Derrick took a long breath. “What brings him back now?”
He regretted the question as soon as it was asked, for Perkins was regarding him as though wondering why he should be surprised. It was all part of something else, something bigger. Surely he must realize that.
“I do not know, sir. He only reached the village this evening and came straight here.”
“Does he expect me to engage him?”
“He would like to come back to his old place, sir.”
“How extraordinary!”
Again Derrick spoke too hastily, and again he regretted it. Perkins did not answer. She stood passively, an austere expression on her sallow features; and, scrutinize as he might, there was no penetrating the veil that enshrouded her. She was an embodiment of something that defied his keenest analysis.
“Where has this man been for the past two years?”
“He did not say, sir.”
“You can tell me whether he was satisfactory in every way to Mr. Millicent?”