‘Giles, of course.’
‘Oh, gracious, no!’ said he, shaking his head with a frown of annoyance. ‘It’s much too early to expect him yet. It’s barely three o’clock.’
‘Then why are you sitting here?’ asked Anne.
‘Oh, I just came down to—er—to—’
‘You came here to watch for Giles,’ said she, sitting on the bench beside him. ‘And don’t you try to deny it.’
‘And why did you come here?’ asked Luke, still looking out over the landscape.
‘I came to tell you about the cat. I’m sure it’s Agnes’s.’
‘Why?’
‘Listen,’ said she, lowering her voice. ‘It helped me make a fire just now. I thought the Countess might like one in her room when she gets back. And as we are not letting the servants into her apartments for the present, I got some wood and kindling and started to build it myself. And suddenly the cat appeared at my elbow and began handing me the sticks, in its mouth, the same as I saw it do in the Applewoman’s hut long ago. It’s Agnes’s, sure enough.—Oh, look, is that horses coming, way over there on the middle road?’
Luke peered into the distance.