English fiction -- 19th century; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Mystery fiction; Smugglers -- Fiction
She did escape it. Thanks to the shade cast by the angle of projecting
wall, and to her dark clothes, she remained unseen. It was Harry
Castlemaine who had entered. He advanced to the edge of the cliff, but
not near to her, and stood there for a few moments, apparently looking
out to sea. Then he pushed open the gothic door, and passed into the
Friar's Keep.
What was Charlotte Guise to do? Should she make a dart for the gate,
to get away, running the risk of his coming out again and pouncing
upon her; or should she stay where she was until he had gone again?
She decided for the former, for her present situation was intolerable.
After all, if he did see her, she must make the excuse that she had
crossed the ruins to take a look at the beautiful sea: he could not
surely suspect anything from that!
But this was not to be accomplished. She was just about to glide away
from her hiding place, when the gate again opened, and some other
figure, after looking cautiously about, came gliding into the ruins. A
woman's light figure, enveloped in a dark cloak, its hood concealing
the head and partly the face. It crossed the ruins cautiously, with a
side look steadily directed to the Keep door, as if to guard against
surprise, and then stood at the edge, under cover of the Keep, gazing
attentively out to sea. Madame Guise was at the opposite corner close
to the wall of the Nunnery, and watched all this. By the glimpse of
the profile turned sideways to her, she thought it was the young girl
they called Jane Hallet.
Slowly turning away from the sea, the girl was apparently about to
steal back again, when she suddenly drew herself flat against the old
moss-eaten wall of the Friar's Keep, and crouched down there. At the
same moment, Harry Castlemaine came out of the Keep, strode with a
quick step to the gate, and passed through it. The girl had evidently
heard him coming out, and wished to avoid him. He crossed the road to
Chapel Lane; and she, after taking another steady look across the sea,
quitted the ruins also, and went scuttering down the hill in the
direction of her home.
Charlotte Guise breathed again. Apart from her husband's disappearance
and the tales of the revenant she so dreaded, Charlotte could not help
thinking that things connected with the Friar's Keep looked romantic
and mysterious. Giving ample time for Harry Castlemaine to have got
half way up the lane on his road home, she entered the lane herself,
after glancing up at the two windows, behind which the Grey Friar was
wont to appear. All was dark and silent there to-night. She had not
gone ten paces up the lane, when quick, firm footsteps were heard
behind her: those of the Master of Greylands. Not caring to encounter
him, still less that he should know she chose that lonely road for
returning home at night, she drew aside among the trees while he
passed. He turned down to the Hutt, and Madame Guise went hastening
onwards.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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