CHAPTER TWENTY-THREEDown at the Vicarage the Lentons were finishing lunch. As soon as it was over it would be the Vicar’s part to stack everything together and carry it through to the pantry, where Mrs Lenton would wash and Ellie Page would dry. But when he arrived with a deftly balanced pile of plates Ellie was nowhere to be seen. His abrupt demand as to where she had got to having been met with a rather over ready “I’m afraid she has another of her headaches,” he frowned at Molly and Jenny and told them to go and play in the garden.
As soon as they had gone he shut the pantry door with some force.
“Mary, what is the matter with that girl?”
Mary Lenton was running the hot tap—a noisy business, because the pipes were old and made strange hiccuping sounds. He understood her to be repeati
