“What was your mother doing?”
“I don’t know.”
I thought: A chorus girl. Tom Parry married a chorus girl.
“You had Mr. Dolland and Mrs. Harlow …”
“Tell me, Kate … tell me all you can remember.”
“No, no,” she cried.
“I don’t want to. I don’t want to remember. I don’t want to remember.” She turned to me suddenly and flung herself against me. I stroked her hair.
I said: “All right. Let’s forget it. It’s all over now. You’ve got me now … we’ll have some fun together. We’ll ride … we’ll read .. we’ll talk …”
I was learning so much . not about what I came to learn, but about Kate. She was a lonely child; she behaved as she did because she had been starved of love and attention. She was trying to attract it in the only way she knew. I felt resentful against Mirabel who had failed to give her the love she needed. She had had to work perhaps . but not now.
Kate disengaged herself abruptly, as though ashamed of her emotion.
She said: “It was all right when Gramps came.”
“Yes,” I said.
“Your grandfather. He loves you very much, doesn’t he?”
A smile illuminated her face.
“He came and took us away. He brought us here … and then it was all right. He tells lovely stories … all about battles.”
“It must have been wonderful when he took you away.”
She nodded.
“I remember … it was in the room … he sat on the bed. He said something about a contact…”
“A contact?”
“A contact in Cornwall.”
“Oh, he meant a friend, I suppose.”
She nodded. Her mood had changed. She was smiling.
“We went in a train. It was lovely. I sat on Gramps’s knee … and then we came to Seashell Cottage. I loved it … because Gramps was there. He was there all the time. He was there when it was dark. I liked the sea too. I loved to hear it banging against the cliffs. I could hear it ever so loud in my bedroom at Seashell Cottage.”
“And then,” I said, ‘there was Perrivale. You soon became friendly with them, didn’t you? “
“Oh yes. Gramps knew them and they liked him a lot. Well, everybody likes Gramps. They liked my mother too because she’s so beautiful.
Then she was going to marry Cosmo and we were going to leave Seashell Cottage and live in the big house. She was ever so pleased. So was Gramps . though he wasn’t going to live there, but he was pleased all the same. Then Cosmo died while we were still at the cottage. He died in Bindon Boys and the murderer ran away, so everyone knew who’d done it. “
“And what happened after that?”
She wrinkled her brows.
“My mother went away.”
“Went away? I thought she married Tristan.”
“She did … but at first she went away.”
“Where did she go?”
“I don’t know. She was ill.”
‘Ill? Then why did she go away? “
“She was very sick. I used to hear her. She looked very white. Once when she was ill and she didn’t know I was there, she looked in the glass at herself and said, ” Oh God, what now? ” I was little then. I thought God might say and I’d know what was the matter. Now I know people only say ” Oh God” when they’re frightened or angry. She was frightened because she was ill. Then Gramps said, ” Your mother is going away for a while. ” I said, ” Why? ” Gramps said because it would be good for her.
And she went. Gramps went with her to the station. He was going with her just at first. I was to stay with Mrs. Drake for two days. Then Gramps came back and I went back to Seashell Cottage with him. I said, “Where’s my mother?” He said, “She’s visiting friends.” I said I didn’t know we had any. Then he said, “You’ve got me, my darling. I’m your friend.” And he hugged me and I felt all right. It was great fun in Seashell Cottage with Gramps. He used to do the cooking and I helped him and we laughed a lot. ” She began to laugh at the memory.
“What happened after?” I asked.
“My mother came back and she was better then. Her friends had done her good. Then she was engaged to Stepper and they were married and we went to Perrivale Court. I wished Gramps could come with us. But he went to the Dower House. He said it wasn’t far away and I’d know where he was.”
“And you never met the friends your mother went to?”
“Nobody ever talked of them. I know they lived in London.”
“Did your mother or Gramps tell you that?”
“No. But it was the London train they went on. It always is at that time. I know they got on that one because Mrs. Drake took us to see it off. Gramps had taken me to her the night before. I said I wanted to see them off so Mrs. Drake took me to the station and I saw them get on the train.”
“They might have got off somewhere along the way.”
“No. I heard them talking about going to London.”
“And Gramps came back and left your mother there.”
“He was only away one night. But she was gone what seemed like ages. It might have been about three weeks. I don’t remember much about time. But I know how ill she was when she went. she didn’t smile at all. “
“She must have been very ill.”
She nodded and started to tell me about the shells she and Gramps had found on the beach.
I had been up to see the Dowager Lady Perrivale on two or three occasions. Our chats were not very rewarding. I had hoped to discover something as she rambled on about the past and the days of opulence in her native Yorkshire.
I was always hoping for an opportunity to talk to Maria, and as Maria hoped for it too, it was inevitable that one day it should come about.
One day when I went up, I was greeted by Maria who put her fingers to her lips and said with a wink: “Her ladyship is fast in the land of nod. But come in. Miss Cranleigh, and we’ll wait for her to wake up. I never like to rouse her. Another bad night, you see. I always know by the look of her. Roaming about, I expect … looking for something that’s not there. In any case she can’t get at the matches, I see to that.”
We sat opposite each other.
“My word,” she went on.
“You and Miss Kate are getting on better than ever. Thick as thieves, you two are.”
“I think we understand each other. She’s not a bad child.”
“Eee. I wouldn’t go as far as that, but she’s better since you’ve been here. That’s for certain sure.”
“And how has Lady Perrivale been?”
“Up and down. One day she’s clear enough … all there, you might say and the next she’s a ha’porth missing. Well, she’s getting on in years can’t last much longer, I shouldn’t wonder. When I think of her in the old days. Mistress of the house, she was. And then, hey presto! overnight, she’s like a different person.”
“Perhaps she was very fond of Sir Edward and the shock of his death was too much for her.”
“Quite the reverse, I should have said. They weren’t exactly what you’d call a Darby and Joan. Oh dear me, no. There was differences between them … right up to the end, I can tell you. I heard them arguing something shocking. She was in tears. He was laying down the law. I couldn’t quite catch …”
I thought that was a pity, and so clearly did Maria.
“He died about the time of that shocking affair, didn’t he? I mean the killing in the farmhouse.”
“Oh yes … the murder. He was on his deathbed then. I don’t think he knew much about that, though. He was
