Виктория Холт - Kirkland Revels

All human actions. Some person in this house had done this to me.

Why should this person wish to frighten me, knowing of my condition?

” You see,” I said, ” the curtain is drawn at the side of the bed. It was not like that when I went to sleep.”

” Mary-Jane must have done it.”

” Why should she come back after I had said good night to her, to draw a curtain which I had expressly asked should not be drawn?”

Ruth lifted her shoulders.

“Lie down,” she said.

“Why, you are cold. You should have put something on.”

” There wasn’t time. I didn’t think of it in any case. I was after .. whoever it was. I thought I might catch a glimpse of the way it went.

But when I came out there was nothing … nothing. I wonder if it’s still here … watching … listening …”

” Come, lie down. It can’t be here because it was part of your dream.”

” But I know when I am awake and when I’m asleep.”

” I’m going to light your candles. You’ll feel better then.”

” The moon is so bright. I do not need candles.”

” Perhaps it is better not to light them. I’m always afraid of fire.”

She drew back the bed curtains and sat by the side of the bed.

” You with be cold,” I said.

” I don’t like to leave you while you are so disturbed,” she replied.

I was ashamed to ask her to stay, and yet I felt afraid. But I was so convinced that what I had seen was no apparition that I was certain, if I locked my door on the inside, it could not come again to my room.

” I’m all right,” I said. ” I don’t need company.”

She rose smiling.

“It is not like you to be afraid of dreams.”

” Oh dear! Why can’t you believe me? I know it was not a dream,” I told her.

“Someone is playing a trick on me.”

“A dangerous trick .. on a woman in your condition.”

” It is someone who gives no thought to my danger.”

She lifted her shoulders and the gesture was disbelieving.

” I am sorry to have disturbed you like this,” I said. ” Please go back to your room.”

” If you are sure …”

I got out of bed and reached for my dressing-gown.

” Where are you going?” she asked.

“To lock the door when you have gone. If I lock that and the one which leads to the powder-room, and the door of the powder-room which opens on to the corridor. I shall feel safe.”

” If you can only feel safe like that you must, but, Catherine, who in this place would do such a thing? You must have been dreaming.”

” So I could believe,” I said, ” but for the fact that I felt the draught from the door and heard it shut, and the apparition had had the foresight to draw that curtain on one side of my bed. I should think apparitions are rarely so practical.”

I was losing a little of my fear. It was strange that a human enemy was much less alarming than a supernatural one.

I had not then begun to ask myself the all-important question: Why?

“Well, I will say good night,” Ruth said.

“If you are sure …”

” I am all right now.”

” Good night, Catherine. If you should have any more .. alarms, remember I am not very far away … only on the next floor. And Luke is near too.”

” I’ll remember.”

When she had gone I locked the door after her and made sure the door of the powder-room which opened on to the corridor was also locked on the inside.

I went back to bed, but not to sleep. I should not be able to sleep until daylight.

I turned the question over and over in my mind. Who had done this, and why? It was no ordinary practical joke. The person who had done this had meant to terrify me. I was not the sort of woman to be easily terrified, but the most strong-minded must be upset by seeing such a vision at the foot of their bed. And I was a woman, known to be pregnant. I felt the menace then. Someone was plotting evil. It might be only indirectly aimed at me because of the precious burden I carried.

One prospective master of the Revels had died violently; was something being plotted against another?

That was the beginning of my period of terror.

I awoke soon after six o’clock the next morning, rose and unlocked my door; then I returned to bed and fell asleep to be awakened by Mary-Jane at my bedside with a breakfast- tray.

” Mrs. Grantley said you should have a rest this morning,” she told me. i started out of a deep sleep, remembering the horror of the previous night; I must have stared at Mary-Jane for she looked slightly alarmed.

In those first moments of waking I had half expected her to turn into a black-clad apparition.

” Oh … thank you, Mary-Jane,” I stammered.

She propped me up with pillows and helped me on with my bed-jacket.

Then she placed the tray on my knees.

” Is there anything else, madam?”

She was unlike herself, almost anxious to get out of the room. As she went I thought: Good heavens, has she heard already!

I sat up, sipping my tea. I could not eat. The whole thing had come back to me vividly in all its horror; I found that my eyes kept straying to the foot of my bed.

Realising it was no use trying to eat, I put aside the breakfast-tray and lay back thinking about last night, trying to assure myself that I had imagined it all. The draught . the bed curtain. Had I walked in my sleep? Had I opened the door? Had I myself drawn the bed curtain?

” Gabriel,” ( murmured, ” did you walk in your sleep?”

I was trembling, so I hastily pulled myself together.

There was a logical explanation of my horrific adventure There was always a logical explanation, and I had to find it.

I got out of bed and rang for hot water. Mary Jane brought it and set it in the powder-room. I did not speak to her in my usual friendly way. My mind was too full of what had happened on the previous night and I did not want to talk about that with her . or anyone . just yet.

While I was finishing dressing there was a knock on my door and when I called, ” Come in,” Ruth entered. She said:

” Good morning, Catherine,” and looked at me anxiously ” How are you feeling this morning?”

” A little weary.”

“Yes, you look it. It was a disturbed night.”

” For you too, I’m afraid. I’m sorry I made such a fuss.”

” It doesn’t matter. You were really scared. I’m glad you did waken me if it helped at all.”

” Yes, it did help. I had to talk to somebody … real.”

” The best thing we can do is to try to forget it. I know how that sort of thing can hang about, though. I think Deverel Smith ought to give you something to make you sleep tonight You’ll feel all the better for a good night’s sleep.”

I was not going to argue with her any more, because I could see it was useless. She had made ur> her mind that I had been the victim of a nightmare, and nothing would change it.

I said: ” Thanks so much for sending up my breakfast.”

She grimaced. ” I saw Mary-Jane taking the tray away. You didn’t eat much of it.”

” I had several cups of tea.”

” You have to take care, remember. What do you plan to do this morning?”

” Perhaps a little walk.”

“Well, I shouldn’t go too far and … don’t mind my saying this, Catherine…. I should keep away from the Abbey for a while.”

A faint smile curved her lips; it might have been apologetic. I was not sure, for Ruth only seemed to smile with her lips.

She left me and I went downstairs on my way out. I felt I wanted to get away from the house. I wished that I could ride out on to the moors, but I had given up riding and had cur tailed my walking considerably.

As I came down to the hall Luke was coming in. He was in riding kit and looked surprisingly like Gabriel so that for a moment as he stood in shadow I could believe he was Gabriel. I gave a little gasp my nerves had certainly been affected by what had happened and I seemed to be expecting to see strange things.

“Hallo,” he said.

“Seen any more hobgoblins?”

He grinned and his careless unconcern gave me a twinge of alarm.

I tried to speak lightly. ” Once was enough.”

“A hooded monk!” he murmured.

“Poor Catherine, you were in a state.”

” I’m sorry I disturbed you.”

” Don’t be sorry. Any time you need assistance, call me. I’ve never been attracted to monks anyway. All that fasting, hair shirts ceilbacy and so on…. Seems to me so unnecessary. I like good food, fine linen and beautiful women. There’s nothing of the monk about me. So if you want any help in tackling them, I’m your man.”

He was mocking me, and I had come to the conclusion that the best way to treat the affair was lightly. My own opinions would not change, but it was no use trying to force them on others.

He and his mother were persisting in the belief that I had experienced a particularly terrifying nightmare. I would not seek to change that opinion. But nevertheless I was going to find out who in this house had played such a cruel trick on me.

” Thank you,” I said, trying to speak as lightly as he had. ” I’ll remember that.”

” It’s a pleasant morning,” he said. ” A pity you can’t ride. There’s just that nip of autumn in the air to make riding a pleasure; However, perhaps before long …”

” I’ll manage without,” I told him; and as I passed him his smile was enigmatic and I had a feeling that he was picturing me as I had looked in my dishabille the night before. I remembered then that Hagar Redvers had said he was like his grandfather, and Sir Matthew had an eye for women.

I passed out into the open air. It was wonderful what fresh air could do. My fear evaporated and as I walked among the beds of chrysanthemums and Michaelmas daisies I felt capable of tackling any menace that might present itself.

If you believe that was a human being playing a trick, I told myself, all you have to do is search your room and the powder-room before retiring and lock doors and windows. Then if you are disturbed by apparitions you will know that they are of the supernatural class.

This was a test of my belief. It was, I reminded myself, all very well to be brave on a fresh bright morning like this, but how should I feel when darkness fell?

I was determined to test myself, to prove that I really did believe that some human being had played that trick on me.

I returned to the house for luncheon, which I took with Ruth and Luke.

Luke made a reference to my ” nightmare ” and I made no contradiction of the term. That lunch was very like others; I fancy Ruth seemed relieved. She said I looked better for my walk, and it was true that I did eat well for I found I was hungry after having had no breakfast.

When I rose from the luncheon table William came into the dining-room with a message from Sir Matthew. He would like to see me if I could spare the time to visit him.

I said I would go at once if he was ready.

” I will take you to his room, madam,” William told me.

He led me up the staircase to a room on the first floor which was not far from my own. I was beginning to learn where the family had their apartments. They lived mainly in the south wing: Sir Matthew on the first floor, where I now had my room, Ruth and Luke on the second; and the third, of course, was where I had lived with Gabriel during the short time we had been together in the house. Sarah was the only member of the family who occupied rooms other than in the south wing.

She clung to the east wing where the nurseries were. The rest of the house was not being used at this time, but I was told that in the past Sir Matthew had entertained lavishly and that the Revels had often been filled with guests.

The kitchens, bake houses and sculleries were on the ground floor and an extension of the south wing. The servants’ sleeping quarters were on the top floor of the west wing. I had not seen them but Mary-Jane had told me this. So few people in such a large house!

I found Sir Matthew sitting up in bed, a woollen bed- jacket buttoned up to his neck and a nightcap on his head. His eyes twinkled as I came towards him.

” Bring a chair for Mrs. Gabriel, William,” he said. | I thanked William and sat down. | “I hear you had a disturbed night, my dear,” he said “Nightmare, Ruth tells me.”

” It’s over now,” I said. j ” Frightening things, nightmares. And you ran out of your room on your bare feet.” He shook his head. i William was hovering in the next room which, I presumed, was a dressing-room.