The Judas Kiss (10 page)

"The story of the marriage at the Cathedral bothered me," Garnet observed.

"How could Daddy do it?" Pearl murmured.

"We must not blame the parent too much," Jasper said. "Adelaide is a real good-looker, there is no getting away from that. She was Beauty Queen at Dinard and they know what beauty is there. He wanted her and that was the only way to get her. She jumped at the chance of an easy life. But the thing is this, what are we to do about it? In his will he called her his wife, which she is not. How does that affect things?"

"Of course it washes it all out," Emerald cried exultantly. "We get what is ours."

"It would certainly appear so," Garnet said.

Jasper smiled. "I thought that at first, but it seems I was wrong. I decided not to go to old Watson just yet, but on my way here I went to a solicitor chap I know and put the case to him. Using imaginary names, of course. You know the line in the will, Adelaide Michelmore formerly Adelaide Bidaut nee Pelmore. He said if the will was contested on those lines we should not stand an earthly. In law the point is who was meant? The description leaves no doubt as to that. Had our parent died intestate it would have been another matter, but the will is so explicit."

"You mean we are helpless?" Emerald said. "It is damnably wrong."

"Wrong as hell," Jasper declared, "but she may not know the will would stand and she may not like the truth to be blazoned abroad. The sooner we have a show-down the better. I suggest we send for her and you leave it to me. If I cannot squeeze something out of her I'll eat my hat, all our hats!"

"Does Watson know this?" Garnet asked.

"That they were not married? I feel sure not. I cannot see the parent telling him. My friend said that in these cases the woman sometimes takes the man's name by deed poll. Whether or not that was done I don't know, but it would not affect us. Let us go into the sitting-room and Pearl might invite her to join us."

"Me?" Pearl said.

"Certainly, my dear. You would be best. Just tell her I am back from St. Malo and would like to see her. I think that will work the trick."

Rather reluctantly Pearl went on her errand and returned to say Adelaide would join them in a few minutes.

"What will you say to her?" Emerald asked.

"Depends on how she takes it. I shall be friendly at first and then work it up. I have an idea what is fair and should satisfy her."

Adelaide entered the room. She had taken some trouble over her appearance and had seldom looked more beautiful. She was wearing a plain black satin frock sufficiently low in the neck to show the diamond star that had been their mother's. Pearl did not know if her father had said or done anything about it. She had not seen it since the night she had told him of her feelings. She wondered if Adelaide had put it on as a gesture of defiance.

"A family party," Adelaide said. She seemed a little surprised but was quite composed. "All to welcome Jasper."

"Not quite all," Jasper smiled. "We want to have a business talk."

"I cannot stop you, but I fear you will be wasting your time."

"I hope not. You see, Adelaide, I am just back from St. Malo."

"So Pearl told me. And you sold a picture. I congratulate you.

"Thank you. I also met, shall I say a very intimate friend of yours."

"Indeed? Who was it?"

They were all watching her. Did she lose a little colour or did they imagine it? Jasper, enjoying his big moment, did not hurry.

"It was quite by chance. We met at a café and over a drink he told me his name."

"Well?"

"He said he was Gaston Bidaut, though that was an assumed name for business purposes. By birth he was Arthur Smith."

"How interesting!" Her self-control was unshaken.

"I will not beat about the bush. Adelaide Bidaut was his wife. You assisted in his shop and there our father met you. You ran away with him. You did not marry, for if you had, it would have been bigamy. Neither of you wished to risk that."

She made no answer.

"You do not deny it. It would be useless to do so when I have such ample proof. Well, Adelaide, we do not want to be hard on you. In his will our father described you as his wife, but you were not. We would not wish to expose you and we have his good name to think of as well as yours. I suggest, and the others agree, some little re-arrangement of our affairs is called for."

Still she made no reply. Her hands were clenched and she bit her lips. It may be what he said was not entirely unexpected, but no words came.

"I take it you also will agree," Jasper said.

"What, what re-arrangement do you suggest?"

"In the first place you let us each have as soon as possible the five thousand pounds that is due to us."

She hesitated a moment. "I might do that."

"Good! Then I think for your own sake, as well as ours, you should vacate the house and surrender all claim to it. I am sure you will realise we cannot continue the pretence that you are our stepmother."

"Anything else?" She spoke with ominous calmness.

"Only one thing. We want to be fair and, if I may say so, generous. I propose that you execute a deed by which half the remaining income is made over to us. That will still leave you twelve or fifteen hundred a year as a reward for the brief period for which you were our father's mistress."

Then Garnet broke in. He had restrained himself so far with difficulty.

"I cannot live under the roof of a harlot!" he exclaimed.

Emerald, too, had her say.

"You will certainly have done well for yourself, Madame Bidaut, or should it be Mrs. Smith?" She put all the venom of which she was capable into the words.

Adelaide's manner suddenly changed. Her eyes, Madonna-like no longer, blazed with fury and red spots of anger showed in her cheeks.

"You brood of bastards!" she cried. "Now I will tell you something. George and I were not married, but neither did George marry your mother! What have you to say to that?"

"It is a lie!" Garnet said hoarsely.

"A lie?" she jeered. "How little you knew him! Where did they marry? When? Can you name a witness who was present at the wedding? Search the records, the registers, and produce a marriage certificate. I defy you to do it."

They were silent. For some moments they were too startled, too outraged, for words. Children never question their parents' marriage. They were trying to think back for some fact, some evidence, that would confute the vile assertion.

"Their wedding day was March 25th," Pearl said quickly.

"They had to celebrate it sometime!"

"The marriage was in Birmingham about twenty-eight years ago," Jasper asserted.

"Or in Wolverhampton," Emerald added.

"Both perhaps," Adelaide jeered. "I will tell you the truth as George told me. I promised him never to say a word of it unless you forced me to do so. Now you have. I say nothing against your mother. She was a good mother. She had been George's secretary and when he sold his business concerns he arranged for her to meet him in Cornwall, Falmouth I think it was. They wrote to their friends they had been quietly married and were going to Italy for their honeymoon. No one doubted it. They returned and were accepted without question."

She was speaking in a cooler, derisive manner. The others said nothing.

"Your father was a remarkable man, more virtuous perhaps than most. So far as I know he never wavered in his loyalty, but he had seen many marriages break up. He hated the words till death us do part. He liked freedom and independence. Your mother may have protested, but she loved him and she yielded. She made one curious condition. It was that if and when children were born, he should immediately take out an irrevocable fully-paid policy for five thousand pounds for each of them, payable at the age of twenty-one. So whatever happened, if anything came between her and him, the children would be provided for. George was a fair man and the idea appealed to his creed of independence. He agreed, and I understand you have all benefited by your mother's foresight. There is no occasion for you to apply evil names to her, even if you dare to do so to me."

She stopped. There was a strange stillness in the room. Each of the family had the feeling that what she said might be true, yet was entirely unwilling to accept it.

"That is your story," Jasper said at last. "It remains to be proved."

"Or disproved," Adelaide retorted. "You have only to find a record of the marriage and it will show your father lied to me. That I decline to believe."

"Our mother was a good woman," Garnet declared.

"I have always said so. It is the loyalty that counts, not the vows."

"Our mother never left her real husband."

These words, very softly spoken, were from Pearl. While Adelaide had been, speaking, she had been watching that diamond star, to her the symbol of motherhood, sparkling as it rose and fell with the agitation of the argument. She felt she hated Adelaide. She had loved both her mother and her father and she would not believe ill of either of them. Yet,

"She had no real husband," Adelaide said.

"I refuse to believe it!" the curate cried.

"So I should expect," Adelaide returned, in her calmer manner. "You will no doubt make your enquiries in Birmingham and Wolverhampton and perhaps Falmouth. Also, I suppose, at Somerset House. I hope for your parents' sake and for your own you will do it discreetly. Being illegitimate you have no claim. I do not propose to press that point but remember the text as to who should cast the first stone."

Garnet was silent. She looked at Emerald.

"As for you," she said, "I think we all know of your affair with Gore-Black, so I will not comment on it. If you are fool enough to marry him, I shall probably give you your money. You will need it."

Then it was Jasper's turn.

"I agree with you in one respect, Jasper. I am not going to blame you for prying into my affairs and trying to use the whip when you thought you held it. Your father was a wiser man than you will ever be, but there is this. It would be distasteful for me to live here with you. I shall move into the hotel in the town and will wait there while you make your searches. Then I shall probably go abroad. You will all have the money George meant you to have when I am convinced you deserve it. Not a penny before."

She stood up, facing a mirror, and with tantalising deliberation applied colour to her lips. Then in silence she walked from the room.

IT was three days later. Adelaide was still in the house but was to leave after lunch the next day. The Crompton Arms, the only hotel in the village, had not many guest rooms and they were generally let in the summer, but there would be a vacancy on the morrow. People might be curious as to why she left the family home but Adelaide decided it was for others to deal with that. She was busy packing with the grim assistance of old Nan.

Pearl was miserable, depressed and very much alone. She did not even go next door to see Penelope Ann. Ruth would undoubtedly have come to her had she had any idea of her unhappiness, but neither she nor Roger had heard of their neighbours' troubles. Jasper had already left. He had looked in at Oldways but had merely said he had to go to London on business and hoped he might start on the picture of Ruth and Penny directly he got back. He, of course, told of the sale of his works in France, but said nothing of the domestic complications.

Victor Gore-Black saw Emerald every day. Their book should be progressing! Garnet remained moody and aloof. When Pearl saw him he seemed hardly aware of her presence and did not speak.

That morning a letter had arrived from Jasper. It did not surprise her that he had written to her rather than the others as, although the youngest, she was most in the confidence of them all, so far as they were confidential. He wrote from an hotel in the Strand.

'No luck so far. I have already made some searches at Somerset House, but without result. I find it is no use going elsewhere. In the olden days people searched parish registers to find what they wanted, but that is all done away with now. Every marriage, whether in church or register office has been recorded at S.H. for many years. If I knew the precise day and year it would be easier. I have not yet given up hope.

'One has to recognise the fact that Adelaide's story may be true. She may have invented it to save her own face, but it may be true. What if it is? It does not really affect us. I mean it makes matters no worse. If we could not contest the will against her because it is so clear who was meant, we are equally safe. We, too, were meant as our father's children; no one can dispute that. But it is damnable that we should be dependent in any way on her.

'Chins up, my dear. Drop me a line if anything fresh happens and I will write you at once if I have good news. Here's hoping. Love.

'J
ASPER
.

After she received that letter Pearl met Garnet. He would have passed without speaking, but she stopped him.

"I have heard from Jasper. Would you like to see what he says?"

He held out his hand and she gave him the note. He read it and handed it back.