Jocelyn had become rather tense; so had I. I was imagining Jasper’s face. I could hear him as he betrayed us. “They be up to something. Food gone from the pantry, so my wife tells me. They’re hiding something … they’re hiding someone. It’s someone who’s been up to sin, you can be sure of that. There’s something more sinful than usual in the air.”
Jasper could always be sure of sin. It was there all round him and he was the only one he knew who had not been contaminated by it.
The voices were undoubtedly coming nearer; I looked at Jocelyn and felt sick with anxiety.
If Leigh were here…
But Leigh was not here and I could not think what he would tell us to do but remain quietly where we were.
In the distance I heard the crunch of boots on shingle. It was followed by the bark of a dog… more than one dog.
We were seated side by side on the hard rock floor of the cave and suddenly Jocelyn reached for my hand. He kissed it and went on holding it.
I whispered: “It’s someone coming along the beach. They’re corning this way.”
“With dogs,” he said.
“Jocelyn, do you think …”
He nodded. “We have been betrayed. Oh, Priscilla, this will be the end … for me… for us …”
“It might be people out for a stroll.”
Out for a stroll! I thought. On a winter’s day with heavy clouds louring! Out for a stroll on the beach with dogs! The nearest house was a mile away. Leigh had mentioned that when he had said what a good hiding place it was.
I whispered: “Come farther into the cave.” We crept into the recess and took everything there was with us.
The rock overhung and we could crawl in even farther if we were on our hands and knees. We did so and lay down, very close, trying to hide ourselves. Jocelyn put his arms about me and we lay as one in that small space under the overhanging rock.
I could hear our hearts beating. The footsteps were coming nearer. The dogs kept barking.
Jocelyn’s face was very close to mine, his lips against my cheek.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he whispered. “You shouldn’t be hi this …”
“Hush,” I warned.
“Bruno! Bruno!” It was a man’s voice. “What have you got, eh?”
The dogs barked. They were close now.
I felt sick with fear for Jocelyn. I believed in that moment that I was never going to be happy again. They would drag him away. They would kill him as they had killed his father.
Nearer, nearer they came. They were very close now.
Jocelyn said: “I must say it. It’s my last chance. I love you.”
I put my hand over his mouth.
There was a shadow in the mouth of the cave. It was one of the dogs. He had entered it and he came immediately to us.
I heard someone call: “Bruno!”
The dog stood over us.
I thought of our dogs at home and I said very quietly: “Good Bruno.”
He barked and then turned and ran out of the cave.
I heard someone laugh. “Bosun. Come here, Bosun. You too, Bruno.”
We lay still, Jocelyn’s arms still about me. We neither of us dared move, and then I realized that no one was following the dog into the cave. I could hear their voices farther away now. They had passed on.
“They’ve gone,” I whispered. “They weren’t looking for us. They were out for a stroll after all.”
I began to laugh. Then I stopped suddenly. “It may be a trick. Oh, no … why should it be? They could have caught us so easily if they had been looking for us.”
I crawled out from under the recess and stood up. Jocelyn was beside me.
“I’m going out to look,” I said.
“I’ll go.”
“No. If they are looking for you they wouldn’t take much notice of me. They’d be looking for a man.”
I went out into the open. I could see two men with the dogs walking along the beach.
One of them picked up a pebble and threw it from him. The dogs chased after it to retrieve it.
The scare was over, but something had happened.
Jocelyn took my hand and kissed it.
“Now you understand,” he said.
I had turned away to look at the sea, grey with white frills on the edge of the waves and the wind carrying the spray far up onto the beach.
I said: “I understand how dangerous it is here. Leigh will come back soon.”
“I shall have to go away then.”
“It may be to Aunt Harriet’s.”
“You visit her often?”
“Oh, yes. I am a favourite of hers.”
“I shouldn’t want to go if it meant not seeing you.”
“You must go where you will be safe.”
He kissed me suddenly. “It has been a great adventure,” he said.
“It is not over yet,” I warned.
“Let’s sit down close and talk.”
We sat on the shingle and he said: “I wish you were older.”
“What if I were?”
“We could marry.”
“They would say I am too young.”
“People marry young. When all this is over I shall ask your parents for your hand.
May I?”
“Could I stop you?”
“No, I don’t suppose you could. But I should want your consent, shouldn’t I?”
“I know some people who have been married without their consent.”
“You never would be. You would find some way out of an undesirable alliance, I am sure. Oh, Priscilla, I believe you have some feeling for me.”
“Yes, I have.”
“And it doesn’t displease you that I talk like this. You seem content to listen.”
“At the moment I can’t think of much else but your lucky escape.”
