The carriage which took Jasper to Cluj brought back Philip and Anna.
After that the house was full of animation, like a beehive in May.
Rosemary only saw the two young people for a moment. She felt a stranger
in this family gathering, and her heart was so heavy that she soon found
a pretext for going up to her room. Later on she pleaded a headache.
Kind and hospitable as were these dear people, Rosemary felt that they
must wish to be alone amongst themselves after the terrible time they
had all gone through. They would have so much to talk over that the
presence of a stranger, even so welcome an one as Rosemary Tarkington,
must of necessity be irksome. It was clear to her from the first that
Philip and Anna knew little, if anything, of the conditions attached to
their release. Philip talked lightly of their being under surveillance
for a time, and then added quite gaily that he would gladly lead the
life of a hermit in Kis-Imre and never go outside the gates until the
present clouds blew over. He gave himself wholly up to the joy of
watching his mother's happiness and seeing her dear eyes beaming on her
returned boy. Altogether he was more like a schoolboy who by a fluke has
escaped punishment than a man conscious of a deadly peril that had not
ceased to threaten him.
They all sat up talking late into the evening, and when Rosemary found
herself at last alone in her room, trying to think things out before she
went to bed, little Anna came up to her. The child looked hollow-eyed
and grave; the joy that had been on her face when she first found
herself in this second home of hers had all gone. She looked old, wan
and tired out.
Rosemary put out her arms, and Anna ran up to her and snuggled up close
to her, just like a child. For a long time she was quite silent, with
her head against her friend's shoulder, her little, thin hands held in
Rosemary's kind, firm grasp. Now and again a hot tear would fall on
Rosemary's hands. Anna, was crying quietly to herself, and Rosemary
waited until the girl was calm enough to speak.
"I don't understand the whole thing, Rosemary," were the first words
that Anna spoke.
"What is it you don't understand, dear?" Rosemary asked.
"It is not like them to be lenient, is it?" the girl retorted, looking
up with quick, eager inquiry into her friend's face.
"Oh, in this case," Rosemary rejoined vaguely, "you are both so young!"
Anna shook her head vigorously.
"That wouldn't worry them," she said, "after all the trouble they must
have taken to track us down."
"You were caught in the act, I suppose?" Rosemary queried.
Anna nodded.
"Yes," she said. "And that was strange too. I had all my parcels
ready--the usual ones for Budapest, and Philip's manuscript at the
bottom of a box of vegetable seeds. Half a dozen soldiers and an officer
came into the shop and walked straight up to the place where the parcels
were stacked. They seemed to know all about everything, for the officer
just ordered his men to undo all the parcels, and, of course, there was
Philip's manuscript."
"There's nothing strange in all that, Anna," Rosemary said. "I have no
doubt in my mind that you both have been watched for some time by secret
service men, and at last they closed their trap on you."
But once more Anna shook her head.
"I can't explain what I mean," she said, and puckered her fine straight
brows together. "It is a kind of intuition that came to me when I saw
those soldiers walk in. I am absolutely convinced that we were not
denounced by regular Government spies. They are too clumsy, and we were
too careful. I am certain," she reiterated obstinately, "that we were
not denounced by one of them."
"By whom, then?"
"Ah, that I don't know. It is an awful feeling I have. You know I never
believed in all that so-called psychic nonsense which is so fashionable
just now, but the feeling I have is not just an ordinary one. It is so
strong that I cannot fight against it. It is a feeling that
eyes--eyes--are always watching me and Philip--cruel eyes--eyes that
wish us evil--that _will_ us to do something foolish, unconsidered,
something that will get us again into trouble, and for good this time."
"You are overwrought, Anna dear," Rosemary put in gently. "And no
wonder! Of course, we all know that there are Government spies all over
the place, and you and Philip will have to be doubly careful in the
future; but here in Kis-Imre you are among friends. Your Aunt Elza's
servants are all of them Hungarian and thoroughly to be trusted."
Anna said nothing. She was staring straight out in front of her, as if
trying to meet those mysterious eyes which were for ever watching her.
An involuntary cry of horror rose to Rosemary's lips.
"Anna!" she exclaimed, "you don't think that I----"
But before she could complete her sentence Anna's arms were round her.
"Of course not. Of course not," the girl murmured tenderly. "Rosemary
darling, of course not!"
"I never spoke about your affairs to a single soul, Anna," Rosemary said
gravely. "I give you my solemn word of honour that I never even
mentioned the thing to my husband until after your arrest, when, of
course, all the facts became public property."
"I know, Rosemary, I know," Anna repeated. "I would trust you with every
secret. I would trust you with my life--with Philip's life."
"And you did not trust anyone else?" Rosemary asked.
"I never breathed a word about it to a living soul, except to you and
Peter Blakeney."
"Peter knew?"
"Yes, Peter knew."
"You wrote to him?" Rosemary insisted. "Ah, then I understand. Your
letters were held up by the censor, and----"
"No, I never wrote to Peter what Philip and I were doing; but you know
he arrived in Cluj the day before I was arrested. He came to arrange
some cricket match or other between Roumanians and Hungarians. I don't
know anything about cricket, but, of course, Peter was full of it. He
came to see me at my lodgings, quite unexpectedly. I was so surprised to
see him, and so happy, as I am very, very fond of Peter. We talked till
late into the evening, and somehow I had to tell him everything. But
except for that one talk with Peter, and the one I had with you, I never
breathed a word about what Philip and I were doing, not to a living
soul!"
Rosemary said nothing for the moment. Indeed, there was nothing much
that she could say. Little Anna had got hold of the idea that some
mysterious agency had been at work and brought about her and Philip's
arrest. But, after all, what did it matter? Professional spies or
insidious traitor? What difference did it make in the end? Anna was
frightened because she feared a fresh denunciation. She did not know
that her poor little life was already forfeit, that she was just a mouse
whom the cat had allowed to run free for a moment or two, and that she
would be pounced upon again unless her friend Rosemary, whom she trusted
with her whole soul, bought freedom and life for her.
But it was not thoughts of Anna that sealed Rosemary's lips at this
moment and left her mute, motionless, like an insentient log, with
Anna's cold little hand held tightly in her own. Anna had not spoken of
her activities or her plans to anyone except to Peter. And Jasper had
extracted a promise from her, Rosemary, that she would not speak of
Philip's or Anna's affairs to Peter. What connexion was there between
Jasper's insistence and that other awful thought which, strive as she
might, would haunt Rosemary's brain like a hideous ghoul risen out of
hell? What mystery lurked in the denunciation of these children, in
their release, in the alternative which Naniescu had placed before her?
What hidden powers were at work, threatening her with shame and the
children with death?
Rosemary felt stifled. Rising abruptly, she went to the window and
stepped out on the balcony. The moon was up, a honey-coloured, waning
moon that threw its cool, mysterious light on park land and lake and the
distant pine forest beyond. Immediately below the balcony a bed of
tuberoses, with wax-like corollas that shimmered white and spectral,
sent their intoxicating odour through the balmy air. And against the
background of dense shrubberies a couple of fireflies gleamed and darted
aimlessly, ceaselessly, in and out of the shadows. Rosemary, seeing
them, was reminded of what Anna had said just now--that eyes were for
ever looking at her, cruel eyes, eyes that were on the watch, spying,
spying.
Suddenly she clapped her hand to her mouth, smothering a sharp cry that
had risen to her throat; and instinctively she stepped back into the
room and hastily closed the window.
"What is it, Rosemary darling?" Anna asked.
"Nothing, dearie, nothing," Rosemary replied quickly. "The smell of
those tuberoses made me feel queer. That's all."
She could not tell Anna that while she watched the fireflies, and the
air was so still, so still that not a blade of grass shivered, and even
the leaves of the aspen were at rest, she had perceived a tremor amongst
the laurel bushes and seen some of the tall branches held back by a
hand, each finger of which was outlined by the silvery light of the
moon. And above the hand she had sensed a pair of eyes that were looking
up at her.
She tried to talk lightly with Anna, to infuse into her some of the
buoyancy of mind which she was far from feeling herself. She was sure
that Anna had a vague consciousness of the danger that hung over her and
those she cared for; the only thing she could not know was that her fate
and theirs lay in the hands of the friend whom she trusted. How would
she--how would they all--bear the knowledge when it came to them, as
come it must? How would she, Rosemary, face the reproach which, even if
unspoken by them, would haunt her to the end of her life: "You might
have saved us, if you would."