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d nuns moved silently through the corridors, their faces composed.
She herself had never experienced any kind of vocation, but as she looked at them now she marvelled at their inner serenity.
The secretary’s office was a busy jumble of papers and books; the secretary herself, new since Maggie’s days as a pupil, smiled warmly at her and asked how she could help.
Maggie explained briefly, and asked if it was possible to make an appointment to see the Reverend Mother.
‘I think she could possibly see you now,’ she was told. ‘If you’d just like to wait while I check.’
The secretary returned almost immediately.
‘Yes, she can. If you’d just like to go through.’
Both the room and its occupant had changed since Maggie’s day. Reverend Mother was somewhere in her late thirties, a tall, very attractive woman with an air of calm peace and authority about her.
Accepting both a chair and a cup of coffee, Maggie quickly explained the position.
‘The two Deveril girls… Yes, I remember hearing that their brother had been injured in an accident. You say you’ve come home to take charge…’ She looked speculatively at Maggie. ‘I’m sorry, but I’m not quite sure what relationship…’
‘I’m their cousin,’ Maggie explained. ‘My father and their father were brothers. My father was the younger brother.’
‘I see. So your cousin asked you if you could come home and take charge of the girls.’
‘My cousin? I… Oh, I see. Marcus isn’t exactly my cousin. His mother had been married before she married my uncle.’
‘I see.’ She gave Maggie an oddly thoughtful look. ‘Well, girls of that age can be rather difficult for a man to bring up on his own.’
Before she left, Maggie had been given a list of the families living close by who had girls at the school, so that she could get in touch with them, with a view to sharing driving duties. She thanked the Reverend Mother for her help and made her way back to her car.
It only took her just over half an hour to drive into Hexham and park her car outside a large supermarket, which was new since her days of living locally.
The market was still there, though, she discovered a little later when the majority of her shopping was done. She wandered round it, and gave in to the temptation to buy several different portions of cheese from a farm produce stall. There were also fresh local vegetables, which looked much fresher than those from the supermarket…her aunt had always grown her own, and so could she, provided Marcus’s gardener was prepared to help her.
She made her way back to her car, pausing to watch the bustle of the busy Tuesday cattle market. The remains of the abbey basked in the warmth of the sun. It made her feel both sad and elevated to reflect on how many generations of people had lived in this small town.
She didn’t rush to drive back, telling herself that she wanted to take in the beauty of the countryside, so long forbidden to her, but it was only when she was within five miles of home and her accelerator needle started to drop still lower that she acknowledged that it was not so much her desire to admire the countryside that was delaying her, but her reluctance to return home.
When she eventually turned into the drive, she discovered that someone else was driving down it ahead of her in a bright red Mini. It stopped neatly in the courtyard, and Maggie parked next to it. A pretty, plump woman in her early forties climbed out. She had dark auburn hair, softly curled and well-styled, her pale green linen separates a perfect foil for her colouring.
As Maggie got out of her own car, the older woman gave her a puzzled look.
‘I’m Maggie Deveril,’ Maggie told her, introducing herself.
‘Oh, yes, of course.’ The puzzled look disappeared. ‘The photo on Marcus’s desk. I thought I recognised you, but… I’m Marcus’s secretary, Anna Barnes.’ And, despite Isobel’s catty remarks, quite definitely not in love with her boss, Maggie judged shrewdly.
As she extended her hand, Maggie noticed the glint of gold from her wedding finger.
‘Since Marcus has had his accident, I’ve been bringing the post out to him every day so that he can check through it. I did offer to chauffeur him to and from the office, but the pins holding the bones had been giving him a lot of pain, and I don’t think he much cares for the idea of being cramped up inside a car.’
‘Pins?’ Maggie queried, uneasily. The word sounded rather ominous and, although she didn’t know much about medical matters, she would not have thought pins necessary for a simple break.
‘Well, yes,’ Anna Barnes confirmed, looking rather awkward and uncomfortable. ‘It was such a bad break. His leg was crushed in several places by the weight of his horse…and yet, do you know, I think Marcus was more concerned for the poor beast than for himself. He was furious with Isobel…really tore a strip off her, I believe, told her she had no right to bring the dog out when it wasn’t properly trained.’
Maggie badly needed to sit down. She had been feeling oddly sick ever since Anna had innocently revealed to her just how serious Marcus’s accident had been. He might have been killed. He was lucky he had not been killed in fact. And if he had been, she would have known nothing about it. A sensation not unlike someone jerking painfully on her heart caused her to tremble violently at the thought of Marcus dying without her being aware of it.
‘Oh, heavens, you’ve gone as white as a sheet,’ Anna apologised guiltily. ‘I take it you didn’t know?’
‘Not the details… I just thought he’d taken a tumble.’
