Winterwood (19 page)

But she insisted on going to Lady Tameson’s funeral. She wanted her mourning clothes made, and submitted with that meek lifelessness to the fittings. The only time she objected was when Lavinia suggested she should wear her new shoes.

“Oh, no, Miss Hurst. You said they were for dancing. That makes them quite unsuitable for a funeral. Just put them back in the cupboard.”

And there, Lavinia was afraid, they would now stay. But it would all soon be over, the melodramatic panoply of grief, the hearse with its four black horses with nodding black plumes, the black-clad attendants, the day into night atmosphere. Jonathon Peate forebore, for once, to smile. Charlotte looked frail and lovely behind her black veil; Daniel’s face was composed into the correct sober lines. Daniel had refused to have Simon brought home from school, and had decreed that Edward was too young to attend such a mournful ceremony. He disapproved strongly of Flora’s presence, but had not forbidden it.

Mr. Mallinson had arrived from London and was there, and Eliza, her eyes red-rimmed from crying. Otherwise no one knew or cared about the burial of one elderly woman brought back from a foreign country to be laid beside her long-dead son.

There was no one to speak a eulogy on the dead woman, for no one had really known her. Only Flora made any comment at all. She said in a tight, resentful voice, “She shouldn’t have gone to little Tom. I needed her more.” Then, almost immediately a strange look came over her face, her eyes blazed.

“What’s the matter?” Lavinia whispered anxiously. Was the child going to have one of her fits of hysteria here, in the churchyard?

“I want to go home. Quickly.”

There was food and wine laid out in the dining room, and a huge comforting fire burning.

But no one was much interested in it, for as they returned to the house, Flora announced the reason for her odd behavior.

“I moved my toes, Miss Hurst. While we were beside the grave. The crows were squabbling in the trees and they sounded just like Great-aunt Tameson laughing. As I thought that; my toes moved.”

“Show me,” said Lavinia, whipping off the rugs.

But now, with everyone gathered around, nothing happened. Flora’s face was sharpened to an eerie thinness with her effort. She began to cry, her fingers dug into her eyes.

“But it did happen. Truly it did. I didn’t imagine it.”

“Then it will happen again,” said Daniel. He lifted her in his arms, ready to take her upstairs. “Cry as much as you like, my darling. You should have cried days ago.”

“Papa, Great-aunt Tameson told me I could move my toes if I tried. She said I was just lazy. I wish I had been nicer to her.”

“I think she loved you as you were. Isn’t that so, Miss Hurst?”

Lavinia nodded, knowing that to be more true than even Daniel suspected. Flora was put on her bed, but refused to be comforted. At last Charlotte, who could not now control her impatience for the more important ceremony of the day, the reading of the will, said that she had the very thing with which to quiet Flora’s distress.

She hurried away, and came back with a dark blue bottle.

“Now, dearest, swallow just a spoonful of this, and you will have a lovely sleep.”

Flora’s anguished eyes sought her mother’s.

“Aren’t you happy, Mamma, that I moved my toes? It means that I will walk again, doesn’t it?”

“I expect it does.” Charlotte had poured the colorless liquid into a spoon. “Open your mouth.”

“It means I won’t be a burden on you forever, doesn’t it? Aren’t you glad?”

“Darling, you were never a burden. There. Now you will rest.”

Flora made a face at the disagreeable taste of the liquid. Charlotte put the bottle on the bedside table, and looked at Lavinia.

“It’s quite harmless, Miss Hurst. It only has sedative properties.”

“And pain-killing ones?” Lavinia asked. “It’s laudanum, isn’t it? I believe some people use it for a bad toothache.”

Charlotte’s eyes flickered.

“Yes, I have heard that. But I keep it for my headaches. I find it quite efficacious. In the smallest quantities, of course. To take too much would be dangerous.”

Daniel was watching her.

“My love, you never told me this.”

Charlotte shrugged. “Details of illness are much too tiresome. Of course I don’t bore you with them. Flora will sleep now. Miss Hurst will stay with her. We must go down. Mr. Mallinson will be waiting.”

Flora watched them go, her eyelids already heavy.

“Why is Mr. Mallinson waiting for them? Is it to tell them who is to have Great-aunt Tameson’s diamond brooches? I hope Edward isn’t to have one for his future wife. He was much too horrid to Great-aunt Tameson. Even more horrid than I was. Miss Hurst…”

“Yes, Flora.”

“Even if I walk again, you are not to leave me… I would be very grieved… you must stay…”

She was asleep.

Lavinia rang for Mary to come and sit with her. Contrary to Charlotte’s orders she had to leave her charge. She had to join the group in the library and produce that amateur but authentic document, the indisputably last will and testament of Tameson Barrata.

L
AVINIA KNEW
THAT TO
the end of her life she would never forget that scene. They were sitting around the table in the library, Daniel, Charlotte, Jonathon, Sir Timothy, and Mr. Mallinson. Charlotte’s face was startlingly pale against the unrelieved black of her dress, and her smoothly piled black hair. Mr. Mallinson’s cheeks were rosy in the lamplight. He had not brought back any of the churchyard gloom with him. Scenes like this were no doubt too familiar in his life. But he did raise a surprised eyebrow when Lavinia handed him the folded sheet of paper.

Charlotte, beginning to reprimand Lavinia for her unceremonious entrance, was abruptly silent. And now they all stared at her.

There was fear in Charlotte’s eyes. It was as blatant as if she had cried out. Her face could go no paler, but it seemed to sharpen and be drained of blood.

Lavinia searched the other faces. Who else was afraid?

With thankfulness she saw that Daniel was not. He only looked surprised and interested. Sir Timothy, too, merely looked exasperated because, as usual, be had mislaid his spectacles and he could not see her clearly, nor guess what was going on.

Jonathon? He stared at Lavinia with a peculiar bold aggressiveness. For once he was not smiling. She was quite unable to guess his feelings.

It seemed as if those few minutes, while Mr. Mallinson studied the document she had handed him, went on for an unconscionable time.

Then Mr. Mallinson said, slowly, “This is an entirely new development. But this document appears to be in order.”

Charlotte said in a voice that died away, “What—is it?”

Mr. Mallinson cleared his throat and said ceremoniously, “I have in my hands a document that appears to render null and void the will I drew up for the deceased. This young lady will no doubt tell us more about the circumstances relating to it later, but in the meantime perhaps you would like to know its contents.”

Sir Timothy said with relish, “The old lady’s played a last trick, has she? Can’t say I’m surprised. In my opinion she had been corrupted by foreigners. She had learned their devious ways. Well, go on, Mallinson, tell us what she says.”

Mr. Mallinson cleared his throat again, pompously.

“The testatrix states that she wishes her entire estate to go to her great-niece Flora ‘who appeared to be fond of me.’” Mr. Mallinson frowned testily. “This is a most incomplete document, but it seems to have the vital factors. I am named as executor and trustee as in the previous will, and it appears to be correctly signed, witnessed and dated. So we must accept it as legal.”

Charlotte was leaning forward, her eyes disbelieving.

“It can’t be!”

But Daniel smiled in pleasure. “Flora an heiress! That is a surprise. What an extraordinarily thoughtful and perceptive thing for your aunt to do, Charlotte. She saw Flora as permanently an invalid, no doubt. Isn’t that so, Miss Hurst? Why don’t you sit down and tell us about it?”

“That thing must be torn up!” The words burst from Charlotte. “It can’t be legal. Written on a piece of notepaper like that! Why, it’s like something a child might do. Mr. Mallinson, you can’t agree that that trifling nonsense can stand up in a court of law.”

Mr. Mallinson narrowed his eyes, watching Charlotte.

“The document is amateurish, I agree. Indeed, for an estate the size of the Contessa’s, it is ludicrous. It dispenses very prettily with all my fine clauses. But it is, I fear, incontestable. You are perfectly at liberty, Mrs. Meryon,” his voice had become a trifle chilly, “to consult another opinion.”

“I will,” Charlotte promised. “You may be sure of that. I don’t believe my aunt ever signed that. How can you swear it’s her signature?”

Here Jonathon made his first sound, and it sounded remarkably like a suppressed laugh, an abruptly cut-off satirical chuckle. But then he laughed at everything because he had no tears. Laughter had to serve even for the bitter disappointment of not sharing in his aunt’s fortune. For it must have been a disappointment after his assiduous attendance on her.

“What are you suggesting, my love?” Daniel was not laughing. His voice had an edge. “That this document is forged?”

“Yes,” said Charlotte. “We all know Miss Hurst’s feelings for Flora. Or are her feelings genuinely for Flora? Isn’t she perhaps seeing herself at Flora’s side for the rest of her life, nicely sheltered from all the problems of a penniless woman?”

“Charlotte! Be silent!”

“What other interpretation do you put on it?” Charlotte cried furiously. “We are away at Windsor, safely out of the house—and my poor aunt, weak and feeble, is got round in this way. I can see it all. She is encouraged to dislike my darling Teddy, and constantly told how sweet and brave and helpless Flora is. And then this happens!” She pointed a quivering finger at the startled Mr. Mallinson. “Perhaps it is not a forgery, but it is the result of undue persuasion, and I shall prove it.”

“Charlotte,” said Daniel heavily, “they are both your children. Flora and Edward. If it comes to that, why are you not concerned for Simon, who has never been mentioned?”

“Because Simon will have Winterwood! Isn’t that enough for him? Flora will marry. But what about Teddy? Why is he to be penniless? Is this all the reward I get for bringing that tiresome old woman here? After the promises she made to me—”

Mr. Mallinson was rapping the table.

“I beg your pardon, Mrs. Meryon. But I must ask you to be silent. Then perhaps Miss Hurst will tell us how this all came about.”

Charlotte sank back in her chair. Suddenly she seemed at the point of collapse, her face alarmingly white, her wild eyes fixed with a frightening hatred on Lavinia.

Lavinia had had difficulty enough in keeping silent herself. Her hands were clenched hard with controlled anger. How dare Charlotte speak to her like that!

“There is very little to tell. Lady Tameson rang her bell in the middle of the night and demanded that Eliza and I come to her and do this for her. I don’t know how long the idea had been in her mind. It was certainly not because Flora had been endeavoring to get into her good graces. Indeed, I was constantly scolding Flora for her rudeness. I think she was struggling against growing fond of Lady Tameson because she knew the old lady must die.”

“Spare us your philosophy, Miss Hurst,” Charlotte said waspishly.

“I am only explaining how the affection grew between Lady Tameson and Flora,” Lavinia said, keeping her voice calm. “I am afraid Lady Tameson didn’t feel at all the same about Edward. Indeed, there had been an unfortunate episode earlier that evening. This was perhaps in her mind when she insisted on her old will being revoked. She said that Edward was to have benefited in that.”

“Edward and his mother,” Mr. Mallinson corrected. “Half was to be in trust for the boy, while Mrs. Meryon—but that is now past history. Go on, Miss Hurst. This dramatic scene took place at midnight? But why did you say nothing about it? Why was the new will not sent to me for safekeeping?”

“By Lady Tameson’s request it was to be kept a secret. She asked both Eliza and me to say nothing. Let me say that no blame must be attached to Eliza, and as for me, I merely fulfilled the request of a dying woman, which I naturally considered sacred.” Lavinia’s chin went up. She looked around the table, thanking heaven that in her agitation the faces were now a blur. Her nerves were stretched to breaking. “I won’t deny that I am delighted for Flora’s sake. But I assure you Lady Tameson’s decision was completely her own. It had nothing whatever to do with me. I only hope the money brings Flora happiness. And now, if you will excuse me, I must go and pack. I will be leaving first thing in the morning. I would regard it as a favor if I could have a conveyance to the railway station, but if that isn’t convenient I can walk to the village, and hire something there.”

Daniel sprang up.

“Miss Hurst, what damned nonsense is this?”

She couldn’t take any more emotion. She couldn’t read the dismay, the disbelief, the pain, in his face. Pain! She answered coolly, “I don’t think you would expect me to stay in a house where I am suspect, Mr. Meryon. Please give me that consideration.”

With that, she turned and left the room, her head still high, her cheeks hot with anger. Her departure was as hasty as she could make it without losing her dignity, but not hasty enough to escape Jonathon Peate’s unwanted admiration. “Bravo, Miss Hurst! Bravo!”

Eliza was waiting anxiously upstairs.

“Was it awful, miss?”

“It was terrible, Eliza, but it’s over now. And you won’t be blamed. Mr. Mallinson says the will is in order, so Flora has her fortune. We must just be glad about that.”

“But you look so upset. What did they say to you?”

“Never mind that, Eliza. Would you come and help me pack my things?”

“They haven’t dismissed you!” Eliza cried.

“No, but I have given my notice. Now don’t look so distressed, you silly creature. It was to be expected.”

Eliza wrung her hands.