The Quiet Gentleman (19 page)

‘By Jupiter, yes!’ the Viscount said. ‘I don’t know what we should have been at without her, Ger, for a gorier sight I’ve seldom seen, and how to stop the bleeding was more than I knew!’

‘Miss Morville is a very remarkable female,’ replied Gervase. ‘I am sorry, though, that she should have been confronted by such a hideous spectacle as I must have presented.’

‘Lord, she made nothing of that! It was her ladyship who went off into a swoon, right at the head of the stairs, when she saw you carried up!’ The Viscount gave a chuckle. ‘There was I, clean distracted, and telling Miss Morville to come to her ladyship, and all she said was that I should call her maid, for she had something more important to attend to! I was ready to have murdered her, for, y’know, Ger, swooning females ain’t in my line, but when I saw how cleverly she set to work on you I was bound to forgive her!’

At that moment a gentle knock fell on the door. Turvey moved to open it, and ushered in Miss Morville herself. The Viscount said gaily: ‘Ah, here she is! Come in, ma’am! I have been telling St Erth what a stout heart you have! And here is the doctor saying that you don’t squeak and swoon at the sight of blood!’

‘I believe,’ said Miss Morville prosaically, ‘that my sex is, in general, less squeamish than yours, my lord.’ She then bade the doctor good-morning, observed with satisfaction that the Earl was looking better, and desired Dr Malpas to visit the Dowager before he left Stanyon.

‘Tell her I beg her pardon!’ the Earl said, smiling, and stretching out his right hand, in an unconsciously welcoming gesture.

She looked at it, but she did not move from where she stood. In her most expressionless voice, she said: ‘Certainly, my lord.’

Dr Malpas, having applied a fresh dressing to the wound, and bound up the Earl’s shoulder, had only to issue his instructions before announcing that he was ready to go to her ladyship. He made his patient grimace by prescribing thin gruel and repose; warned him that if he should try to exert himself too soon he would end in a high fever; and followed Miss Morville to the Dowager’s apartments.

The Earl, who was more exhausted by the doctor’s visit than he would own, dismissed Turvey; and, when the valet had withdrawn from the room, turned his head on the pillow to look at his friend. ‘Now, if you please, Lucy!’

‘Dear old boy, no need to tease yourself! All’s right!’

‘It teases me more to be kept in ignorance. You are hiding something from me, you and Miss Morville!’

‘Fudge!’ said the Viscount unconvincingly.

‘Lucy, whatever may be your suspicions, don’t let anyone say that it was Martin who shot me! This story which the doctor and his gouty patient have set up will do very well! It must not be whispered all over the county that Martin tried to kill me!’

The Viscount was silent, fiddling with the bed-curtains. After a moment, Gervase said more strongly: ‘Lucy, I’m in earnest! Good God, only think what you would feel yourself!’

‘I know that. I wouldn’t think of it, if I were you, Ger. No use!’

‘What has Martin said?’ Gervase demanded, watching him under knit brows. ‘Where
is
Martin?’

‘That’s more than I can tell!’ said the Viscount, with a short laugh.

‘What do you mean?’

The Viscount hesitated, and then said: ‘Listen, Ger! If I know anything of the matter, it’s already all over the county that Martin tried to murder you! Martin ain’t here!’ He looked up, saw the startled look in the Earl’s eyes, and said: ‘Hasn’t been seen since he went off yesterday, saying he would try for a shot at those kestrels.
That’s
why your mother-in-law wanted to see the doctor! True she swooned when she saw you carried in, but it wasn’t that which upset her.’

‘Oh, my God!’ Gervase said sharply. ‘Go on! Tell me the whole!’

‘Don’t think I should, dear boy!’ said Ulverston, regarding him in some alarm. ‘Ought to be quiet, y’know!’

‘You’ll tell me the whole, or I’ll get up out of this bed!’

‘No, no, don’t do that! It’s only this, Ger! – his gun has been found. Shot-belt, too.’

‘Who? – Where?’

‘Chard. Good fellow, Chard! Rode off to the place where you were hit as soon as he’d fetched the sawbones over last night. Thought he might discover some trace. Well, he did. Found Martin’s gun thrust down a rabbit-hole, and his shot-belt in a gorse-bush. Looks as though he had got rid of ’em quickly, because the end of the stock wasn’t hidden well. That’s all, but everyone here knows you’ve been shot at, and your brother ain’t to be found – and if you think that news won’t spread, you’re a sapskull, Ger!’

‘Martin would not take ball out for kestrels!’

‘Daresay he wouldn’t. Nothing to stop him loading his piece with ball, if he went for bigger game!’ said the Viscount brutally. ‘No wish to distress you, but he had a couple of rounds in his belt. Seen ’em – not gammoning you!’

The Earl pressed a hand to his brow. ‘A couple of rounds in his belt… Yes, and what more?’

‘Nothing. No trace of him to be found. Thought he had done for you, of course! Took fright! Just the sort of hothead who would do so!’

‘Very well. And then?’

‘Got my own notion about that,’ said Ulverston darkly.

‘What is it?’

‘Nearest port. If he took fright, dared not stay – only thing to do, get out of the country!’

The Earl’s hand dropped. ‘Yes. I think I see.’

Ulverston perceived that he was looking very pale, and said in a conscience-stricken tone: ‘Shouldn’t have told you! Don’t put yourself into a fret, dear boy! Only want you to tell me what you wish done!’

‘Chard. Send him up to me!’

‘Can’t. At least, not immediately, Ger! Told him to ride over to fetch your cousin! Seemed to me he’s the man we need.’ He paused, and then, as Gervase said nothing, but only stared frowningly before him, he added: ‘I know you didn’t like it when Frant kept Martin under surveillance. Told him you didn’t need a watch-dog, didn’t you? Well, it’s precisely what you did need, Ger! While Frant was here, and Martin knew he was alive to his little game, he dared not pursue his damned purpose. No sooner was Frant out of the way, and Martin knew he was no longer being watched, than he seized the first chance that offered! Daresay this engagement of mine inflamed him.’

The Earl’s eyes travelled to his face. ‘If Martin tried to kill me, it was so that he should inherit my dignities. He could not more surely brand himself as my murderer than by running away!’

‘Ay, thought of that myself!’ agreed Ulverston. ‘Stupidest thing he could do, of course; but the more I think about it the more I think he’s just the sort of rash young fool who would do it! No head, Ger! no head at all! Might even have repented of it as soon as he’d pulled the trigger. Lord, I haven’t been staying here this while without learning a few things about your precious Martin! Done a lot of wild things in his time, because he wouldn’t stop to think before he gave way to his passions! Wouldn’t surprise me at all if he’d taken fright as soon as he realized what he’d done, and run for it. No, and I’ll tell you another thing, Ger! It won’t surprise me if he comes back, and tells us all some hoaxing story to account for his having gone off like that. Just as soon as he’s had time to get over his fright and see the folly of running away!’

‘I must get up!’ the Earl said, in a fretting tone. ‘I must get up!’

Rather alarmed at the consequence of his unguarded talk, Ulverston said hastily: ‘No, no, what good would that do? Dash it, I wish I hadn’t told you!’ He looked round quickly, as he heard the door open, and hailed Miss Morville’s entrance with a mixture of relief and guilt. ‘Here, ma’am, come and tell St Erth he must stay where he is! You won’t like it, but I’ve told him his brother ain’t been seen since yesterday, and what must he do but declare he shall get up?’

‘It seems to me a great pity,’ said Miss Morville acidly, ‘that you cannot be left to bear Lord St Erth company for a bare quarter of an hour without throwing him into a fever, my lord! I beg your pardon if I seem impolite, but I must desire you to go away!’

‘Well, you do, ma’am! Devilish impolite!’ said the Viscount indignantly. ‘Dash it, St Erth had to know it!’

‘If you do not go, my lord, I fear I shall become still more impolite!’ Miss Morville warned him.

The Viscount retreated in no very good order, and Miss Morville, after a glance at her patient, went to the table and picked up a glass from it. Into this she poured a dose from an ominous bottle she had brought into the room. Gervase said in a tired voice: ‘More of your sedative draughts, Miss Morville?’

‘It is merely the medicine Dr Malpas ordered me to give you at this hour,’ she replied, bringing it to him.

He took it from her, but he did not at once raise the glass to his lips. ‘Lucy was right. I had to know.’

‘To be sure, but not now.’

He again put his hand to his brow. ‘I wish I could think! My head feels like a block of wood!’

‘Very likely. It will be better when you have recovered your strength, and that you may do by being patient, and doing as you are bid.’

He smiled wryly, but lifted the glass, and drank its contents. ‘Does my mother-in-law know what is being said?’

‘She does, of course. It is painful for her, but
you
cannot cure that.’

‘Poor woman! Assure her I shall not die! Ought I to see her?’

‘No, you will see no one but Turvey and me until tomorrow.’

He sighed, but even as she uttered the words the door opened, and Theo came softly into the room.

He was looking pale, and very grim. He said in a low voice to Miss Morville: ‘Ulverston told me I might see my cousin. How is he?’

‘He is excessively tired, and would be the better for sleeping,’ answered Miss Morville.

He came farther into the room, and looked towards the bed. He saw that the Earl was awake and dreamily regarding him, and stepped closer, saying in a moved voice: ‘Gervase! How is it, my dear fellow?’

‘Excellent! I could not wish for a cleaner wound.’

‘Chard told me the whole. I came at once – knowing I should never have left Stanyon!’

‘Not now, if you please!’ said Miss Morville.

Theo glanced at her. ‘No. You are very right! But Ulverston sent me to try what I could do to set his mind at rest. I believe I know your will, Gervase. I will do whatever it is you wish me to do. If you want this affair to be hushed up, I will do my possible, upon my honour!’

‘Yes, I knew I could depend upon you for that,’ Gervase said. ‘The doctor’s story will answer the purpose as well as any other. I have now come to my senses, and I have disclosed to you that I caught a glimpse of a thick-set man in homespuns, skulking in the undergrowth. But Martin must be found!’

‘He will be,’ Theo said soothingly. ‘Only do not fret, Gervase! I can take care of this for you, and I will.’

‘Thank you,’ Gervase said, his eyes half-closed.

Miss Morville signed to Theo to go, and he nodded, and went away without another word. She found the Earl’s pulse to be tumultuous, and could only hope that rest and quiet would restore its even tone.

The Earl spent the remainder of the day between dozing and waking. His two nurses found him docile, swallowing the nourishment and the medicine they gave him, and acquiescing in Miss Morville’s ban on visitors; but his pulse continued to be agitated, and his brief spells of sleep were uneasy. Towards night, he seemed to be more comfortable; and, rousing himself from his abstraction, he resolutely opposed Miss Morville’s scheme to share the night watch with his valet. There was no real need for a watch to be kept, and perceiving that insistence would only tease him, Miss Morville consented to go to bed. It was arranged that Turvey should spend the night on a truckle-bed set up in the dressing-room; and with a silent resolve to pay at least one visit to the sick-room during the night, Miss Morville withdrew to her own bedchamber. She was, in fact, extremely weary, and although her conscience told her that she ought to visit the Dowager before retiring, she felt quite unequal to the strain of a conversation with that lady.

It was ten o’clock when she laid her head on the pillow, and she almost instantly fell asleep, waking rather more than two hours later, within ten minutes of the time she had set for herself. She lit her candle, and got up. She had removed only her dress and her slippers on going to bed, and these were soon resumed, and her hair tidied. Picking up her candle, she stole down the gallery, and round the angle of the court into the gallery on to which the Earl’s bedroom opened. The house was very silent, but a lamp had been set on a table outside the Earl’s door, and dimly lit the gallery. Miss Morville stealthily opened the door, and crept into the room.

Here too a lamp was burning low, set at a little distance from the bed, that its light should not worry the Earl. He seemed to be sleeping, but the tumbled bedclothes indicated that he was restless. The sound of heavy and rhythmic breathing coming from the dressing-room informed Miss Morville that Turvey, at all events, was enjoying an excellent night’s repose. She saw with displeasure that the fire had been allowed to die down, and went softly to lay more wood upon it. Then she returned to the bedside, and ventured, very cautiously, to draw the quilt, which was slipping off the bed, over the Earl’s exposed shoulder. He stirred, but he did not open his eyes, and after standing still for a moment she began to tiptoe towards the door.

She had almost reached it when she was checked by a sound she could have sworn was a footstep. It was muffled, but even as she decided that she had been mistaken she heard it again. She was puzzled, for it came neither from the gallery nor from the dressing-room, but seemed rather to be located opposite the dressing-room. It was followed by a sound so like the brushing of a hand across a door that her heart jumped. She moved swiftly back to the bed, and stood there, staring through the dim light at the wall to the right. One swift, uncertain glance she cast towards the dressing-room, as though she would have called to Turvey; then she closed her lips, and again searched with her eyes the other side of the room.

The wall was panelled, like the rest of the room, the sections masked by carved pilasters, and the dado and skirting mitred round in an unbroken line. The light of the flames, which were beginning to lick round the logs she had laid on the fire, flickered over the interlaced arches, and the elaborately carved capitals. The brushing sound was heard again, like someone groping in darkness. Then there came the unmistakable click of a lifting latch. Miss Morville stood rigidly still. Suddenly she knew that the Earl was awake; she heard him move, and before she could turn to look at him felt his hand grasp her wrist warningly. She looked quickly down, and saw that he too had his eyes fixed on the panelling. He said, so softly that she scarcely heard him: ‘Quiet!’