Kirkland Revels (39 page)

Someone had sent Damaris to put that note under my door. Was it Luke?

He could have done it himself. Dr. Smith? I looked again at the handwriting, and because I had seen his I decided that those words could not in any circumstances have been written by him.

Then I remembered that occasion when I had called at his house. I thought of the sick woman, me wife who was such a disappointment to him that he threw himself so whole heartedly into his work. The shaky handwriting might be that of a sick woman, a woman who was in some stress.

I put the paper into my pocket, wrapped myself in my heavy cloak and left my room. I paused on the stairs by the minstrels’ gallery; then I opened the door and looked inside, because I thought that someone might be biding there.

There was no one.

I went down through the hall and out of the house.

There was a bitterly cold wind blowing but I was impervious to the weather. I hurried away from the house, looking back only once to see if I was being followed. I could see no one, but I felt that from every window eyes might be watching me.

1 went on until I came to the doctor’s house. It seemed more gloomy than it had on that other occasion The Venetian blinds were all drawn and the wind whistled through the firs.

I rang the bell and the maid let me in.

” The doctor is not at home, Mrs. Rockwell,” she said.

” I have come to see Mrs. Smith.”

She looked surprised. ” I will tell her you are here.”

” Please tell her that I am very eager to see her on a matter of importance.” ;

The maid went away almost reluctantly, while I wondered what I should do if Mrs. Smith refused to see me. I might ask for Damaris. I would insist on knowing whether it was she who had brought the note, why she had denied seeing the monk, what part she had played and was playing in this plot against me. I was determined to know the truth without delay.

In a few moments the maid returned;

” Mrs. Smith will see you,” she said; and I followed her up the stairs to the room which I had visited once before.

I was astonished to see Damaris with her mother. She was standing by Mrs. Smith’s chair, and it seemed as though she were clinging to her mother for protection. Mrs. Smith looked even more emaciated than when I had last seen her; her eyes were enormous and they seemed to bum with some deep purpose.

She said in a quiet voice: ” Good morning, Mrs. Rockwell It was good of you to call.”

I went forward and took the hand she extended; and then the door shut on the maid and we three were alone.

” Why did you come here?” she asked quickly. ” This is the last place you should come to.” , I took the sheet of paper from my pocket and held it out j to her. ‘/, “Have you shown this to anyone else?” she asked. | ” To no one.” i ” Why … do you come here?” i ” Because I believe you wrote that and sent it to me. I saw Damaris leaving the house.”

There was silence.

Then I cried: “You did write it, didn’t you?”

Damaris put her arm about her mother. ” You must not be disturbed,” she said. She looked at me almost defiantly ” You are making her ill.”

I answered: ” I think she can help me to find out who has been trying to make me ill.”

“You must not fret, my darling,” said Mrs. Smith to Damans. ” She has come here, and it was very unwise of her. But she is here now and I must do what I can.”

” You already have …”

” If she would only take my advice!”

“What is your advice?” I demanded.

” Go away from here. Do not delay a moment. Return at once to your father’s house to-day. If you do not … it will be too late.”

” How do you know?”

” There is a great deal I know,” she said wearily.

“Will you tell me this: Did you write that note?”

She nodded. ” Because I know that you must get away if you wish to give birth to a child that will live?”

” How do I know that I can trust you?”

” What could I possibly gain by warning you?”

“Don’t you see that I’m in the dark?”

” Yes, I do. You are headstrong. You will not take my advice and go.

You want to solve mysteries. You are too bold, Mrs. Rockwell. “

” Tell me what you know,” I said. ” You owe that to me.”

“Mother!” gasped Damaris, and the mask dropped from her lovely face.

I knew that she was terrified.

I took the thin, clammy hand. ” You must tell me, Mrs. Smith,” I said.

” You know you must tell me.”

“Unless I tell you everything you will never believe me. You will never understand.”

“Then tell me everything.”

” It is a long story…. It goes back many years.”

” I am in no hurry.”

” You are wrong. You should be in a great hurry.”

” I shall not leave until you tell me.”

“And if I can convince you that your child is in danger, that you are in danger, will you go to your father’s house today?”

” If I think that necessary, I will.”

“Mother,” said Damaris, “you must not … you dare not.”

” You are afraid still, Damaris?”

” So are you. Mother. We both are … as we always have been.”

” Yes,” said Mrs. Smith, ” I am afraid. But I am thinking of the child . and of her. We cannot stand by and see that happen to her .. can we, Damaris? We must not think of ourselves. We must thing only of her now. “

I was beside myself with impatience. ” You must tell me,” I said. “

Come now.”

Still she hesitated, then bracing herself as for a mighty effort, she began:

” I married against my family’s wishes. You may think my story has nothing to do with this. I am merely trying to tell you how I happen to know …”

” Yes, yes.” I cried.

She plucked at the blanket which was wrapped about her knees.

” I have a small fortune of my own. As you know, when a woman marries, her fortune becomes her husband’s. He needed the fortune … so he married me. I had a great opinion of him. He was the dedicated doctor and I wanted to work with him. I wanted to help him … his patients loved him so. He was so self-sacrificing. But you see there were two doctors. There was the doctor who went among his friends and patients such a charming man, so solicitous of others. And there was the doctor at home. They were two different men. He liked to play his part but we couldn’t expect him to act all the time, could we. Damans?”

Damaris murmured: “You must not … oh, you must not. When he hears”

“You see,” went on Mrs. Smith, ” he believed himself to be not quite mortal like the rest of us. He had done brilliantly at his work and from such humble beginnings. I admired that at the start. But he soon tired of playing the part for me j That happened before Damaris was born. He was very angry | that she was not a boy. He wanted a son, to be exactly like j himself which in his eyes meant perfect. Damaris quickly ; learned to understand him. Do you remember, Damaris, how I you would be playing, somewhere happily forgetful . | because children do forget and when they are happy for an ; hour they believe they have always been so. Then we heard his step in the hall; and you would come to me and cower : beside me, remembering. “

“He ill-treated you?” I asked.

” Not physically. That is not his way. But he hated me. Why should he do otherwise? He had wanted my money and when that was his. and after many attempts I had failed to 240 ( give him a son, I was of little use to him. Those dreary years of sadness and terror … I cannot think how I have lived if through them.”

” So it is Dr. Smith who has tried to destroy me. Why … why?”

“I will tell you that too. I met his foster mother. She lives not far from here in a little cottage on the moors. He was brought to her when he was a baby. He was born to a gipsy girl who had forsaken her people for a while to work in the kitchens at the Revels. She was married to a gipsy named Smith; but when her child was born she did not want him and she deserted him. Sir Matthew took an interest in the girl. I do not know whether he was ever her lover, but that was what Deverel always believed. He believed that he was the son of Sir Matthew. Do you begin to understand now?”

” I begin to see some light,” I said.

“And when Sir Matthew had him educated, and trained as a doctor he was certain of this. He married me, and our daughter was called Damans because the Rockwells had always chosen names from the Bible for their children. But it was a son he wanted. He wanted to see a son of his in the Revels. And so …”

She turned to Damans, who was crying quietly.

” I must tell her this,” she soothed. ” It is the only way. I should have told her before. But you know how we have always feared his anger.”

” Please go on,” I pleaded.

” After several miscarriages I was warned that I ought to have no more children … but he wanted a son. I tried again. There was no son.

The child was bora dead and I … well, I have been an invalid ever since.

Imagine how he hates me! I cannot even give him a son. I think that he would have rid himself of me if it had not been for Damans. ” She put out a hand and stroked her daughter’s hair. ” You see, he does not know how far she would betray him if he attempted to destroy me. ” She turned to Damans. ” You see, my darling, in some ways we have him in our power. ” Then to me: ” It was four years ago that I did my best to bear him a son. Before that I was not strong but I was able to take my part in the life of the neighbourhood. I played a part in the pageant. only one of the monks, it was true. I still had my robe though . until a few months ago. “

I caught my breath and said: ” So it is yours, that robe?”

” Yes, it was mine. I had kept it. I am a little sentimental 241 about such things. It was a reminder to me of the days when I was not an invalid.”

” Damans helped him,” I said accusingly. ” She swore that she had seen nothing.”

“I had to,” whispered Damans, with a sob in her voice. ” He told me what I had to do. We always obeyed him. We dared do nothing else. I was to take you to the ruins … not too quickly … to give him time to get there before us. And then, when he appeared, I was to pretend I saw nothing. There is a way from the ruins into the house.

He discovered it when he was a boy. So he appeared to you in the house as well. “

Now that I had the vital facts, events began to fall into place. I saw bow he had everything fitted so neatly. I was filled with a wild exultation, and the reason was that the wish I had made at the Knaresborough Well had come true. It was not Simon.

” Why … why … ?” I demanded.

” He was determined to live in the Revels one day. As the poor boy he had watched the guests come and go. He had seen the picnics in summer, the skating parties in the winter; he had looked through the windows at the balls. He was obsessed by the Revels because he believed that he was Sir Matthew’s son and therefore belonged there. He was deter mined to get there one day, and he saw that the way to do so was through Damaris. She was to marry Luke. “

” But how could he be sure of that?”

” My daughter has a rare beauty. I do not think Luke is unaware of it.

They were thrown together always. It may have been that he would have found some way of insisting on that marriage. He discovered the secrets in people’s lives and used them when he found it expedient to do so. He would have discovered some things perhaps which Sir Matthew would not want made known . or perhaps Mrs. Grantley. The marriage would have taken place. He was not unduly concerned about Gabriel.

Gabriel was delicate; he himself diagnosed that weak heart the same complaint of which his mother had died. Perh’aps Gabriel’s heart was sound ; perhaps he was preparing the way to Gabriel’s end . I do not know everything. But when Gabriel married you he became a menace. He feared what actually did happen that you might have a child. He was determined that Gabriel must die, and you at that time were of little interest to him. So Gabriel . died. “

” It is not difficult to imagine how,” I said grimly. And [ pictured it. Did he lure Gabriel on to the balcony, or did Gabriel go there as he had made a habit of doing? There was no Friday on that night to warn him of a sinister presence. And then as he stood there, a stealthy movement from behind, a hand over his mouth and his body lifted and sent hurtling over the balcony.

Suicide? It seemed a reasonable verdict.

She said: ” We are wasting time. Believe me, there is nothing more I can do for you. I have helped you all I can. Go at once to your old home. There you will be safe.”

” You know that he plans something?”

” We know that. He is angry. He does not take us into his confidence, but there are certain things we cannot help knowing Something has happened to anger him.”

I knew what that was. He had discovered that the robe had been removed. He was planning some immediate action against me. I thought of his coming into the minstrels’ gallery on Christmas night, and I wondered what would have happened to me then if Simon and Damaris had not been in the hall.