Kirkland Revels (21 page)

This was a test of my belief. It was, I reminded myself, all very well to be brave on a fresh bright morning like this, but how should I feel when darkness fell?

I was determined to test myself, to prove that I really did believe that some human being had played that trick on me.

I returned to the house for luncheon, which I took with Ruth and Luke.

Luke made a reference to my ” nightmare ” and I made no contradiction of the term. That lunch was very like others; I fancy Ruth seemed relieved. She said I looked better for my walk, and it was true that I did eat well for I found I was hungry after having had no breakfast.

When I rose from the luncheon table William came into the dining-room with a message from Sir Matthew. He would like to see me if I could spare the time to visit him.

I said I would go at once if he was ready.

” I will take you to his room, madam,” William told me.

He led me up the staircase to a room on the first floor which was not far from my own. I was beginning to learn where the family had their apartments. They lived mainly in the south wing: Sir Matthew on the first floor, where I now had my room, Ruth and Luke on the second; and the third, of course, was where I had lived with Gabriel during the short time we had been together in the house. Sarah was the only k. r.

129 member of the family who occupied rooms other than in the south wing.

She clung to the east wing where the nurseries were. The rest of the house was not being used at this time, but I was told that in the past Sir Matthew had entertained lavishly and that the Revels had often been filled with guests.

The kitchens, bake houses and sculleries were on the ground floor and an extension of the south wing. The servants’ sleeping quarters were on the top floor of the west wing. I had not seen them but Mary-Jane had told me this. So few people in such a large house!

I found Sir Matthew sitting up in bed, a woollen bed- jacket buttoned up to his neck and a nightcap on his head. His eyes twinkled as I came towards him.

” Bring a chair for Mrs. Gabriel, William,” he said. | I thanked William and sat down. | “I hear you had a disturbed night, my dear,” he said “Nightmare, Ruth tells me.”

” It’s over now,” I said. j ” Frightening things, nightmares. And you ran out of your room on your bare feet.” He shook his head. i William was hovering in the next room which, I presumed, was a dressing-room.

The door was open and he would hear all that was said.

I had a vision of the servants discussing the night’s disturbance, and I wished to change the subject.

“And how are you today?”

“All the better for seeing you, my dear. But I’m a sad subject. I’m old and the body gets worn out in time. Now you are young, and we cannot have you upset….”

” I shall not be scared in future,” I said quickly. ” It was the first time anything like it had happened….”

” You have to take care now, Catherine, my dear.”

” Oh, yes, I’m taking care.”

” I heard nothing of all this.”

“I’m so pleased. I should hate to think I had disturbed you too.”

” I don’t sleep well but when I do it’s like the sleep of the dead.

You’d have to shout somewhat loudly to awaken me. I’m glad I’ve seen you, my dear. I wanted to satisfy myself that you were your bright and beautiful self again. ” He smiled jauntily. ” It was only for that reason that I asked you to come and see me in this state. What do you think of me. eh . poor old fellow in a nightcap! “

” It’s quite becoming.”

13” ” Catherine, you are a flatterer. Well my dear, remember you are a very important member of the family now. “

” I do remember,” I said. ” I shall do nothing that would be harmful to the child.”

” I like your outspoken ways, my dear. God bless you; and thank you for coming and saying a few kind words to an old man.”

He took my hand and kissed it, and as I went out I was still aware of William in the dressing-room.

The whole house knows, I thought; and I wondered why Aunt Sarah had not been to see me. I should have thought she would have wanted to talk about the affair.

I went to my room but I could not settle there, and I thought of the servants’ talking together; and it occurred to me that the story would soon reach the ears of Hagar and Simon Redvers. I felt disturbed at the idea of their hearing a version other than my own. I cared very much for the good opinion of Hagar and I believed that she would be very scornful of anything fanciful.

I decided then that I would go and see her and tell her exactly what had happened, before her opinions were coloured by other people’s views.

I set out and walked over to Kelly Grange; it was three o’clock when I arrived.

Dawson took me into a small room on the ground floor and said she would tell Mrs. Rockwell-Redvers that I was there.

” If she is resting,” I said,” please do not disturb her. I can wait awhile.”

” I will inquire, madam,” Dawson replied.

In a few minutes she returned with the message that Mrs.

Rockwell-Redvers would see me at once.

She was sitting in her high-backed chair as she had been on the occasion when I had first seen her. I took her hand and kissed it as I had seen Simon do—that was a concession to our friendship. I was no longer afraid that she would treat me with haughtiness. We now accepted’ each other as equals, and that meant that we could be quite natural together.

“It is good of you to call,” she said.

“Did you walk?”

” It is such a short distance really.”

” You don’t look as well as you did when I last saw you.”

” I did not sleep very well.”

” That is bad. Have you seen Jessie Dankwait?” 131 “This has nothing to do with Jessie Dankwait. I wanted to tell you about it before you heard it from another quarter. I wanted you to hear my version.”

” You are over-excited,” she said coolly.

” Perhaps. But I am calmer than I have been since it happened.”

” I want very much to hear about it. Please tell me.”

So I told her what had occurred, omitting nothing.

She listened. Then she nodded almost judicially.

” It is quite clear,” she said, ” that someone in the house is trying to alarm you.”

“It seems such a foolish thing to do.”

“I would not call a thing foolish if there is a reasonable motive behind it.”

” But what motive?”

” To scare you. Perhaps to ruin your hopes of producing a child.”

” This seems a strange way to go about it. And who …”

“It may be the beginning of a series of alarms. I think we must be on our guard against that.”

There was a tap on the door. ” Come in,” she called and Simon entered.

” Dawson told me that Mrs. Catherine was here,” he said. ” Have you any objection to my joining you?”

” I have none,” said his grandmother. ” Have you, Catherine?”

” But … no.”

“You don’t sound very sure,” he said, smiling at me.

“It is because we were discussing something which Catherine came here to tell me. I have no idea whether she would wish you to bear it.”

I looked at him and I thought I had never seen anyone so vital, so much a part of the present time. He radiated practical common sense. I decided that I wanted him to hear my version of the affair before anyone else’s.

” I have no objection of his hearing what has happened.”

” Then well tell him,” said Hagar and proceeded to do so. It was a considerable wmfort that she told him the story as I had told it to her. Never once did she say, ” Catherine thinks she saw,” or “

Catherine believed it was,” but always Catherine saw and it was. How grateful I was for that.

He listened intently.

” What do you think of it?” Hagar asked when she had finished.

” Someone in the house is playing tricks,” he said.

” Exactly,” cried Hagar. ” And why so?”

” I imagine it could concern the heir who will in due course make his appearance.”

Hagar gave me a triumphant look.

” It was a terrifying experience for poor Catherine,” she said.

” Why did you not make an attempt to catch the trickster?” asked Simon.

” I did,” I retorted indignantly. ” But by the time I had recovered myself he had gone.”

” You are calling it’ he.” You have some reason to believe the creature is of the masculine gender? “

” I don’t know. But one must call it something. He comes more naturally than she. He was very quick; he must have been out of the door and along the corridor in a very short time, and men …”

” And then where did he go?”

” I don’t know. If he had gone downstairs I must have seen him. He could never have run down the stairs and across the hall in time. I can’t imagine how he went along the corridor so swiftly.”

” He must have gone into one of the rooms there. Did you look?”

” No.”

” You should have done.”

” Ruth appeared then.”

” And Luke came later,” said Hagar significantly.

” Did Luke appear to have been rushing about?”

“You suspect Luke?” I asked.

” I merely wonder. It must have been someone in the house, I suppose.

If the idea was to frighten you, it must have been either Ruth, Luke, Matthew or Sarah. Did you see them all? “

“Not Matthew, nor Sarah.”

“Ah!” I ” I cannot imagine either of them running about the house in the night dressed up as a monk.”

Simon leaned towards me. He said: ” The Rockwell family are all a little crazy about their traditions.” He smiled at Hagar. “

Everyone,” he added. ” I wouldn’t trust any one of them where the old Revels is concerned, and that’s a fact. They’re living in the past half of the time. Who could help it in that old fortress? It’s not a house. It’s a mausoleum. 133 Anyone who lives there for any length of time is likely to gel strange ideas.”

” And you think I have!”

” Not you. You’re not a Rockwell simply because you married one.

You’re a forthright Yorkshire woman who’ll blow a blast of common sense into the stuffy old place. You know what happens to the dead when they are exposed to fresh air, don’t you? They moulder and crumble away.

“

” I’m glad you don’t think I imagined all this, because that is what they are all trying to pretend I did. They call it a nightmare.”

” Naturally the trickster would want that put about.”

” I shall pretend for him next time.”

” He won’t play the same game twice. You can be sure of that.”

“He won’t get an opportunity to. I intend to lock my doors tonight.”

” But he may try something else,” warned Simon.

” I’m ready for tea,” said Hagar. ” Ring for Dawson, and the three of us will have it together. Then, Simon, you musl drive Catherine back to the Revels. She walked one way, and there and back is too far.”

The tea was brought and once again I presided over the teacups.

I was feeling almost normal now; the comfort I drew from these two astonished and delighted me. They believed in me; they refused to treat me as a hysterical subject; and that was wonderful.

I wanted that tea-time hour to go on and on.

Hagar said as she stirred her tea: “I remember once Matthew played a trick on me. Strangely enough he came into my bedroom. Really, it must have been something like your affair. I had my curtains drawn about the bed. It was mid-winter, I remember…. Christmas-time. The snow was deep outside and the east wind was driving a buzzard. We had a few people in the house … those who had arrived before the bad weather started. We thought they would have to stay with us well beyond the Christmas holidays unless there was a thaw. We children had been allowed to watch the ball from the minstrels’ gallery. It was a wonderfuJ sight… the dresses and the decorations. Well, that wasn’t the point. We children had had too much plum pudding, I dare say, because we grew rather quarrelsome … at least Matthew and I did.

Poor Sarah never joined in our quarrels. 134 ” To get to the point, I had been discussing our ancestors and Matthew was wishing that he could wear those wonderful plumed hats and lace collars as they did in the days of the Cavaliers. I said: ” Like Sir John! Don’t say you want to be like him in the least little bit. ” But I do want to be exactly like Sir John,” Matthew said. I hate Sir John,” I cried. I like Sir John,” he answered. Then he twisted my arm and Ljnade his nose bleed.

I shouted that Sir John was a coward. “

She laughed and her eyes sparkled at the memory.

“You see, Catherine, Sir John was the master of Kirkland Revels at the time of the Civil War. Marston Moor had gone to Cromwell and Fairfax, and Prince Rupert was on the run. Sir John was naturally a Royalist and he went on declaring he’d hold the Revels against Cromwell or die in the attempt.