From Across the Ancient Waters (49 page)

Percy thanked the woman and left.

Not a young man prone to downcast moods, this was as shattering a blow as Percy had ever known in his life. He half stumbled out of town in the direction of the harbor in a stupor of desolation. A few fishermen were about, but he did not pause to speak with them. Unaware that Gwyneth had been sitting at that very spot waiting for him two years earlier, while he had been sitting on the promontory waiting for her, he passed the corner of the concrete quay and continued onto the beach.

He made his way slowly, memories flooding him as he went—his talks with Gwyneth, playing in the tide, the race with Florilyn—so many memories. He was in no playful mood today and plodded along heedless of his steps.

The tide was about halfway in, which made climbing over the rocks and boulders and tidepools at the end of the north beach more difficult. By the time he reached the south beach with the promontory rising high on his left, his boots and trousers were wet to the knees. He hardly noticed.

He glanced toward the cave, water almost to its mouth. He had no appetite to explore without Gwyneth. On he walked. He reached the base of the promontory path then slowly climbed up to the plateau of Mochras Head. Sighing dejectedly, he again sought Gwyneth’s special place.

He sat down on the wet grass, just as he had on that misty morning two years before. It was clear today. He stared out across the blue sea, trying to imagine the Irish coastline, though he was never sure whether he
really
saw it.

“Oh … Gwyneth, Gwyneth,” he whispered. “Where have you gone?”

The Viscount and His Factor

P
ercy arrived back at Westbrooke Manor about ten thirty. He found Florilyn in the breakfast room. She had just read his note.

“Oh, Percy!” she said. “I had hoped to talk to you before you went into town. I can see from your face that you know.”

He nodded, slumped into a chair, and buried his face in his hands.

“I am sorry, Percy,” said Florilyn. “I know what Gwyneth meant to you. I wanted to find a way to tell you last night, but it just—I don’t know … I couldn’t find a way. She was my friend, too. I’m sorry.”

Percy looked toward her and smiled sadly. “It’s all right,” he said. “As you said, you didn’t want to ruin my evening. And it would have.” He drew in a long breath and exhaled slowly. “I talked to Grannie’s neighbor,” he said. “The story she recounts is almost incomprehensible … that they left without a word to anyone.”

“That is exactly how it was,” rejoined Florilyn. “One day Gwyneth was working here and everything was fine. Two days later my father told me she would not be returning. I asked why. He said that she and her father had left Llanfryniog. I was stunned. She’d not said a word to me. There wasn’t a hint of it ahead of time. Immediately I rode down to the cottage, but they were already gone. I never saw Gwyneth again. I am still completely bewildered.”

“Your father must know
something.”

“He said his factor informed him that Barrie had given notice and told him he would not be renewing his rental of the cottage.”

“Then I need to talk to Mr. Heygate. Someone
has
to know something.”

“I tried,” said Florilyn. “I finally gave up. I asked everyone in the village, every one of Grannie’s neighbors. I rode up to the Muirs. Even they didn’t know. Stevie and his mother were as surprised as I was. They didn’t say good-bye to them either. I have done my best for eight months to find out something. Gwyneth and I had become very close. But they seem to have wanted no one to know where they had gone.”

Percy listened in stunned disbelief. “Then maybe I need to hear it for myself,” he said. Percy left Florilyn with her late breakfast and went upstairs.

He found Lord Snowdon in his study. Even more than on the previous evening, he noticed what Mistress Chattan had warned him of—that his uncle appeared to have aged more than a mere two years would account for. He was shocked at how gray he had become.

“Ah, Percy, my boy!” said his uncle. “Out for a ride so early on your first morning back with us, I see.”

“No, sir,” replied Percy. “I walked to town and then to visit my friends Codnor Barrie and his daughter.”

“I, uh … am not familiar with the name,” rejoined the viscount, who stood when Percy entered. In fact he knew the name better than that of any of his tenants, former or present.

“The girl worked here as a servant in the manor, Uncle Roderick. I don’t see how you could not have known her.”

“Well, er … of course, that is, you can hardly expect me to be on intimate terms with all my wife’s maids,” said his uncle as he sat down again. As he did, he winced visibly. “Blasted knee!” he muttered. “Don’t ever get old, Percy, my boy. It plays havoc with your knees. I just hope I die before I get so decrepit I can’t walk. But where were we? Ah, yes, some girl you mentioned that you say worked here. Perhaps … that is to say, perhaps I might recognize her face if I were to see her.”

“Unfortunately, that is impossible.”

“Why is that?”

“Because their cottage is now occupied by someone else,” Percy answered. “The Barries have moved, up and gone without a trace. Florilyn tells me your factor was the one who spoke with Mr. Barrie. I would like to know what you know, Uncle Roderick. It is a matter of great personal urgency to me. Whatever it takes, I
have
to find them.”

“What are these people to you, Percy, my boy … if you don’t mind my asking?” said his uncle.

“They are close and dear friends. The girl, Gwyneth is her name, helped me more than anyone other than my own father, to see God’s handiwork about me, as well as inside me. She is one of the most remarkable individuals I have ever met. She was also very close to Florilyn. I have to find her … for both our sakes.”

“She, uh … sounds like an extraordinary young girl, you say. Yes, quite—and a peasant, the daughter of a miner, you say. Most extraordinary. How would, uh … such a one come to possess this vast knowledge about the church?”

“You mistake me, Uncle Roderick. It would not surprise me if the girl had never set foot inside a church in her life. What I said was that she had helped me to see God in His creation and within myself. Unless a man like my father is in the pulpit, judging by its success rate, church seems to me singularly ill equipped for the transmission of that revelation into human hearts.”

“Ah, yes … I see … of course, of course. So then, er … Barrie is the name, you say. Hmm, yes, I seem to recall something about it. Yes, a very sudden departure it was, I believe.”

“What exactly did your factor tell you?”

“Just that … if I recall, let me think … that the man told him he was leaving Llanfryniog and the slate mine.”

“There was nothing else?”

“Not that I, uh … not that I recall.”

Percy turned to go. “Do you know where I might find your factor?” he said.

“I could not say with certainty, though you might try his office. I believe he had business in Penrhyndeudraeth later. If I am not mistaken, he planned to spend the night there and take the train up to Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch.”

“To where?” exclaimed Percy.

His uncle chuckled. “It’s a village in Anglesey,” he said. “Translated it means, ‘St. Mary’s Church in the hollow of white hazel near the rushing whirlpool and Tysilio of the Red Cave’s Church.’ I thought I might get you with that one, Percy, my boy.”

“What do people in a hurry call it?” asked Percy.

“Llanfair Pwllgwyngell, or just Llanfair. Tilman plans to visit his son’s family on the peninsula for a day or two. Whether he has left yet I do not know.”

“Then I had better try to catch him before he leaves.”

Percy hastened downstairs and to the south wing. His knock at the factor’s door was answered by a summons to enter.

“Ah, young Drummond!” said Tilman Heygate, rising to meet him and shaking his hand warmly.

“Hello, Mr. Heygate.”

“I heard you were back. You’re looking very well—healthy and with another inch or two to your credit.”

“I’ve just come from the viscount,” said Percy. “I hope you might be able to shed some light on the sudden disappearance of Codnor Barrie and his daughter.”

“Barrie—he was the slate miner?” replied the factor, resuming his seat behind his desk.

“Yes, sir,” said Percy, taking the chair opposite him.

“Rented a cottage from us out on the moor, about a mile east of the village, wasn’t it?”

“That’s right.”

“Yes, I recall it now. I found it very strange,” nodded Heygate thoughtfully.

“What exactly did Mr. Barrie say?” asked Percy.

“A note came here to the manor from him asking to see me,” replied Heygate.

“Did you think that strange?”

“Not at all. I handle matters for all the viscount’s tenants. They pay their rents to me. They bring their complaints to me.”

“He didn’t say what it was about?”

“Just that he wanted to see me. I knew he worked in the slates, so I rode down there the next evening. His daughter was with him and greeted me pleasantly. A nice girl, she struck me … worked at the manor as well, I believe.”

“That’s right.” Percy nodded.

“The man said he needed to talk to me in private. The girl left the cottage. She kept a number of animals in pens and a fenced area behind the house. When we were alone, Barrie told me that a change had come to his situation. He and his daughter would be leaving Llanfryniog and quitting their tenancy. He said that they would be moving soon, adding that the viscount had been very kind to him. He asked me to thank him. Then he handed me three one pound notes for the rent that was due. He asked me to say nothing to anyone but the viscount. His daughter did not know of his plans yet, he said, nor another soul.”

“Did you ask him why he was leaving?”

“I did. He merely said that an opportunity had arisen that would prove of great benefit to his daughter, that he hoped thereby perhaps even to secure for her an education beyond what was available here and give her opportunities she would never otherwise have. It was not an opportunity he could afford to pass up.”

“Was it a more lucrative job somewhere?”

“I don’t know, Percy,” replied Heygate. “I had the idea that he might have come into money. Not wealth, mind you, but enough to make the move he was talking about and live comfortably. He said nothing specifically. It was simply the sense I had. He was vague. I asked when they were leaving. He said they would be gone the following day. I asked where they were going. He said he could not say. Again he adjured me to secrecy. But it was hardly necessary. I knew nothing anyway.”

“And that was it?”

“I’m afraid so. We shook hands. I took the three pounds and returned to the manor and told the viscount what had transpired. He received the information without comment or overmuch curiosity. And that was it. A month later I rented the cottage to a man new to the mines. To my knowledge, no one has heard from the Barrie fellow or the girl since.”

Cousins Facing the Future

F
or the rest of the day, Percy kept mostly to himself. Florilyn knew he needed time to adjust to the sudden shock of finding Gwyneth gone. They did not ride that afternoon.

There exist few better antidotes to the mental and emotional doldrums, however, than demanding physical exertion. After an afternoon watching him wander aimlessly about the manor, inspecting the stables he had helped build two years before, rekindling his friendships with Grey Tide and Red Rhud and several other horses, and chatting with Hollin Radnor and Stuart Wyckham, Florilyn determined that she would get her cousin away from the house the next morning.

Percy spent the evening with a George MacDonald title he had not seen,
Ranald Bannerman’s Boyhood
. His aunt had handed it to him after dinner, telling him it had just come out that year, and that she had only recently finished it. However, he had a difficult time concentrating on the words on the page.

Florilyn appeared surprisingly early in the breakfast room the next morning. She was upbeat and cheerful, ready to do her best to bring life back to Percy’s spirit. “It’s a beautiful day, Percy,” she said as they ate. “I am going for a ride. I hope you will join me.”

“Sure,” said Percy, though without his customary enthusiasm. “I guess I haven’t been very good company. Sorry … but life goes on, as they say.”

“That’s the way I felt for weeks after Gwyneth disappeared,” said Florilyn.

They agreed to meet at the stables at ten. Percy was already there when Florilyn arrived in her riding habit.

“Hollin has just been telling me about this beautiful black stallion,” said Percy. He was standing at the stall of a jet-black powerful horse he had never seen before.

“A nasty brute,” said Florilyn. “His name is Demon, and for good reason. He’s a four-year-old. I’m surprised he hasn’t snapped at you standing there. My father bought him hoping to race him. After getting him here, it became obvious why my father got him at the price he did. He’s altogether unmanageable. What did Hollin tell you?”

“Exactly the same,” replied Percy, “that he counseled your father against the purchase, but that Uncle Roderick had his heart set on a thoroughbred, and here was one to be had at a price he could afford.”

“That about sums it up.”

“Have you ridden him?” asked Percy.

Florilyn laughed, though the sound erupting from her mouth more resembled a snort. “I wouldn’t be caught dead on that horse’s back!”

“Does
anyone
ride him?”

“Courtenay can. Papa
thinks
he can. But it makes me nervous whenever he takes him out. We all pray he will come back alive! Mother has begged Papa to cut his losses and give the horse to Padrig Gwlwlwyd. My father is a good horseman. But he isn’t as strong as he once was. He’s not steady enough in the saddle for a dangerous horse like that. But he is a proud man. He doesn’t want to admit that the horse is too much for him.”