Destiny's Path (38 page)

Hallie, who had been sitting on a hard wooden chair in the hall, shamelessly eavesdropping, stood up. As he noticed her for the first time, she said, ‘I’m Hallie Carr, Zachary’s sister. I came here with Xanthe.’

He took her hand, clasping it in his for a moment and smiling at her. ‘I’m so glad you did. We need a chaperone if we’re not to upset the local gossips beyond remedy. How is your brother?’

‘He’s well, thank you.’

Ronan looked at the maid, who was standing at the back of the hall, with an anxious expression. ‘Mary, could you please get bedrooms ready for Miss Carr and Miss Blake? No, better that they share one, I think. Miss Carr, if you’ll kindly give me a few moments alone with Xanthe . . . ?’

The maid had relaxed into a smile now. ‘There’s a good fire in the kitchen if you don’t mind waiting there, miss. It’s a raw day outside and none of the other rooms are heated yet.’

Inside the drawing room Ronan closed the door and walked across to the fire, taking Xanthe in his arms and kissing her until she sagged breathlessly against him.

‘You’re not angry at me, then?’ she asked with a smile.

‘You know very well I’m not. I’m deeply grateful to you for making me realise what was important. Very grateful. I was so caught up in the debts and problems, I wasn’t thinking straight. I meant what I said to Mr Johnson: if I lose this house, then so be it. I can live without it. But I’m quite sure I can’t live without you.’

Somehow they found themselves sitting on the sofa so recently vacated by Miss Johnson, holding hands as they exchanged news in incoherent snatches.

‘Shall you really lose this house?’ Xanthe asked.

‘I may. But I’ll try very hard not to.’

‘You can have all my money. I know it’s not a lot, but—’

‘We’ll go over the figures together and see what we can do to save Ardgullan, though I’m not good at accounts, I’m afraid. Those rows of figures seem to tell me something different every time I look at them.’ He gazed round with a sigh. ‘It’s a damp old place and I’m not even sure it’s worth it, but I would like to save it. Maguires have lived here for generations.’ He hesitated, then asked quietly, ‘Are you sure . . . of everything?’

She rolled her eyes and gave him a mock slap. ‘How can you ask that when I’ve shamelessly thrown myself at you?’

‘Darling, I had to ask one final time. Now, we need to get hold of a special licence. I don’t intend to wait a minute longer than I must to marry you. You don’t want a big fuss of a wedding, do you?’

‘No. I just want to be legally married. Besides, we can’t afford a big fancy wedding. We have to economise in every way possible, and believe me, after living through the Cotton Famine, I’m very good at managing on very little. I’ll have your servants so frugal your bills will halve, I promise you. And we’ll go over your accounts together, see where we can cut back.’

‘Are you – good at accounts?’

‘Not as good as Pandora. But I’m a quick learner.’

‘Don’t ask me to teach you, then, because I’m hopeless with figures.’ He pulled her suddenly to him and hugged her close. ‘But I think with you at my side I can cope with anything.’

‘Good. Now, show me round this house of yours. Where’s poor Hallie? You haven’t left her sitting in the hall, have you? And what about the carriage we hired? I have to pay off the men.’ Taking his hand, she pulled him out of the room, almost running in her eagerness to share her happy news with her friend.

And for the first time in weeks, Ronan laughed aloud for sheer joy.

The following day they visited Mr Hatton in his rooms and when he heard what they intended to do, he looked at them in consternation. ‘You wish to get married
immediately?
’

Ronan nodded, half-turning to smile at Xanthe.

‘And I shall be taking over the accounts for Ardgullan from now on.’ She smiled happily at the lawyer, who looked even more shocked at this statement. ‘But I wish to hire a clerk for a few days to help me learn how to do that properly. Do you know anyone who could come for a few days?’

‘But ladies don’t do accounts.’

‘I’m not a lady, as you must have realised from the way I speak. And when things are in such a dire state, I intend to do everything I can to help. What’s more, my friend Hallie is going to stay for a while and help out too. She’s better at the housekeeping side of things than I am. She actually likes that sort of thing. But first Ronan and I must get married. Even with Hallie to chaperone me, it’s not right for me to stay in his house.’

Ronan grinned, enjoying the way she’d taken the wind from Mr Hatton’s sails with her plain speaking. His lawyer was a good man but he clearly wasn’t used to a woman taking charge and he kept opening his mouth as if to speak, then closing it again. He decided it was time to interrupt. ‘The most important thing is: how quickly can we marry?’

‘Within two days if you’re prepared to pay extra for a special licence.’

He ignored the lawyer’s pained expression. ‘Then that’s what we’ll do. It’s the one thing I won’t economise on.’

The journey to Fremantle was a nightmare, with Kathleen creating a disturbance whenever they stopped. He grew tired of explaining what was wrong, furious at her rapid changes from almost-sanity to that mindless screaming.

When they stayed overnight he let her walk about, but kept her arms tied behind her. As he helped her back into the cart she began kicking out at him and another battle took place before he and Leo could get her tied up again. He couldn’t leave her hands tied behind her back or she’d not be able to lie down, so after a struggle, he tied them in front of her.

When they came into areas with more houses, Kathleen seemed to sense that there were people around, in spite of the sides of the cart hiding much of what they passed. She grew even more agitated, shrieking and yelling for help. Desperate to stop that, Conn tipped the last of the laudanum down her throat.

He felt more numb than anything by now, as well as literally bruised where she’d kicked him. He was aching to be rid of her.

When they got there, he reined in the horse and looked at the Lunatic Asylum. It was an impressive new building but he wondered if those incarcerated inside cared what it looked like – or perhaps this outer appearance was for the benefit of the population, to make people feel good about how they treated the poor creatures who were insane. After all, there were laws about what should be done. It wasn’t like the uncivilised old days of bedlams where mad people were treated like sideshows.

When they were admitted, he explained about Kathleen, who was still in the cart under Leo’s care. The female attendant who’d opened the door went out with him to inspect her, wrinkling her nose at her foul state.

‘We’ve kept cleaning her,’ Conn said, ‘but we’ve been on the road for two days and have had no facilities for a thorough wash. She – um, tries to act inappropriately with men we meet on the road, or she screams and screams.’

‘Hmm.’ The woman studied him as carefully as Kathleen, then said in a reluctant tone, ‘I suppose you’d better see the doctor. But I doubt he’ll admit her. There are only fifty places and you seem to have enough money to care for her privately.’

Conn looked at her in horror. ‘I can’t care for her as well as look after my farm, and I can’t find help out in the country. It’d need three strong people to care for her. She can get very violent.’

When they attempted to get Kathleen out of the cart, she roused and began to curse them. Her voice might be slurred, because of the laudanum, but her vocabulary was vicious and crude.

Conn apologised, feeling further humiliated by this behaviour.

The woman shrugged. ‘We’re used to it. I’d better fetch help. She’s a strong woman.’

Conn left Leo in charge of the cart and followed the attendant inside.

When two strong men came outside, Kathleen began screaming and kicking again and they had a struggle to get her into the asylum.

The attendant indicated that Conn should follow them and he watched grimly as his wife was manhandled into a cell then chained to a bed by a waist chain. She didn’t stop shrieking the whole time.

‘Ah, here’s the doctor,’ the female attendant said. ‘This is the husband, doctor, but I think you’d better examine the patient before we talk. She’s a lively one.’

The doctor nodded to Conn and asked him to wait outside, then went in to examine Kathleen.

From the corridor Conn could hear her suddenly change to a normal way of speaking and he felt panicked at the thought that she might fool them. Surely they wouldn’t be taken in by her?

When the doctor came out, he regarded Conn thoughtfully, then turned to the female attendant. ‘How was she behaving when she was brought in?’

‘Screaming and shouting, kicking. In a bad way.’

‘Cunning, then, because she acted as if she was normal with me.’

There was an even louder scream from inside the cell and the doctor went to stare inside. This time Kathleen began shrieking and cursing him, tugging at the waist chain.

‘Strange how the eyes change when they’re mad,’ he said absent-mindedly. ‘Now, come to my office, Mr Largan and we’ll discuss the situation.’

Once they were both seated, he said, ‘We need to consider whether there is any physical cause for your wife’s problem, which will determine whether we can relieve the condition or not. Does she throw fits? No? Has she had any injuries to the head? A high fever, perhaps?’

Conn shook his head to all these, hesitated, then said, ‘She’s always been – strange, as far as I can work out. They beat her regularly as a child to make her learn to behave, I gather. I believe my father colluded with her parents to keep me ignorant of how strange she really was when we married. She brought a very large dowry, you see, which my father took for the family estate.’

‘And you agreed to this?’

‘Yes. He could be very – persuasive – and his anger was upsetting my mother, who was an invalid. After I was convicted—’

‘You’re a convict?’ The doctor’s expression suddenly changed and he looked at his companion as if he had grown horns.

Conn spoke hastily. ‘I was a lawyer and was wrongly accused. Since then the guilty person has confessed, so my family in Ireland is seeking to overturn my conviction. But this all takes time.’

‘And your wife? How did she take your transportation? Is that what shocked her into madness?’

‘I never saw her again after I was arrested until she came here. She stayed with my father. But he died and then a few months ago, she suddenly turned up here. At first she seemed no different, but gradually her behaviour deteriorated. I tried paying for her to stay quietly on an isolated farm with a lady of our acquaintance, but she rapidly grew too difficult to control, so in the end I’ve been forced to bring her here. My wife is a very strong woman and I can’t control her. I don’t know what to do. I’m at my wits’ end.’

The doctor tapped his fingers on the table, looking thoughtful.

The seconds ticked slowly past, then he looked at Conn and said, ‘You say you’ve not consummated your marriage, but I have to tell you, Mr Largan, that your wife is not a virgin. Not only that, but she has contracted syphilis, which might be exacerbating her condition.’

The words seemed to echo in Conn’s brain, as he tried to take in this shocking information. ‘
No!
No, that’s not possible. She refused to let me consummate the marriage, used to fight like a wildcat if I went near her. I’m seeking an annulment on those grounds.’

‘I’m sorry, Mr Largan, but there can be no mistake, and the syphilis will gradually lead to what we call general paralysis of the insane. This is incurable.’

Conn gulped and tried to control his emotions but couldn’t and fumbled for his handkerchief. ‘Forgive me. Such a shock.’

‘I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, Mr Largan. Given the situation, we shall, of course, admit her.’

‘Thank you.’

The doctor looked at him. ‘You’re sure you never touched her?’

‘Yes. Quite sure.’

‘You should thank your Maker on your knees for that. If you had, you might have been afflicted with the same scourge as her.’

Conn answered a few more questions, handed over the clothing they’d brought with them for Kathleen and then walked back out to the cart.

Leo looked at him. ‘She’s not coming back, is she?’

‘No. No, she’s not.’

‘You’ll be better without her.’

‘Yes.’ He tried to pull himself together. ‘Shall we seek lodgings for the night or shall we get some food and start on our way home?’

‘I don’t like it here. People stare at me.’

‘Then we’ll set off back. But first we need to clean the cart.’

‘I did that while you were inside.’

Conn clapped Leo on the shoulder. ‘I don’t know how I’d have managed without you. You’re a good lad.’

Leo beamed at him. ‘And you’ll write to my mother for me?’

‘Yes. I’m happy to do that for you. It’ll take months to get a reply, though.’

Conn was glad to leave the town behind, but he couldn’t leave his main worry behind, a far worse worry than the one he’d arrived with. How the hell had Kathleen contracted syphilis? Who had taken advantage of her while she’d been living with his father? He couldn’t imagine who would even want her. But it meant she wasn’t a virgin, which he had assumed she must be. How was he going to prove he’d not touched her now?
How was he going to get an annulment?
He’d not be able to marry Maia now. He’d ruined her. A fine way of showing his love, that was!