The Silent Pool (5 page)

Back at Ford House, Janet took her way along the left-hand corridor at the stair head. Knocking on the end door, she was bidden to enter by a voice which didn’t sound as if it belonged to Meeson. She came into a large L-shaped room with the sun pouring in through two of the four big windows.

Adriana Ford lay on a couch on the shady side. Cream brocade cushions propped her. She wore a loose wrap of the same material trimmed with dark fur. A green velvet spread covered her to the waist. Janet must have seen these things as she came in, because she remembered them afterwards, but at the time she was only aware of Adriana herself – the fine skin, very carefully made up, the great eyes, the astonishing dark red hair, cut short and square. There was no effect of age, there was no effect of youth. There was just Adriana Ford, and she dominated the room.

Janet came up to the couch. A long, pale hand touched hers and pointed to a chair. She sat, and Adriana looked at her. It could have been unnerving, but as far as Janet was concerned, if Adriana wanted to look at her she was welcome. She certainly hadn’t anything to hide. Or had she? Ninian walked in among her thoughts and angered them. Her colour rose.

Adriana laughed.

‘So you are something more than a brown Scotch mouse!’

Janet said, ‘I hope so.’

‘So do I!’ said Adriana Ford. ‘We’re a terrible household of women. That is what one comes to — we start with women, and we go back to them. And I’m lucky with Meeson – she was my dresser, you know, so we can enjoy ourselves talking about old times. And I didn’t think then I’d be cast for a part like this – the Interminable Invalid! Well, this doesn’t amuse you. Star sent you down here to look after her brat. Has it treated you to one of its screaming fits yet?’

Janet showed a dimple.

‘She only screams when she can’t have something she wants.’

‘It’s a simple code! I’ve told Star a dozen times the creature ought to go to school. She’s quite intelligent, and she’s too old for Nanny. Well, I suppose you’ve met everyone. Edna is the world’s worst bore and Geoffrey thinks so. Meriel wants the moon and she isn’t likely to get it. We’re an odd lot, and you’ll be glad when you can leave us. I’d be glad enough to get away myself, but I’m here for keeps. Do you see much of Star?’

‘Off and on,’ said Janet.

‘And Ninian?’

‘No.’

‘Too busy for his old friends? Or just the changeable kind? I hear he made a hit with that queer book he wrote. What was it called – Never to Meet. No money in it of course, and no sense, but just a flash of genius. All the clever boys who were at college with him patted him on the back and wrote him up, and the Third Programme did a dramatized version which I don’t suppose I should have listened to if it had been by anyone else. His second book has got more stuff in it. Have you read it?’

Janet said, ‘No.’ She had made herself a promise about that, and found it hard to keep. Not to read his book was a sign and symbol that she had turned Ninian from her door. Out of a corner of her mind there came the whispered echo from Pierrot’s song:

‘Ouvre moi ta porte

Pout l’amour de Dieu!’

Janet fetched Stella at half past twelve, and was presented with a programme for the rest of the day.

‘Now we go home, and you brush my hair, and look at my hands and say you can’t think how I get them so dirty, and I wash them, and you look at them again, and then we go down and have lunch. And after lunch I have my rest – only if it’s fine I have it in the garden on a li-lo with a rug. You can have one too if you like. Aunt Edna does, but Nanny says it’s a lazy habit. The rugs are in the nursery cupboard, and we must always remember to bring them in.’

They went out after lunch, across the green lawn and through a gate into a garden with a pool in the middle of it. There was a stone seat, and a summerhouse, and a yew hedge which kept the wind away. Beyond the hedge there were tall hollyhocks that topped it, and borders bright with phlox and marigold, snapdragon, gladiolus, a late tangle of love-in-the-mist, and the high plumes of golden rod. In the summerhouse there were garden chairs, and a locker full of cushions and li-los.

Stella directed the proceedings with zest.

‘We’ll have lots of cushions. You can sit on the seat, and I’ll have my li-lo by the pool. It’s my favourite place. Sometimes there are dragonflies, and nearly always there are frogs, but Nanny doesn’t care about them. And when we are quite comfortable you can tell me about getting lost in the mist.’

The sun was warm, the sky was blue. A green dragonfly hovered above the pool like a quivering flame. Janet saw these things with the eyes of her body, but with the eyes of her mind she climbed and stumbled in a mist on the slopes of Darnach Law with Ninian’s hand on her shoulder steadying her.

Stella’s high voice chimed in.

‘Wasn’t Star there?’

‘No. She had a cold. Mrs Rutherford wouldn’t let her go out.’

‘What a pity.’

‘She didn’t think so. We were wet through. There is nothing that soaks through everything like a mist.’

Stella said in a sleepy voice,

‘Star doesn’t like to get wet.’ She yawned and snuggled down among her cushions. ‘I do. I like to get all soaked – and come in and have a lovely fire – and hot – buns – for – tea—’ Her voice trailed away.

Janet watched her, and saw the sleeping face relax, the cheeks softly rounded, lips parted, and eyelids not quite shut. With all that restless energy gone, there was a defenceless look. She wondered whether Stella was climbing Darnach Law in a dream.

She began to wish that she had brought a book. She had not expected to have time for reading, and she did not care to go and fetch one now, in case Stella should wake and find herself alone. She fell to watching the dragonfly. It had settled now, and clung motionless to a sun-warmed stone. She had never seen one so near before – the brilliant eyes, the gauzy wings, the long apple-green body, and all that shimmering motion stilled.

There was a step on the paved path. Ninian Rutherford came through an arched gap in the hedge and said with a question in his voice,

‘Nature study?’

It was an extremely charming voice – fit, as his old Scotch nurse used to say, to wile a bird from her nest. It had wiled Janet once, but she was armed against it now. Or was she? She looked up and met his laughing eyes. If there was something behind the laughter it was gone before she could be sure of it. They might have met yesterday and parted the best of friends. The two-year gap was to be ignored.

He came round the pool and sat down beside her.

‘Well, how are you getting on, my jo Janet?’ It was the old jesting name, the old jesting tone. ‘And what were you looking at?’ He sang under his breath:

‘Keek into the draw well,

Janet, Janet.

There ye’ll see yer bonnie sel’,

My jo Janet!’

She said in her most matter-of-fact tone,

‘I was watching a dragonfly. I had never seen a green one before. Look!’

But he was looking at her.

‘Have you been slimming? You’re a bit on the thin side.’

‘If I’m here for a fortnight I shall probably have to slim. The milk is practically cream, and Mrs Simmons is a wonderful cook!’

He laughed.

‘It’s the one bright spot. Honestly, darling, you’ll be bored stiff. It was like Star’s nerve to push you into looking after her brat! But whatever possessed you to let her do it? I’d have seen her at Jericho! But you never did have any sense.’

The colour rushed into her cheeks.

‘If there’s one thing I’ve got, it’s just that!’

‘Sense?’ His eyes teased her. ‘You haven’t got as much as would lie on the edge of a sixpence – not if it means looking after yourself and seeing people don’t exploit you, and not working your fingers to the bone for them!’

She lifted a pair of small brown hands and let them fall in her lap again.

‘I wouldn’t just call them worked to the bone myself.’

‘Metaphorically speaking, they are. It’s just what I said – you’ve no sense. You let Star foist this job on you, and you let that fellow Hugo work all the flesh off your bones, the damned ass!’

‘He is not a damned ass!’

‘He is – and a poseur into the bargain!’

He was as dark as Star was fair. Janet suddenly realized that Stella was like him. There was the same nervous energy, the same black frown, and the dark spark of anger in the eyes. It danced there now as he leaned towards her and said,

‘You don’t know how to fight for yourself— that’s the trouble with you! You would be a bonnie fighter if you’d give your mind to it — I give you that! But you don’t! You’re thinking about the other person all the time, or you’re being too proud to bother!’

Just where were they going? They both knew well enough what he meant when he said she was too proud to fight. She had been too proud to fight for him. If he wanted Anne Forester, it wasn’t Janet Johnstone who would crook a finger to beckon him back.

‘Ninian, you’re talking nonsense.’

‘And why not? I can talk better nonsense than that if I’ve a mind to!’

He had leaned near enough to give her the feeling that she was hemmed in, his arm along the back of the seat, his slim length easy. She put out a hand to hold him off, and he laughed.

‘Ninian, you’ll wake Stella.’

He said in a laughing voice,

‘Well, I don’t want to do that! Let sleeping tigers lie! How do you get on with her?’

‘Very well.’

‘Had one of the famous screaming fits yet?’

‘She only has them when she’s bored.’

‘So she won’t have one with you – is that it?’

‘Of course.’

‘Our sainted Edna is enough to bore anyone. No wonder Geoffrey strays. And her face was her fortune, you know. At any rate it was all the fortune she had. So why on earth Geoffrey married her just has to take its place as one of those insoluble mysteries along with the Man in the Iron Mask and Who Killed the Princes in the Tower! It’s pretty certain Richard didn’t, because if he had, Henry VII would have tumbled over himself to accuse him after the battle of Bosworth. I hope you admire the versatility of my conversation. Or perhaps Hugo is so brilliant that no one else can compete!’

Janet allowed the dimple to come out. It was an attractive dimple.

‘You don’t get much brilliant conversation when you are taking things down in shorthand.’

‘You don’t mean to say you take down all that tripe in squiggles and dashes!’

‘Dashes are Morse, not shorthand.’

‘Darling, I can’t believe it. Shorthand! The only thing I can think of that would be worse would be a clattering typewriter, or Bernard Shaw’s reformed spelling! It would dry me right up!’

The dimple remained. Janet said nothing.

He struck the back of the seat with his hand.

‘This is where you ask me how I do my stuff!’

‘But I know — on odd bits of paper, all up and down and across, and someone has to sort it all out for you.’

‘I have to do it myself, darling. Janet, it serves you right!’

‘How does it serve me right?’

‘You might have had the job for keeps, but no, you went into a huff and walked out. I’m not angry you know – I’m just sorry for you having to take down that stuff of Hugo’s.’

‘It’s very good stuff.’ She spoke soberly. The dimple had disappeared.

Ninian ran an enraged hand through his hair and said,

‘All right, it is, then! And so what? You work for him, and you don’t have to bother with my wretched bits and pieces! He’s a best-seller, and I’m not and probably never will be, so it’s all for the best! And you wouldn’t change your job for the world!’

Janet looked at him calmly. There was something gratifying about being able to put Ninian in a rage. She said,

‘It’s a good job.’

‘Oh, quite a labour of love!’ The hand that had been laid along the back of the seat shot out and took her by the wrist. ‘Is it?’

‘Is it what? Ninian you’re hurting!’

‘Is it a labour of love? I don’t mind in the least whether I’m hurting you or not! Does he make love to you – does he kiss you?’

She looked down at the brown hand, which felt more like a handcuff than reasonable flesh and blood. But then, when was Ninian reasonable? Her lips trembled, but she would not let them break into a smile. There was a decided increase in her Scottish lilt as she said,

‘It wouldn’t be your business if he did.’

The grip on her wrist tightened. She wouldn’t have thought it possible, but it happened – quite painfully.

‘Does he?’

‘You’re breaking my wrist!’

He laughed.

‘That would put a stop to the shorthand!’ He let her go as suddenly as he had snatched at her. ‘You shouldn’t make me angry! You’ve got the trick of it, and I suppose you like playing cat-and-mouse with me!’

‘I do not!’

‘Well, you’d better be careful, or one day you’ll go too far!’

He looked past her and saw Stella’s eyes fixed on him. That she had only just opened them was apparent. They were still dark with sleep, the pupils contracting visibly as the light reached them. She said, ‘Ninian—’ in a wavering voice. She had come out of a dream, and he was there. She stared, scrambled up, and flung herself upon him.

Meeson came knocking on the nursery door just as Stella was ready for bed.

‘Please, Miss Johnstone, Miss Ford would like you to come up and have coffee with her after dinner. She is not coming down tonight.’

It was a royal summons and admitted of no refusal.

As she went downstairs half an hour later she found Ninian at her elbow.

‘So we are bidden to the presence. You seem to have made a hit with Adriana.’

Janet frowned.

‘Have you seen her?’

‘Oh, yes – I have the entrée. The polite guest loses no time in paying his respects to his hostess.’

‘You’re not staying here!’

‘Darling, where else? I do, you know, from time to time. Adriana and I are buddies, and after all she is “my aunt”, as our dear Edna says. A horrid title – even Stella won’t use it!’

The meal was certainly enlivened by Ninian’s presence. He placed himself between Edna and Janet and kept a stream of conversation flowing. Geoffrey responded, Edna thawed, and really things might have been very pleasant if it had not been for Meriel, who sat wrapt in silence, her gaze set darkly upon Ninian’s face. It was plain that she resented his choice of a seat and the fact that she had not been quick enough to reach the place next to him in time to take it from Janet, who had been sitting on that side of the table at previous meals. Meriel had been last into the room, and she just hadn’t had a chance. By the time she was in a position to see what was happening Ninian was pulling out Janet’s chair and fairly putting her into it. There was nothing left for Meriel to do but fall into a gloom.

It was halfway through dinner before she suddenly found her voice and, leaning half across the table, began to remind Ninian of this, that, and the other.

‘That dance at Ledbury – wonderful, wasn’t it? Do you remember, you said I was the best dancer in the room?’ She gave a low reminiscent laugh. ‘Not that it was such a very great compliment, because of course most English women can’t dance at all – no fluidity, no grace, no temperament. You know, I always feel I might have done something with my dancing if Adriana had recognized my possibilities and had me trained – one must begin young. But of course she was entirely taken up with her own affairs – she always is. And now it is too late.’ Her eyes dwelt soulfully upon Ninian, her voice went down into tragic depths.

He extricated himself deftly.

‘Oh, well, you would soon have got bored with having to practise seven or eight hours a day. A great deal too much like hard work, I should say.’ He turned to Geoffrey. ‘Did you see that Russian girl when she was over? I thought she was pretty good myself.’

As they came out of the dining-room, Ninian announced to all and sundry,

‘Janet and I have got to tear ourselves away. Coffee with Adriana.’

‘Do you mean she asked you – both of you?’ Meriel’s voice was angry.

‘She did.’

‘I shouldn’t have thought she would go out of her way to ask a stranger.’

‘Wouldn’t you? But then you don’t think very much, do you?’

She said,

‘What’s the use? It doesn’t get you anywhere.’ Her eyes were suddenly imploring.

Janet looked away. She murmured an excuse to Edna and turned towards the stairs. After no more than half a dozen steps Ninian came up with her. She waited until the hall below was empty before she said,

‘All she wants is to have a scene. You shouldn’t bait her.’

‘There is nothing for her to have a scene about.’

He glanced sideways at her. Her head was high. She looked, not at him, but straight ahead. She said,

‘Do you expect me to believe that you haven’t been flirting with her?’

He gave a rueful laugh.

‘I don’t know about expecting you to believe it, but it happens to be the truth. As you say, all she wants is to have a scene, and it doesn’t very much matter what it’s about. She’s bored stiff, and she wants a spot of limelight and a nice juicy emotional part. Honestly, she scares me! I’d as soon flirt with an atom bomb!’

Janet said severely, ‘Why doesn’t she get herself a job? I’m not surprised she’s bored down here with nothing to do.’

He laughed.

‘Better keep off telling her that if you really don’t want a scene!’

‘Why?’

‘You’re being stupid. A job would mean work, and our darling Meriel has no urge to work. Money to spend and nothing to do, with rows of admirers helping her to do it – that, quite frankly, is her ambition. And she’ll never leave Adriana, because out of sight could be out of mind, and she might get left out of The Will. That is all we think about in this house, darling. No one knows how much Adriana has got, and nobody has any idea who is going to get it when she is gone, so naturally no one thinks about anything else. Geoffrey would like a flat in town and his freedom. Edna dwells fondly on the thought of a nice little all-electric house full of the gadgets from exhibitions like Beautiful Homes For The Million. Meriel wants a film world in which she glides about in marble halls and sleeps on a tiger skin.’

‘And you?’ said Janet. ‘What do you want?’

‘What I can get.’

They had reached the top of the stairs and were standing there. His voice had a very undermining sound in it. She said,

‘It used not to be money.’

He laughed.

‘We’ve changed all that. Every sensible person wants money.’

‘A sensible person knows that you have to earn it.’

‘Janet, you’re a prig!’

‘I daresay.’

‘It’s a revolting thing to be.’

She made a small pushing movement with her hands.

‘Very well then, away with you!’

He burst out laughing.

‘Come along! We’re keeping Adriana waiting.’

They found her on her couch, the velvet spread drawn up to her waist, rings on the long pale fingers, no other jewelry except the double row of pearls. The coffee had not yet arrived. She wanted to talk to them first. She would ring for it when she was ready.

‘And I’ll see you one at a time to start with.’ She spoke to Ninian. ‘You can go into my dressing-room and wait. There’s a comfortable chair, and a book of my press notices.’

He laughed.

‘Do you think I need press notices to tell me how wonderful you are?’

The door shut. Janet was waved to a chair. She thought, ‘It’s like being in some kind of a queer dream.’ And then Adriana was saying,

‘I am going to ask you a question. I want an honest answer to it. Is that agreed?’

There was no change in Janet’s face, or in her voice as she said,

‘It would depend on what you asked me.’

‘Meaning you wouldn’t undertake to be honest?’

‘I mightn’t know the answer.’

‘Oh, I think you would, or I shouldn’t be asking. Well, here it is. You and Ninian and Star grew up together. There isn’t much that children don’t know about each other, and I want to know just how far you think Ninian is to be trusted.’

Janet sat there silently. Adriana’s eyes searched her. The question echoed in her mind. In the end she said,

‘There are different kinds of trust.’

‘That is true. Did he fail you?’

Janet did not speak. After what seemed like a long time Adriana said,

‘That is not my affair? I suppose not. But this is – would he fail me?’

‘I don’t think so.’ The words sprang to her mind, to her lips. She gave them no conscious thought. They were there.

Adriana said,

‘You didn’t take long over that. In other words, he would play fast and loose with a girl, but he wouldn’t pick a pocket.’

Janet said, ‘No, he wouldn’t pick a pocket.’

Adriana’s voice went deep.

‘Sure about that? He wouldn’t play a lying part for money? He wouldn’t try and scheme, and pull strings for his own advantage.’

Janet heard her own voice very clear and steady,

‘Oh, no, he wouldn’t do that.’

‘Why?’

‘It isn’t in him.’

‘As sure about it as that?’

‘Oh, yes.’

‘That is how you thought of him when you were children. How do you know he hasn’t changed?’

‘I should know it if he had.’

Adriana laughed.

‘Well, you don’t beat about the bush, anyhow! How well do you know Robin Somers?’

If Janet was startled, she did not show it. If the change of subject was a relief, she did not show that either. She said,

‘It’s two years since I’ve seen him.’

One of Adriana’s pale hands rose and fell.

‘That is no answer at all. It’s two years since Star divorced him. How well did you know him before that?’

Janet considered.

‘I used to see him – not very often. He could be charming.’

‘Did he charm you?’

‘Not very much.’

‘What did you think of him?’

‘I don’t see that matters, Miss Ford.’

‘I don’t care about being Miss Ford. Call me Adriana. And if it didn’t matter, I shouldn’t be asking you.’

Janet said, ‘I didn’t like him very much. I thought he was selfish.’

Adriana laughed.

‘Men are — and so are women.’

‘He was making Star unhappy.’

‘Was he fond of her?’

‘In his own way’

‘And of Stella?’

‘I suppose so.’

‘And what do you mean by that?’

‘Well, he didn’t bother about her, did he? She was down here, and he was up in town – how often did he come and see her?’

‘Not very often.’

Janet said with finality,

‘She talks about Ninian, but she doesn’t talk about her father.’

Adriana smiled.

‘That might mean that she cares too little – or too much. She is an odd child – it might be quite difficult to tell. Well, you don’t like him, and he made Star unhappy, and of course that damns him!’ The smile mocked her. ‘Would you take his word about anything?’

There was no hesitation at all about Janet’s ‘Oh, no.’

Adriana laughed.

‘So now we know! Well, that’s all for the moment, and it’s your turn for the dressing-room. Send Ninian in. You needn’t read the press notices if you don’t want to.’

She found Ninian absorbed in them and reluctant to put them down. He went through to the sitting-room with a laughing ‘I’m like all her other adorers, I can’t be torn away!’ As he shut the door between the two rooms, Adriana said sharply,

‘Don’t stand there muttering behind my back! What did you say?’

‘Oh, just that I couldn’t put your notices down. The critics certainly did you proud.’

‘Well, I was good — I was damned good. And the gallery could hear my lowest whisper, which is more than you can say about practically anyone on the stage today. Oh, yes, I was good all right. And now I’m a has-been, and no one cares how good I was.’

He came and sat down beside her.

‘Darling, don’t wallow! I know you get a kick out of it, but I don’t. You enriched your generation, and what can anyone do more than that, I don’t know. It’s an achievement – and how many people achieve anything at all?’

She put out a hand, and he lifted it to his lips and kissed it lightly.

‘Well, what do you want with me?’

‘Oh, just to ask you a question or two.’

His dark eyebrows rose.

‘About?’

‘About that girl Janet.’

‘What about her?’ His eyes still smiled, but she thought they had a wary look. He said, ‘Darling, her life is an open book – there is simply nothing to tell. She is one of those incredible creatures who just go on doing things for other people and not bothering about themselves.’

‘It sounds dull.’

‘She is a great deal too intelligent to be dull.’

‘Well, you have made her sound as if she had all the dull virtues.’

‘I know. But she isn’t dull. You didn’t really think so yourself.’

‘You would say, then, that she was reliable?’

‘Do you see Star having her down here to look after Stella if she wasn’t?’

‘Star isn’t exactly a model of common sense.’

‘No, but she knows Janet. When you’ve grown up with people there isn’t much you don’t know about them.’

‘Would you say she was a good judge of character – Janet, I mean, not Star.’

‘Oh, yes, she looks right through you and out at the other side. At least that is what she has always done with me.’

Adriana’s large dark eyes were fixed upon him. She said with devastating frankness,

‘Why didn’t you marry her?’

‘You had better ask her.’

‘No use – she wouldn’t tell me.’

‘And what makes you think that I will?’

‘Are you going to?’

‘Oh, no, darling.’

She said,

‘You might do worse. All right, go and fetch her in. And tell Meeson we are ready for our coffee.’

When Meeson came in with the tray she had a beaming smile. It was plain that she thought the world of Ninian. He jumped up, put an arm round her, and told her she got better looking every year, to which she replied that so did he — ‘And get along with you, ducks! No good telling the tale to the old uns. They’ve heard it all before, and if they don’t know what it’s worth by now they never will. All the same, I always did say if there’s a dangerous time in a woman’s life, it’s when she’s just about made up her mind she’s been through the wood once too often and come out with the crooked stick.’

‘Gertie, you talk too much,’ said Adriana.

‘When I get a chance I do – stands to reason! Nobody wants just to stand and look on, now do they – not if they can help it! All right, all right, I’m going!’

‘No, wait! You made the coffee up here?’

‘On me own gas ring.’

‘And where did you get the milk?’

‘Out of the big jug in the fridge. And the sugar is what I got in Ledbury last time I went shopping there for Mrs Simmons. So what?’

Adriana waved her away, and she went out, shutting the door with some unnecessary force.

Ninian raised his eyebrows.

‘And what is all that about?’

‘Oh, nothing at all.’

‘Meaning if I don’t ask questions I won’t be told any lies?’

‘If you like to put it that way. Do you still take all the sugar you can get?’

‘I do. Especially when it’s the fancy barleysugar kind. I’ll even go so far as to have Janet’s share when she’s given up taking it.’