Mistress of Mellyn by Victoria Holt

Connan,” Celestine said quietly, ” it is your first day back, you know, and Alvean so looked forward to your coming.”
    He smiled but I thought how grim his mouth was.
    ” Discipline,” he murmured. ” That, Celeste, is of the utmost importance. Come, we will leave Alvean with her governess.”
    He inclined his head in my direction, while Alvean threw a pleading glance at him which he quite obviously ignored.
    The door shut leaving me alone with my pupil.
    That incident had taught me a great deal. Alvean adored her father and he was indifferent to her. My anger against him increased as my pity for the child grew. Small wonder that she was a difficult child. What
    could one expect when she was such an unhappy one? I saw her . ignored by the father , whom she loved, spoiled by Celestine Nansellock. Between them they were doing their best to ruin the girl.
    I would have liked Connan TreMellyn better, I told myself, if he had decided to forget discipline on his first day back, and devote a little time to his daughter’s company.
    Alvean was rebellious all that evening, but I insisted on her going to bed at her usual time. She told me she hated me, though there was no need for her to have mentioned a fact which was apparent.
    I felt so disturbed when she was in her bed that I slipped out of the house and went into the woods, where I sat on a fallen tree trunk, brooding.
    It had been a hot day and there was a deep stillness in the woods.
    I wondered whether I was going to keep this Job. It was not easy to say at this stage, and I was not sure whether I wanted to go or stay.
    There were so many things to keep me. There was, for one thing, my interest in Gillyflower; there was my desire to wipe the rebellion from Alvean’s heart. But I felt less eagerness for these tasks now that I had seen the Master.
    I was a little afraid of the man although I could not say why. I was certain that he would leave me alone, but there was something magnetic about him, some quality which made it difficult for me to put him out of my mind. I thought more of dead Alice than I had before, because I could not stop myself wondering what sort of person she could have been.
    I amused him in some way. Perhaps because I was so unattractive in his eyes; perhaps because he knew that I belonged to that army of women who are obliged to earn their living and are so dependent on the whim of people like himself. Was there a streak of sadism in his nature? I believed so. Perhaps poor Alice had found it intolerable. Perhaps she, like poor Gillyflower’s mother, had walked into the sea.
    As I sat there I heard the sound of footsteps coming through the wood and I hesitated, wondering whether to wait there or go back to the house.
    A man was coming towards me, and there was something familiar about him which made my heart beat faster.
    He started when he saw me; then he began to smile and I recognised him as the man I had met on the train.
    ” So we meet,” he said. ” I knew our reunion would not be long delayed. Why, you look as though you have seen a ghost. Has your stay at Mount Mellyn made you look for ghosts? I’ve heard some say that there is a ghostly atmosphere about the place.”
    ” Who are you?” I asked.
    ” My name is Peter Nansellock. I have to confess to a little deception.”
    ” You’re Miss Celestine’s brother?”
    He nodded. ” I knew who you were when we met in the train. I deliberately bearded you in your carriage. I saw you sitting there, looking the part, and I guessed. Your name on the labels of your baggage confirmed my guess for I knew that they were expecting Miss Martha Leigh at Mount Mellyn.”
    ” I am comforted to learn that my looks conform with the part I have been called upon to play in life.”
    ” You really are a most untruthful young lady. I remember I had reason to reprimand you for the same sort of thing at our first meeting. You are in fact quite discomfited to learn that you were taken for a