But three mornings in one week followed upon each other, with one day spaced between, and now yet again, in the week that was upon us, twice she had driven into town.
The first time it was a morning.
The second, afternoon.
“You have,” I said to her, “the devil of a lot of shopping of a sudden, and business too…”
“I would have done it all before,” she answered, “but could not do so all the weeks that you were ill.”
“Do you meet anyone as you go about the town?”
“Why, no, not in particular.
Yes, now I think of it. I saw Belinda Pascoe and the curate to whom she is engaged.
They sent you their respects.”
“But,” I insisted, “you were away all afternoon.
Did you buy up all the contents of the drapers?”
“No,” she said.
“You are really very curious, and prying.
Can I not order the carriage when I please, or do you fear to tire the horses?”
“Drive to Bodmin or to Truro if you please,” I said, “you will find better shopping there, and more to see.”
She did not care for it, then, when I questioned her.
Her business must be very personal and private, that she was so reserved.
The next time she ordered the carriage the groom did not go with them.
Wellington drove her alone.
It seemed that Jimmy had the earache.
I had been in the office, and I found him sitting in the stable, nursing his injured ear.
“You must ask the mistress for some oil,” I said to him.
“I’m told that is the remedy.”
“Yes, sir,” he said, disconsolate, “she promised to see to it for me, by and by on her return.
I think I caught cold in it yesterday.
There was a fresh wind blowing on the quay.”
“What were you doing on the quay?” I asked.
“We were waiting a long while for the mistress,” he answered, “so Mr. Wellington thought best to bait the horses in the Rose and Crown, and he let me go off and watch the boats in the harbor.”
“Was the mistress shopping then all afternoon?” I asked.
“No, sir,” he replied, “she didn’t shop at all.
She was in the parlor at the Rose and Crown, the same as always.”
I stared at him in disbelief.
Rachel in the parlor of the Rose and Crown?
Did she sit taking tea with the landlord and his wife?
For a moment I thought to question him further, then decided against it.
It might be he was speaking out of turn, and would be scolded by Wellington for blabbing.
All things were kept from me these days, it seemed.
The whole household was in league against me, in a conspiracy of silence.
“Well, Jim,” I said, “I hope your ear will soon be better,” and left him in the stable.
But here was mystery.
Had Rachel grown so desirous of company that she had to seek it in the town inn?
Knowing my dislike of visitors, did she hire the parlor for a morning, or an afternoon, and bid people visit her there?
I said nothing of the matter, on her return, but merely asked her if she had passed a pleasant afternoon, and she replied she had.
The following day she did not order the carriage.
She told me, at luncheon, that she had letters to write, and went up to her boudoir.
I said I had to walk to Coombe, to see the farmer there, which was true enough, and so I did.
But I went further. Into the town myself.
It was a Saturday, and because of the fine weather many folk were out about the streets, people from the neighboring market towns, who did not know me by sight, so that I passed among them unobserved.
I saw no one I knew.
The “quality,” as Seecombe termed them, never went into the town of an afternoon, and never on a Saturday.