Seven for a Secret (41 page)

What a triumphant return!

Harper’s Green looked just the same as I remembered it. We took a cab to The Rowans where Lily was waiting for us. She rushed out and embraced me. Her voice was husky as she stated the obvious.

“You’re back!”

“Yes, Lily, I’m back.”

“About time, too.”

“I missed you all.”

“And don’t you think we missed you! Gadding about all over the place.

Come on in. Don’t want to stand about on the doorstep all night. “

We went into the sitting-room.

“What a wonderful homecoming!” I said.

“We’ll go ahead with our plans now,” said Crispin.

“There’s no need for us to wait. We’ve waited too long.”

Aunt Sophie talked about weddings.

“We want it quickly,” said Crispin.

“We don’t want to be bothered with lots of preparations.”

“I reckon your mother will want to have her way,” said Aunt Sophie.

“She will have to do it our way. And where shall we go for our honeymoon?”

“We’ll consider it,” I said.

“I’m too happy to think of anything but that I am home and it’s all going to be all right. And I did not know this until I was sitting in a railway tea-shop amid the clatter of crockery, people hurrying about and trains shunting outside!”

“What does it matter where you heard it?” said Aunt Sophie.

“You did . and it’s the best news in the world.”

It was wonderful to be back. The nightmare which had begun when Aunt Sophie came back with the news that she had seen Kate Carvel in Devizes was over. There was nothing but happiness ahead.

When Crispin had left us with assurances that he would come next morning. Aunt Sophie wanted to hear about my father.

She was deeply shocked to learn that he was blind.

“Why didn’t he tell me?” she demanded.

“He knew you would be upset, and he didn’t want you worrying about him. He’s like that. He’s very philosophical.”

“But how does he manage to look after himself? And what is he doing on that faraway island?”

I hesitated and then told her about Karla.

“Oh,” she said.

“A woman. There was always a woman.”

“She is half native and very kind and warm-hearted. You would love her. Aunt Sophie. She cares for him very much and does everything for him. She writes those letters to you at his dictation.”

She nodded.

“I knew the writing had changed. Not much, but it wasn’t quite the same.”

“He didn’t want you to know. Karia is very understanding. She is a sort of power in the island. She owns a plantation there.”

“What adventures he has had! If he had told me …”

“I know. You would have tried to bring him home. He is very fond of you, and he doesn’t want to use you. Aunt Sophie, you are his greatest friend, he said. He loves you, but he wouldn’t want to prey on you now that he is helpless. I understand how he feels. I got to know him very well.”

“He is a wonderful man.”

“He would laugh at that. He calls himself a sinner, and I suppose a lot of people would agree with him. But I love him and you do too, and so have a great many people throughout his life.”

She was subdued, but would not allow anything to cloud my happiness.

She talked about the change in Crispin.

“He seems like a young boy now. Oh, Freddie, how lucky you are to be loved like that.”

“I know,” I said.

“And to come back without knowing … I’m glad you did. It shows, doesn’t it? Did you see his face when he realized that?”

“I did. I had to come back. Aunt Sophie. My father understood that.”

“He was never one for conventions.”

“It is like a miracle that it should work out this way.”

“Life has its miracles now and then. Oh, I am so happy. It is what I have always wanted. To see you happy and to keep you near me. It’s everything I ever dreamed of … almost.”

I went to see Mrs. St. Aubyn. I did have a twinge of uneasiness, for I did not know how she would feel about the marriage. She would surely have wanted someone from a higher sphere of society for her son.

However, she received me warmly. She said: “How nice to see you back, my dear. Well, this will soon be your home, and you will be my daughter-in-law. I am so pleased to welcome you into the family.”

She was lying on a sofa, and I wondered whether she had reverted to that invalidism from which she had retreated on the coming of Gaston Marchmont to St. Aubyn’s.

“Crispin is very happy now,” she said.

“That is a great comfort to me.

There has been such unpleasantness in the past and that had an effect on him. I shall be so glad to see him settled with someone I know so well. It is an immense relief. “

I smiled inwardly. I knew she had never been very concerned with her children’s welfare.

“It will be good for the household to have a mistress,” she went on, ‘and I am sure you will be a very good one. I myself have been so hampered by ill-health. “

I knew then that she was lapsing into the old ways. And, as Aunt Sophie would say, that was probably for the best, for I should have no interference from my mother-in-law.

“Dear Frederica,” she went on, ‘would you pull the cover let down over my legs? No matter how warm the room is, I feel a draught. Now tell me about my daughter. Why did she not come back with you? “

I told her about Tamarisk’s interest in the mission. I gave her an account of how she had filled the bleak hall with flowers, how the children had been attracted by her golden hair, and how popular she had been with them.

“How very odd!” she said.

“When do you think she will be coming home?”

“I dare say fairly soon. At the moment she is finding it all rather novel and amusing. She will be home some time, 1 am sure.”

“She ought to marry again.” Her face changed slightly.

“It was such a tragedy. You and I will see if we can find a suitable husband for her.”

“I think she would want to make her own choice,” I said.

She nodded her head sadly.

“As she did before. It was such a pity. He was a very charming man.”

I did not want to think of Gaston Marchmont.

I went to Grindle’s Farm where Rachel greeted me with delight. I could see that life was good for her. Little Danielle was quite a person now; she had her own small vocabulary and was running around, taking an interest in everything.

Daniel was well, Rachel told me. There had been no more repercussions about the murder and it seemed to be back in the past.

She wanted to hear about Tamarisk. She laughed over the flower incident and Tamarisk’s unexpected interest in the mission.

“It is the last thing you would expect of her,” she said.

“Well, Tamarisk was always unexpected.”

“Freddie, I’m so happy for you. It is wonderful that you have come back and are going to marry Crispin.” She looked at me searchingly.

“When you went away like that, I couldn’t understand it.”

“There was a reason.”

“Of course.” She did not ask what it was. Rachel had always been tactful. She had realized that this was something between Crispin and me, and our affair alone.

“But now you are back and everything is all right. Oh, Freddie, you are going to be happy, I know it.”

“If you know it and I am determined to be, it must be so,” I said.

“Poor James Perrin!” She smiled faintly.

“At one time 1 thought…”

That I would marry him? “

“It seemed suitable. He is very self-contained, a calm, efficient sort of man. I am sure he will make a very good husband.”

“He’ll always be predictable a good and faithful husband, I am sure.”

“There is a rumour that he is interested in a young woman in Devizes.

She is the daughter of a solicitor . very suitable in every way. “

“I’m glad.”

“They are saying that her family will help him out with the money to get a place of his own.”

Ideal,” I cried.

“It is wonderful how everything is working out right, isn’t it? It was all going wrong once and then suddenly it comes right. It’s like some sort of pattern. When I look back and think …”

“Rachel,” I said quickly, ‘don’t look back. Look forward. “

She smiled.

“It is good to think you are going to be here.”

I had a meeting with James Perrin. He looked very pleased with life.

He congratulated me on my coming marriage and told me he was thinking about getting his own property. He had been perfectly frank with Mr. St. Aubyn, for he thought it only fair to give him warning so that it would be possible for a new man to have some training before he, James, departed.

His congratulations were sincere enough, yet I fancied there might have been a few regrets. But James was a practical, serious-minded young man who had his way to make in life. He had at one time thought I would be a suitable partner and, as I had made that impossible, he was now finding a replacement. He was reasonable, philosophical; ;;

he was a man who would never plunge into the depths of despair and

never reach the heights of ecstasy either. I was naturally eager to call on the Lanes, and when I did so I found it rather disturbing. But then, it had always been so.

I chose an afternoon the time I used to go and would find Flora sitting in the garden.

She was not there. I went round to the front of the house and knocked on the door. Lucy opened it.

“Oh,” she said.

“It’s Miss Hammond. Come in. Miss Hammond. I heard you were back.”

“I had to come and see you. How is Miss Flora?”

She took me into the sitting-room and bade me sit down.

“Flora is not very well,” she said.

“She’s resting.”

“Oh, I am sorry.”

“She has not been well for some time.”

“Is she very ill?”

“Well, I suppose it is a sort of illness. I get her to lie down in the afternoons. I hear you are going to marry Mr. Crispin.”

“Yes,” I said.

She was holding her hands together and I noticed that they were trembling.

“He is a good man,” she said.

“The best.”

“I know.”

“Well, I am sure you will be happy.”

“I am sure we shall. Is it possible for me to see Miss Flora? I shouldn’t like her to think I hadn’t come to see her.”

She hesitated for a moment before she stood up. She nodded and I followed her out of the room.

“She is changed,” she whispered as we mounted the stairs.

“Yes, you told me.”

The door of the nursery was open. We passed it and went into Flora’s room.

Flora was lying on her bed.

“Miss Hammond has come to see you. Flora,” said Lucy.

Flora half raised herself and said: “You’ve come back.”

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“Yes, and I’ve come to see you. How are you?”

She lay back and shook her head. I noticed then that the doll was in the toy cot near the bed.

“It’s all gone,” murmured Flora.

“I don’t know … where are we?”

“We’re in your room, dear,” said Lucy, ‘and Miss Hammond has come home from foreign parts. She’s looked in to see you. “

Flora nodded.

“He’s gone now,” she said.

Lucy whispered: “She’s rambling a bit.” Then aloud: “It was good of Miss Hammond to come, wasn’t it. Flora?”

“Good to come,” repeated Flora.

“He came here … see.” She was looking at me.

“He took …” Her face puckered.

Lucy laid a hand on my arm.

“Not one of her good days,” she said quietly.

“She’s better left. I’ll give her a pill. That’ll quieten her.”

I sensed that she was eager for me to go, so I had no alternative but to do so. I passed the open door of the nursery as I went and I caught a glimpse of the picture of the seven magpies.

By the front door I turned to look at Lucy. I could see that she was worried.

“She’s changed,” I said.

“It’s one of her bad days. She wanders. She has these days now and then. Some days she’s just like she used to be. Well, of course, she’s been strange for a long time.”

“It must give you great anxiety.”

Lucy lifted her shoulders.

“I know her … she’s my sister. I know how to look after her.”

“She is very fortunate to have you.”

She did not answer that.

She opened the door.

“Well, congratulations, I’m glad you’re going to marry Mr. Crispin. He’s very fond of you. He deserves to be happy.”

“Thank you.”

“Yes,” she said.

“It’s nice … that’s what it is.”

1 walked away smiling, though I was faintly disturbed;

but I always had been after a visit to the House of the Seven Magpies.

Six weeks after my return we were married. Even so, Crispin chafed against the delay. It was a quiet wedding, as we both wanted it to be.

Mrs. St. Aubyn had raised objections but they were only mild ones. In the first place, it would be celebrated from the bride’s home, which was comparatively humble.

Mr. Hetherington performed the ceremony and I think most of the neighbourhood were present.

Crispin and I were blissfully happy as everyone crowded round with their well-wishing. Rachel was there. I wished Tamarisk had been. I often thought of her. I was sure her enthusiasm for the island would, like all those in the past, not be of long duration. I saw Lucy Lane in the church, and I was pleased that Crispin spoke to her and made sure she was well looked after. I wondered how Flora was, but I am afraid I had little thought to spare for anything but my own marriage and the future which awaited me.

Soon after the ceremony Crispin and I left for Italy and there followed weeks of perfect happiness.

Those were days of sheer perfection. I discovered new depths in Crispin. Never had I realized how joyous he could be. All reserve dropped from him. Now that had gone he was completely relaxed and perfectly happy. There was enchantment everywhere.

For most people Florence is a magical city. For us it was a paradise.

We bargained on the Ponte Vecchio with the jewellers and laughed over our attempts to speak the language. We visited fresco-lined churches and the galleries;