Hearts and Diamonds (17 page)

‘Oh, Jason.’ A kiss broke into the conversation. ‘I felt like that,’ said Jenna, breaking off. ‘The first time somebody really famous called to invite me for brunch. No thought of why or what they might want from me. Just “Oh my God, so and so invited me for brunch, no way!”.’ She laughed.

‘Who was it?’

‘I never kiss and tell,’ said Jenna primly. ‘And in that case I didn’t kiss either. Let’s just say it’s a very famous, iconic British recording artiste, known for his chameleonic changes of style and his arachnids from another planet in the solar system. And he’s just as gorgeous in real life.’ She sighed.

‘You’ve lost me,’ said Jason. ‘Tone down the long words, yeah?’

But she knew he knew who she meant, and they shared a complicit smile.

‘So, come on, turn the page.’

She turned it, as lightly as she could to avoid getting fingermarks on the dry paper.

March 3rd

Such a terrible turn of events, I hardly know how to describe it.

David went up to town three days ago, to buy things for the wedding next week. I so wanted to accompany him but he insisted I stay here with the girls – he thought our close confinement together without him might encourage them to place some trust in me, even perhaps some confidence.

But it has not, far from it.

They have disobeyed my every instruction and, for the most part, hidden around the house and garden so that I scarcely know where they are or even that they are not lost or hurt. I am sure the servants assist them in this, for I saw the slyest look on Eliza’s face when I asked her if she had seen the young Misses.

But ‘Oh no, ma’am, not I’ is all I can obtain from their false lips.

Yesterday I became so perplexed with it all that I chased them about the house, determined that they should come and spend the afternoon with me in the sitting room and that we should finally make a peace treaty, but the impudent pair ran into my own bedroom! The very idea of it!

I will own that I was very angry by the time I joined them in there, and I had a number of cross words for them. When I found them hiding in my wardrobe, I was furious and I made to haul them out of it, but in a trice the pair of them had me in there. They shut the door and, before I could rush out and apprehend them, they had locked me in my room.

I heard the key turning and their laughter, and I could do nothing but throw myself on to the bed and cry. I did not even bang on the door or call a servant to let me out. My sense of failure was too acute, too painful to admit any witness.

What is to be done? How can I continue in this house, when I am hated by its daughters and held in contempt by its servants? David is not enough, even if he does love me. I want to beg him to send them away, to give the staff notice, and to begin our married life as a fresh start, with all of these people gone from it.

‘Well,’ said Jenna, drawing breath. ‘Those girls are certainly
very
naughty, but to want to cut them out of their father’s life . . .?’

‘She’s upset. So would I be. Why didn’t he take her with him?’ Jason said, shaking his head. ‘He might have known leaving them all together was asking for trouble.’

‘Perhaps he hasn’t gone to arrange wedding things,’ hazarded Jenna. ‘Perhaps he has a mistress and he’s visiting her. Or he’s addicted to the gaming tables. Or – could be all sorts of things.’

‘The Harvilles like their secrets,’ Jason agreed. ‘Skeletons in the closet – literally.’ He shuddered.

‘Do you think it’s Frances? The body you found? God, what a thought. Poor woman.’

‘She should have run from Harville Hall as soon as she got out of that room. If she did get out of it. Read on, then. I want to know if she does.’

I will insist that the girls are sent to school the moment he returns from London. That will give them something to think about.

Yesterday I was shut in here, and here I remain. I have waited in vain for some servant to come up with supper and release me, but nobody has been. I heard the usual evening sounds of the house – the dinner gong, the girls running up and down the stairs, some distant clattering from the kitchen. But nobody came to release me.

Once darkness had fallen, I knocked on the door, called for help, tried to open the window but the drop is too much and I would break a bone.

Eventually it became clear that I must resign myself to spending the night in captivity. At least I had the means to wash and change my clothes, even though I was faint with hunger. I lay on the bed and must have drifted off to sleep some time before midnight.

When I awoke, in the light of dawn, suffering much from hunger, I noticed that there was a dark patch on the wallpaper. Drawing closer, I perceived that somebody had written upon it in a dark charcoal. ‘Help me,’ it said.

One of those infernal girls must have come in and done it while I was asleep. I know that this is the most likely explanation, yet it chilled me to the bone and I confess that I am now so miserable and distressed that I want nothing more than to leave this place and go back to Mama and Papa and our genteel poverty.

If I am ever released from here before I fall prey to the inevitable consequences of privation, that is. I know David will be back tomorrow, but I do not know how long a body can survive without water. I will try to call to the servants again. I can do no more.

‘Deario, poor Frances,’ said Jenna. ‘She must have been very afraid.’

‘At least they feed you in prison,’ said Jason.

‘What
were
the servants thinking of, to leave her there like that?’

‘Perhaps the kids wouldn’t hand over the key.’

‘Little monsters,’ said Jenna. ‘They must have felt desperate, to do this, though.’

‘So, does she get out?’ hinted Jason. ‘Or is she the skeleton, hidden there after dying of starvation or something?’

Lord help me

I am lost

I send you my prayers

The last will and testament of Miss Frances Manning, being of sound mind. Am I of sound mind? And I have nothing to bequeath, save my engagement ring, which is for David. May he have joy of it, and know that I would have been a good and true wife, given the chance.

February 23rd

Thank heavens. He has returned and I am free.

When I awoke yesterday, there was a bat in the clothes drawer. It flew straight out into my face when I opened it to remove my underwear. I must have screamed fit to bring the house down but still nobody came.

Another cruel trick, designed to make me think I am haunted. They will not defeat me. I will not succumb.

Finally, one of the maids released me this morning. I think they knew that David would be back later and feared the consequences of his finding me imprisoned.

‘Where are the girls?’ I demanded to know, but Eliza shook her head and would not say. ‘For the love of God, bring me food and water,’ I said. ‘For I am fit to faint. How could you let them use me thus? How?’

She shook her head and disappeared. I called after her that I would be telling David all that had passed.

When he arrived, oh, the relief of it. The sound of his carriage was the sweetest music. I ran out to greet him, ahead of the servants who lined up in the porch. Of the girls, there was still no sign.

‘Oh, thank heavens you are back,’ I cried, and only then did I break down into a torrent of grief. I had been withholding it for hours, perhaps in the knowledge that nobody would care overmuch if I did collapse. But I knew my David would tend to me and hold me close.

At least, I thought he would. Instead, he seemed put out by my tears and begged me to contain myself.

‘Whatever could the matter be, Fan?’ he asked, and he sounded cross. ‘And where are the girls?’

‘I do not know for they have not shown their faces since they shut me in my room and locked the door.’

‘They did what?’

‘Come inside, dearest, and I will tell you. Oh dear. I trust you had a good journey? And London was to your liking?’

‘You are babbling, Frances. Come inside. At least let a man put aside his luggage and take off his hat before assailing him with all this preposterousness.’

In the drawing room with his whisky poured and his top waistcoat button undone, I told him all that had happened in his absence and he was not pleased to hear any of it.

He called for the girls and lo! they appeared, most impeccably turned out with ribbons in their ringlets and snowy white pinafores – quite unlike the grubby urchins I had last seen.

‘Now, now, you two,’ he said without preamble, cutting into their prepared speech to welcome him home. ‘What’s this I hear about shutting Miss Manning in her room and locking her up?’

They, the pair of slyboots, gave each other the most startled look – quite convincing it was, too – and swore on their lives that they had no idea what he was talking about.

‘Now, do not try to play the innocents with me. I will have the servants in. They will be able to give me the truth of the matter.’ He turned to me, frowning. ‘Surely a servant would have come looking for you?’

‘They were in on it,’ I said. ‘It was a conspiracy.’

He stared. ‘Frances, please have a care. What you say cannot reasonably be the case. My girls, regrettably, yes, I can imagine it. But the servants?’

Maria and Susannah stared at me as if butter wouldn’t melt. Oh, I could have risen to my feet and
. . .
But somehow I restrained myself.

‘Call them,’ I said desperately. ‘Question them. They cannot lie outright to you, their master.’

He rang the bell and asked that all the servants of the house be brought to the drawing room. Maria and Susannah stepped daintily aside as they trooped in and ranged themselves in a deferential row before us.

‘I have heard some most disquieting news,’ opened David. ‘Miss Manning tells me that, for the duration of my stay in London, she has been locked inside her bedchamber without sustenance. Can this possibly be true? Whitear?’

Whitear, the butler, stepped forward.

‘I am not aware of such a situation, my Lord,’ he said. ‘But I seldom have dealings with Miss Manning. Perhaps Eliza is the best person to ask?’

He turned to the parlour maid, who has been openly scornful of me from the day of my arrival.

‘Of course this is not true,’ she said, and I gasped.

‘How can you speak such monstrous falsehood?’

David looked gravely at all of us, his gaze resting finally on me. I looked in his eyes for some proof of his belief in me, but I could not find what I sought.

‘My love, I think I will send Josh for the doctor. You do seem extremely overwrought. Perhaps it is the excitement of the wedding?’

The smirks on the Misses’ faces were almost enough to drive me to violence.

‘But they are lying,’ I cried, rising to my feet. ‘Eliza, can you look me in the eye and repeat what you have said? Can your conscience allow it? I do not know what those girls have done to buy your loyalty to their evil tricks, but think of how you will be served in the hereafter if you persist in this wickedness?’

‘That’s quite enough, Frances,’ said David, quite sharply. ‘Staff, you are dismissed. Girls, you may go to your room. Josh, do not leave straight away – go and call on Dr Middleton and explain that he is needed urgently.’

Left alone with David, I could barely breathe, let alone speak, such was my outrage.

‘I tell you, they locked me in,’ I insisted.

‘Are you sure the door handle was not merely stiff?’

‘I was shut in for two days, and not a soul came to my aid. I ate nothing, nor did I drink.’

‘My dear, you strike me as feverish. Dr Middleton will soon see to this.’

‘But David
. . .
’

‘Enough! I will not hear another word of this. Must I listen to my own children maligned in my own house? No. Take some brandy, Frances, and do try to calm yourself. Your demeanour is most unbecoming of a future Lady Harville.’

I could stand no more of this and I resorted once more to tears – but this time of anger and frustration rather than the aftermath of my ordeal.

David left the room, muttering, and did not return until the bell rang, signalling the doctor’s arrival.

The doctor declared that I had a mild fever and should rest.

‘In your experience,’ David said, ‘does fever bring on delirium?’

‘It can do, but the lady’s fever is mild.’

‘Perhaps it is on the wane,’ suggested David.

‘Perhaps. But, if so, I wonder that I was not called before?’

‘Forgive me, doctor. I was out of town and did not know of the young lady’s indisposition.’

‘If I have a fever,’ I blurted, tired of being spoken of as if I were not there, ‘it is because I have spent two days locked in a room without food or water.’

‘You see, the delirium persists,’ said David sadly.

‘Oh dear,’ said Dr Middleton. ‘That is a great shame.’

They went outside the room and conferred with one another.

When they came back, they spoke to me, so convincingly and with such persuasive art, that I begin to feel that perhaps it was all some kind of fever dream. I know I have the testimony of this diary, but can I truly say that I was in my right mind when I wrote those words? I no longer know.

‘Bloody hell,’ said Jenna. ‘She’s been masterfully gaslighted by a pair of pre-pubescent girls.’

‘She’s been what?’

‘Gaslighted. Made to doubt herself and what really happened to her. I think she really was locked in that room. What do you think?’

‘I don’t know. Perhaps she really is a bit wrong upstairs.’