The Captive (50 page)

King. He was convinced, I think, that Harry Tench had betrayed him.

I often wondered what he would have done if he had succeeded. Hidden my body in the copse . perhaps let my horse wander away? Perhaps throw her over the cliff with me, so that it would appear to be an accident. Fate worked against him when Goldie escaped and went to the inn to which she had been so many times.

A great deal was revealed about him and that was very distressing for the family at Perrivale, for there was no doubt that he had been greatly loved by his daughter as well as by Kate. He had been popular everywhere, which was an indication of how complex human nature can be when one considered that he was a cold-blooded murderer as well as a caring family man. His whole life was based on fantasy. He had never been a major as he had led everyone to believe, but he had served in one of the Army’s catering corps as a sergeant-major. He had been cashiered from the Army because of certain nefarious deals regarding stores in which he had been involved. He had narrowly escaped prison.

He was an extraordinary man, a man of great charisma who should have been successful. He had been a devoted husband and the welfare of his daughter was very important to him, so much so that he was ready to murder for it.

A certain amount of this information came out through the Press, but there was a good deal I learned later. He had left a note at the Dower House before he shot himself. He was anxious that his daughter and her family should not be involved in any way. He only was to blame.

He had known that Cosmo would be at Bindon Boys that day and had waylaid him. Cosmo had had to go because he had discovered that Mirabel had been unfaithful to him with his own brother Tristan and he was threatening to make trouble and destroy everything that had been so carefully planned. Lady Perrivale, who had considered the

Major to be her greatest friend, had confided to him that Sir Edward had confessed to a previous marriage. Thus, when Simon had been accused of Cosmo’s murder, it had seemed like a heaven-sent opportunity to remove him from the scene when he would cease to be a threat to Mirabel’s future.

It was Mirabel herself who made me understand a great deal of this, for I became very close to her during the months that followed. The death of the Major had affected the Dowager Lady Perrivale so greatly that she had had a stroke and a few days later had died. Maria had then gone back to Yorkshire, so the household had changed considerably. Lady Perrivale had not been the only one deeply affected by the Major’s death. Kate was in such a state of depression, brought about by the death of her grandfather, that I was the only one who could rouse her from it. I found myself drawn into the family circle, and when the revelations about her father were made known by the Press, Mirabel seemed to find some comfort in talking to me.

There was no longer any pretence. She was quite humble. It was all her fault, she said. She had made such a mess of her life. Her father had wanted so much for her. He had done everything for her.

She had been barely seventeen when she had married Steve Tallon. That was before her father had been turned out of the Army. Feeling it to be a respectable way of life, he had apprenticed her to a milliner.

She had hated the life.

“Cooped up in rooms with three other girls all learning the trade,” she said.

“Long hours at the workbench … no freedom. How I hated the sight of hats! I met Steve when I was out making a delivery. Not that we had much opportunity of meeting people. I used to creep out at night to be with him. The girls used to help me. It was a relief from the

tedium. I was headstrong and so foolish. I thought I’d be free if I married him. He was only about a year older than I was.

My father was bitterly disappointed and how right he was. Poor Steve. He tried. He had a job in a foundry. We had very little money.

I soon found out I’d made a terrible mistake. We had been married just over a year when Steve was killed. There was a terrible accident at the foundry. I must have been very callous, because the first thing I thought was that I was free.

“And then … I got a job with a dance troupe. We toured the London music halls. Sometimes there was work … sometimes not. I dreamed of meeting someone … a rich man who would carry me away to luxury. It became an obsession. There was one … I believed him. He promised to marry me, but when I became pregnant with Kate, he went off and I never saw him again. I had made a mess of everything. And when Tom Parry came along he was very keen to marry me and because of the child I took that way out. I seemed then to have a talent for landing in desperate situations. I had gone from bad to worse. I grew to hate him.”

She closed her eyes as though she were trying to shut out memories.

“Rosetta, it was terrible. Those awful rooms. I used to dread those times when he came home from sea. He drank a great deal. After Kate was born I went back to the troupe. I had the idea that if I could keep myself we’d get away. I used to have to leave Kate alone. I didn’t get back until late. Then my father came out of the Army … disgraced. But it was better when he was there. He had some money which he had saved. I felt a lot happier then. But there was Tom coming home. I was thankful that his leaves were not frequent. Kate was growing up and there came a time when I could endure it no more.

We would have to find a better way of life for her if not for ourselves, my father said . “He had the idea that we would go to Cornwall. He remembered Jessica Arkwright who had become Lady

Perrivale. She had been a friend of my mother and according to what I had heard Jessica had at one time been very fond of my father.

“We’d get right away, he said. But we had to plan carefully. We had to make sure that Tom Parry would not find us. I would change my name.

I’d be Mrs. Blanchard. That did not bother me. I’d had three different names already. Instead of Mabel Parry I’d be Mirabel Blanchard. So . that was how we came here.

“Everything was different. Lady Perrivale was very friendly. She made a great fuss of me and both the brothers liked me. My father was eager for me to marry Cosmo. It was like a fantastic dream to him. I would become the lady of the manor. I should have a title when Sir Edward died … It was all wonderful. There was, of course, Tom Parry. My father said we must forget all about him. It must be as though he had never existed.”

“And you could agree to that?”

She nodded.

“I was desperate. I would have done anything in order to get away from him … Then he came down here looking for me. I did believe that he fell to his death. He always drank too much, so it seemed reasonable, I would never have believed … my father … could have done that. He was always so kind and gentle. Everybody said so.”

“I know,” I said.

“Even then, I spoiled things. You see, it was always Tristan I loved.

He was the only one. There had been Steve Tallon, Tom Parry and Cosmo.

It had to be right next time. He felt the same about me. We couldn’t help it. We loved each other. Then I became pregnant and I went to that dreadful nursing home. My father arranged it-he knew the woman who ran it. But Cosmo found out about Tristan and me. He had a violent temper, he was arrogant and vindictive. He could not bear to think that we had deceived him. He threatened to ruin us. He would get Tristan cut

off without anything. We could marry if we wanted to and get out. I told my father. Then . it happened . “

I was sorry for her. She had suffered enough. I hoped she would be happy with Tristan.

“I cannot believe my father did all those wicked things,” she said.

“He stole … he cheated … I understood that in a way. But that he should commit murder … All I know is that he was the kindest of fathers to me. He started with nothing. He spent all his life trying to get what he called a place in the sun. He said he didn’t want to be out in the cold all his life. That was what he was doing … finding a place in the sun … for me … for Kate … and himself. And when he thought he had found it … when it was about to be snatched away from him … You see, don’t you? You see how it happened?”

I said: “Yes. I see.”

Our friendship grew. We talked a good deal about Kate. I said that Kate had been lonely. She had behaved badly in order to call attention to herself. She was asking to be noticed . to be loved.

“Yes,” replied Mirabel.

“I was so involved with my own affairs, I neglected her.”

“She admired you. But, you see, she was alone in that room when she was a child. Frightened at night… thinking nobody wanted her.”

“It is difficult to explain to a child.”

“She must have been terrified when Tom Parry came home. She needed comfort… assurance.”

“My father gave her that.”

I agreed that that was so.

“And now she has lost him,” I said.

“We must remember that. We must be very gentle with her.”

“Thank you for what you have done,” she said with real feeling.

What had I done? I had uncovered the truth, and my actions were responsible for the present situation.

Kate did not mention her grandfather to me. I wondered how much she understood of what was going on. We continued our lessons. We read a great deal. The mischief had gone out of her. She was subdued a sad little girl.

The will was read. It was found in the Bible which Sir Edward kept by his bed. I wondered why no one had thought of looking there before. It was as we had thought. He had written a letter telling of his previous marriage and naming Simon as his heir. Tristan was left comfortably off but the title and the house would go to Simon.

Lucas and I met often in the inn parlour of The Sailor King. I wondered how I could have lived through those melancholy months without him.

There was a certain tension between us. These were the waiting months.

We knew something had to happen before too long and we were waiting for it.

Dick Duvane was in Australia and on the trail. But now the lawyers had taken over. They wanted to find Simon Perrivale and bring him back to England so that the estate might be settled. They advertised in papers all over Australia; no place, however remote, was left out; no possibility was forgotten.

I began to wonder whether he would ever come home. He might not have reached Australia. Something might have happened to him. Nanny Crockett was sure he would come back. She prayed every night that he would do so . soon.

And then . it was six months after I had almost lost my life in the copse . there was news. Dick Duvane had written home. He had found Simon living on a property just outside Melbourne. Simon was coming home.

There was a letter to me.

Dear Rosetta, Dick has told me all you have done. I shall never forget it. Lucas too, Dick says. Both of you have

done so much for me. I have often thought of you and now I am coming home. Soon I shall be with you.

Tristan and Mirabel went to the station to meet his train. Mirabel had suggested that I might accompany them, but I did not want our first encounter to take place in public. I guessed there would be several people at the station to give him a welcome, for it was well known that he was coming home.

I went to my room and waited. I knew that he would come to me soon, and, like me, he would want our meeting to take place in private.

He stood in the doorway. He had changed. He seemed to have grown taller; he was bronzed with the antipodean sun; his eyes seemed a brighter blue.

He held out his hands.

“Rosetta,” he murmured. He looked searchingly into my face.

“Thank you for what you did.”

“I had to do it, Simon.”

“I thought of you all the time.”

There was silence. It was as though there was a restraint between us.

So much had happened to him . and to me . I supposed we had both changed.

“You … you are well?” I asked. It sounded banal. Here he was, standing before me, glowing with health. We had both passed through some horrific adventures and I asked him if he were well!

“Yes,” he said.

“You … too?”

There was another pause.

Then he said: “So much has happened. I must tell you about it.”

“Now that you are home … everything will be so different for you.”

“Just at first it doesn’t seem quite real.”

“But it is, Simon. You’re free now.”

And, I thought, I am free, too. Once I was a prisoner within the walls of the seraglio and when I escaped I built a wall about myself . a seraglio of my own making. My jailer this time was not the great Pasha but my own obsession. I did not see what was clear about me because I could only see one thing-a dream which I had built up, forming it to fit my fantasy . blind to the truth.

He was saying: “And it was you who did it, Rosetta.”

“I was helped by Nanny Crockett … by Lucas … by Felicity. They did a great deal… particularly Lucas.”

“But it was you … you were the one. I’ll never forget.”

“It’s wonderful to know it is over … it worked. And now you are here free.”

It was wonderful, I assured myself. It was my dream come true. I had waited a long time for this meeting . dreamed of it . lived for it and now it was here, why must it be tinged by sadness? I was overexcited, over-emotional, of course. It was only natural.

Simon said: “We’ll talk… later. There’s so much to say.”

“Yes,” I said.

“We’ll talk about it… later. Just now … it seems too much. And people will be waiting to see you. They’ll want to talk to you.”

He understood.

It was true there were many people waiting to see him. His vindication had been much publicized. He was the hero of the day. Although it was some time since his innocence had been made known, his return to England revived interest in the case. So many people wanted to talk to him, to congratulate him, to commiserate with him on all his sufferings. I was glad that he was so occupied. He was different, of course. Sir Simon Perrivale now, no longer humble deck hand, castaway, man on the run.