Kirkland Revels (8 page)

Sir Matthew nodded. Then he turned to me. ” We want you to feel at home, my dear, without delay.”

I thanked him and when the meal was over Ruth, Sara and I retired to a nearby drawing-room, leaving the men to their port. I was glad that they did not leave us long, for I felt uncomfortable with Gabriel’s sister and aunt.

Gabriel came to my side immediately and remarked that I looked tired.

” No doubt it has been a busy day,” murmured Ruth, ” We shall all understand if you retire early.”

I said good night to the members of my new family and Gabriel and I went up to our room at the top of the house.

Friday came out of his basket to greet us as we entered the room. It was clear that he, too, was finding it difficult to adjust himself to his new surroundings.

” Well,” said Gabriel, ” the worst is over. You’ve met the family.”

” Not all, apparently.”

“The rest are on the fringe. These are the ones you’ll have to live with. Before we retire I want to show you the view from the balcony.”

” Oh yes … your balcony. Where is it?”

” At the end of our corridor. Come now.”

He put his arm about me and we left the room and went to the end of the corridor where there was a door. He opened this and we stepped out on to the balcony. The moon was high 49 in the sky and it shone its light on the scene about us. 1 saw the Abbey mins like a great ghost of its former self. I saw the dark river winding through the grassland and the black hump of the bridge, and beyond, away in the distance, the shadowy outline of the moor.

” It’s beautiful,” I breathed.

” When I’m away from here I dream of this view.”

” I’m not surprised.”

” Every night I come and look. I always have done since I was a child.

It was a fascination for me. ” He looked down suddenly. ” Two of my ancestors threw themselves over parapets—not this one. There are three others in the house. “

I felt a shiver run along my spine and I looked down into the dimness below.

” We’re at the top of the house,” said Gabriel. ” It was certain death to leap over on to the flagstones below. The only two suicides in our history … and both chose the same method.”

” Come along in,” I said. ” I’m tired.”

But when we entered the room I felt my fear returning Those moments on the balcony had done that, those chance words of Gabriel’s. I was certainly strung up, which was unusual for me. But all would be well to-morrow, I promised myself.

During the next two days I explored the house and the surrounding country. I was fascinated—at times enchanted, at times repelled. I enjoyed being in the house during the day-time, and I was continually losing my way in it; but when dusk fell—I am ashamed to admit—the habit of looking furtively over my shoulder when I was. alone persisted.

I had never stayed in such a large or ancient house; when one was alone the present seemed to merge into the past; it was because so much of the furniture had been in the house for centuries and one could not get away from the idea that this was exactly how it had looked hundreds of years ago, when other footsteps, other voices had been heard, other figures had made those long shadows on the walls.

It was absurd to be influenced by such fancies when the people in the house were normal enough; I had them all clearly docketed in my mind within those first days: Sir Matthew, jolly old squire fond of good food, wine and women, a typical country squire of this or any other century; Aunt 50 Sarah, the spinster who had always lived at home, somewhat innocent, remembering the birthdays, the triumphs and failures of every member of the family, and only now that she was growing old forgetting to whom they had happened and thinking now and then that Gabriel’s new wife was her sister- in-law, Claire, long dead wife of Sir Matthew; there was Ruth who had been mistress of the house since her mother had died, and naturally enough mildly resented the intruder; there was Luke, a young man absorbed in his own affairs as most young men were. A normal family similar to those which were to be found in many households throughout the country.

I had tried to make myself pleasant and I was sure I was succeeding.

Ruth of course was the most difficult to reassure:

I did want her to know that I had no intention of ousting her from her position. Heaven knew this house was large enough, for us to live our separate lives in. Sir Matthew was master of the house and she was his daughter, who had been mistress of the place since she came of age, had continued to live here after her marriage, and naturally had remained when she became a widow. I wanted her to know that I considered she had more right to be the chat elaine of Kirkland Revels than I had.

She told me of the dinner party she was planning, and I candidly replied that she must go ahead with her plans, for I had come from a very small household and had done no housekeeping, having but a short while before my marriage been at school.

This seemed to please her and I felt happy.

During the first morning Gabriel was with his father;

I guessed there were certain business matters concerning the estate which had to be discussed, particularly as Gabriel had been away from home so long. I assured him that I was well able to take care of myself.

I planned to take Friday for a walk, for I was eager’ to explore the country and in particular to have a look at the Abbey ruins. But on my way downstairs I met Luke. He grinned at me in a friendly way and stooped to have a word with Friday. Friday was delighted to be taken notice of and there was no doubt that he took a fancy to Luke right from the first.

” I like dogs,” Luke told me.

“You have none?”

He shook his head. ” Who’d look after them when I am away? I was often away … at school, you know. Now I’m in the transistory period.

I have left school and shall shortly be going to Oxford.”

” Surely there are plenty of people to look after a dog while you’re away?”

” I don’t see it. If you have a dog it’s your dog and you can’t trust anyone else to look after it. Have you seen the house yet?” he asked.

” Not aH of it.”

” I’ll take you on a conducted tour. You ought to know it. You’ll get lost if you don’t. It’s so easy to take the wrong turning. Shall I show it to you?”

I was anxious to be friends, and I felt it was best to accept his invitation. Moreover, I was eager to see the house, so I decided the walk could wait until the tour was over.

I had no idea of the size of the house. I reckoned there must be at least a hundred rooms. Each of the four parts which made up that rectangle of stone was like a house in itself, and it certainly was easy to lose oneself.

” The story goes,” Luke told me, ” that one of our ancestors married four wives and kept them in separate houses; and for a long time none of them knew of the existence of the other three.”

” It sounds like Bluebeard.”

“Perhaps the original Bluebeard was a Rockwell. There are dark secrets in our history, Catherine. You’ve no idea what a family you’ve married intol” His light eyes regarded me with amusement which was not untinged with cynicism; and I was reminded of Gabriel’s decision not to tell the family that he was going to marry me. Of course they regarded me as a fortune-hunter, for not only would Gabriel inherit this house, but also the means which would enable him to live in such a place, as well as the title which, as the only son of his baronet father, would be his when the old man died.

” I’m beginning to learn,” I told him.

I went through those rooms in a state of bewilderment there were so many, and all had the high windows, the lofty ceilings often decorated with exquisite carving, the panelled walls, the furniture of another age. I saw the great cellars, the kitchens, where I met some of the servants who also seemed to eye me with a certain suspicion; I saw the other three balconies so like that near our own room; I examined 52 the massive stone pillars which supported them, and the faces of gargoyles which seemed to grimace at me from everywhere.

” How fond they seemed to be of these devils and grotesques,” I said.

” They were to scare off intruders,” Luke told me. ” You must admit they’re somewhat scarifying. Keep off,” they seem to be saying. The devils of Kirkland will get you if you don’t look out. “” ” Surely they sometimes wanted to welcome visitors,” I murmured lightly.

” We must have been an inhospitable crowd, sufficient unto ourselves perhaps.”

When we reached the gallery he took me round, explaining who the subjects were. There was the first Sir Luke who had built the place, a fierce-looking gentleman in armour. There was Thomas, Mark, John, several Matthews and another Luke.

” We always have biblical names,” he said. ” It’s a feature of the family. Always Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, Peter Simon, anything you can think of … even down to the Angel Gabriel. I often call him Angel, though he doesn’t like it much. I think that was going a bit too far. A nice down-to- earth Mark or John would have been so much better. Now that Sir Luke … he died young. He jumped over the balcony in the west wing.”

I stared at the young man in the picture; they were all so lifelike, those pictures, that the lips seemed to move as I watched.

” And that,” went on Luke, ” Is John who, about a hundred years after, decided he’d die the same way. He jumped over the balcony in the north wing. Strange, isn’t it. Although I think he got the idea from that Luke,” I turned away. This talk made me feel uneasy. I was not sure why.

As I moved towards a woman in a feathered Gainsborough type hat, I heard Luke’s voice at my elbow. ” My great-great great-grandmother.

Only I’m not sure of the number of greats. ” I went on walking along the gallery.

” Oh, and here’s your father-in-law himself,” he added.

A younger Sir Matthew looked back at me; his flowing cravat was the essence of elegance as was his green velvet jacket; his complexion was ruddy, rather than port wine, his eyes slightly bigger than they were now, and I was sure that 53 I had not been mistaken when I had judged him to have been something of a rake in his day. And beside him was a woman whom I knew to be his wife; she was beautiful in a frail way and there was an expression of resignation on her face. Gabriel’s mother, I thought, who had died soon after his birth. And there was a picture of Gabriel himself, looking young and innocent.

“You’ll be beside him,” said Luke.

“You’ll be captured like the rest and held prisoner on canvas … so that in two hundred years’ time the new lady of the house will come to look at you and wonder about you.”

I shivered, and was conscious of a great desire to escape from him, to get out of the house, if only for half an hour, because the talk of suicides had oppressed me.

” Friday is impatient for his walk,” I said. ” I think perhaps that I should take him now. It is very good of you to have taken so much trouble to show me everything.”

” But I have not shown you everything There is a great deal more for you to see.”

” I shall enjoy it more another time,” I replied firmly.

He bowed his head.

“When,” he murmured, “it will be my pleasure to continue with our tour.”

I went down the staircase and, half-way, turned to look back. Luke was standing by the portraits watching me, looking as though he had but to step up into one of those frames to become one of them.

The rest of the day I spent with Gabriel. We went for a ride in the afternoon, right out on to the moors; and when we came back it was time to change for dinner, and the evening was spent like the previous one.

Before we retired for the night Gabriel took me out to the balcony, and as he stood for a while admiring that superb view I remarked that I had not yet visited the Abbey ruins and decided that I would do so the next day.

During the morning which followed, Gabriel was again with his father and I wandered on with Friday; this time I went to the Abbey.

As I approached those ancient piles I was struck with wonder. It was a sunny morning; and here and there the stone glistened as though it had been set with diamonds. I could have believed that this was not a ruin, for the great tower was intact and so was the wall which was facing me; it was not until I came close that I realised that there was no 54 roof but the sky. The Abbey nestled in the valley close to the river and I guessed that it would be more sheltered from the storms than the Revels was. Now I saw clearly the high Norman tower, the ancient buttresses and the nave which, like the tower, was almost intact, apart from the fact that there was no roof. I was surprised at the vastness of the ruins and I thought how interesting it would be to make a plan of the Abbey and try to rebuild it in the imagination.

Friday was running to and fro in great excitement as though he shared my emotions about the place. Here, I told myself, was a shell; yet there were enough stones to indicate which parts were the kitchens for instance, the cloister, the nave, the transept, the monks’ quarters.

It was necessary to tread warily, for here and there stones jutted dangerously out of the ground. I lost Friday for a moment and was immediately conscious of a panic which was quite ridiculous; equally so was my relief, when after I had called to him, he came running back to me.

I wondered from what part of the Abbey the stones had been taken to build the house. I wanted to learn something of the history of this house and the family to which I now belonged. I laughed at myself.

There was so much I did not know about my own husband. Why was he so secretive with me? Why was there this constant feeling that he was hiding something from me?

I sat down on a ridge of stones, obviously all that was left of a room of some sort the monks’ dorter, I hazarded and I told myself then that I had not thought enough of Gabriel since I had arrived here.

Naturally Gabriel would be full of odd fancies; he was a young man who was afflicted with a disease of the heart which threatened his life.

It was for that reason that he was moody. He was afraid of death and I had thought it was something in the house, something in these old ruins which had disturbed him! How should / feel if Death were round the corner, waiting for me? That was something which one could not imagine until it happened to one.