Free A Quiet Death by Alanna Knight Page B

the whole story of your meeting with Miss Deane and what led to your further association. Rest assured I shall neither condemn nor condone but I beg you, leave nothing out.'
    'It all began one day', said Vince, 'when Sir Arnold was visiting the factory. Before his illness he came at regular intervals to inspect the working conditions and showed a lively interest in the workers. If a man or a woman had problems, he was never too grand to sit down and discuss their difficulties with them. He was, and is, greatly loved, a fine man.
    'One morning during his perambulations he collapsed. Fortunately I happened to be on hand, since my surgery and my patients' records were something he might wish to inspect. He made a note of all details of accidents and in the case of deaths would write a personal note, with a few guineas, to the dependants.
    'I could see at once that he had suffered a mild stroke. I took the necessary steps to revive him and he was grateful, insisted I had saved his life and asked that I should continue to attend him, as his personal physician was an old man who, Sir Arnold said, should have retired years ago.
    ' "I like having young men with young ideas around me."
    'We got along famously and it was on one of my weekly visits to Deane Hall that I first met Rachel. As I was leaving she rushed downstairs to the hall and thanked me for all I had done for her grandfather. On my next visit I found I had to attend her as a patient. She had slipped on the stair and sprained her ankle. It wasn't serious but I think it was at that moment we looked into each other's eyes and we both knew what was happening.
    'I know what follows sounds like madness, Stepfather, but you must be patient with me. She began visiting the factory, allegedly bringing clothes for some of the poorer workers, but she always did so when I was at my surgery. One day as she was leaving I took her in my arms and the next moment we were confessing our undying love for each other. I think I even asked her to marry me, although I hardly expected that a humble factory doctor would be seriously considered as a prospective suitor.
    'On her next visit, she told me that she would be honoured and indeed proud to be my wife, but we must wait until she came of age, then she could do as she pleased. She told me that she longed for me, that such waiting time was intolerable and she had arranged with a friend, an old nurse, that we should visit her cottage for a few days. Did I think that a good idea?
    'Of course I did. I was deliriously happy at the prospect. We arranged to meet on Magdalen Green.'
    He looked at Faro appealingly. 'Even then, I thought I was dreaming. I could hardly believe that she would be there, that it was true. But she arrived promptly in a carriage which she said was engaged to carry us to Dundee Railway Station. Errol she said was our destination—'
    'Errol, did you say?' Faro interrupted. And when Vince gave him a questioning glance, he said: 'No—pray continue.'
    'After purchasing our tickets, we sat in the train like two happy children playing truant. It was a short walk from the station before we turned through lodge gates into a vast estate where Rachel said her nurse's cottage was situated.
    'I was a little taken aback, but enormously gratified, to find that there was no sign of any servants, or of the old nurse, who I had imagined would look after us and probably prove to be a stern chaperone. I had not the least idea then that Rachel intended to anticipate our marriage, that we were to become lovers.
    'She had thought of everything. Before we met that day she had been into the Overgait and had purchased a picnic hamper, filled it with provisions, bread, wine, chicken, ham, a Dundee cake, enough for several days. We would certainly not go hungry and so we feasted, avoiding any of the estate workers as we walked in the vast woods. The house itself when we were near enough to inspect it, was shuttered. The family, she said, went to Italy