetia said. ‘You have to make Miss Selby and Mr Grafton realise that it’s Terry who’s lying. Because if Lucien does apologise for something he didn’t do, Terry will only do something similar in the future. Or maybe something worse. He enjoys inflicting pain.’ She then went on to tell Edie about the rabbit Terry had shot, but not killed outright, and which he’d put in a cage and watched it slowly die with cruel enjoyment. ‘He’s a sadist and he’s clearly got it in for Lucien and me. It’s like he’s put us in a cage and is watching us squirm. And he’ll keep on doing it until he’s stopped!’
Her voice had risen to a shrill peal, and she was near to tears.
‘There, there,’ soothed Edie, putting her comforting arms around Venetia. ‘We’ll soon have all this sorted out. You’re not to worry.’
But Venetia did worry.
Even more so when Lucien didn’t appear in the dining hall when the bell rang for tea. She waited for a short while and after hanging around at the end of the queue with the clatter of plates and cutlery going on in the background, and too anxious to eat anything herself, she went to look for him.
It was now five-thirty and at six he was supposed to be going with Mr Grafton to Terry’s cottage. Passing by Miss Selby’s office and peering in through the open door, she could see that it was empty. But then beyond the desk and filing cabinets, and through the window, she caught a flash of movement: it was Mr Grafton striding across the lawn with a reluctant Lucien following behind.
Not missing a beat, Venetia hurried along the passageway, down the steps, past the toilets and their strong smell of Jeyes fluid and carbolic soap, then the laundry room and then out through a fire exit door. From there she sped across the cobbled courtyard and stable block and continued towards Terry’s cottage. Ahead of her, she spotted Mr Grafton and Lucien.
Keeping her distance, Venetia followed discreetly behind. She might not be able to stop the humiliation Lucien was being forced to go through with, but she could at least be there for him when the ordeal was over.
Carefully positioned behind a large oak tree, she peered out and watched Mr Grafton bang the knocker on Terry’s door. Lucien stood to one side, his shoulders hunched, his arms folded across his chest.
The door opened and Terry appeared wearing only a singlet vest on his top half and a pair of workman’s trousers with a pair of braces dangling from the waistband.
