Виктория Холт - Seven for a Secret

“As she did before. It was such a pity. He was a very charming man.”

I did not want to think of Gaston Marchmont.

I went to Grindle’s Farm where Rachel greeted me with delight. I could see that life was good for her. Little Danielle was quite a person now; she had her own small vocabulary and was running around, taking an interest in everything.

Daniel was well, Rachel told me. There had been no more repercussions about the murder and it seemed to be back in the past.

She wanted to hear about Tamarisk. She laughed over the flower incident and Tamarisk’s unexpected interest in the mission.

“It is the last thing you would expect of her,” she said.

“Well, Tamarisk was always unexpected.”

“Freddie, I’m so happy for you. It is wonderful that you have come back and are going to marry Crispin.” She looked at me searchingly.

“When you went away like that, I couldn’t understand it.”

“There was a reason.”

“Of course.” She did not ask what it was. Rachel had always been tactful. She had realized that this was something between Crispin and me, and our affair alone.

“But now you are back and everything is all right. Oh, Freddie, you are going to be happy, I know it.”

“If you know it and I am determined to be, it must be so,” I said.

“Poor James Perrin!” She smiled faintly.

“At one time I thought…”

That I would marry him? “

“It seemed suitable. He is very self-contained, a calm, efficient sort of man. I am sure he will make a very good husband.”

“He’ll always be predictable a good and faithful husband, I am sure.”

“There is a rumour that he is interested in a young woman in Devizes.

She is the daughter of a solicitor . very suitable in every way. “

“I’m glad.”

“They are saying that her family will help him out with the money to get a place of his own.”

Ideal,” I cried.

“It is wonderful how everything is working out right, isn’t it? It was all going wrong once and then suddenly it comes right. It’s like some sort of pattern. When I look back and think …”

“Rachel,” I said quickly, ‘don’t look back. Look forward. “

She smiled.

“It is good to think you are going to be here.”

I had a meeting with James Perrin. He looked very pleased with life.

He congratulated me on my coming marriage and told me he was thinking about getting his own property. He had been perfectly frank with Mr. St. Aubyn, for he thought it only fair to give him warning so that it would be possible for a new man to have some training before he, James, departed.

His congratulations were sincere enough, yet I fancied there might have been a few regrets. But James was a practical, serious-minded young man who had his way to make in life. He had at one time thought I would be a suitable partner and, as I had made that impossible, he was now finding a replacement. He was reasonable, philosophical; he was a man who would never plunge into the depths of despair and never reach the heights of ecstasy either. I was naturally eager to call on the Lanes, and when I did so I found it rather disturbing. But then, it had always been so.

I chose an afternoon the time I used to go and would find Flora sitting in the garden.

She was not there. I went round to the front of the house and knocked on the door. Lucy opened it.

“Oh,” she said.

“It’s Miss Hammond. Come in. Miss Hammond. I heard you were back.”

“I had to come and see you. How is Miss Flora?”

She took me into the sitting-room and bade me sit down.

“Flora is not very well,” she said.

“She’s resting.”

“Oh, I am sorry.”

“She has not been well for some time.”

“Is she very ill?”

“Well, I suppose it is a sort of illness. I get her to lie down in the afternoons. I hear you are going to marry Mr. Crispin.”

“Yes,” I said.

She was holding her hands together and I noticed that they were trembling.

“He is a good man,” she said.

“The best.”

“I know.”

“Well, I am sure you will be happy.”

“I am sure we shall. Is it possible for me to see Miss Flora? I shouldn’t like her to think I hadn’t come to see her.”

She hesitated for a moment before she stood up. She nodded and I followed her out of the room.

“She is changed,” she whispered as we mounted the stairs.

“Yes, you told me.”

The door of the nursery was open. We passed it and went into Flora’s room.

Flora was lying on her bed.

“Miss Hammond has come to see you. Flora,” said Lucy.

Flora half raised herself and said: “You’ve come back.”

“Yes, and I’ve come to see you. How are you?”

She lay back and shook her head. I noticed then that the doll was in the toy cot near the bed.

“It’s all gone,” murmured Flora.

“I don’t know … where are we?”

“We’re in your room, dear,” said Lucy, ‘and Miss Hammond has come home from foreign parts. She’s looked in to see you. “

Flora nodded.

“He’s gone now,” she said.

Lucy whispered: “She’s rambling a bit.” Then aloud: “It was good of Miss Hammond to come, wasn’t it. Flora?”

“Good to come,” repeated Flora.

“He came here … see.” She was looking at me.

“He took …” Her face puckered.

Lucy laid a hand on my arm.

“Not one of her good days,” she said quietly.

“She’s better left. I’ll give her a pill. That’ll quieten her.”

I sensed that she was eager for me to go, so I had no alternative but to do so. I passed the open door of the nursery as I went and I caught a glimpse of the picture of the seven magpies.

By the front door I turned to look at Lucy. I could see that she was worried.

“She’s changed,” I said.

“It’s one of her bad days. She wanders. She has these days now and then. Some days she’s just like she used to be. Well, of course, she’s been strange for a long time.”

“It must give you great anxiety.”

Lucy lifted her shoulders.

“I know her … she’s my sister. I know how to look after her.”

“She is very fortunate to have you.”

She did not answer that.

She opened the door.

“Well, congratulations, I’m glad you’re going to marry Mr. Crispin. He’s very fond of you. He deserves to be happy.”

“Thank you.”

“Yes,” she said.

“It’s nice … that’s what it is.”

I walked away smiling, though I was faintly disturbed; but I always had been after a visit to the House of the Seven Magpies.

Six weeks after my return we were married. Even so, Crispin chafed against the delay. It was a quiet wedding, as we both wanted it to be.

Mrs. St. Aubyn had raised objections but they were only mild ones. In the first place, it would be celebrated from the bride’s home, which was comparatively humble.

Mr. Hetherington performed the ceremony and I think most of the neighbourhood were present.

Crispin and I were blissfully happy as everyone crowded round with their well-wishing. Rachel was there. I wished Tamarisk had been. I often thought of her. I was sure her enthusiasm for the island would, like all those in the past, not be of long duration. I saw Lucy Lane in the church, and I was pleased that Crispin spoke to her and made sure she was well looked after. I wondered how Flora was, but I am afraid I had little thought to spare for anything but my own marriage and the future which awaited me.

Soon after the ceremony Crispin and I left for Italy and there followed weeks of perfect happiness.

Those were days of sheer perfection. I discovered new depths in Crispin. Never had I realized how joyous he could be. All reserve dropped from him. Now that had gone he was completely relaxed and perfectly happy. There was enchantment everywhere.

For most people Florence is a magical city. For us it was a paradise.

We bargained on the Ponte Vecchio with the jewellers and laughed over our attempts to speak the language. We visited fresco-lined churches and the galleries; we were enthralled by the Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli Gardens. We took a carriage and rode out of the city into the rolling hills of Tuscany. Each hour of those enchanted weeks was a joy. Never had I dreamed of such happiness and to share it with the one I loved seemed the greatest benefit that could befall anyone.

It had to end, of course, but it was a time which would live with us for ever.

And as those wonderful days sped by, I could even anticipate our return with pleasure, for I was eager to start my new life as the mistress of St. Aubyn’s Park.

It seemed miraculous that our difficulties had been so easily swept away. It was not really so very long ago that there had been that unhappy barrier between us and now we were completely happy. Crispin could not forget that I had come back to him, not because he could offer me a grand marriage, but because my love was unshakable. Mrs. St. Aubyn was welcoming to me and it seemed that, just as Fate will deal blow after blow to those she has decided to chastise, so will she shower blessings on those she favours.

Sometimes I was a little fearful of such happiness.

And then the faintest shadow appeared.

It was nothing just a fancy. Crispin had been round the estate that morning and in the afternoon he wanted me to go with him to the Healeys’ Farm. There was some trouble about one of the barns and the visit would give Mrs. Healey the chance to congratulate me on our marriage.

“You know how these people are,” he said.

“Mrs. Healey says you had been to see the Whetstones and Mrs. Whetstone had given you a glass of her special cider which you very much appreciated. So I think it would be a good idea for you to have a little chat with Mrs. Healey.”

I was delighted. I liked to meet the people on the estate and to receive their congratulations, to hear what a good landlord Crispin was and how the place had prospered since he took over.

He was late returning. He said he would be in at three and we would go off immediately. At three-fifteen he had not come and by three-thirty I began to be alarmed.

It was soon after that when he returned. He looked rather anxious and I asked him what was wrong.

“Oh, nothing much,” he said.

“I just got caught up. Let’s get going.

We’ll be very late otherwise. “

Usually he told me what was happening. I waited for him to do so, but he didn’t. I presumed that, as we had to leave at once for the Healeys’, there wasn’t time.

I met Mrs. Healey, drank her cider and it was all very pleasant; and I forgot about Crispin’s arriving late.

The next day I was in Harper’s Green when I met Rachel. She told me that she had left Danielle with the nursemaid and had come out to do a little shopping.

“I can see everything is working out wonderfully,” she said.

“You look radiant.”

“I am so happy, Rachel. And you are too.”

“How different it was! I often think back to the days when the three of us were together … when you and I used to go to St. Aubyn’s and be taught by Miss Lloyd.”

“It seems a long time ago.”

“Such a change.” I saw the dark shadow in her face, and I wondered if she ever thought of Mr. Dorian hanging in the barn. It was a pity such thoughts had to come to spoil a cloudless morning.

Then she said: “I ran into Crispin yesterday. He looked very preoccupied.”

“Oh, where was that?”

“Near the Lanes’ cottage. Yesterday afternoon. He’d obviously been there. How good he is! He does look after them, doesn’t he? I know he always has. I’ve always thought it was so kind.”

We chatted a little more and it was not until later that I thought: So that was why he was so late. He had been visiting the Lanes.

Why had he not said so? Perhaps he had thought it was not necessary.

My mother-in-law said that now St. Aubyn’s had a new mistress we must have people to visit us more often.

That was how it had been in the old days, she said.

“And it always was so in the past, I believe. It was only when I became so frail…”

And when the guests came she did bestir herself a little.

I was busy those days. There was a great deal to learn about the management of a big house. Aunt Sophie was very helpful.

“You must show the housekeeper and the butler that you are in command.