The Devil on Horseback (2 page)

up? ” ” I am very like my father, I believe. “

“That is because you have been brought up here.”

“I do look like him.”

Yes, you do . ,” ” Environment . birth . what does it have? It is a matter which has confounded the doctors for years. It is not something which can be solved in a few moments. “

“I’m afraid I have been rather impertinent. I was thinking aloud.”

“Certainly you were not. It’s an interesting theory.”

“I was overwhelmed by the house.”

“I’m glad it has that effect on you. You felt its antiquity … the spirits of my dead ancestors.”

“I can only say I’m sorry.”

“I’m not. I liked your frankness. Shall I take you up now? They’ll be waiting for you.”

There was a staircase leading from the hall. We mounted this and came to a gallery hung with portraits. Then we went up a winding stair and were on a landing faced by several doors. Joel opened one of them and I immediately heard Sybil’s voice.

“She’s here. Come along in, Minella. We’re waiting.”

The room was what was known as the solarium because it had been built to catch the sun. At one end was a tapestry on a frame at which I discovered Lady Derringham was working. There was a spinning-wheel at the other end of the room. I wondered if anyone used that now. In the centre was a large table with a piece of needlework on it. I learned later the girls worked at it in this room. There was a harpsichord and a spinet and I could imagine how different the place would look when cleared for dancing, the candles nickering in their sconces and the ladies and gentlemen in their exquisite clothes.

Margot cried in her accented English: “Do not stand there goggle-eyed, Minelle.” (She always adapted our names to her own language. ) “Have you never seen a solar before?”

“I expect,” said Maria, ‘that Minella finds this rather different from the schoolhouse. “

Maria meant to be kind but I often found a sting in her kindness. She was the more snobbish of the Derringham girls.

Joel said: “Well, I’ll leave you girls. Goodbye, Miss Mad-dox.”

As the door shut on him Maria demanded: “Where did you meet Joel?”

“When 1 was coming to the house. He brought me in.”

“Joel always feels he has to help everybody,” said Man “He’d carry a basket for a kitchen girl if he thought it was to heavy for her. Mama says it’s demeaning, and so it is. Jo should know better.” 4 “And look down his aristocratic nose at the schoolmistresi I said sharply, ‘for after all, since she is so far beneath hil it is a wonder he notices her at all.” j Margot shrieked with laughter.

“Bravo, Minellel’ she erie^ ” And if Joel should know better, so should you, Marie. New cross swords . is that right? ” I nodded.

“Never cross swon with Minelle because she will always beat you, and if she is th schoolmistress’s daughter and you are the squire’s … never mind. She is the clever one.” :

“Oh Margot,” I cried, ‘you are ridiculous. ” But I knew the tone of my voice thanked her for coming to my aid. ;

“I shall ring for tea now you are here,” said Sybil, rem em bering her duties as hostess.

“It will be served in the school room.” ;

As we talked I looked about me, taking in my surroundings and thinking how pleasant my encounter with Joel Derringham had been and how much more likeable he was than his sisters. | Tea was served, as Sybil had said, in the schoolroom. Then was thin bread and butter with cherry cake and little roun< buns flavoured with caraway seeds. A servant hovered whili Sybil poured the tea. At first we were a little formal but ven soon were chattering away as we did at school, for althougl my role was now that of a teacher, not so long ago I ha been a pupil with them. ;

Margot surprised me by suggesting a game of hide an” seek, for it was rather childish and she prided herself on ha woridliness. i;

“You are always wanting to play that silly game,” said Sybild ‘and then you disappear and we can never find you. ” ‘s Margot shrugged her shoulders.

“It amuses me,” she said’ The Derringham girls were resigned. I supposed they hac been told they must humour their guest. ;

She pointed to the floor.

“All of them down there will have finished their afternoon naps and be taking tea in the drawing-room. It’s fun.

Though better at night when there is darkness and the ghosts come out,” ” There are no ghosts,” said Maria sharply.

“Oh yes, Maria,” teased Margot.

“There is the one of the housemaid who hanged herself because the pantry man deserted her. Only she does not appear to you. How do you say? She knows her place.”

Maria, flushing, muttered: “Margot talks such nonsense.”

“Do let us play hide and seek,” pleaded Margot.

“It’s hardly fair to Minella,” protested Sybil.

“She doesn’t know the house.”

“Oh, but it’s only up here that we play. It would be frowned on if we went below and ran into guests. I shall go and hide now.”

Margot’s eyes were dancing with anticipation of pleasure, and this astonished me. But the thought of exploring the house even though I was confined to the top floor was so exciting to me that I forgot my surprise in Margot’s unexpected childishness. After all, Margot was always unpredictable and I supposed she was not really so very old.

Maria was grumbling.

“It’s such a silly game. I wonder why she wants to play it. Guessing games would be so much more suitable. I wonder where she goes. We never find her. And she always has to be the one to hide.”

“Perhaps we’ll find her this time, with Minella’s help,” said Sybil.

We left the schoolroom and went on to a landing. Maria opened a door;

Sybil opened another. I went into the one with Sybil. It was furnished as a bedroom and I realized that this was where Maria and Sybil slept.

There were two beds with half canopies in separate corners of the room, as far away from each other as possible.

I stepped back on to the landing. Maria was not there and an irresistible urge to explore by myself came to me. I stepped back into the solarium. It seemed different now that I was there alone. That was how it was with great houses;

they changed when people were there. It was as though there was something living in them.

How I longed to wander about the house, exploring it! How I wanted to know all that was happening in it now and what had happened in the past.

Margot might have understood. The Derringham girls never would. They would have thought it was the schoolmistress’s daughter being overwhelmed by her surroundings.

I was not interested in Margot’s childish games. It wa obvious that she was not in the solarium. There was now her that I could see for her to hide.

I heard Maria’s voice on the landing and I stepped briski across the room. I had discovered another door in the solariui and I opened it and went through. A spiral staircase faced me On impulse I descended it. It wound round and round an seemed to go on for a long way before it came to an end. was in another part of the house. Here the corridor was wide There were heavy velvet curtains at the windows. I lookec through one of them. I could see the lawn with the sun-dia and I knew that I was in the front of the house.

There were several doors along the corridor. Very cautiously I opened one. The blinds were drawn to shut out the sun an it took a few seconds for my eyes to become accustomed to th dimness. Then I saw the sleeping figure on the chaise-longue. I was the Comtesse, Margot’s mother. I quickly but very quietl:

shut the door. Suppose she had been awake and seen me! should have been in disgrace. My mother would have beei hurt and bewildered and I should never have been invited ti Derringham Manor again. Perhaps I never should in any cas as this was the first time I had been asked.

It was the on! ;

time most likely. Then I must make the most of it.

My mother often said that when I wanted to do something which was of questionable behaviour, I would make excuse;

why it was right to do it. What excuse could I make for wandering about the house . prying . for it was nothing more? Joel Derringham had been pleased that I liked the house. I was sure he would not mind. Nor would Sir John And it might be my only chance.

I went along the corridor. Then to my joy I discovered that one door was slightly ajar. I pushed it further and peeped intc the room. It was very like that in which the Comtesse lay or her chaise-longue except that there was a four-poster bed ir it hung with rich curtains.

I noticed the beautiful tapestries which adorned the walls.

I could not resist it. I tiptoed in.

Then my heart leaped in terror, for I heard the door shut behind me. I had never felt so frightened in all my life, Someone had shut the door. My position was unbearable embarrassing. In such situations I was quick at finding excuses and could generally rely on being able to extricate myself from awkward places, but in that moment I was really frightened. We had talked of the supernatural and I felt as though I could be in the presence of it.

Then a voice behind me said in accented English: “Good afternoon. It is a pleasure to meet you.”

I turned sharply. The Devil Count was standing against the door, his arms folded; his eyes-very dark, almost black-were boring into me;

his mouth curved in a smile which matched the rest of him and which I could only call diabolical.

I stammered: “I’m sorry. I appear to have intruded.”

You seek someone? ” he asked.

“It is not my wife, I know, for you rejected her after you had looked into her room. Perhaps you search for me?”

I realized then that the two rooms were connected and he had been in that one into which I had peeped on the sleeping Comtesse. He had no doubt hastily come into this room and opened the door to lure me in in order to trap me when I had entered.

“No, no,” I said.

“It is a game. Margot is hiding.”

He nodded.

“Perhaps you should sit down.”

“No, thanks. I should not have come down here. I should have stayed upstairs.”

I walked boldly to the door but he did not move away from it and I stopped short looking at him helplessly and yet fascinated, wondering what he was going to do. What he did do was step forward and take my arm.

“You must not go away so soon,” he said.

“Now that you have visited me, you must stay awhile.”

He was studying me closely and his scrutiny embarrassed me.

“I think I should go,” I said as easily as I could.

“They will be missing me.”

“But it is Margot who is hiding. They will not find her yet. It is a big house for her to hide herself in.”

“Oh, but they will. It is only the top floor …” I stopped foolishly. I had betrayed myself.

He laughed triumphantly.

“Then what are you doing down here.

Mademoiselle? “

“It is my first visit to the house. I lost my way.”

“And you were looking in these rooms to find it?”

I was silent. He drew me to the window and pulled me down beside him.

I was close to him, deeply aware of the linen that smelt faintly of sandalwood and the large signet ring with the crest which he wore on the little finger of his right hand.

“You should tell me your name,” he said.

“I am Minella Maddox.”

“Minella Maddox,” he repeated.
I know well. You are the schoolmistress’s daughter. “

“I am. But I hope you will tell no one that I came down here.”

He nodded gravely.

“So you have disobeyed orders …”

“I was lost,” I said firmly.

“I would not like it to be known that I was so foolish.”

“So you are asking a favour of me?”

I merely suggest that you do not mention this trivial matter. ” ^ ” It is not trivial to me. Mademoiselle. “

“I do not understand you. Monsieur Ie Comte.”

“So you know me?”

“Everyone in the neighbourhood knows you.”

“I wonder how much you know of me.”

“Only who you are and that you are Margot’s father and that you come from France to visit Derringham from time to time.”

My daughter has talked of me, has she? “

“Now and then.”

“She has told you of my many … what is the word?”

“Sins, do you mean? If you would prefer to speak in French …”

“I see you have formed an opinion of me. I am a sinner ,i who does not speak your language as well as you speak mine.” He was talking in rapid French, hoping, I knew, that I should not understand, but I had had a good grounding and my fear was deserting me; moreover, although I knew that I was in a difficult situation and he was the sort of man who would not be chivalrous enough to help me out of it, I could not suppress a certain exhilaration. I replied in French that I had thought the word he was searching for was the one I had supplied and if he was thinking of something else would he give it to me in French and I was sure I should understand.

“I see,” he said, still speaking very quickly, ‘that you are a spirited young lady. Now let us understand each other. You seek my daughter Marguerite, whom you call Margot. She is hiding on the upper floor of the house. You know this yet you seek her down here. Ah, Mademoiselle, you did not seek Marguerite but to satisfy your curiosity. Come, admit it. ” He frowned in a manner which was, I was sure, calculated to strike terror in those who observed it.

“I do not like people to tell me untruths.”

“Well,” I said, determined not to be browbeaten, ‘it is my first visit to a house of this type and I do admit to a certain curiosity. “

“Natural, very natural. You have very pretty hair. Mademoiselle. I would say it is the colour of the corn in August. Would you agree?”

“You are pleased to flatter me.”

He put up a hand and caught a strand of my hair which my mother had curled carefully and which was tied back with a blue riband to match my dress.

I felt uneasy, yet the exhilaration persisted. I was forced to move closer to him as he pulled at my hair. I could see his face very clearly, the shadow under the luminous dark eyes, the brows thick, yet finely marked. He was the most striking-looking man I had ever seen.

“And now,” I said, “I should go.”