Free Thunder On The Right by Mary Stewart Page B

mentioned her English relatives, even when you asked her?"
    The girl's eyes widened. "But yes, mademoiselle! Of course! If she had told us------"
    "Quite. But it seems to me quite impossible that she should not have done so, if, as you say, she was conscious and lucid at all. But if she did not—it did occur to me that there might be an explanation for this."
    "Mademoiselle?"
    Jennifer said, directly, "Supposing she had mentioned me, and asked you—you and Doña Francisca—to write, and you had neglected to do so. Supposing------"
    But Celeste, flushing scarlet, interrupted her with patent indignation.
    "But she did not tell us! I have told you, mademoiselle —she did not! What you're suggesting is wicked! Monstrous!"
    "No," said Jennifer evenly, "not wicked. Merely negligent. Enough to make you as reluctant as you apparently are to answer questions. What are you frightened of, Celeste?"
    "I? Frightened? That is absurd, mademoiselle!" And indeed she looked, now, not frightened so much as angry. "Why should I be afraid of you?"
    "I wondered that. And you weren't at first. It was only when I asked you why you'd gone to get the gentians."
    The girl's eyes fell, once again her face went blank. She said nothing.
    "Was it because you knew you'd made a mistake?"
    The dark eyes lifted. "Mistake? I don't understand. What sort of mistake?"
    "Never mind. But why should you mind my asking you about them?"
    "I don't," said Celeste, and, surprisingly, smiled.

    "Very well," said Jennifer. "Then tell me this—and I think I shall know if it's the truth: why did you take my cousin gentians?"
    Celeste stared, perplexed. "I told you. I was—I was fond of her."
    "Yes, I know. But why gentians?"
    "She liked them."
    "Did she say so?"
    Bewilderment showed still in the girl's eyes, with, behind it, a kind of relief. As if, thought Jennifer, these, at least, were easy questions to answer.
    "Yes."
    "What did she say?"
    Celeste lifted her hands a little, helplessly.
    "Mademoiselle, I do not understand."
    Jennifer was patient. "When she said she liked the gentians, what did she say? Did you bring them to her, and did she just say thank you, and how pretty they were, or what? Try to remember for me, Celeste; after all, she was my cousin, and any little thing she said—I could bring gentians, too, tomorrow. . .."
    Celeste, being too young and too accustomed to the symbolic trappings of everyday convent life to see the sentimental absurdity of this, gave Jennifer a still bewildered but softer glance, and knitted her brows. Jennifer waited, her throat suddenly conscripted with excitement.
    "No," said the girl at length, "it was not like that. I remember how I got the idea that they were her favorite flowers. It was soon after she came. I had brought in a big bunch of flowers—all sorts—and I was putting them beside her bed. She lay watching me and then she put out her hand—oh, so slowly" -- her own hand moved out in a remembered gesture —"and touched the gentians. She said "The blue ones, Celeste, what are they? I said gentians. She said "They are so beautiful. I never saw such a blue. Put them closer where I can see them. So after that I brought them every day."
    "Thank you," said Jennifer, on a long breath, and Celeste, seeing the look in her face, drew back with some of her former alarm.
    "Is that all, mademoiselle?"
    "That's all," said Jennifer, and laughed, an excited, breathless little laugh. "And please forgive me for having suggested that you were lying before!"
    "It is nothing. And now, mademoiselle, if you'll excuse me------"

    "Of course. You have to see Doña Francisca, haven't you?" Jennifer fought hard to keep her voice even. "Would you be good enough to show me the way to the Reverend Mother's room, please?"
    "I—Yes, of course." And Celeste, with a return of her old nervousness, threw Jennifer a strangely wary look as she passed her to lead the way out of the chapel.
    Jennifer, following her hurrying guide across the hall and