Mary Westmacott - Giant's Bread

‘Stay with me. Oh! please stay with me.’

He couldn’t understand why her face should suddenly twist with pain. What was there in what he had said to make her look like that? He said again: ‘Don’t leave me. Stay with me.’

She sat down again beside him and took his hand in hers. She said very gently:

‘I won’t go away.’

He felt soothed – reassured. After a minute or two, he dozed again. He woke quietly this time. The room was as before and his hand was still in Jane’s. He spoke diffidently:

‘You – you aren’t my sister? You were – you are, I mean – a friend of mine?’

‘Yes.’

‘A great friend?’

‘A great friend.’

He paused. Yet the conviction in his mind was growing stronger and stronger. He blurted out suddenly:

‘You’re – you’re my wife, aren’t you?’

He was sure of it.

She drew her hand away. He couldn’t understand the look in her face. It frightened him. She got up.

‘No,’ she said. ‘I’m not your wife.’

‘Oh! I’m sorry. I thought –’

‘It’s all right.’

And at that minute Sebastian came back. His eyes went to Jane. She said, with a little twisted smile:

‘I’m glad you’ve come … I’m – glad you’ve come …’

Jane and Sebastian talked long into the night. What was to be done? Who was to be told?

There was Nell and Nell’s position to consider. Presumably Nell should be told first of all. She was the one most vitally concerned.

Jane agreed. ‘If she doesn’t know already.’

‘You think she knows?’

‘Well, evidently she met Vernon that day face to face.’

‘Yes, but she must have thought it just a very strong resemblance.’

Jane was silent.

‘Don’t you think so?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘But hang it all, Jane, if she’d recognized him, she’d have done something – got hold of him or of Bleibner. It’s two days ago now.’

‘I know.’

‘She can’t have recognized him. She just saw Bleibner’s chauffeur and his likeness to Vernon gave her such a shock that she couldn’t stand it and rushed away.’

‘I suppose so.’

‘What’s in your mind, Jane?’

‘ We recognized him, Sebastian.’

‘You mean you did. I’d been told by you.’

‘But you would have known him anywhere, wouldn’t you?’

‘Yes, I would … But then I know him so well.’

Jane said in a hard voice: ‘So does Nell …’

Sebastian looked sharply at her and said, ‘What are you getting at, Jane?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘Yes, you do. What do you really think happened?’

Jane paused before speaking.

‘I think Nell came upon him suddenly in the garden and thought it was Vernon. Afterwards she persuaded herself that it had only been a chance resemblance that had upset her so.’

‘Well – that’s very much what I said.’

He was a little surprised when she said meekly:

‘Yes, it is.’

‘What’s the difference?’

‘Practically none, only –’

‘Yes?’

‘You and I would have wanted to believe it was Vernon even if it wasn’t.’

‘Wouldn’t Nell? Surely she hasn’t come to care for George Chetwynd to such an extent –’

‘Nell is very fond of George, but Vernon is the only person she’s ever been in love with.’

‘Then that’s all right. Or is it worse that way? It’s the deuce of a tangle … What about his people? Mrs Deyre and the Bents?’

Jane said decidedly: ‘Nell must be told before they are. Mrs Deyre will broadcast it over England as soon as she knows, and that will be very unfair to both Vernon and Nell.’

‘Yes, I think you’re right. Now my plan is this. To take Vernon up to town tomorrow and go and see a specialist – then be guided by what he advises.’

Jane said Yes, she thought that would be the best plan. She got up to go to bed. On the stairs she paused and said to Sebastian:

‘I wonder if we’re right. Bringing him back, I mean. He looked so happy. Oh, Sebastian, he looked so happy …’

‘As George Green, you mean?’

‘Yes. Are you sure we’re right?’

‘Yes, I’m pretty sure. It can’t be right for anyone to be in that unnatural sort of state.’

‘I suppose it is unnatural. The queer thing is he looked so normal and commonplace. And happy – that’s what I can’t get over, Sebastian – happy … We’re none of us very happy, are we?’

He couldn’t answer that.

Two days later Sebastian came to Abbots Puissants. The butler was not sure that Mrs Chetwynd could see him. She was lying down.

Sebastian gave his name and said he was sure Mrs Chetwynd would see him. He was shown into the drawing-room to wait. The room seemed very empty and silent but unusually luxurious – very different from what it had looked in his childish days. He thought to himself, ‘It was a real house then,’ and wondered what exactly he meant by that. He got it presently. Now it suggested, very faintly, a museum. Everything was beautifully arranged, and harmonized perfectly, every piece that was not perfect had been replaced by one that was. All the carpets and covers and hangings were new.

‘And they must have cost a pretty penny,’ thought Sebastian appreciatively, and priced them with a fair degree of accuracy. He always knew the cost of things.

He was interrupted in this salutary exercise by the door opening. Nell came in, a pink colour in her cheeks and her hand outstretched.

‘Sebastian! What a surprise! I thought you were too busy ever to leave London except at a week-end – and not often then!’

‘I’ve lost just twenty thousand pounds in the last two days,’ said Sebastian gruffly as he took her hand. ‘Simply from gadding about and letting things go anyhow. How are you, Nell?’

‘Oh, I’m feeling splendid.’

She didn’t look very splendid, though, he thought, now that the flush of surprise had died away. Besides, hadn’t the butler said she was lying down, not feeling well? He fancied that her face looked a little strained and haggard.

She went on:

‘Sit down, Sebastian. You look as though you were on the point of going off to catch a train. George is away – in Spain. He had to go on business. He’ll be away a week at least.’

‘Will he?’

That was a good thing anyway. A damned awkward business. Nell had simply no idea …

‘You’re very glum, Sebastian. Is anything the matter?’

She asked the question quite lightly, but he seized upon it eagerly. It was the opening he needed.

‘Yes, Nell,’ he said gravely. ‘As a matter of fact there is.’

He heard her draw in her breath with a sudden catch. Her eyes looked watchful.

‘What is it?’ she said.

Her voice sounded different – hard and suspicious.

‘I’m afraid what I’m going to say will be a great shock to you. It’s about Vernon.’

‘What about Vernon?’

Sebastian waited a minute. Then he said:

‘Vernon – is alive, Nell.’

‘Alive?’ she whispered. Her hand crept up to her heart.

‘Yes.’

She didn’t do any of the things he expected her to do – didn’t faint, or cry out, or ask eager questions. She just stared straight ahead of her. And a sudden quick suspicion came into his shrewd Jewish mind.

‘You knew it?’

‘No, no.’

‘I thought perhaps you saw him – the other day – when he came here?’

‘Then it was Vernon?’

It broke from her like a cry. Sebastian nodded his head. It was as he had thought and said to Jane. She had not trusted her eyes.