Netherby Halls

“Everything, James,” Sassy said, “but I just don’t know where to start.” As soon as the words were out she regretted saying anything at all.

“Here is something new—start at the end and work your way back to the beginning.” He grinned at her as he clasped his gloved hands at his back and fell in step beside her.

She gave him a smile and an arched look. “Don’t belittle my troubles. They are quite genuine, I assure you.”

“Ah, I am sorry. Of course they are, but then you must not smile so radiantly at me. If we are to be grave, then let us be grave,” he teased.

“Seriously, James, there is something very wrong, but you are friendly with the headmistress, and it wouldn’t be fair to embroil you in this,” Sassy said as it occurred to her that perhaps she should not trust him. He was sweet, he was pleasant, and he was kind. And yet, her sixth sense told her to steer away from him, and she knew her sixth sense was never, ever wrong.

“Tell me what you think you can,” he urged gently.

“Very well, I shall tell you this in the hopes that there might be an explanation that will set my mind at ease.”

“Yes?”

“The headmistress has had visitors at a very odd hour, and those visitors … don’t look respectable and certainly should not be allowed on school grounds. I know I sound like a prig, but …”

He laughed, and the sound set her on edge. Something was off here. He should have been shocked. When she arched another look at him, he put his hands up and backed off slightly. “Well, really, Sassy, you make it sound very clandestine.”

“And so it was. James, it was two in the morning, and she is the headmistress of a school for orphaned girls with gentry as family. What if one of them happened to be up, on her way to the kitchen or playing some prank as young people do, and they witnessed these men visiting the headmistress? Not only was it a very odd hour to receive visitors, but these, as I said, were not respectable in appearance.”

Dr. Bankes no longer smiled. “I see,” he said.

“You don’t seem shocked,” she said, eyeing him curiously. He was going to offer her an explanation. Her magic whispered, Careful, over and over again.

“Only that she allowed herself to be caught.” Although Sassy had promised herself to be ready for his answer, she had not expected this answer.

“What?” she exclaimed.

“I don’t have the right to tell you this, for it was told to me in confidence. However, I believe I must in order to dispel whatever wild notions are racing through your young head,” said the doctor.

“What?” Sassy repeated.

“Mistress Sallstone is married,” he said softly.

Sassy was taken aback. “I thought she was a widow?”

“So did she. She thought her husband was lost at sea. He suddenly turned up here, and she discovered that he has sunk beneath saving. He wants money from her. He threatens to expose her and their marriage, and she pays him to be quiet. But what you were doing up and about at such an hour,” he said, shaking his head, “has me baffled.”

Sassy was surprised by his words. Everything still felt wrong. He seemed to take this in stride, and she held herself aloof as she answered, “That is what has you baffled? As it happened, I awoke from a nightmare and thought I heard intruders.”

“Ah, of course. Well, with any good luck he should be putting out to sea, and Miss Sallstone will no longer be bothered with him.”

Sassy gazed at him for a long moment. A drum was pounding out a beat, and the word she heard over and over was danger.

He asked, “What else troubles you?”

“Naught.”

“Good, good,” he said. Sassy had the feeling he was anxious to quit her company. He took her arm and led her back towards the school, and she did not demur. She wanted to see for herself if her suspicions were correct.

“Don’t go wandering about at night, Sassy. I shouldn’t like you to run into him and his friends. They are, as you saw, unsavory.”

“Hmm,” she said as a bell chimed in her head. There is so much more to it than what he told you. Don’t trust him, that bell sound pounded out those words in her mind.

She was not totally surprised that he waited at the bottom of

the stairs while she ascended to the upper floor. He wanted to make certain she was out of the way, she thought. Well, well, what are you going to do, James Bankes, she wondered as she gave him a hurried smile and walked out of his sight.