Виктория Холт - Bride of Pendorric

Roc could always emerge from an emotional scene with more case than I could, and in a short time he was his old teasing self. He began to tell me stories of Cornish legends, some so fantastic that I accused him of inventing them.

Then we both started inventing stories about the places we passed, trying to cap each other’s absurdities. It all seemed tremendous fun, although anyone listening to us would have thought we were crazy. As we drove back in these high spirits I marvelled at the way in which Roc could always comfort and delight me.

During the next few days I spent a great deal of time in Roc’s company. He would take me with him when he went on his rounds of the farms and I was welcomed everywhere, usually with a glass of some home-made wine or cider; I was even expected to eat a Cornish pasty as they came hot from the oven.

The people were warm and friendly once I had overcome a certain initial suspicion which they felt towards ” foreigners ” from the other side of the Tamar. I was English; they were Cornish; therefore to them I was a foreigner.

” Once a foreigner, always a foreigner,” Roc told me. ” But of course marriage makes a difference. When you’ve produced a little Cornish man or woman you’ll be accepted. Otherwise it would take all of fifty years.”

Morwenna and I drove into Plymouth one afternoon and stopped and had tea near the Hoe.

” Charles and I are very pleased Roc’s married,” she told me. ” We wanted to see him happily settled.”

“You’re very fond of him, aren’t you?”

” Well, he is my brother, and my twin at that. And Roc’s a rather special person. I expect you’ll agree with that.”

As I agreed so wholeheartedly I felt my affection for Morwenna increasing.

” You can always rely on Roc,” went on Morwenna, and as she stirred her tea thoughtfully her eyes were vague as though she were looking back over the past.

” Were you very surprised when he wrote and said he was married?”

” Just at first, perhaps. But he’s always done the unexpected. Charles and I were beginning to be afraid he’d never settle down, so when we heard, we were really delighted.”

” Even though he’d married someone who was a stranger to you.”

Morwenna laughed. ” That state of affairs didn’t last long, did it?

You’re one of us now. “

That was a very pleasant jaunt because I was always so happy to talk about Roc and to see signs of the affection he inspired in those people who had known him all his life.

Morwenna and I called on the Darks at the vicarage and I had an interesting afternoon listening to the stories the vicar had to tell of Cornish superstitions.

” I think they’re so sure that certain things are going to happen that they make them happen,” he told me.

We also talked of the people who lived on the Pendorric estate and I learned of some of the benefits which had come to them since Roc had been in control. I glowed with pride as I listened. It was at the vicarage that I met Dr. Andrew Clement, a man in his late twenties or early thirties. He was tall, fair and friendly and we liked each other from the start.

He told me that he too was what was known as a foreigner, having come from Kent, and been in Cornwall some eighteen months. ” I come past Pendorric several times a week,” he told me, “when I visit your neighbour. Lord Polhorgan.”

“He’s seriously ill, isn’t he?”

” Not so much seriously ill as in danger of becoming so. He has angina and threatening coronary thrombosis. We have to watch him very carefully. He has a nurse living there all the time. Have you met her yet?”

” No, I haven’t.”

” She does occasionally come to Pendorric,” said Morwenna.

“You’ll meet her sooner or later.”

That was a very pleasant afternoon, and as Morwenna and I drove back the conversation turned to the twins.

” Rachel seems to be very efficient,” I said.

” Very.”

” I suppose you’re lucky to get her. A person with her qualifications must be rather difficult to come by nowadays.”

” She’s here … temporarily. The twins will have to go to school in a year or so. They cant be at home like tills for ever.” Was it my imagination, or had Morwenna’s manner changed when I mentioned Rachel?

There was a short silence between us and I reproved myself because I suspected I was becoming over-sensitive. I was beginning to look for things which didn’t exist, and I wondered whether I had changed since coming to Cornwall.

I wanted to go on talking about Rachel because I was eager to know more about her. I wanted to find out what the relationship between her and Roc had been—if in fact there had been anything unusual in their relationship.

But Morwenna had dismissed the subject. She began to talk animatedly about the Darks and the changes they had made at the vicarage.

That afternoon I went to the quadrangle. I was drawn there somewhat unwillingly, for I would rather have taken a book into the garden which was on the south side and which led down to the beach. There I could have sat in one of the sheltered arbours among the hydrangeas, the buddleias and the sweet-smelling lavender, the house behind me, the sea before me. It would have been very pleasant. Yet because of that faint revulsion I had experienced in the quadrangle-mainly on account of the windows which looked down on it— I was aware of a compulsion to go there. I was not the sort of person Who enjoyed feeling even vaguely afraid, and I was sure that by racing whatever disconcerted me I should more quickly overcome it.

I sat under the palm tree with my book and tried to concentrate, but once more I found myself continually glancing up at the windows. I had not been mere very long when the twins came out of the north door.

When I saw them together I had no difficulty in distinguishing between them. Lowella was so vital. Hyson so subdued. I began to wonder then whether it really had been Hyson who had warned me to beware of Barbarina, or whether it had been a mischievous trick of Lowella’s to try to frighten me and then pretend that it was Hyson who had done it.

” Hallo,” called Lowella.

They came and sat on the grass and gazed at me. ” Are we disturbing you?” asked Lowella politely. ” I wasn’t very deep in my book.” I “You like it here?” went on Lowella. | ” It’s very peaceful.” f ” You’re shut right in. You’ve got Pendorric all around you. Hy likes it here too. Don’t you, Hy?”

Hyson nodded. ” Well,” went on Lowella, ” what do you think of usT’ ” I hadn’t given the matter a great deal of thought. “

” I didn’t mean the two of us: I mean all of us. What do you think of Pendorric and Uncle Roc, Mummy, Daddy, and Becky Sharp?”

“Becky Sharp?”

” Old Bective, of course.”

“Why do you call her that?”

” Hy said she was like a Becky Sharp she read about in a book. Hy’s always reading.”

I looked at Hyson who nodded gravely.

“She told me about Becky Sharp and I said, ” That’s Rachel. ” So I called her Becky Sharp. I give people names. I’m Lo. She’s Hy. Wasn’t it clever of Mummy and Daddy to give us names like that. Though I’m not sure that I like being Lo. I’d rather be Hy … only in my name I mean. I’d rather be myself than old Hy. She’s always sitting about and thinking.”

” Not a bad occupation.” I smiled at Hyson, who continued to regard me gravely.

” I’ve got names for everybody—my own secret names-and Becky Sharp is one of them.”

“Have you got one for me?”

” You! Well, you’re the Bride, aren’t you! You couldn’t be anything else.”

“Does Miss Bective like the name you’ve given her?” I asked. ” She doesn’t know. It’s a secret. But you see, she was at school with Mummy and she was always coming here and Hy said, One day she’ll come to stay because she never wants to go away.” “

” Has she said so?”

” Of course not. As if she would. It’s all secret. Other people never know what Becky Sharp is up to. But she wants to stay. We thought she was going to marry Uncle Roc.”

Hyson came and put her hands on my knees; she looked into my face and said: “It was what she wanted. I don’t suppose she likes it much because you did.”

” You’re not supposed to say that, Hy,” Lowella warned. ” I’ll say it if I want to.”

” You can’t. You mustn’t.”

Hyson was suddenly fierce.

“I can and I will.”

Lowella chanted: ” You can’t. You can’t.” And began to run round the pond. Hyson went in pursuit of her. I watched them running about the quadrangle until Lowella disappeared through the north door. Hyson made as though to follow her, hesitated, and turning stood looking at me for a few moments. Then she came back.

” Lowella’s really very childish,” she told me. She knelt at my feet and looked at me, and feeling a little embarrassed by her scrutiny I said: ” You never talk very much when she’s there. Why not?” She shrugged her shoulders.

“I never talk unless I have something to say,” she murmured primly.

Now it seemed she had nothing to say for she continued to kneel at my feet in a silence which went on for several minutes, then she rose suddenly and stood looking up at the windows.

She lifted her hand and waved, and following her gaze I saw that the curtain at one of the windows was slightly pulled back and someone was standing about a foot from the window looking down, I could just make out a vague figure in a black hat with a band of blue about it.

“Who’s that?” I asked sharply.

She rose to her feet and said slowly: ” That was Granny!” Then she smiled at me and walked sedately to the north door and I was alone in the quadrangle. I looked up at the window. There was no one there and the curtain had fallen into place.

” Barbarina,” I murmured and I felt as though eyes were watching me, mocking me, and I did not want to stay in the courtyard any longer.

This was ridiculous, I told myself. It was a trick. Of course, Lowella had gone in and they had decided to amuse themselves at my expense.

But it had not been a child I had seen at the window. It had been a tall woman.

I hurried into the house through the south door and I paused ‘before the picture of Barbarina. I fancied that the eyes were mocking me.

This is absurd, I said as I mounted the staircase. I was a normal, uncomplicated person who did not believe in ghosts.

Had I changed since I came to Pendorric? Was I still so self-sufficient since I had experienced emotions which had only been names to me before I met Roc Pendorric? Love, jealousy—and now fear?

I went straight up to my room, and as I opened the door I gasped, for a woman was sitting in an armchair with her back to the light. After my experience in the courtyard I must really have been unnerved, because it seemed several seconds before I recognised Morwenna. ” I’m afraid I startled you,” she said. ” I’m so sorry. I came up to look for you … and sat down for a moment.”

” It was silly of me, but I didn’t expect to see anyone here.”

” I came up because Deborah has arrived. I want you to meet her. “

” Who, did you say?”

” Deborah Hyson. She’s my mother’s sister. She spends a lot of time here. She has been away and only got back this afternoon. I think she’s come back on your account. She can’t bear things to be happening in the family and not take part in them.”

” Could I have seen her at one of the windows not long ago?”

” Very likely. Was it the west side?”

” Yes. I think it was.”

” Then I expect it was Deborah. She has her rooms there.”

“She was looking down on the quadrangle and Hyson waved to her, then ran off without explaining.”

” Hyson’s very fond of her, and she of Hyson. I’m glad, because Lowella is usually so much more popular. Are you coming down now?

We’re having tea in the winter parlour, and Deborah’s very anxious to meet you. “

” Let’s go, then.”

We went down to the little room on the first floor of the north wing, where a tall woman rose to greet me; I was almost certain that she was the one I had seen at the window.

She was not wearing the hat now, but her abundant white hair was in a style which might have been fashionable thirty years or so ago; and I noticed too that there was an old fashioned look about her clothes.

Her eyes were very blue and her frilly crepe de Chine blouse matched them perfectly. She was very tall and slender in her black tailored suit.