The Mask of the Enchantress (34 page)

She seems to want to persecute Saul Cringle. She finds fault with everything on the farm. She acts very strangely. One night I saw her coming in late. It was raining and she was wet through. I went out to meet her and she was very angry with me. ook here, Esmond Mateland,she said, f youe going to spy on me, I won marry you. I never marry a man who spied.

All day Susannah has hardly spoken to me. She came to my room last night. She had on a robe and nothing else. She took it off and slipped into my bed. She kept laughing. She said, f youe going to marry me youl have to get used to this.Oh, Susannah.

I really could not read any more. He dead, I kept telling myself. I am prying into what is for him alone.

I was not surprised that Susannah had gone to his room like that. Her sensuality was at the very heart of her attraction. There was promise in the looks she cast in the direction of those she wished to enslave; and I had a notion that if the whim took her she would not be averse to keeping that promise.

I wondered how it had been with her and Philip. But of course she had been going to marry Esmond.

I did not want to read any more. And yet I felt impelled to. If I were going to play my assumed character to perfection I must know exactly what she was like. The effect she had had on Esmond told me a good deal; and I had seen her with Philip.

How had I ever thought that I could be Susannah!

I put together the estate papers and the diaries. I must take them to my room and study them closely.

I locked the bureau, replaced the key in the vase and shut the door of Esmond room quietly behind me.

I sat up in bed that night reading through the estate papers. I was sure I should now be able to ride round the estate and talk to people as though I knew them. I was filled with a new confidence. I tried out some of my newly found knowledge on Emerald and I was sure that I did very well. It was easy with her though; she was not one to concern herself with the people on the estate, except of course to provide them with coal and blankets for Christmas and hot cross buns at Easter (a quaint custom which had been carried out for more than a hundred years at Mateland and had been established by a well-meaning dowager) and a goose at Michaelmas. Not that she concerned herself with acquiring these benefits, but she did order that they should be distributed. I supposed I should do that now.

I chatted knowledgeably with Janet, who nodded her head with an air of approval, making me feel like a child who has learned her lessons well.

The next days passed smoothly and I spent the mornings riding round the estate. I stopped and visited some of them, confident in my newly acquired knowledge. Old Mrs. Bell dusted a chair for me and began to tell me about the roof which leaked.

t is in hand, Mrs. Bell,I was able to tell her. he thatcher will be along very soon.

h, Miss Susannah,she cried, l be right glad, I will. It ain nice to be in bed and not be knowing whether the rain is coming in on you or not.

I replied that I was sure it wasn and she must always let either me or Mr. Carleton know if there was anything else that needed to be done.

less you, Miss Susannah,she said.

ee going to look after you now, Mrs. Bell,I assured her.

ell, that nice. Youe come back different, Miss Susannah, if you don mind me saying so Softer like. Mr. Esmond he was a soft kind sort of gentleman, always promising though not always doing if you know what I mean. Praise God, it will be different now.

shall do my best to make everyone comfortable,I replied. t a pity if they are not in such lovely surroundings.

h, it beautiful, miss. That what I said to Bell when we come here it fifty years ago, miss.

I said I hoped there would be another fifty years for Mrs. Bell in her cottage and that made her laugh. ou always were a caution, but if you don mind me saying so, youe a nicer kind of caution now youe come back.

I came out feeling lighthearted. At least they liked me better than they had Susannah.

After Mrs. Bell, I visited the Thorns. This was a bedridden woman with her daughter Emily, who must have been in her late forties. The daughter was a thin scrawny mouse of a woman, small, with quick movements, graying hair and little dark startled eyes that moved fearfully as though in search of danger. I knew the situation from Esmond diaries. She had been a lady maid in a good position until her father died and her mother had become crippled with rheumatism. Then she had to come home to look after her mother. She made a living by doing fine embroidery and making garments for a shop in Mateland, which suited her because she could bring her work home. Poor Miss Thorn, I felt so sorry for her.

She was very nervous when I arrived and she looked at me as though I were some prophet of doom.

only visiting the estate, Miss Thorn,I said. want to know how everyone is getting on, you see.

She nodded and ran her tongue round her lips. She was a frightened woman. I wondered why. I must try to find out without too much obvious probing. Poor Miss Thorn, she was like a frightened mouse.

As I sat talking to her there was a banging on the ceiling. I looked up startled.

hat my mother,she said. he wants something. Will you excuse me a moment, Miss Susannah? Il go and tell her youe here.

I sat looking round the little room with the open fireplace and the table covered with a worn but clean red tablecloth on which lay what I presumed to be needlework wrapped up in tissue paper. I could hear the drone of a voice upstairs, going on and on.

After five minutes Miss Thorn reappeared.

sorry, Miss Susannah,she said. was explaining to my mother that you were here.

ight I see her?

ell, if you would wish to.

I was not sure whether I should have said that or not. I guessed at once that it was not the sort of thing Susannah would have said. Miss Thorn startled look assured me of that However, she rose and I followed her up the stairs. The cottages were more or less all alike. Two rooms downstairs with a kitchen and a staircase leading out of the back room and circling up to the two rooms above.

In one of these lay Mrs. Thorn, a large woman who bore a likeness to her daughter in looks, but there the resemblance ended. I saw at once that Mrs. Thorn was a woman who would have her own way. That accounted for her daughter cowed looks. It was easy to see that Mrs. Thorn was the dominant character.

She peered at me and for a moment I thought she was going to accuse me of being an impostor.

ell, it good of you to bother, Miss Susannah, I sure,she said, nd not expected. It the first time anyone from the castle has come to visit me.She gave a little sniff which I gathered implied resentment. ot much good to anyone since I got so crippled with the rheumatism. Since Jack Thorn went Ie no right to be here, I suppose.

h, Mrs. Thorn, that no way to talk. I sure Miss Thorn won let you think that.

h, her Mrs. Thorn threw a malevolent glance in her daughter direction. ave up her career, she did, to come and look after her old mother. That something we ain going to forget in a hurry.

he keeps the cottage beautifully,I said, feeling the little mouse daughter was in need of protection from her fierce if crippled mother.

inick, that what she is a regular finick used to living in mansions, that what it is waiting on highborn ladies.

I was growing sorrier and sorrier for the mouse every minute.

t was a terrible thing that overtook me, Miss Susannah. Here I lay day in, day out. Can move a muscle without pain. I don get out. I don know what happening. I didn hear Mr. Esmond had died till a week after it happened. And when there was all that talk about his first illness and Saul Cringle did what he did well, I didn hear of that either. Things like that make you feel shut off if you know what I mean.

I said I did and I sympathized wholeheartedly. I had come to see if all was well with the cottages.

verything is in order,said Miss Thorn hastily. do everything I can.

can see that,I reassured her. t all looks very neat and orderly.

Miss Thorn said nervously: hey say there are going to be changes now youe come back, Miss Susannah.

or the better, I hope,I said.

r. Esmond was a very kind landlord to us.

es, I know.

I rose and took my leave of Mrs. Thorn. Miss Thorn conducted me down the stairs and stood at the door, her eyes pleading. verything is taken good care of,she repeated. do my best.

I wished I knew what was worrying her. I intended to find out.

I rode away and discovered that I was quite near the Cringles The farm and its inmates fascinated me. I wondered about Saul. I could picture him, his eyes sullen as he cut the hedge and Susannah taunted him. She had taken a dislike to him, wanted to tease him, show him, I supposed, that he owed his livelihood to the castle.

I dismounted and tied my horse. A boy ran past. He paused to look at me.

I said: ello.

He just turned and ran off.

I walked up the path to the farmhouse thinking: I shouldn have come. It is not very long ago that I called with Jeff Carleton. I thought of quick excuses. I would ask what Jacob (that was his name) had thought about leaving Gravel Three Acres fallow now that he had had time to consider the matter.

I knocked. The old man was sitting in his chair and Mrs. Jacob was washing down the wooden table and a young woman was tying onions into bundles and setting them in a tray.

h, it Miss Susannah again,said the woman.

The girl looked at me with a pair of beautiful brown eyes, which nevertheless had a haunted look.

just came,I said, o see if you had made a decision about the field.

aint for us to make decisions,said the woman. t for us to listen and do as wee told.

don want it to be like that,I protested. ou know so much better about the farm than I do.

acob says that if it lies fallow wel be short of a crop, and if it ain so good as it might be, it still a crop.

oue right there,I agreed. think Jacob and Mr. Carleton ought to get together and make a decision.

ive Miss Susannah a drop of your cider, Carrie,said the old man.

h, wouldn be good enough for the likes of her.ome of us was good enough once,commented the old man wryly; and I wondered what that meant. et it, girl,he shouted to the young girl who was dealing with the onions. o on, Leah,said the woman.

The girl rose obediently and went to the cask in the corner. I did not want the cider but I thought it would be impolite to refuse and heaven knew they were touchy enough already.

t her own make,said the man, nodding towards the woman. nd it good stuff. Youl enjoy it, Miss Susannah. That if youe not too proud to drink with the likes of us.hat nonsense!I cried. hy should I be?here folks as don always have to have a reason,commented the old man. ook sharp, Leah.

Leah was turning the tap of the cask and filling a jug with golden liquid. A pewter tankard was brought to me. I tasted it. I didn like it much but I realized that I had to drink it or offend the Cringles even more than they seemed to be already, so I put my lips to the tankard and sipped. It was strong stuff. They were all watching me intently.

mind you when you was a little n,said the old man. hat years ago when your uncle was alive and your father was here. It was afore he ran away after murdering his brother.

I was silent but I felt very uneasy. I could feel the hatred in the man and the woman. It was different with the girl. She seemed preoccupied with her own thoughts. She was a dainty, pretty creature and her eyes reminded me of a fawnig, appealing and alert, like Miss Thorn, looking for danger.

I knew instinctively that she was pregnant. There was just the faintest, almost imperceptible bulk below her waistut it was something in her expression. I could have sworn I was right. I said: o you live here with your husband?

I was unprepared for the effect those words had. She flushed scarlet and looked at me as though I were a witch with supernatural powers to search her mind.

ur Leah husband! She got no husband!

o II not married.She made it sound as though it were a major calamity.

Just at that moment I was aware of a shadow at the window. I turned sharply. I saw a flash of dark clothing and then whoever had looked in was gone.

My uneasiness increased. Someone had been at the window watching me. It is always disconcerting to be watched when one is unaware of it.

here was someone there,I said.

The woman shook her head. ne of them rooks flying past the window, I reckon.

I did not think it had been a rook but I said nothing.

o,went on the woman, ur Leah is not married. She sixteen. Shel wait a year or so yet, and when she does shel not be living here. This farm wouldn support no more. Why, you reckon we don do well enough as it is.

don reckon that, Mrs. Cringle.

hen I reckon it something what brings you here, Miss Susannah. We rather you told us outright.

want to get to know everyone on the estate.

hy, Miss Susannah, youe known most of us all your life. Of course, there was that time when you went away when Mr. Esmond was took bad and come near to dying and our Saul

ush your tongue, woman,said the old man. iss Susannah don want to hear about that. I reckon that the last thing she wants to hear about.

think we want to turn to the future,I said.

The old man gave a hoarse chuckle. hat a good way, miss, when the past don bear looking into.

The cider was indeed strong and they had given me a large tankard. I wondered whether I could in politeness leave it. No, I decided, they were too prickly as it was.

I drained the tankard and rose to my feet. The cider was evidently potent. The farmhouse kitchen was looking a little hazy. I was aware of them all watching me with a sort of sly triumph. Not the girl though; she was indifferent; she had too many problems of her own to care for victory over me. I could understand that if she were in fact illegally pregnant. I imagined what that would mean in a household like that.

I was untying the horse when the boy I had seen on my arrival ran up to me.