Katharine said ‘No – ’ on a long sigh. It turned into a laugh. ‘I shan’t have much choice about telling him. Everybody in Ledstow will know him at sight. William Smith will be an exploded myth from the moment my Mrs. Perkins sets eyes on him. She lives next door and comes in and does for me when I’m there, and she has known William since he was five years old. But you’re quite right – he has got to know. Only it would be so much better if he hadn’t got to be told.’

Miss Silver gave a short, brisk cough.

‘Very true. Meanwhile there is something he should do without delay. He should inform the local police of the fact that the wheel of his car had been loosened. They will make the usual routine enquiries. It is possible that the person who tampered with the wheel was observed. In what kind of street is the garage?’

‘It isn’t a garage at all, only a shed where a local builder keeps odds and ends – ladders amongst other things. And you can’t call it a street. It’s just a narrow cut running along the back yards of the houses fronting on Ellery Street.’

Miss Silver looked attentive.

‘Not the kind of place which a stranger would frequent. The person we are looking for may have attracted attention. By all means get your husband to notify the police. In the second place, I would like your permission to talk the whole matter over with Frank Abbott.’

‘Oh, no!’

Miss Silver held up her pencil in a hortatory manner.

‘Pray think again, Mrs. Eversley. There have been three attempts on your husband’s life, an attempt on Mr. Tattlecombe of which your husband may have been the real object, and a fatal accident to Mr. Davies – the day after he had recognised him as William Eversley. I am not saying from what quarter these attacks have come. By changing your address you may have obscured your own connection with William Smith for a time, but it must be clear to you that anyone who is taking a serious interest in his identity with William Eversley cannot remain long in ignorance of the part you have undertaken to play. As soon as that is known, and as soon as it is known that you have gone through a form of marriage with him and are living as his wife, it will be evident to the person or persons who have been attempting his life that the time remaining to them is short. He, or they, must know that you will not remain silent. As soon as you speak and William Smith comes forward as William Eversley they cannot any longer hope to act in the dark. Attention will be focused upon anyone who has an interest in resisting his claim. Do you not see that the sooner that claim is made, the harder it will be to make any fresh attempt upon his life? Where a common street accident to William Smith could very well pass unsuspected of being anything more than an accident, his sudden death immediately after he has claimed to be William Eversley whose return from the dead was likely to involve his relatives in a good deal of financial embarrassment could hardly fail to attract the attention of the police.’

Katharine said, ‘Yes.’

Miss Silver laid down her pencil with an air of finality.

‘It will, I think, be quite a good plan for you to leave town tomorrow for the weekend. Pray do not tell anyone where you are going. Meanwhile I should like to talk the matter over with Frank Abbott. I do not care to accept the responsibility alone. I think you may rest assured that no action will be taken without reference to your husband and yourself. If Frank thinks as I do he may discuss the matter with Chief Inspector Lamb, a most worthy and dependable officer. He has great experience, and I feel sure that you need not be afraid that he will authorise any precipitate action. Routine procedure may, however, produce some interesting evidence. Have I your permission?’

Katharine looked at her for a full long minute. Then she said,

‘Yes.’

They drove down to Ledstow on the grey Saturday afternoon. Katharine need not have troubled herself to find excuses for starting late. William brought the car up to the Mews and spent considerably more than an hour in going over everything that could be gone over. She didn’t want to arrive in daylight, and by the time’they started it was quite certain that if they made Ledstow before nightfall they would be fortunate. They talked a little until they were clear of the London belt. William had thought it quite a good plan to let the local police know that the car had been tampered with. He had gone round to the police station before fetching it. He talked about his interview with a monumental sergeant.

‘He made me feel about ten years old – ’ he branched off suddenly – ‘I wonder what I was doing when I was ten. You’d think you’d get used to not remembering anything, but you don’t. It’s running into a blank wall when you know there ought to be a window there. Sometimes it makes me feel as if I was going to bang my head.’

‘Does it?’

He gave a quick nod. After a moment he said,

‘You wouldn’t think I’d mind so much now. I mean you wouldn’t think I could mind anything now I’ve got you. But I do – I mind worse. It’s idiotic, isn’t it?’

‘No, I don’t think so. You mean you mind because of me?’

‘Yes. You’ve got a sort of pig in a poke, haven’t you? And then if we had children, I’d mind awfully for them.’

She said, ‘You’ll remember.’

He turned a momentary look on her, and she saw the trouble in his eyes.

‘Remember – what?’ he said. ‘Perhaps I oughtn’t to have married you.’

Katharine put her hand on his knee.

‘Don’t be stupid, darling – you’ll remember all right. And it won’t be anything to worry about, you’ll see.’

They came clear of the houses and the traffic and drove on.

Afterwards Katharine looked back and thought what a strange drive; it had been – the air mild and full of moisture, mist rising from the fields, and cloud hanging low – the world like a silver-point drawing, no colour anywhere, grey cloud and leafless trees, hedgerows hung with drops like crystal beads, a river streaked with silver and lead, mist on the fields like smoke rising.

William said once, ‘It won’t turn to fog till after dark,’ but for most of the way neither of them spoke. There was a curious sense of being cut off, not from one another, but from the familiar shape of things. Presently there was no distance. Outlines began to blur. The damp in the air frosted the windscreen and had to be wiped away. The road which Katharine knew so well took on a strangeness, like something remembered but not quite real. She had stopped planning what to do and what to say. It wasn’t any use. The road would take them to the house, and when she got there she would know what to say and what to do. She remembered driving down to the Cedar House with William after their July wedding – July 1939, and everyone thinking and talking of war – a bright, clear day and the July sun sloping to the west over fields almost ripe for harvesting. ‘Thrust in thy sickle and reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.’ That was in the Bible, in the Book of Revelations. It had been a bitter and a bloody reaping. She looked back. There had been an agony of love, an agony of parting, a long-drawn agony of slowly fading hope. Now they were here together in a mist, travelling the old road to the old house on a January afternoon.

They came through Ledlington with the last of the daylight and the lamps shining in the streets. William drove right through the town and out on the other side without a check, and when they were clear of the straggle of new houses which has sprung up all round the old town he drove straight on over the seven miles of lonely road into the middle of the village street and stopped there, the headlights of the car making a straight shining beam in which the mist dazzled like motes in the sun.