He looked at her with misgiving. ‘Let me know the worst!’
‘It was the stammering man,’ said Pen, not very lucidly. ‘Of course, I quite see that I should have been more careful.’
‘You mean Beverley Brandon. What has he been doing?’
‘Well, you see, he came here. And just at that very same moment, I chanced to walk into the inn, and – and we met.’
‘When was this?’
‘Oh, not long ago! You were gone out. Only he seemed to know me.’
‘Seemed to know you?’
‘Well, he said surely I must be your nephew,’ Pen explained.
Sir Richard had been listening to her with a gathering frown. He said now, with a grim note which she had not before heard in his voice: ‘Beverley knows very well that the only nephew I have is a child in short petticoats.’
‘Oh, have you got a nephew?’ enquired Pen, diverted.
‘Yes. Never mind that. What did you reply?’
‘Well, I think I was quite clever,’ said Pen hopefully. ‘Naturally, I knew who he must be, as soon as he spoke; and I guessed, of course, that he must know I am not your nephew. Because even if some people think I have no ingenuity, I am not at all stupid,’ she added, with a darkling look.
‘Does that rankle?’ His countenance had relaxed a little. ‘Never mind! go on!’
‘I said that in point of fact you were not my uncle, but I called you so because you were a great deal older than I. I said that you were my third cousin. Then he asked me why we had come to Queen Charlton, and I said it was on account of family affairs, though I would rather have pointed out that it was extremely ill-bred and inquisitive of him to ask me such questions. And after that he went away.
‘Did he indeed? Did he say what had brought him here in the first place?’
‘No. But he gave me a message for you, which I did not quite like.’
‘Well?’
‘It sounded sinister to me,’ said Pen, preparing him for the worst.
‘I can well believe it.’
‘And the more I think of it the more sinister it appears to me. He said I must present his compliments to you, and tell you that he perfectly understands your reason for coming to such a secluded spot.’
‘The devil!’ said Sir Richard.
‘I was afraid you would not be excessively pleased,’ Pen said anxiously. ‘Do you suppose that it means that he knows who I am?’
‘Not that, no,’ Sir Richard replied.
‘Perhaps,’ suggested Pen, ‘he guessed that I am not a boy?’
‘Perhaps.’
She thought the matter over. ‘Well, I don’t see what else he could possibly have meant. But Jimmy Yarde never suspected me, and I conversed with him far more than I did with this disagreeable stammering man. How very unfortunate it is that we should have met someone who knows you well!’
‘I beg your pardon?’ said Sir Richard, putting up his glass.
She looked innocently up at him. ‘On account of his being aware that you have no nephew or cousin like me, I mean.’
‘Oh!’ said Sir Richard, lowering the glass. ‘I see. Don’t let it worry you!’
‘Well, it does worry me, because I see now that I have been imprudent. I should not have let you come with me. It has very likely placed you in an awkward situation.’
