“You came, then,” she said.
“I didn’t think you would, and then I did . because you wouldn’t have said you’d come if you didn’t mean to, would you?”
“Of course not.”
“A lot of people say they’ll do things and don’t.”
“I’m not one of those.”
She sat on the bed.
“Horrible old room, isn’t it?”
“I think it’s pleasant.”
“I suppose as a governess you haven’t been used to much.”
“In my home in London I have a very pleasant room.”
“Why didn’t you stay in it, then?”
“You are not very well-mannered, are you?”
“Oh no. Actually, I’m very ill-mannered.”
“Well, at least you are aware of it… which is a point in your favour. But as you appear to take a pride in it, that’s one against you.”
She laughed.
“You are funny,” she said.
“I do and say what I like.”
“I had gathered that.”
“And nobody’s going to change me.”
“Then you’ll have to do the job yourself, won’t you?”
She looked at me curiously and I went on: “And would you mind getting off my bed? I want to sort out my things.”
To my surprise she moved and stood watching me.
“Is that all you’ve got?”
“Yes.”
“It’s not much, is it? I suppose you think you’re going to marry the master of the house, like Jane Eyre. Well, you can’t, because he’s married already … to my mother.”
I raised my eyebrows.
“Don’t look so surprised,” she said.
“It’s what a lot of governesses think.”
“I was expressing surprise at your erudition.”
“What’s that?”
“In your case, a certain knowledge of literature.”
“Did you think I didn’t know anything?”
“I gathered you had difficulties with your governesses.”
“I like reading books about people. I like it when awful things happen to them.”
“I’m not surprised at that.”
She laughed.
“What do you think you’re going to teach me?”
“We shall do some history, English literature … grammar, too, and of course mathematics.”
She grimaced.
“I shan’t do what I don’t like.”
“We’ll have to see about that.”
“You are like a governess sometimes.”
“I’m glad you recognize that.”
“I like the way you talk. It makes me laugh.”
“I think you must be rather easily amused.”
“You’re not like Miss Evans. She was ever so silly. Right from the first she was just frightened all the time.”
“By you?”
“Of course.”
“And you took advantage of your position.”
“What do you mean?”
“She was trying to do her work and you did all you could to prevent her. You made her so miserable that she had to leave.”
“I didn’t want her here. She was a bore. I don’t think you’re going to be a bore. I wonder how long you’ll stay.”
“As long as it suits me, I imagine.”
She smiled secretly. Clearly she was planning her campaign.
Oddly enough, I found her stimulating and I was quite enjoying our verbal battles. She went with me to the schoolroom and I inspected the books that were in the cupboard. It was well stocked. There was a blackboard, several exercise books, slates and pencils.
“I shall have to ask you to show me some of your previous work,” I said.
She grimaced.
“When?” she asked.
“There is no time like the present.”
She hesitated and seemed poised for flight. I wondered what I should do if she refused to stay with me. I knew she was quite capable of that and deeply I pitied my predecessors whose ability to earn a living rested on the whims of this creature.
I wanted to stay for as long as it was necessary, but at least my living did not depend upon it.
At the moment, however, she was mildly intrigued by me and she decided to cooperate; we had an interesting half an hour when I discovered that she was not as ignorant as I had feared she might be; in fact she was exceptionally bright. She had read a great deal which was a help.
In that, at least, we had something in common.
During the first day I learned a little about the household. There were three estate managers, Mrs. Ford told me.
“Be cause ever since .. you know what. Miss Cranleigh, we don’t talk about… You see, Mr. Cosmo had gone and so had Mr. Simon. There’d been three of them and now there was only Sir Tristan left. Well, it was too much for him.
There’d always been one agent, even . before . and afterwards, there were two more. Perrivale’s a big estate . the biggest round here. Of course, it’s all different since . that happened . and Sir Edward being gone . “
During that first day I had a glimpse of Tristan and from the moment I saw him I began to suspect that he knew something of what had really happened in the old farm house.
He looked the part of the stage villain. He was very dark:
his hair was smooth and shiny, so sleek that it looked like a black cap, particularly as it came to a point in the middle of his forehead, which gave him a rather mysterious and sinister appearance.
Our meeting was brief. Kate had taken me out to show me the gardens and I met him coming with Lady Perrivale from the stables. She looked beautiful in a dark blue riding habit, with top hat in the same colour. Her hair looked brilliant under the darkish hat.
She said: “Oh, Tristan, this is Miss Cranleigh, the new governess.”
He took off his hat and bowed in a very courtly manner.
“She and Kate are getting along so well together,” said Lady Perrivale, with more optimism than proof.
“I’ve shown her the schoolroom,” said Kate.
“And now I’m showing her the gardens.”
“That’s very good,” said Lady Perrivale.
“Welcome to Perrivale,” put in Sir Tristan.
“I hope your stay with us will be a long and happy one.”
I saw Kate smirk and I wondered what she was planning for my discomfort.
And there and then I, illogically, assigned to Tristan the role of murderer, telling myself that I might not have any evidence against him, but my conclusions were due to my sixth sense.
I was very thoughtful as I examined the gardens. Kate had noticed this. I was beginning to realize that there was little she missed.
“You didn’t like Stepper,” she said.
“Who?”
“My stepfather. I call him Stepper. He doesn’t like it much. Nor does my mother.”
“I suppose that is why you do it.”
Again that hunching of the shoulders, the grimace, as she laughed.
“I always give people names,” she said.
“You’re Cranny.”
“I’m not sure that I approve of that.”
“You don’t have to approve. People have no choice when it comes to names. They have to have what’s given them. Look at me, Kate. Who wants to be Kate? I should have liked to be Angelica.”
“That would make people think of angels,” I reminded her.
“Hardly apt in your case.”
She was laughing again. There was quite a lot of laughter that morning.
I said to her: “We’ll start lessons tomorrow morning at nine-thirty and we shall finish at twelve noon.”
“Miss Evans started at ten.”
“We shall start at nine-thirty.”
Again that grimace, but it was still good-tempered.
I really thought we were getting on much better than I had thought we should. She seemed interested in me. I wondered whether I
should be able to get her to work at her lessons.
I was soon to have a rude awakening.
It was understandable that on my first night at Perrivale Court I should find that sleep evaded me. The events of the day kept crowding into my head. Here I was at last, in Simon’s home, almost at the scene of the crime, one might say; and I was dedicated to the monumental task of proving his innocence. I felt greatly comforted by the thought of Lucas to whom I could turn at any time. I was touched that he had offered to marry me. I had been truly amazed. I had never thought of him in such connection, or only vaguely when Aunt Maud had had that speculative look in her eyes when she knew I had met him at Felicity’s home.
I was turning over in my mind how I should begin my research. This was what would be called a wild goose chase and it was only because of the fantastic adventures through which I had passed that I could
contemplate embarking In the meantime I had to cope with Kate. Quite a task in itself. The beginning had been easier than I had thought it would be, but that was merely because I had managed to make her mildly interested in me. I could visualize her quickly becoming bored and then the campaign against me would begin. I hoped she would not make my life intolerable before I had made some progress in my search.
I must learn something about Cosmo, who had been engaged to marry the fascinating Mirabel who had become a definite personality to me. I was getting my cast together. Simon, I knew well; I had glimpsed Tristan.
How enamoured had Simon been of Mirabel? Having seen her I could imagine how attractive she would be to most men.
I must have dozed, for I was awakened suddenly by a sound outside my door. I opened my eyes and saw the door handle slowly turning. The door was silently pushed open and a figure glided into the room. It was covered with a sheet and I knew at once who was under that sheet.
She stood by the door and said in a sibilant whisper: “Go away. Go away … while there is still time. No good can come to you here.”
I pretended to sleep on. She came closer to the bed. My eyes were half closed and when she came near enough, I caught the sheet and pulled it off.
“Hello, ghost,” I said.
She looked deflated.
“It was a poor impersonation,” I added.
“And a sheet… obviously a sheet. Couldn’t you have done better than that?”
“You were pretending to be asleep. It wasn’t fair.”
“You were pretending to be a ghost and all’s fair in love and war, and war is what this is, isn’t it… since it certainly isn’t love.”
“You were scared.”
“I wasn’t.”
“Just for a minute?” she said almost pleadingly.
“Not for a second. You could have done better than that.
In the first place, if you planned to stage a haunting, it wasn’t very clever to talk so much about ghosts when we first met. You see, you put me on my guard. I said, “This girl fancies herself as a governess-baiter.”
“A what!” she cried.
“You see, you have such a limited vocabulary. I’m not surprised, as you won’t learn. You like taunting governesses because in comparison with them you feel ignorant. You think that for a moment they are in a weak position and you are in a strong one. That’s rather cowardly, of course, but people who are unsure of themselves do things like that.”
“I frightened Miss Evans.”
“I’ve no doubt you did. You don’t care about other people at all, do you?”
She looked surprised.
“Didn’t it occur to you that Miss Evans was trying to earn her living and the only reason she would want to teach an unpleasant child like you was because she had to.”
“Am I unpleasant?”
“Very. But if you gave a little thought to others besides yourself, you might be less so.”
“I don’t like you.”
“I don’t greatly care for you.”
“So you will go away, will you?”
“Probably. You don’t think anyone would want to stay to teach you, do you?”
“Why not?”
“Because you have stated so clearly that you do not want to learn.”
“What of that?”
“It shows you have no respect for learning and only stupid people feel like that.”
“So I am stupid?”
“It would seem so. Of course, you could change. I tell you what. Why don’t we make a truce?”
“What’s a truce?”
“It’s a sort of agreement. You make terms.”
“What terms?”
“We could see if you like the way I teach and if you are prepared to learn. If you don’t, I’ll go and you can have another governess. It will save you racking your brains for methods to make me uncomfortable. Let’s go about it in a civilized way without all these childish tricks to make me go.”
“All right,” she said.
“Let’s have a truce.”
“Then go back to bed now. Good night.”
She paused at the door.
“There are ghosts in the house, though,” she said.
“There was a murder here … not long ago.”
“Not in this house,” I said.
“No, but it was Stepper’s brother. One was killed and the other ran away. They were all in love with my mother before she married Stepper.”
She was very observant. She had noticed the change in me. She came back and sat on the bed.
“What do you know about it?” I asked.
“You weren’t in the house at the time.”
“No, I came here when my mother married Stepper. Before that we were at Gramps’s house.”
“Whose?”
“My grandfather’s. He’s in the Dower House now. He went there when my mother got married. He had to have a better house then because he was the father of the lady of the manor. Gramps didn’t like living in a little cottage anyway. He’s really a very grand gentleman. He’s Major Durrell and majors are very important. They win battles. We used to live in London but that was years and years ago. Then we came here and everything changed.”
“You must have known them all … the one who was killed and the one who went away.”
“I knew them … in a way. They were all in love with my mother. Gramps used to laugh about it. He was ever so pleased, because when she married Stepper we moved out of the cottage. But first there was all that fuss. And then Cosmo was killed and Simon ran away because he didn’t want to be hanged. “
I was silent and she went on: “They do hang them, you know. They put a rope round their necks and they … swing. It hurts a lot … but then they’re dead. That was what he was afraid of. Well, who wouldn’t be?”
I could not speak. I kept seeing Simon stealthily leaving the house . making his way to Tilbury . meeting the sailor, John Player.
She was watching me closely.
“Ghosts come back when people are murdered. They haunt people.
Sometimes they want to know what really happened. “
“Do you think something happened … which people don’t know about?”
She looked at me slyly. I was unsure of her. She could be teasing me.
I had betrayed my interest and she had noticed. She would already have guessed that I was extraordinarily interested in the murder.
“I was there, wasn’t I?” she said.
“I remember. I was with Gramps .. my mother was upstairs. Someone one of the grooms from Perrivale came to the door and said:
“Mr. Cosmo’s been found shot. He’s dead.” Gramps said:
“Oh my God.” You’re not supposed to say Oh my God. It’s taking the Lord’s name in vain. It says something in the Bible about it. And Gramps went upstairs to my mother and he wouldn’t let me go up with him. “
I tried to think of something appropriate to say but nothing came.
“Do you ride. Cranny?” she asked, seemingly irrelevantly.
I nodded.
�
�I tell you what. I’ll take you to Bindon Boys … the scene of the crime. You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”
I said: “You’re obsessed by the crime. It’s all over now. Perhaps one day we’ll ride out to that place.”
“All right,” she said.
“It’s a pact.”
“And now,” I said, ‘good night. “
She gave me a grin and, picking up the sheet, left me.
I lay for a long time, wide awake. I had come to teach Kate, but there might be a good deal she could teach me.
Kate had long decided that the lives of governesses should be made so uncomfortable that they found it impossible to stay, so they left, which gave her a period of freedom before the next one came, and she had to start her eliminating tactics once more.
I was different from the others, mainly because she sensed that it was not imperative for me to keep the job as a means of livelihood. That took a little of the spice out of the baiting and gave me the advantage. I tried to tell myself that all children had a streak of cruelty in them because they lack experience of life and therefore an ability to imagine the extent of the suffering they cause.
Apart from the fact that I was becoming sure that she could be of use to me in my quest, I wanted to take up the case of other governesses who had suffered before me and in particular those who would suffer after me. I wanted to teach Kate a little humanity. Oddly enough, I did not despair of her. I believed something must have happened to make her the callous little creature she had become; and I had a feeling that it must be possible to change her.
The next morning, rather to my surprise, she was in the schoolroom at the appointed time.
I told her I had worked out a timetable. We would start with English, perhaps for an hour or so; we would see how that worked. I should want to test her reading ability, her spelling, her grammar. We should read books together.
I had found a collection in the cupboard. I picked up The
Count of Monte Cristo and when I opened it I saw “Simon Perrivale’ written on the flyleaf in a childish hand. I felt my own hands tremble a little.
I managed to hide my emotion from her alert eyes. I said:
“Have you ever read this book?”
She shook her head.
“We’ll read it one day and, oh, here’s another. Treasure Island.
The Captive Page 24
