CHAPTER VIII
‘What’s that?’ Sir William held up his hand. ‘Didn’t you hear something?’
Margaret leaned forward in her chair. ‘I thought I heard a noise, a kind of distant rumbling.’ She rose to her feet, and they stood together, listening. Their eyes were empty, but in their ears was the whole vague tumult of the night.
‘Nothing much,’ said Sir William at last. ‘Storm’s still going on, I suppose.’ He thrust his hands into his pockets, and began whistling softly.
There had been so many things to think about that Margaret had almost forgotten the storm, the crumbling hills and the floods outside, the old menace of the night. Their journey through it, their arrival here, these events had crept away from the foreground of her mind, had thinned and faded a little. Now they returned, conquering her mind in one savage rush; the walls and the roof became mere eggshell; and the night was about to pour in its rain and darkness. She stood there pressing down so heavily upon one foot that the whole leg was taut and dully aching, and still she listened.
There was more distant rumbling, then at last a huge crash, coming from somewhere above and behind the house. ‘I wonder what that was,’ she said, looking at her companion.
‘Something went then,’ he exclaimed. ‘More water coming down now, I suppose.’ He went over to the window, rubbed it with his forefinger, and tried to peer through. ‘Can’t see a thing. It’s as black as pitch.’ He continued to stand there, with his face close to the window. ‘I’ll tell you what,’ he said, after a minute had passed, ‘I can hear something though. Sounds like rushing water, tons and tons of it. Come here and listen.’
She joined him at the window, which looked out at the back of the house. There was a noise of rushing water coming from somewhere, not a loud noise yet very disturbing, suggesting the presence of a gigantic hostile power. ‘Is it coming down on us?’ she asked.
‘All round us now, I should think,’ he replied. ‘Probably finding its way in.’
Yes, the house was an eggshell perched on the hillside. There was no security anywhere. This thought angered her; she felt as if she had been cheated.