The Reckoning (75 page)

‘
Congratulations, Harvey,' Rosamund said; and yet it
seemed a strange thing to say. Flaminia was dead – that was
one unalterable fact.

Harvey looked dazed. 'Thank you,' he replied, as though
he thought
that
was an odd thing to say, too. Yet conversation
had to be made – life had to go on. 'It has been the strangest
nightmare. I find it hard to believe it happened at all.'

‘
It's all over now, old fellow,' Marcus said bracingly. 'You
must simply put it behind you and start a new life.’

Harvey shook his head. His face was gaunt in the wintry
sunshine, and newly bare over the temples, and there were
deep lines at his mouth corners which Rosamund had never
noticed before. 'People will never forget,' he said.

When they reached home, it was a strange anticlimax to
pass through the cheering crowds, past the smiling servants,
and into the silent house. Barbarina was there to meet them,
smiling shyly, but Lady Barbara did not appear, purportedly
nursing her headache in her room, but in reality disapproving of the whole business, and believing that Harvey had brought disgrace on them all. Only Marcus knew that she had tried to
prevent him from bringing Penrith back if the trial went his
way.

‘
We don't want to be associated with him any further. Let
him go to his own place.’

But Marcus had been adamant, for once overruling his
mother determinedly. 'He hasn't a place in London, Mama.
You can't let the poor fellow go to an hotel all alone after
such an ordeal.’

Now in the hallway, Harvey looked round with the same,
dazed air, and said, 'Where's Polly?'

‘
In her room,' Barbarina said. 'She was feeling faint, so I
got Moss to put her to bed. She must know the verdict by
now from the cheers outside, but I'll run up and tell her
you're here.'

‘
Yes – thank you. I must see her,' Harvey said anxiously.
‘She has suffered so much.'

‘
A glass of something first,' Marcus said, ‘to put some
warmth into you. You look as grey as a ghost. Bab, my dear,
would you see if Polly is well enough for a visitor? And if so,
tell her Harvey will come up in half an hour?’

In the drawing-room, Harvey drew shivering to the fire,
and Marcus put a glass into his hands without comment, and
waited until the glass was empty before speaking.

‘
Have you thought what you mean to do now?' he asked.
‘You'll stay here tonight, of course, and for as long as you want. You must have business to conduct – you won't have
seen a lawyer since you came into the title – so I expect you'll
want to stay in London for the time being, won't you?’

Harvey nodded vaguely.

‘
If you prefer,' Rosamund said, 'you can use my mother's
house. It's fully staffed, and smaller and more comfortable
than this.'

‘
Thank you – you're very kind,' Harvey said. Marcus
refilled his glass, and he gulped at it and then seemed to pull
himself together. 'I suppose I will have to see George's man of
business, and find out how things have been left. I don't even know what funeral directions were made for poor old George.
I suppose they buried him in the family vault – I hope they
did all properly. I shouldn't like to think anything was
scanted or hurried over.'

‘
It was a rotten piece of luck, his dying like that,' Marcus
said inadequately. But there was, after all, very little one
could say to Penrith at the moment that would be either
tactful or cheering. Marcus was beginning to learn the sad
human truth, that grave personal misfortune is deeply embar
rassing to one's friends.

Harvey said, 'We didn't see eye-to-eye on many subjects,
but he wasn't a bad sort at bottom, and he was my brother.
My only brother. Now I have no-one.' He sighed and emptied
his glass. 'I shall have to go abroad,' he said. 'It would be
intolerable to have people stare at me and whisper about me
wherever I went.'

‘
Oh,
I'm
sure they won't,' Marcus said unconvincingly.

‘
They will,' Harvey said, and they both knew he was right. The lords may have acquitted him, but their ladies would not
invite him to dine.

‘
It might be a good idea for you to travel for a while,' Rosamund said, 'just until it all blows over. And it can only do you
good to get away from the scenes that hold sad memories for
you – see fresh sights, restore your spirits and so on.'

‘
Yes,' said Harvey. 'I shall go abroad, and take Polly with
me. At least now I can marry her,' he said with a ghastly
smile, 'and make things all right for her. That's the one good
outcome of this business. There's no-one now who can stop
me, no Papa or George to tell me she isn't good enough to be
a marchioness.’

Marcus and Rosamund didn't speak. There seemed
nothing that could be said in good taste at that point.

‘
I'd better go and see her,' Harvey said, putting down his
glass. 'Poor creature, she's had the worst of it! But I'll make it
up to her somehow, if it takes me the rest of my life.’

*

Polly was on the daybed in her room when Harvey came in, but when she saw him, she rose to her feet with a little cry,
and managed to take one step before he covered the rest of
the distance between them and took her in his arms.

‘
Oh God, Harvey, you're alive!' she cried incoherently as
he crushed her against him.

‘
My darling! My own darling!' he murmured, his lips
against her hair. For a long time all they could do was to hold
each other, weak with relief. At last she pushed him feebly
away, and he saw that she was fainting. He laid her gently
down on the daybed, and knelt beside her, clasping one of her
hands and chafing it gently while he gazed into her face,
waiting for her to recover.

At last her eyes fluttered open. 'Harvey, is it true? Are you
really here? I'm not dreaming?'

‘
No, my darling, you're not dreaming. It's all over now.
I've come back to you, and nothing will ever part us again.'
She said nothing, only stared at him in a troubled way, and
he began to grow apprehensive. 'What is it, my love? Why do
you look at me like that?'

‘
It's not over,' she said. 'It will never be over. People will
never forget.'

‘
They will, they will. It will take time, that's all. We'll go
abroad, travel for a few years, see all the sights of Europe
together, and when we come back –'

‘No!'

‘No what, darling?'

‘I'm not coming with you. All that's over, Harvey.'

‘
But what do you mean? I mean to marry you, Polly – to
make you my wife, my marchioness. You didn't think I
meant –?'

‘
I can't marry you, Harvey. I can't be with you ever again.'
He stared at her, astonished. 'You can't mean it. Why?
Why not?'

‘
Don't you see, if we do that, people will think that you
really did kill Minnie in order to marry me. They'll think I
knew about it, too. It will never be over, the talk will never
die. They'll go on believing we're murderers, and that we
escaped justice. Only if we never see each other again will
they come to believe you're innocent.'

‘What are you talking about? This is madness!'

‘
No, no it's not. The lords acquitted you, but the drawing-
rooms never will, as long as they see that there was a reason
for you to be rid of her. But if we part, they will know it was
all a mistake.'

‘
Polly, listen to me, you're upset, you don't know what
you're saying!'

‘
I know well enough.' She pulled her hand away from him,
her face set in lines of bitterness. 'I know what they've been
saying about us. I've seen the looks. They know we were
lovers. They know about our secret meetings. They know you
wanted to marry me, that you regretted marrying Minnie.
And they believe you killed her, and that I knew about it and
condoned it. And if we marry, it will confirm our guilt in their
eyes. We must part now, and never see each other again. It's
the only way. We must live in purity from now on, and purge
ourselves of this stain –’

He rocked back on his heels, staring at her with increasing perplexity as she spoke, and finally, at her last words, with a
dawning horror.

‘
You think I did it,' he whispered, stopping her in mid-
sentence. She stared back, her eyes dilating. 'You think I'm
guilty. It's true, isn't it? You really believe I murdered her.’

She didn't answer, only stared at him, wide-eyed, like a
cornered animal facing its death.

‘
Polly,' he cried suddenly, 'it's me, Harvey, don't you know
me? Do you really think I could do such a thing? Do you think
these hands –' he spread them before her, and she swayed
backwards away from them – 'these hands that have caressed
you could do murder?’

He reached out for her, and she shrank from him, shaking
her head slowly.

‘
You never came,' she whispered suddenly. 'Week after
week we never saw you – and then suddenly you were there all the time. And the babies died, and Minnie died, and now
you're the marquess, and –’

Tor God's sake,' he cried aloud, 'do you think I killed
them all? Is that what you think?'

‘
I don't know,' she whispered. 'I don't know what I think
any more. But, oh Harvey, where were you while I was asleep
at the inn?’

He opened his mouth to answer her, and then seemed to
see the hopelessness of the situation, and closed it again. He
shook his head and stood up, and his eyes filled with tears as
he looked at her one last time, and then turned away.

‘
I'll leave you then, if that's what you want,' he said, his
voice muffled. He waited, but she didn't speak again, and he
went to the door, let himself out, and closed it quietly behind
him.

*

The Times
carried the story of the acquittal in a report enti
tled
The Ostler or the Gentleman?,
and the very fact of the
question-mark seemed to suggest that there was still a ques
tion mark over Penrith's innocence.