She was just about to drift back into sleep when there was a tiny click and the door of Polly's room opened a crack. Through a gap in the bed curtains she saw the faint light increase as the door was pushed wider.

Someone was standing in the aperture, listening. Polly froze. She leant out of bed and groped quickly and silently for something, anything to defend herself with. Her hand closed around the edge of the chamber pot. Without conscious thought, she ripped the bed curtains back and swung her arm in a wide arc. The pot made contact with something, there was a m.u.f.fled gasp from the intruder, and Polly began to scream.

There was light and people everywhere, all of them talking at once.

Polly could see Hetty's frightened face and Miss Dit ton hovering behind her, avid and curious. Then Lady Belling ham came bustling forward in a monstrous bed cap and the vivid dressing- gown, and candlelight fell on the p.r.o.ne body of Mr Dit ton, lying on the rug just inside Polly's doorway, clutching his head and groaning.

"Dit ton!"

"Tristan!"

Peter Sea grave's exclamation and Miss Dit ton's screech of horror coincided.

His jaw set, Peter plucked the luckless Mr Dit ton off the floor and started to shake him.

"What the h.e.l.l are you doing in my sister's bedroom, you loathsome cur?"

Miss Dit ton began to cry noisily. Hetty rushed forward anxiously to ask if Polly was hurt. Polly sat down rather heavily on the edge of the bed, supported by Lady Belling ham's arm.

"I am quite well, I thank you, just a little shaken..."

Hetty was now trying to persuade Peter to let Tristan Dit ton go, whilst Thalia was clinging to her brother's arm and pulling him in an opposite direction from Peter. Polly felt they might almost pull him apart between them.

"Oh, please let him go--' she started to say, only to find that control of the situation had been grasped firmly by Lord Henry March night.

"A simple misunderstanding, I feel sure, Sea grave. I am persuaded that you would not wish to inflict any further injuries to Dit ton's person! Why, his elegant night attire is quite ruined, I fancy!"

No one except Polly seemed to find it odd that Lord Henry's major concern should be for Mr Dit ton's clothing, for they were all quite used to his preoccupation with sartorial matters. Dit ton, released from Peter's cruel grip, drew himself up and exclaimed that the state of his silk dressing-gown was truly disgraceful, but not so shocking as the state of his nerves after an unwarranted attack.

Henry's ironic gaze then fell on Polly, still clasped within Lady Belling ham's protective arm.

"Not really unwarranted, Dit ton," he drawled.

"Sea- grave did what any right-minded brother would do under the circ.u.mstances! Have you forgotten the agitation occasioned to Lady Polly at finding you in her room? An apology at least, dear fellow..."

Dit ton, recalled to the demands of good behaviour, gulped a little, his Adam's apple bobbing.

"Dear Lady Polly... of course... such a terrible mistake. I was looking for the closet and became quite lost in the dark ... oh, dear, I am most abjectly sorry..."

"No harm done, eh, Dit ton?" Henry observed, mercifully putting an end to this miserable monologue. "Except perhaps, to your head!"

The tension began to dissolve. Miss Dit ton gulped noisily.

"Oh, Tristan, how could you be so foolish...?"

"Lady Polly... terrible mistake... abject apologies..." Mr Dit ton was still stuttering. He was still looking a little stunned from Peter's treatment, his thin, foxy face a sickly pale colour and his grey eyes darting fearfully.

He put a hand to his head.

"Excuse me... Must retire..."

He wandered off along the landing, silk dressing- gown napping, and Lady Belling ham started to shoo the others out of the room with a mixture of clucking and scolding.

"Come along, now! Back to your beds, all of you! Conchita!" She clapped her hands and the maid appeared apparently from nowhere, "Show these ladies back to their rooms! Good night!"

Peter and Hetty were disposed to linger until Polly rea.s.sured them with a pale smile.

"Truly, I am not hurt, only a little shocked. Oh, thank you, ma'am--'

She accepted a gla.s.s of brandy from Lady Belling ham, then looked at it dubiously. " Must I indeed drink this? " For the shock, my dear,"

Lady Belling ham counselled.

"It will help you sleep."

The grandfather clock chimed two.

The drink was very pungent and burned its way down Polly's throat.

"Poor Mr Dit ton!" She started to laugh.

"I imagine I gave him far more of a fright than he did me!"

"You were remarkably accurate with that chamber pot, my dear," Lady Belling ham observed.

"One scarce knows whether to be grateful or otherwise that it was empty!"

It was only later, when Lady Belling ham had left her and the house had settled down once more into quiet, that Polly curled up and wondered how Lord Henry had managed to appear in his night attire. Only minutes earlier she had seen him in the hall, fully dressed.

She was about to fall asleep for a third time that evening when she remembered the corner door. Some instinct prompted her to check that it was locked, although she had no reason to suppose otherwise. She dragged herself out of the bed again into the cold room. She shivered as she crossed the floor and turned the k.n.o.b. The door swung smoothly open without a sound and the dark stair gaped below.

Chapter Twelve.

QsrQ.

All sleepiness fled from Polly's mind. The door, which had been locked when she went to bed, was now standing open. A faint draught, scented with sea salt, wafted into the room and the darkness yawned below. For a moment she stared, unbelieving, down the dark stair, then she slammed the door shut as though she almost expected an intruder to appear before her eyes. There was a heavy oak armchair in a corner of the room, and Polly made haste to drag it across in front of the turret door, barricading herself in as best she could. The silence of the House of Tides seemed to spread around her.

There was no step on the stair, no turning of the k.n.o.b, but it was a long time before Polly returned to bed and even longer before she slept.

"You look f.a.gged to death, poor child," Lady Bel- ling ham said next morning, 'and no wonder! What a night of al arums and excursions! "

She had brought Polly's breakfast tray herself and now moved forward to draw back the curtains, letting in the bright sunlight and swathe of blue, rain washed sky. Her dark, thoughtful gaze lingered on the heavy wooden chair which was still in place squarely against the door.

"Lady Belling ham," Polly said directly, 'do you know where the key is for that door? " For a moment she thought that her ladyship looked distinctly furtive.

"The key? Is it not in the door, my love? I must confess I have hot seen it this age, for we seldom use this room."

"The door was locked when I went to bed," Polly said, feeling a little foolish at airing her suspicions in the bright light of day, 'but it was open in the middle of the night! I cannot understand it! " Lady Belling ham's eyes seemed to hold a secret amus.e.m.e.nt.

"Oh, no, my dear, I am sure you must be mistaken! The door is always kept locked!" And to ill.u.s.trate her point, she turned the k.n.o.b and gave the door a hearty push. It did not move.

"There now," Lady Belling ham said comfortably.

"I am persuaded that you must have dreamed it, my dear, and no wonder with all the shocks there were during the night! Mr Dit ton and his sister seem in an unaccountable hurry to leave this morning! But at least Miss Dit ton will be unable to gossip about last night's rodomontade, since her own brother was the villain of the piece! Now, here is your dress, freshly laundered by Conchita, and you must join us downstairs only when you are ready!"