Destiny's Path (36 page)

When he’d gone she turned to Orla. ‘Do sit down. You must be exhausted too. She’s been very difficult to manage lately.’

Orla nodded and sank down on the end of the bed. ‘She’s gone quite mad now, hasn’t she, ma’am?’

‘Yes.’

‘Then I don’t have to work for her any more, do I?’ She bent her head and began to weep, her shoulders shaking. ‘I’m free.’

‘You could have worked for someone else before now, if you’d wanted to,’ Livia said, a bit puzzled as to why a maid would stay with an unpleasant mistress in a country so short of maids that a dozen people would have come offering Orla a job if they’d known she was available.

‘I didn’t dare. If she’d written to the new master, they’d have turned my family out of their house. She made sure I knew that.’

‘Oh, Orla, it wasn’t true. I’m sure it wasn’t. It might have been with the old master, but he’s dead and I’m sure Conn’s brother would never turn them out. Conn speaks well of him, says he’s kind. You’ll easily find another job. I’d employ you myself, but I don’t have the money to pay you at the moment. You can stay on here for as long as you like and I’ll give you a good reference. At least you’ll have a roof over your head and you won’t go hungry.’

‘What will happen to Mrs Kathleen?’

‘I fear they’ll have to lock her away. What else can you do with someone like that?’ After a moment or two she stood up. ‘We should get dressed while we can.’

About an hour after it got light, Conn heard the sound of a cart approaching. He went outside and saw Reece driving his ugly but capable mare round to the back of the house, with Leo sitting in the cart behind him. He went out to see what had brought them across so early in the morning and his heart sank when he saw his wife lying bound in the tray of the cart, glaring at them.

As soon as she saw him she began cursing and screaming abuse, thrashing around till she’d tossed off the blankets and revealed her nakedness.

Reece let Leo go to the horses’ heads and jumped down from the cart. ‘I’m sorry, but Kathleen’s gone completely mad. She took off all her clothes and tried to get Leo into bed with her. Livia couldn’t get her to see sense. It took the three of them to hold her down and tie her up. We tried to get her dressed, but she struggled so we gave up. She’d already scratched and bitten people, so in the end we just covered her up.’

He waited till Conn had taken this in, then added, ‘Livia sends her apologies. She can do no more to help you. And Orla is terrified to go near Kathleen, so she’s staying at Westview with Livia.’

Conn looked down in horror at his wife, whose madness showed in her eyes, as well as her behaviour. ‘What am I going to do with her now? We don’t have enough people to keep her under control, and no one here is nearly as strong as Leo.’

‘Even Leo couldn’t look after her on his own. We had to give her laudanum and it’s worn off now. We don’t have much left, I’m afraid but I brought the bottle for you.’

Conn forced himself to go up to the cart, wincing as Kathleen cursed and spat in his direction. ‘What the hell am I going to do with her?’ he repeated in a whisper.

‘There’s only one thing you can do,’ Reece said quietly. ‘Take her to the new Lunatic Asylum in Perth.’

‘Lock her away?’

‘Can you think of any other solution?’

Conn shook his head.

‘You’ll need to set off as soon as you can. Already she’s soiled herself and we daren’t untie her.’

An hour later, Conn set off, taking Leo with him to help keep Kathleen under control. They had a little more laudanum but were saving it for when they got to areas with more people, hoping to keep her subdued.

Nancy watched them go, keeping an eye on her mistress, who had tears in her eyes. She’d never wish this to happen to her worst enemy and the wild rage in Mrs Kathleen’s eyes had shocked and upset her, as it had everyone.

‘Has she always been strange, that one?’ she asked Maia.

‘She’s never been – normal. Mrs Largan said once that Kathleen’s aunt was just the same, always strange and went quite mad as she grew older. Only I can’t help thinking . . . what if something I did caused this?’

‘You weren’t even there.’

‘But she knew about me and Conn, and I could see how that upset her, even though she didn’t love him. She was like a lost child, didn’t know where she belonged.’

‘It’s still not your fault.’ Nancy went across the room and because Maia was looking pale and upset, forgot her place and gave her mistress a quick hug. ‘No one knows what makes people go mad, but it’s nothing you did, I’m sure. Come and sit down. I’ll make you something to eat.’

‘I’m not hungry.’

‘You’re eating for two now, remember. You should eat something, for the baby’s sake. I’ll boil you an egg, shall I? Just one, softly boiled, with some of yesterday’s crusty bread.’

Maia tried to eat but after forcing down less than half the egg, she pushed her plate away. ‘I can’t.’

‘Well, you’ve got something down you, at least. You look exhausted. Why don’t you go and have a rest? I can manage here. It’ll be easy enough with the master away.’

When Maia had gone, Nancy finished off the food. Since the terrible days of being achingly hungry, she couldn’t bear to see even a crumb go to waste.

Sitting back, she licked a smear of dried egg yolk from the back of one finger and looked round the kitchen. She loved it here at Galway House. She was learning more all the time about how to run a big house properly and every night she prayed they’d not bring in someone else to take over as housekeeper.

No one else would love this house more than she did. No one, not even her master. It was her refuge and salvation, she knew that. And if she never had to leave it again as long as she lived, she’d die happy.

Xanthe continued to feel anxious about Ronan as she and Hallie made their preparations to travel to Ireland. She didn’t know why she felt they had to hurry, but she did, and very strongly.

She didn’t want to upset Zachary, who only had her best interests at heart, but his interference and fussing slowed down their preparations by a couple of days at least.

In the end, however, her brother-in-law could think of nothing else to check or arrange, so he escorted her and Hallie to the station very early one morning and saw them on the first train. As it began to pull slowly away from the station, he stood waving goodbye till he was lost in a cloud of steam blowing back from the engine.

Xanthe leaned her head against the seat with a sigh of relief. ‘I don’t want to upset you, but your brother’s a fusspot.’

‘Zachary needs to look after people,’ Hallie said apologetically. ‘He’s always been very protective about his family.’

‘I know. I shouldn’t complain really. Anyway, we’re on our way now.’

They changed trains in Manchester, going to Liverpool, from where they took the packet to Dublin.

‘See,’ Xanthe said. ‘We’re coping perfectly well without a man to do all this for us.’

One of the stewards described the sea as ‘lively’ but neither of them suffered any seasickness. Hallie was fascinated by her first sight of the sea and could not be persuaded to go below deck for long as she wanted to look out over the water.

In Dublin they rested, tired by their journey, but though Hallie pleaded to spend an extra day or two looking round the city, Xanthe refused, insisting on pressing on.

They could only go as far as Enniskillen by train and had to spend a night there before their hired carriage came to carry them to the small village near to which Ardgullan House was situated. That day the weather, which had been cold but fine, turned rainy and they made slow progress on the muddy roads.

Xanthe continued to worry about Ronan. What was he doing? Why did she feel so strongly that he was in trouble?

As they came to a small lake, which they’d already learned was called a lough here, the coachman slowed down to shout to them, ‘The village is on the other side, but the big house standing on that small promontory is the place you want. You can see the standing stones at the top of the slope. That’s how it got the name Ardgullan House, from the stones being high up on the promontory.’

The village was on the far side of the house, so Xanthe had a clear view of it. As she watched, another carriage came from a different direction and turned into the gates, looking like a toy in the distance. Who was visiting Ronan? She hoped they’d conduct their business quickly because she wanted to see him, feel his arms round her and make him see sense about marrying her.

When they came to the gates, they found them open and no signs of anyone coming out of the gatekeeper’s cottage to ask their business. To the right, about a hundred yards down the drive was a pretty house and she guessed this would be where his mother had lived. It looked closed up now, all the curtains drawn and the garden bare and wintry.

At long last they drew to a halt in front of the big house, a neat square of grey stone, with a portico over the front door.

The coachman’s lad jumped down and went up to knock on the front door.

Xanthe didn’t intend to sit waiting in the carriage, so opened the door herself and jumped down, hurrying up the steps just as the door was opened by a pleasant-faced woman.

‘I’m here to see Mr Maguire,’ she said before the coachman’s lad could speak.

The woman looked at her in puzzlement, then beyond her to where Hallie was still sitting in the carriage. ‘Is he expecting you?’

‘No. But I know him from Australia and he knows my family.’

‘He’s busy at the moment, I’m afraid, talking to his lawyer and the Johnsons.’

‘Can you just tell him I’m here? I’m sure he’ll want to see me.’

After a hesitation, the woman said, ‘I daren’t interrupt. I think they’re arranging his marriage. She’s a rich young lady and the estate’s in a bad way. So if you could come back another day, miss, it’d be much better? It really is a bad time to visit him.’

21

T
he journey to Fremantle seemed to take for ever. In the back of the cart Kathleen continued to shriek and yell until her voice was hoarse. Conn’s throat ached just from listening to her.

‘She’s in a very bad way,’ Leo said. ‘If she was a horse, we’d have to put her down.’

‘You can’t put people down like you do animals.’

‘I know, but I don’t think they’ll be able to cure her. She’ll have to go into that lunatic asylum to be looked after.’ After a pause, he added in a gruff voice, ‘My stepfather used to threaten to send me to the lunatic asylum and that made my mother cry.’

‘Why would he do that? You’re not mad.’

‘No, but I’m slow-thinking and that annoys some people. I know it annoyed him. And he didn’t like to see his stepson working with the horses like a servant.’ He sighed. ‘I hope my mother is happy. I think about her a lot.’

‘Would you like me to write her a letter for you?’

Leo sat frowning, then shook his head. ‘He’d hide it and she wouldn’t know I’d written.’

‘Does she have a friend you could write to? He’d not be able to stop her getting the letter then.’

It took a few minutes for this idea to sink in, then Leo nodded several times, looking excited. ‘Yes, yes! We could send a letter to Mrs Farsham in the village. The vicar’s wife. Yes, she’ll tell my mother. I heard her say once that she doesn’t like my stepfather.’ He beamed at Conn. ‘Will you do that for me, write the letter?’

‘Of course I will.’

‘Thank you.’ Leo brushed a tear from his cheek.

‘Your mother may even write back to you, then Livia or I could read it to you whenever you wanted.’

Leo’s voice got even gruffer. ‘I’d like that. I’d keep her letter very safe.’

They drove on in silence for another mile or two, then he said, as if carrying on his former conversation, ‘I thought Mrs Kathleen might get better if she worked with the horses, because she loves them, but she kept getting worse. Later I got scared she’d hurt them when she flew into a rage so I wouldn’t let her go near them without me. She got very angry about that and said I had to obey her because she was a lady. But she didn’t act like a lady. And I won’t let anyone hurt another living creature, whoever they are.’

When they began to pass through more settled areas, Conn worried that his wife might start screaming again and people think they were ill-treating her, but fortunately she stayed asleep. Perhaps the slow rocking of the cart and the sound of the harness jingling had lulled her. Whatever it was, he felt relieved not to have to listen to that dreadful screaming and cursing.

‘I was right. We shan’t be able to reach Fremantle in one day,’ he said as they stopped to rest and water the horses. ‘It’s a good thing we brought blankets and supplies. In another hour or two we’ll start looking for somewhere to camp overnight.’

There were sounds from the cart and then Kathleen began to heave about, tossing off the blankets. When she couldn’t get free, she began screaming again, shrieking that they should set her free and calling out for help. They went to check on her only to find she’d soiled herself. Conn shuddered.

‘I’ll clean her,’ Leo said. ‘I don’t mind. I do it for the horses.’

‘You’d better leave her lower clothes off if she’s going to do this. We’ll put them on again before we get to Fremantle.’