Виктория Холт - The Black Opal

We followed Mr. Carton into the house and Jenny went upstairs to call the doctor.

He came at once and there was consternation in his voice as he said:

“What is it? What is it?”

Estella and I hovered.

“It’s Mrs. Marline, sir. Her horse took a toss. They’ve got her in the hospital. Reckon you ought to get there right away.”

“I’ll come at once,” said the doctor.

They had not brought her home on a stretcher, which was what had happened when Mr. Carteret of Letch Manor had broken his leg in the hunting field. They had taken her to the hospital, and that seemed significant.

The doctor was away a long time. The news spread through the house.

The mistress had had an accident in the hunting field. It must be bad because they had not brought her home but had taken her to the hospital. It is only natural that people’s first thoughts are of how such events will affect them. Was she going to die? To the servants this might present a threat of losing their jobs. Everyone knew that she had the money. Nobody in the house liked her. The servants avoided her whenever possible.

However, there was no talk of Mrs. Marline’s being a ‘holy terror’. In fact, she was rapidly turning into a saint, which, I had long realized, was what death did for people. So they had decided that Mrs. Marline was going to die.

The doctor returned at last. He talked to the servants and then sent for Estella, Henry and me.

When we were assembled, he said to us: “I have to tell you that your mother has been badly hurt. Her horse tripped over an exposed tree root just as she was about to jump over a fence. As a result, the horse was so badly hurt that it has already been destroyed. Your mother is in the hospital and will be there for a few days. There are fears that she may not be able to walk. We must pray that something can be done and that she will be restored to full health. In the meantime, we can only wait … and hope.”

We were all very solemn. Nanny was closeted with Mrs. Barton and they discussed the future. Estella and I did not know what to say. We were shocked and expectant. As for myself, she had never played a big part in my life, and her presence or absence made very little difference to me. But I knew, even then, that nothing was going to be quite the same again.

And how right I was.

Just as it had ever been, the house was dominated by Mrs. Marline. Two rooms on the ground floor had been prepared for her. They both had french windows opening on to the garden-one was her bedroom, the other her sitting-room. There was a wheelchair in which she could propel herself from room to room, but she needed help to get through the trench windows to the garden. She had bells, by which she could summon the servants to her, and their imperious clanging was often heard throughout the house.

Each morning Annie Logan called to help her wash and dress. Annie Logan was the district nurse. She would arrive promptly on her bicycle at nine o’clock and spend an hour or so with Mrs. Marline. Then she would go to the kitchen and drink a cup of tea with Nanny Gilroy and Mrs. Barton. They would chat and after a while Annie would cycle off to the next poor creature who needed her attention.

It was obvious that Mrs. Marline was in intermittent pain. Dr. Everest, from the next village, called on her. That seemed to me rather odd since we had a doctor in the house. I said so.

“Silly!” retorted Henry.

“A doctor can’t attend his own wife.”

“Why not?” I demanded.

“Because they think he might finish her off.”

“Finish her off? What do you mean?”

“Murder her, stupid!”

“Murder her!”

“Husbands do murder wives.”

I thought then that it was a reasonable arrangement, for Dr. Marline might well want to do that.

She was more vociferous than ever. She continually raged against everything and everyone. Nothing was right for her. We often heard her haranguing the poor doctor. We would hear her loud voice and his meek replies.

“Yes, my love. Of course, my love.”

“My love’ seemed incongruous. How could Mrs. Marline be anyone’s ‘love’?

The poor doctor was looking gaunt and haggard. I understood very well then why it was necessary for Dr. Everest to look after her.

It was a very unhappy household. I was one of the more fortunate ones, because I could keep out of her way.

When Uncle Toby came life brightened. Even Mrs. Marline seemed a little happier, for she was clearly pleased to see him. He sat with her, talking to her and making her smile now and then.

I had a long talk with him. It was in the garden.

“Nice to get out of the house,” he said.

“Poor old doc. Things not too bright for him. And you have to be sorry for Grace. She’s always wanted her own way. She ought to have married someone more like herself, someone who could put a curb on her. Doc’s all for a comfortable life.” He raised his eyes to the sky.

“And he married Grace! Some people do have bad luck. Their own fault, I suppose.

“Not in our stars but in ourselves,” and all that. And what about you, little Carmel? How does all this affect you? “

“She doesn’t take much notice of me … she never did … so I’m lucky.”

“Ah, there’s good in everything, eh? You’re growing up now. How old is it? Eight?”

“Eight in March,” I told him.

He patted my hand.

“Not much fun, is it? I wish it could be better.”

“It’s nice when you come.”

He put his arm round me and held me tightly.

“One day,” he went on, ‘perhaps I’ll take you to sea with me. We’ll sail round the world. How would you like that? “

I clasped my hands together in ecstasy. There was no need for words.

“We’ll sit on the deck in the moonlight,” he said, ‘and we’ll look up at the Southern Cross. “

“What’s that?” I asked.

“It’s the stars you see on the other side of the world. On hot days we’ll watch for the whales and we’ll see the dolphins jumping out of the sea. We’ll watch the flying fishes skimming across the water ..”

“And mermaids?” I asked.

“Who knows? We might even produce one of those for you.”

“They sing songs and lure sailors to destruction.”

“We won’t be lured. We’ll go on sailing.”

“When?” I asked.

“One day … perhaps.”

“I’ll pray every night.”

“You do. I believe those up there occasionally answer prayers.”

I thought about those words for a long time afterwards, and I dreamed of the day when Uncle Toby would keep his promise and take me away with him.

Uncle Toby left soon after that and uneasiness settled on the house.

Dr. Marline looked lost and exhausted. Nanny Gilroy and Mrs. Barton had long conversations in the kitchen with the district nurse.

I overheard some of them.

“Nothing pleases Madam,” complained Nanny Gilroy.

“She’s in pain,” said Annie Logan.

“Not all the time … but it’s there, threatening. That’s why she’s got those rather strong pills, for when it’s specially bad. Morphine in them.

It helps her. She wouldn’t be as well as she is without them. “

“She was bad enough before,” said Mrs. Barton.

“Nothing pleased her then, but it’s ten times worse now. There’s no pleasing her.”

The weeks began to pass. My eighth birthday came. It was set on the first of March, though nobody knew the exact day. Tom Yardley had found me on the sixteenth, and they reckoned I was a few weeks old at that time, so the first seemed about right. Everyone else had a birthday, so mine was set for that date. Uncle Toby had given orders that I was to have a fine dress. Sally had bought the material and had given Mrs. Grey, the local seamstress, one of my old dresses to copy for size. It was the finest dress Mrs. Grey had ever made and I was not to see it until the morning of the first. Sally had given me a book of children’s rhymes which I had seen in the bookshop and coveted:

Estella’s gift was a blue sash which she no longer liked, and Adeline’s a bar of chocolate. No one else remembered it, but I did not care because I had my wonderful dress.

Then there occurred that event which was to shape the future for us all at Commonwood House. Mrs. Harley, the vicar’s wife, had a slight stroke and Miss Harley was unable to continue teaching us because she had to look after her mother. Estella was now ten years old and a new governess had to be engaged.

Uncle Toby would expect me to be educated with her and so I should share the new governess.

I often wondered what would have happened to me with out Uncle Toby. I knew it was solely due to his champion ship that I was allowed to partake of the crumbs which fell from the table of the rich.

As a consequence, the governess was engaged to teach us, and so Miss Kitty Carson came to Commonwood House.

When we heard that we were to have a governess, Estella and I shared mixed feelings. There was excitement and apprehension. We discussed her constantly between the time of her appointment and her arrival at Commonwood House.

What would she be like? She would be old and ugly, declared Estella.

She would have hairs on her chin like old Mrs. Cram in the village who, some people said, was a witch.

“She can’t be very old,” I protested.

“If she were, she’d be too old to teach.”

“She’ll give us hard sums and make us sit at the table until we finish them.”

“She might be all right.”

“Governesses never are. Nanny says they’re neither one thing nor the other. They don’t belong anywhere. Think they’re above the servants and they are not good enough for the others. They give themselves airs downstairs and crawl to the family. I’m going to hate her anyway. I shall be so horrid to her that she’ll go away.”

“You might wait and see what she’s like first.”

“I know,” said Estella. She had made up her mind.

On the day of the governess’s arrival, we were at an upstairs window, watching as the station fly brought her to the house. We gazed intently as she stepped out and made her way to the gate and up the path with Tom Fellows, who drove the fly, carrying her bags.

She was tall and slender. I noticed with relief that she was not in the least like old Mrs. Cram. In fact, she looked very pleasant-not exactly handsome, but with such a gentle and attractive expression that I thought she would be easy to get on with. She might have been in her late twenties. In fact, just what I thought a governess ought to be.

As soon as she entered the house, Estella and I left the window and crept to the top of the stairs. We saw that she was taken into Mrs. Marline’s room. The door was shut, so we could not hear what was said. Then Mrs. Marline’s bell rang and Nanny, who was hovering, went into the room.

She came out with the governess. Nanny was rather tight-lipped. She did not like the idea of a governess in the house. She might have felt she threatened her authority in some way, and I knew that she was preparing to find fault with Miss Kitty Carson.

We dodged back as they came upstairs and we hid in one of the rooms, leaving the door slightly open, so that we could hear.

“It’s this way,” said Nanny coldly; and then suddenly Dr. Marline appeared.

I peeped round the door and saw them as they were just passing.

The doctor smiled very pleasantly and said: “You must be Miss Carson?”

“Yes,” said the governess.

“Welcome to Commonwood House.”

“Thank you.”

“I hope you will be happy here. You haven’t met the girls yet, I suppose?”

“No,” she said.

“Nanny will send for them,” he told her.

Suppressing our giggles, Estella and I remained very quiet until they had passed on to the room which had been prepared for Miss Carson on the second floor. Then we came into the corridor and walked sedately up the stairs.

“Oh, here they are,” said Nanny Gilroy.

“And Adeline?” said the doctor.

“She will be in her room,” replied Nanny.

“Carmel, run up and bring her down.”

“But first. Miss Carson,” put in the doctor, ‘here are your two pupils, Estella and Carmel. “

She had a lovely smile which lighted her face into some thing like beauty.

“Hello,” she said easily.

“I do hope we shall get on well together. I feel sure we shall.” Her eyes rested on me. Estella might have been scowling slightly. I had taken an immediate liking to Miss Carson and I felt sure she had to me.