Garth of Tregillis (24 page)

‘The trouble is that there has been a conspiracy of silence—led by Garth, I may say—about the true events of that day,’ Paul went on. ‘Sometimes I think it’s mistaken chivalry on his part. He wants Giles to be remembered as he was in the early days before Diana left him—someone courteous and gentle and as unlike the man he grew into as possible. If Eunice, for instance, knew the full story she would hardly persist in spreading calumny about Garth. And yet I daren’t say anything to her. Garth would eat me alive were I to do so. He can be impossibly stubborn when he likes—but then he doesn’t care what anyone thinks of him.’

After that, all I wanted was to be alone in my own room to go over Paul’s words. What he had told me had swept away the last of my reservations. I was now free to love Garth even though there was no possibility of having my love returned.

In a happy daze I opened the door of my room, then gave a gasp at the sight that met my eyes. Spread out on my bed was the most beautiful dress I had ever seen. In lilac and silver silk, it was a reproduction of the gowns worn in the days of Marie Antoinette.

Beside it was a tall white wig on the front of which was a narrow circlet of what looked like real diamonds and which was surmounted by a tall feather.

As I saw the headdress snatches of half forgotten school history came back to me. This was a replica, I felt sure, of the dress Marie Antoinette wore at the opening of the Estates General, when Louis the Sixteenth called together representatives of the whole people of France to debate the state of the nation.

With trembling fingers I held up the dress. It looked as if it would fit me splendidly. Now who on earth could have made me such a gift? Wild memories of Melinda and Emile saying they would give me the contents of their piggy-banks flashed through my head. Then I thought of Armanell. Was it possible that she regretted her attitude towards me? Perhaps on impulse she had decided to make amends, to let me know that instead of watching from the gallery I could be part of the gaiety and excitement in this magnificent costume? Or had she decided to give me this splendid gift to impress Garth with her generosity? Garth? Even as his name entered my head, I saw pinned to one of the sleeves a tiny card. ‘If this is suitable, wear it at the ball. With apologies for putting you to expense in the dress you purchased before there was a change of plans. Garth Seaton,’ I read.

I could feel my cheeks flame with anger. How dared he? Who did he think he was that he could order me around as if I were a serf? I had told him that I wouldn’t attend the masked ball and I meant it. Did he think he could beckon and I’d come running—like all the other governesses who had ever come to Tregillis?

I flew downstairs and looked for him in the sanctum where he spent so much of his time. I pushed the door, open after only the most perfunctory knock and burst into the study, to find him seated at a table with a
big ledger before him.

He put down his pen and looked at me with a provoking inquiry as I stood panting with agitation, my cheeks flushed with indignation. ‘What do you mean by giving me that expensive costume?’ I demanded. ‘Why, it must have cost a fortune!’

‘The cost of the dress is neither here nor there,’ he said coolly.

‘What matters is through my insistence that you attend the ball you were put to the expense of purchasing a dress which will now never be worn.’

‘And what do you mean by that?’ I demanded.

‘Well—’ He hesitated. ‘One doesn’t know how to put it tactfully, but as I have never been one to beat about the bush and as you’re fundamentally a sensible girl, I shall speak plainly. After all, it’s fairly obvious that in your particular job there will hardly be many occasions when you can put to use the dress I saw you in the other evening. It was quite an elaborate affair—even I could see that.’

‘How dare you!’ I gasped. ‘What do you know about how I live or what events I attend?’

‘True,’ he agreed with a maddening air of reasonableness, ‘but one can only go by the evidence of one’s eyes. I see you here as a governess and I assume you lead a pretty humdrum life—much the same as any other governess whose way of life is restricted to what she can afford on a governess’s salary—no matter how adequate that may be.’

This was a reference to the fact that the salary he was paying me was higher than that usually offered and again I felt my anger mount. ‘I won’t accept the dress,’ I said flatly.

‘And why not?’ he asked. ‘You told me quite clearly that you did not wish to attend the ball. I realize now that I should have bowed to your wishes. However, as in so many other instances in my life my stubbornness has landed me in a predicament. I insisted that you attend with the result that you have expended all your savings on a dress that will be useless. It’s the merest common sense on your part to accept the costume.’

‘You admit that you shouldn’t have insisted that I go to the ball,’ I said, savouring this small triumph. ‘So you expect me to rescue you from an uncomfortable position by accepting this gift and going to the ball— just as if nothing had happened.’

‘I did the wrong thing, and I’m trying to make amends,’ he said, but without much conviction, I noticed.

So the gift was intended merely to assuage his pride, I thought rebelliously. He regretted putting a menial to expense that she couldn’t afford. The gift of the costume wiped out the offence as far as he was concerned and kept him from being under any obligation to me. Well, I had my pride too. ‘I can’t accept such a gift from a stranger,’ I said coldly.

‘A stranger? Surely our acquaintance has progressed to some extent in the weeks you’ve spent here—even if it is only the knowledge one obtains of another human being with whom one is on perpetually bad terms—although this situation is none of my making.’

‘You don’t dare to suggest that our disagreements are all on my side,’ I flared.

‘But I do. We’re continually at daggers drawn because you refuse to make allowances for my faults of character.’

‘You mean I don’t flatter you as—as—’ I stopped myself just in time to prevent myself saying, as Armanell does. Instead I finished, ‘As some do.’

‘Really I don’t know that anyone here flatters me—in fact that is my complaint. There’s far too much opposition to my wishes.

Were you to accept the dress and so rescue me from the position I’ve placed myself in that would be a great kindness on your part.’

I gazed at him helplessly. I suspected he was being sardonic, yet could not make up my mind to oppose him farther.

‘If you’re too proud to accept the costume as a replacement, as it were, for the dress you bought for the ball, will you not accept it as a gift of gratitude from me for all you’ve done for us since you came here? I see the most wonderful improvement in Melinda.

How you’ve achieved it, I don’t know, but I bow to your magic touch with the child. A good governess is worth more than her weight in gold. I’m truly grateful, Judith, you must believe that.’

I nodded and felt a warm glow at his words. Somehow now that I had heard Paul’s story of the death of Giles Seaton it was as though the ground had been cut from under my feet concerning the deception I had practised to gain admittance to Tregillis. It was time he knew the truth.

I took a deep breath and took the plunge. ‘I’m not a governess,’

I said, with a bluntness that matched his own. ‘I came here under false pretences.’

He sat up straighter in his chair and eyed me with a look that boded no good to a deceiver. I hurried on swiftly, trying to get it over while my courage held. ‘I’m quite well off and could easily afford a special costume for the ball if I wished, and—’

‘So you deceived me,’ he interrupted harshly. ‘Your qualifications were a pack of lies.’

‘No, what I put in my letter was perfectly correct,’ I told him. ‘I had been studying languages—just as I stated in my application.’

His expression relaxed a little. ‘I don’t see where the deception lies, then,’ he said. ‘As to your private life and whether you are able to afford ball-dresses out of your money, it’s hardly any of my business. I apologise for behaving as if you were short of cash—

but, as I said before, one can only judge on the evidence that is presented to one. One does, of course, wonder why anyone who doesn’t need to would take on such a thankless job—but again I suppose that is your own business.’ He paused, then added slowly and with ice in his voice, ‘Unless you had some other motive in coming here.’

I swallowed hard. It was obvious that this was going to prove more difficult than I had anticipated when I plunged in so recklessly. ‘Perhaps it will be clear to you if I tell you that I was a friend of Diana Seaton’s and that she made me her heir,’ I told him.

For a long time there was silence in the small study. The large white-faced clock seemed to tick over-loudly and my eyes ran along the shelves of papers and accounts, not seeing them, as I waited for what he would say.

‘Yes, there was always something different about you,’ he said at length. ‘You weren’t like the others I had employed to teach Melinda. But your motive for coming here? I admit I’m still in the dark about that.’

‘Diana and I were good friends,’ I faltered. ‘She was very troubled about her father’s death and—’

‘You needn’t go on,’ he said, and although he now spoke quietly I knew he was very angry. ‘So that was why I found you that night in the library shamelessly reading my private letters,’ he said contemptuously, ‘and foraging about the house on your spying expeditions—evidently even the attics weren’t safe from your attentions.’

‘The night you found me in the library—it was an accident,’ I said defensively. ‘I was reading the History of Cornwall when the letter fell out of the pages and seeing Diana’s name, I—’

‘You read it, as part of your spying campaign against me. You were looking for evidence of what? I admit I should be intrigued to know exactly what you were seeking for.’

I stood mute. He knew, of course, knew I had been looking for evidence that he was a murderer. How could I put it into words that although I had once suspected this I now knew it wasn’t true?

‘Well, how have your spying activities progressed?’ he demanded ironically. ‘Have you come across evidence that I murdered Diana’s father, stole Tregillis from the man who befriended me? Do you think I don’t know what line Diana’s suspicions took?’

‘I know now it isn’t true,’ I mumbled. ‘It was all a most ghastly mistake—but you see Diana—’

‘Don’t bother to explain.’ He was furiously angry, I realized.

‘Your explanations are only a further insult.’

‘Then perhaps it would be better if I left,’ I retorted.

As soon as I had said the words I felt an abysmal sense of desolation. I had committed myself to leaving Tregillis and Garth.

But the words had been spoken. There could be no backing down now, I realized with a sinking heart. I must abide by my impulsive words.

‘You’ll do nothing of the kind,’ he replied. ‘Emile is coming along well under your tuition. The least you owe me in return for your insufferable suspicions is to stay on here and finish the job you have undertaken.’

It was as though I had been given a reprieve. I felt my heart thud with relief, but of course I mustn’t reveal the happiness I felt. I stood up and made my way to the door in silence.

‘And what’s more, you will turn up at the ball in the costume I’ve provided, and don’t let’s hear any more about it,’ he added harshly.

I didn’t answer. I went out and closed the door meekly behind me, glad only to escape from his presence.

On the night of the ball I dressed early.

I was just about to place the wig on my head when the door burst open and a figure in a pink and silver costume came into the room like a whirlwind.

‘Where is my—’ But whatever Armanell had been about to say was arrested abruptly as I turned from the mirror and she caught sight of my dress. She drew up, her eyes opening wide, and it was as though horror held her silent.

It was my turn to be astonished, for the costume she was wearing was uncannily like my own in design, except that in her case the colouring was pink and silver.

‘That costume? Where did you get it?’ she demanded.

‘I—I—It was a present,’ I stammered at last.

‘But it’s almost identical with mine,’ she gasped. ‘How on earth—’ Her eyes narrowed. ‘You ordered exactly the same dress!’

I stared at her in dismay. So Melinda had made good her threat to get even with Armanell!

I remembered a conversation we had had one evening when I had been tidying away the toys the children had left scattered about the schoolroom.

‘If you were going to the ball what costume would you like to wear?’ Melinda had inquired with an air of ingenuousness.

‘Oh, Mary, Queen of Scots, I suppose,’ I had answered vaguely.

‘She had reddish hair too and everyone would know by the little triangular cap whom I was supposed to represent.’

‘What about Marie Antoinette?’ she had asked then. ‘You told us yesterday that she had reddish hair too.’

‘But remember she wore a wig on state occasions,’ I reminded her. ‘If one were dressed as Marie Antoinette and wore a wig it wouldn’t matter what colour one’s hair was. But yes, I think I’d quite like to wear that costume—if I were going to the ball, that is.’ ‘You’re sure?’ she had insisted, and there had been a peculiar note of anxiety in her voice that had seemed strange to me even at the time, although I hadn’t troubled to try to discover the reason for it.