The Mask of the Enchantress (14 page)

he needn be jealous of me. I just one of those ships that pass in the night.

on say that, Anabel. I want you to come here often. You don know how your coming cheers me up.

heers you up! Surely you don need cheering up?

hat I mean is that you add that much more.

But she had alerted my senses. Things were not quite what they seemed at the castle. Jessamy was not completely happy. I was sure this had something to do with Joel.

I had been three days at the castle. I had made the acquaintance of Egmont, a rather ferocious-looking old man with the Mateland bushy brows, gray in his case. He was affable to me. e has taken a fancy to you,said Jessamy.

She told me he had a reputation for being fond of women and in his youth he had had mistresses all over the countryside. There were numerous Matelands all over the district.

don think he ever attempted to deny paternity,she said. e was proud of his virility. He always looked after them, too.

hat of his wife? How did she react to these bastards all over the countryside?

he endured and she accepted. There was nothing else she could do. Of course, in those days that sort of thing was taken as a matter of course, more than it is today. The Queen sets such a good example.

he sets the fashion for virtue,I commented, ut that sometimes means drawing a veil over immorality rather than suppressing it.

She frowned slightly, and I wondered what she was thinking. I was becoming very sensitive to her moods. For the first time in her life Jessamy was hiding something from me. I was certain that everything was not what it seemed on the surface. But try as I might I could not get her to tell me her innermost thoughts, and the longer I was at the castle the surer I was becoming that there were secrets there.

I saw Joel frequently, but never alone. Sometimes I thought that we both contrived that this should be so. But there did come a day when we were thrown together.

I had done a little riding at the castle. Jessamy rode a good deal. She always had at Seton and Aunt Amy Jane had grudgingly allowed me to share her lessons. I had loved riding and some of the happiest days of my childhood had been spent galloping and cantering over the fields and walking the lanes in Jessamy made-over riding clothes. There had been nothing quite as exciting in those days as galloping along, a horse beneath me and the wind buffeting me.

So it was pleasant to ride at Mateland, where there was, of course, a large stable and several horses to spare. The right mount was found for me and Jessamy and I rode every day.

Once when Jessamy and I were riding we met David. He had been going round the Mateland estate, which he spent his days looking after, and when he saw us he rode with us.

He chatted amicably, wanted to know what I thought of the Mateland stables and the particular mount which had been found for me, how much riding I had done and so on.

There came a moment when Jessamy slowed down to talk to a woman at the door of one of the cottages. I managed to catch a strange smile about David lips. He quickened pace a little, and I kept up with him. He turned up a lane, and then I realized that he was trying to get ahead of Jessamy.

I said: oes she know wee going this way?

hel find out,he answered.

ut..

h, come on, Anabel. I never get a chance to talk to you.

There was something in the tone of his voice which warned me to take care.

e shall lose her,I protested.

hat could be the object of the enterprise.

ot mine,I reminded him.

nabel, you are a very attractive young lady. You know it. And you are not as prim as you would have me believe. You have bewitched us all.

y father, myself and my newly wedded brother.

am flattered to have made such an impression on your family.

nabel, you would make an impression wherever you went. You have something more than beauty. Did you know that?

o, but I am interested to hear a catalogue of my virtues.

here is vitality in you a response.

response to what?

o that which you arouse in men.

am learning a great deal, but I think I must say here endeth the first lesson and the first lesson shall be the last.

ou amuse me.

nother talent? Really, you will make me very conceited.*

tell you nothing you do not know. Since you have come to the castle you have been constantly in my thoughts. Have you thought of me?

aturally I think of people when I am in their company. Now I think we should join Jessamy.

et me show you round the estate. There is a great deal you would be interested in, Anabel.

I turned and called out to Jessamy, who was looking for us. I rode back to her.

didn see that you had gone up the lane,she said.

I felt very shaken. I thought that clearly I could not stay on at the castle. It seemed to me that there was something a little sinister about this man. I wanted to get away from him.

I thought a great deal about what David had said. The men in the family were all impressed by me. That was what he had stated. I knew that he was. What was he looking for? A brief flirtation, a passing affair? He was married to an invalid and for a man such as he was that must be trying. I had no doubt that he attempted to seduce every woman with whom he came into contact, so perhaps I should not attach too much importance to this approach of his. I only had to show him that I was not the type to indulge in brief love affairs with married men and even if I were he did not attract me.

I liked to sit beside Grandfather Egmont and talk to him. He was complimentary too and made it very clear that he considered me an attractive woman. I hadn thought much about that before and it was as though I had changed when I set foot in Mateland Castle. A spell had been laid upon me. very man who sees you shall desire you!That was the sort of thing. Grandfather Egmont had a wicked twinkle in his eye and was implying that if he were thirty years younger he would be ready to woo me. This amused me and I responded in a lighthearted flirtatious kind of way which delighted him. I did notice that his attitude towards Jessamy, Emerald and Elizabeth was quite different. So it really did seem as though there was something in me which aroused this spark in the Matelands.

That Joel was conscious of my presence I knew, but he seemed to avoid me. But I did meet him one day as I was riding out of the stables. Jessamy had had some duty to perform and she had asked me if I would mind riding alone that day.

I said of course not and when I had ridden through the great gate and down the incline towards the woods Joel joined me.

ello,he said as if by surprise. iding alone today?

es. Jessamy is busy.

re you going anywhere special?

o. Just riding aimlessly.

o you mind if I ride along with you for a while?

like that,I said.

So we rode through the woods and I was as excited as I had been since our encounter in the church and again at the wedding. It was that particular brand of excitement which only he could inspire in me.

He asked how I was enjoying my visit and then he talked about the vicarage and the church which had so impressed him, and I found myself rattling on. I felt joyous; I wanted to catch and hold the minutes to prevent their passing.

suppose all vicarsdaughters and wives lead the same sort of existence,I said. here is always the great concern. Of course it can be the roof, the steeple or the belfry. This is the century of crumbling churches in England, which is very logical, I suppose, since most of them were built at least five hundred years ago. You must have problems with the castle.

onstant,he assured me. ur great enemy, deathwatch beetle, is continually summoning us to action. We win a battle or two and then we hear him knocking in another place. That my brother concern really.

nd yours is your profession. Are there many doctors in the family?

o. I the first. It was something of a battle but I was insistent.

es,I said, ou would be.

h, you have summed me up, have you?

es, as the kind of man who, when he makes up his mind he wants something, gets it.

don think it is quite like that, but there was nothing in the way of my taking up the medical profession. It was just that it had never been done before, and if you know of a sillier reason for not doing something than that it has not been done before, please tell me.

know of none,I said. o you studied and finally qualified.

did. It wasn as though I was the heir. Second sons have more freedom than heirs. It is sometimes not a bad thing to be a second son.

ertainly it wasn in your case. Tell me about your studies. Do you specialize in anything?

o just general.He told me about his apprenticeship and how finally he had set up a practice in the town. t was not before it was needed,he said. here a dearth of doctors in this area. Ie plenty to do, I can tell you.He turned to me suddenly. ould you like to see my quarters? I like to show you. I hoping soon to build a hospital in the town. It what we need.

es,I said, should very much like to.

hen come with me. Wee nearly there.

We were on the outskirts of the town and we rode on in silence. I wondered how much he talked to Jessamy. He clearly found pleasure in discussing his work.

Mateland was a small town and as we rode through it several people called a greeting to him. I felt pleased because clearly he was popular. He discussed them with me. hat an enlarged heart going up there. It hard to treat. He far too energetic. Kidneys,he said of a thin little woman who called, ood morning, Doctor,as we passed.

I laughed. o they are hearts and kidneys and whatever is wrong with them to you.

hat what I interested in.

he rest of us are bodies as a whole, I suppose, until of course you find one of our organs worthy of notice.

hat sums it up, I suppose.

We had come to a house of three stories. It stood apart from the rest of the houses in the street. There was a drive in and a semicircular path which went up to the house and had a gate at each end. We rode in, dismounted and he tethered our horses.

As we went into the house a woman came into the hall. I guessed at once that she was the housekeeper.

orothy,he said, his is Miss Campion, my wife cousin.

Dorothy gave me an appraising look.

ood day to you, miss,she said.

re there any messages?asked Joel.

im Talbot been in. He says if you could look in on his wife this afternoon he be glad. She better, he says, but not right yet.

l go this afternoon, Dorothy.He turned to me. ould you like some tea or coffee? There time, I think, Dorothy, before surgery begins.

should like some coffee,I said, and Dorothy went out.

That was an enchanted hour to me. He glowed with enthusiasm for his work and it occurred to me that he did not find it easy to talk to many people as he did to me. His life was so different from that of the other members of the family. A modern doctor in that medieval setting!

As we drank the coffee he explained something of this to me.

f I had been the elder,he said, should never have been able to pursue this and it means a great deal to me. I can explain how exciting it is. One never knows when one is going to discover something of vital importance some strange symptom, some cure something to give one a lead as to how to go on. It was an old doctor who inspired me when I was a boy. He came to the castle to see my mother and I used to watch and listen to him. My father laughed when I said I wanted to be a doctor. hy not?I said. here David to run the castle estate.In fact they would have liked me to help him. But David and I never saw things in the same way. There would have been friction. I don know who is the more stubborne or I. We each want our own way and, when two people like us start pulling in different directions, something has to give. Why didn you come to the castle with Jessamy in the first place? You said you were often at Seton Manor?

wasn asked,I said.

He looked at me very steadily and then he said something which both alarmed and delighted me. It was just: pity!

I heard myself saying quickly: ell, I finally came.

He was silent for a moment. Then he said: ee a strange lot at the castle, aren we?

re you?

on you find us so?

ll people are unexpected when you get to know them.

o you don think there is anything specially different about us?

o. Except that you can trace your ancestry back hundreds of years and you live in a castle.

live quite a lot of my time here.He hesitated.

oes Jessamy like it here?I asked.

he she hasn been here a great deal. I stay here when I want to be early the next morning or I am working late.

t not very far from the castle.

ut it sometimes seems simpler to stay.

I thought it was strange that Jessamy had not mentioned this.

alking about our being different,he went on, here are always rumors about us, you know. There supposed to be some curse on us. It affects the Mateland wives.

h, what is the curse?

t a long story. Briefly, at the time of the Civil War there was discord between the castle and some of the townspeople here. They were for the Parliament. The castle was of course strictly Royalist. The King army was in the ascendant here at one time and apparently they raided the town; one of the citizens escaped and came to the castle with his young wife, who was pregnant. He asked for succor. It was refused and one of my ancestors threatened to hand them over to the King men. They went away; the wife died in a ditch and her husband cursed the Matelands. They had murdered his wife, he said, and they should know no luck in theirs.

ell, I dare say that has been disproved time and time again.

don know that it has. The odd thing about these legends is that now and then they have a habit of coming true, and when they do they grow in strength.

nd when they don I suppose they are forgotten.

y mother went into a decline when I was ten years old,he said. ou know Jessamy is my second wife. I shall never forget the night Rosalie died. She was my wife my first wife. She was eighteen. We had known each other since we were children. She was dainty and pretty and rather frivolous. She loved to dance and was rather vain about her appearance rather charmingly vain, you understand?