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be bubbling over with some secret he could barely contain. ‘What is it?’ she asked, abandoning her stance. ‘What’s happened?’
    ‘Guess?’
    ‘Oh, if you’re going to play silly games, I’m not interested.’ She flounced away to scramble up into the old tree and sit hunched upon a crooked branch, hurt by his attitude. There were no sounds in the woods but the carolling of a lone blackbird. It sounded so melancholy and forlorn it almost brought tears to her eyes. She certainly wasn’t crying over Rob Hollinthwaite.
    ‘You couldn’t begin to guess,’ he said, eyes glittering. Not in a million years.’
    Alena gave a long-suffering sigh, and a teasing smile tugged at the corners of her mouth. ‘Your Aunt Maud has bought you a new top and whip?’
    He snorted and started to toss acorns up into the high branches to show he really didn’t care whether she guessed or not. ‘Don’t be soppy. Anyway, I haven’t got an Aunt Maud.’
    Alena rolled her eyes, as if pretending to think, but with her mind still on Dolly, she said, ‘Old Simpleton is having a mad passionate affair?’
    ‘That’ll be the day. But you’re getting warm. It is to do with Miss Simpson.’ He could keep it to himself no longer. He came to lean with studied nonchalance against the trunk of the tree, hands in pockets, and looked up into Alena’s questioning gaze. ‘She’s leaving.’
    Her mouth literally dropped open. This was indeed the last thing she had expected. The governess doted on Rob, adored him, had lived and worked at Ellersgarth Hall since he was a tiny baby. Nothing but a disaster of cataclysmic proportions would drive her from his side. ‘ Why ?’ She dropped down from the branch and together they sat in their favourite place between the roots of the great tree as, with arms wrapped about her knees Alena prepared to listen to his tale with breathless anticipation.
    Rob dragged the suspense out for a moment longer, until she was almost bouncing with impatience and begging him to get on with it. ‘Because I’m going away to school. What do you think about that?’
    It was only as he watched her face turn deathly white that the full implications of his news hit home. Of course, it would mean that they wouldn’t see each other any more. Why hadn’t he thought of that? Because he’d been desperate to go to school for so long, he’d been thrilled when his father had told him. Even the loss of good old Simpleton, of whom he was really quite fond and would miss hugely, had paled into insignificance beside the prospect of this new adventure. Now he wasn’t so sure.
    When?’ Alena’s voice sounded all fuzzy and wobbly, like the wavering image of her pale face.
    ‘Soon. After Christmas, I imagine. I’ll be home every holiday, of course, and we get weeks and weeks so…’ He let the sentence hang unfinished. Excitement had died in him and unease began to grow. He changed tack and started to talk about the ‘new opportunities’ that were waiting for him. ‘Rugger and soccer,’ he explained. ‘The school has its own swimming pool and running track. There’ll be lots of work, of course, exams and such, but…
    He pulled a face, and once again his voice tailed away as he watched the changing expressions on Alena’s face. Her white skin seemed to be going all red and blotchy now, right before his eyes. Hardly surprising since a surge of fury so hot and fierce she couldn’t hope to contain it, was coursing through Alena’s veins. She felt sick, was sure that at any moment she would throw up all over his stupid feet. How could he look so pleased with himself? How dare he be so happy that he was going away?
    ‘You’re too old to go to school,’ she said with great scorn. ‘I’ll be leaving soon, starting work and earning money.’ This was far from true. Hadn’t she promised to stay on to take her school certificate, which everyone thought she could get quite easily?
    ‘I’m not.’ She had hit upon Rob’s