A Strange Affair

by Rosemary Smith

  The beautiful music of Chopin filled the room and I felt vibrant and alive as I caressed the cream-coloured keys. I must have played for half-an-hour and could see that my husband, Derrick and Justine were enraptured by my performance, but Miss Templeton wore a scowl on her face once more as she tried to distract Kieran from my playing, but my husband would have none of it and stayed focused on me and my music the whole time, a look of pleasure on his handsome face.

  I finished the piece with a flourish and bowed as they all clapped in unison, all except Kerensa who fidgeted and tried once more to hold Kieran’s arm. I felt that this at last was my triumph over her and she was probably wishing she had not asked me to play, but my triumph was not to last.

  Leaving the others in the drawing-room I went back to my room, noting how the candles cast a golden light along the corridor and looking out through one of the long arched windows I could see the scene outside was not so sparkling white even though the moon shone down on it.

  Reaching my room and swiftly walking over to the connecting door, I locked it. I had a sudden hesitation for after the look on Kieran’s face as I played Chopin I had a sudden indecision as to whether I really wanted to lock him out.

  I was drifting off to sleep and wondering where Megan was when I heard footsteps in the hallway, they stopped and I heard a door quietly open. I felt sure it was Kieran and walked quietly to my door and out into the corridor along to my husband’s room. As I reached it I could see the door was ajar and as I looked through the opening to my astonishment I could see Kerensa silhouetted in the moonlight.

  As I watched, Kerensa sat on the bed and ran her hand lightly over the cover and pillows, as if in a caress. She then got up, walking gracefully over to the window and looking down on to the scene below, her lovely hair shining in the light from the moon. I wondered what her thoughts were as she stood there. Of unrequited love maybe, I mused.

  As she went to turn back to the door I left as silently as I could and as I reached my room I heard the click of the door as Kerensa shut it.

  As I lay in bed that night, a cloak of darkness surrounding me I mulled over the day’s events. I heard the handle to the connecting door being turned in vain, but it did not bother me for both my doors were locked. Or did it bother me? No matter how cool Kieran had been with me since our arrival at the castle I was still desperately in love with him.

  4

  Three days passed and the snow disappeared, leaving behind an unfamiliar landscape. Sitting by the drawing room window stitching my sampler I could see two sweeping lawns, one each side of a narrow path led down to the surrounding wall of the castle.

  Observing the mountains beyond, the peaks of which were still covered with snow, Justine’s voice interrupted my thoughts, ‘I thought I may find you here,’ she said as she came across and looked down at my work. ‘You’ve nearly completed it,’ she said. I’d worked the sampler of linen with coloured silks for some time, the theme was the academy where I taught, surrounded by birds, trees and flowers.

  A simple enough scene, so much so that a child of twelve could have done it, but embroidery was not one of my strong points. Justine had interrupted me as I stitched my name, Barbara Thorpe in red silk at the bottom, but of course my name was Alexander now I mused although I felt no different. ‘You found the workbox,’ observed Justine, indicating the wooden box on the floor at my feet.

  ‘Yes, I found it, but it’s not your mother’s,’ I told her.

  ‘What makes you say that, Barbara?’ Justine said, obviously quite taken aback by my words.

  ‘Because Annabel’s name is inside the lid,’ I explained, lifting the workbox on to my lap and opening the lid for her to see.

  ‘My mother’s name was Annabel,’ she told me in a voice which was barely a whisper. My heart thudded in my chest as I realised what an awful mistake I had made.

  ‘I’m so sorry,’ I said placing the workbox and my sampler on the chair as I went over to put an arm around Justine’s shoulders for I could see she was upset. ‘I understood Annabel to be Kieran’s first wife.’

  ‘She was, but it was also our mother’s name,’ she explained. ‘That’s why we thought it such a coincidence that Kieran should marry our mother’s namesake.’

  ‘I’m truly repentant, believe me,’ I assured her.

  ‘You weren’t to know,’ she told me gently, ‘You’ve heard snippets of conversation from the servants no doubt and just haven’t pieced it together very well.’

  ‘No indeed I haven’t,’ I said sheepishly. ‘I wouldn’t normally make a judgment before holding the true facts in my hand. But Kieran has told me so little and in truth been so distant since we arrived here, I have pieced things together as you say and not made a very good task of it.’

  ‘No matter,’ said Justine in her normal voice, ‘I’ve come to say that if you are agreeable we will visit Mrs Harding the dressmaker today.’

  ‘That would be totally acceptable to me,’ I agreed.

  ‘Then shall we say ten o’clock? I will organise the carriage,’ Justine told me as she walked to the drawing room door. Turning back her departing words were, ‘Please give Kieran a chance for he has never got over the loss of his mother, nor his first wife.’

  Justine left me wondering how the first Annabel departed this life and also my sister-in-law obviously had no notion of the liaison between her brother and his father’s ward, and if she did she chose to ignore it. Or was I over-reacting?

  Leaving my sampler and workbox on the chair, I made my way to my room to change into the wine-coloured velvet for my outing with Justine. As I reached the door of my husband’s bedroom, he stepped into the corridor.

  ‘Barbara,’ he greeted me in an affable manner and, as I looked past him into his room beyond, I thought of the evening I had seen Kerensa silhouetted in the moonlight.

  ‘Sir,’ I returned in not so agreeable a manner.

  ‘I wished to seek you out,’ he continued, ‘for I wish to show you Rowan Falls, a favourite beauty spot of mine. Do you ride?’ he then asked and my heart somersaulted, here was another pursuit which Kerensa no doubt excelled in, and a pursuit that I had never had a chance to master.

  ‘Sadly no,’ I told him expecting a rebuffle. But his next words surprised me.

  ‘Then I shall teach you, but in the meantime you will ride bareback behind me on my horse, Lancelot.’ At his words I felt totally apprehensive.

  ‘Very well.’ And why I had agreed so amicably I couldn’t honestly say, except to be with him alone again would bring joy to my heart.

  ‘Tomorrow then, about 10.30,’ Kieran suggested and as I watched his impressive figure striding down the corridor I could barely believe that this encounter had gone so well.

  Duly attired with Megan’s help, Justine and I set off to Llanberis in the carriage. Sitting once more on the plush red velvet seat of the carriage, Justine opposite me, dressed today in a cornflower blue outfit which suited her fair colouring admirably, I thought of my journey from Shrewsbury in the blizzard and the events that had happened in the short space of time I’d been at Rowan Castle.

  We travelled through impressive mountainous countryside once more and Justine pointed out Mount Snowdon, the highest of mountains which I gazed at, in awe of the snow covered peak. As we climbed up through the pass I was exuberant at the changing scenery, from green grass to huge boulders of slate, which had at some time fallen to the ground beneath and lay in confusion at the feet of the mountains.

  We left the mountains behind and travelled along a road lined with cottages opposite a pleasant lake and came to a halt outside a nicely cream painted double-fronted building with large windows either side of the dark blue front door. As Justine pulled the bell it was no time before the door opened to reveal Mrs Harding herself, a dour thin middle-aged woman who in view of the expensive gowns she made was dressed very plainly in brown which boasted a delightful cream lace collar.

  ‘I’m pleased to meet you, Mrs Alexander,’ the dre
ssmaker said in a friendly manner as Justine introduced me. My sister-in-law and I looked through bales of beautifully-coloured material, from silks to velvet. I chose enough for four day dresses and four evening gowns in different shades from pale lemon to cornflower blue. I’d spotted a beautiful turquoise-coloured silk which I was drawn to.

  ‘Your ballgown would be admirable in this,’ Justine told me as Mrs Harding agreed.

  ‘It is a glorious colour,’ I said. ‘Yes. If you could please make a gown in the turquoise I’d be most pleased.’

  As Justine and I travelled back to Rowan Castle through the mountains, I thought that to wear such a beautiful gown to the ball would compensate and more for the sad state of my marriage.

  As we swept up the long drive I marvelled once more at the size of the sandy red castle which I was now mistress of.

  ‘Is the whole of the castle in use?’ I asked Justine.

  ‘No, the wing on the left which is where our father and mother’s quarters were is now uninhabited. In truth, my mother’s room is as she left it,’ she said wistfully. And as we came to a halt at the foot of the curving stone steps I wondered what Justine had meant when she spoke the words, ‘As my mother left it.’ I took it to mean her mother’s passing from this world to the next and thought no more of it until some time later.

  We could see another carriage pulled in farther along the front of the castle, a plain black one, not half as magnificent as the one we had travelled in today. ‘I wonder who that is,’ Justine said, and as we entered the vast hallway, the fire burning in the grate, we were to find out when Mrs Burnet came running towards us.

  ‘Mistress, Miss, thank the Lord you are home, the authorities are in the drawing room with the master,’ she said breathlessly.

  ‘And why is that?’ said Justine, already removing her gloves and bonnet and patting her blonde curls into place.

  ‘It would seem, Miss, they’ve found mistress Annabel,’ Peggy Burnet informed us, reaching for the lace hanky in her pocket and dabbing her eyes with it.

  ‘Thank you, Mrs Burnet, you may leave us. Quickly Barbara,’ she said to me, ‘remove your bonnet. You needn’t come into the drawing room if you don’t wish to,’ she said as an afterthought.

  ‘No, I will come with you for I have as much right as anyone to know what is happening,’ I told her, removing my bonnet and all the while wondering what implication the finding of Kieran’s first wife had on our marriage.

  As we entered the drawing room I could see two men, both strangers and middle-aged standing by the cream settle, their top hats under their arms. Kieran and Derrick sat on the settle facing the door, my husband’s face was visibly drained of colour, while his brother looked as calm as always. Both brothers indicated for Justine and I to sit opposite them.

  ‘This is my wife, Barbara,’ my husband introduced me to the two strangers, ‘and our sister, Justine.’

  ‘How do you do,’ said both men in unison.

  ‘Is it true Kieran what our housekeeper has just told us?’ asked Justine, looking at her two brothers and the two official looking men for an answer.

  ‘Mr Johnson here will tell you both,’ said Kieran in his measured voice, reminding me of our wedding day.

  ‘I’m sorry to tell you ladies, but the body of a young woman was found this morning by a young farmer in his stretch of the river farther down at Nant Peris. As we have only one reported missing person on our list in the area being that of the young Mrs Annabel Alexander, who tragically, so it seems, fell into the river beneath Rowan Falls in early July last year, we are following this line of enquiry first,’ explained Mr Johnson admirably, causing me to wonder how Kieran could possibly marry me so soon after this tragic accident.

  Getting to my feet and walking over to look out of the window, noting my sampler and the workbox still on the chair I had sat in only this morning when there had been some air of normality in this room.

  ‘I know this must be distressing for you,’ said Derrick’s voice as he came over to me and placed a gentle hand on my shoulder, but today I was more worried about Kieran. Any other time I would have found solace in Derrick’s gesture. ‘So what is to happen now?’ I asked, walking over to the two men and looking at my husband.

  ‘I’m afraid, Mr Alexander will need to accompany us to the mortuary to identify his wife’s body, which will be difficult after a space of six months, but the young woman’s clothes should give a clue,’ said Mr Johnson, the other stranger remaining silent.

  ‘Can you remember what your wife was wearing on the day of the accident, Mr Alexander?’

  ‘Yes, I can Sir, vividly,’ said Kieran, rising from his seat and coming over to my side and placing an arm around my shoulder just as Kerensa Templeton burst through the door. My husband and I both turned our heads to look at her.

  ‘What is amiss?’ she said, taking in the scene of Kieran and I close together and I smiled to myself for I felt a victory over her once more. ‘Am I to understand that the downtrodden Annabel has been found?’ she said disrespectfully.

  At her words Kieran squeezed my shoulder and released me, walking over to Kerensa he said in a menacing voice, ‘If you have nothing but insults to bandy about then please leave the room.’

  ‘But darling,’ Kerensa began, but Kieran interrupted her once more.

  ‘Derrick, please escort Kerensa from the room. I am in no mood for her today.’ As Derrick did as he was bid the lovely young woman cast a disdainful look in my direction and swept out of the room, the skirts of her beautiful pale green dress catching in the door as Derrick went to close it.

  ‘You imbecile!’ she berated him and as she disappeared out of the door into the hallway I smiled a secret smile.

  ‘I apologise for that ill-mannered interruption,’ apologised my husband, ‘now back to where we were,’ he continued. ‘You asked about Annabel’s clothing. If my memory serves me correctly she wore a lilac coloured dress and cloak, the colour which suited her best.’

  ‘Then,’ said Mr Johnson, ‘if you could accompany us now before the light starts to fade I’d be grateful.’

  ‘I’ll come with you,’ offered Justine, who had not spoken at all during the conversation.

  ‘No,’ I said, stopping her as she made to rise from the settle. ‘I shall go, for as Kieran’s wife I feel it is my duty.’ The first duty I will have performed for him I thought, other than marrying him was my notion and I couldn’t understand why I had so willingly offered to go.

  As we walked into the hallway and Justine helped me to arrange my bonnet, I could see Kerensa standing next to Derrick, an unbecoming scowl on her face once more. She went to say something but Derrick caught hold of her arm. She almost spat at him as loosening his grip she ran over to Kieran.

  ‘Where are they taking you? Please allow me to come with you, please,’ she pleaded, but to no avail as Kieran removed her from him and dramatically she started weeping.

  It’s all right, Kerensa,’ I told her, ‘I shall accompany my husband, for that is what wives do.’ At my words she fled over to Derrick and collapsed in his arms. As we went to walk out of the front doors I turned back and noticed Derrick kiss the top of her beautiful head. So, I thought, she is now going to captivate the younger brother.

  As we travelled back along the road to Llanberis, Kieran sat next to me, a hand over mine. I wondered if this were to show unity in front of the two officers and I didn’t honestly know if I preferred this to be the case or not. I was confused at my feelings, but not so confused as I was to be later that day.

  The journey proved to be most uncomfortable, and by the time we reached the small building where the young woman’s body lay I was quite nauseous.

  I felt some sympathy for my husband as he left me where I sat in a small room to go and identify Annabel’s body, if indeed it was she. When he re-emerged his face was ashen.

  ‘Was it her?’ I asked.

  ‘The clothes were certainly the ones she wore. Oh my God, what have I done?’ A
nd he held his head in his hands. ‘I’ve been so foolish.’

  ‘What do you mean, Kieran,’ I asked of him, feeling quite perplexed at his words.

  ‘Nothing,’ he replied, sitting up straight once more.

  ‘And how has it taken so long for the poor young woman to surface?’ I asked of Mr Johnson.

  ‘The body had probably got caught on a bush down river, and with the swelling of the water due to the melting snow I suspect the remains of Mrs Alexander got disentangled and moved farther down-stream. We don’t suspect foul play so you are free to go, Sir,’ he said addressing Kieran.

  ‘There’s one more thing Mr Johnson has to say to you,’ said my husband quietly, and looking at the officer he said, ‘Please proceed and tell Barbara what you told me.’

  ‘Tell me what?’ I asked of them, turning my wedding ring round and round on my finger.

  ‘I’m sorry to have to tell you young woman, but as you and Mr Alexander wed before the first Mrs Alexander had been found, that your marriage may be null and void. In other words not legally valid.’

  I looked at Kieran whose blue eyes reflected sadness.

  5

  Kieran and I travelled back in the coach in silence. When we entered the hall of Rowan Castle, Justine came across to us, an anxious look on her face.

  ‘Was it Annabel, brother?’ Were her first words.

  ‘It was indeed, now, please organise some tea,’ Kieran told her and I felt some sympathy for Justine at Kieran’s words for she was obviously upset.

  As Justine went off to the kitchen to do as he bid, Kieran turned his attention to me. ‘I need to talk to you, Barbara. The morning-room would probably be the best place.’

  ‘I agree, Sir,’ I replied following him out of the hall and along the familiar corridor which brought to mind the evening I had seen Kieran with Kerensa in the hall and by the time we entered the morning room I could not contain myself.

  ‘How fortuitous, Sir,’ I said facing him, ‘that we had not shared a room.’