The Twisted Sword by Winston Graham

letter,' said Clowance, 'but I suppose they will have been travelling all the time. I wonder if they are in Paris by now.'
    At dinner Clowance chatted brightly about herself and about Stephen and the way he was prospering in his coastal trade, and the new house he was proposing to build and the furniture they intended to buy when they could afford it, and their occasional evening at Cardew and Stephen's ambition to find himself a good hunter to partner Nero instead of hiring a hack or depending on Lady Harriet for a loan; and what a pity Caroline rode with the Forbra for it would be lovely if they were able all to go together. Last week, Clowance said, an American privateer had come in to Falmouth for a refit and repairs; the rules of the sea were strange that he was given this facility even though he might afterward prey on our ships in the open Channel. And another frigate had just come in with news of the casualties of the last battle of the American war - at New Orleans - and those who had seen the lists had said they were frightful. What news of Jeremy? Caroline asked.
    'I had a letter only last week. Being in the army for him has been not at all unagreeable. He seems to spend little or no time soldiering and most of his time taking Cuby to balls and soirees and tea parties. They do seem so happy, so very, very happy.'
    Caroline thought Clowance was talking too much and too brightly; it was not in her nature to chatter. What impression was she making an effort to give? What was she trying not to say? Was she already missing her parents? Or was it because she was not having a baby? Or was her marriage to Stephen less of a success than she had romantically pictured it would be? Caroline put these questions to Dwight when they retired that night. Dwight said: 'The trouble with Clowance is that she doesn't know how to dissemble, so when she tries she makes a hash of it .:. But we are only guessing. Perhaps she is well enough and married life is just effecting a change.'
    Next morning in a fine spell Clowance went over to see Jud and Prudie, but about midday the snowflakes fell thicker, black spots drifting down from the pewter sky, and she decided to leave for home. Having failed to persuade her to spend another night with them, Caroline said: "You shall not go alone. In any case it is not safe to be a solitary lady with so much distress about.'
    "You can hardly lecture me,' Clowance said, 'since you ride so much alone yourself. I'm well able to look after myself.'
    'On the contrary, I scarcely ever ride alone since the end of the war. With so many discharged and destitute soldiers about it is no longer safe.'
    'Music will go with you,' said Dwight. Clowance laughed. 'Would I not be safer on my own?'
    'Oh, he rides very well. And he is much underrated. Having once been dubbed the village butt, people laugh at his attempts to escape from that derogatory pigeonhole.'
    'Dwight has been trying to help him for long enough,'
    said Caroline, wrinkling her nose.
    'Because he came to me for help in the first place! In some respects he is very slow - almost half-witted, I agree but in others he is quite quick and able and willing to learn. And he has learned. I have a mind to offer him permanent work here - we could do with another man. But I know he would be likely to refuse.'
    'Why?'
    'Because he has this hopeless passion for Katie Carter, who is now head housemaid at Place House.'
    'Katie Carter? Ben's sister? I didn't know. I thought I knew everything that went on in Grambler and Sawle!'
    Clowance spoke with slight embarrassment, because of Ben's hopeless passion for her. It was Ben who, by his fight with Stephen, had been instrumental in delaying their wedding by more than a year. 'And why is it hopeless?'
    'Katie tends to the general view, that he is a simpleton. Also, there is a rumour that she is taking up with Saul Grieves. After all, it is a more natural union.'
    'Dwight doesn't care for Saul Grieves,' said Caroline, picking