The Twisted Sword (35 page)

'It depends what you want to make of your marriage.'

'This is a form of blackmail,' Valentine said, squinting at his glass. 'My wife threatens to kill herself in order to enforce my marriage vows! From what I could see, the cuts were not deep, were they?'

'Not deep. But a woman has to be distraught to attempt such a thing at all. And she might cut deeper next time.'

'Next time. Exactly! There lies the blackmail. Behave or I will destroy myself!'

"The matter could be put in a more sympathetic light.'

'No doubt. No doubt. Isn't it true, by the way, I think I have read it somewhere, that people who threaten suicide seldom succeed?'

'It's been said so. But have you ever tried to open the veins in your own wrists? It requires a deal of resolution to go even as far as she has this time.'

Valentine hunched his shoulders. 'It is all such a storm in a damned tea-cup. Blood and bones, it is not civilized to behave so!'

Dwight got up. 'Well, I must be off.'

'No, wait. Listen. Finish that canary. You are an old friend, by God. You have known my family for thirty years. If anyone has to hear the truth why should it not be you?'

From the window Dwight saw Music Thomas coming up the track from Trevaunance. It could not have taken him all this time to walk from Killewarren.

'When I married Selina I took her for better or worse and she took me the same. Eh? Eh? I am fully committed to her, as I have frequently told her. She is mine and I want to live with her for the rest of my life! I truly want that, bubble me if I don't. Everyone at marriage makes other vows - take unto me only thyself and forsaking all others whatever the cursed words actually are. How few even keep that vow? How few?'

'Perhaps not--'

'My only defect is my honesty. A few months after we was wed I spelt all this out to her. I told her that she was far and above the most important woman in my life but that she could not expect to be the only one. I warned her of it and warned her of it, and damn me if she could bring herself to believe it! But ever since I was breeched I have been interested in girls - can't resist 'em. At the beginning every one is different, even if at the end every one is the same! I cannot change my nature, not even for the sake of a damned peaceful married life!'

Valentine was pacing slowly about the room, his long narrow face cynically intent. Dwight sipped his wine.

'After we were married I had a couple of little affairs in Cambridge, nothing more. I imagine she knew about them. But that was over a period of six months. Most of the time I was as pure as a parson .. . But then when we came home for the summer vacation I met Polly Codrington. Have you met her?'

'No.'

'No, I don't suppose you would have. Handsome creature, married to some dull clod of a squire in Kent - thirty years older than she is. She came to stay with Miss Darcy at Godolphin Hall. We met her, Selina and I, at the Pendarves'. She was only down for a month's holiday, Polly was, and she had a roving eye. I caught it.' Valentine sighed.

'Mind you,' he said, wishing to be reasonable with himself,

'nothing blatant. We both tried to cover our tracks. Me for the reasons stated, Polly because Miss Darcy is a trifle strait in her lacing and Polly did not wish to upset the old dear. Well, we had a couple of meetings and then, not content, agreed to spend a night together at the Red Lion in Truro. I made the excuse that I wished to see my bank, she pretended she was staying with Harriet and my father she is related to Harriet. And all went well. All went very well, I can tell you.' Valentine licked his lips. 'I am not known in Truro. She had never been before. And then in the morning, as we were coming down the staircase together, by the worst cursed contriving of Providence, who should be passing through the hallway but that evil foul scum of a boy, Conan Whitworth. You know who I mean?'

Dwight inclined his head.

'Apparently this odious creature's school was only breaking up that day, and of course he stopped and tried to talk, but I cut him short and hurried Polly off. By then the damage was done. The fat toad must at once have hurried home and told his equally odious grandmother, who must thereupon and with great relish have proceeded to spread it about the county!'

'That does make it more difficult.'

'Very much more, because you see - no doubt you do see - this hit at Selina's self-esteem. However, there it is and the milk is spilt! A mistake like this could happen to anyone. But, blood and bones, it is no occasion for amateur dramatics, for slashing one's wrists and pretending that our life together is over! Polly Codrington has now gone home to her stuffy husband in Kent and who knows if she will ever return? I am still Selina's devoted husband and intend to remain so. When you come next - you'll come tomorrow?'

Yes.'

'When you come I wish you will try to bring my wife round to some more reasonable frame of mind - and to understanding my point of view.'

Dwight smiled. 'You are asking more than I can perform.'

'Well try, man, try. I know you cannot leech for a wounded amour propre but you can at least advise her how cursed silly it is to resort to such extravagant lengths!'

When he came to leave, Katie was holding his horse. She smiled slyly at him, and he avoided looking at her thickening figure.

'Where's Music?' he asked.

'I sent him 'bout his business. He be too long coming

'ome. Wandered off, 'e had, to his own cottage I reckon, to feed all his chets.'

'Don't you like cats?'

'Not so many as 'e's got'

He led his horse to the mounting stone and climbed into the saddle. You are keeping well, Katie?'

'Ais. Proper.'

'Have you thought any more of my suggestion?'

'Gestion?'

"That you should marry Music'

'Nay,' she said. 'Wouldn't do that.'

He smiled at her. "You have told me you do not fancy him greatly as a husband, but he might well become an excellent father.'

A breeze was blowing strongly off the land, and she turned towards it so that her heavy black hair was lifted away from her face.

"Ow do I know if he d'want to be a father to someone else's brat or no? 'E haven't said nothing to me.'

Dwight's horse stamped the ground, ready to be off.

'I hear John Thomas has gone to live with Winkey and Peter Mitchell.'

'Ais. He might just so well've gone years ago, mightn't 'e.'

'So Music is alone in the cottage.'

"Cept for the chets. Tha's why he'm always shrimping off to feed 'em; there's no one else now. But 'tesn right, I d'say. Chets is independent. Chets can forage for themselves. Don't need some poor mazed man stealing time off to feed 'em.'

'It is not a bad little cottage,' Dwight said. 'Of course it has been much neglected.'

"Tis a rare old jakes.'

'But could be done up, put to rights. At present there is no incentive.'

'Please?'

'At present there is no one interested in it; no one to work for. Music put up some shelves for me last month. He's none too bad a man with his hands.'

"Tisn't his hands that are weak,' said Katie with a short laugh. "Tis his 'ead.'

'Which is improving all the time. He's trying very hard, Katie. Talk to him sometime instead of shouting at him. You'd be surprised.'

II

The following evening Katie unexpectedly had to go to the stables, and Music was there alone and put the question. At least he mouthed something in a sweaty stutter in which the word 'wed' recurred too frequently for Katie to misunderstand him. She stared at him in contempt.

"Ave ee been at the bottle, ye great lootal?'

'N-nay! Not so! I'm so sober as a judge. Honest! God's honour, Katie!'

"Then ye did oughter be 'shamed of yourself, thinking such lewd thoughts! Me wed you? Why I'd 'ave as much use for you as a toad for a side pocket!'

Music cringed, his knees shaking. Then with a sudden burst of bravado he said: 'I dearly love bebbies. Bebbies I d'like. I dearly love the dear sweet sights.'

You've got plenty of babies,' said Katie. 'All them chets. Look to them.' Then in vexation she added: 'I d'know who's been putting you up to this monkery! 'Tis Surgeon Enys. Well, he'm a good man, but 'tis no consarn of 'is what I d'do or don't do. And 'tis no business of yours neether!'

'Ais, Katie,' said Music humbly, and 'No, Katie.' And

"Yes, Katie,' again. He could not meet her indignant glare. Katie would have liked at this stage to have flounced out of the stables, but she was not the flouncing sort: her step was too heavy. And, seeing the big young man looking so miserable and sweaty, she said: "Tis all well meant, I dare suppose, on both 'is side and on yourn. Who'm I to be so hoity seeing as to what I've done and the trouble that have come 'pon me? Still, there you be. 'Tis no more'n I desarve, and I'll tek my draught wi'out help from no one.'

'I be strong,' said Music, finding his voice again. 'Strong. All ways. All ways, see. God's truth. I'd labour for you and the bebby. Tha's no more'n you desarve.'

Katie continued to stare at him from under black, contracted eyebrows.

'Giss along wi' you,' she said at last. 'You can't come mopping wi' me. You're 'alf saved. You know you're 'alf saved. Can't do nothing 'bout that. Even Surgeon can't. Look to your chets, Music. I'll see for myself.'

Ill

As soon as Clowance heard that her father was home she had to see him. She also felt that Stephen had to go, and Stephen, still in the flush of euphoria, reluctantly agreed. They rode over and stayed two nights. Clowance was as shocked in the appearance of her father as she had been of her mother, and the visit was a difficult one. Again Stephen was on his best behaviour and did not let his lack of interest in people a generation older than himself show in any discourteous way. He was quite fond of his mother-in-law who had continued until recently to be such a pretty woman and tolerated a father-in-law who was a distinguished man and notable in the county. Sir Ross, it seemed, had no particular plans for his own future, and intended to live quietly for the next year or two. He had given notice that he would resign his parliamentary seat as soon as Lord Falmouth found it convenient. Lady Poldark spent most of her time in the garden, where the energy she expended was like a counter-irritant to her griefIsabellaRose,

fresh-faced from school, was more subdued than anyone had ever known her. Not only was she mourning for her beloved brother with whom she had had a delightful jesting relationship, but she was also deeply upset because her other beloved, Christopher Havergal, had lost a leg. After such cruelty she said she could never sing again. After dinner on the first day, Stephen and Clowance rode over to Trenwith, but there they found only Drake and Morwenna and Loveday. Mrs Amadora Poldark had just, left with her baby daughter for Paris to join her husband, who was to be stationed there as part of the army of occupation. Amadora had been over several times to see the Poldarks and had told them of her summons, but Demelza had mistaken the week she was leaving. Then they rode on to Place House and drew a second blank. Selina was in bed with a feverish chill and had been told to see no one; Valentine was in Redruth. In the evening Dwight and Caroline invited them all to supper, which made for a much more cheerful evening than could possibly have taken place at Nampara. Daisy and Paul Kellow had also been invited, and it was a talkative party if not a jolly one. While carefully avoiding Waterloo, they asked a lot about the months Ross and Demelza had spent in Paris before Napoleon's escape. Ross was incredulously angry that Fouche should have now been elected President of the Provisional Government and had negotiated with the Allies for the capitulation of Paris. There was talk of his even being reappointed Chief of Police in Louis the Eighteenth's new government. 'It cannot be allowed to go on!' Ross said. "This evil creature must be thrown out!'

'Perhaps Jodie will see to it in due time,' Demelza said. She had had two letters recently from Mile de la Blache, the second one from Paris, repeating an invitation that they should visit there again, now the bad time was over. Henri, Jodie thankfully reported, was safe and well. She could never thank Demelza enough for her help on that terrible escape, or be more appreciative of IsabellaRose's innocent but vital intervention. It was a long time since Stephen and Paul had seen each other, and the old conspirators privately exchanged congratulations, Stephen on his successful adventure at sea, Paul on his potentially successful adventure in the marriage market. They spoke of Jeremy with regret, but, being young, the thought of him being dead and dust and corruption did not so greatly worry them. Death to them was something that happened to somebody else. Daisy, who had always had great hopes of Jeremy until he became besotted with Cuby, did not appear to repine at all. With the dreaded wasting disease having taken off two of her sisters, she lived too close to the tomb to be overawed by it. The next day Stephen and Clowance rode home together, Stephen feeling the satisfaction of having performed a tedious duty and the pleasure of returning to the town he had made his own and where his livelihood was always going to be. He had avoided meeting Ben, and need not now go back to the north coast for six months or more. The north coast was a backwater, a dead end, and those who lived there were welcome to it. The future lay in the Channel.

'Look you,' he said, 'being around and about the way I am, I hear all sorts of bits of news that don't become public till they're stale. Yesterday I heard that Coombes's cottage in Flushing was for sale. 'Member him? He worked in the Customs House. Wife died last year; he died Wednesday. Son don't want the cottage, will put it up for sale next month. Reckon if someone went along, offered seventy-five pound, quick sale, money down, he'd take it.'

'Is it the one at the end of the row?'

'Next to the end. The one with the white front door. I have a mind to buy it.'

'For us?'

'No, dear heart, not for us. The building of our house restarted last week. I thought to buy it for Andrew.'

Clowance was startled. 'You mean

'He's overdue now, should be home any day. He wants to get wed - he has no money. I thought to give it to them as a wedding present.'

Their horses separated, and it gave her time to take in what he had said.

'Stephen, that is generous of you! You are so kind - I'm sure he will be delighted, overwhelmed.'

'Well, he could feel aggrieved that he did not come on our venture, eh?, feel he had missed a big bonus. He can look on it that this is his share.'

Clowance said: 'I can't kiss you, but I will later. Thank you for such a generous thought.'

Stephen laughed heartily. 'And if he don't want it, I can sell it again. But I wouldn't give him the money - he might not keep it for his marriage portion!'

'I conceit Tamsin will sober him up. He'll have responsibilities. I'm told his father gambled and drank too much when he was young.'

'Eh well, ye would not think so to look at him now, would ye.' Stephen flicked at his horse to quicken its step.

"This old nag ... Next tiling is to find me a hunter. I shall wait now till St Erme Cattle Fair in two weeks' time. They say there's some good horseflesh coming up.'

'Let me come with you,' said Clowance. 'I haven't lived on a farm all my life for nothing.'

'Wouldn't go without you,' said Stephen. They rode on.

IV

Dwight had seen Selina the following day and then called a week later, at her request. No confidences were exchanged, and it would have been against his professional ethics to invite them. Nor, had she told him the facts, would he have been prepared to put Valentine's point of view. On this third visit, when he found her up and about, she spoke rather sheepishly of her clumsiness in breaking the glasses, and attempted to demonstrate to him how she had fallen forward, cutting both wrists at the same time. The amount of blood she had lost was little, and the dark rings under her eyes were no doubt concerned with the cause of the accident, not the accident itself. He sat chatting for a few minutes, discussing the arrival off Plymouth of the Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte as a prisoner of the British in HMS Bellerophon. Selina was of the opinion that he was being treated with too great a respect -- it was said that every officer, English and French, uncovered when he came on deck and that the harbour was swarming with small boats trying to get a glimpse of him. Dwight said he was not sure as to the amount of respect he deserved. It was true that, but for him, many thousands of good young men - including one very near and dear to them all - would be alive. But it was the custom of the British to show respect for their fallen enemies and, as well as being a terrible scourge, which everyone admitted, Bonaparte was a great man. For instance the Civil Code which he had introduced into France would probably provide a model for future generations. On this Valentine arrived, having been out riding. Conversation abruptly lagged, and then Selina, smiling too brightly at Dwight, asked to be excused. After she had gone Valentine said: 'Not drinking? My wife has caught some of the parsimonious habits of her former husband. I swear you did not like the canary you had before. This is a very good Mountain, shipped direct from Malaga. Try a glass.'

Dwight tried a glass, and for a while talk continued on the subject of the late Emperor. Then Valentine said: 'Tell me, Dr Enys. What did my mother die of?'

Dwight thought cautiously round the sudden change of subject: 'She died in childbirth. Your sister--'

'Ursula was born on the 10th of December. My mother did not die until the 14th.'

'It is not uncommon, if something goes amiss, for the mother to survive a few days.'

'Do you know what went amiss?'

'She died of blood poisoning,' said Dwight shortly.

'Was that why she smelt so bad?'

Dwight looked up, startled. Valentine said: 'Well, you see, I was nearly six at the time. They would not let me into her room but the smell escaped into the passage. It is a smell I have never been able to forget.'

There was an uneasy silence. Dwight said: 'I am sorry you were allowed near. The disagreeable smell was due to a putrid condition of the blood.'

Valentine resumed his ramshackle pacing. "You will excuse these questions, Dr Enys, but you have been a friend of the family, and their physician, long before I was born and you must know more about my family than almost anyone alive.'

'I have known your family for thirty years but I have not been their physician. Your father always had the Truro man, Dr Behenna, and he was engaged to wait on your mother when Ursula was born. I was called in because labour began prematurely while she was still at Trenwith.'

'Prematurely?'

Yes.'

'I too was a premature baby. Eight months, I understand.'

'I understand so.'

'And so became the cause of great dissension between my father and my mother.'

'I do not know what gave you that impression.'

'A six-year-old boy is not without perception, especially where his parents are concerned.'

'No. Maybe not. But

'It is good, this wine, isn't it,' said Valentine. 'My wife's money enables me to live off the fat of the land, so no doubt a more moral man than I am would feel obliged to adhere more obviously to his marriage vows.'

'That is for you to decide--'

'I wonder if my mother adhered to her marriage vows?'

Dwight finished his wine and got up. 'I don't think I can help you on this subject, Mr Warleggan.'

'You cannot have lived in these villages for so long without knowing that nothing is ever kept permanently secret. My problem is remembering what I knew in my heart as a child and what I have heard in sidelong whispers since. What I do know .. . Pray sit down again.'

Dwight reluctantly sat on the edge of a chair but waved away an attempt to refill his glass. He appreciated that under the surface gloss Valentine was speaking of something that had been gathering a long time in his heart.

'As a child I soon came to see that I was the bone of contention between my parents. Sometimes all would be apparently well, and then a word would be dropped, a shadow of some sort would be cast - and it always involved me. Sometimes for a month at a time my father would not speak to me, would not even look at me. I might have been some leprous monstrosity which had to be ignored and shunned. Unclean! Unclean! Of course my mother was not like that. Her loving care for me never wavered ... Naturally all this did not make for a happy childhood.'

'I'm sorry.'

'Did you know that my parents had a violent quarrel only a day or two before Ursula was born?'

'No, I did not.'

'D'ye know, I have a pretty clear memory of the events of December '99. We had been in London and rather happy there. At least, my mother seemed to be, and that reflected on me. She had got much fatter, and I did not understand that, but my father was in a good mood and I was happy with some new toys. I remember specially a rocking horse. I wonder what happened to that? Suddenly it all changed - as it had done sometimes in the past, but never so badly as this - and I felt I was guilty of some terrible sin. We journeyed back to Cornwall, and I remember I was coachsick most of the way. It is not at all agreeable, my dear Dr Enys, being coachsick at the best of times, but when your father looks his utter disgust - indeed hatred at every fresh retch ...

'When we reached Truro influenza, scarlet fever and dysenteries were raging, so my mother took me off to Trenwith to see her parents and to keep me out of infection's way. Smelter George stayed behind. It was a dark month. Do you remember it at all?'

'Very well.'

'Trenwith was monstrous dark. It might have been haunted. Do you remember the great storm that blew up during that first week?'

'Yes.'

'It was one of the worst storms that had ever been, but, child-like, I found it vastly exciting. The servants we had, Tom and Bettina - d'you know, I cannot remember their surnames - they took me out to see the sea at Trevaunance; they got a good wigging afterwards for taking me, for roofs were blowing off and branches falling. But suddenly at supper that night my father turned up with a face like fury. I was so excited out of my usual fear of him that I tried to tell him about the storm. He snapped back at me as if I were an evil thing, and I was sent instantly to bed - in something of a temper myself, I may say.'

Valentine picked a piece of ore off the mantelshelf, weighed it appreciatively in his hand. 'Early assays on Wheal Elizabeth are promising - copper very obvious, but signs also of tin and zinc'

'Very promising.'

'That night,' said Valentine, 'after I had been put to bed and the candle blown out, I got up again and padded along to my mother's bedroom. But I did not go in. My parents were both there and in the midst of one of their bitterest quarrels. I listened to it all, taking in words but not comprehending them. Only since. Only since, remembering the words, have I gathered their meaning. It seemed that George Warleggan thought he was not my father.'

Dwight frowned. 'Are you sure you remembered the words correctly, that you did not misinterpret the causes of the quarrel? Children can so often mistake these things.'

'Do you mean to tell me that you have never heard whispered doubts in these villages about my parentage?'

"There is always tittle-tattle in villages, Mr Warleggan. Most of it is entirely invented and should be ignored.'

Valentine pushed back his hair. His vivid eccentric manner was at odds with this rather stuffy room, furnished by his elderly predecessor.

'When Ursula was born George Warleggan came into my bedroom to tell me. I was terrified - he had never been into my room for as long as I could remember. But now for some reason - it was as if the storm - his storm - had passed. He actually patted my hand, told me about my sister, said that my mother was well but must rest in bed for a few days. He talked to me about going to school, about the recent gale, almost as if no enmity had existed between us. I could make nothing of it, remained frozen to his touch. Children cannot change as quickly as all that. I was relieved when he left. I only wanted to see my mother again. This, of course, I did, and also Ursula, but the day after that my mother was taken ill - and the day after that she died.'

Through the open window you could hear the children calling to their cattle in the fields. A horse whinnied in the nearby stables. Dwight said: Your mother was delivered prematurely of a perfectly healthy child. I delivered the child. I did not see your mother again for two days, as Dr Behenna arrived and took charge. Then when I was called in again I was appalled at the sight of her illness. Do not misunderstand me, this could not have been the result of any mistaken treatment Dr Behenna prescribed. Had I seen the complaint earlier I would have diagnosed it more quickly, but could not have halted it.'

'And the complaint was?'

'I have told you. A form of blood poisoning.'

'Gangrene, wasn't it? I have read books.'

'A form of blood poisoning.'

'Caused by what?'

Dwight thought: almost certainly by drinking part of the contents of a little bottle I still have in my cupboard at home. He had no means of analysing it, but he had tasted it and could make a reasonable guess at some of the ingredients. But never could he say anything of this to any human being, least of all to Elizabeth's son.

'Dr Behenna described it as an acute gouty condition of the abdominal viscera which manifested itself in cramp-like spasms and inhibition of the nerve fluids.'

'Do you believe all that medical flummery? You are, after all, well known to be the most advanced and knowledgeable physician in the southwest.'

Dwight stared at the tensed-up young man. 'However knowledgeable any one of us is, we struggle in the dark, Mr Warleggan. We know so little of the human body, even after centuries of practice and experience.'

He might have added: And of the mind, Mr Warleggan, and of the mind.