Lord of the Far Island (9 page)

Then it was as though some force was propelling me across the road. I didn want to go, and yet the overpowering urge to do so was forcing me to. I would let myself in and go carefully through the house. I would make myself see that it was just an ordinary house. There was nothing different there from thousands of other empty houses.

As I opened the gate it gave what I thought of as a protesting whine; I was looking for omens, I told myself severely. Determined not to give way to such fancies, I went up the short path to the front door and let myself in. I closed the door behind me and stood in the hall. Then it came to me againhat strange feeling of foreboding. It seemed as though the house was telling me to go. It had no welcome for me. It had nothing to offer me but disaster.

I looked up at the tall ornamented ceiling and at the really rather beautiful curving staircase. It seemed to me as though the house was rejecting me.

I suppose I was a fanciful person, despite my firm intentions. Only such a one would have that recurring dream surely and try to read something into it. I supposed lots of people dreamed and forgot their dreams the next day. I was being foolish really.

I mounted the stairs slowly and deliberately and studied the rooms on the first floorhe entertaining rooms. They were elegantong windows to the floorypical of their period; the fireplaces were exquisite in their simplicity. Adam perhaps. I furnished it in my mind and imagined myself as the hostessoving gracefully among the guests Carrington hostess, I thought with a curl of the lips. h, good evening, Cousin Agatha. How good of you to come. Philip and I are delighted.And hy, Mrs. Oman Lemming, how nice to see you and your daughters.(There were two of them, weren there?) They would all be so delighted to be received at a Carrington evening. I wanted to laugh at the thought of the imitation I would give of them later to Philip.

Then I went upstairs. Our bedrooms would be here, and there was a small room which had been made into a bathroom. here wouldn be a great deal to be done,Philip had said. he house is ideal, Ellen.

he house is ideal,I repeated aloud. Then I stood listening. I fancied I heard mocking laughter.

I went up to the rooms which would be nurseries and the attics where the servants would be housed. I pictured white walls and a blue frieze of animals, and a little cot of white wood with a blue coverlet.

I was looking very far into the future. But that after all is what marriage was for, wasn it? That was why the Carringtons wanted it. Philip must marry young because it seemed as though Rollo would never have children. Odd to think of Philip and myself as parents.

Then I felt my heart leap in terror. In the silence of the house I heard something. I stood very still listening. All was quiet. Had I imagined it? It is strange really how sometimes without sound one can be conscious of a presence. I had the uncanny feeling that someone was in the house. Then as I stood very still in the center of the room, I heard a sound. I had not been mistaken. Someone was in the house.

My heart began to hammer painfully. Who? It couldn be Philip. I knew where he was. He had told me he had to go to his father London office that day.

I listened. There it was again. A muffled sound; the creak of an opening door.

Then I heard footsteps on the stairs.

I found it difficult to move. I was as though petrified. It was absurd. The house was for sale; we had not definitely bought it, so why should not some prospective buyer come to look at it?

The footsteps came nearer. I stared in fascination at the door. Someone was immediately outside.

As the door was slowly pushed open I gasped; Rollo Carrington stood there.

hy,he said, thought there was no one here.

odid I.

afraid I startled you.

heard someone below and

He looked so tall and I remembered what Philip had said a long time ago about his being a Viking; he even had the appropriate name.

I had had a glimpse of him before but I felt I was seeing him for the first time. He exuded power and a sort of magnetism. I felt that if Rollo Carrington entered a room everyone must be aware of him.

I went on: ou are Mr. Carrington, Philip brother. I am Ellen Kellaway, his fiancee.

es, I know. Congratulations.

hank you. I didn know you were in London.

arrived home last night. I had heard the news of your engagement, of course.

I wondered whether he had come home because of it.

hilip has told me about the house. I said I look it over, so he gave me the key.

wanted to look over it on my own,I explained.

He nodded. aturally you are eager to see that it is suitable.

hall you advise your father to buy it?

think it very likely a sound proposition. I not sure yet of course.

He kept his eyes on me and I felt uncomfortable because it seemed as though he was trying to assess me, to probe my innermost thoughts; and I was not at all sure what he was thinking of me. As for myself, I could not stop thinking of him with that poor wife of his shadowy figure in my imaginationn those top rooms at Trentham Towers, and the decision which must have come to him that she must have a companion to watch over her.

It was impossible to imagine this man caught up in a passionate love affair, which there must have been to make him marry so hastily. I thought I detected a certain bitterness about his mouth. He was no doubt reviling fate for making his beautiful wife unsuitable and allowing him to discover this after he had married her. So cool, he looked, so much in command of himselfnd I imagined of everyone around himhat I could not reconcile the story of his romantic tragic marriage with this man at all.

ave you been round again?he asked.

ot properly.

hall we look at it together?

es, please.

ome then, wel start from the top.

He talked about the snares to look for. I was hardly paying attention. I just wanted to hear his voice, which was deep and authoritative; I wanted to know so much about himverything; he seemed so mature compared with Philip and me; he talked of Philip as though he were a mere boy and it was clear that he considered me very young too.

e had some experience of buying property,he said. ne has to be careful. Caveat emptor, you know.

We went through the house, then out into the garden. We stood beneath one of the trees.

I looked back at the house. It seemed more menacing than ever and I felt a great desire to run away from it even though Philip brother was beside me to protect me from any evil that might befall me.

He started to walk back into the house and I followed. It seemed to close in on me like a prison, and I found it so hard to shake off this feeling of foreboding that I was afraid I would show it. Rollo looked at me rather intently as though he were about to say something, then he changed his mind, or appeared to. He opened the front door and as we stepped out of the house a great relief swept over me.

l call a cab,he said, nd take you home.

I don know how to describe Rollo. There was something enigmatic and completely baffling about him. He was not nearly as good-looking as Philip. His features were more rugged, but he emanated power and a kind of magnetism. He was the sort of man who could slip quietly into a room and yet everyone would be aware of him and he gave the impression that whatever he did would be successful.

I could not get him out of my mind. Perhaps the venue of our encounter had something to do with it. I had been so terrifiedidiculously sohen I had heard his footsteps, which was simply because I had worked myself up about a presence in the house. And then he had appeared.

Ever since I had heard the story of his marriage, I had been thinking about him, and seeing those top rooms at Trentham Towers had set my imagination working. I pictured the hasty courtship, and Rollo being swept off his feet. That was certainly hard to imagine. But she must have been very beautiful and had tremendous appeal for the opposite sex; perhaps she was greatly sought aftero Rollo married her. Then when passion had subsided he made the alarming discovery that she was not the woman he needed and there followed the terrible discovery that she was a secret drinker. I could imagine how horrified he must have been. He was a man, though, who would conceal his true feelings.

Perhaps in the years to come I should get to know him very well. After all, he would be my brother-in-law.

When Philip and I met in the Park I told him about my meeting with Rollo. He was amused.

e came home from Rome only last night,he said. uite unexpectedly. Our mother had written to him about the engagement.

as that what brought him home?

h yes, he had to come at such a time.

o inspect the bride?

e met you before. He knows your family well.

nd he looked at the house.

es, as soon as he heard we were contemplating getting this one he wanted to see it. He thinks it quite a good bargain. He suggests we make an offer for it.

e doesn object to our marriage

bject! Why on earth should he?

ell, youe so rich and I have no money at all.

Philip burst out laughing. hat notions you get! As if they care about that. My mother was poor when she married my father and he was already a rich man then.

he had a title.

ell, look what youe got. Youe beautiful and kind, and kind hearts are more than coronets. You should know that.

nd simple faith than Norman blood. Do I have simple faith?

ou must have to love me.

He was so gay, jaunty, so sure that life was going to be good. I kept comparing him with his brother. How different they were.

think it marvelous,I said, he way your family have accepted me. Cousin Agatha is amazed.

ousin Agatha is a silly old woman. Forgive me, I know she your cousin.

ar removed, as Ie told you before, and don apologize. It gives me a certain gratification to hear this Carrington view.

hy of course theye delighted. They want me married. They think it will be good for me. And they want some little Carringtons. As for Rollo, he as pleased as he could be. It solves things, it makes it all so convenient.

ery convenient,I said. n fact, you could call this a marriage of convenience.

t most convenient for me.

till you might have chosen someone in your own set.

ho could be more so? Whom did I tease and bully in my foolish youth?

think you were teased and bullied by me as I ever was by you.

And so we talked; and I was fond of him; yet there was an uneasy feeling within me. I wasn in love with him. He was kind; he was affectionate; and he was familiar. But I was suddenly afraid of the future.

I wanted to hear more of Rollo Carrington. Rosie was a good informant by way of her coachman. arry says wel get married next year,she told me. he head coachman leaving and he having his place and that means a nice little mews cottage. Mr. Carrington has promised him. It a good house to be in. Il work in the houset expected. Harry says it the best house he ever been in. Mr. Carrington away so much and Lady Emily not one to interfere; and Il see you now and then, Miss, because youl be there on and off, I reckon. I can say I well suited here. She always poking and prying and never satisfied. Cook said if she had the angel Gabriel in her kitchen she be finding fault. It different there, Harry says. They don interfere. They don want to keep reminding you youe a servant. They don think of it. Mr. Carrington too busy with what the Government doing and Lady Emily not the kind.

hat about the son?

r. Philip. Why, Miss, you know more about him than anyone else.

mean Mr. Rollo.

im. Oh, he another like his father. All business, so they say.

e did marry though.

h, that!

osie, did you ever see her?

Rosie was silent for a few moments. Then she said: arry did. He drove them once or twice.

hat is she like?

arry couldn say. He never heard her speak. She was just in the carriage with him.

id he speak to her?

arry never heard him. Like two deaf-mutes, they were. Not that Harry drove them much. Then she went away and Harry never drove her again.

hat did she look like?

e asked Harry that, Miss Ellen, but you know what men are. They never notice. He couldn say. Just that there was something sad about her. He did say she was like a gray ghost. She was always dressed in gray.

sad gray ghost,I echoed.

oue getting your fancies again, Miss Ellen. Don I remember what a one you used to be. Nose into everything and what you couldn find out you made up. I know you, Miss Ellen.

One of the maids came into the room.

ow, Bess,said Rosie, hat do you want?

only came to tell you Janet looking for you.

ell her Il be along soon. I engaged with Miss Ellen.

When the girl had gone she said: hese youngstersthey listen. They hear more than good for them.

I wondered then what I was doing gossiping with one of the servants in my old belowstairs manner. I must remember to mend my ways, now that I was to be a Carrington.

I said a little abruptly: ell, I won keep you, Rose.

Lady Emily was a good informant. Strangely enough, she liked me, which was very comforting, since she could hardly have been delighted by my poverty. She encouraged me to visit her frequently and I often called at the house. She did a kind of tatting quite expertly and it was fascinating to watch her fingers working in an efficient manner while her mind wandered on inconsequentially.

She liked me to sit beside her while she talked.

always wanted a daughter,she told me. hope youl have some girls. Of course they want boys and the first should be one, I suppose, but girls are very charming. I always wanted a girl or two.

From her conversation I learned far more about the Carringtons than I had known before.

The house in Sussex had come to her. She had been an only child and Trentham Towers had been the home of her family for five centuries.

t was a pity there were no boys the title went to a cousin, you know. But I kept the house. I was so glad. At one time it seemed and then I had boys, two boys and no girls. Isn that strange? My parents longed for a boy and got me would have liked a daughter and had two boys. You are my new daughter, Ellen. I think we shall be fond of each other. Youe a bright girl and you and Philip are so young.