* * *
‘Can I come in?’
Oliver was surprised to see it was Alice who had popped her head round the door.
‘Of course,’ he said. ‘Close the door.’
She quietly crossed the room, sitting herself on the bed beside him. Gently she stroked Kerensa’s deathly white cheek. Kerensa did not stir. She had not moved at all for a long time.
‘The whole estate knows about her.’
Oliver looked at her swollen body.
‘She was so happy last night,’ he told her. ‘Kerensa believed she was pregnant. If she is and if she… dies, I’ll lose them both, Alice.’
He looked so wretched, quite unlike the self-assured, proud man she was used to seeing. Reaching out, she took his hand for a moment.
‘You comforted me once when I needed someone badly. I wish there was something I could do now to help you, Oliver.’
He put his hand on her shoulder. ‘I know. Just stay for a while and pray for her.’
Alice kept a short vigil with her ex-mistress, bending over to kiss Kerensa’s cheek before making to leave.
‘So pale and so hot,’ she said, looking at the other girl and willing her to move if only a fraction, just to prove there was a small part of her fighting to live. ‘Can I get you anything before I go?’ she asked Oliver.
‘No, but thank you for coming, Alice. It has meant a lot to me,’ he replied, holding out his hand to her.
‘Oliver,’ she said, ‘I don’t want you to be upset by what I’m going to say, but – I didn’t come alone. Clem’s downstairs. He would like to see Kerensa.’ She watched closely for his reaction.
He was thinking, his face holding no clue to his feelings. It was not long before he spoke.
‘All right, Alice. Tell him he can come up.’
Clem was dressed in his Sunday best clothes, his fair hair brushed tidily back from his face. Oliver was struck by his youth and vulnerability, and an unexpected feeling of guilt replaced some of the dislike he had long harboured for the young man.
Clem said, ‘Thank you for letting me see her.’
‘You love her too,’ Oliver replied simply.
He had laid Kerensa down and was standing beside the bed for Clem’s visit. Clem moved forward, his heart turning at the sight of the girl lying on the lace-edged pillows. He had not seen her like this before, deathly pale except for a feverish spot on each cheek, looking as though she already belonged to another world. She did not move, not even an eyelash.
‘It was bad enough when I lost her once,’ Clem said very quietly, ‘but at least I could see her from time to time. It helped. Hating you helped. But if she dies, if she’s gone for good… I…’ The words stuck in his throat and Oliver touched his arm.
‘Will you take a glass of brandy with me, Trenchard? I think we both need one.’
Clem nodded, keeping his eyes on Kerensa as Oliver poured the brandy and handed him a large glassful.
‘Kerensa always frowns at me having liquor in the bedroom. She never says anything, just has a way of looking at you to let you know how she feels and take the pleasure out of it at the same time.’
‘Yes I know what you mean. She looked at me like that once or twice, and Old Tom all the time.’
‘Of course, being bloody-minded, I do it all the more.’
It would not have been believed the day before: Sir Oliver Pengarron and Clem Trenchard, rivals in love, united now in grief and worry, conversing amiably and drinking brandy together.
Kerensa opened her eyes. Everything was hazy but as her vision cleared she blinked hard at seeing Clem’s fair figure standing beside Oliver’s taller dark one. The glasses they held caught the candlelight, hurting her eyes, and she closed them again. Finding the scene amusing, she smiled. The two men had seen her eyelids close and together they called her name. She did not hear them, having sunk deeply back into a dark floating warmth.
The Reverend Ivey opened the door, but on seeing the two men together quietly closed it again without either of them noticing. He walked slowly back down the stairs, gratified that they could put the past ill-feeling behind them at such an anxious time.
Clem put his glass down and held out his hand. Oliver accepted it.
‘Kerensa’s your wife,’ Clem said, ‘so I’ll go now and leave you alone together. I don’t know if I will ever forgive you for taking her from me, but if love has any power, then ours for her will be enough to bring Kerensa safely through this.’
When he reached the door, Oliver said, ‘Trenchard, you and Alice may stay for the night if you would like to… stay until we know either way.’
Doctor Crebo made a last examination at ten o’clock. He could find no change in Kerensa’s condition and affirmed his intention of returning soon after dawn of the following day. Alice slept fitfully on a sofa in the parlour, Clem getting up from his chair every so often to rearrange the blanket Beatrice brought in for her. He didn’t sleep at all. The Reverend Ivey dozed in the armchair opposite him, dreading a shake on the shoulder that would summon him for final prayers in the master bedroom upstairs.
* * *
Chilled air, sharpened with a hint of frost, chased away the darkness, leaving a sky of moody grey. Oliver woke with a start, furious with himself for dropping off to sleep and frightened Kerensa might have slipped away from him without his knowledge. Of the numerous candles in the room only two had not burnt out and the curtained windows were keeping the room quite dark but he could see her grey-green eyes were wide open, not moving, not even blinking. He stared at her, his entire body cold and rigid with fear.
‘Don’t hold me so tightly, Oliver. I can hardly breathe,’ she said in a voice which was barely audible.
‘What did you say?’ he said, quite stunned.
‘Please… don’t hold me so tightly.’
A cry of relief broke from the depths of his being. Half-laughing, half-crying, he smothered her with kisses until Kerensa weakly tried to push him away. She felt immediate relief as Oliver slackened his hold on her and knew the sickly sweet smell in the stuffy room came from her own sweating body. She badly wanted to be washed and put into a clean nightgown, and to be held lightly again by the strong arms that held her now, to have the same face close to hers, as it was when she had woken and her sight had cleared.
‘Are you all right, my precious love? Are you feeling better? Can I get you anything? Oh, thank God! Thank God! Say something, anything.’
‘Can I sit up, please?’ she asked, her voice soft and weak.
Beatrice, woken up on her chair outside the door by his cries, shuffled into the room with a broad smile on her ugly face. ‘Leave ’er be, boy,’ she rasped, asserting her old authority over him and taking on the air that, as usual, women knew what was best where the sick were concerned, and men only got in the way. ‘Yourn doin’ the little maid no good like that.’ She pushed Oliver aside and efficiently banged the pillows back into shape, sitting Kerensa up against them.
‘Can we come in?’ The Reverend Ivey was peeping round the door, the others from downstairs lined up behind him. ‘We won’t stay long, the doctor has just arrived too.’
‘Yes, yes,’ Oliver said joyfully, brushing back his hair, tidying his shirt and beckoning with bold hands. ‘Come in, all of you.’
‘Only for a while,’ Beatrice rasped, now she was in charge of Kerensa.
Kerensa looked at each smiling face, returning a weak smile to them all. The smile changed to surprise when she saw Clem and Alice.
‘I thought I was dreaming when I saw you with Oliver last night,’ she said to Clem.
He smiled wanly at her. ‘I will always be grateful to Sir Oliver for letting me visit you. It’s so good to see you beginning to look well again.’
He placed his arm protectively on Alice’s shoulders. He knew it must have been hard for her to have his love for Kerensa declared so publicly, and was grateful for and proud of his wife’s forbearance.
‘Thank the Lord for your recov
ery, Kerensa, we were so frightened we were going to lose you,’ breathed Alice, quite forgetting all formalities. ‘We’ll be going now and will spread the good news.’
‘I didn’t realise you thought I was so ill,’ said Kerensa.
‘Well, you were, and you still have a long way to go before you’ll be up and around again.’
Kerensa stretched out a hand to her friend. It dropped weakly almost at once as proof of Alice’s words. ‘I see what you mean.’ She smiled. ‘Thank you for coming, but don’t go until you’ve had breakfast then Jack can take you home in the trap.’
‘It’s very kind of you but we’ll be going all the same. We came over last evening in the cart and Clem has got to get back for the milking. Besides, the family will be anxious to know how you are.’
‘All right, go if you must, but promise me you’ll visit me soon.’
‘I promise.’
To words of sincere thanks from Oliver, the Trenchards left, followed a short time later by the Reverend Ivey who hurried away to put Mrs Tregonning’s worried mind at rest. The King sisters left the room to prepare the breakfast and to see to Polly while Beatrice helped Kerensa to freshen up and change her nightgown for the doctor’s examination.
‘So I arrive to good news, then?’ remarked Charles Crebo brightly, tossing his cape on a chair on his way to the bed.
‘Yes,’ Oliver said, sitting down on the bed, suddenly overcome by exhaustion. He squeezed Kerensa’s hand and kissed her cheek. ‘You feel just nicely warm now, my love.’
‘Out of my way, Sir Oliver,’ said Dr Crebo sternly. ‘In fact, out of the bedroom altogether while I examine her ladyship. Do something to make yourself more presentable. I’m sure you don’t want to look at him like that for long, do you, my lady?’ he said to Kerensa with a twinkle in his eye.
‘I don’t mind,’ she said sleepily, the effect of her many visitors now telling on her.
‘I’ll be back soon,’ he reassured Kerensa, aware for the first time of his need to shave and attend to the other things contributing to his unkempt appearance. He gave Kerensa one more kiss.
‘You’ll take breakfast with me later I trust, Doctor Crebo?’
‘Most kind of you, Sir Oliver,’ Charles Crebo accepted. ‘Now, my lady, let’s have these curtains opened and a window or two, eh? We’ll have you up and about in no time, won’t we, Beatrice? I must say, I did not expect to find that you had pulled through this morning. You must be quite a fighter.’ He glanced at the door Oliver had passed through. ‘Got something really important to live for…’
Fastening the studs on the sleeves of a clean shirt Oliver looked out of the window of his dressing room to where Jack could be seen playing with Bob, Kerensa’s puppy. He shook his head sadly. When Kerensa was strong enough he had the hard task of telling her that Rudd Richards’ wife and family were all dead. Naming her puppy was probably the last joyful thing Rudd’s children had done.
Chapter 25
A few days later, as Kerensa sat cushioned and cosseted in front of a well built-up fire in her sitting room, Polly appeared to ask her if she would see a visitor.
‘Yes!’ Kerensa answered eagerly. ‘Anyone. I’m going quietly mad, the way you all keep me just sitting about wrapped up like an old woman, Polly.’ And she flicked at the blanket wrapped around her lap.
‘You know his lordship won’t let you do very much until he’s sure you’ve completed your convalescence, as per doctor’s orders.’ Polly folded her arms and looked at Kerensa in a no-nonsense fashion. ‘And neither will I.’
Kerensa made a face at Polly, but not unkindly. ‘Well, tell me who my visitor is? It’s not the good Doctor Crebo, Reverend Ivey, Alice, Lady Rachael or Mrs Tregonning. I can tell by your face it’s someone who doesn’t usually call on me.’
‘You’re right,’ Polly replied, looking as if she wanted to say a lot more and was sorry she couldn’t. ‘It’s a Miss Rosina Pearce.’
‘Rosina! This is a welcome surprise. Show her in at once, Polly.’
‘Don’t get up, Kerensa,’ Rosina implored her, as she shyly entered the room, ‘I don’t want to tire you.’
‘Sit down,’ Kerensa invited, as Polly departed to fetch the inevitable tea tray, ‘and make yourself comfortable, Rosina. We’re both recovering at the moment. How are you? It’s good to see you again.’
Rosina was wearing good quality clothes and Kerensa, knowing she was staying at the house of Josephine Courtis, assumed the sharp-faced widow had provided them for her.
‘I’m very well, thank you, and I’m glad to see you’re getting over your ordeal. I’m sorry about Rudd Richard’s family, they were good people.’
‘Yes, it was a terrible tragedy,’ Kerensa said, moved close to tears as she was every time the Richards were mentioned or she thought of them.
‘I’m sorry. I didn’t come to upset you, Kerensa.’ Rosina said humbly.
‘Oh, I’m all right, Rosina, don’t you get worried about me getting weepy, that’s not your fault. I’m delighted to see you, and now that… well, you can come as often as you like can’t you?’
‘I don’t know,’ Rosina answered in a small voice, ‘after you’ve heard what I’ve come to tell you, you might not want me calling on you again.’
Kerensa looked at her sharply and made to protest but Polly came in, poured the tea and left again, before she could ask Rosina what she meant. ‘It can’t be that bad, surely, Rosina? What could you possibly do to upset anyone that much, let alone me?’
Rosina looked at the tea in her cup, then up at Kerensa. ‘What if I say I’m going to marry Peter Blake?’
‘You’re what!’ Kerensa didn’t try to hide her shock.
Rosina put down her cup and saucer. ‘You probably know what happened at Colly’s hands up on Lancavel Downs? That Peter was there and I’ve been recovering at the home of his half-sister, Mistress Courtis?’
Kerensa stared and nodded.
‘For quite a while before Colly hurt me that last time, I had been meeting Peter secretly on the moors. I know what he did to you, Kerensa, it was despicable, and if you can’t forgive him, well, that’s understandable. But Peter was good to me, he never looked to hurt me or behave in any forward way at all. This is probably hard for you to understand, Kerensa, but we fell in love on those innocent meetings on the moors and now we’re getting married. I wanted to come and tell you myself. You’ve been a good friend to me and I believe I owe you that.’
Kerensa had gone a little pale. She gulped at her tea to give her time to think what to say. She didn’t want to hurt Rosina but the memories of Blake’s attack on her, and through that the loss of Dunstan, still filled her with pain. She could think of Peter Blake only with animosity.
‘When… when will this marriage take place?’ Kerensa said finally.
Rosina stood up. She knew, as she had expected, that Kerensa had received her news unfavourably.
‘I know it’s very quick, just three weeks since Peter took me away from Lancavel Downs, but we see no reason to wait. We don’t want any fuss so we’re getting married on special licence tomorrow. Only Peter’s half-sister and his housekeeper, and Matthias Renfree who’s befriended us, will be there. I’m sorry my news has distressed you, it wasn’t my intention. I’ll leave now. I hope you’ll soon be completely recovered. Good bye, Kerensa.’
‘Rosina!’ Kerensa pushed off the blanket and rushed to the other girl. ‘Please don’t leave like this. I can’t agree with what you’re doing… but I don’t want you to leave with any bad feelings between us.’
Rosina turned and smiled in her own serene way. ‘Thank you, Kerensa. I know you’ll find it hard to believe but Peter is sorry for what he did to you. I hope one day you will be able to forgive him, for your own sake as much as mine and his. I won’t come again, I know it wouldn’t be acceptable to you. You won’t be able to look at me without thinking of Peter and I would find it difficult not being able to talk about him. Perhaps one day in the future things will be dif
ferent.’
‘Perhaps,’ Kerensa said, but not seeing how or when that would be. ‘It’s been a difficult year for us both, Rosina. And even Alice has trouble facing me at times because she feels guilty about marrying Clem. But that’s not fair because it was me who broke Clem’s heart and it’s no concern of mine what he does now. I do wish you happiness, Rosina. I hope it will turn out all right for you.’
They exchanged a brief hug and Rosina walked away to begin her new life. Kerensa sat down and wrapped the blanket around her tightly, and pondered sadly over the fact that yet another person in her life could now have very little to do with her.
* * *
A few days later Alice met Rosina at Marazion marketplace. Alice had been enjoying herself buying from the stalls. The previous night Clem had taken part in a smuggling run with Matthew King and Samuel Drannock, bringing in goods under canvas into Perranbarvah, and had given her the few shillings he had earned. She knew at once what she wanted to spend the money on, clothes for her baby, and had been set on buying them herself. She had nagged Florrie Trenchard, who had tried to insist she ought to stay at home with her feet up, until her mother-in-law had agreed on her going to market with Morley if she promised to be quick around the stalls and back to the farm cart.
Alice greeted Rosina with an affectionate hug and looked her up and down. ‘Well, you’re looking better than I’ve ever seen you, I’m glad to say,’ she said, cutting through the noise of the hawkers, the animal grunts and squawks, and two middle-aged women with the look of tradesmen’s wives who were arguing close by over their right to purchase a length of fine quality white lawn. Alice took pleasure in Rosina’s happy shining face and her elegant but simple new clothes and shoes.
Pengarron Land Page 42
