Read Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead Online
Authors: Barbara Comyns
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead (15 page)
Constance was summoned and ordered to put her mistress to bed. It took the doctor and the maid a considerable time to get her upstairs, and then she strongly objected to Constance parting her from her complicated underclothes. At last she was in bed with a hot water bottle, and the shivering and crying had eased a little, and Doctor Hatt felt it was safe to leave her.
He returned to Ebin’s room, and Ebin’s heart sank as he heard his footsteps coming nearer and nearer and up his attic stairs.
The door burst open and a furious Doctor Hatt appeared.
“So your old mother’s delighted to be left alone and gets on with Constance like a house on fire! Well, all I can say is, if you leave her in the state she is in, it will be murder, sheer murder.”
“Oh,” said Ebin weakly, “isn’t she very well then?”
“No, she isn’t, and you know it perfectly well. It’s quite out of the question for you to leave tomorrow unless you want to kill the poor old thing. Surely you can stay a few days and make better arrangements for her. Isn’t there any cousin or relative who can be engaged as companion?”
“No,” said Ebin dejectedly. “She quarreled with them years ago.”
“I know,” the doctor suddenly brightened, “you could take her with you. She could keep house and all that sort of thing; and you would be out most of the day, so she wouldn’t be too much trouble.”
“My mother come to London with me!” Ebin looked horrified. “I’m only going to London to get away from her. You know she has made my life hell for years, and I don’t want to take that hell with me. You know what it’s been like for me here; so for God’s sake don’t try to stop me escaping.” There was a note of hysteria in his voice, and the doctor said soothingly, “Alright, alright, don’t worry. Perhaps we will think of some solution in the morning.”
Then he left, and Ebin, with his hopes of freedom almost shattered, stared out of the window at the dusk.
T
HE PROBLEM of how to dispose of Grandmother Willoweed was solved that night, and five days later it was finally solved when she was buried in the churchyard by the river. Her son respected her wishes, and her body was conveyed to the churchyard by boat. The boat was again all draped in black cloth, and the fine oak coffin was groaning under the weight of many magnificent wreaths; but above them all was Ives’s wreath of grey-green holly, hogswart and thistles. At the last moment he had felt the dandelions looked cheap; so they had been replaced by yellow helenium.
Hattie and Emma stood on the landing-stage and watched the funeral boat slowly pass round the island in the misty September sun. The church bell was tolling a lament, and men upon the bridge took off their hats in reverence as the boat drew near.
“Poor Grandmother,” said Hattie, “I hope she is comfortable in that beautiful box. It doesn’t seem large enough to me. Do you think they have folded her up, Emma?”
When the burial was over, the people came to the house for refreshment, and there was much black upon the tenant farmers and their wives. They wanted to stay for the reading of the will so that they would know to whom they belonged; but Lawyer Williams turned them away and told them they would be notified in due course. As he read the complicated will, his bleating laugh was heard above the words he read: but in spite of this it became clear to his hearers that Grandmother Willoweed had left a very large fortune, the interest of which her two granddaughters and son were to enjoy until Emma had a son, and that son became of age, when he would inherit everything with the exception of three thousand pounds. Old Ives was left two hundred pounds, which he immediately decided to give to the Catholic Church, “because it can’t do me much good on this earth, but it might make all the difference in the next world when the Almighty God hears how generous I’ve been.”
The guests left, and Ebin was alone with the two girls, and they walked up and down one of the lawns talking together. The evening sun fell in slanting rays on their black clothes, and in the flower-beds great curly-headed dahlias blazed away.
“Do you know, I really think I should stay on here to manage things,” Ebin said, eyeing Emma rather nervously. She looked at her father in amazement.
“But I thought it was all arranged that you were going to London and you’d signed that contract?”
“Well, I think I could get out of that, you know; and I must put my daughter’s welfare before my own inclinations. You would like me to keep an eye on the property, wouldn’t you, Emma?”
“Lawyer Williams and the executors will do that, won’t they, father?”
“Of course, Lawyer Williams will do all he can—after all he’s been well paid for it—but it’s rather hard on the executors; they are supposed to do it as a labour of love, and I’d like to help them as much as possible.”
“If you are not going to London, need I go Father? I’d much rather be here. I don’t care as much about being civilized as Emma does. Anyway she’s going to be married, and it’s years before anyone will want to marry me.”
“But Hattie—your school!” Emma said in a shocked voice.
“London isn’t the only place with schools. There is a high school only about five miles away. They come and bathe in the river sometimes and all scream behind bushes while they dress. I could go there and scream behind bushes, too.”
“Emma, I’ve suddenly realised that Hattie’s and my income combined will be a very handsome one. We could run a car and there would be no problem about getting her to school—and she could have a pony. I remember poor Mother saying she would like Hattie to have a pony. Oh yes, there was a dog as well. Hattie, you must have a dog. Do you know I think we could be very happy here. It’s a pity you are getting married, Emma, or you could have stayed as well!”
But Emma went to London and married her young doctor and became completely civilised. In due course the son was born who was to inherit most of his great-grandmother’s fortune. He was pushed round Kensington Gardens in the most modern of prams by a brown-clad veiled nurse, and when he grew older he was sometimes allowed to sail his boats in the Round Pond, although he had to be very careful not to get his feet or clothes wet. His mother became a model young wife and hostess, very much admired for her grave, quiet dignity and elegant, but restrained, manner of dressing. She did not visit her sister or father very often.
Hattie was truly happy at Willoweed House, and her father was as happy as his nature would allow him to be. Ebin drove his daughter to school in a glorious green-and-black-striped, fifty-horse-power, Sheffield Simplex, all upholstered in grey. On the back seat an enormous white poodle lay in all its extravagant beauty. The High School girls were so impressed with all this they hardly noticed Hattie’s almost black face and, when it gradually dawned on them she was strangely dark, they christened her the A.P. (African Princess).
Ebin grew a dashing red beard, which gave him a rather nautical appearance, and after being several times mistaken for a sailor, he began to dress in a sailor’s fashion. The villagers forgot he had never been to sea, and in time he came to be regarded by all as a retired sailor, until he became known as Old Captain Willoweed. Before this came about he actually purchased a small sailing boat. When there was not much wind he could be seen sailing with his daughter and heard shouting instructions in a hearty booming voice. Hattie did most of the sailing, completely disregarding his instructions; so they managed very well.
Old Ives lived for many years, outliving all his ducks. He spent much time in the coach house polishing the splendid car and singing hymns as he worked; but he sometimes worried in case he had made a mistake in giving his fortune to the Church: it seemed as if the time would never come when he would reap the benefit.
- THE END -
BARBARA COMYNS was born in England in 1909 and raised in a Warwickshire country house. She and her siblings were largely in the care of governesses, and allowed to run wild. She began writing and illustrating stories when she was a girl. In her teens she attended art school in London. She then married a painter and had two children. To help support her family, she dealt in antiques and vintage cars, renovated apartments, and bred poodles. She later lived in Spain for eighteen years. In addition to being a writer, she was an accomplished painter, and exhibited with the London Group. She died in 1992 leaving two children, several grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and eleven books.
1. Renee Gladman
Event Factory
2. Barbara Comyns
Who Was Changed and Who Was Dead
3. Renee Gladman
The Ravickians
4. Manuela Draeger
In the Time of the Blue Ball
5. Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi
Fra Keeler
6. Suzanne Scanlon
Promising Young Women
7. Renee Gladman
Ana Patova Crosses a Bridge
8. Amina Cain
Creature
9. Joanna Ruocco
Dan
10. Nell Zink
The Wallcreeper
11. Marianne Fritz
The Weight of Things
12. Joanna Walsh
Vertigo