The Captive (22 page)

Our meeting was an emotional one. His expression changed when he saw me. He smiled and came towards me, leaning on his stick. He held out his free hand and took mine. He held it for some time, looking intently at me.

“Rosetta,” he said, and his lips twitched a little. The obvious emotion he felt made him look different again . defenceless in a way. I had never seen him look like that before. I knew he was remembering, as I was the island where Simon and I had left him to watch while we had gone off together, the arrival of the corsairs, those days we had spent in the open boat.

“Oh, Lucas,” I said.

“It is good to see you here … safe.”

There was a short silence while we continued to gaze at each other, almost as though we could not believe that we were real.

Felicity said softly: “I know you two will have lots to say to each other. First … let’s show Lucas his room, shall we?”

She was right. There was a great deal to talk about. The first evening was something of a strain. James and Felicity were the perfect host and hostess, full of understanding, skating over awkward pauses with skill and ease.

Felicity was the soul of tact. She knew that there would be things of which we would want to talk to no one but each other and only then when we were ready, and the following day James went off to his college, and she told us that she had an engagement which she must fulfill.

“Do forgive me,” she said.

“I’ll have to leave you two to entertain each other this afternoon.”

There was a pleasant part of the garden, walled in with mellow red bricks with a pond in the centre-the Tudor-type of intimate small garden within a garden. The roses were in bloom and I suggested that I show them to Lucas.

It was a mild afternoon, pleasantly warm without being too hot and we made our necessarily rather slow progress there. There was a stillness in the air and within the walls of that garden we might have stepped back two or three centuries in time.

“Let’s sit here,” I said.

“The pond is so pretty and it is so peaceful.”

There was silence and I went on: “We’d better talk about it, Lucas. We both want to, don’t we?”

“Yes,” he agreed.

“It’s uppermost in our minds.”

“Does it seem to you like a dream?” I asked.

“No,” he said sharply.

“Stark reality. I have a perpetual reminder.

Here I am now . like this. “

“I’m sorry. We didn’t know how to set it… and we had nothing that would help us.”

“My dear girl,” he said almost angrily.

“I’m not blaming you … only life … fate … or whatever you like to call it. Don’t you see? I have to spend the rest of my life … like this.”

“But at least you are here … at least you are alive.”

He shrugged his shoulders.

“Do you think that is a matter for great rejoicing?”

“For some at any rate. Your friends … your family. You are lame and I know there is pain now and then … but so much worse might have happened to you.”

“You are right to chide me. I am selfish, disgruntled and ungrateful.”

“Oh no, no. Do you think … it is possible … that something may be done?”

“What?”

“Well, they are very clever nowadays. There have been all sorts of medical discoveries …”

“My bone was broken. It was not set. It is too late to do anything about it now.”

“Oh, Lucas, I’m so sorry. If only we could have done something … how different it would have been.”

“You did a great deal and I’m a selfish creature thinking of my own misfortunes. I just cannot bear to contemplate what happened to you.”

“But I escaped. My fears were only in the mind.”

He wanted to know in detail what had happened, so I told him of my friendship with Nicole and how she had given me the drug and saved me from the Pasha’s attentions, and how the drug had been supplied by the Chief Eunuch who was a great friend of hers. He listened intently.

“Thank God,” he said.

“That could have scarred you as deeply as I have been … perhaps more so. And what happened to that man … John Player?”

It seemed as though the silence went on for a long time. I heard the buzz of a bee, and the high-pitched note of a grasshopper. Be careful, I was telling myself. You could so

easily betray him. Remember it is not only your secret. It is yours and Simon’s.

I heard myself say: “He … he was sold to the same Pasha.”

“Poor devil. I can guess what his fate would be. He was a strange man.

I always had an odd feeling about him. “

“What sort of feeling?” I asked apprehensively.

“I felt that things were not all they seemed. Now and then I had a fancy that I had seen him before somewhere. Then sometimes he seemed as though he were hiding something.”

“What do you mean? What could he have been hiding?”

“Anything. I’ve no idea. That was just the impression he gave. He wasn’t the sort of man you’d expect to find swabbing the decks, was he? He was very resourceful, I | must say.”

“I think we could both say that we owed our lives to him.”

“And you are right. I wish I knew what had happened to him.”

“A great many men were employed in the gardens. He was big and strong”

“He would have fetched a fair price, I dare say.”

There was silence again. I was afraid to speak lest I<| should betray something. He went on musingly: “How;

strange that we were all on that island together . never knowing whether we should be found before we died ofe starvation. ” ^ ” How did you manage to get home, Lucas? “

“Well, I’m a wily old bird, you know.” He smiled, when he did so he was the man I had known when I met him.

“I seized my opportunities. I had a smattering their language, I found. It helped a lot. I had picked up few words when I was travelling round the world sock years ago. It is amazing how being able to communicai

helps. I offered them money . for the three of us. I said that in my own country I was a very rich man. They believed me because they knew I had travelled a good deal. They wouldn’t consider releasing you or Player. You were too valuable. I was not. Being crippled, I was useless. “

“You see, there is some advantage in everything.”

“There have been times when I wished they had thrown me overboard.”

“You must not say that. It is accepting defeat no, welcoming it.

That is not the way to live. “

“You are right, of course. Oh, it is good to be with you, Rosetta. I remember how resourceful you were when we were on the island. I owe a lot to you.”

“But most to …”

“To that man Player. Well, he was a sort of leader, wasn’t he? He was cut out for the part … and it fell to him. He played it well, I’ll admit. And I was the impediment. I was the one who slowed down the progress.”

“You did nothing of the sort. How could you have done on the island?

Tell me the rest. “

“When I saw that I could not save you and nothing would make those men part with you and Player, I concentrated on my own case. They were more amenable in that direction. What price could they get for me? A man in my state? Nothing. I told them that if they would let me go, I would send them a valuable jewel. If they tried to sell me they would get nothing, for who would want a man who can’t even walk without a stick? If they threw me overboard that would be equally unproductive.

But if they took my offer of the jewel, then they would at least have something for their pains. “

“So … they agreed to let you go for the promise of a jewel?”

“It was simple logic really. They had two alternatives. Throw me overboard or despatch me in some other way and lose everything, or take a chance that I would keep my

word and send the jewel. It would occur to them as it would to any -that I might not keep my side of the bargain. And if I did not, well, they might just as well throw me overboard. The wise thing, of course, would be to take a chance, for at least if they did there could be a hope of getting something. So . I was dropped at Athens a street or so away from the British Embassy. The rest was simple.

My family were informed and I was on the way home. “

“And the jewel?”

“I kept my word. It was a ring which belonged to my mother … really one of the family jewels, you might say. They were divided between my brother and myself. It had been my mother’s engagement ring and my father’s mother’s before her. If I had become engaged it would have been my fiancee’s.”

“Of course, you need not have sent it.”

“No. But those people have long memories. I did not want to spend the rest of my life wondering if fate would throw me in their way again.

Moreover, suppose some other poor devil was caught by them and tried my tactics? Once deceived, they might not have given the chance again.

Then again, the ring would probably have lain idle for a very long time. It is not likely that anyone would want to marry me . in my condition. “

“Did you take it yourself and where to?”

“They had arranged where it should be taken. There was an old inn on the Italian coast. I was warned not to swerve from the instructions.

It was to be taken to this inn-I think it was one frequented by smugglers, and there it would be collected. I did not go myself. I was scarcely in a fit state and they recognized that. I told them who would bring it. It was Dick Duvane. He was my batman during my spell in the Army. When I came out, so did he, and we have been together ever since. He’s a valet . confidant . and frequently fellow-traveller. He’s not just a servant. He’s one

of the best friends I ever had. I don’t know what I’d do without him.

I trust him absolutely. “

“I’m glad you got away, Lucas.”

“I suppose I am myself … only …”

“I know. I do understand.”

We fell into silence. We were still in the garden when Felicity came out to find us.

That visit to Oxford was of considerable help to me. Lucas’s logical outlook on life bitter though it was brought me down to Earth.

What could I do? How could I prove Simon’s innocence? I was not even on the spot. I knew nothing of the family at Perrivale Court except what I had gathered from Simon and had read in the newspapers at the time of the murder. If only I could find some means of meeting them, of going to Perrivale Court! What hope was there? 1 thought of Lucas.

What if I asked his help? He was resourceful. The manner in which he had extricated himself from a dangerous situation showed that. He was not very far from Perrivale Court; he was not on terms of friendship or even casual acquaintance with the family, although he had once, long ago, visited the place with his father. I wished I could have discussed Simon with him, perhaps enlisted his help. Dare I? I wondered. But I could not be sure what his reaction would be.

I felt as helpless as ever but that visit did cheer me a little. He left Oxford the day before I did. When he said goodbye he looked forlorn and rather vulnerable and I felt a great desire to comfort him. I thought at one stage that he was going to make a suggestion for a further meeting, but he did not.

Felicity and I went with him to the station. He seemed reluctant to leave us and stood at the carriage window watching us on the platform as the train steamed away, taking him back to the West Country.

“It is so sad,” said Felicity.

“There is a changed man.” The next day I went home.

Aunt Maud wanted to know whom I had met in Oxford.

I told her there had not been a great deal of entertaining because Felicity had thought I needed a restful time. When I was at dinner with her and my father it slipped out that Lucas Lorimer had been staying in Oxford while I was there.

My father was immediately interested.

“Oh yes … the young man who was with us on the Atlantic Star.” He turned to Aunt Maud.

“It was most extraordinary. He discovered a stone in his garden in Cornwall.

Ancient Egyptian. How it got there is a mystery. But it was quite an exciting discovery. Yes, he was with us on the Atlantic Star;

“He was one of the survivors,” I told Aunt Maud.

I followed her line of thought. I had met a man in Oxford, then? Who was he? Was he of good family? Was he in a position to support a wife?

I said shortly: “He is crippled. He was hurt in the wreck.”

Aunt Maud looked disappointed, then resigned. I could imagine her mustering her ideas to bring eligible young men to the dinner table;

and how I missed Felicity and the peace of Oxford.

Aunt Maud relentlessly pursued her policy. There followed several dinner parties to which men whom she considered suitable were asked.

She harried my father into bringing some of his associates home to dine; to my amusement and her chagrin, most of them were middleaged, so fanatically devoted to their work that they had no plans for putting any impediment to it in the form of a wife, or else cosily married with erudite and energetic wives and a family of prodigies.

182,

The weeks passed into months. I was restive and I did not see any escape.

Felicity paid us a flying visit. It was difficult to leave the children for long. The nanny was good and she enjoyed the responsibility of being in sole charge of the nursery, but Felicity hated to leave them. I was sure she came only because she was worried about me.

I was able to tell her how I missed the old days in our pleasantly disorganized household. I knew I should be grateful to the indefatigable Aunt Maud, but there was more to life than polished furniture and meals on time. Aunt Maud was such an overpowering person that she subdued us all, and her influence was particularly felt in the kitchen where I had spent so many happy hours.

Felicity said: “Rosetta, have you something on your mind?” I hesitated and she went on: “Wouldn’t you like to talk about it? You know I’d understand. But I won’t press you. I know that, terrifying as an ordeal can be while you live it, at times what can happen afterwards can be equally important. It’s happened, Rosetta. It’s over. Don’t think I don’t understand what it was like in that harem. It must have been quite terrible. But you escaped. It was a wonderful piece of luck. It’s left its mark, though. I worry about you … and about Lucas, too. I always liked him. He used to be so amusing. He’s travelled so much and talked so easily about it. He was always so light-hearted in a blase sort of way. And now I think he’s shutting himself in with his bitterness. It is all wrong. It’s agonizing for him, of course. He was always so active. I’m going to be rather bold.