Free The House at Bell Orchard by Sylvia Thorpe Page A

the way to the balustrade bordering the highest level.
    “Bell Orchard lies yonder,” she remarked, “though we cannot see the house itself, even from here, because it stands in a hollow.”
    Charmian followed the direction of her pointing hand, and frowned. “There?” she repeated in astonishment. “I supposed it to lie much farther to the left.”
    Dorothy laughed. “That is because the road curves inland to cross the river at Wychwood End.” she explained. “You had to travel nearly four miles to get here, but in reality the two houses are little more than a mile and a half apart. There is a shorter way between them, a bridle-path which leads down through the woods to a ford, and then continues across Colonel Fenshawe’s land. The river marks the boundary between the two estates from a point half a mile above the ford to the sea.”
    “I see,” Charmian said slowly. “Yet at Bell Orchard we are much closer to the sea.”
    “Yes, that is because of the line of the coast Sometimes in winter, when the weather is stormy and the wind blowing from the sea. it seems almost as though the house .were on the shore itself. I do not think I would care to live there.”
    They were walking along the terrace cow. Charmian said casually: “You have known Colonel Fenshawe and his family for a long time?”
    “Yes, all my life, though not as well, of course, as my brother knows them. He and Harry Fenshawe were close friends as boys. They are the same age, you know, and they went to the University at the same time and then made the Grand Tour together.”
    “Oh?” Charmian could not conceal her surprise, for she would not have supposed that a serious young man like Sir Piers had much in common with Harry Fenshawe. “I did not realize that there was such a degree of intimacy between them.”
    “Well, there is not, nowadays,” Dorothy replied frankly. “The Fenshawes are in London a great deal, and we have not lived there since my father died, so naturally we all meet less often. Mrs. Fenshawe does not care for Bell Orchard, or for our quiet country ways, but, of course, you are aware of that.”
    “Yes,” Charmian agreed in a low voice, “I am aware of it.” She paused, considering her next words. “Forgive me, Miss Wychwood, but I have the impression—a mistaken one, perhaps—that there is an awkwardness, almost an antagonism between the two families. Pray do not think that I am prying into matters which do not concern me, but I am in constant dread of doing or saying something which may give offence in one quarter or another.”
    There was a pause, and then Dorothy said slowly: “Yes, I can understand that you should feel it to be so, for there is a coolness between us. My brother holds strong views upon the duties of a landowner towards his estates and his tenants, and he is occasionally very outspoken. He and the Colonel have disagreed more than once on that score.”
    They had reached the steps of the terrace and descended to the lower level before she spoke again. Then she said abruptly, as though having had some difficulty in reaching the decision to speak at all:
    “I had better be completely frank with you, Miss Tarrant. A little while ago Piers quarrelled very violently with Harry Fenshawe, and I was the cause of it. I suppose I did behave thoughtlessly, but there was no harm in it—after all, I have known Harry since I was a baby. But Piers can be prodigiously strict at times, and when he found us alone together, he said that Harry was not a fit person for me to associate with and I was to have no more to do with him. I had never seen him so angry, for in the ordinary way he is the most even-tempered man alive. Harry, of course, has a quite dreadful temper, and I thought that they were going to come to blows there and then. However, they did not, but that was the end of any semblance of friendship between them. I must say it seems foolish to end it so, for such a paltry reason.”
    Charmian, listening