The Captive (43 page)

“Felicity was one, remember.”

“You are not Felicity.”

“No, I’m myself. I was just saying that she managed very well and was not the least bit ashamed of having been once a governess.”

“It was with friends … and to oblige.”

“Well, I’m obliging. They’re very glad to have me.”

Aunt Maud made an impatient gesture.

I had a very good welcome in the kitchen. Mr. Dolland looked a little older. There was a little more white at his temples. Mrs. Harlow seemed larger than I remembered her and the girls were the same.

“So you’re a governess now, are you?” said Mrs. Harlow with a faint sniff.

“Yes, Mrs. Harlow.”

“And you the master’s daughter!”

“I enjoy it. I have a very bright and unusual pupil. She was quite unmanageable until I came.”

“I wouldn’t have believed it … nor would Mr. Dolland … would you, Mr. Dolland?”

Mr. Dolland agreed that he never would.

“It used to be such fun down here,” I said.

“Do you still do The Bells, Mr. Dolland?”

“Now and then. Miss Rosetta.”

“It used to frighten me so. I used to dream about the Polish Jew. I’ve told Kate she’s my pupil about you. I’d love to bring her up to meet you all.”

“We miss not having a young ‘un in the house,” said Mrs. Harlow reminiscently.

I went to her and put my arms round her. She hugged me tightly for a few moments.

“There,” she said, wiping her eyes, ‘we often talk about the old days.

You were an old-fashioned little thing. “

“I must hear The Bells before I go back.”

“I heard Mr. Lorimer is in London.”

“Yes. I shall go to see him while I’m here.”

I intercepted a knowing look which passed between Mrs. Harlow and Mr. Dolland. So they were pairing me off with Lucas.

The next day I went to the clinic. Lucas was delighted to see me.

“I’m so touched that you came,” he said.

“Of course I came. I wanted to be here while it was done, and I want you to know that I’ll be thinking of you all the time. I shall come round tomorrow afternoon with my father or Aunt Maud and find out how it went.”

“That might be too early.”

“Nevertheless, I shall come.”

His room was small with a single bed and a small table beside it. He was in a dressing-gown. He said that he had been advised to rest for the last two days and was spending the time mainly reading. They had to prepare him apparently and this was what they were doing.

“I’m so glad you came, Rosetta,” he said.

“There’s some thing I wanted you to know. Sit down there, by the window, so that I can see you.”

“Does the sound of the traffic disturb you?” I asked.

“No. I like it. It makes me feel there’s a lot going on outside.”

“What do you want to tell me, Lucas?”

“I took some action. It was a little while ago, before you confessed to me that John Player was Simon Perrivale.”

“Action, Lucas? What action?”

“I sent Dick Duvane off to look for him.”

“You … what?”

“I didn’t have much to go on. Dick went off to Constantinople I thought Simon might still be working for the Pasha and there might be a possibility of bribing someone to get him back. I know how these people work. It was just the sort of thing Dick would do well. If anyone could bring it off, he would.”

“Why did you do it, Lucas?”

“Because I knew that he was the one you wanted. I used to tell myself that there was a sort of bond between the three of us. We’d been through so much together. That does something to people. But I was in a way the outsider. On the island I felt that.”

“It was because you weren’t able to walk. We had to go off together to see what we could find to eat. You were never the outsider, Lucas.”

“Oh yes, I was. It was to you he confessed his secret and here you are, intent above everything on proving his innocence.”

I was silent.

“There have been times when I thought you and I … well, it was what I wanted. Life has been different for me since you came to Cornwall.

I’ve felt a certain optimism . just a thought that miracles can happen. “

“We saw one miracle … more than one. It really seemed as if Providence … fate … or whatever you call it, was looking after us. Look how we survived in those seas … and then on the island, and how fortunate I was in the seraglio. I did at times feel my good angel was looking after me. You too, Lucas. The way in which you came home was certainly … miraculous.”

“Like this …” he said, looking down at his leg.

“I don’t think any of us have escaped unscathed. But, Lucas, you did this for me. You were trying to find him to bring him back to me.”

“I admit that at times I thought I was a fool. Let him go, I said to myself. Let him stay away for ever. Then you and I could make something of our lives … together. That’s the way I used to think.

Then I thought: She’ll always hanker. She’ll always think of him. So I came to the conclusion that I’d try to find him and bring him back if that were possible. “

“I shall never forget that you did this for me. You once told me that you loved me next best to yourself, and that

all people loved themselves best and when they said they loved someone else it was because of the comfort and pleasure that person brought them. Do you remember? I don’t think you have shown that is true . of you. “

He laughed.

“Don’t make a hero of me. You’ll be horribly disappointed if you do.”

“Oh, Lucas …”

“All right, all right. No more. Don’t let’s get sentimental. I thought you ought to know, that’s all. When you told me who he was and that he had said he would try to get to Australia, I wrote to Dick and he’ll be on his way there now. It’s a sparsely populated place. It might be a fraction easier to find him there. But even if we did … he can’t come back, can he?”

“Until we prove him innocent.”

He looked at me sadly.

“You think I am never going to prove it, don’t you?” I said.

“I think you have set yourself a very difficult task.”

“But you are going to help me, Lucas.”

“Rather a broken reed, you know.”

“But you are going to be much better after … you know you are.

You’re sure of it. “

“Well, that’s the whole purpose, isn’t it?”

“I can’t wait for tomorrow to be over.”

“Thank you, Rosetta.”

“It’s got to be a success. It’s got to be.”

He nodded. I kissed him on the forehead and left him. I was unable to hide my emotion and I did not want him to see how fearful I was.

After I had left him I asked if I might have a word with the surgeon and I was finally conducted to him. I said that I should be grateful if he would tell me if there was any danger of Lucas’s not coming through the operation.

When he hesitated for a few seconds I felt numb with “I believe you are his fiancee,” he said. I did not deny it. I thought in that role he would be more frank with me. He went on: “It is a long and delicate operation. If it is successful, he will be able to walk with much more ease and painlessly … although there will always be a slight limp. Because it is long and complicated, it could be a strain on the heart, and that is where the danger lies. Mr. Lorimer is strong and healthy. He is in moderately good condition. There is a good chance that he will come successfully through the operation. It is just that we should not forget the strain on the heart.”

“Thank you,” I said.

He laid a hand on my shoulder.

“I am sure it will be all right,” he said.

I came out of the clinic feeling very disturbed. I wanted to go back to Lucas and tell him how much I cared for him, and at this time the most important thing in the world to me was that the operation would be a success.

The next day seemed as though it would never pass. In the late afternoon my father. Aunt Maud and I went to the clinic. We saw the doctor whom I had seen on the previous day.

“He has come safely through,” he said.

“It is too soon yet to see how successful the operation is. But Mr. Lorimer is doing well. You might look in and see him, but don’t stay more than a few minutes. Just Miss Cranleigh, of course.”

I saw Lucas. He was lying in his bed, his leg under a frame. He looked very different from how I had ever seen him before . defenceless, vulnerable.

“Hello, Lucas.”

“Rosetta …”

“They say you’ve done well.”

He nodded and looked at the chair beside his bed. I sat down.

“Good to see you.”

“Don’t talk. They’ve told me I mustn’t stay more than a few minutes.”

He smiled faintly.

“I just want you to know that I’m thinking of you all the time. I’ll come again as soon as they let me.”

He smiled.

“And you’ll be out of here soon.”

A nurse looked in and I rose.

“Don’t forget. I’m thinking of you,” I said, and kissed him.

Then we went back to Bloomsbury.

Lucas was progressing ‘as well as could be expected’. He was in bed and I gathered that the success of the operation was not yet known and would not be until he was able to put his feet to the ground. Visits had to be brief. It made the days seem long, and one day I decided to go and look at the place where Mirabel had stayed when she had come to London with her mysterious illness.

I could not forget that Maria had said: “If she had been married I should have thought she was expecting.” She must have been wrong.

There was no child. I wondered if there was some evidence hidden in the fact that she had come to London in that way.

Malton House was in Bayswater. That was all I knew, but it might not be impossible to find the place.

Lucas had occupied my mind exclusively during the last week, and because I was unable to see him except very briefly, I needed something to occupy me and to take my mind from the fearful feeling of uncertainty that all might not have gone right with him after all.

I would take a cab one afternoon and go and see if I could find Malton House. I reminded myself that I must ‘leave no stone unturned’. Who knew, important evidence might be found in the least expected places.

It was true that the need to prove Simon innocent had taken second place to my anxiety about Lucas lately, but I had gone too far in my search to slacken now. The need to prove Simon’s innocence was as strong as ever.

I knew the name of the house and the name of the district. I would hail a cab and ask to be taken to Bayswater. Cabdrivers were very knowledgeable about London. They had to be. It was essential to their jobs.

It was early afternoon. My father was at work in his study. Aunt Maud was taking a nap. I came out of the house and hailed a cab.

The cabdriver looked a little dismayed when I told him I wanted to go to Malton House in Bayswater.

“Malton House? Where’s that?”

“In Bayswater.”

“That all the address you’ve got?”

I told him it was.

“Well, we’ll get to Bayswater. That’s easy enough. Here … wait a minute, I know of a Malton Square.”

“I think it would very likely be there.”

“All right then, Miss. We’ll go and see.”

When we arrived at Malton Square he slowed down and studied the houses as we went along.

We saw a woman with a shopping-bag. She was walking briskly along.

The cabdriver slowed up and touched his hat with his whip.

“Excuse me, lady. You know Malton House round here?”

“Why, yes,” she said.

“The one on the corner.”

“Thank ‘ee, M’am.”

The cab stopped before a house.

I said: “Will you wait for me? I shall not be long.”

“I’ll just wait round the corner, into the next street,” he said.

“Can’t very well stay here right on the corner.”

“That will suit me beautifully.”

352And it did, for it occurred to me that he might think it odd that I had made the journey just to look at the place.

The house lay back from the road. Steps led to the door, and among the few rather dingy bushes in the front garden there was a board on which was printed “Malton House. Maternity Nursing Home.” And in the corner, “Mrs. B. A. Campden’ with several letters after her name, the significance of which I was unsure of.

I stood staring at the board for some moments and as I did so a woman came up to me. I recognized her at once as the one whom the cabdriver had asked about the house.

“Can I help you?” she asked pleasantly.

“Oh … erno, thank you,” I said.

“I am Mrs. Campden,” she said.

“I saw you alight from the cab.”

This was becoming awkward. She must know that I had meant to come here as the cabby had asked her the way. How could I tell her that I just wanted to look at the place?

She said: “Why don’t you come in? It’s easier to talk inside.”

“I … er … I only wanted …”

She smiled at me.

“I understand.” Her eyes swept over me. I found myself following her up the steps. The door was open and we stepped into a hall in which was a reception area.

“Come along in,” she said.

I began to protest.

“I only …” How could I tell her that I wanted to see what sort of place this was? She seemed to have drawn her. own conclusions about me.

“Really I shouldn’t waste your time …” I began.

She took my arm and drew me into a room.

“Now, let’s be comfortable,” she said. She pushed me into a chair.

“You mustn’t be embarrassed. So many girls are. I understand that.

We’re here to help. “

I felt I -was getting deeper and deeper into a ridiculous situation, from which I must extricate myself as quickly as

possible. What could I say? How to explain? She knew that I had purposely come to the place. It was most unfortunate that the cabdriver should have spoken to her. I tried to think of some reason why I should be here.

“I have to ask a few questions, of course,” she was saying, while I was desperately racking my brains for some plausible excuse for being here.

“Now don’t be nervous. I’m used to this sort of thing. We’ll put everything right. Have you any idea when conception took place?”