The Captive (11 page)

course he couldn’t marry her. She was not the right sort for him. He must have fallen in love with her and set her up in the cottage and he came to visit her from time to time. I was never told this by Sir Edward or anyone. It was an assumption, but so plausible that it was accepted by all. Why else should he have taken me into his household and educated me with his sons? “

“So,” I said.

“That is how you came to Perrivale Court.”

“Yes. I was two years older than Cosmo and three than Tristan. That was fortunate for me; otherwise I should have had a bad time, I think.

Those two years gave me an advantage. I needed it, for, having installed me in his nursery. Sir Edward seemed to lose interest in me, though sometimes I saw him watching me furtively. The servants resented me. If it hadn’t been for the nanny I should probably have been as badly off as I would with Aunt Ada. But the nanny took pity on me. She loved me and protected me. I always remember how much I owe to that good woman.

“Then we had a tutor when I was about seven years old, a Mr. Welling, I remember, and I got on well with him. He must have heard the gossip but it did not affect him. I was more serious than Cosmo and Tristan and I had those two years as an advantage.

“There was, of course. Lady Perrivale. She was a terrifying person and I was glad that she seemed quite unaware of my existence. She very rarely spoke to me and I had the impression that she did not see me.

She was a large woman and everyone apart from Sir Edward was afraid of her. It was well known in the house that her money had saved Perrivale Court and that she was the daughter of a millionaire coal-owner or ironmaster. There seemed to be a divergence of opinion as to which. She had been an only daughter and he had wanted a title for her. He was ready to pay a price for it and much of the money made from iron or coal had gone into bolstering up the roof and walls of Perrivale

Court. It must have seemed a good arrangement to Sir Edward for, as well as keeping the roof over his head, she provided him with two sons as well. I had one desire-to keep out of her way. So now you have a picture of the sort of household I was in. “

“Yes, and then you went away to school?”

“Which was decidedly better for me. There I was equal with the others.

I was good at lessons, fair at sports and I did well. I lost a little of that aggressiveness which I had built up in the early years. I was ready to defend myself before there was any need to do so. I looked for slights and insults where there were none. School was good for me.

“Too soon it was over. We had ceased to be boys. There was enough work on the estate to keep us all busy and we worked comparatively well together. We were reasonable adults now … all of us.

“I was about twenty-four when Major Durrell came to the neighbourhood.

His daughter came with him. She was a widow with a small child, a girl. The widow was startlingly beautiful-red-haired and green-eyed. Very unusual. We were all rather fascinated by her. Both Cosmo and Tristan in particular, but she chose Cosmo and their engagement was announced. “

1 looked at him steadily. Had he cared for the widow, as had been suggested? Did the prospect of her marriage to someone else arouse his anger, despair, jealousy? Had he planned to have the widow for himself? No. I did believe him. He had spoken with such sincerity. He had made me see the nursery presided over by the kindly nanny and the arrival in their midst of the fascinating widow-Mirabel was what the papers had called her.

“Yes,” he went on.

“She had chosen Cosmo. Lady Perrivale was very pleased. She was very eager for her sons to marry and give her grandchildren and she was delighted that Cosmo’s bride was to be Mirabel. Mirabel’s mother, it seemed, had been an old schoolfriend of hers her best

friend, we heard. She had married the Major and, although she was now dead. Lady Perrivale gave a warm welcome to the widower and his daughter. She had known the Major when her friend had married him, and he had written telling her that he had retired from the Army and was thinking of settling somewhere. What about Cornwall? Lady Perrivale was delighted and found Seashell Cottage for them. That was how they came to be there. And then, of course, there was the engagement to Cosmo which followed very soon. You see how the stage was set. “

“I am beginning to see it very clearly,” I said.

“We were all working on the estate and there was this farmhouse, Bindon Boys. The farmer who had lived there and worked the farm had died some three years before and the land had been let out to a farmer on a temporary basis but no one had taken on the house. It was in a bad state and needed a bit of restoration as well as decorating.”

“Yes, there was a good deal in the papers about Bindon Boys.”

“Yes … it was originally Bindon Bois. There is a copse nearby. It was called Bindon Boys by the natives and that had become its official name. We had all inspected the house and were deciding what should be done.”

I nodded. I visualized the heavy black headlines.

“Bindon Boys Case.

Police expect an arrest shortly. ” I was seeing it all so differently now from the manner which I had when Mr. Dolland had sat at the kitchen table and we had tried to piece the story together.

“We had been over there several times. There was a great deal of work to be done. I remember the day clearly. I was meeting Cosmo at the farmhouse so that we could discuss some plan on the spot. I went to the house and found him there … dead … the gun by his side. I could not believe it. I knelt beside him. There was blood on my coat.

His blood. I picked up the gun . and it was then that Tristan came in and found me. I remember his words.

“Good God, Simon! You’ve killed him!” I told him I had just come in that I had found him like this. He stared at the gun in my hand and I could see what he was thinking. “

He stopped short and closed his eyes as though he were trying to shut out the memory. I laid my hand on his shoulder.

I said: “You know you’re innocent, Simon. You’ll prove it one day.”

“If we never get away from this island, no one will ever know the truth.”

“We are going to get away,” I said.

“I feel it.”

“It’s just hope.”

“Hope is a good thing.”

“It’s heartbreaking when it is proved unfounded.”

“But it isn’t in this case. A ship will come. I know it. And then ..

”

“Yes, what then? I must hide myself away. I must never go back. I dare not. If I did they would capture me and, having run away, they would say I had proved my guilt.”

“What really happened? Have you any idea?”

“I think there is a possibility that it might have been old Harry Tench. He hated Cosmo. He had rented one of the farms some years before. He drank too much and the place went to ruin. Cosmo turned him out and put in another man. Tench went away but he came back. He was tramping the road. He’d become a sort of tinker. People said he had sworn vengeance on the Perrivales and Cosmo in particular. He hadn’t been seen in the neighbourhood for some weeks, but of course, if he’d planned to kill Cosmo, he would naturally be careful about being seen nearby. His name was mentioned during the investigation, but he was dismissed and no longer a suspect. I was a more likely one. They made a great play about the emnity between Cosmo and me. People all around seemed to remember signs of it which I was unaware of. They made much of Mirabel and Cosmo’s engagement to her.”

“I know. The crime passionnel. Were you … in love with her?”

“Oh no. We were all a little dazzled by her … but no.”

“And when her engagement to Cosmo was announced … did you show that you were disappointed?”

“Tristan and I probably said how lucky Cosmo was and that we envied him or something like that. I didn’t think we meant it very seriously.”

There was silence between us.

Then he said: “Now you know. I’m glad. It is like a weight being lifted from my shoulders. Tell me … are you shocked to find you have a suspected murderer with you?”

“I can only think that he saved my life … Lucas’s too.”

“With my own, of course.”

“Well, if you hadn’t saved your own, none of us would be here. I am glad you told me. I wish something could be done … to make things right … so that you could go back. Perhaps one day you will.”

“You are an optimist. You think we are going to get off this godforsaken island. You believe in miracles.”

“I think I have seen a few in the last days.”

Again he took my hand and pressed it.

“You are right and I am ungrateful. We shall be picked up in time .. and some day perhaps, I shall go back to Perrivale Court and they will know the truth.”

“I am sure of it,” I said. I stood up.

“We have talked for a long time. Lucas will be wondering where we are.”

Two more days passed. The water stock was very low and we were running out of coconuts. Simon had found a stout stick which Lucas used as a crutch. His leg was slightly less painful, he said, but I had little confidence in our attempts to set it. Still, he could hobble a few steps and that cheered him considerably.

When we were alone, Simon told me further incidents from his life and I began to get a clearer picture of what it had been like. I was fascinated by it all. I longed to be of help in uncovering the truth and helping to establish his innocence. I wanted to hear more of Harry Tench. I had decided that he was the murderer. Simon said Cosmo should not have been so hard on the man. True, Harry Tench was a poor farmer and if the estate was to prosper it must be maintained in a proper manner, but he could have kept Harry Tench on in some capacity perhaps. Cosmo had insisted that he was useless as a worker; moreover, he had been insolent, which was something Cosmo would not accept.

We used’ to discuss how it would have been possible for Harry Tench to have killed Cosmo. He had no fixed home;

he often slept in barns; he had admitted sleeping in Bindon Boys.

Perhaps he had been there when Cosmo arrived at the house a short time before Simon came in. Perhaps he had seized his opportunity. But there was the gun. That needed a little explanation. It had been discovered that it came from the gunroom at Perrivale Court. How could Harry Tench have got his hands on it?

And so on . but I am sure it was a great relief to Simon to be able to talk.

It was our fifth day on the island and late in the afternoon. Simon and I had been wandering round all the morning. We had found some berries which we thought might be edible and were considering the risk of trying them when we heard a shout. followed by a whistle.

It was Lucas. We hurried back to him. He was pointing excitedly to the horizon. It was just a speck. Were we imagining this or were we conjuring up in our minds something we so desperately wanted to see?

In breathless silence we watched. It had begun to take shape.

“It is. It ;’s!” cried Simon.

9i

In the Seraglio

Having been close to death for so long, I had thought that anything would have been preferable; but the fears of the next weeks were beyond anything I could ever have imagined.

How often did I tell myself that it would have been better to go down with the ship or that our little boat had been destroyed in a hurricane?

I recall now our joy when we first saw that ship on the horizon and then so soon after we had been rescued, I became sure that it would have been better if we had remained on the island, still vainly looking for a rescue. Who knew, we might have found some means of surviving; and we were together, enjoying a certain peace and security.

From the moment those dark, swarthy men waded ashore, red caps on their heads, cutlasses at their sides, our euphoria at being rescued had been replaced by a fearful apprehension. It was immediately clear that we could not understand their language. I guessed they must be of Arabic origin. Their ship was no Atlantic Star. It looked like an ancient galley. It had not occurred to me that there could still be pirates on the high seas, but I remembered the captain of the Atlantic Star one night at dinner when he told us that there were ships which still roamed about in certain waters, following some nefarious trade or other. And it instantly occurred to me that we had fallen into the hands of such men.

I did not like the ship; I did not like these men; and it was clear to me that my suspicions were shared by both Simon and Lucas.

We stood close as though to shield each other. There were about ten of them. They gabbled together and stared searchingly at us. One of them approached and took a lock of my hair in his hands. They were crowding round and chattering excitedly. My hair was fairer now that it was bleached by the sun and I could only believe that they were astonished by my colouring which was so different from theirs.

1 sensed the uneasiness of Simon and Lucas. They had edged closer to me. I knew they would both fight to the death for me, which brought a modicum of comfort.

Their attention had turned to Lucas who was standing there, leaning on the stick we had found for him. He looked pale and ill.

The men were chattering and shaking their heads. They gazed at me and then at Simon. They laughed and nodded to each other. I had a terrible fear that they were going to take us and leave Lucas.

I said: “We’ll all stand together.”

“Yes,” muttered Simon.

“I don’t like the look of them.”

“Bad luck they found us,” murmured Lucas.

“Better …”

“What do you think they are?”

Simon shook his head, and I felt numb with fear. I was afraid of these men, their chattering voices, their sly sidelong glances, their implication as to what they would do with us.

Suddenly they made a decision. One, whom I took to be the leader, signed to them and four of them went to our boat, examined it and turned to nod at the others. They were taking our boat out to the galley.

Simon took a step forward but he was barred by a man with a cutlass.

“Let them take it,” I hissed.