“Barnabas,” said Lady Isabel, “do go and change your clothes. He fell into the sea the other day, and he is so liable to take cold.”
“We saw him,” said Priscilla. “Go and change your clothes, Mr. Pennefather. By the time you’ve done that Jimmy Kinsella will have arrived and you can be off at once with Miss Rutherford. The sooner we’re all out of this the better. Though Lord Torrington doesn’t look like a man who would come out in a thunder storm even to catch his daughter.”
“Your black suit is in the hold-all in my tent,” said Lady Isabel.
The Reverend Barnabas Pennefather disappeared into the tent which was still standing. Priscilla looked around her cheerfully.
“It’s clearing up,” she said. “There’s quite a lot of blue sky to be seen over Rosnacree. We’ll all dry soon.”
She gathered the bottom of her skirt tight into her hands and wrung the water out of it.
“Where are you going to take him to?” she said to Miss Rutherford.
“Am I to take him?” said Miss Rutherford. “I didn’t know that was part of the plan. I thought we were all going together to Inishbawn, the sanctuary.”
“Didn’t I tell you,” said Priscilla. “We decided that you were to have charge of Barnabas for a few days until the trouble blows over a bit. You’re to pretend that he’s your husband. You don’t mind, do you?”
“I’d much rather have Frank,” said Miss Rutherford.