Lord of the Far Island (36 page)

There was a second or so of silence in the dungeons and during it I heard a slight clatter as though something had fallen.

Jago heard it. hat that?he cried sharply. here someone here. Did you bring someone with you, Hawley?

didn. I swear I didn.

going to look,said Jago. going to search every one of these dungeons.

I crouched against the wall. I should have been numb with fear after what I had heard but somehow I couldn believe it even now. There must be some explanation of all this. It was like some absurd masque in a melodrama and I could not would notelieve that Jago who had said he loved me could be the man my common sense was trying to tell me he was.

He would soon discover me crouching there. I would demand: Jago, what does this mean? For God sake explain. Hawley is your man. I know that. You sent him to London. Why? And then you came yourself.

I heard him say to Hawley: ou hold the lantern.

The light moved away and I peeped through the door. They had their backs to me and had started searching the dungeons on the other side. There was just a chance that if I were quick enough, and quiet with it, I might escape.

I waited for my chance, my heartbeats threatening to choke me, until they were as far as they could be from my dungeon. Then I slipped out silently, while their backs were still towards me, and in a flash I was up the spiral staircase. Luck had been with me. My escape had been perfectly timed and they had not seen me.

What now? I asked myself as I came out through the west door. If I could get to the main building and join Jenifry and Gwennol in the parlor I could behave as though I had not heard that revelation and have a little time to plan what I ought to do next.

I forced myself to look in at the parlor. Gwennol was reading and her mother was working gros point on a canvas. Neither of them expressed any surprise to see me; they must have presumed that I had written my letter.

I picked up a magazine and leafed through it, my mind busy.

Oh Jago, I was thinking, what does it mean? Why did I let myself be so foolish as to fall in love with you? Hadn I heard enough? He had paid Hawley to come to London. Philip had died. What had he said about Philip death? emember what happened in Philip Carrington bedroom.

Hawley must be a professional murderer. There were such people. The real criminals hired them to commit crimes for them and paid them well for it. Hawley did not think he had been paid enough and had come to blackmail.

It was too horrible. I could not believe it. I had misconstrued what I had heard and there must be some explanation. And yet a ray of hope heref Jago wanted the Island, why murder Philip, why not murder me?

Why did my foolish heart go on fighting against my mind? Why did I go on trying to tell myself that it was a ridiculous mistake, a misconstruction? There must be a simple explanation and I must find it because what I had heard in the dungeons this night had brought home to me one overwhelming and undeniable truth: Whatever Jago was, whatever he had done, I loved him.

Could I, Ellen Kellaway, be such a fool? I knew he wanted the Island; he had confessed that much. But that was not all. He wanted me too.

He was coming into the room now. So he had got rid of Hawley. I kept my eyes on the magazine but I could feel his gaze fixed upon me. I knew that I was flushing as he sat down beside me on the sofa.

He said: ave you lost something, Ellen?

I looked at him in surprise. His eyes were gleaming and there was in them an expression I could not understand. There were mingling emotions thereassion, reproach and a certain amusement. The sort of amusement a cat might feel when playing with a mouse?

He held out his hand and I stared down at it in horror, for there lay the necklace and I knew at once where he had found it. I knew what that clatter I had heard in the dungeons had been. The catch was weak; I had grasped the stones in my agitation and when I had released them the necklace dropped onto the floor. Jago, searching the dungeons, had at last come to the one in which I crouched and there on the floor lay the necklace.

So he knew I had been there. He would know what I had heard.

I took it from him and hoped my hands would not visibly tremble.

I heard myself say: he clasp is weak.

here do you think I found it?he asked, his eyes still regarding me with that odd expression.

here?I asked.

ou were wearing it at dinner. Just think where you have been since.

I looked into space, foolishly trying to give the impression that I was trying to remember.

ou must remember, Ellen,he said gently. t was the dungeons. What on earth were you doing there?

I laughed rather shakily and was aware of Gwennol watching me intently.

h, I often wander about the castle, don I, Gwennol?I said.

oue certainly fascinated by it,she answered.

t takes courage to go to the dungeons at night,commented Jago.

not afraid,I said, looking straight at him.

He put his hand over mine and gripped it hard.

have a good deal to say to you,he said. ill you come into my sanctum.

l join you shortly,I said.

on be long.

I thought: I must act quickly and Ie not time to think what I should do. I must have time. I must digest what I have heard. I must consider the implication and suppress my absurd romantic longings.

Instead of going to my room I ran down to the hall and out across the courtyard. Slack was at the dovecotes.

ou look proper scared, Miss Ellen,he said. ave the time come?

I thought of Philip in his room shot. Jago had ordered that.

No, that was too wild. I couldn believe it. I had to talk to him. I had to listen to what he had to say. But I had been listening to Jago for a long time and whenever I was with him I believed whatever he had to tell me. No. I must get away. I must consider everything calmly, coolly, and I could not do that when he was there.

Slack was saying: o to the room, Miss Ellen. Il join e there. Don be afraid. Itl be as it was with Miss Silva.

Oh Slack, I thought. What are you saying? It will be as it was with Miss Silva who had gone off in a boat and the boat came back but not Miss Silva.

ome quick, Miss Ellen,he said. aybe there no time to lose.

He took my hand and we went into the castle. Slack picked up a candle as we came through the hall and lighted it.

old this candle for me, Miss Ellen,he said. I took it from him and to my surprise he lifted the lid of the settle.

o you want me to hide there?I cried in amazement.

He shook his head. ou see now, Miss Ellen. This ain no ordinary old settle.

He leaned forward and to my astonishment he lifted the base, which came up like another lid. I could see down into darkness.

e careful, Miss Ellen. There be steps there. Do e see m? Go down m very careful-like. Il follow e. But do take good care.

I got into the settle and lowered myself down and sure enough my feet found the steps. I went down six of them. Slack handed me the candle and followed me, after shutting the lids of the settle. We were standing side by side in what appeared to be a dark cave.

here are we?I asked fearfully.

his be a great cave which do go right under the sea. is where I brought Miss Silva when she did fly away.

hat happened to her?

he did live happy ever after as she told me she would. It goes down deep. It goes down and down and up again. It comes out on Blue Rock.

ow did you know about it?

knew from my mother. It what they do call a natural cave, but the entrances was made in the old smuggling days. There was a lot of smuggling done here. was a hundred years ago and more. It weren much used since then. My mother were the daughter of the innkeeper and she knew of it from her father, who knew of it from his. They used to store the liquor down here. were a good place for it. Ships could come from France to the Island and liquor would be unloaded and stored in this place until it were safe to bring it to the mainland.

nd when we get to Blue Rock, what then?

he artist will help us. He helped Miss Silva. He were very kind to Miss Silva, he had a real fancy for her. He helped her.

o that was the way she went.

He nodded. er went away to live happy ever after.

nd the boat was washed up.

hat were a trick like. Her weren in it. wasn till later on a dark calm night when she did cross.

ow do you know all this, Slack?

ell, I helped her, didn I? Her talked to me, her did. Happy she were at the last. She were different from what her ever been before. She talked to me like talking to herself, she thought it, but she liked me to be there. I was company, sort of. Her father had been cruel to her terrible crueland she thought he laugh at her and try to stop her if he knew so she ran away with her own true love.

hat happened to her? Where did she go?

hat I never heard on, Miss Ellen. Be careful. The ground be rough going.

Down we went, down a steep slope below the sea. It was damp and cold and we passed little pools of water; at times my feet sank into the sand and the surface changed to rocks. Fortunately Slack was surefooted and it was clear that he knew the way.

ow,he said, e are beginning to go up. It a climb now. is no more than half a mile the distance between Kellaway and Blue Rock.

I said: hat will Mr. Manton say when he sees us?

el be ready to help e get to the mainland if that be what you want.

I did not want to leave the Island. I only wanted time to think. I wanted to talk to Jago, to demand an explanation. But not just yet. I wanted a day or two to think clearly about everything, to make an attempt to piece together the evidence I had gathered, to try to stand outside the enormity of those emotions which Jago aroused in me and assess the scene dispassionately. I wanted to discover how deeply involved I was with a man who was unscrupulous and might well be involved in the murder of Philip Carrington.

That was at the heart of the matter. I could understand his passion for the Island and his desire to possess it. To keep it he must either marry me or be rid of me. I wouldn accept the fact that he didn love me a little. He could not act as well as that. Perhaps in time he would love me even more than the Island, I promised myself, which showed how obsessed I was by the man, since I was so ready to compromise. But if he really were caught up in the murder of Philip that must make a difference.

I was bemused and bewildered.

If he had hired an assassin to murder Philip what were his intentions towards me? What if he did not love me at all? What if I married him? I saw myself willing everything to him and then what would he do when he had no further use for me? What did I know of Jago? That I loved him. That was all. Is it possible to love a man whom one can suspect of murder? The answer seemed to thunder in my ears: es, yes, yes.

But there was one thing he was unaware of. He thought Silva was dead and Slack talked of her living happy ever after. What did that mean? She must have married the lover of whom she wrote and eloped with him. On the Island they had believed she was dead because the boat had come back empty. But if she still lived then on my death she was the next in succession. Jago did not consider this because like everyone else he thought Silva dead.

Where was Silva?

If only I knew.

an e hear the sea now?That was Slack. e be nearly there.

We had been climbing steadily uphill while my thoughts had run on and now I could hear the sea. I could feel the fresh air on my face.

e through,said Slack, and we were pushing our way through bushes and now were right out in the open. The wind caught at my hair, which escaped from its pins and streamed down my back.

here be the house, look,he said. here be a light in the window.

He took my hand and dragged me forward. As he said, there stood the house. The door was open. Slack went through calling: r. Manton. Mr. Manton. I be here with Miss Ellen.

There was no answer. We had stepped into a small hall and Slack pushed open a door and we entered a room.

I felt my senses reel. There it was the red curtains tied with gold fringe, the open brick fireplace, the rocking chair, the gate-legged table and even the torm at Seahanging on the wall.

In every detail it was therehe room which had come to me so often in my dreams.

This was a nightmare. It couldn be real. I had strayed into the dream somewhere. The dungeons, the terrible suspicions about Jagohey were all part of it. It was a new form of the dream. I should wake at any moment.

Slack was looking at me oddly.

lack,I stammered, hat is this room ? What is this place?

He did not seem to understand. He said soothingly: oul be all right here. Miss Silva were

My eyes were fixed on the door. It was that door which had been the center of the dream. It was not the one through which I had come, for there were two doors in this room. The slow moving of that door which had never opened but behind which I had subconsciously known was the reason for my fear.

I saw the door handle slowly turn. I could not take my eyes from it. The door was beginning to open.

This was ithe moment in the dream when the terrible sense of doom had come over me. I was terrified of what the opening of the door would reveal.

. Thoughts flashed in and out of my mind as they do in moments such as that one. It could only have been a matter of a few seconds, but time had slowed down. The fear had come to me just as in the dream, but this was not a dream. I was now face to face with the moment of revelation. The artist! I thought. What has he to do with my life? I scarcely know him. Why should I feel this terrible fear of him?

The door opened. A man was standing on the threshold of the room. It was not the artist though. It was Rollo.

I was trembling with terror, but it was only the dream. Amazement was taking over fear. Rollo! What could Rollo possibly be doing at Blue Rock?

llen!He smiled. ow good to see you here. How did you come?

I stammered: I had no idea I thoughtthe artist lived here.