Bride of Pendorric (33 page)

” I know. You’re thinking of Althea.”

“Well?”

” When she first came here to look after your grandfather I thought her the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. We became friends. The family was always urging me to marry. Morwenna had been married for years and they all implied that it was my duty to marry, but I had never felt that I wanted to settle down with any woman.”

” Until you met Althea Grey?”

” I hadn’t actually come to that conclusion. But shall we say the idea occurred to me as a possibility.”

” And then my grandfather asked you to come and have a look at me, and you thought I was the better proposition?”

” That sounds a little like your grandfather. There was no question of ‘propositions.” I had already decided that I did not want to marry Althea Grey, before your grandfather suggested I should come out and look at you. And when I did see you, it happened. Just like that. You were the only one from then on. “

” Althea couldn’t have been very pleased.”

He lifted his shoulders. ” It takes two to make a marriage.”

” I

begin to understand. You must have come very near to being engaged to Althea Grey before you changed your mind. And what about Dinah Bond?

”

” What about Dinah? She assisted in the education of most young men in the district.”

” I see. Not serious?”

” Absolutely not.”

“And Rachel Bective?”

“Never!” he said almost fiercely. He filled my glass.

“Catechism over?” he asked.

“Favel, I’m beginning to wonder whether you aren’t somewhat jealous.”

” I don’t think I should be jealous … without reason.”

” Well, now you know there is no reason.”

” Roe …” I hesitated, and he urged me to go on. ” That boy I saw at Bedivere House …”
“Well?”

” He’s so like the Pendorrics.”

” I know; you told me before. You’re not imagining that he’s the living evidence of my sinful past, Favel!”

” Well, I did wonder who he was.”

“Do you know, darling, you haven’t enough to do. At the week-end I want to go out to one of the properties on the north coast. Oome with me. We’ll be away a couple of nights.”

” That will be lovely.”

” Something else on your mind?” he asked.

” So many things are not clear. In fact when I go back to the first time I saw you … it seems to me that that was when everything began to change.”

” Well, obviously things couldn’t be the same for either of us after we’d met. We were swept off our feet.”

“No, Roe. I didn’t mean that. Even my father seemed to change.” He looked grave suddenly; and then he seemed to come to a decision.

“There are certain things you didn’t know about your father. Favel.”

” Things
didn’t know.”p>

‘ Things he kept from you. “

” But he didn’t. He always confided in me. We were so close … my mother, he and I.”

Roe shook his head.

“For one thing, my dear, he didn’t tell you that he had written to your grandfather.”

I had to agree that this was so.

” Why do you think he wrote to your grandfather?”

” Because he thought it was time we met, I suppose.”

” Why should he think that was the time when for nineteen years he hadn’t considered it necessary? I didn’t want to tell you, Favel. In fact, W made up my mind not to … for years. I was going to wait until you were fifty.

A nice cosy grandmother with the little ones playing at your knee.

Then it would have seemed too far away to be painful. But I’ve come to the conclusion—in the last half-hour fhat there shouldn’t be secrets between us. “

” I’m certain there shouldn’t be. Please tell me what you fcnow about my father.”

” He wrote to your grandfather because he was ill.”

“I’ll? In what way?”

” He had caught your mother’s disease through being with her constantly. She wouldn’t go away from him, nor he from her; they wanted to pretend that there was nothing wrong. So they stayed

together and he was her only muse until she was so very ill. He told me that if she had gone away she might have lived a little longer. But she didn’t want to live like that.”

” And he too…. But I was never told.”

” He didn’t want you to know. He was very anxious about you. So he wrote to your grandfather telling him of your existence. He hoped that your grandfather would ask you to Cornwall. He himself would have stayed in Capri; and when he became really ill you wouldn’t have been there.”

” But he could have had attention. He could have gone to a sanatorium.”

” That’s what I told him. That’s what I believed he would do.”

” He told you all this … and not his own daughter t”

” My darling, the circumstances were unusual. He knew of me, and as soon as I turned up at the studio he knew why I had come. It would have been too much of a coincidence for a Pendorric to arrive only a month or so after he had sent off his letter to Polhorgan. Besides, he knew your grandfather’s methods. So he guessed at once I had been sent to look round.”

” You told him, I suppose.”

” I had been asked by Lord Polhorgan not to, but it was impossible to hide it from your father. However, we agreed that we would say nothing to you, and that I should write and tell him what I had seen; then he would presumably write to his granddaughter and invite her to England.

That was what your father hoped. But, as you know, we met . and that was enough for us. “

” And all the time he was so ill…”

” He knew that he was on the point of becoming very 31. So he was delighted when we said we were going to get married.”

” You don’t think that he was made a little uneasy by it?”

“Why should he be?”

” You knew that I was the granddaughter of a millionaire.” Roe laughed. ” Don’t forget he’d had some experience of your grandfather.

The fact that you were his granddaughter didn’t mean that you would inherit his fortune. He might have taken an acute dislike to you, and me as his son-in-law, in which case you would have been cut off with a shilling. “

No, your father was delighted. He knew I’d take care of you; and I fancy he was happier to think of you in my care than in your grandfather’s. “

” I thought he was worried about something … just before he died. I thought he was uneasy … about us. What really happened on the day when you went down to bathe?”

” Favel, I think I know why your father died.”

“Why .. he died?”

” He died because he no longer wished to live.”

“You mean …?”

” I believe he wanted a quick way out, and found it. We went down to the beach together. It was getting late, you remember. There were few people about; they were all having lunch behind the sun blinds; soon they would be deep in the siesta. When we reached the beach he said to me: You know you’d rather be with Favel.” I couldn’t deny it. Go back,” he said, leave me. I would rather go in alone.” Then he looked at me very solemnly and said: I’m glad you married her. Take care of her. “” ” You’re suggesting that he deliberately swam out to sea and had no intention of coming back?”

Roe nodded. ” Looking back, I can see now that he had the look of a man who has written The End’ to his life. Everything was in order.”

I was too filled with emotion to trust myself to speak. I could see it all so clearly; that day when Roe had come back to the kitchen and sat on the table watching me, his legs swinging, the light making the tips of his ears pink. He didn’t know then what had happened, because it was only afterwards that one realised the significance of certain words certain actions.

” Favel,” said Roe, ” let’s get out of here. We’ll drive out to the moor and we’ll stop then and talk and talk. He trusted me to care for you, to comfort you. You must trust me too, Favel.”

When I was with Roe I believed everything he said; it was only wnen I was alone that the doubts set in.

If only my father had confided in me, I would never have let him do what he did. I would have cared for him, brought him to England; he could have had the best possible attention. There was no need for him to die so soon.

But had it been like that?

When I was alone I faced the fact that the talk with Roe had not really eased my fears; it had only added to them.

I couldn’t help feeling that some clue to the solution of my problem might lie in that house near Dozmary Pool, and I found myself thinking of it continually—and the boy and the woman who lived there. Suppose I called on Louisa Sellick. Why shouldn’t I? I could tell her who I was; and that I had heard of her connection with Pendorric. Or could I, considering the nature of that connection? I had caught a glimpse of her and she had appeared to be a kindly and tolerant woman. Could I go to her and say that I was constantly being compared with Barbarina Pendorric and that I was interested in everyone who had known her?

Scarcely.

And yet the idea that I should go kept worrying me. Suppose I pretended I had lost my way. No, I didn’t want to pretend. I would go and find a reason when I got there.

I took out the little blue Morris which I had made a habit of driving and which was now looked upon as mine, and I went out to the moor. I knew the way now and was soon passing the Pool and taking the second-class road which led to the house.

When I pulled up I was still undecided as to what I should say. What I really wanted to ask was: ” Who is the boy who is so like the Pendorrics?” And how could I do that?

While I was looking at the house the door of the glass-roofed porch opened and a woman came out. She was elderly and very plump; she had evidently seen me from a window and had come out to inquire what I wanted.

I got out of the car and said ” Good morning” as she approached. I began: ” My name is Pendorric. Mrs. Pendorric.” She caught her breath and her rosy face was immediately a deeper shade of red.

“Oh,” she said.

“Mrs. Sellick hain’t here today.”

“I see. You’re …?”

” I’m Polly that does for her.”

” You’ve got a wonderful view here,” I said conversationally.

” Us don’t notice it much. Been here too long, I reckon.”

” So … Mrs. Sellick is not at home today.”

” She’s taking the boy back to school. She’ll be away tonight, back tomorrow.”

I noticed that the woman was trembling slightly.

” Is anything wrong?” I asked.

She came closer to me and whispered: ” You ain’t come for to take the boy away, have ‘ee?”

I stared at her in astonishment.

“You’d better come in,” she said.

“We can’t talk here.” I followed her over the lawn to the porch, and into a hall; she threw open the door of a cosy sitting-room.

“Sit down, Mrs. Pendorric. Mrs. Sellick would want me to give you something, like. Would you have coffee or some of my elderberry wine?”

“Mrs. Sellick didn’t know I was coming. Perhaps I shouldn’t stay.”

” I’d like to be the one to talk to you, Mrs. Pendorric. Mrs. Sellick, she’d be too proud like. She’d say, Yes … you must do what you wish …” and then when you’d gone she’d break her heart. No, I’ve often thought I’d like the chance to do the talking if this day ever come, and it seems like Providence that it has come when her’s off with the boy. “

” I think there’s some misunderstanding….”

“There’s no misunderstanding, Mrs. Pendorric. You’re from Pendorric and ‘tis what she’s always feared. She’s often said: ” I made no conditions then, Polly, and I’ll make none now. ” She talks to me about everything. I knew her from the first … you see. I came with her when she first come to Bedivere. That was when he married. So we’ve been through a lot together.”

” Yes, I see.”

“Well, let me get you some coffee.”

” I’d rather not. Mrs. Sellick might not be very pleased if she knew I’d come in like this.”

” Her’s the sweetest, mildest creature I ever saw, and I don’t mind telling you I’ve often thought her too mild. The likes of her gets put upon. But I couldn’t bear it to happen, see. Not twice in one lifetime . first losing him and then the boy. It ‘ud be too much. Well, she’s had him since he were three weeks old. She were a changed woman when Mr. Roe brought him here.”

“Mr. Roe …1” She nodded. ” I remember the day well. It was getting dusk. I reckon they’d waited till then. They’d come straight from abroad…. Mr. Roe was driving the car and the young woman was with him … nothing more than a girl, though I didn’t see much of her. Wore a hat pulled down over her face … didn’t want to be seen. She carried the baby in and put him straight into Mrs. Sellick’s arms; then she went back to the car and left Mr. Roe to do the talking.”

Rachel! I thought.

” You see, she felt guilty like. She’d loved Mr. Roe’s father and had thought he was going to marry her. So he would have done, it was said, but the Pendorrics wanted money in the family so he married that Miss Hyson instead. He never gave up Louisa, although there were others too, but she were the one he really cared for, and when his wife died he begged her to marry him. But she wouldn’t—for some reason. She used to think that because his wife had died as she did it wouldn’t be right. Then he was away a lot but he came back to see Louisa. No one could be to him what she were. You’re a Pendorric yourself now and you’ve heard tell of all this, so there’s no need for me to repeat it.

When he died she were heartbroken, and she always longed for a child of his . even though ‘twould have been born out of wedlock. She took an interest in those twins of his and they were a mischievous pair.

They’d heard about their father and this house and they came out once to have a look at Louisa. That was after he was dead; and she brought them in and gave them cakes and tea. And after that they came now and then. She told them that if they were ever in trouble—and they were the kind who might well be . of course they’ve sobered down now, but ‘twas different when they were young-she’d help them if it were in her power. Well then she got this letter from Mr. Roe. Here was trouble all right. A baby on the way and could she help? “

“I see.”

” Of course she could help. She wanted to help. So she took little Ennis and she’s been as a mother to him ever since. It was a turning point like. She began to be happy again when that little boy came into this house. But she never stopped being afeared. You see, he grew up such a beautiful child and he weren’t hers. She’d take no money for