‘He commissioned you to give them to me? It is very strange. I do not understand. He said he should be here himself. What on earth made him give this packet to you?’
‘Because I insisted on it; he could not help himself,’ replied Nell. ‘Lady Ilfracombe, do not be angry with me for mentioning it, but my bedroom at the farmhouse is over that occupied by Mr Portland, and I was at my window the night you visited him there, and heard all that passed between you about those letters.’
‘That was eavesdropping,’ exclaimed the countess with crimson cheeks, ‘and you had no right to do it. If you made use of what you overheard you would ruin me with my husband.’
‘Do you think me capable of such a thing? I should not have listened to a single word, unless I had thought I could do you a service by doing so. As soon as I understood the dilemma you were in, and why you had sought that man, I resolved, if possible, to get the letters he was so meanly withholding from you.’
‘You resolved?’ cried Nora in surprise.
‘Yes, and as soon as you and he had left to return to the Hall, I went down to his room and ransacked it in order to find them. I had not done so when Mr Portland came back and found me there,—after which there was an explanation between us, and I forced him to give them up to me—with a written affirmation that he has no more in his possession.’
‘And he assured me that he had telegraphed to London for them, and only received them this morning.’
‘If he said so, you might have been sure it was untrue.’
‘Miss Llewellyn, you don’t like Jack Portland any more than I do,’ said Nora, looking straight in the other’s face.
‘I have no reason to do so, Lady Ilfracombe.’