Charles Palliser (164 page)

“Aye!” cried the old man bitterly. “Escreet! Neither ‘Huffam’ nor ‘Mompesson’ though I am half of one and half of the other — and the only being upon this earth who can say that, now that old Lydia Mompesson is no more. My curse upon both those families.

And curse Paternoster for what he did ! Better to have left me in ignorance, but he used me like a piece in a game of chess. He contrived to have Jeoffrey Huffam take me into his service as his confidential agent without either of us knowing of the connexion between us. Then he persuaded me to marry his own daughter — an ugly squinting creature that nobody would take for the pitiful dowry that was all he could offer — with the promise to reveal something to my advantage. And what was it? Why, the secret of who my natural parents were. A bitter secret that was. I used to go down to Hougham on business for Jeoffrey at that time and once I knew my parentage and would see my half-brother James wasting his money on horses and women and gambling, and that great new house a-building, and that poor madwoman that they had driven insane … Well, it all preyed upon my mind, the injustice of it.”

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“So that is why you blackmailed Jeoffrey,” Mrs Sancious said.

“No, it wasn’t like that. When I told him I was his son he was delighted. By that time he was disappointed in his legitimate son and was pleased to have one whom he could trust.”

“That’s not true,” she returned. “You frightened him with the threat of a scandal for he had begun to be received at Court and had hopes of a title.”

“You’re lying!” the old man almost shrieked. “Why, as soon as I told him, he made a new will leaving me this house and a thousand pounds.”

“You forced him to,” she insisted. “He asked Paternoster for advice, not realizing that he was the very man who stood to gain because his daughter was secretly affianced to you. And a couple of years later Jeoffrey tried to annul his bequest of the money by adding the codicil to his will without your knowledge.”

“Another lie!” he cried. “He did that because he was worried that James would sell the property to Nicholas Clothier after his death. That is why he added the codicil entailing the estate on James.”

“Have you deceived yourself after all these years?” Mrs Sancious jeered. “Why was it that he concealed from you what he was doing if it was not that he was trying to disinherit you? But Paternoster told you and promised that he would make it all come right. And he said the same, didn’t he, even when your natural father was dying in the Spring of ’70 and made another will in which he cut you out altogether?”

“He did that in order to disinherit James in favour of his new-born grandson!”

“Yes, that too,” she conceded, but went on: “But he rescinded the bequest to you of this house, did he not? So when he died Paternoster and you removed the codicil from the first will and hid the second one, and got a reward from James for doing so for that meant that he inherited the estate outright and was able to sell it to the Mompessons.

And, of course, it also meant that you got this house and a thousand pounds.”

I recalled that the purloined will made no mention of the bequest of this house to Escreet. So that was part of the reason why it had been stolen!

“No, it was Paternoster who did it all!” the old man insisted. “I knew nothing of it.”

“You knew all about it,” she sneered, “for Paternoster and you had to bribe his clerk to keep quiet about what you had done and to say he witnessed Jeoffrey’s revocation of the codicil. And as part of the bargain made between you to keep his silence you affianced your young daughter to the clerk’s son. His name was Bellringer and Henry is the grandchild of that marriage and therefore your great-grandson. “

So that was Henry’s connexion with the old man! The final pieces of the puzzle were falling into place.

“Yes,” Escreet said. “Henry is my great-grandson, but you are wrong about the rest of it.”

“And that,” said Sancious, “is why he was as determined as you to get revenge on the two families and a share of the estate.”

“A share!” cried the old man. “By this time he has secured the whole estate!”

“What do you mean?” Mrs Sancious asked quite calmly. “How can that be?”

“He has married the Palphramond claimant,” the old man cried.

“Indeed?” she responded coolly.

“So do you think I’ll give up the will now that what I have hoped for all 760 THE

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my life is about to happen: my own family — my descendants! — are about to take possession of the Huffam lands? Be damned to you. What do you want with the will anyway?”

“Nothing at all,” Mrs Sancious said. “It must be destroyed.”

“Destroyed?” the old man gasped. “The only party who could want it destroyed must be … ”

He broke off.

“Yes,” she said. “I am the Maliphant claimant.”

So that was the explanation! That was why she was here! That was why Sancious had paid Barney to kill me! With Silas Clothier dead, the Maliphant claimant inherited the estate — so long as the Huffam line had failed! And, of course, that was why she and Sancious were married: she had the claim and he had the means to implement it.

“Henry warned me about you!” Escreet cried. “He told me how he had helped you to take care of your nevy because he stood in the way of an inheritance.”

Then I was right in suspecting that Stephen’s aunt had sent him to Quigg’s farm to die! And yet I had not guessed who that aunt was and that it was because of her that Stephen and I had been sent to the same place!

“You are rambling, old man,” she said coldly.

“Give us the will,” Sancious ordered.

“I won’t!”

“Give it to us,” Sancious repeated. “It is of no use to you, for your great-grandson has failed.”

“You’re lying!”

I heard the rustle of paper as Sancious said : “This will be on the streets at dawn.”

Then the old man’s quavering voice came faintly to me: “ ‘Baronet flees After Death of Cousin in Duel.
Sutton Valancy, Tuesday 2nd. December.
Sir David Mompesson, Bart., is believed to have fled the country after the death of Mr Henry Bellringer … ’ ”

He faltered and broke off. After a few moments there was another rustling and then Mrs Sancious continued: “ ‘… the death of Mr Henry Bellringer, understood to be a remote connexion of Sir David, in a duel between the two gentlemen. Mr Bellringer is reported to have eloped with Miss Henrietta Palphramond, and Sir David, who was opposed to the love-match because of his own attachment to the young lady, to have followed the lovers and to have interrupted the ceremony. Our correspondent states that the two gentlemen then fought a duel in which Mr Bellringer fell mortally wounded.’ ”

“Killed,” the old man said. “Killed by a Mompesson!”

“And now the Huffam heir will inherit if he gets hold of the will,” Sancious said. “Do you understand what I’m saying? It’s of no use to you now. Give us the will and we have a man waiting for a word from us to make the boy quiet.”

The old man said in a dazed voice: “So Umphraville is avenged.”

That was what Bellringer had said as he lay mortally wounded! What had he meant?

What did the old man mean now?

“What are you talking about?” Sancious asked irritably.

“He sent me after them,” the old man began in a dazed tone. “The two couples. He was bent upon preventing their marriages. He promised … promised to increase my inheritance. I rode day and night.”

“He is wandering in his wits,” Mrs Sancious remarked.

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I, however, was hanging on his every word, trying to fit this story to what Miss Lydia had told me.

“When I reached the Hall,” the old man continued, “it was in darkness. Then Umphraville came out and challenged me. I drew my sword and fought him. He was the better swordsman, but then she came running from the Hall behind me. She saw that I was in danger. She cried: ‘My son! My son! Watch out behind you!’ He believed she was speaking to him and turned his back on me, and I drove my sword home.”

There was a brief silence.

So that was the “extraordinary” cry — as Miss Lydia had called it — that the madwoman had uttered! She had recognised her child and seen that he was in danger. It was not John Umphraville but Escreet whom she was trying to protect!

Then the old man went on: “I did this for him. For the Huffam family. My family. The Umphravilles weren’t good enough to be allied to us. That’s what he said to me. But afterwards he was angry that I had failed to prevent James’ wedding to his harlot. And that I had killed Umphraville. And then Paternoster told me how he had tried to cheat me, to disinherit me of the house and money. I didn’t believe him until he showed me the codicil and the will he made while he was dying. And then I saw that while I was away from here on his business, he was trying to cheat me of my rights!”

Bellringer had referred to his great-grandfather being denied his rights! So that was the explanation of his words that had so puzzled me!

“After all I had risked! I had the right to be considered one of the family. That’s why I consented to help Paternoster when he made his suggestion. But we didn’t
steal
the codicil and the will. They were lies and I had the right to suppress them. And what pleasure it gave me to extort so much money from James for the codicil and later to sell the will back to the Mompessons! If I could not belong to them, then I wanted to exploit and destroy both families by setting them against one another as far as lay in my power.

So when I sold the will to them, I warned the Mompessons of the existence of the codicil so that they would know that they would never be safe. And many years later I tricked John Huffam into buying it from me, believing he was buying it from some third party.”

So all the time that my grandfather, John Huffam, had been saving money from his annuity and had then plunged into debt to old Clothier in order to buy the codicil, Escreet had it in his possession! The purchase of it through a third party that my mother had described had been another of his charades!

“So you murdered a man all those years ago, did you?” Mrs Sancious said. “But Umphraville is not the only one, is he?”

I felt my mouth go dry with excitement. What could she mean?

“Yes, the only one,” he protested. “Isn’t one enough for you? God knows, it is for me!”

“Give us the will,” Sancious hissed. “You don’t want the Huffam boy to inherit, do you?”

“No, but nothing would make me give it to you!”

“Nothing?” Mrs Sancious repeated. “Not even if I was to reveal what really happened on the last occasion you and I met?”

The last occasion! Now it occurred to me that of the people present in that house on the night of my grandfather’s murder — my mother, Peter Clothier, 762 THE

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Martin Fortisquince, Mr Escreet, and Mrs Sancious — the only two survivors were present once again. Except, of course, for the murderer himself. Perhaps I would learn something about what had happened that night. My heart began to pound at the thought.

“I don’t know what you are talking about,” the old man said.

“Then I will tell you,” she said. “I was suspicious from the first about that evening.

Why should Huffam have invited my husband and me after such a bitter division? And when I discovered that he had married his milksop daughter to the addle-pated young Clothier, I was more and more curious. Particularly when my husband told him he had brought something for him, and Huffam instantly turned the conversation as if he was anxious not to receive the gift so soon. What was in that package, I wondered? And when that quarrel broke out between Huffam and his son-in-law, why, I saw that it was a charade, though it deceived my gullible husband. So I resolved to watch very carefully.

When Clothier and his bride left the house I was puzzled, for I had so far seen nothing untoward. Then I had to withdraw upstairs while the gentlemen sat over their wine. And that was when my husband gave Huffam the package, as he told me later. Then you and he left my husband and went into the plate-room, Huffam saying that he was going to unlock the strong-box in order to put the package away. Now we all know what he was in fact doing: he was bringing out the codicil to give to you to pass on to his son in-law.

Is that not so?”

“Yes,” said the old man.

“But now we come to something that nobody knows except you and I. When Huffam said he was going to unlock the box, you had
to
leave the room since not even you were allowed to know where he kept the key hidden. And so you passed into the hall.”

“No!”

“Yes you did. You cannot deny it. Where do you imagine I was at this moment? Safely out of the way in the drawing-room upstairs? No such thing. I had come quietly down the stairs as far as the landing.”

“You are lying! You couldn’t have seen anything from there.”

“You can see a great deal. Do you doubt me? Then I will show you. Stand just here and I will go up to the landing.”

I heard footsteps and realized that Mr Escreet and Sancious were coming towards me.

I retreated, my heart pounding and possessed by a terrible fear of being caught like a thief in that house. The plate-room, whose door was behind me, was my only refuge.

Was it locked? To my relief, the door opened and I retreated into it, finding myself in near-darkness for the shutters were fastened. I left the door slightly ajar and, though I could see nothing, I could hear clearly.

Then I heard Mrs Sancious calling down from the landing: “I see you. Now do what you did then.”

There was a pause then she spoke again: “Come, do not be shy. Take it down.” After a pause she said: “Give it to him, Mr Sancious.” There was another silence and then she spoke: “You have it in your hand now. At this moment you are lowering it to the ground.

Do you believe me now? Well, no matter. Then you went back into the plate-room and a minute later — no, less than a minute, you came out again without the sword. I watched you go round to the front hall treading very quietly. I was intrigued, as you may THE KEY

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imagine. But I was even more puzzled by what you did now. You unlocked the vestibule-door with your own key and removed the great key from the street-door. Then you locked the vestibule-door again and hid the street-door key on top of that grandfather clock. Yes, I can see it from here. Then you waited for a few minutes, at intervals taking out your watch as if expecting someone. But you never thought to look up and peer into the shadows of the landing and see me, did you? After a minute or two I heard someone come in through the back-door and make softly towards the library. It was Clothier. Now I guessed that the whole point of the charade was to smuggle that package to him, but I was still perplexed by your conduct. Won’t you tell me now?”