Mistress of Mellyn (6 page)

” Thank you.”

” I believe in experiments. If your methods have not made an improvement in say … six months … well, then we could review the situation, could we not?”

His eyes were insolent. I thought: He intends to get rid of me soon.

He was hoping I was a silly, pretty creature not averse to carrying on an intrigue with him while pretending to look after his daughter. Very well, the best thing I can do is to get out of this house.

” I suppose,” he went on, ” we should make excuses for Alvean’s lack of good manners. She lost her mother a year ago.”

I looked into his face for a trace of sorrow. I could find none.

” I had heard that,” I answered.

” Of course you had heard. I’ll swear there were many ready to tell you. It was doubtless a great shock to the child.”

” It must have been a great shock,” I agreed.

” It was sudden.” He was silent for a few seconds and then he continued: ” Poor child, she has no mother. And her father …?” He lifted his shoulders and did not complete his sentence.

” Even so,” I said, ” there are many more unfortunate than she is. All she needs is a firm hand.”

He leaned forward suddenly and surveyed me ironically.

” I am sure,” he said, ” that you possess that necessary firm hand.”

I was conscious in that brief moment of the magnetism of the man. The clear-cut features, the cool, light eyes, the mockery behind them all these I felt were but a mask hiding something which he was determined to keep hidden.

At that moment there was a knock on the door and Celestine Nansellock came in.

” I heard you were here, Connan,” she said, and I thought she seemed nervous. So he had that effect even on those of his own station.

” How news travels!” he murmured. ” My dear Celestine, it was good of you to come over. I was just making the acquaintance of our new governess. She tells me that Alvean is intelligent and needs discipline.”

” Of course she is intelligent!” Celestine spoke indignantly. ” I hope Miss Leigh is not planning to be too harsh with her. Alvean is a good child.”

Connan TreMellyn threw an amused glance in my direction. ” I don’t think Miss Leigh entirely agrees with that,” he said. ” You see our little goose as a beautiful swan, Celeste my dear.”

” Perhaps I am over fond ” ” Would you like me to leave now?” I suggested, for I had a great desire to get away from them.

” But I am interrupting,” cried Celestine.

” No,” I assured her. ” We had finished our talk, I believe.”

Connan TreMellyn looked in some amusement from her to me. It occurred to me that he probably found us equally unattractive. I was sure that neither of us was the least like the woman he would admire.

” Let us say it is to be continued,” he said lightly. ” I fancy, Miss Leigh, that you and I will have a great deal more to discuss, regarding my daughter.”

I bowed my head and left them together.

In the schoolroom tea was laid, ready for me. I felt too excited to eat, and when Alvean did not appear I guessed she was with her father.

At five o’clock she still had not put in an appearance, so I summoned Daisy and sent her to find the child and to remind her that from five to six we had work to do.

I waited. I was not surprised because I bad expected Alvean to rebel.

Her father had arrived and she preferred to be with him rather than come to me for an hour of our reading.

I wondered what would happen when the child refused to come to the schoolroom. Could I go down to the punch room or the drawing room or wherever they were and demand that she return with me?

Celestine was with them and she would take her stand on Alvean’s side against me.

I heard footsteps on the stairs. The door of Alvean’s room which led into the schoolroom was opened, and there stood Connan TreMellyn holding Alvean by the arm.

Alvean’s expression astonished me. She looked so unhappy that I found myself feeling sorry for her. Her father was smiling and I thought he looked like a satyr, as though the situation which caused pain to Alvean and embarrassment to me amused him and perhaps for these reasons. In the back ground was Celestme.

“Here she is,” announced Connan TreMellyn.

“Duty is duty, my daughter,” he said to Alvean. ” And when your governess summons you to your lessons, you must obey.”

Alvean muttered and I could see that she was hard put to it to restrain her sobs: ” But it is your first day, Papa.”

” But Miss Leigh says there are lessons to be done, and she is in command.”

“Thank you, Mr. TreMellyn,” I said.

“Come and sit down, Alvean.”

Alvean’s expression changed as she looked at me. All the wistfulness was replaced by anger and a fierce hatred.

” Connan,” Celestine said quietly, ” it is your first day back, you know, and Alvean so looked forward to your coming.”

He smiled but I thought how grim his mouth was.

” Discipline,” he murmured. ” That, Celeste, is of the utmost importance. Come, we will leave Alvean with her governess.”

He inclined his head in my direction, while Alvean threw a pleading glance at him which he quite obviously ignored.

The door shut leaving me alone with my pupil.

That incident had taught me a great deal. Alvean adored her father and he was indifferent to her. My anger against him increased as my pity for the child grew. Small wonder that she was a difficult child. What

could one expect when she was such an unhappy one? I saw her . ignored by the father , whom she loved, spoiled by Celestine Nansellock. Between them they were doing their best to ruin the girl.

I would have liked Connan TreMellyn better, I told myself, if he had decided to forget discipline on his first day back, and devote a little time to his daughter’s company.

Alvean was rebellious all that evening, but I insisted on her going to bed at her usual time. She told me she hated me, though there was no need for her to have mentioned a fact which was apparent.

I felt so disturbed when she was in her bed that I slipped out of the house and went into the woods, where I sat on a fallen tree trunk, brooding.

It had been a hot day and there was a deep stillness in the woods.

I wondered whether I was going to keep this Job. It was not easy to say at this stage, and I was not sure whether I wanted to go or stay.

There were so many things to keep me. There was, for one thing, my interest in Gillyflower; there was my desire to wipe the rebellion from Alvean’s heart. But I felt less eagerness for these tasks now that I had seen the Master.

I was a little afraid of the man although I could not say why. I was certain that he would leave me alone, but there was something magnetic about him, some quality which made it difficult for me to put him out of my mind. I thought more of dead Alice than I had before, because I could not stop myself wondering what sort of person she could have been.

I amused him in some way. Perhaps because I was so unattractive in his eyes; perhaps because he knew that I belonged to that army of women who are obliged to earn their living and are so dependent on the whim of people like himself. Was there a streak of sadism in his nature? I believed so. Perhaps poor Alice had found it intolerable. Perhaps she, like poor Gillyflower’s mother, had walked into the sea.

As I sat there I heard the sound of footsteps coming through the wood and I hesitated, wondering whether to wait there or go back to the house.

A man was coming towards me, and there was something familiar about him which made my heart beat faster.

He started when he saw me; then he began to smile and I recognised him as the man I had met on the train.

” So we meet,” he said. ” I knew our reunion would not be long delayed. Why, you look as though you have seen a ghost. Has your stay at Mount Mellyn made you look for ghosts? I’ve heard some say that there is a ghostly atmosphere about the place.”

” Who are you?” I asked.

” My name is Peter Nansellock. I have to confess to a little deception.”

” You’re Miss Celestine’s brother?”

He nodded. ” I knew who you were when we met in the train. I deliberately bearded you in your carriage. I saw you sitting there, looking the part, and I guessed. Your name on the labels of your baggage confirmed my guess for I knew that they were expecting Miss Martha Leigh at Mount Mellyn.”

” I am comforted to learn that my looks conform with the part I have been called upon to play in life.”

” You really are a most untruthful young lady. I remember I had reason to reprimand you for the same sort of thing at our first meeting. You are in fact quite discomfited to learn that you were taken for a governess.”

I felt myself grow pink with indignation. ” Because I am a governess that is no reason why I should be forced to accept insults from strangers.”

I rose from the tree trunk, but he laid a hand on my arm and said pleadingly: ” Please let us talk awhile. There is much I have to say to you. There are things you should know.”

My curiosity overcame my dignity and I sat down.

” That’s better. Miss Leigh. You see I remember your name.”

” Most courteous of you! And how extraordinary that you should first notice a mere governess’s name and then keep it in your memory.”

” You are like a hedgehog,” he retorted. ” One only has to mention the word governess’ and up come your spines. You will have to learn resignation. Aren’t we taught that we must be content in that station of life to which we have been called?”

” Since I resemble a hedgehog, at least I am not spineless.”

He laughed and then was immediately sober. ” I do not possess second sight. Miss Leigh,” he said quietly. ” I know nothing of palmistry. I deceived you, Miss Leigh.”

” Do you think I was deceived for a moment?”

” For many moments. Until this one, in fact, you have thought of me with wonder.”

” Indeed, I have not thought of you at all.”

” More untruths! I wonder if a young lady with such little regard for veracity is worthy to teach our little Alvean.”

” Since you are a friend of the family your best policy would be to warn them at once.”

” But if Connan dismissed his daughter’s governess, bow sad that would be! I should wander through these woods without hope of meeting her.”

“I see you are a frivolous person.”

” It’s true.” He looked grave. ” My brother was frivolous. My sister is the only commendable member of the family.”

” I have already met her.”

” Naturally. She is a constant visitor to Mount Mellyn. She dotes on Alvean.”

” Well, she is a very near neighbour.”

” And we. Miss Leigh, shall in future be very near neighbours How does that strike you?”

” Without any great force.”

” Miss Leigh, you are cruel as well as untruthful. I hoped you would be grateful for my interest. I was going to say, if ever things should become intolerable at Mount Mellyn you need only walk over to Mount Widden. There you would find me most willing to help. I feel sure that among my wide circle of acquaintances I could find someone who is in urgent need of a governess.”

” Why should I find life intolerable at Mount Mellyn?”

” It’s a tomb of a place, Connan is overbearing, Alvean is a menace to anyone’s peace, and the atmosphere since Alice’s death is not congenial.”

I turned to him abruptly and said : ” You told me to beware of Alice.

What did you mean by that? “

” So you remember?”

” It seemed a strange thing to say.”

” Alice is dead,” he said, ” but somehow she remains. That’s what I always feel at Mount Mellyn. Nothing was the same after the day she went.”

” How did she die?”

” You have not heard the story yet?”

“No.”

” I should have thought Mrs. Polgrey or one of those girls would have told you. But they haven’t, eh? They’re probably somewhat in awe of the governess.”

” I should like to hear the story.”

” It’s a very simple one. The sort of thing which must hjappen in many a home. A wife finds life with her husband intolerable. She walks out with another man. It’s ordinary enough, you see. Only Alice’s story had a different ending.”

He looked at the tips of his boots as he had when we were travelling in the train to Liskeard together. ” The man in the case was my brother,” he went on.

” Geoffry Nansellock!” I cried.

” So you have heard of him!”

I thought of Gillyflower, whose birth had so distressed her mother that she had walked into the sea.

” Yes,” I said, ” I’ve heard of Geoffry Nansellock. He was evidently a philanderer.”

” It sounds a harsh word to apply to poor old Geoff. He had charm … all the charm of the family, some say.” He smiled at me. ” Others may think he did not get it all. He was not a bad sort. I was fond of old Geoff. His great weakness was women. He loved women; he found them irresistible. And women love men who love them. How can they help it?

I mean, it is such a compliment, is it not? One by one they fell victim to his charm. “

“He did not hesitate to in dude other men’s wives among his victims

” Spoken like a true governess! Alas, my dear Miss Leigh, it appeared he did not … since Alice was among them. It is true that all was not well at Mount Mellyn. Do you think Connan would be an easy man to live with?”

” It is surely not becoming for a governess to discuss her employer in such a manner.”

” What a contrary young lady you are, Miss Leigh. You make the most of your situation. You use the governess when you wish to, and then expect others to ignore her when you do not wish her to be recognised.

I believe that anyone who is obliged to live in a house should know something of its secrets. “

“What secrets?”

He bent a little closer to me. ” Alice was afraid of Connan. Before she married him she had known my brother. She and Geoffry were on the train … running away together.”

” I see.” I drew myself away from him because I felt it was undignified to be talking of past scandals in this way, particularly as these scandals had nothing whatever to do with me.

” They identified Geoffry although he was badly smashed up. There was a woman dose to him. She was so badly burned that it was impossible to recognise her as Alice. But a locket she was wearing was recognised as one she was known to possess. That was how she was identified … and of course there was the fact that Alice had disappeared.”