The Landower Legacy (40 page)

I smiled at him. “Yes, Jago, I admit it. It is fun to be with you.”

“Triumph! The first step is taken. Now I shall make rapid strides.”

“In what direction?”

“Surely you know.”

“I can’t guess.”

He laughed and leaned towards me but I held him off.

“If you mean you are proposing to take your usual course of action, I think you should step back. We don’t want to spoil this pleasant
tete-a-tete
do we?”

“You’re right,” he said, “I will continue to woo you with words.”

“Words don’t hurt anyone.”

“Nonsense! Words can be more effective than blows. The pen is mightier than the sword and all that.”

“Perhaps you’re right. But words can’t take the place of deeds, can they, and as long as you remember that …”

“You are prepared to go on listening to my honeyed tones.”

“At the moment I don’t appear to have much choice.”

And so we continued in this bantering way until we came to London.

Jago took charge of the situation and we were soon driving along to the house which had been my home for so long.

I alighted at the door. Jago rang the door bell and a parlourmaid whom I did not know opened the door.

She cried: “It is Miss Caroline, isn’t it? Do come in.”

Jago took my hand, bowed and departed, and I was taken in to Olivia.

We embraced. Both of us were in a highly emotional state.

“Oh, Caroline … at last. This is wonderful.”

“My dear Olivia! And how well you look!”

“A little plump, eh?”

“A little, but becomingly so. Where is my goddaughter?”

“I knew you’d want to see her first.”

“May I?”

“Before anything? Before you go to your room? You must be tired out. Did you have a good journey?”

“Oh yes … very good. I travelled with someone from Lancarron.”

“Oh … who?”

I had forgotten that I had written to her very fully about the place.

“Jago Landower.”

“Oh really! Where is he?”

“He’s gone to an hotel.”

“I hope I’ll meet him.”

“I expect he’ll make certain that he meets you.”

“Oh, Caroline … isn’t it good to be together! And how are you? You look different … thinner.”

“The opposite of you.”

“Well, it’s the baby. It makes you put on weight.”

“Well … what about this baby?”

“Come on … I can’t tell you how beautiful she is.”

“You have already … at least twenty times.”

She looked happy. He must be kind to her, I thought. At least he has made her happy …

We went into the nursery and a familiar figure came to greet me.

“Miss Bell!”

“Well, Caroline, I am very pleased to see you.”

“Have you started preparing Livia’s lessons yet?”

“I know exactly how I shall begin … just as soon as she is ready.”

Olivia laughed and said: “Miss Bell can’t wait for Livia to reach the schoolroom stage. Where is Nanny Loman? Oh, here she is. Nanny, this is my sister. You’ve heard of her. She’s just arrived and the first thing she wants to do is see Livia.”

Livia was sleeping in her cradle curtained by thick pale blue silk. She was plump, blue-eyed and fair-haired. I fancied I saw Jeremy in her.

“She’s awake,” said Nanny Loman.

“May I pick her up?” asked Olivia.

For answer Nanny Loman picked up the child and showed her to me. The baby opened her eyes and stared at me. I felt a little thrill of pleasure. I put out a hand and touched the soft cheek. She continued to stare at me. I took her tiny hand and looked with emotion at the tiny fingers tipped with miniature nails. The fingers curled round my hand.

“She’s taken to you, Caroline,” said Olivia.

“She likes being picked up, that’s what,” said Nanny Loman practically.

“Sit down,” said Olivia. I did so and the baby was put into my arms.

I looked up at Olivia. Yes, that was perfect bliss I saw in her face. There was no mistaking it.

Afterwards I went to my room.

“Your old one,” Olivia said. “I thought you’d like that.”

I stood for a moment looking round. “It feels so strange to be back,” I said.

I turned to her and she threw herself into my arms.

“Oh, Caroline, I’ve been so worried about … everything.”

“Is something wrong?”

“For me … it is perfect. But it doesn’t seem right when you had to suffer such … I often think of it. But for that I could be perfectly happy.”

“You must stay perfectly happy, Olivia. That’s what I want. I’m all
right. It’s wonderful in Cornwall. I’ll tell you all about it. We’ll have such lovely talks.”

“Oh yes, we will. Caroline, it is so wonderful to have you here.”

Jeremy did not appear that evening.

“He’ll be back late,” Olivia explained. “He has to be out sometimes … on business. You’ll see him tomorrow.”

I was relieved. At least I need not see him just yet. I was not quite sure what effect he was going to have on me; but I was taking a more kindly view of him because he was making Olivia happy.

We sat talking over dinner.

“There’s so much to catch up on,” said Olivia. “Letters are wonderful and yours bring people and places to life. I can see that place in Cornwall. But it isn’t quite the same as talking, is it?”

“No. And it is wonderful to be together.”

“We mustn’t be apart so long again.”

“No. It was so difficult for us to get to each other. And then there was all that time when I was with our mother.”

“Oh yes. Wasn’t it wonderful about her finding that man … Alphonse.”

“She is still very beautiful. He was so proud of her.”

“We used to think she wasn’t quite real, do you remember? When she used to come into the nursery … to see us .. .”

“To show herself to us,” I corrected.

Olivia did not notice the caustic tone of my voice. I reflected that I had grown bitter while Olivia was still the same simple, good person, endowing everyone with her own qualities. What did she know of the world? Perhaps it was better not to know, to go on in blissful ignorance, seeing everything through the proverbial rose-coloured glasses. Perhaps if you saw it that way, it was the way it became for you.

“Miss Bell hasn’t changed,” I said.

“Well, she was worried for a time. She thought she would have to go. Then she stayed on. I said I wanted her to help me and you know that Aunt Imogen approves of her.”

“Oh, is Aunt Imogen still in charge?”

“Not really … now I’m married. She is very fond of Jeremy. She was so pleased when we married. But she still, as she says, keeps an eye on me. Jeremy laughs at it, but they get on very well together.”

“So Miss Bell is now in her element.”

“She was so good to us.”

“Good for us, perhaps. She certainly kept me in order. You were always the perfect pupil, Olivia.”

“Oh no. You were the clever one. That’s what pupils should be if they are to be a credit to their teachers.”

“They should be well mannered, docile … and good … and those were the things you were.”

“You’re laughing at me.”

“I would never laugh at you, dear Olivia. I laugh with you.”

“I see there is a difference. Oh … I must tell you. Do you remember Rosie Rundall … or Rosie Russell as she now is?”

“Yes, indeed I do.”

“She’s become a rich woman. She runs a modiste’s establishment. She wrote to me asking for my patronage, so of course I went along. She is just the same … the Rosie we knew, but she is very important now. She sits in a sort of salon at the back of the shop … No, I mustn’t call it a shop … It’s an establishment. She sells the most fantastic hats to the wealthy. A hat has to be a “Rose” hat nowadays. At the races … garden parties … everywhere … there are Rosie’s hats.”

“I am so glad. She was very helpful to us, wasn’t she?”

“Oh yes. Except on that one occasion. Do you remember when she was going to open the door to let you in? When you were Cleopatra

“I remember.” I was thinking of the first time I had met Jeremy. Rupert of the Rhine … the excitement … it was all coming back. There were too many memories in this house. Olivia was remembering too.

“She left suddenly,” said Olivia. “She had to go away … some business or other. She had to leave at once and there was no time to explain. Well, I can tell you she is a very important lady now. I believe she has more than one of these … er … establishments.”

“She is a very clever woman. Did she marry?”

“No. At least not as far as I know. You must go and see her while you’re here. I was there just before Livia was born and I told her you would be coming for the christening. She was very interested and said she hoped she would be able to see you.”

“I shall certainly go along to see Rosie.”

“We’ll arrange it.”

We went on talking. I wished I did not feel so disturbed but now I
was bracing myself for the encounter with Jeremy which must surely come soon.

I did not sleep very well that night. Too many memories were crowding into my mind. How could it be otherwise in this house where so much had happened? I thought of Jago, who would doubtless be sleeping peacefully in his hotel bedroom, of Olivia in her cocoon of happiness which shut out the unpleasantness of the world. I wondered about Jeremy and what he was feeling about meeting me again; and dominating my thoughts, which was not an unusual state for me to be in, was Paul. What was it like for him to be with Gwennie, to try to make a normal marriage out of what I believed for him was a travesty of one?

As we make our beds so must we lie on them. Olivia had made a cosy feather-bed for herself, Paul one of nails.

Mine was not yet complete. Which would it be?

Olivia came into my bedroom while I was dressing.

“I couldn’t wait for you to come down. Did you sleep well? It’s just as it used to be. Breakfast from eight till nine. You help yourself from the dishes on the sideboard. Remember?”

“Yes, except that for most of my time we were eating in the nursery.”

“Jeremy came in late last night. After you’d retired. He asked a lot about you. I told him how well you are and how much you were liking Cornwall. He was so pleased.”

“Very good of him,” I said, and once again my irony was lost on Olivia.

“He does care about you a lot, Caroline. He was ever so upset. I think of it sometimes. You see, if it had worked out for you … which is perhaps what it should have done …”

“What nonsense! It worked out in the best possible way it could. From my point of view it was all for the best.”

“Do you really mean that?”

“I do indeed.”

“I’m so glad. I have worried quite a lot.”

I touched her brow. “I don’t like to see wrinkles there. You must be happy. You’ve got exactly what you need. All this … and Livia too.”

“But I do want you to be happy. Is there … anyone?”

“The trouble with all you married women is that you want everyone else to be in the same plight.”

“Not plight, Caroline. Happy state.”

“If that’s how you feel, I’m delighted. You will have to watch over Livia because I’m rather taken with her, and I might decide to carry her back to Cornwall with me … snatch her away when you’re not looking.”

“Oh, Caroline, I’m so pleased you like her!”

We went into breakfast together and when we were about to leave the table, Jeremy appeared.

He seemed to be quite at ease and I tried to look the same, but I felt anger surging up within me. I wished I could forget that night at the ball, all our meetings … and then that cruel letter.

He was svelte.

“You look well, Jeremy,” I said. “All this …” I waved my hand. “It suits you.”

“We’re happy, aren’t we, Olivia?” he said.

She smiled at him. I guessed her feelings were too strong for words and I thought: She is far too good for him. And yet she loves him and he has made her happy. I must grant him that.

“Olivia was determined that you should be a godparent,” he said.

“You know you wanted Caroline for that too.”

“I knew Caroline would be the perfect godmother.”

“How nice of you to have such a high opinion of me.”

“I hope you are going to stay with us for some time and not run away as soon as you have come.”

I thought, I can’t stay long here. I shall be saying something bitter to him. I shall be telling him what I think of him. I must get away as soon as I can.

“I’m learning about the management of the estate in Cornwall,” I said. “It is so interesting. I mustn’t stay away too long.”