The India Fan (26 page)

hey were known as the happiest couple in the neighbourhood. Jack was a seaman. Neighbours tell how his wife used to wait for his return and how each time he came home it was another honeymoon for them. Why should she then have decided to take her life by consuming an overdose of laudanum? It was because she could not face the consequence of a reckless act which took place during one of Jack absences at sea.

ouble Suicidewas the next headline.

iriam could no longer tolerate the situation in which she found herself and decided she could no longer go on living. So, carefully writing two lettersne to Jack and one to the coronerhe confessed to the killing of Janine Fletcher. In that to her husband she gave her reasons for doing so.

love you, Jack.

he letter she wrote to her husband explained what happened. One night when Jack was at sea she had been persuaded by friends to go to a party. She had not wanted to and, little realizing that she was setting out on a path which would lead to misery and finally death, unused to alcohol, she took too much and was unaware of what was happening to her. Some person took advantage of the poor girl state and seduced her with the result that she became with child. Miriam was desperate. How to tell Jack? Would he understand? She greatly feared that he would not. Her happiness was in ruins. She tried to plan a way out. She had heard of Mrs. Fletcher Nursing Home in the New Forest. It was expensive, but discreet. She decided there was no alternative but to go there and get the child adopted when it arrived. Janine Fletcher, known as the niece of the owner of the nursing home, was there when Miriam had her baby. Janine knew her secret. The child was born and adopted.

Miriam came home to put the past behind her. And so she did, until Janine Fletcher turned up in her life.

t is not an unfamiliar story. Janine wanted money to keep quiet. Miriam paid once or twice and then she found she could not go on paying. Greatly she feared the consequences. She could not face telling Jack. She acquired a gun. She went to Janine rooms and shot her dead. She managed to get away without being seen. But she realized she could not live with such a secret, so she wrote those letters.

tar-Crossed Lovers.

hey were Romeo and Juliet. He came and found her dead. He read her letter. He was prostrate with grief. He would have understood. He would have forgiven. Perhaps they would have found the child and he would have been a father to it.

oo Late.

he had killed Janine Fletcher. She must have realized, while she might have lived on weighed down by the sin of adultery, she could not by that of murder. So the star-crossed lovers died, and the mystery of who killed Janine Fletcher is solved.

Fabian called later in the morning.

oue heard the news?he said.

es,I said. was deeply touched.I remembered Miriam so well. I remembered her misery and I thought how cruel life had been to her.

ou seem shaken,he said.

knew her. She was there when we were there. She was such a gentle person. I cannot think of her as a murderess.

t closes up the case. We can breathe more easily now. Good God! It would have been certain to come out. Lavinia could have been caught up in all this. So could you. I was daily expecting something to be disclosed. And now it all over.

I said, he loved her husband deeply. And he must have loved her. He could not contemplate living without her. She made a deep impression on me.

he must have been an unusual woman to take that gun and shoot her enemy.

t all seems so unnecessary. If only she had told her husband! If only Janine had tried to work for her living and not turned to blackmail! If only Lavinia had not been carried away by that man!

f only the world were a different place and everyone in it perfect, life would be simpler, wouldn it?He smiled at me ruefully. ou look for perfection,he went on. believe you will have to do with something less. I am going to cheer you up. I am going to suggest that you have luncheon with me. I think we have something to celebrate. The case is over. I can tell you I have had some uneasy moments!

or Lavinia,I said.

or you also.

had nothing to fear.

t is never good to be connected with what is unsavoury. It leaves something behind. People remember vaguely. They forget details who was who what part they played. It is a great relief that it is over.

can stop thinking of Miriam.

he took what she thought was the best way out of her dilemma.

nd destroyed her life and that of her husband.

las. It was her choice. It is a sad story. I will call for you at twelve-thirty.

Polly was pleased by the news.

y goodness, it gave me the willies thinking what was going to happen next and now you are going to lunch with him.She shook her head. ou want to be careful with that one. I wouldn trust him as far as I could throw a goose feather.

hat might float in the air for quite a long time, Polly.

t would come down pretty soon, I reckon. Take care.

h, Polly, I will.

Over luncheon he treated with the utmost deference. He was in good spirits. Naturally, he had never met Miriam, and her tragedy meant little to him except an ending to a situation which could have become dangerous.

sn it strange?he said. ou and I have been acquainted since you were two years old and it is only now that we know each other. It took this little matter to bring us together. I very much regret that I shall soon be leaving England.

ou are going to India?

es, by the end of the year or the beginning of next. It is quite a journey.

ave you ever done it before?

o. But I have heard a great deal about it. There are always people at the House connected with the East India Company and they discuss it constantly.

ou will go part of the way by ship, of course.

ne has to decide whether one will take the long haul round the Cape or disembark, say at Alexandria, and take the trek across the desert to Suez, where one can board an East Indiaman.

hich you will do, I suppose.

e take that route, yes. It saves time, but I believe crossing the desert can be a little hazardous.

am sure it will be of the utmost interest.

feel certain of that, too. But in a way I shall be sorry to leave England.

He smiled at me significantly and I felt myself flushing faintly. I could not forget that time when he had, as I believed, made a rather veiled suggestion to me.

don know when your friend Dougal, our bridegroom, will be coming out,he went on. e was to have done so, but it may be that his new commitments will keep him in England.

hereabouts is the ancestral home?

ot very far from Framling. I would say some forty or fifty miles.He looked at me intently. daresay you will be invited to visit. Perhaps you will enjoy that.

He had a way of insinuating meaning into his conversation. He implied that he knew of my feelings for Dougal and was translating them into aspirations and hopes. I felt indignant. It was a mood I was often verging on with him.

f course, the newly married couple may wish to be alone for a while, but doubtless that will pass. Then I am sure you will be an honoured guest.

avinia will have new interests. I daresay she will have little time for me.

ut you and Dougal were so interested in antiquities. It is hardly likely that he will lose his enthusiasm for those after the first delights of marriage are over.

t remains to be seen.

s so much does. You are very philosophical.

did not know that.

here is a great deal we do not know about ourselves.

He began to talk about India and the Company. He thought he might be away for several years. hen I come back,he said, ou will have forgotten who I am.

hat hardly likely. Framling and its inhabitants have dominated the village for as long as I can remember.

erhaps you will have married and gone away I wonder.

t seems hardly likely.

hat seems unlikely today can be inevitable tomorrow.He lifted his glass and said, o the future yours and mine.

He was disturbing. He was implying that he knew I had cared for Dougal and that I was sad because Lavinia and Lady Harriet had taken him from me. I could not explain to him that, though I liked Dougal and we had been good friends and I had perhaps been a little piqued because he had seemed to forget me when he had been overwhelmed by Lavinia beauty, I was far from heartbroken.

He leaned forward across the table. o you know,he said, have always had a special interest in you?

eally?

He nodded. ver since I kidnapped you and took you to Framling. Did you ever hear how I cared for you during those two weeks?

I did hear of it.

on you think there is some significance in that?

he significance is that you were a spoilt child. You had a whim. I was there and I did as well as any other, so you took me to your home and because you had to be indulged you kept me there away from mine.

He laughed. t shows a purposeful character on my part.

ather that you were surrounded by those who allowed you to indulge your whims.

can remember it. A little baby. You weren much more. I enjoyed my part as the father figure and what I am saying is that it gave me a special interest in you. That natural enough.

believe you have a natural interest if a fleeting one in most young women.

He laughed at me. hatever you say, I think our little adventure makes a special bond between us.

I shook my head. othing of the sort.

ou disappoint me. Don you feel it?

o,I replied.

rusilla, let be friends good friends.

ne can make friendship to order.

ne can give it a chance. We live close together. We could see a great deal of each other. This incident has brought us closer together, hasn it?

hope it has taught you a little about me that you did not know when you jumped to certain conclusions.

t has taught me a good deal about you and I am eager to learn more.

I thought I knew what he was leading up to not quite so crudely as he had done once before when he came to conclusions about me but it was there all the same.

In my mind eye I could see Polly warning face. She did not trust him. Nor did I.

I started to talk about India and he told me more about that country, until I said it was time I left.

I was surprised at myself. I did not want the luncheon to end. Yet I knew Polly was right. I must beware of this man.

When I returned to the house she studied me a little anxiously. I must have shown signs of the elation his company always seemed to inspire in me.

I could not stay with Polly indefinitely. In due course I had to return home.

The wedding day was close.

Lavinia was caught up in a whirl of excitement. I went over to see her and she greeted me with a show of affection and talked excitedly about the wedding and the honeymoon until she was able to get me alone.

h, Drusilla,she burst out, f you only knew what I went through.

thers did, too, Lavinia.

f course. But I was just going to get married.

oor Miriam went through a good deal.

ancy her doing that! I couldn believe it.

oor girl. She came to the point when she could endure no more.

was terribly worried. What if the police had put my name in the paper! They did have bits about me but in a different way. You know they called me the most beautiful debutante of the year.

had heard it.

ougal was very proud. He adores me, of course.

f course,I said.

t going to be such fun. We are going to India.

o both you and your brother will be there.

She grimaced. e been a bit touchy about all this business. Lectured me about Fleur and all that. I told him I arranged for her to be well looked after. What else could I do?

ou might have brought your daughter home and looked after her.

on talk nonsense. How could I?

ake a confession, turn over a new leaf and become a devoted mother. Fleur is lovely.

s she? Perhaps Il go and see her one day.

olly wouldn want you to. She say it was unsettling the child.

nsettle her to see her mother!

ertainly, when that mother has left her with others to get her out of the way.

h, shut up. You talk like Fabian. Ie had enough of that. It over. Miriam saw to that.

he was certainly your benefactress.

hat a funny way of seeing it.

t how you see it. Can you imagine the anguish she suffered?

he ought to have told her husband.

s you have told Dougal?

hat different.

verything that happens to a Framling is different from that which happens to other people.

top it. I want to talk to you about the wedding. Wee going to Italy for our honeymoon. Dougal wants to show me the art treasures.She grimaced.

Poor Dougal! I thought. Then I felt an anger against him. How could he have been so stupid as to marry someone who was so utterly incompatible as Lavinia was?

How self-centred she was! She had hardly spared a thought for Miriam, except to be gratified because she had removed the one who was a threat to herself.

I had daydreams at that time. I dreamed that Dougal realized his mistake, that he came back to the rectory to resume our pleasant friendship, that the relationship between us strengthened.

It was strange that there were three men who were important in my life. There was Colin Brady, who would be prepared to marry me because it would be so convenient and a step towards acquiring the living, with which my father was rapidly becoming too ill to continue; there was Fabian, who had hinted clearly that he would like to indulge in some sort of relationship with me an irregular one, of course. Marriage would not come into it. I had no doubt that Lady Harriet, who had so capably acquired a noble title for her daughter, would have even greater ambitions for her son. He might resist, of course; he would not be so malleable as Lavinia. Lady Harriet must have realized by now that her adored son had as strong a will as her own. That was something I should remember. Just suppose he really did care for me, he would only have to decide to marry me. Lady Harriet, outraged and bitterly disappointed as she would be, would have, nevertheless, to bow to his wishes. It was impossible. He might be sufficiently attracted to me to enjoy a light love affair, but there could be no question of a marriage between the heir of Framling and the humble girl from the rectory. And then there was Dougal. Dougal had the manners of a gentleman and the morals, too. I could have been proud to care for Dougal. I could have shared his interests. But he had seen beauty and succumbed. If I were wise I should agree with Polly and say to myself: I have been lucky. Suppose it had happened later when I had become more deeply involved?