The Black Opal (37 page)

I went towards her and, for a few seconds we stood looking at each other. Then she held out her hands and I |j took them both in mine.

She had changed considerably. There were signs of grey in her golden hair; she had lost that air of serenity which had once been a feature of her personality. Even if I had not known her history, I should have realized that she was a woman who had suffered much tragedy.

“Carmel!” she said in that well-remembered voice.

“I am so pleased to see you.”

“And 1 you. I have thought about you so much and have wondered where you were.”

Her lips trembled and there were tears in her eyes. She seemed suddenly her old self. But we must not have an emotional scene in public.

“Let us find a seat and sit down,” she said.

“I know just where,” I said.

We walked away from the Memorial and into the Gardens.

She said: “I’m sorry I kept you waiting. It is difficult when one relies on trains.”

“Yes,” I said.

Then we were silent, for making light conversation seemed banal and we knew that when we were seated there would be so much to say.

I had selected the seat for our purpose some days before. There was a stretch of ground just behind the flower walk and one isolated seat looking over it.

We sat down and she said: “Well, Carmel?”

“Oh, Miss Carson …” I began.

“You should call me Kitty now that I am no longer your governess.”

“Kitty, tell me what you are doing now.”

“I live very quietly.”

“You are Mrs. Craig. Have you a husband?”

“Yes.”

“Can you bear to talk of it?”

“It is what I have come to do.”

I braced myself. I said: “I want you to know that I only recently heard what happened. I went away with my father.”

“I know Captain Sinclair took you away when the others went to their aunt.”

“I was with him in Australia. He was shipwrecked. That was not very long ago. And then I came to England and that was when I learned”

“So, all those years, you did not know.”

“No. I thought you would all have been at Commonwood House.”

“It must have been a shock to learn the truth.”

“Yes. I was devastated. Perhaps it was impertinent of me to try to find you. It was through a friend who was interested in such cases. I knew that Mr. Craig had helped you,

and it was a shot in the dark. She had written to him through his publishers and she thought they might forward a letter to him. “

“That explains it. Oh, Carmel, it was …”

“Don’t. Don’t. It must be terrible for you to talk of it, even now.”

“I must not be foolish. I have come to talk … to tell you. And, Carmel, I want you to know. I could not bear that you should believe as so many people believed. I am going to tell you … so that you know how it really happened. You already know what they did to Edward to the doctor …”

I nodded. She could not speak for a moment.

Then anger burst forth.

“It was false. It was wicked. And they did that to him. He was innocent, Carmel. I know he was.”

I took her hand and pressed it.

“It was what I felt,” I said.

“That is why I was so anxious to hear from you.”

“Who could believe such a thing of him? He was the gentlest man who ever lived.” Her voice broke again.

“I must be calm. We were always friends, you and I, weren’t we? I know that he was innocent. You will believe me?”

“Yes,” I said fervently, “I will.”

“There is only his word.”

That is enough,” I said.

“Carmel, how glad I am that I came to you! But what use is it? It is done. But I shall not rest until the world knows he was innocent and all I can say is that I know because he told me. That is all I can say. When he knew they were going to arrest him, he said to me, ” Kitty, my dearest, they are going to accuse me of murdering Grace.

Everything points to me, and there is no way of proving that I am innocent of that crime. I was not in her room. I did not touch those pills. I know nothing about them. And I want you to know, and to

believe I speak the truth. 1 shall forget all else. ” And the next day we were arrested … both of us.”

We were silent. I did not know what to say to her, but my own belief in his innocence was confirmed.

It was some time before we could speak. Then I said: “I am glad I came. I have always been sure that he was innocent, and now I am absolutely certain.”

“He would have told me,” she said.

“He would never have lied to me.”

She was calmer after that and I think I conveyed to her the sincerity of my belief.

“I was on trial with him,” she said.

“Those days are not very clear to me now, for which, I suppose, I must be thankful. Not many people stand on trial for their lives. He had his enemies. That pernicious old woman. How she revelled in it!”

“You mean Nanny Gilroy?” I said.

“I always disliked her.”

“Mrs. Barton was influenced by her … and there was the district nurse, too. They all knew how difficult Grace Marline was to live with. That could not be denied. It was evidence against him. But, of course, it was his feelings for me that convinced them. Oh, Carmel, think of it! Those letters he wrote to me, read in court … those intimate, loving, damning letters! What a fool I was to keep them!

They searched my room and found them. They had been such a comfort to me . and how was I to know? You must not condemn us. “

“Condemn you! How I wish there was something I could have done to help you!”

“You must forgive me. I become emotional. I was so angry with that wicked woman … with her innuendoes. She hated me from the moment I came into the house. And to think she knew … and was tittering about us! I loved the doctor, Carmel. I want you to understand. It wasn’t as they made out. It was true love … which is never to be laughed at and sneered at… as they did. I hope, Carmel,

that you will find a love as tender and true as mine for Edward Marline and his for me. It was worth living for . dying for . Oh no, not the way he did. “

“Please don’t distress yourself. Perhaps we had better not talk of it.

”

“But I have to talk … and I want you to know. It does me good to talk to you, because you believe as I do.”

“I do. I always knew, within me, that Dr. Marline was innocent. I always wanted proof that I was right … and now I have it … from you.”

“Proof ? Only my word.”

“That is good enough for me. I wish it were for the rest of the world.”

“I will try to talk to you calmly and reasonably,” said Kitty.

“You know what happened at the trial. Edward was found guilty and they hanged him. They could not come to a decision about me. I was going to have a child and they do not hang pregnant women. There was a great deal of discussion. Jefferson Craig was in court.

“I must tell you about Jefferson. He has written a great deal on crime and the criminal. He believed from the start that Edward was innocent.

He felt there had been a miscarriage of justice. He was certain that someone else had given Grace Marline the overdose. There must have been several in the household who hated her.

“And there was the remote possibility that she had taken it herself, by mistake perhaps. There was another trial for me, and, as a result of Jefferson’s articles which had appeared in the papers, a certain amount of public sympathy was engendered for me. I have always believed that it was largely due to this that I was acquitted. I came out of that court a free woman, but with uncertainty hovering over me.

But Jefferson was there. He had found a lodging for me. There was a woman there to look after me and he used to visit me from time to time. This was not a case of romantic love. I was just a “case” to him.

Jefferson’s cases were his life. He had been particularly struck by mine. He was at that time in his late sixties.

“I don’t know how I should have survived without him. 1 was in a state of deep depression. I had terrible nightmares. I did not want to live.

Jefferson reminded me that I was carrying Edward’s child. He made me feel that, because of the child, I had not lost Edward completely. He told me afterwards that, at that time, he had feared that I might have taken my life. Jefferson thinks in terms of “cases” He had studied mine with the single-mindedness which he brought to all but I do think that mine was of special interest to him. He decided that I needed an occupation. Work was the antidote to boredom and a lacklustre interest in life. I needed work. I thanked him for what he had done for me, told him I could never repay him, and he said that there was a way I could repay him. I could help Mrs. Garfield.

“Mrs. Garfield was his secretary. She had been with him for many years and she was almost as old as he was. She understood him and his work as few could, but the work was getting too much for her. She needed an assistant; I could be that assistant, and that would be a great help to him.

“He was right, as he always was. Mrs. Garfield showed me what I had to do and I was soon finding it absorbingly interesting. She had been with Jefferson so long that she had grown a little like him. She was determined to do all she could to help him in this particular ” case”.

Well, they pulled me through, those two, and then the baby came. She is beautiful, Carmel. I have called her Edwina. Sometimes I fancy I see something of Edward in her, and I think how happy he would have been if he had known her. Oh, how different it might have been, Carmel! “

I took her hand and pressed it while she smiled sadly.

“It is no use, is it? Life doesn’t turn out as we plan it. I was lucky in so many ways. Jefferson has been wonderful

to me. He made me talk. He always wanted to know what was in my mind.

He discovered that what worried me most was the future of my child.

She would be Edwina Carson. I could hear people say, “Carson? That name strikes a chord. Oh, it was that case, you know. The man was hanged and she got off…” I should fear that for ever. I could change my name, I supposed. I used to lie awake at night and think of it.

“It was a month before she was born. Jefferson came to me and said: ” I know what you have on your mind. It’s the baby to be born without a father. Now, we are going to put a stop to all that. I am going to marry you so that the child will be born in wedlock and who is to raise questions about Jefferson Craig’s child? ” It was very noble of him, but he is noble. He is a great man. I know I say that again and again, but I owe so much to him.”

She was too emotional to continue for a moment.

I said: “He is indeed a wonderful man, and I am so glad that he was there when you needed him.”

“It is often like that in life, Carmel. One is lost and lonely and then the miracle happens. So I became Kitty Craig and my baby was born; and from that time life was no longer so utterly wretched that I longed to escape from it. I had my baby and she enchanted me as she did Jefferson and Mrs. Garfield.

“Time passed quickly. We watched Edwina grow up … a baby, and then a little girl. She is nine years old now. Can it be all that time ago? I went on working with Mrs. Garfield. I found the work more and more exhilarating. Mrs. Garfield had been a wonderful teacher. Two years ago she retired and Jefferson was doing less work than he had previously, and 1 was able to take over. So your letter came direct to me from the publisher.”

“Oh, Kitty, I am so glad I wrote.”

“So am 1. And there is something else 1 have to tell you. Adeline is with me.”

1 was amazed.

“Yes,” she went on.

“It was soon after Edwina was born. I had a letter which came through Jefferson’s publishers … just as yours did. It was from a Mrs. Darrell. She was Adeline’s Aunt Florence.”

“Oh, I remember her from when she came to collect them from Commonwood.”

“She asked, most graciously, if she could come to see me. 1 was surprised. I had met her only briefly at that time when she had come to collect the children. I had thought her extremely haughty then, and I was surprised that she should be writing in such an ingratiating manner almost begging me-asking me to see her. Jefferson was most intrigued and she came to the house.

“She began by telling me that she was relieved that I had come through that distressing business and was now Mrs. Craig. She said she had always believed in my innocence. Then she came to the point. It was Adeline. She was extremely worried about the girl and so was Mr. Darrell. Adeline had been ill for a long time, but she was better now physically. She was obsessed by one thing; her desire to be with me. At first she had talked of nothing else. They had thought she would get over it, but alas, she had grown worse. There had been one or two violent scenes.

‘ “We tried to explain to her, but she would not understand why she could not be with you. We have had medical advice. She will have to go away, they said. The idea of sending her into a mental home is dreadful and we know that it would do her no good. There is only one thing that will. That is the only chance for her, if she could be with you. Would you be prepared to give it a trial? You would be well paid.

And, of course, if you found it too much, there would be that other alternative. Would you be prepared to give it a trial? The doctors think that, with a childlike mind like hers, there is a chance of her regaining her serenity. “

“Well, of course, I talked it over with Jefferson. Here was another ” case” for him. He was prepared to study Adeline and he was soon eager to know how she would respond to being with me. So we haughtily declined payment.”

“And she came to you?”

“Yes, she did. That was about seven years ago. It worked. She is now exactly like the old Adeline loving and gentle. She adores Edwina.

At first I was afraid to leave the child alone with her and contrived never to do so. But now all that is changed. They are the greatest of friends. It is a joy to hear Adeline singing about the house. Do you remember how she used to, when she was happy? “

“I am so glad that she came back to you. I know how distressed she was at that time when you went away and then when she went off with Aunt Florence. She loved you from the beginning. I remember how frightened she was when she heard there was to be a governess, and you became the most wonderful person in the world to her.”