“Phillida, did you send them away?”
“Yes.” Phillida’s was muffled but clear.
“But how?” Lizbeth asked.
“I told them that I would never live with them as – as their wife.” Her voice was hardly above a whisper and yet Lizbeth heard the words.
“Phillida!” She was both shocked and astounded. Everything she felt seemed to explode in her voice as she cried her sister’s name.
“They believed me and they went away,” Phillida said, “but somehow I could not speak of such things to Master Hawkhurst. I felt he would not have listened to me. He wanted to be alone with me so that he could make love to me. He wanted to kiss me – he tried to – but – I managed to escape him.”
The words were whispered, but even so they seemed to quiver raw and trembling on the air. Lizbeth’s arms tightened round her si
