The Captive (46 page)

“You must know almost everyone in Witchenhoime,” I said, almost pleadingly.

“Well, most of them come in at some time or other. It’s a bit far to go into Rippleston to shop.”

“Yes, I should imagine so.”

“Ada,” she said.

“Well, there’s Ada Parker down at Green-gates … she’s not Parker any more now … she married again. It’s her third.

We always call her Ada Parker . though not to her face. But Jim Parker was her first husband. Names stick here. “

“Perhaps we’ll call on her. Are there any others?”

“Well, there’s Miss Ferrers. I’ve heard she was an Ada. I remember the Adas … seeing as I’m one of them. I’ve never heard her called Ada, mind … but I’ve got a notion that’s her name.”

“Yes, I can see why you remember the name. I think we were lucky we came to you.”

“Well, I would if I could help you find this friend of yours, of course. Ada … yes, I’m sure Miss Ferrers is an Ada. ‘, I’ve heard it somewhere. Keeps herself to herself. A cut above the rest of us. I’m sure that’s what she thinks, any.5 way.”

“Did she have a sister, do you remember?

“Couldn’t rightly say. She’s been in that cottage for years. I don’t recall a sister. It’s a pretty little place and she keeps it like a picture. Rowan Cottage, it’s called, on account of the tree outside.”

“You’ve been so helpful to us,” said Felicity.

“Thank you very much.”

‘, “Well, I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

“Good day,” we said, and came out. The bell rang as we opened the door and stepped into the street.

“Perhaps we ought to have bought something,” I said.

“She was most obliging.”

“She didn’t expect that. She enjoyed talking to us. I think we’ll dispense with the much-married Mrs. Parker and go to her if the lady at Rowan Cottage fails us. I somehow feel that our Aunt Ada wouldn’t have had three husbands.”

“Look,” I said.

“The houses back on to the river.”

We had walked through the street which seemed to be the whole of Witchenhoime without finding Rowan Cottage. We stood blankly staring about us. Then we saw a house some short distance from the rest and to our delight the rowan tree.

“Well, she would be apart from the others,” said Felicity.

“Remember, she thinks herself ” a cut above”. I imagine she will be formidable.”

“Simon thought so.”

“Come on, let’s beard the lioness in her den.”

“What on earth are we going to say?

“Are you Aunt Ada? Simon’s Aunt Ada?” How does one open a conversation like that? -‘ “We managed with the shop lady.”

“I believe this one will be different.”

Boldly I took the brass knocker and brought it down with an authoritative rat-tat. The sound reverberated through the house. There was a pause and then the door was opened.

She stood before us-tall and thin with greying hair severely drawn back from her face into a knot at the back of her neck; her eyes behind thick glasses were shrewd and alert; her crisply white blouse came right up to her chin, held there by bone supports. A gold chain hung about her neck with what I presumed was a watch tucked in at her waist band.

372.

“Please forgive the intrusion,” I said.

“Mrs. Mac Gee at the shop told us we should find you here.”

“Yes?” she said, coolly enquiring.

Felicity took over.

“We are trying to find a lady called Ada, but unfortunately we don’t know her surname. Mrs. Mac Gee told us you were Miss Ada Ferrers and we wondered if you were the lady we sought.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know you.”

“No, you wouldn’t. But did you by any chance have a sister named Alice who had a son called Simon?”

I saw her flinch behind her glasses; her colour changed a little and I knew then that we had found Aunt Ada.

She was suspicious immediately; “Are you from the Press?” she asked.

“They’ve found him, have they? Oh … is it all going to start again?”

“Miss Ferrers, we are not from the Press. May we come in and explain?

We are trying to prove Simon’s innocence. “

She hesitated. Then she stepped back uncertainly, holding the door open for us to pass into the house.

The hall was small and very neat, with a hat stand on which hung a tweed coat and a felt hat hers obviously and on a small table there was a brass bowl and a vase of flowers.

She threw open a door and we went into a sitting-room which smelt of furniture polish.

“Sit down,” she said, and we did so. She sat facing us.

“Where is he?” she asked.

“We don’t know,” I said.

“I must tell you that he was on a ship. I was also on that ship. We were shipwrecked and I survived with him. He saved my life and that of another man. We were taken to Turkey and there I lost sight of him. But during the time we were together, he told me everything. I am convinced of his innocence and I am trying to prove it. I want to see everybody who can tell me anything about him . anything that might be useful…”

“How can you prove he didn’t do this terrible thing?”

“I don’t know, but I’m trying to.”

“Well, what do you want of me? You’re sure you’re not from the newspapers?”

“I assure you we are not. My name is Rosetta Cranleigh. You may have read about my survival. There was something in the papers about it when I came home.”

“Wasn’t there a man who was crippled or something?”

“Yes, he was with us, too.”

She frowned, still disbelieving.

“I don’t know,” she said.

“It sounds a bit odd to me. And I’ve had enough of it. I don’t want to hear another word. I knew it would go wrong right from the beginning.”

“You mean … when he was a boy?”

She nodded.

“He ought to have come to me. I would have taken him in.

Not that I wanted a child . I’ve never had anything to do with children . but someone would have had to have him and she was my sister. There were only the two of us. How could she have got caught up in that sort of thing? “

“It’s that which we think might help us,” I said tentatively.

“If we could go back right to the beginning …”

“How’s that going to prove he didn’t do it?”

“We’re hoping it might help. We feel we can’t ignore anything… I got to know him very well. We were together in most extraordinary circumstances. We escaped in a boat and drifted on to an island … an uninhabited one. We had this tremendous adventure together. We got to know each other very well, and I’m convinced he couldn’t have killed anyone.”

“He was caught red-handed.”

“I believe that could have been arranged.”

“Who’d arrange a thing like that?”

“It’s what we have to find out. I want your help. Please, Miss Ferrers, he’s your nephew. You want to help him, don’t you?”

“I don’t see how J can. I hadn’t set eyes on him since he was taken away.”

“By Sir Edward Perrivale?”

She nodded.

“Why did Sir Edward take him?”

She was silent. Then she said: “All right. I’ll tell right Tom the beginning. Alice was beautiful. Everyone said so. t was a curse in a way. If she hadn’t been, this wouldn’t iave happened to her. She was a fool… soft as they come. jentle, loving and all that… but she had no sense at all. 3ur father owned a nice little inn on the other side of Bath. t was a profitable place. Alice and I used to help with the quests. Then one night Edward Perrivale came. He saw Mice … and kept coming. I warned her. I said, ” He’ll bel0 good to you. ” She could have had John Hurrell who iad a sizeable farm, and he wanted to marry her. But no, t had to be this Edward .. “

I looked at Felicity. The story was working out as we iad expected.

The good man had had his lapse and fallen nto temptation, and as was the general way, repentance :ame afterwards.

“I used to say to her time and time again, ” He’s no good :o you. He’ll take what he wants, and then it will be goodbye. That’s how his sort go on. He’s not for you. His lass don’t marry innkeepers’ daughters. “

You could see iv hat he was. A real gentleman and we didn’t get many of us sort at the inn. He’d just come in by chance one night, iorse had gone lame or something. Otherwise he would lever have come to a place like ours. But then he kept :oming . because of Alice.

“She would say, ” He’s different. He’s going to marry -ne. “

“Not him,” I said.

“He’s got you on a bit of string. That’s where he’s got you.” She wouldn’t believe me . and it turned out she was right in a way. They were married. [ can testify to that. It was in the church . a simple affair, ho ugh He wouldn’t have it any other way. But married hey were. I was there . so I know. “

“Married I said.

“But…”

“Yes, they were married. We’d been brought up strictly. Alice wouldn’t have gone with him in any other way. Nor would he with her. He was very religious. He made Alice turn to it. Oh, we had to go to church every Sunday. Father always insisted on that but it was more than that with this Edward.”

“So they were really married!”

“Really and truly married. He set her up in a nice little house and then he’d go away and come back. He paid regular visits. I said, ” Where does he go to, then? ” And Alice said, ” Oh, he’s explained all that. He’s got a big house in Cornwall. It’s been in the family for years. He said I wouldn’t like it. and he wouldn’t want me to be there. I’m better off here. ” Alice was a girl who didn’t ask questions. She liked everything to be peaceful. That’s all she asked.

Any trouble and she didn’t want to know. So that’s how it was. He would come to see her and then they’d be like any other married couple. Then he’d go away for a spell. Then the boy came. “

“I see,” I said.

“And when he was five years old … Alice died.”

She nodded.

“There was the question of where Simon would go. I guessed I’d have to have him, she being my sister. I didn’t know what I’d do with the boy. Father had died a year or so before. He’d never liked that marriage though he’d been to the church and seen that it was all properly done and this Edward never stinted her with anything. She was better off than any of us and there was no doubt he thought the world of her. When Father died, I was left comfortably off. Everything was for me. Father had said that Alice was well taken care of. I got this cottage. Alice came here once, bringing the boy.”

“Yes,” I said.

“He mentioned the place to me. That is how I found you.”

“Well, it came out that the one who was murdered was Sir Edward’s son.

It was the first time I knew he was Sir

Edward. At first I thought that he had deceived our Alice and that when he’d gone to the church with her he was married already. But then it came out when there was a lot about the family in the papers that he’d married a Miss Jessica Arkwright and when . and that was after he’d married our Alice. The one who was murdered, his eldest son, was a year or more younger than Simon. It was all a bit fishy, I thought but it was clear as daylight. Alice was his wife and this other woman had no right to the title. Our Alice was the real Lady Perrivale. So the two boys he’d had after were the illegitimate ones not Simon. It’s all a bit of a mystery . I was well out of it then, and I did not want to hear another word about it. You don’t believe me, do you? “

“Oh yes, I do.”

“Well, I can prove it. I’ve got the marriage lines. I said to Alice, ” That’s something you want to keep by you always. ” She was careless about that sort of thing. But I thought there was something odd even at the start. Husbands don’t usually go off like that and leave their wives … not unless they’re trying to get away from them. So I made her be sure to keep her marriage lines. Not that he wanted to get away from her. He was really sad when she died. Then I made sure that I kept the lines. I’ll show them to you.”

“Will you?” I said.

“Of course I will. She was married and no one’s going to say she wasn’t. I’ve got them upstairs. I’ll go now and get them.”

When we were left alone. Felicity said to me: “We didn’t expect this.”

“No.”

“It seems incredible. That strong pillar of the church to commit bigamy.”

“If this is a genuine certificate of marriage …”

“It must be. And she was there at the ceremony. She’s not the sort to say so if she wasn’t.”

“Might she have some idea about protecting her sister’s honour?”

Miss Ferrers came back into the room, proudly waving the document.

We looked at it. There could be little doubt of its authenticity.

“I think,” I said, ‘it may be that someone knew about this, and that Simon was the true heir to his father’s estates and title. It makes a motive. “

“But they didn’t kill him.”

“No … but he was implicated.”

“You mean someone arranged to be rid of both the elder brother and Simon at the same time.”

“It could be. It would be useful if we could have this proof of the marriage.”

I could see at once that Miss Ferrers in no circumstances would allow the certificate to pass out of her hands.

“You can see it in the church records,” she said.

“It’s St. Botolph’s in Headingly, near Bath.

You really do believe in his innocence, don’t you? “

“Yes,” I said firmly.

“It would have broken Alice’s heart,” she said.

“I was glad she died before she could know that. But then if she’d been alive he would never have gone to that place. Alice would never have let him go. She loved him so much.”

“You have helped us a great deal,” I said.

“I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”

“If you can clear his name …”

“I’m going to try. I’m going to do everything in my power …”

She insisted on making us a cup of tea. She talked to us while we drank it, going over everything she had already told us; but we did get an impression of the affection she had had for Alice, which was none the less genuine because it was faintly contemptuous. Alice had been soft . too trusting . loving unwisely . believing all that was told

her. But Alice had been her dear sister, closer to her than anyone had been before or after.