Adelaide nodded, but said nothing else, seeming unwilling to speak.
‘Why do you ask?’ Margot prompted her.
‘Did you… happen to see anything unusual, as you approached the house?’
Surprised, Margot said at once: ‘I… thought I did, but it turned out to be nothing. A bird darting behind a tree, I think.’
Adelaide’s eyes brightened, and she clutched at this meagre offering with, Margot thought, unwonted enthusiasm. ‘I had the same experience! Margot, I am persuaded it was not a bird. I am sure there was someone there, only when I went to look, she had faded into the wind.’
‘She?’
‘I think there was a woman there, for I am sure I saw the flicker of rose-red skirts.’
Rose-red. The words sparked a feeling of recognition in Margot, for she would have used similar words to describe her own b
