Plucky Sarah Trent takes a job as a governess/companion for 18-year-old Lucilla Hildred, an orphan living with two cousins, Geoffrey Hildred and Marina Hildred, and Geoffrey’s son Ricky. Marina is old-fashioned and tends to go on and on about her family history, but Sarah is a good listener. Geoffrey clearly likes her but reminds her of a farmer.

Sarah soon becomes aware that something strange is going on. On the way back from her interview, her borrowed car runs out of gas. Looking for a house or somewhere she can borrow gas, she finds a deserted estate. It turns out to be Holme Fallow, the property belonging to Lucilla, but Sarah sees someone enter the deserted house, apparently a burglar. When she thinks he’s seen her, she runs out and later gets a ride into town.

Sarah’s friend Bertrand Darnac takes a liking to Lucilla and begins coming around. Also around is John Brown, a client whom Geoffrey has given permission to paint around the grounds. Sarah feels he is mysterious but is drawn to him.

Her first night there, Lucilla asks her to switch rooms. In the middle of the night, Sarah hears something scratching and scrambling at the window. When she talks to Lucilla about it, the girl seems relieved. But Lucilla keeps having accidents, and each time she won’t talk about what happened.

Could someone be trying to kill Lucilla? Or, as Geoffrey admits to Sarah, is Lucilla unstable?

This is another good one from Wentworth—a romantic suspense novel with the emphasis on the suspense. Although I didn’t have much doubt about who the bad guy was, John Brown’s identity is a mystery, and it is interesting to see how the evildoer will be thwarted.

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