“I can well believe, that,” he answered slowly. “I suppose Mr. Rayner was among them from whom you wished to keep this knowledge?”
“Yes,” was the reply, given frankly. “I did not wish him to know how foolish I had been.”
The corporal remembered what Rayner had hinted as to his hopes of making Joy Gargrave his wife, and the girl’s answer started fresh questions in his mind. Did she love Rayner and favour his aspirations, and knowing herself to be already a wife, had she deliberately removed the barrier which lay between them, but of which Rayner had no knowledge? He could not tell, and looking steadily at the girl he proceeded to ask his next question.
“Miss Gargrave—I mean Mrs. Brack—”
“No! No!” interrupted the girl. “Do not give me that name. I do not want it. I hate it. Call me Gargrave.”
He bowed. “As you please, Miss Gargrave. There is a question I wish to ask you. Tell me, did you have speech with Dick Bracknell last night?”
“Not a word.”
“But you saw him?”
“Yes,” she agreed quietly. “I saw him.”
“You stood in the shadow of the trees at a point which would give you a clear view of the place where you knew your husband would be waiting for you, and you took a rifle with you. Why did you take that rifle, Miss Gargrave?”