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Goodnight, Miss Travis.’ He closed the door and Paddy turned the key.
    After she had done so, she came blindly into the room, found a chair and sank down.
    And cried.
     

CHAPTER FOUR
    Paddy cried ... and cried.
    She cried for Jerry. She cried because she was tired and discouraged. She cried because she had believed she had won this job on her merits, but as it had turned out the position had only been given to her because of Magnus David’s cheque. She cried because she was about to be tried and found wanting, and how could she not be found that when she was wanting, wanting very desperately at this moment for ordinary friendship, ordinary goodwill, ordinary kindness. He had given her nothing like that.
    What was it he had said? she wept into her handkerchief. It had been something about her not being deprived, not with a suite like he was providing her. As though that could count, as though creature comfort mattered, but all the same Paddy emerged from the handkerchief and looked around.
    Not knowing what to expect, she regarded her wing between two wings ... then gave a gasp. Why, it was quite beautiful, she saw. The same lovely old furniture adorned it, the same soft colours enhanced it, as the master unit. They might not be provided for the wards, but they had been for her.
    She wondered what the windows looked out on. Just now they held only darkness and stars, but at daytime the view should be stunning, for he, Magnus David, had told her they were on a plateau, and a plateau would naturally command the countryside for miles.
    The dovetailed flat consisted of a bed-sitting room, bathroom and small kitchen with eating recess should the occupier wish to dine alone. That would not happen, Paddy resolved, for she was a firm believer in a family sitting round a table (in this instance no male head, of course) though tonight she would have to eat alone ... and yes, she was getting hungry. The last time she had eaten had been on the train, and well down the coast. I'm sorry, Jerry, she said aloud, but you always did tell me I was hollow inside. She laughed a little at that and felt a great deal better. She knew Jerry would have liked that reminder.
    She opened a small fridge and found a chicken salad laid out. A cupboard nearby produced crisp rolls. She put both on a tray and took the meal to the window, and there she sat and ate. There was a little breeze turning the leaves of a tree outside. It was rather a warm breeze, for these were the hotter latitudes, but there was a crispness somewhere, and that would be because this was a mountain top ... many mountains but one top. It would make for crispness. The meal finished, Paddy leaned right out of the window and took a deep breath. It was quite exhilarating; no wonder bloodstock prospered here.
    Not quite in keeping with plateau air and horses, though, was the large dish of bananas on the bench— apples seemed more in keeping with horses; but Paddy was to learn afterwards that with so many banana plantations literally at their feet, and one of them belonging to the stud, bananas were always there for the taking. She took one now, peeled it in the four ribbons that bananas should be peeled, and looked around her again.
    That door through which she had come ... no, been pushed ... was his. She saw there was a corresponding door almost opposite, apparently belonging to the boys’ side, and she went curiously across. They were not there, he had said, but there was nothing to stop her looking around. She saw a key hanging on a hook, and applied it. The key turned and she entered the wards’ domain.
    It was a much larger unit than her own, nearer the size, she decided, of the main section, his section. But even with bedrooms to spare the boys had still evidently elected to sleep in one room, and Paddy smiled gently at that. How they clung together, these unbelonging ones; they would quibble, actively fight on many occasions, but they all shared that deep-down bond, that fellow