Charles Palliser (92 page)

But you won’t understand yet : For about three weeks old Mr Clothier grew more and more impatient with Papa. He came to the house almost daily and at last Papa gave instructions that he should not be admited and he went away in a fury. Then one morning while I was working in the front parlour, the maid-servant came in and announced that Mr Peter Clothier wished to see me. At first I thought she must have mistaken the name, but she insisted that she was right. It was indeed Peter who entered and I was terribly shocked by his appearance. He was very pale, his face thin and his cheeks unshaven, and his eyes seemed large and unnaturally bright. His cloathes were dirty and disordered. I asked him to be seated on a chair opposite mine. He made several attempts to speak and then said :
Miss Huffam, I must apologise for coming before
you in this condition. I hardly have time to explain, for I must not stay here long if I am to
make my escape.
I exclaimed at this word and he said:
I
have been kept a prisoner in my
Father’s house. But I managed to bribe the man-servant to let me get away. My Father is
trying to have me declared insane.
At this my mind was in a whirl. I had never doubted his sanity when his Father had tried to make me believe him mad, but now that I saw him like this. Then he said:
I have no time to speak of that. I have come to warn you and
your Father of a plot against you. They tell me you are to marry my Brother. I warn you
that if you do so, he and my Father intend to murder you.
I turned away so that he would not see the tears start in my eyes. Then what his Father had said was true! He was mad.

He stood up and said:
I
must go now if I am to get free. I believe I may have been
recognised in the street by an Agent of my Father and followed here.
I asked him where he would go and who would help him and he said :
London is a big enough place to hide,
even from my Family and their frends.
I longed to tell him to stay there, but what could I do? If Papa saw him now and heard what he was saying, he would surely have him returned to his Father. And perhaps that might be safest for him. And then on the way to the door he paused and said:
I had almost forgotten! One thing more. Do not reveal to
any of my Family the name of the parish where your Father’s parents were married.
I concieled my surprize and dismay at this remark and solemly assured him that I would do no such thing and we shook hands. I begged him to come back if ever he needed help and he thanked me and left the house. I watched THE WEDDING NIGHT

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him go. As he passed out of sight a very tall man emerged from an archway opposite and went quickly towards the street after him. Johnnie,
this was the man you described today!

The one who tried to abduct you! I am sure of it!

I didn’t know what to hope for Peter. I thought it might be best if he were taken up by Agents of his Family, for I hated to think of him frendless and deranged adrift in the great city. I returned to the parlour. After long reflection, I decided to say nothing to Papa of this visit.

London. The 22nd. of September.

So much has happened since I last wrote anything. I believe you are right about Jemima. She hates me. For I could see how spiteful she was being when she teazed me about your Father. I know I did her wrong. But it was unkind of her to talk about that night and Peter’s
mellancoly circumstances
and so on. I should not have gone to her but I hoped she might know something for I could not come back to London without wanting to know, but it seems she does not. (I believe there is only one person I can go to. I hate to think of it but I must do it.) And writing about those times has made them live in my mind again. My Papa believed she was in league with old Mr Clothier, but I cannot think such a thing of her. I hated not being able to explain everything to you, but you were — I mean, are — too young to understand. You’ll understand better by the time you read this. I hope you won’t judge your poor Mamma too harshly. Now you understand why she doesn’t like us. You were clever to see it! It was so painful to come back to London. In the coach I saw you looking so exsited and the past came flooding back with all its agonies. For you it was all so new and for me it was so painful. And to find ourselves in Piccadilly at the Golden-cross so near Papa’s old house. And I knew that you knew so little. I decided we had to leave after that attempt to abduct you when I realized that it was the same man that Mr Clothier and his son had employed all those years ago. But when Mr Barbelion came again in August I made up my mind that we should go immediately. We have to escape from their knowledge again. I don’t know how they found us, but I’m sure that man who broke in all that time ago was from them.

But London will be very dangerous for us. And yet it’s the safest place to hide.

Now I must go back to the evening after Peter came, and my Father and I were taking our tea in the front parlour after dinner when the servant-maid announced that old Mr Clothier was at the door. Papa told her he was at home and I decided to stay in the hope of hearing news of Peter. So he came in and sat down and drank tea with us and chatted aimiably about the weather and his walk through the metroppolis that day and the changes he had seen in London since he was a boy and the driving of the great new street through Soho and St. James and the construction of the Strand-bridge. And how he had come to that house when he was quite a young man, to visit my Grandfather (who was his uncle) in the company of his own Father. And then he began to reminnice about my Grandfather whom Papa had not known at all since he had died while he was still in the cradle. Then suddenly he said to Papa:
Your Father and mother caused a deal
of bother, as you have most probably been told,
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THE CLOTHIERS

by the manner of their wedding for they eloped and married in secret. Was it ever
discovered where they went to?
The very question Peter had warned me against! Then I had been wrong about him! I was silently rejoicing over this when it suddenly came to me that he had said we would be in danger if his Father found out the answer to this question. Papa was saying:
Now that’s a strange Story though one that, of course, I only
know by hearsay. You must know that my Grandfather strongly disapproved of the match.

What could I do? I thought of feigning illness. I was in such distress of mind that I believe the old gentleman saw for I noticed him looking at me and I feared that I might betray that Peter had warned me. Papa went on:
My mother’s Family, the Umphravilles,
were small landowners whose fortunes had sadly declined, so that my Grandfather
believed that they were not worthy of his son.
Papa went on with the Story while I listened in agony. At last, however, he concluded by saying that he did not know the answer to the question Mr Clothier had put. And the old gentleman looked extremely disapointed and suspicious at this.

When he had gone, I told Papa of Peter’s visit and his warning about the marriage of my grandparents. He looked grave and said:
This means that the situation is worse than
I feared. Old Clothier is plotting to destroy our claim to the Huffam entail so that as soon
as the Codacil is accepted by the Court he will immediately inherit the Estate. You see,
there has always been some mystery about my parents’ marriage, and therefore those in
whose interests it is to make such a claim have alledged that it never took place. It’s not
that he wants to find a record of it, but that he wants to destroy any such document if it
exists. I imagine he has searched the London parish-registers and those around Hougham
without finding it, and since the witnesses must be long dead, it cannot be proved that
way.
Now that I was reassured that what Peter had said was not insane, I told Papa of his warning that the Clothiers planned to murder me. He took this seriously, too, and told me that Martin had warned him of rumours that old Mr Clothier poisoned his first wife in order to marry a rich widow who had also died. He said:
I
don’t say I believe this but if
people say such things about him then it suggests what is thought of him. And your death
would be in his interests, for remember that you and I must die without leaving an heir
while old Clothier is still alive.
(Just what Mr Escreet had said to me!)
Therefore I believe
that both you and I are in grave danger of our lives from the Clothiers once I have laid the
Codacil before the Court. And that is why I have no intention of doing so. It is safe where it
is.
As he spoke he touched it where it hung from his watch-chain. Then he said:
Besides,
I may not need it now. Do you recal the letter I recieved a few weeks ago with the
Mompesson seal? It was from someone in the Mompesson household who promised to
obtain something in the light of which the Codacil is of no significance whatsoever.

Though I questioned him further, he would say no more.

Late one evening a week later I was reading in the front parlour. Suddenly I became aware of a faint tapping which seemed to be coming from the window, as if the twigs of a tree were being blown against the pane by the wind. But of course there was no tree outside the window. I took up a candle and went to draw the curtains back. I saw a pale face with wild eyes staring in at me. I stifled a cry and was about to ring for assistance when I recognised Peter. Although he looked so wild, I did not hesitate to let him in, remembering how I had earlier misjudged him. I went into the hall and as silently as possible unlocked the vestibble-door whose key (I might say) was always left on the THE WEDDING NIGHT

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inside, and then the street-door with its enormous key, and then drew back the heavy bolts which secured it. He came in and quickly explained that when he left the house the last time he had been followed by the very tall man whom I had seen — the one you saw in Melthorpe, Johnnie! This man captured him and took him to his Brother’s house where he was locked up. He said:
To ensure that I would not escape again they put a
servant to guard my door. Then they sent for the keeper of a private madhouse who is
known to my Father, and instructed this man to sue out a Chancery Comision of
day inquiring lunattica:
a request for me to be examined and if found insane stripped of all my
Rights and put in the power of my Family. The Comision examined me earlier this
afternoon. I suspect that they have been bribed to return a verdict against me and so I
decided to escape without waiting.
He had previously prepared a way out by means of a window and so succeeded in getting away. Then he said:
But perhaps I
am
insane. I
have begun to wonder. What do you think, Miss Huffam?
It is true that he was speaking very fast and exsitedly, but I was quite certain that he was not mad and left him in no doubt of this. I told him that I was delighted that he had come to my Father’s house for help and though he at first insisted that he had come merely to take his leave of me for he intended to flee England, I persuaded him to let me call Papa. For I told him that he was grateful for Peter’s warning and that we had both realized that it had been because he had come to us with this warning on the last occasion that he had been caught. So I rang the bell and had my Father called. To my delight he smiled when he saw Peter and embraced him saying :
My dear boy, I am deeply grateful to you. It was honourable and
generous of you to warn us about your own Father.
He insisted that he remain as our guest. Then he summoned Mr Escreet and took his advice on the legal situation. It was concluded that Peter was safe in the house even if the Comision found against him. Papa assembled the servants and swore them to secresy.

In the days that followed Peter never left the house and this was as well for we noticed strange men — one of them the tall man I had seen — loitering at all hours outside. Papa was very busy at this time with Mr Escreet on some mysterious Busyness that I guessed was connected with the letter he had recieved with the Mompesson crest. And so it happened that during the period that followed Peter and I were brought much together by circumstances, and we soon discovered that our feelings towards each other were the same. It was a bitter blow to learn that the writ of lunacy had indeed been issued. At times he became very mellaneolic as he reflected on his position and the humiliation of being indebted to the charity of those who were, despite our cousinhood, vertually strangers. He made it clear that he felt that in the circumstances in which he found himself — convicted of madness, pennyless and without any prospect of employment —

he had no right to feel as he did about me. At last, however, he overcame his scruples and asked me to marry him and of course I accepted. The great question now was how Papa would recieve the news. Imagine our happiness when he declared himself delighted and said he had hoped that this would come about. I wept with joy and flung myself into his arms. I know he liked Peter and thought he had behaved well towards us.

So you see, Johnnie, my Father and he liked each other very much and respected each other. I have never doubted that at least.

To our surprize Papa said:
The wedding must be as soon as possible. We need not wait
for there can be no question of calling the banns or your Father,
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CLOTHIERS

Peter, would learn your whereabouts. With that writ against you he can prevent the
marriage from taking place, though if it can once be solemized, then it is completely
unassailable. Apart from any other motive, he will try to prevent it because your heir
would disinherit him.
He summoned Mr Escreet who explained that all we had to do was to obtain a special licence from Doctors’ Commons specifying a particular church.