Виктория Холт - The Captive

“What happened after?” I asked.

“My mother came back and she was better then. Her friends had done her good. Then she was engaged to Stepper and they were married and we went to Perrivale Court. I wished Gramps could come with us. But he went to the Dower House. He said it wasn’t far away and I’d know where he was.”

“And you never met the friends your mother went to?”

“Nobody ever talked of them. I know they lived in London.”

“Did your mother or Gramps tell you that?”

“No. But it was the London train they went on. It always is at that time. I know they got on that one because Mrs. Drake took us to see it off. Gramps had taken me to her the night before. I said I wanted to see them off so Mrs. Drake took me to the station and I saw them get on the train.”

“They might have got off somewhere along the way.”

“No. I heard them talking about going to London.”

“And Gramps came back and left your mother there.”

“He was only away one night. But she was gone what seemed like ages. It might have been about three weeks. I don’t remember much about time. But I know how ill she was when she went. she didn’t smile at all. “

“She must have been very ill.”

She nodded and started to tell me about the shells she and Gramps had found on the beach.

I had been up to see the Dowager Lady Perrivale on two or three occasions. Our chats were not very rewarding. I had hoped to discover something as she rambled on about the past and the days of opulence in her native Yorkshire.

I was always hoping for an opportunity to talk to Maria, and as Maria hoped for it too, it was inevitable that one day it should come about.

One day when I went up, I was greeted by Maria who put her fingers to her lips and said with a wink: “Her ladyship is fast in the land of nod. But come in. Miss Cranleigh, and we’ll wait for her to wake up. I never like to rouse her. Another bad night, you see. I always know by the look of her. Roaming about, I expect … looking for something that’s not there. In any case she can’t get at the matches, I see to that.”

We sat opposite each other.

“My word,” she went on.

“You and Miss Kate are getting on better than ever. Thick as thieves, you two are.”

“I think we understand each other. She’s not a bad child.”

“Eee. I wouldn’t go as far as that, but she’s better since you’ve been here. That’s for certain sure.”

“And how has Lady Perrivale been?”

“Up and down. One day she’s clear enough … all there, you might say and the next she’s a ha’porth missing. Well, she’s getting on in years can’t last much longer, I shouldn’t wonder. When I think of her in the old days. Mistress of the house, she was. And then, hey presto! overnight, she’s like a different person.”

“Perhaps she was very fond of Sir Edward and the shock of his death was too much for her.”

“Quite the reverse, I should have said. They weren’t exactly what you’d call a Darby and Joan. Oh dear me, no. There was differences between them … right up to the end, I can tell you. I heard them arguing something shocking. She was in tears. He was laying down the law. I couldn’t quite catch …”

I thought that was a pity, and so clearly did Maria.

“He died about the time of that shocking affair, didn’t he? I mean the killing in the farmhouse.”

“Oh yes … the murder. He was on his deathbed then. I don’t think he knew much about that, though. He was too far gone. Well, you wouldn’t go to a man on his deathbed and say, ” Your son’s been murdered and by the boy you brought into the house. ” I mean to say, nobody would tell him that. He didn’t know anything about it. Passed away soon after.”

“It’s a very strange case, don’t you think, Maria?”

“Well, murder’s murder whichever way you look at it.”

“I mean it was a very mysterious affair.”

“Jealousy, that’s what it was. He was jealous of Cosmo. Some said he was sweet on the present ladyship. Well, you’ve got to admit she’s a handsome body.”

“Very handsome. You told me that Sir Tristan was fond of her before his brother died.”

She winked and nodded.

“A funny business. But then love is a funny thing. She seemed all right with Cosmo. Well, she would be, wouldn’t she? But I reckoned it was all pretence. I could see there was something between her and Tristan. You feel it, you know. That’s if you know anything about such things.”

“I heard someone say she was very ill and went away for a few weeks and when she came back she was her old self.”

“I think that was just before the murder … just before. I noticed

she was beginning to look a bit… well, if she’d been married, I would have said she might have been expecting …”

“And when she came back … ?”

“Well, then it happened. It must have been a week or so after, as far as my memory takes me.”

“And then she married Tristan.”

“Well, it was some months after. They couldn’t rush into it quite as fast as that. It was fast enough, though.”

“Do you think she was relieved because she could have Tristan and the title and everything?”

Maria frowned. I thought: I’m going too far. I must be careful. Lucas warned me of this.

“Oh, I couldn’t say that. Mind you, I believe there was something between her and Tristan, so I suppose she’d rather have had him. Cosmo was one for throwing his weight about. He was the great Cosmo. He’d be Sir Cosmo one day … only he didn’t live long enough for that. The tenant farmers didn’t like him much. They liked Tristan better… so she wasn’t the only one. It was a quiet wedding. It had to be, didn’t it? Her ladyship was chuffed when they married, though. She thought such a lot of Mirabel. She’d wanted her for a daughter-in-law. You should have seen her and the Major together. Well, she’d always had a soft spot for him, hadn’t she?”

“Yes, I believe you said she had.”

“I knew that. Her ladyship’s mother was supposed to be her best friend but there was a bit of jealousy there. It was over the Major .. only he wasn’t a major then. I didn’t hear what he was … but he was always a bit of a charmer. Her ladyship was Jessie Arkwright then.

She used to talk to me while I brushed her hair. She was sweet on him just like her friend was. “

“You mean the schoolfriend who married him?”

Maria nodded.

“There was a time when I thought it would be Jessie who married him. But old Arkwright put his foot down, thought the charming young man was after Jessie’s fortune. I thought it was the schoolfriend he really wanted, but of course, like a lot of them, he had his eyes on old Arkwright’s money. Well, Jessie had had a lot of her own way, but where his money was concerned, old Arkwright had his own ideas. Jessie was not going to throw herself away on an adventurer who was after his money, he said. If she did marry him, there’d be no money. Poor Jessie was heartbroken, but she married Sir Edward, became Lady Perrivale and came down here. And the Major married the schoolfriend. That’s how it was. And then all those years later, when his wife was dead and he had a daughter herself married with a little girl, and he wrote renewing his friendship with her ladyship. She was over the moon with joy and wanted him to come down here. Seashell Cottage was found for them… and ever since, she’s looked on Mirabel as her daughter.”

“She wasn’t jealous because the Major had married her friend?”

“She’d got over that. The friend was dead and the Major was here.

She’s pleased to have Mirabel now as her daughter-in-law . and the Major’s always in and out. “