There was a woman, I believe. Jealousy and all that. “
“I know you keep newspaper cuttings, Mr. Dolland. Do you have any of that case?”
“Oh, it’s only theatre things he cuts out,” said Mrs. Harlow.
“This play and that… and what actor and actress. That’s right, ain’t it, Mr. Dolland?”
“Yes,” replied Mr. Dolland.
“That’s what I keep. What did you want to know about the case, Miss Rosetta?”
“Oh … I just wondered if you kept cuttings, that’s all. I knew you had albums . you see, it was just before I went away . ” I trailed off.
Glances passed between them.
“Oh, I reckon that’s all done with now,” said Mrs. Harlow, as though soothing a child.
“The police never close a case,” added Mr. Dolland.
“Not till they’ve found the murderer and it’s settled and done with. They keep it on their files, as they say. One of these days they’ll catch up with him.
He’ll make a false step. Perhaps only one is needed, and then hey presto . they’ve got him. “
“They do say,” said Mrs. Harlow, ‘that murderers can never resist coming back to the scene of the crime. That’s what this Simon whatever-his-name-is will do one of these days. You can bet your life on it. “
Would he ever come back? I wondered.
What could I do? I had only this wild dream that I should prove his innocence and then he could come back without fear. He would know freedom again and we should be together.
Several weeks had passed. After living in perpetual fear and apprehension, the predictably peaceful days seemed to go on interminably.
Aunt Maud tried to interest me in household matters-all the things which it was good for a girl to know. She believed firmly that it was her duty to do what my parents had failed to: prepare me for my marriage. I must learn how to deal with servants. My manner towards them left much to be desired. It was necessary, of course, to maintain a certain friendliness but it should be aloof. I was too familiar and it encouraged them to be so with me. One could not blame them. What I needed was a mixture of indiscernible condescension, amiability without familiarity, so that, however friendly one felt towards them, the line between up-and downstairs was never allowed to slip. She did not blame me. Others were responsible. But there was no reason why I should continue in this unsatisfactory strain. I must first of all learn how to deal with servants. I should listen to her, Aunt Maud, ordering the meals; I might be present on one or two occasions when she paid her daily visit to the kitchen. I must try to improve my needlework and practise more on the pianoforte. She hinted at music lessons. Soon, she told me she would launch her scheme, for bringing people to the house.
I wrote to Felicity.
“Please, Felicity, I want to get away. If you could invite me … soon.”
There was an immediate reply.
“Come when you can. Oxford and the Graftons await you.”
“I am going to stay awhile with Felicity,” I told Aunt Maud.
She smiled smugly. With Felicity I should meet young men . the right sort of young men. It did not matter from which spot the scheme was launched. Operation Marriage could begin just as well in Oxford as in Bloomsbury.
To arrive in Oxford was an exciting experience. I had always loved what little I had seen of it. that most romantic of cities standing where the Cherwell and the Thames Isis here meet, its towers and spires reaching to the sky, its air of indifference to the workaday world. I loved the city, but what was most pleasant was to be with Felicity.
The Graftons had a house near Broad Street close to Balliol, Trinity and Exeter Colleges, not far from the spot where the martyrs Ridley and Latimer were burned to death for their religious opinions. The past was all around one and I found peace from Aunt Maud’s efficiency and the far from subtle care which everyone in the house seemed determined to bestow upon me.
With Felicity it was different. She understood me better than the others. She knew that there were secrets which I could not bring myself to discuss. Perhaps she thought I should one day. In any case she was perceptive enough to know that she must wait for me to do so and make no attempt to prise them from me.
James was tactful and charming and the children provided a great diversion. Jamie chattered quite a lot; he showed me his picture-books and proudly pointed out a pussycat and a train. Flora regarded me suspiciously for a while, but eventually decided that I was harmless and condescended to sit on my lap.
The day after I arrived Felicity said: “When I knew you were coming I wrote to Lucas Lorimer. I said how delighted we should be if he came for a visit and I guessed you and he might have something to talk about.”
“Has he accepted?” I asked. ^ “Not yet. When I saw him before, he clearly did not want to talk of his adventures. It may be that he will be afraid it will bring it all back too painfully.”
“I should like to see him.”
“I know. That’s why I asked him.”
All that day I thought of his being taken ashore to board the corsairs’ galley and that moment on the island when they had seemed to hesitate whether to take him or not. I had seen very little of him after that.
What had happened to him? How had he got away when Simon and I had been sold into slavery? Yet he . maimed as he was. had eluded his captors as we had been unable to.
There was so much I wanted to ask him.
The next day we were at breakfast when the mail was brought in.
Felicity seized on a letter, opened it, read it, smiled and looked up waving it.
“It’s from Lucas,” she said.
“He’s coming tomorrow. I’m so glad. I thought he would want to see you. Aren’t you pleased, Rosetta?”
“Yes. I am delighted.”
She looked at me anxiously.
“I dare say it will be a little upsetting, perhaps …”
“I don’t know. We’re both safe now.”
“Yes, but what an experience! Yet I am sure it is better for you both to meet and talk openly. It doesn’t do to bottle these things up.”
“I shall look forward so much to seeing him.”
Felicity sent the carriage to the station to meet him. James went with it. We had debated whether we should both go too, but we finally decided it would be better for us to wait at the house.
My first sight of him shocked me deeply. I had, of course, seen him in worse condition; on the island, for instance, and when we had dragged him into the lifeboat, but I was contrasting him with the man whom I had first met. There were shadows under his eyes and that certain cynical sparkle was replaced by a look of hopelessness. The flesh had fallen away from his features, which gave him a gaunt look. The tolerant amusement with which he had appeared to look out on the world had disappeared. He looked weary and disillusioned.
Our meeting was an emotional one. His expression changed when he saw me. He smiled and came towards me, leaning on his stick. He held out his free hand and took mine. He held it for some time, looking intently at me.
“Rosetta,” he said, and his lips twitched a little. The obvious emotion he felt made him look different again . defenceless in a way. I had never seen him look like that before. I knew he was remembering, as I was the island where Simon and I had left him to watch while we had gone off together, the arrival of the corsairs, those days we had spent in the open boat.
“Oh, Lucas,” I said.
“It is good to see you here … safe.”
There was a short silence while we continued to gaze at each other, almost as though we could not believe that we were real.
Felicity said softly: “I know you two will have lots to say to each other. First … let’s show Lucas his room, shall we?”
She was right. There was a great deal to talk about. The first evening was something of a strain. James and Felicity were the perfect host and hostess, full of understanding, skating over awkward pauses with skill and ease.
F
elicity was the soul of tact. She knew that there would be things of which we would want to talk to no one but each other and only then when we were ready, and the following day James went off to his college, and she told us that she had an engagement which she must fulfill.
“Do forgive me,” she said.
“I’ll have to leave you two to entertain each other this afternoon.”
There was a pleasant part of the garden, walled in with mellow red bricks with a pond in the centre-the Tudor-type of intimate small garden within a garden. The roses were in bloom and I suggested that I show them to Lucas.
It was a mild afternoon, pleasantly warm without being too hot and we made our necessarily rather slow progress there. There was a stillness in the air and within the walls of that garden we might have stepped back two or three centuries in time.
“Let’s sit here,” I said.
“The pond is so pretty and it is so peaceful.”
There was silence and I went on: “We’d better talk about it, Lucas. We both want to, don’t we?”
“Yes,” he agreed.
“It’s uppermost in our minds.”
“Does it seem to you like a dream?” I asked.
“No,” he said sharply.
“Stark reality. I have a perpetual reminder.
Here I am now . like this. “
“I’m sorry. We didn’t know how to set it… and we had nothing that would help us.”
“My dear girl,” he said almost angrily.
“I’m not blaming you … only life … fate … or whatever you like to call it. Don’t you see? I have to spend the rest of my life … like this.”
“But at least you are here … at least you are alive.”
He shrugged his shoulders.
“Do you think that is a matter for great rejoicing?”
“For some at any rate. Your friends … your family. You are lame and I know there is pain now and then … but so much worse might have happened to you.”
“You are right to chide me. I am selfish, disgruntled and ungrateful.”
“Oh no, no. Do you think … it is possible … that something may be done?”
“What?”
“Well, they are very clever nowadays. There have been all sorts of medical discoveries …”
“My bone was broken. It was not set. It is too late to do anything about it now.”
“Oh, Lucas, I’m so sorry. If only we could have done something … how different it would have been.”
“You did a great deal and I’m a selfish creature thinking of my own misfortunes. I just cannot bear to contemplate what happened to you.”
“But I escaped. My fears were only in the mind.”
He wanted to know in detail what had happened, so I told him of my friendship with Nicole and how she had given me the drug and saved me from the Pasha’s attentions, and how the drug had been supplied by the Chief Eunuch who was a great friend of hers. He listened intently.
“Thank God,” he said.
“That could have scarred you as deeply as I have been … perhaps more so. And what happened to that man … John Player?”
It seemed as though the silence went on for a long time. I heard the buzz of a bee, and the high-pitched note of a grasshopper. Be careful, I was telling myself. You could so easily betray him. Remember it is not only your secret. It is yours and Simon’s.
I heard myself say: “He … he was sold to the same Pasha.”
“Poor devil. I can guess what his fate would be. He was a strange man.
I always had an odd feeling about him. “
“What sort of feeling?” I asked apprehensively.
“I felt that things were not all they seemed. Now and then I had a fancy that I had seen him before somewhere. Then sometimes he seemed as though he were hiding something.”
“What do you mean? What could he have been hiding?”
“Anything. I’ve no idea. That was just the impression he gave. He wasn’t the sort of man you’d expect to find swabbing the decks, was he? He was very resourceful, I | must say.”
“I think we could both say that we owed our lives to him.”
“And you are right. I wish I knew what had happened to him.”
“A great many men were employed in the gardens. He was big and strong”
“He would have fetched a fair price, I dare say.”
There was silence again. I was afraid to speak lest I<| should betray something. He went on musingly: “How; strange that we were all on that island together . never knowing whether we should be found before we died ofe starvation. ”
” How did you manage to get home, Lucas? “
“Well, I’m a wily old bird, you know.” He smiled, when he did so he was the man I had known when I met him.
“I seized my opportunities. I had a smattering their language, I found. It helped a lot. I had picked up few words when I was travelling round the world sock years ago. It is amazing how being able to communicai helps. I offered them money . for the three of us. I said that in my own country I was a very rich man. They believed me because they knew I had travelled a good deal. They wouldn’t consider releasing you or Player. You were too valuable. I was not. Being crippled, I was useless. “
“You see, there is some advantage in everything.”
“There have been times when I wished they had thrown me overboard.”
“You must not say that. It is accepting defeat no, welcoming it.
That is not the way to live. “
“You are right, of course. Oh, it is good to be with you, Rosetta. I remember how resourceful you were when we were on the island. I owe a lot to you.”
“But most to …”
“To that man Player. Well, he was a sort of leader, wasn’t he? He was cut out for the part … and it fell to him. He played it well, I’ll admit. And I was the impediment. I was the one who slowed down the progress.”
“You did nothing of the sort. How could you have done on the island?
Tell me the rest. “
“When I saw that I could not save you and nothing would make those men part with you and Player, I concentrated on my own case. They were more amenable in that direction. What price could they get for me? A man in my state? Nothing. I told them that if they would let me go, I would send them a valuable jewel. If they tried to sell me they would get nothing, for who would want a man who can’t even walk without a stick? If they threw me overboard that would be equally unproductive.
But if they took my offer of the jewel, then they would at least have something for their pains. “
“So … they agreed to let you go for the promise of a jewel?”
“It was simple logic really. They had two alternatives. Throw me overboard or despatch me in some other way and lose everything, or take a chance that I would keep my word and send the jewel. It would occur to them as it would to any -that I might not keep my side of the bargain. And if I did not, well, they might just as well throw me overboard. The wise thing, of course, would be to take a chance, for at least if they did there could be a hope of getting something. So . I was dropped at Athens a street or so away from the British Embassy. The rest was simple.
My family were informed and I was on the way home. “
“And the jewel?”
“I kept my word. It was a ring which belonged to my mother … really one of the family jewels, you might say. They were divided between my brother and myself. It had been my mother’s engagement ring and my father’s mother’s before her. If I had become engaged it would have been my fiancee’s.”
“Of course, you need not have sent it.”
“No. But those people have long memories. I did not want to spend the rest of my life wondering if fate would throw me in their way again.
Moreover, suppose some other poor devil was caught by them and tried my tactics? Once deceived, they might not have given the chance again.
Then again, the ring would probably have lain idle for a very long tim
e. It is not likely that anyone would want to marry me . in my condition. “
“Did you take it yourself and where to?”
“They had arranged where it should be taken. There was an old inn on the Italian coast. I was warned not to swerve from the instructions.
It was to be taken to this inn-I think it was one frequented by smugglers, and there it would be collected. I did not go myself. I was scarcely in a fit state and they recognized that. I told them who would bring it. It was Dick Duvane. He was my batman during my spell in the Army. When I came out, so did he, and we have been together ever since. He’s a valet . confidant . and frequently fellow-traveller. He’s not just a servant. He’s one
of the best friends I ever had. I don’t know what I’d do without him.
I trust him absolutely. “
“I’m glad you got away, Lucas.”
“I suppose I am myself … only …”
“I know. I do understand.”
We fell into silence. We were still in the garden when Felicity came out to find us.
That visit to Oxford was of considerable help to me. Lucas’s logical outlook on life bitter though it was brought me down to Earth.
What could I do? How could I prove Simon’s innocence? I was not even on the spot. I knew nothing of the family at Perrivale Court except what I had gathered from Simon and had read in the newspapers at the time of the murder. If only I could find some means of meeting them, of going to Perrivale Court! What hope was there? I thought of Lucas.
What if I asked his help? He was resourceful. The manner in which he had extricated himself from a dangerous situation showed that. He was not very far from Perrivale Court; he was not on terms of friendship or even casual acquaintance with the family, although he had once, long ago, visited the place with his father. I wished I could have discussed Simon with him, perhaps enlisted his help. Dare I? I wondered. But I could not be sure what his reaction would be.
I felt as helpless as ever but that visit did cheer me a little. He left Oxford the day before I did. When he said goodbye he looked forlorn and rather vulnerable and I felt a great desire to comfort him. I thought at one stage that he was going to make a suggestion for a further meeting, but he did not.
The Captive Page 17
