Curse of the Kings (13 page)

Sir Ralph sent for me and said that since Lady Bodrean did not require my services I might read the papers to him.

So each morning I sat with him for an hour or so and read The Times; but he would never let me get very far. I realized that he wanted to talk.

He told me a little about the expedition.

should have gone with them, but my doctor said No.He tapped his heart. ouldn have it giving out, you know. I have been a nuisance. Heat would have been too much for me.

I was able to reply intelligently because of the little knowledge I had acquired.

t a pity we couldn send you up to the university. You have done well, I think. Always had a feeling for it, didn you? That what needed feeling. I always had it myself, but was never anything but an amateur.

I said that there was a great deal of pleasure to be found in being merely an amateur.

ith Sir Edward it a passion. I reckon he one of the top men in his profession I go so far as to say the top.

es, I believe he is considered so.

nd Master Tybalt the same.

He shot a quick glance at me and I felt the telltale color in my cheeks. I remembered his insinuations about us in the past.

el be another like his father. Very difficult man to live with, was Sir Edward. His wasn a very happy marriage. There are some men who marry a profession rather than a wife. Always up and off somewhere. When at home buried in his books or his work. She didn see him for days at a stretch when he was at home. And he was nearly always away.

suppose she wasn interested in his work.

is work came first. With those sort of men it always does.

our daughter has married an archaeologist.

hat fellow! Ie got his measure. Hel be talking in a classroom all his life, theorizing about this and that. And when his day work is over hel go home to his wife and family and forget all about it. There are men like thatut theye rarely the ones who rise to the top of their profession. Would you like to see some reports of what is happening in Egypt?

h, I should enjoy that.

He regarded me with that familiar shake of the jaw.

I read some of the reports to him and we discussed them. How that hour used to fly!

I had slipped into a new relationship with Sir Ralph which surprised me sometimes but it had all come about so gradually. That interest which he had always shown in me had become the basis of a friendship which I should not have thought possible.

It was in early March that the news came of Sir Edward mysterious death and the speculation arose about the Curse of the Pharaohs.

IV Tybalt Wife

Sir Ralph was deeply shocked and this shock resulted in another stroke, which impaired his speech. It was then that rumors circulated about the significance of his illness. It was the Curse of the Kings, said these rumors, for it was known that he had backed the expedition financially. He was unable to attend the funeral but a few days later he sent for me and when I went to his room I was surprised to see Tybalt there.

It was pitiful to see the once robust Sir Ralph the wreck he now was. His efforts to speak were painful and yet he insisted on attempting to do so because there was something he wanted to say.

He indicated that he wished us to sit on either side of him.

u Ju he began and I realized he was trying to say my name.

here, Sir Ralph,I said, and when I laid my hand on his he took it and would not release it.

His eyes turned towards Tybalt, and his right hand moved, for it was with his left that he held mine.

Tybalt understood that he wanted his hand so he laid it in that of Sir Ralph. Sir Ralph smiled and drew his hands together. Tybalt then took my hand and Sir Ralph smiled faintly. It was what he had wanted.

I looked into Tybalt eyes and I felt the slow flush creeping over my face.

Sir Ralph implication was obvious.

I withdrew my hand but Tybalt continued to look at me.

Sir Ralph had closed his eyes. Blake had tiptoed in.

think it would be better, sir,he said, f you and Miss Osmond left now.

When the door shut on us Tybalt said to me: ill you walk to Giza House with me?

must go to Lady Bodrean,I replied. I was shaken. I could not understand why Sir Ralph should have placed us in this embarrassing position.

want to talk to you,said Tybalt. t important.

We went out of the house together and when we had walked a little distance from it, Tybalt said: e right you know. We should.

I don understand.

hy, Judith, what has happened to you? You are usually so forthright.

I didn know you knew so much about me.

know a great deal about you. It a good many years since I first met you disguised as a mummy.

ou will never forget that.

ne doesn forget one first meeting with one wife.But

t what he meant. He was telling us that we should marry.

e was wandering in his mind.

don think he was. I think it has been his wish for some time.

t is becoming clear to me. He thought I was Theodosia. He had hoped that you and Theodosia would marry. You did know that, didn you?

think it was talked over with my father.

o you see what happened. He had forgotten that Theodosia was married. He thought that I was his daughter. Poor Sir Ralph. I afraid he is very ill.

e is going to die, I fear,replied Tybalt. ou have always been interested in my work, haven you, vitally interested?

hy yes.

ou see, we should get on very well. My mother was bored by my father work. It was a very dismal marriage. It will be different with us.

don understand this. Do you mean that you will marry me because Sir Ralph has implied that he wants you to?

hat not the only reason, of course.

ell me some others,I said.

or one, when I leave for Egypt, you could come with me. You would be pleased by that, I sure.

et, even that does not seem to me an adequate reason for marrying.

He stopped and faced me. here are others,he said, and drew me close to him.

I said: would not wish to marry because I would be a useful member of an expedition.

evertheless,he replied, ou would be.

Then he kissed me.

f love came into it I began.

Then he laughed and held me tightly against him.

o you doubt that it does?

am undecided and I should like some sort of declaration.

irst let me have one from you because I sure you will do so better than I. Youe never at a loss for words. I afraid I am often.

hen perhaps I shall be even more useful to you. Writing your letters, for instance. I shall be a good secretary.

s that your declaration?

suppose you know that I have been in love with you for years. Sir Ralph knew it, I believe.

had no idea I was so fortunate! I wish I had known before.

hat would you have done?

sked myself whether if you knew me better you might have changed your mind, and wondered whether I dared allow that to happen.

re you really so modest?

o. I shall be the most arrogant man in your life.

here are no others of any importance and never have been. I shall spend my life if necessary convincing you of that.

o you agree to share it with me?

would die rather than do anything else.

y dearest Judith! Did I not say that you had a way with words!

have told you quite frankly that I love you. I should like to hear you say that you love me.

ave I not made it clear to you that I do?

should love to hear you say it.

love you,he said.

ay it again. Keep saying it. I have so long dreamed of your saying those words. I can believe this is really true. I am awake now, am I? I not going to wake up in a minute to hear Lady Bodrean ringing the bell?

He took my hand and kissed it fervently. y dear dear Judith,he said. ou put me to shame. I don deserve you. Don think too highly of me. I shall disappoint you. You know my obsession with work, I shall bore you with my enthusiasms.

ever.

shall be an inadequate husband. I have not your gaiety, your spontaneity, everything that makes you so attractive. I can be dull, far too serious

ne can never be too serious about the important things of life.

shall be moody, preoccupied. I shall neglect you for my work.

hich I intend to share with you, including the moods and the preoccupation, so that objection is overruled.

am not able to express my feelings easily. I shall forget to tell you how much I love you. You alarm me. You are carried away by your enthusiasms always. You think too highly of me. You hope for perfection.

I laughed as I laid my head against him. can help my feelings,I said. have loved you so long. I only want to be with you, to share your life, to make you happy, to make your life smooth and easy and just as you wish it to be.

udith,he said, will do my best to make you happy.

f you love me, if you allow me to share your life, I shall be that.

He slipped his arm through mine and gripped my hand tightly.

We walked on and he talked of the future. He saw no reason why our marriage should be delayed; in fact he would like it to take place as soon as possible. We were going to be very busy with our plans. Would I mind if after the ceremony we stayed at Giza House and plunged straight into our arrangements?

Would I mind? I cared for nothing as long as I could be with him. The greatest joy which could come to me was to share his life forevermore.

There was astonishment at Rainbow Cottage when I told Dorcas and Alison my news. They were glad that I was to be married but they were a little dubious about my bridegroom. Oliver Shrimpton would have been so much more eligible in their opinion; and the rumors in St. Erno were that the Traverses were rather odd people. And now that Sir Edward had died so mysteriously they felt that they would have preferred me not to be connected with such a mysterious affair.

oul be Lady Travers,said Alison.

hadn thought of that.

Dorcas shook her head. oue happy. I can see that.

h Dorcas, Alison, I never thought it possible to be so happy.

ow, now,said Dorcas, as she used to when I was a child. ou could never do things by halves.

urely one should not contemplate marriage y halvesas you say.

o, but you hope for too much. You think everything going to be perfect.

I laughed at her. n this marriage,I said, verything is.

I said nothing at Keverall Court about my engagement. It hardly seemed appropriate with Sir Ralph so ill; and the next day he died.

Keverall Court was in mourning, but I don think anyone missed Sir Ralph as much as I did. The great joy of my engagement was overshadowed. But at least, I thought, he would have been pleased. He had been my friend, and during the weeks before his death, our friendship had meant a good deal to me, as I believed it had to him. How I wished that I could have sat in his room and told him of my engagement and all that I hoped to do in the future. I thought of him a great deal and remembered incidents from the pasthen I had brought the bronze shield to him and he had first become interested in me, how he had given me a ball dress and had defended me afterwards.

Lady Bodrean put on a sorrowing countenance but it was clear that it hid a relief.

She talked to me and to Jane about the virtues of Sir Ralph; but I sensed that the lull in her hostility to me was momentary and she was promising herself that now that I had lost my champion I should be at her mercy. Little did she know the blow I was about to deliver. I was to be married to the man whom she had wanted for her daughter.

It was going to be a great shock to her to learn that her poor companion would soon be Lady Travers.

Hadrian came home. I told him the news.

t not officially announced yet,I warned him. shall wait until after the funeral.

ybalt lucky,he said glumly. reckon he forestalled me.

h, but you wanted a woman with money.

f you had a fortune, Judith, I have laid my heart at your feet.

iologically impossible,I told him.

ell, I wish you luck. And I glad youe getting away from my aunt. Your life must have been hellish with her.

t wasn so bad. You know that I always enjoyed a fight.

That night I had a strange intimation from Sir Ralph lawyers. They wanted me to be present at the reading of his will.

When I called at Rainbow Cottage and told Alison and Dorcas of this they behaved rather oddly.

They went out and left me in the sitting room and were gone some time. This was strange because my visit was necessarily a brief one and just as I was about to call them and tell them that I must be going, they came back.

Their faces were flushed and they looked at each other in a most embarrassed fashion, and knowing them so well I realized that each was urging the other to open a subject which they found distasteful or distressing in some way.

s anything wrong?I asked.

here is something we think you ought to know,said Dorcas.

es, indeed you must be prepared.

repared for what?

Dorcas bit her lip and looked at Alison; Alison nodded.

t about your birth, Judith. You are our niece. Lavinia was your mother.

avinia! Why didn you tell me?

ecause we thought it best. It was rather an awkward situation.

t was a terrible shock to us,went on Dorcas. avinia was the eldest. Father doted on her. She was so pretty. She was just like our mother whereas we were like Father.

ear Dorcas!I said, o get on and tell me what this is all about.

t was a terrible shock to us when we heard she was going to have a child.

hich turned out to be me?

es. We smuggled Lavinia away to a cousin before it was noticeable you see. We told people in the village that she had taken a situation, a post of governess. And you were born. The cousin was in London and she had several children of her own. Lavinia could look after them and keep her own baby there. It was a good arrangement. She brought you to see us, but of course she couldn come here. We all met in Plymouth. We had such a pleasant time and then saw her off on that train.