The Captive (41 page)

“They’re supposed to be very clever nowadays. I don’t know.”

“I knew he was going. I wanted to talk to Mr. Carleton about it.”

“He’ll be back before long, I reckon. Come up to the nursery and see the twins.”

Jennifer recognized me at once and ran to me. Henry was unsure, I could see, but he followed his sister.

“Now tell me how you’ve been getting on,” I said.

“This is Kate, who is my pupil now.”

Kate was looking at the children with slightly scornful interest.

I asked Jennifer how one-eyed Mabel was and also Reggie the bear. She laughed and said they were as naughty as ever.

1 talked with the children for a while and Nanny Crockett said why didn’t they show Kate the dolls’ house.

The twins jumped with glee. I looked anxiously at Kate, who might well state her lack of interest in such childish toys.

I think my glance must have been appealing for she said:

“All right.”

The dolls’ house was in a corner of the nursery. The children went over to it and Nanny Crockett signed to me to sit down.

“Is there any news?” she asked in a whisper.

I shook my head.

“It’s difficult. I can’t find out anything. Sometimes I think it’s an impossible task.”

“I know you’ll find something. I know there’s something to be found . and it’s in that house. That’s where the secret lies. I wish I could get there.”

“I get little bits of information but they don’t lead anywhere.”

“Well, you go on trying. Have you tried talking to Mrs. Ford? She knows most of what’s going on.”

“Perhaps you could talk to her. You are on friendly terms.”

“I’ve tried but I don’t get very far.”

“Perhaps she doesn’t know anything … or if she did, thinks she shouldn’t talk about the family.”

“She might talk to someone in the house while she wouldn’t to someone outside it. And you’re there now. You’re one of them. I’m out of it now.”

I could see that Kate was listening to what we were saying and I flashed a sign to Nanny Crockett. She understood at once and we talked of the children and how they would soon be needing a governess.

Kate called: “You won’t come back here, will you, Cranny?”

So I knew she was taking note of what we were saying.

“Not while you continue to be a good pupil,” I replied.

Kate grimaced. But it was clear that there could be no intimate conversation with Nanny Crockett.

In due course one of the maids came to say that Mr. Lorimer had returned.

I left Kate in the nursery and went down to see him. He looked very sad but he was pleased to see me.

I said: “I’m worried about Lucas. What do you know about this operation?”

“Very little. He went up to London recently to see this man and to have a thorough examination. Well, this is the result.”

“What do they think they’ll be able to do?”

“It’s a little vague. They say they have made a lot of advances in that field. It is an attempt to put right what went wrong when his leg was left to set itself.”

“I constantly regret that we did not know what to do. We could have prevented all this.”

“It’s no use blaming yourself, Rosetta … nor the man who was with you. You did the best you could. You saved his life between you. You couldn’t have done more. Believe me, he is eternally grateful to you.

I know he talks lightly of these things, but he does feel more deeply than you would think. “

“Yes, I know.”

“He knows best what he should do, Rosetta. You see, this is a chance.

He’s ready to take it. It may be that if it fails he’ll be worse than he was before, but if it succeeds he’ll be a great deal better. “

“It’s rather a risk, I gather.”

“I gathered that, too.”

“They will let you know the result of the operation as soon as they see how it is going, I suppose?”

“Yes, I’m sure of that.”

“Carleton, when you hear, would you send a message to me?”

“Of course I will.”

We were silent for a moment. Then Carleton said: “It was a great tragedy to him. He always hated it when anything went wrong with his health. And that sort of deformity … it hit him hard.”

“I know.”

“I wish … he could marry. I think that would mean a lot to him.”

“Providing of course that it was a happy marriage.”

“A happy marriage is the perfect state.”

“Yes … if it’s perfect. Otherwise it has to be a compromise.”

I could see that Carleton was thinking of his own marriage.

“And then,” he said sadly, ‘it can all end . suddenly . and you wonder whether it wouldn’t have been better never to have known it.

”

“Carleton, I understand perfectly, but I think you should rejoice in what you have had.”

“Yes, you’re right. Here I am, revelling in my misery. What do you think of the twins?”

“They’re all right. Nanny Crockett is wonderful. They’ve grown, haven’t they?”

“We’ll have to be thinking of a governess for them.” He looked at me speculatively.

“I’m not really a governess, you know.”

“I hear you’ve done well with that girl.”

“How my fame travels!” I said lightly.

“You must have some luncheon before you go back.”

“Well, thanks. I suppose we should need something. It’s a good ride to Perrivale from here. I’ll call Kate.”

“Yes. They’ll be ready to serve it in a few minutes.”

Kate was delighted to have lunch in the Trecorn dining room. Carleton was quite attentive to her and treated her like an adult, which she enjoyed. She did justice to the food and talked quite animatedly about Perrivale, which amused Carleton and seemed to lighten his spirits a little. So it was a successful visit.

He came out to the stables with us.

“Thank you for coming,” he said to Kate as well as to me.

“I hope you’ll come again.”

“Oh, we will,” Kate told him, which I found gratifying, and so did he.

On the way back Kate said: “The lunch was nice. But those silly twins with their old dolls’ house were a bore, though.”

“Didn’t you think it was rather a lovely dolls’ house?”

“Cranny, I am not a child. I don’t play with toys. He wants you to go back, doesn’t he?”

“Who?”

“That old Carleton.”

“I feel that your vocabulary must be very limited. You use the same adjective to describe almost everyone.”

332.

“Which adjective?”

“Old.”

“Well, he is old. He does want you to go back and teach those silly twins, doesn’t he?”

“At least they are not old. Why should you think that?”

“Because Nanny Crockett wants you to go back.”

“Not old Nanny Crockett?”

“Well, she’s so old you don’t have to say it. She said she’d keep in touch and so did Carleton.”

“He meant about his brother. He’s going to let me know about his operation.”

“Perhaps they’ll cut off his leg.”

“Of course they won’t and trust you to think of such a thing. They’re going to make it better. He’s a great friend of mine and naturally I want to know how he gets on. So … his brother and Nanny Crockett will keep me informed if they hear of his progress.”

“Oh,” she said and laughed.

Suddenly she burst into song.

‘ “Fifteen men on the dead man’s chest, Yo, ho, ho and a bottle of rum.

Drink and the Devil had done for the rest. “

I thought: I believe she really cares for me.

During the next days I felt very depressed. I was realizing how important it was to me to know that Lucas was close at hand. I grew more and more worried about the operation. Carleton knew no more than I did, and it was typical of Lucas to be reticent about such a thing.

It was brought home to me how futile were my investigations. Lucas thought they were absurd and he was right.

If only he were at hand and I could send a message over to Trecorn and arrange a meeting.

I wondered what this operation would do to him, and I greatly feared the result.

Kate sensed my melancholy and tried to cheer me up. When we were reading my attention would stray and this puzzled her. It was during this time that I began to be sure that she had some affection for me.

That would have been very comforting at any other time but now I could think only of Lucas.

She would try to cajole me to talk and I found myself talking to her about the past. I told her of the house in Bloomsbury, of-my parents and their preoccupation with the British Museum. She was amused that I had been named after the Rosetta Stone.

She said: “It is like that with me. I haven’t got a father … but my mother has always had other things … not the British Museum but . other things …”

At any other time I should have questioned her about her feelings but I was so obsessed by Lucas that I let the opportunity pass.

She wanted to hear a great deal about Mr. Dolland. I told her about his ‘turns’ and she was particularly interested in The Bells.

“I wish we had them here,” she said.

“Wouldn’t it be fun?”

I admitted that it would and it had been fun in the old days.

She put her arm through mine and squeezed with a rare show of affection.

“It didn’t matter about them only caring for the old British Museum, did it? It doesn’t matter … if you have other things …”

I was touched. She was telling me that my presence made up for her mother’s neglect.

When I told her of Felicity’s arrival she squealed with delight. I saw why. It was the similarity with my coming to Perrivale.

“You thought some awful governess was coming,” she said.

“Old, of course,” I added, and we laughed.

“Well, they are all old,” she said.

“Did you think of how you were going to make her go?”

“No, I didn’t. I wasn’t such a monster as you are.”

She rocked back and forth in merriment.

“You wouldn’t go now, would you, Cranny?” she said.

“If I felt you wanted me to stay …”

“I do.”

“I thought you hated all governesses.”

“All of them except you.”

“I’m flattered and honoured.”

She smiled at me rather shyly and said: “I’m not going to call you Cranny any more. You’re going to be Rosetta. I think it’s ever so funny, being named after that thing.”

“Well, it was a rather special stone.”

“An old stone!”

“The adjective fits this time.”

“All those squiggly things on it… like worms.”

“Hieroglyphics are not in the least like worms.”

“All right. You’re Rosetta.”

I think because I had told her about my childhood she wanted to tell me about hers. And that, of course, was just what I wanted to hear.

“We must have been a long way from the British Museum,” she said.

“I

never heard of it till now. We were always waiting for him to come home. “

“Your … father?” I prompted.

She nodded.

“It was awful. My mother was afraid … not so much as I was when I used to be there … all by myself. It was dark …”

“At night was this?”

She looked puzzled.

“I can’t remember. It was a horrid room. I had a bed on the floor in the corner … my mother was in the other bed. I used to look at her

hair in the morning. It was like red gold all spread out over the pillow. I used to wake up in the morning … I didn’t know what to do. Then she’d be there … and she’d be gone again. There was someone from downstairs.

She used to look in to see if I was all right. “

“And you were all alone there for a lot of the time.”

“I think so.”

“What was your mother doing?”

“I don’t know.”

I thought: A chorus girl. Tom Parry married a chorus girl.

“You had Mr. Dolland and Mrs. Harlow …”

“Tell me, Kate … tell me all you can remember.”

“No, no,” she cried.

“I don’t want to. I don’t want to remember. I don’t want to remember.” She turned to me suddenly and flung herself against me. I stroked her hair.

I said: “All right. Let’s forget it. It’s all over now. You’ve got me now … we’ll have some fun together. We’ll ride … we’ll read .. we’ll talk …”

I was learning so much . not about what I came to learn, but about Kate. She was a lonely child; she behaved as she did because she had been starved of love and attention. She was trying to attract it in the only way she knew. I felt resentful against Mirabel who had failed to give her the love she needed. She had had to work perhaps . but not now.

Kate disengaged herself abruptly, as though ashamed of her emotion.

She said: “It was all right when Gramps came.”

“Yes,” I said.

“Your grandfather. He loves you very much, doesn’t he?”

A smile illuminated her face.

“He came and took us away. He brought us here … and then it was all right. He tells lovely stories … all about battles.”

“It must have been wonderful when he took you away.”

She nodded.

“I remember … it was in the room … he sat on the bed. He said something about a contact…”

“A contact?”

“A contact in Cornwall.”

“Oh, he meant a friend, I suppose.”

She nodded. Her mood had changed. She was smiling.

“We went in a train. It was lovely. I sat on Gramps’s knee … and then we came to Seashell Cottage. I loved it … because Gramps was there. He was there all the time. He was there when it was dark. I liked the sea too. I loved to hear it banging against the cliffs. I could hear it ever so loud in my bedroom at Seashell Cottage.”

“And then,” I said, ‘there was Perrivale. You soon became friendly with them, didn’t you? “

“Oh yes. Gramps knew them and they liked him a lot. Well, everybody likes Gramps. They liked my mother too because she’s so beautiful.

Then she was going to marry Cosmo and we were going to leave Seashell Cottage and live in the big house. She was ever so pleased. So was Gramps . though he wasn’t going to live there, but he was pleased all the same. Then Cosmo died while we were still at the cottage. He died in Bindon Boys and the murderer ran away, so everyone knew who’d done it. “