Strange Recompense (23 page)

“Did your father ever suggest, at any time, that Ned Armstrong might leave the sea and come and farm at Alnborough?” Noel
asked, watching her closely, and whatever reaction he had expected to follow his remark he was certainly not prepared for the complete upheaval the suggestion appeared to create in Anna’s mind.

She stared at him for a moment without speaking, without seeming even to see him, and then her whole face seemed to break up, quivering pathetically, while her hands fell to her sides and were clenched tightly there in a desperate effort at composure as memory came rushing back, sweeping everything before it.

“That was it! That was what caused the trouble, but it was Jess who talked Ned into the promise to leave the sea. She over-ruled all his objections, all his desires, but the sea won in the end!” Her face was as pale as a ghost, but her eyes were keen with understanding. “Noel,” she said uncertainly, “the sea won—in the end.”

He took her hands in his holding them firmly as he turned her round in the chair to face him.

“Don’t think about that yet,” he commanded. “You knew Ned felt like that about his career—about giving it up for Alnborough. Was it because he wrote to you and told you, Anna? Was it all in that letter you tried to burn the day you went away?”

“Yes,” she agreed without hesitation, taking his knowledge for granted. “Ned told me he had changed his mind, not only about giving up the sea but about Jess, too. He said—he said he couldn’t
g
o
on loving anyone so possessive when he knew he couldn’t give
h
er
everything in return. He said that his chosen career
meant more to him than any woman he had ever met and he couldn’t give it up.”

“Was that all?”

Her mouth twisted painfully, but the words could not be stopped now. They came tumbling out, one after the other, as if time was limited and so much had to be said in the shortest space of time.

“He was terribly upset. He said he would give the world to be able to change back to loving Jess again, but he just didn’t know how. He said he would try to explain everything if I would only agree to meet him, but he would not come to Alnborough. Perhaps he feared a scene with Jess—he had always a hasty temper—and I thought that sounded cowardly at the time, but I was foolish enough to think, too, that I could persuade him to change his mind again if only I could see him and talk to him.”

“And so you went to Swansea instead of going to your holiday hotel?”

She nodded.

“I decided to telephone to them to say I would be late, and then Ned said he could get me there in reasonable time, so I didn’t. He had bought a second-hand car in Swansea and he said we could talk it all over on the way north to Harlech. He was going on to Liverpool to join another ship there.”

Noel’s face was almost as pale as her own now, but he held her firmly.

“How far did you drive on the journey? A long way?” he suggested.

“We left Swansea quite early. My train got in early in the morning and Ned met it with the car. He looked dreadfully haggard and untidy, as if he had been up all night, and he was terribly unhappy. I felt sorry for him. He was so deeply concerned about what he was doing, but—he just couldn’t go on with the marriage. And after a while I saw that I couldn’t argue against such black despair. He just didn’t love Jess any more.”

“Anna,” Noel asked quietly, “was he in love with you?”

She gave him his answer instantly, clear and decisive as all truth. “He was never in love with me. We had been good friends, that was all—good friends for a very long time. I would have welcomed him as a brother if he had gone on loving Jess.”

“And since he couldn’t do that, your mission was hopeless,” he concluded. “Anna, do you remember your mother’s ring?”

Deep distress lined her face again.

“My father gave it to me to give to Ned before the wedding because it had always been said among us that the first bride should wear it, and I took it with me to Wales, thinking that it might help me in my argument for Jess. I thought—I must have thought that I could influence Ned in that way, but it was no use. When a person has made up his mind about a thing like that—about not loving someone sufficiently—nothing will sway them—not pity or sentiment or anything like that,” she added. “I didn’t even show him the ring once I realized how hopeless everything was.”

“You put it back in your pocket and it was found there with your other possessions,” he said.

“I don’t know—”

For the first time she was thinking about the ring, thinking directly about herself, and she stared down at the thin gold circlet on her finger and began to twist it round and round in confusion. He put a firm hand over hers to stop the confused gesture.

“Never mind that now,” he said. “Where did you leave Ned Armstrong?”

Her fingers gripped hard on his as Ruth came in at the door and he nodded to his sister to stay where she was. Little beads of perspiration were standing out on Anna’s brow now and her voice began to shake.

“I didn’t leave Ned,” she said unsteadily. “We went together—to the edge of the sea. There was no other road—”

Noel got abruptly to his feet.

“All right, you can forget about that now,” he said. “The essentials are all here, Anna.” He bent down and took her hands again, drawing her to her feet. “My dear, I’ve got the right to look after you now, thank God! Try to remember that there’s nothing more to fear.”

Ruth came to his side, her kind eyes full of concern.

“Is it all right?” she whispered.

“Practically.” His tone was buoyant with relief. “Much better than I could have hoped for, in fact, but I still think I should take her to Alnborough. I think, too, that we might go right away. If we’re quick enough, we may even get there ahead of Jess.”

Ruth could not understand his reason, and she was more perplexed when he decided to take a road along the coast instead of following the main highway, which he knew. He was driving much faster than he normally did, too, and he had insisted on Anna’s sitting beside him in the front of the car.

They came upon the sea at last, looking down over sand dunes covered with rough grass; from there they climbed on to the cliff, and the dunes finally gave way to a rocky coastline with a steeper drop to the sea. Noel began to increase his speed and almost instantly Anna covered her face with her hands.

“No! No!” she protested. “Noel—stop! Please stop! The road—” Her cry ended in a shuddering sigh, as if all the breath had gone out of her, and she lay back against the cushioning with her eyes closed, the blue veined lids trembling spasmodically. Noel slowed the car and turned to look at her.

“Anna,” he demanded ruthlessly, “you saw that car go over the cliff. When did you leave it?”

“I jumped. I saw the road all broken away—”

“And Armstrong couldn’t stop in time! He braked and slowed up, but it was too late—for him.” He was forming his own impression, fitting in clue after clue to make an acceptable whole, and he knew that it coincided with the picture shaping in her mind.

He looked at Anna again, critically, and Ruth spoke for the first time.

“Is she all right?”

“I’d like to take her somewhere where she could rest for a while,” he said. “It looks as if we had better go back to the hotel.”

“Or on to Alnborough,” Ruth suggested. “Take her home, Noel, and leave Jessica Marrick to me. I passed her in the entrance hall of the hotel just now and she glared hatred at me, though she couldn’t possibly have known who I was, but I knew her because she was with a young man who called her Jess—the farming type.”

Noel hesitated.

“It’s the only way,” Ruth urged. “Anna will want to go home.

He let in the clutch and the car slid away down the hill, away from the sea towards the open moor.

“You’re right,” he said. “We’ll take her home'. I’m sorry for Jess Marrick,” he added, “and I’m possibly going to have the thankless task of proving to her how wrong she has been, but I’ve also got to convince her that the man she still loves is dead, drowned off the Welsh coast when a car plunged over a cliff in the darkness! I’m not exactly looking forward to that bit!”

“Will we ever have proof!” Ruth wondered.

“I don’t know. I don’t really think so, but I’ll phone Dennis tonight and see if he can put any inquiries on foot before we get back. He was as interested in this case as I was.”

Ruth’s heart soared in spite of herself and the color was still high in her cheeks when they reached Alnborough.

The house was quiet, as it had been the day before, but Noel drove straight in through the white gateposts this time and
drew
up on the cobbles before the back door. Ruth sat quite still while
Anna
got slowly out of the car, her face transfigured in a sudden gleam of bright sunlight as it broke through the morning haze. She looked a new being, radiant in her self-possession, although there was still a certain amount of nervousness in her eyes as she approached the house. This was home! There was no doubt about that. Her whole expression proclaimed it and she almost ran the last few steps to reach the door.

Noel walked after her into the big, cool dairy with its stone floor garlanded in carefully piped scrolls and the butter churn scrubbed and airing in the corner where she had turned it so often. The morning milk had gone out and the pans were scalded and set up on their ends against the whitewashed walls.

The scene in the hotel lounge had faded a little now, and the old love and companionship was crowding out all the harshness and the pain of bitter recrimination. She turned eagerly toward the door leading into the kitchen, and then she seemed to remember Noel for the first time. Holding out her hand to him, she took him with her into the old familiar room, which he also knew, her voice choking as she said:

“I’ve come back, Noel! I’ve come home.”

“Your father’s waiting for you upstairs,” Noel said. “Don’t forget that he’s been ill, my dear. This meeting—after so long—may be a tax on his strength.”

At the bedroom door he halted and she went in alone.

“I’ll be here, if you need me,” he said.

Abraham Marrick was seated in his chair beside the window, and he looked up, expecting to see Jess returned from her unheralded visit to Alnwick, but instead it was Anna who stood there in the doorway, Anna, who was so like his dead wife that he had found it the harder to forgive her for the misuse of her mother’s ring. But all that had been forgotten now. He held out his work-roughened hands and she came to him instantly, locked in the shelter of his arms for a full minute before either of them spoke.

“Ay, lass, you had to come back!” he said. “We couldna get on without ye!”

He let his hand stray over her hair as he had done when she was a child, conscious of all the harshness gone out of him with the old, familiar action. His lost lamb had returned, and he would shelter it, however lame!

It was some minutes before Anna remembered Noel, but he came to the door as soon as she called his name.

“May I come in?” he asked.

“Come in lad! Come in!” the farmer hailed him. “I’ve been thinking about you all morning—ever since you left here yesterday, in fact!”

Noel smiled down at him, his handsome face reflecting the relief in his heart that these two had come together without question, and with a simple trust restored.

Later, when he told Abraham Marrick the truth, the old man’s concern was immediately switched to his elder child.

“Jess’ll take this hard,” he said. “She’ll find it difficult to credit at first that Ned Armstrong’s really dead. I suppose,” he added with a pathetic hopefulness, “there couldn’t have been any mistake? He couldn’t be injured—badly injured, I’m meaning?”

“If that had been the case he would have been taken to a nearby hospital and we would probably have been notified when we made our inquiries about Anna,” Noel explained. “Anna’s luggage would have been found in the car, too, but nothing like that has happened. Everything has just disappeared—gone into the blue with no trace.”

He did not want to discuss the accident with Anna fussing about the room putting it in order, because he knew that a repetition of all she had gone through would only distress her needlessly. He was glad that she had reacted so naturally to her return to Alnborough, taking up her old responsibilities as a matter of course while Jess was away, and deep in his heart he had to acknowledge that a miracle he had prayed for with all the faith left in him had actually taken place before his eyes.

By all the rules of ordinary amnesia, Anna should have forgotten her sojourn in that space of time carved out of her ordinary living when she had become one of their community at Glynmareth. It was what Sara had hoped for, he realized, without troubling to acknowledge why, but something had worked a miracle.

Could he hope that his love had conveyed itself through the haze of returning consciousness, penetrating the dark curtain of Anna’s unawareness by the sheer force of its longing, demanding her love in return?

There seemed so much to sort out between them, but at least she remembered. He could thank God for that.

Presently, remembering Ruth waiting patiently in the car he left Anna with her father and went down to his sister.

“
I
think Anna would like you to come in,” he said. “She’s with her father at the moment, but I’m going to prescribe some rest for the old man as soon as she comes downstairs. He’s had enough emotional disturbance for one day!”

“
Everything has gone off all right, then?” she asked. “Somehow,
I
felt it would, although I must confess that the session out there on the cliffs almost unnerved me!”

“It was easy,” Noel assured her, “compared to some. Reaction, of course, depends largely upon a patient’s own temperament, and Anna isn’t the dramatic type.”