“My dear child,” Evelyn was shocked and startled. “How long has this been going on?”
“I don’t know. It came—it started by degrees. And there have been other things too.”
“What sort of things?”
“There are times,” said Molly slowly, “that I can’t account for, that I can’t remember.”
“Do you mean you have blackouts—that sort of thing?”
“I suppose so. I mean sometimes it’s—oh, say it’s five o’clock—and I can’t remember anything since about half past one or two.”
“Oh my dear, but that’s just that you’ve been asleep. Had a doze.”
“No,” said Molly, “it’s not like that at all. Because you see, at the end of the time it’s not as though I’d just dozed off. I’m in a different place. Sometimes I’m wearing different clothes and sometimes I seem to have been doing things—even saying things to people, talking to someone, and not remembering that I’ve done so.”
Evelyn looked shocked. “But, Molly, my dear, if this is so, then you ought to see a doctor.”
“I won’t see a doctor! I don’t want to. I wouldn’t go near a doctor.”
Evelyn looked sharply down into her face, then she took the girl’s hand in hers. “You may be frightening yourself for nothing, Molly. You know there are all kinds of nervous disorders that aren’t really serious at all. A doctor would soon reassure you.”
“He mightn’t. He might say that there was something really wrong with me.”
“Why should there be anything wrong with you?”
“Because—” Molly spoke and then was silent. “—no reason, I suppose,” she said.
“Couldn’t your family—haven’t you any family any mother or sisters or someone who could come out here?”
“I don’t get on with my mother. I never have. I’ve got sisters. They’re married but I suppose—I suppose they could come if I wanted them. But I don’t want them. I don’t want anyone—anyone except Tim.”
“Does Tim know about this? Have you told him?”
“Not really,” said Molly. “But he’s anxious about me and he watches me. It’s as though he were trying to—to help me or to shield me. But if he does that it means I want shielding, doesn’t it?”
“I think a lot of it may be imagination but I still think you ought to see a doctor.”
“Old Dr. Graham? He wouldn’t be any good.”
“There are other doctors on the island.”
“It’s all right, really,” said Molly. “I just mustn’t think of it. I expect, as you say, it’s all imagination. Good gracious, it’s getting frightfully late. I ought to be on duty now in the dining room. I—I must go back.”
She looked sharply and almost offensively at Evelyn Hillingdon, and then hurried off.
Evelyn stared after her.
12
OLD SINS CAST LONG SHADOWS
“I THINK as I am on to something, man.”
“What’s that you say, Victoria?”
“I think I’m on to something. It may mean money. Big money.”
“Now look, girl, you be careful, you’ll not tangle yourself up in something. Maybe I’d better tackle what it is.”
Victoria laughed, a deep rich chuckle. “You wait and see,” she said. “I know how to play this hand. It’s money, man, it’s big money. Something I see, and something I guess. I think I guess right.”
And again the soft rich chuckle rolled out on the night.
II
“Evelyn . . .”
“Yes?”
Evelyn Hillingdon spoke mechanically, without interest. She did not look at her husband.
“Evelyn, would you mind if we chucked all this and went home to England?”
She had been combing her short dark hair. Now her hands came down from her head sharply. She turned towards him.
“You mean— But we’ve only just come. We’ve not been out here in the islands for more than three weeks.”
“I know. But—would you mind?”
Her eyes searched him incredulously. “You really want to go back to England. Back home?”
“Yes.”
“Leaving—Lucky.”
He winced.
“You’ve known all the time, I suppose, that—that it was still going on?”
“Pretty well. Yes.”
“You’ve never said anything.”
“Why should I? We had the whole thing out years ago. Neither of us wanted to make a break. So we agreed to go our separate ways—but keep up the show in public.”