Victoria Holt - The House of a Thousand Lanterns

“You are close now,” I said. “Sometimes you seem far away.”

“You’ve been suspicious about things, haven’t you? It started with Bella. I didn’t tell the whole truth, did I, and you didn’t trust me after that. I didn’t want to tell you that she had killed herself. I knew how it would affect you. You’re very sensitive, Jane. You brood; you look back; you remember.”

“Don’t you remember, Joliffe?”

“I remember what is good to remember and try to forget what is unpleasant.”

“That’s true enough.”

“It’s weak, selfish probably. But life is for enjoying, not for brooding. We had our tragedy. For all those years we were apart. I lost you and my son and now I have you back. I knew how you’d feel about Bella if you were aware of the whole unpleasant truth. You’d have some guilt feeling and imagine all sorts of things that were not accurate. So I didn’t tell you all that happened.”

“You said she died of her illness.”

“She did. It was because she knew she was going to have a painful end and that it was imminent, that she killed herself. That was dying of her illness. It was her decision, Jane, and only she had a right to make it. I believe it occurred to you that I might have pushed her out of the window. There was that nightmare of yours. I feel limp with horror every time I think of it. What might have happened on that night if I hadn’t found you?”

“How did you find me, Joliffe?”

“I heard the sound of footsteps, as I told you. I came up to the room. I saw you there and Lottie had come up too. Because she had heard you…”

“So if you hadn’t come, Lottie would have been there to save me?”

“She is so fragile and you seemed so determined. I doubt if she could have held you back. I have never ceased to be thankful that I heard you, Jane.”

“I have often thought of it… So you came up and found Lottie there with me?”

He kissed me. “Don’t talk of it, Jane. Even now it terrifies me.”

I believed him then—such was the magic of our intimacy.

“Tell me about Chan Cho Lan,” I said.

“Chan Cho Lan!” He hesitated for a moment.

I went on: “You visit her… frequently. I have seen you going in and coming out of her house. I have been watchful.”

“Jane!”

“It was wrong, wasn’t it? Spying you might say. That’s an ugly way of putting it. I had to, Joliffe. I had to find out what is going on.”

“I should have told you. I am the one who has been in the wrong. Yes, I go to her house. I have been frequently. It’s about Lottie.”

“You are planning Lottie’s future?”

“There’s a reason for it. I should have told you before. It’s ancient history now and involves others… but I should have told you. Chan Cho Lan as you know was one of the court concubines.”

“I know of this,” I said.

“My father was fascinated by her. She became his mistress. There was a child. That child was Lottie.”

“So Lottie is your half sister then!”

“Yes. That is why I want a good marriage arranged for her. When Chan Cho Lan would have exposed the child to the streets where she would have shared the fate of many other girl children, my father determined to save her. Because he feared his wife might become suspicious if he were concerned in the affair he induced Redmond to rescue her and give her into the care of Chan Cho Lan and to be her guardian. Chan Cho Lan would have lost face if she had had a child of her own that was only half Chinese, but if this child was rescued from the streets and she was implored and perhaps paid to rear it that would be acceptable. Redmond continued to look after Lottie’s interests when my father died. He would not allow her feet to be bound. Now you know the Story. Our family have always been on terms of friendship with Chan Cho Lan. I should have told you all this in the first place, of course, but it is a long ago secret and I did not want you to think our family too disreputable. I thought it was best forgotten. Adam knows this of course. That is why Lottie was brought to you.”

“Poor child, I felt drawn towards her from the first.”

“What happened is due to no fault of hers. I want her to make the best marriage possible. We shall provide her with a dowry and this will ensure that she makes a good marriage.”

“I wish you had told me,” I said. “I had visions of your going to your beautiful Chinese mistress who was tempting you away from me.”

He laughed and said: “No one would have the power to do that, Jane. I love you and I know the value of that love. Don’t ever think otherwise.”

How happy I was! How easy it was to slip into this pleasant euphoria.

How I laughed at myself in the velvety darkness, with Joliffe beside me.

But the doubts came back with the daylight.

* * *

Lottie was putting my linen into drawers.

I said to her: “I often think of that night when I walked in my sleep.”

She stood very still; she looked like a statue.

“Yes,” I went on, “I think of myself walking up to that room, to the window.”

“You ill,” said Lottie. “Better now.”

“You sleep lightly, Lottie.”

She looked blank as though she did not understand.

“I mean,” I went on, “you heard me.”

“I hear,” she answered.

“Did you see me leave my room?”

She shook her head.

“So you just heard.”

“Just heard,” she echoed.

“And when you came into the room I was there at the window?”

“And Mr. Joliffe is holding you back.”

“So… he was there before you?”

She nodded giggling.

“I always wanted to know,” I said faintly, “but didn’t want to think about it when I was ill. Now I’m better I feel curious. So he was there before you.”

“He there before,” she confirmed.

It was not what he had told me.

Oh God, I thought, what does it mean?

I went down to the Go-Down to see Toby. He took me into his private office and closed the door.

“Jane,” he said, before I could speak, “I feel very uneasy about you.”

“I feel very uneasy about myself,” I replied.

“I have been delving into books on Chinese drugs and medicines and I have found something I must show you.”

“Please do.”

“The book is at home. You must come and see it. But briefly there is an account of an old Chinese recipe. It contains opium and the juice of some rare poisonous plants. It was used centuries ago by some of the most efficient poisoners. It produces certain symptoms.”

“Yes?” I said faintly.

“The victim suffers first a listlessness, a lethargy. He is disturbed by dreams, hallucinations too. Shadows form into threatening shapes. While he is under the influence of this drug he will walk in his sleep. Gradually his health becomes undermined and he goes into what at home we would call a decline, until he eventually dies.”

“Sylvester…” I whispered.

“And… yourself?”

“It seems as if someone is trying to destroy me.”

“I’m afraid for you, Jane.”

“I did not suffer from hallucinations. I saw the figure on the stairs. I found the robe in which someone was dressing up.” I explained what happened.

“But you were in such a state as to believe it was a hallucination.”

“At first, yes. Then I walked in my sleep. If Joliffe had not been there…”

I paused. Why had Joliffe been there? Why should he say that Lottie had been there when he arrived and she say that she had come into the room to find him there with me? What did this discrepancy in their stories mean? I was fighting the suspicion that he had administered that Chinese poison, that he had led me in my drugged state up those stairs and was attempting to throw me from the window when Lottie appeared. It was absurd. He would not have wanted to have two wives who killed themselves by jumping out of windows! I was however known to be ailing. Perhaps the idea was that the fact that his first wife had died in this way would have preyed on my mind.

I would not accept such wild reasoning. I could not mention it even to Toby.

He said: “Look here, Jane. This is very serious I believe.”

“Who would do it, Toby?”

“Let’s consider. Sylvester died and left a vast business to you.”

“That would point to me then.”

“No. It was a surprise to us all that it was left to you. It would have been imagined that you would have had an income for life and the business would have gone to the family.”

“Adam and Joliffe…” I said.

“Joliffe was out of favor.”

Toby looked at me intently. “Someone wants you out of the way, Jane. I know Adam’s business is not good. And if you died he would take over, in trust for Jason. Jason is a child yet… there are many years ahead before he could come into his own…”

I blurted out: “Adam won’t take over. I have had that changed. Joliffe, my husband, will be in command if I died. He will hold everything in trust for our son.”

I saw the horror dawn in Toby’s eyes and I couldn’t bear it.

“Does Joliffe know?” he asked.

“Of course he knows,” I blustered. “We discussed it together. It seemed only right as Joliffe is Jason’s father that he should be his guardian.”

“Jane, you are in danger. We have to look at every possibility… however distressing, however remote it may seem.”

“Sylvester died but Joliffe was not there when that happened,” I said triumphantly.

Then horrible thoughts like mischievous imps danced through my mind. I remembered how he had bribed one of Sylvester’s clerks to let him know when I would be going to the Cheapside office. I heard Mrs. Couch’s voice coming to me over the years: “Servants… he can get round them. They’d go and jump in the lake if he told them to.”

Toby did not speak.

I found myself defending Joliffe as though I were a counsel for the defense. I went on: “Sylvester died in this way, after suffering the symptoms you mention. I’ve certainly been affected by those symptoms. And I’ve proved that it was in the tea. It’s someone in the house. It’s someone who was in the house when Sylvester was alive.”

Because he still did not speak I grew frantic. I knew the meaning for his silence. He suspected Joliffe.

Joliffe’s reputation would put him under suspicion. The wife who had died… mysteriously. The coroner’s censure. The visits to Chan Cho Lan.

I could picture Elspeth Grantham’s discussing the scandals with Toby rather triumphantly implying that I was now suffering for my folly.

I said: “Joliffe had been often to Chan Cho Lan’s lately because he has been arranging a marriage for Lottie. He had told me the truth about Lottie. She is his half sister. That is why he takes an interest in her and wants to see her happily settled.”

Toby continued to regard me sadly.

“What’s the matter?” I cried. “Why do you look like that?”

“It’s not true, Jane. Lottie is Redmond’s daughter. He had always been secretly proud of the fact. Chan Cho Lan was his mistress and this was known in some circles. He saved Lottie and was her guardian until his death. Then Adam took his place in looking after her. His father had asked him to do this. Adam has been arranging Lottie’s marriage.”

I felt as though the world was shaking under me. I was numbed. I would not believe what was staring me in the face.

Toby put a hand gently on my shoulder.

“You should not go back, Jane.”

“Not go back! Leave The House of a Thousand Lanterns. Leave my son.”

“You and he could stay with Elspeth.”

“Toby, you’ve gone mad.”

“I’m just looking at facts.”

“It’s not true,” I cried.

“Look at it calmly, Jane.”

But how could I look at it calmly? Joliffe… trying to kill me! I wouldn’t believe it.

“Elspeth will look after you. Go to Elspeth. Take Jason and go.”

“I am going back to the house,” I said. “I am going to talk to Joliffe.”

He shook his head. “That will do no good. He will make excuses. When you told me that you had changed Sylvester’s arrangement everything fell into place. Don’t you see, Jane… the motive…”

But I loved Joliffe. I would not look at the logic of Toby’s argument. I could only see the man I loved and would go on loving until I died.

“I’m going back,” I repeated firmly. “My son is in the house. I must go back for Jason.”