Voices in a Haunted Room (32 page)

“Yes, that was what she implied. She didn’t threaten or anything like that, but during the conversation there were one or two innuendos which might have suggested she knew something about me.”

“We’ll have no nonsense from her.”

“I did what I could for Evie… but that was because I was sorry for her and I did not know how my mother would feel about old scandals being raked over.”

He leaned towards me and took my hand.

“If she attempts to make any trouble, don’t try to handle it yourself. Let me know. I’ll soon settle her.”

I felt a relief sweeping over me. I had been more anxious than I cared to admit since Jeanne had shown me the speaking tube at Enderby.

“Thank you,” I said.

“After all,” he went on, smiling at me, “it’s our secret matter, isn’t it… yours and mine?”

“I shall never take your view of that sort of thing.”

“You might… in time. It’s the wise view.”

“I shall never forget. Every time I look at Amaryllis…”

“She’s mine, isn’t she?”

“I don’t know. I never shall.”

“I shall think of her always as mine and David will think of her as his.”

“David adores her,” I said. “I believe you hardly ever give her a thought.”

“You know so little about me, Claudine. It could take a lifetime to learn all the intricacies of my nature and to explore its hidden places.”

“I shall have to leave it to Millicent to make that voyage of discovery.”

“She will not make the attempt. Millicent accepts in the same way as you do. Our marriage will be an ideal one from her family’s point of view and from my family’s too. Important families are obsessed by what they think of as linking up. They’ve been doing it for centuries. It is the rock on which many of our noble houses have been founded. Little families become larger families, larger families become big ones. They grow in wealth and importance. Their watchword is Wealth and Power through Union.”

“It is all so cynical.”

“And all very wise.”

“And what of the people who are used to make these great edifices? Are they of no importance?”

“Of the utmost importance. They are the bricks and stones which one by one build up the tower of strength. It is their united cooperation which makes us what we are.”

“My mother brought nothing. It is true she would have been extremely wealthy…”

“And that would have delighted Dickon. However, he is so much in love with her that he took her penniless… as I should have taken you.”

“But your father had done his duty once in marrying your mother. I gather she contributed in great measure to the Eversleigh fortunes.”

“Ah yes, indeed. She brought in much of the London side. The banking… and all the interests that entailed. My father did his duty to the family admirably and therefore he earned the right to marry for love.”

“You are the most cynical man I ever met.”

“Because I look facts straight in the face, because I do not pander to sentimentality?”

“You don’t love Millicent.”

“I like Millicent. She amuses me. There will be battles between us, for Millicent is a very strong lady who likes to command. So is her mother, who has had a fair success with old Pettigrew. Look at Lady Pettigrew and there you see Millicent thirty years hence.”

“And the thought does not terrify you?”

“Indeed no. I admire Lady Pettigrew. I would not care for a mild simpering wife. Battle will be more stimulating than cloying reproaches.”

“Perhaps there will be reproaches.”

“Undoubtedly.”

“You do not present yourself in a very favourable light.”

“Yet I have a notion that you have some regard for me, Claudine. Have you?”

“I suppose you are what is called a rather fascinating man.”

“I am flattered.”

“I have seen you with people, with Millicent—the way the women servants look at you—and Matty today. It’s a sort of challenge to sex, I suppose.”

He laughed. “I like women. They are so pleasant to look at, and when they are clever, so interesting to talk to. I like battles… battles of words.”

“You like the sparring kind of flirtation at which you excel.”

“You do, too, Claudine.”

“I can’t think why you should imagine that.”

“Because you do it so well. People always like what they do well.”

He turned to look at me and I saw the blazing blue of his eyes and I thought: No, no. Not again. It must never happen again.

“Claudine,” he said seriously, “I love you. It will always be you, you know.”

He had drawn me to him and for a blissful moment I allowed myself to lie against him. I wanted to be with him; I wanted to be in that little room again. He had caught me in his spell and something told me he would never let me go.

I said: “I think we should go back.”

“It’s early yet. There’ll be crowds in the streets. All the Court ceremonies won’t be over for a while yet. The servants and apprentices will be out in their thousands. You couldn’t keep them in on a day like this. We could go somewhere… be quite alone… together.”

For a moment I actually considered it. Then I was filled with shame.

“No,” I said firmly. “Never again. Sometimes I wake in the night. I have been dreaming…”

“Of me… of us,” he said.

“Of you and myself, and I awake hating myself. Your standards are not mine. You are soon to be married. We are actually preparing for your wedding. And I am married to David, your own brother. He is such a good man.”

“Yes, David is a good man.”

“He is at Clavering now, working hard as he always does, thinking perhaps that we shall soon be together. You have tried to explain yourself to me… your philosophy of life. It is so cynical, Jonathan. You think so little of matters which are of the utmost seriousness to me.”

“We won’t hurt David. He shall never know.”

“How can you be sure? I’d rather die than that he should know.”

“He won’t suspect. He would never doubt you. He is completely straight himself and he thinks others are the same, particularly you. He has lived his life along lines laid down for him. I know him well. We were in the nursery together; we shared tutors. I was the devious one. I made adventure. I used to spy for my old nurse when she became quite mad, and was so upset by my mother’s death that she watched my father, hoping to catch him in some villainy. Every woman who interested him she wanted to know about. I actually enjoyed that. Once I followed him and your mother into Enderby. That old house, how it crops up! It seems to be a place for secret assignations. David is simple… I don’t mean mentally. He is very clever, intellectually, far more than I ever was, but he is ignorant of life… my sort of life. He lives conventionally, thinks conventionally, and he is inclined to bestow on everyone else the same qualities which he possesses. Therefore he would never suspect.”

“If this terrible wrong I have done him…”

“I have told you it is only a wrong if it is found out.”

“I don’t accept your cynical deductions. But if this terrible wrong I have done him can be kept from him, I shall never, never do anything that can hurt him again.”

“It is unwise to make such vows, Claudine.”

I stood up and he was beside me.

“What a beautiful day,” he said. “The river, the quiet of the countryside… and you alone here with me.”

“Let us go back,” I said.

We rode back and when we reached the City the crowds were still in the streets.

There were one or two servants in the house. They told us that they were having time free in the evening when the others returned.

It was about five o’clock.

Jonathan said: “As you have no desire to remain in the house, I suggest we go out again. In an hour, eh? We’ll get a boat and I’ll row you down the river… or up if you prefer. You shall decide.”

I was so happy and the day was not yet over. I wanted so much to be with him. I believed I enjoyed the battle within myself and I was gratified because I was sure of my ability to win.

“Change into something, not too elaborate,” he said. “We don’t want to attract the attention of rogues and pickpockets. We’ll look like a merchant and his wife out to enjoy all the fun.”

It must have been about six o’clock when we left the house. The river was even more crowded and the taverns overflowing. Jonathan put his arm through mine protectively and held me close against him as we made our way down to the river’s edge, where he hired a boat.

There were a lot of craft on the river and. Jonathan said we must get away from the crowds. It was not easy but Jonathan was determined, and as most people did not want to stray too far from the centre of the town where all the fun was, in due course we found ourselves passing through Kew on the way to Richmond.

There was magic in the evening, or perhaps I felt that because Jonathan was beside me. He managed the boat with easy skill. I trailed my hand in the water and thought: I’m happy. I want this to go on and on. There was no harm in being happy, was there?

“This is pleasant isn’t it?” he asked.

“It’s lovely.”

“You look contented. I like to see you thus. This has been a wonderful day for me, Claudine.”

“I have enjoyed it very much.”

“And do you feel you know me a little better now?”

“Yes. I think perhaps I do.”

“And do I improve on closer acquaintance?”

I was silent.

“Do I?” he insisted.

“I could never think as you do, Jonathan. I could not take such a view of life.”

“So you would suffer agonies of remorse when there is no need to.”

“Oh, Jonathan, as I see it, there is every need to.”

“One of these days I will make you see from my point of view.”

“It is too late,” I told him. “I married David and you are going to marry Millicent. Let your consolation—if consolation you need—be that her father’s financial interests will make very sturdy bricks in that great family edifice which it is so important to build. If you had married me, I should have brought you nothing. Think what you would have missed!”

“David would have had Millicent then.”

“David… Millicent. Oh no!”

“I agree he would have been no match for her. Accept life, Claudine. He takes you. I take Millicent. But you and I are caught in love, and if in life one cannot have everything one wants, at least one can take what one can get.”

“I had never before considered how magnanimous it was of your father to agree to the marriage of one of his sons to a penniless girl.”

“The circumstances were unusual. There was your mother’s influence and you were no ordinary penniless girl. As long as one of us took Millicent, the other could have you.”

“I cannot believe it was worked out like that.”

“Not so plainly. These matters are arranged by gentle suggestions. But they are nonetheless firm for all that. But why waste this evening on such sordid matters? Do you like it here, Claudine? The stars will be coming out soon. I know of a very pleasant inn near the Richmond towpath.”

“How knowledgeable you are about the inns of the country!”

“It is quite an art to know where to eat well.”

“More friends of yours?”

“All innkeepers are friends of mine. Yes, I am right. There is the first star. Venus, I think. See how bright she is. The star of love.”

“It could well be Mars,” I told him.

“Oh Claudine, why did you do this? What fun we could have had, you and I together. Your miserable conscience could have gone slumbering on.”

“You promised not to talk of it,” I said.

“So I did… and I think the inn is just along here. There. You can see the lights. I’ll pull in at the privy steps and tie up the boat.”

He lifted me out and held me for a few seconds, smiling up at me. Then he took my hand and we went into the riverside inn. There were several people there and ale was being served which the people were drinking while they ate the whitebait, which was a speciality of the inn.

I was amazed to see how easily Jonathan fitted in with this kind of company. We sat at one of the tables, drank mild ale, and ate the fish which was brought to us.

“There,” he said. “You have never done this before.”

“Never,” I agreed.

“Enjoying it?”

“Very much.”

“Is it the venue or the company? Come, Claudine, you can be honest.”

I said: “I think perhaps it is both.”

He speared a whitebait on the prong of his fork.

“Delicious,” he said. “Small but none the worse for that, eh? No wonder whitebait is becoming more and more popular.”

Someone started to sing. The singer had a good tenor voice but his song was one which could be called controversial on a day such as this. I knew it well, as most people did. It had been written by a Yorkshire man, William Upton, about his lady love; but it fitted another couple so well that this was the very reason why it had become so popular.

The Richmond Hill in the song might be that Richmond in Yorkshire, but there was also a Richmond near London and Mrs. Fitzherbert had lived at Marble Hill close by; moreover there was a rumour that she and the Prince had met on the towpath at Richmond. So that song had become popular throughout the country—made so by the Prince’s romance, without which Mr. Upton’s song would have gone unnoticed.

On Richmond Hill there lives a lass

More bright than May day morn,

Whose charms all other maids’ surpass

A rose without a thorn.

This lass so neat, with smiles so sweet

Has won my right good will.

I’d crowns resign to call thee mine

Sweet lass of Richmond Hill.

The last lines were particularly apt because there had been a time when the Prince of Wales had considered, some said, resigning his crown for the sake of Maria Fitzherbert. However, all that was past now; he had repudiated Maria, and if his new wife was Caroline of Brunswick, his mistress was Lady Jersey.

Some joined in the chorus, but there were some who refrained from doing so and showed more than a little repugnance.

Then one man rose, and taking the singer by the lapel of his coat with one hand, shouted: “It is an insult to the monarchy.” At which he threw the wine from his half-filled tankard into the face of the singer.