Bride of Pendorric (23 page)

I was relieved, when I went up to our bedroom, to find that Roe had come in.

” Roe,” I called, and as he turned to look at me he said: “So he’s told you?”

“How did you guess?”

” My darling, you look just like a woman who has been told that she is the granddaughter of a millionaire.”

” And you knew all the time!”

He nodded, smiling.

“It seems extraordinary that you could keep such a secret.” He was laughing as he took me by the shoulders. ” It’s women who can’t keep secrets, you know.”

He put his arm round me and held me against him; but I withdrew myself because I wanted to look into his face.

” I want to think about it all … as it happened,” I said. ” You came to the studio, looking for me. You were going to report on me to my grandfather.”

” Yes. I was going to take some pictures of you to show him. I was determined to do the job thoroughly.”

” You did it very thoroughly indeed.”

” I’m glad that you approve of my methods.”

” And my father …” I said. ” He knew too.”

“Of course he knew. He’d lived near Pendorric. That was how he first met your mother.”

” Father knew … and didn’t tell me.”

” I’d explained to him my promise of secrecy.”

” I can’t understand. It was so unlike him to have secrets from me.”

” This was a very important matter. I reckon he wanted you to please your grandfather. It’s understandable.”

I looked at him sharply; he was smiling complacently. ” How I wish” I began.

“What do you wish?”

” That you hadn’t known.”

“Why? What difference does it make?”

I was silent. I felt I was going too far. I was almost on the point of asking Roe whether he had married me on account of my grandfather’s money, when I didn’t even know that I was his heiress. But everything was changed. When I had thought of Barbanna I had continually told myself that our positions were so different because she had been married for her money. The simple fact was that now I was beginning to wonder whether I too had been.

” What’s on your mind?” persisted Roe.

” It’s the shock,” I replied evasively. ” When you think you haven’t any family and you suddenly find yourself con fronted by a grandfather it’s a little bewildering. It ^akes time to adjust yourself.”

” You’re a little aloof, you’re weighing me up. I don’t much like it.”

He was looking at me intently, very seriously.

“Why?”

“I’m afraid of being weighed in the balance and found wanting.”

” Why should you be afraid?”

” Because you’re hiding something from me—or trying to.”

” You are the one who hides things successfully.”

” Only one thing—and I had made a promise not to tell.” He laughed suddenly, and seizing me, lifted me and held me up so that I had to look down on him. ” Listen,” he said, ” and get this clear. I married you because I fell in love with you. It would have been the same if you were the granddaughter of old Bill the Beachcomber. Understand me?”

I put out my hands and touched his ears; he lowered me until my face was on a level with his. Then he kissed me; and as usual, while I was with him, I forgot my fears.

Now that the news was out, the whole of Pendorric village was agog with it. I knew that I had only to appear for the subject to be discussed. People looked at me as though they had discovered something different about me. I was the focus of attention in the neighbourhood.

In the first place I had come out of the blue as the Bride of Pendorric; and now it turned Out that I was the granddaughter of old Lord Polhorgan. Many of them could remember my mother’s running away with the painter; and it seemed a fitting romantic sequel that I should return as a bride.

Mrs. Robinson at the general store whispered to me that my story was good enough for the television; Dinah Bond told me, when I met her one day in the village, that she knew there was something dramatic in my hand and she would have told me if only I’d let her; Morwenna and Charles appeared to be delighted; Lowella was vociferous, squealing her delight, and went about singing something about ” When Grandpappa asked Grandmamma for the second minuet,” which appeared to be quite irrelevant; Hyson regarded me with silent interest as though this new development was not entirely unexpected.

For several days everyone talked of it, but I guessed that it would turn out to be a nine days’ wonder.

There were two conversations which stood out in my mind. One I had with Rachel Bective, the other I overheard.

I had gone down to Pendorric beach to swim one afternoon and as I came out of the water I saw Rachel emerge from the gardens and step on to the beach.

I looked about for the twins, but she was alone. She came over and said: ” What’s the sea like today?”

” Quite warm,” I answered, and lay down on the shingle. She sat down beside me and started playing idly with the pebbles.

“What a surprise it must have been for youl” she said.

“Had you no idea?”

” None at all.”

” Well, it’s not everyone who gets presented with a grandfather at your time of life. And a millionaire peer at that!” I thought her expression a trifle unpleasant and I half rose, preparing to go up through the gardens.

” Roe knew of course,” she went on. Then she laughed. ” He must have been tickled to death.”

“You think it’s an amusing situation when families are broken up?”

” I think it’s amusing that Roe should go out to find you and bring you back—his bride. No wonder he has been looking so smug.”

” What do you mean?”

Her greenish eyes under the sandy brows glinted a little; her mouth was straight and grim. I thought: she is either very hurt or very angry. And suddenly I wasn’t so annoyed with her as I had been a few minutes before.

She seemed to take a grip of herself. ” Roe always liked to know what other people didn’t. He’d think it great fun having a secret like that, and the rest of us being in the dark. Besides …” I waited for her to go on, but she shrugged her shoulders. Then she gave a harsh laugh which seemed to hold a note of bitterness. ” Some people have all the luck,” she said. ” Mrs. Pendorric and granddaughter of Lord Polhorgan, who already dotes on her.”

” I think I’ll be getting back,” I said. ” It’s not so warm as I thought.”

She nodded, and as I crunched my way over the shingle she sat looking out at the sea; and I could imagine the expression on her face, for she had betrayed the fact that she was jealous of me. Jealous because I was the granddaughter of a rich man? Or jealous because I was Roe’s wife?

I believed it might be for both these reasons.

The second conversation took place the following day and I heard the end of it unwittingly. I was in the quadrangle gardens and one of the windows on the ground floor of me north wing was wide open, so the voice came floating through to me and I had caught the gist of the conversation before I could get out of earshot.

It was Charles and Morwenna who were speaking, and at first I did not realise they were talking of me.

“I thought be was looking pleased with himself.” That was Charles. ” I’ve never known him so contented.”

” She’s a pleasant creature.”

” She has everything.”

” Well, it won’t be before it’s needed, I can tell you. I’ve had some anxious moments wondering what the outcome could possibly be. Of course we’re taking things rather for granted.”

” Not a bit of it. That type never leave much outside the family.

After all, she’s his granddaughter and he can’t last much longer. “

I got up and walked across to the south door, my cheeks flaming. As I entered the house my eyes went at once to the picture of Barbarina. I stood looking up at it. I could almost fancy the expression had changed; that a pitying look was in those blue eyes, that she was saying to me: “I understand. Who could understand better than one to whom it has all happened before?”

My grandfather wanted the whole neighbourhood to know how delighted he was to welcome his granddaughter home.

He told me that it was years since there had been any entertaining at Polhorgan and he proposed to give a ball to which he would invite all the local gentry.

” You are not nearly well enough,” I told him; but he assured me that he would come to no harm. He put his hand over mine. ” Don’t try to dissuade me. It’ll give me the greatest pleasure. The ball will be for you and your husband. I want you to arrange it all; I want it to be a setting for you, my dear. Please say you will.”

He looked so pleased at the prospect that I could only agree, and when I told Roe and Morwenna about it they were amused and, I could see, delighted. I had ceased to be angry with Morwenna and Charles, telling myself that loving this old house as they obviously did, it was only natural that they should be pleased because a member of the family might very possibly come into a great deal of money.

“Just fancy,” said Morwenna, “Polhorgan is going to throw off its dustsheets.”

The twins were delighted, and when Lowella was told that balls were not for twelve-year-olds, she boldy called on my grandfather and asked for an invitation for herself and her sister. Such conduct, which he called initiative, delighted him, and he immediately wrote to Morwenna asking her to allow the twins to attend.

Lowella was wild with excitement when she heard this; Hyson’s eyes gleamed with secret pleasure. Lowella went about the house quoting in an ominous voice:

“’ There was a sound of revelry by night Morwenna helped arrange the list of invitations, for, as a Pendorric, she knew everyone in (he neighbourhood.

“They will all want to come and see Lord Polhorgan’s granddaughter,” she told me. Roe, who was present, put in:

” Nonsense. It’s Mrs. Pendorric they want to see, for she’s a far more important person than his lordships’ grand daughter.”

” They must think it all very extraordinary,” I suggested. ” Nine days’ wonder, darling,” Roe assured me. ” You know there are a lot of skeletons locked away in cupboards in these parts.”

” It’s true enough,” Morwenna assured me.

Deborah was as excited as the twins at the prospect of the ball, and invited me to her room to see some material which Carrie was going to make up for her. There was a choice of two colours and she wanted me to help her decide.

Laid out’ on a table were two rolls of crepe de Chine—one delicate mauve, the other pale pink.

I was fingering the stuff. ” One hardly ever sees it now,” I commented.

“We’ve had it a few years, haven’t we, Carrie,” said Deborah. I had not noticed Carrie come silently into the room; she carried a tape-measure about her neck, and a pair of scissors and a pincushion were attached to her belt.

” I found it in Plymouth,” she said. ” I was afraid there wouldn’t be enough for the two of you.”

Deborah looked at me, smiling gently; then she laid her hand on Carrie’s shoulder. ” Carrie’s a wonder with her needle. I’m sure she’ll make me something worthy of the ball.”

” You remember the dresses I made for the engagement party?” whispered Carrie, her eyes ecstatic. ” Empire style. You had the pink then; she had the mauve.”

” Yes, we decided we had to be different then.”

” Before that it was always the same. What one had the other had.”

” I’ve brought Mrs. Pendorric up to help me decide which colour,” said Deborah.

” Mauve was her colour. She wore it a lot … after …”

” Perhaps I’d better decide on the pink,” murmured Deborah. She took me into her sitting-room, and as we sat together looking over the sea she said: ” I rather dread Carrie’s making new things for me. It always brings it home to her. You see, in Devon she used to make everything in twos. She can’t forget.”

When I left Deborah I ran into Rachel Bective. She gave me a grudging smile and looked almost wistful.

“Everyone’s talking about the ball your grandfather’s giving,” she said. ” I feel like Cinderella. Still, I suppose the governess can’t expect to be invited.”

” What nonsense,” I retorted. ” Of course you’re invited.” The smile which lighted her face made her almost pretty. ” Oh,” she muttered in an embarrassed way, ” thank you. I … I’m honoured.”

As she turned and left me I thought: Her trouble is this p complex about being employed here. If only she could forget that, she’d be so much happier and I should like her so much better.

During me next few days I spent a great deal of time at Polhorgan. My grandfather was anxious that I should make a thorough tour of the house, and this I did in the company of Dawson and his wife, who were very respectful to me now that they knew I was their master’s granddaughter.

Polhorgan was not built in the same mould as Pendorric. This was one large house whereas ours at Pendorric was like four smaller ones. At Polhorgan there was an immense hall which was to serve as the ballroom, and Dawson and his wife had uncovered the furniture so that I could see it in all its glory.

It was a magnificently-proportioned room, with its high vaulted ceiling and panelled walls; and there was a dais at one end which would be ideal for our orchestra. Dawson suggested that some of the exotic plants should be brought in from the greenhouses and that I might like to talk to Trehay, the head gardener, about what I should like.

Leading from mis hall were several rooms which would serve as supper rooms. I could see that Mrs. Dawson was a most efficient woman and delighted at the prospect of being able to show what a skilful housekeeper she was.

She showed me the kitchens, which were models of modernity. ” All this, madam,” sighed Mrs. Dawson, ” and no one to use it for! I could have cooked for his lordship with one little stove, for all he eats.

Although the nurse wants a bit of waiting on, I do assure you! ” Mrs.

Dawson’s lips tightened at the mention of Nurse Grey, and I began to wonder whether the nurse was generally unpopular in the household.

It was while she was showing me round mat Althea Grey herself appeared. She was looking as attractive as ever in her uniform, and she gave me a pleasant smile. I was struck afresh by the perfection of her features, and I remembered uneasily the occasion when I had found her on the beach with Roe.