The Black Opal (27 page)

“So am I,” replied Lawrence, smiling happily. And then:

“You’ll come again soon, won’t you?”

“If you and Dorothy ask me,” 1 replied.

Lawrence brought me back to Kensington on Sunday evening.

Gertie was waiting for me in some excitement.

“How was it? Successful, I am sure.”

“Yes, very.”

“And you passed all Dorothy’s tests?”

“There weren’t any. 1 expect 1 passed them before 1 went.”

“Of course. You wouldn’t have been asked otherwise. Now, listen. You

are in demand. 1 think you must have been a femme fatale all these years and kept it hidden.”

“Just because I was invited for the weekend.”

“Oh no. You’re rushing on too fast. Since you have been away, there have been new developments.”

“What do you mean?”

“Others have been seeking you,” she said mysteriously.

“Others?”

“Well, one. Isn’t that enough? Tall, handsome. One of those strong, forceful men. He left his card. Title as well. My word, Carmel, you are a dark horse.”

“What is all this about?”

“Well, what should happen on Saturday morning, while you were far off, charming the gallant Lawrence and his sister? There was a ring at the doorbell and there stood the most intriguing man. Annie was all of a fluster, and you should have seen Aunt Bee! You can imagine how her mind started working.

“I believe Miss Carmel Sinclair is staying here.”

“Well, yes,” replied Aunt Bee, falling immediate victim to his charm.

“I’m a friend of hers,” says the gentleman.

“I wonder if I might see her?”

“I’m sure you could, if she were here,” responds Aunt Bee.

“But she happens to have gone off for the weekend with friends.”

Aunt Bee said he looked very disappointed. She was really taken with him. She said there was something really romantic about this one, and when she saw the name on the card, she almost fainted in ecstasy. Now, you must tell me, who is this Sir Lucian Crompton? I can see recognition dawning on your face, so don’t deny all knowledge of the fascinating stranger. “

“I wasn’t going to. Of course I know him. I’d forgotten he’d got the title when his father died.”

“You’ve never mentioned him.”

“Why should I? I knew him long ago, before I went to Australia. And, as a matter of fact, 1 saw him recently.”

“Was he the one you looked up on the way to Maidstone?”

“Not exactly, but I did happen to meet him.”

“You didn’t tell me!” cried Gertie, outraged.

“There wasn’t anything to tell.”

“But you implied the visit was not successful. Then, only a little while after, he turns up. I call that very successful.”

“Well,” I said, ‘perhaps it was. “

“The outcome is that he’s left a note for you. He wrote it here. It’s waiting for you. I’ll get it now.”

Gertie brought the note and I took it to my room to read. She was laughing secretly and did not attempt to follow me.

Dear Carmel [I read], It was so interesting meeting you again. 1 am in Town today and I was wondering whether we could have lunch together, but your friends told me that you were away for the weekend. I was very disappointed not to be able to see you.

1 shall be coming up again on Wednesday. There is a pleasant little place I go to now and then. It’s Logan’s in Talbrook Street, off Piccadilly. If you could meet me there at one o’clock I should be delighted. I shall be there in any case and do hope you will be able to join me. Lucian.

I was smiling as I folded the letter. I felt excited. It was wonderful to be able to feel interested again.

1 sat opposite him in Logan’s Restaurant. I could see why Aunt Beatrice had been so impressed. Although he might not be as handsome as Gertie had said, he was certainly distinguished-looking, and looked more like the boy I had known long ago than the man I had met recently in | Easentree. He was obviously pleased to see me.

“I should have been very disappointed if you hadn’t come,” he told me.

“It’s fun to renew old acquaintances.”

“There is so much to catch up with. Now, what are you going to eat?”

When that had been decided and the food brought, he said once more how lucky it was that we had met when about to cross the road at Easentree.

“It was much the same with the friend with whom I have been staying.

He happened to be coming back from Egypt on our ship. I had met him on the first voyage, when I went out with my father. Life is full of such incidents. “

“The consolation is that, if they didn’t happen, we shouldn’t know what we had missed. Tell me about your weekend.”

I told him.

“It is a very pleasant spot. Lawrence Emmerson has a wonderfully efficient sister who looks after everything.”

He showed a great interest in the Emmersons and the story of the Suez rescue came out.

“It still seems extraordinary to me,” I finished.

“Do you believe in miracles? In simple faith, 1 mean.”

He looked puzzled and I told him how Gertie and I had stood in the middle of the road and prayed, and almost immediately, it seemed, Dr. Emmerson had appeared and got us to the ship in time, although we had had to climb the rope-ladder.

“Well,” he said, “I have heard that faith can move mountains and, compared with that, the doctor’s gallant rescue seems rather a minor feat.”

“It was miraculous to us. There are moments in one’s life which 1 suppose one never forgets. That is one of them for me.”

He looked serious for a moment. Then he said: “Yes, I am sure that will be so.”

1 thought for a moment that he was going to tell me in

of some memorable moment in his life, but he did not.

“I suppose,” he went on, ‘he seemed a hero to you. St. George slaying your particular dragon. Galahad, Parsifal . someone like that. “

“Gertie and I spoke of him with reverence for a long time after.”

“And still do?”

“Gertie wouldn’t feel reverent towards anyone not even Bernard, her fiance.”

“What about you?”

“I shall always be grateful for what he did on that day.”

“Tell me more about that visit to the country and the clever sister.”

I talked of them with enthusiasm and he listened intently.

He said: “You must come to the Grange and stay a week end with us.

We’ll see if we can rival the Emmersons. “

I thought of the visits to tea with Estella, Adeline and Henry, and the idea of going to the Grange was rather disconcerting.

“You must come. My mother would like to meet you. She remembers you. I told her about our meeting in Easentree. Camilla would be interested too. Perhaps I could get her to come for the weekend. What about that?”

“It would be most interesting.”

He said quickly: “” I promise you, we won’t go near Commonwood.

Actually, you can ride by without seeing the house. Everything’s so overgrown. “

“I wasn’t thinking of that. I was just wondering if your family would er … want to see me.”

He looked puzzled.

“After what happened at Commonwood House.”

“What happened there had nothing to do with you. And what if it had?”

“The doctor was my uncle. It might be considered better to avoid people connected with such unsavoury happenings

“My dear Carmel, as if we should feel like that! In any case, the whole business is over. It’s years back.”

“Do you think people would know me? People living around, I mean?”

“I shouldn’t think so. You were only a child when it happened. Oh, we are back to this miserable subject again. Listen. It’s over. It’s best forgotten. You’re letting this affair obsess you. It’s all over. It’s in the past.” He spoke vehemently.

“There is nothing anyone can do to change what happened.”

“Of course you are right, Lucian. I should love to come. It would be so nice to see Camilla again, and if your mother is agreeable.”

“My mother will be very pleased to see you. Actually, she said so.”

“Then, thank you, Lucian.”

“What about the week after next?”

“That would suit me very well.”

“We’ll say yes then. I’ll write to you and confirm.”

And so it was settled.

I went back in a state of pleasurable excitement. I remembered how I had lost my pendant and Lucian had had it repaired. I still had the pendant. When I arrived back at the house I took it from its box and held it in my hands while my thoughts went back over the years to that day which was really when I had first met Lucian.

I was smiling as I put it back into the box which was playing “God Save the Queen’.

The Grange looked less formidable than it had in my childhood. It was very impressive, none the less, with its grey stone towers and battlemented gateway.

Lucian, who had been at the station with a pony and trap, greeted me warmly.

“I have been ridiculously scared that something would happen to prevent your coming.”

“3

“Oh no. I was determined to.”

“It’s good to see you. Camilla was delighted when she heard you were coming.”

It was certainly a warm welcome. We went under the gateway. I could see the lawn where we had had tea on that first occasion; and there was Camilla, hardly recognizable as the girl I had known. She was rather plump and obviously pleased with the way life had gone for her.

She gripped both my hands.

“I couldn’t believe it when Lucian said he’d found you. Isn’t it exciting that you’ve come back!”

I was taken into the hall. I remembered it so well arriving for tea, feeling rather nervous, the outsider until Lucian appeared and made me feel I wasn’t. How I had adored him in those days!

“Better come straight up to my mother,” said Lucian.

“She is so eager to see you.”

I could scarcely believe it. Lady Crompton had shown no interest in me in the old days.

I was taken into a room which they called the solarium because it had numerous windows which caught all the available sun. Lady Crompton was seated in a chair near the windows and, with Lucian on one side and Camilla on the other, I was taken over to her.

She held out a hand and I took it.

“How nice to see you, my dear,” she said.

“I have heard about your meeting with Lucian. I was most interested. I hear you have come from Australia. You must tell us all about it. Camilla, bring a chair so that Carmel can sit near me. My hearing is not very good nowadays and my rheumatism is crippling. And how are you? You look well.”

I noticed that she had aged more than the years warranted. She had lost her husband and then there had been the death of her daughter-in-law, Lucian’s wife. That must have been a sorrow to her.

“Shall I ring for tea now. Mother?” asked Camilla.

“Please do, dear.” She turned to me.

“And you are on a visit from Australia?”

We talked about Australia and how, coming over on the ship, the friend with whom I had been travelling had met her fiance and was shortly to be married.

Then the tea came and was served.

“There have been so many changes,” said Lady Crompton.

“I was so sorry to hear about your father. Lucian told me. Your father was a charming man. He came here on one occasion. I remember him well. So sad. I suppose Camilla has told you that she has now left us, and of her adorable little Jeremy?”

“We’ve hardly had time yet. Mother,” said Camilla.

“Lucian said you were so eager to meet Carmel that we brought her straight up to you.”

Lady Crompton talked dotingly of her grandson Jeremy and expressed her regrets that Camilla had not brought him with her.

“It’s only for the weekend. Mother,” said Camilla.

“And Nanny is so capable and she doesn’t like Jeremy travelling too much. She says it’s upsetting, and it is only for the weekend. I just came to see Carmel.”

I was expecting Lady Crompton to mention her granddaughter at this stage but, to my surprise, nothing was said of the child. I supposed that I should make her acquaintance during the weekend.

After tea, Camilla showed me to my room.

“It’s on the second floor,” she said.

“Quite a nice view.”

She opened a door and I saw a large room in which was a four-poster bed with heavy drapes matching the bed coverings.

“It’s charming,” I said.

“A touch of other times,” said Camilla.

“I’m afraid that’s how things are at the Grange.”

“Well, it’s an ancient house with all its traditions,” I said.

“I

think this is delightful. “

2. 2. “As long as the past doesn’t intrude too much. My house is modern.

It’s in the Midlands. Geoff is in pottery . rather a sore point with my mother. She would have liked a duke, of course. But she adores Jeremy and as soon as he put in an appearance, my mother was reconciled. “

“It must be a great joy to her to have grandchildren. And you both have given her one.”

“Oh yes,” she said.

“My Jeremy is quite adorable.”

“And the little girl?” I asked.

“Bridget… of course. She will be more than two now.”

“It must have been terrible when …”

“You mean her mother? Well, yes, of course.” She glanced out of the window.

“Look. That’s where we used to have tea on the lawn. You were there sometimes. Do you ever hear of Estella and Henry … and the other one the one who was rather simple?”

“Adeline. No, I have never heard of them since.”

She looked at me gravely.

“It was an awful business,” she said.

“They just disappeared … you with the others. Oh well, it’s all so long ago. I’ll leave you to hang up your things. What would you like to do before dinner? We dine at eight. I expect Lucian has something in view for you. He’s ever so pleased that you agreed to come.”

It was an unforgettable weekend I spent at the Grange. I was very gratified to be accepted so hospitably by Lady Crompton. Camilla was very friendly, and I could not have had a more attentive host than Lucian.

He and I rode a good deal together and I saw more of the country than I ever had when I lived there.