The Secret Woman

by Victoria Holt

  The highlight of our little trip was of course the sight of the apes. Several carriages had made the climb to the upper part of the Rock and were pulled up there. The Greenalls were there with Miss Rundle and they called a greeting.

  We had difficulty in keeping the boys away from the apes, who were very spry and mischievous. Our driver had warned us not to get too near or they might steal our gloves or even our hats. It was a great pleasure to see the delight of the two boys; they chuckled and whispered together and I was a little afraid that one might urge the other on to some recklessness.

  And then as we stood there watching the antics of the little creatures one of them came running down from higher up the slope with a green scarf in its mouth. There had been a shout of laughter and looking back whence he had come I saw Chantel with Rex. They were standing close together; his arm was through hers; they were laughing and I realized of course that it was her scarf which had been snatched.

  So she and he had come exploring together. The pleasure of the outing was spoiled for me. I thought: She is going to be hurt, deeply hurt, because Lady Crediton will never allow it; and he is on his way to propose to Miss Derringham.

  We drove back to the docks and I tried not to show that my mood had changed.

  The boys were chattering about the apes. “Did you see that one…”

  “Oh, I liked the other little one better.” I wondered whether Mrs. Malloy had seen them, or Mrs. Blakey; and what they were thinking.

  I said in my most prim governess voice, “There is a story that the apes came to Gibraltar through a passage under the sea from Barbary which is their native country.”

  “Can we go through the passage?” asked Edward.

  “It’s only a legend,” I said. “And there are bound to be legends about such things. Gibraltar is the only place in Europe where they are to be found. And they say that if ever they disappeared from the Rock it would cease to belong to us.”

  The boys looked alarmed—whether or not it was due to the thought of the apes’ disappearance or the loss of the Rock I was not sure. I was not even thinking of them. My thoughts were occupied by Chantel and Rex; and I wondered how much she hid from me.

  ***

  After Gibraltar we ran into choppy seas. The ship’s decks became deserted and most people kept to their cabins. To my joy I discovered that I was a good sailor. Even Edward had to keep to his bed, and this gave me a few hours of complete freedom. The wind was fierce and it was almost impossible to stand up, so I made my way with difficulty to one of the lower decks and lay stretched out on a chaise-longue-type chair, wrapped in a rug, and watched the seas tossing the ship hither and thither as though she were made of cork.

  Serene Lady, I thought. She was serene, unperturbed by the storm. Serenity! What a gift. I wished it were mine and I supposed that I gave the impression that it was; but that was only because I managed to hide my true feelings. Everyone on the ship I supposed did that. I began to wonder about them and to ask myself how different they really were from the personalities they showed to the world. In all of us, I suppose, there was a secret man or woman in hiding.

  Philosophical thoughts, and suited to a solitary lying on a deserted deck, when the rest of the ship’s passengers—or most of them—were laid low with the effects of the weather at sea.

  “Hello!” Someone was reeling along toward me. I saw it was Dick Callum, the purser.

  “Brave woman,” he shouted above the roar of the sea.

  “I have heard that the fresh air is the best thing possible on occasions like this.”

  “Maybe, but we don’t want you washed overboard.”

  “It’s a little sheltered here. I feel quite safe.”

  “Yes, you’re safe enough there and the gale’s not so strong as it was half an hour ago. How do you feel?”

  “Fairly well, thank you.”

  “Fairly well suggests not completely well. I’ll tell you what, I’m going to get you a small brandy. That should make you feel absolutely well.”

  “Please…I don’t…”

  “But this is medicinal,” he said. “Purser’s orders. And I’m taking no refusal.”

  He staggered away and was gone so long that I thought he had forgotten me, but eventually he emerged carrying with great balancing skill two glasses on a small tray.

  He gave the tray to me to hold and then pulling up another of the chairs stretched out beside me.

  I sipped the brandy and he was right; the faint queasiness I had felt began to disappear.

  “One does not see much of you in ordinary weather,” he said with a smile. “It takes a gale to bring you out. You’re like the lady in the weather vane who only comes out for stormy weather.”

  “I’m out,” I said, “but I have my duties.”

  “As I have mine.”

  “And on occasions like this?”

  “A few hours off duty. Believe me we are in no danger of shipwreck. This is a high wind, and there’s a swell on. That’s all. We sailors don’t call this weather.”

  There was something very attractive about him, something which seemed familiar to me; I could not quite place it.

  “I almost feel,” I said, “that we’ve met before but that’s impossible, unless of course you came into the shop at Langmouth and looked at some furniture…briefly.”

  He shook his head. “And if I had met you I don’t think I should have forgotten.”

  I laughed at that. I didn’t believe it. I was no outstanding beauty, and my personality, rather aloof I always thought it, was not particularly memorable.

  “Perhaps,” he said, “it was in another life.”

  “Reincarnation. You believe in it?”

  “A sailor is always ready to believe anything, they say. We’re a superstitious crowd. How’s the brandy?”

  “Very warming, uplifting. I feel better for it. Thank you very much.”

  “I know,” he said, “that you came out with the family. Were you at the Castle long before you sailed?”

  “A very short time. I went there with the express purpose of making this voyage.”

  “Quite a household, eh? And of course, we who owe our livelihood to the family are very respectful toward it.”

  “You don’t sound particularly respectful at the moment.”

  “Well, we’re off duty…both of us.”

  “So it is only on duty that we must remember our gratitude to them?”

  “Gratitude!” He laughed. Was he a trifle bitter? “Should I be? I do my job. I’m paid for it. Perhaps the Company should be grateful to me.”

  “Perhaps it is.”

  “It’s not often that we carry the Crown Prince and heir apparent on board.”

  “You are referring to Mr. Rex Crediton.”

  “I am indeed. I fancy he misses little. He will no doubt carry a report of all to headquarters and woe betide us if we fail in our duty.”

  “He doesn’t strike me as being that kind of person at all. He always seems…pleasant.”

  “A chip off the old block. The only thing that mattered to old Sir Edward, I always heard, was the business. He inspired Lady Crediton with the same ambitions. You see, she was ready to accept the Captain and his mother. I hear that lady died only a short while ago.”

  “Yes, I heard that, too.”

  “A strange household, eh?”

  “Very unusual.”

  “Of course our gallant Captain is a little piqued.”

  “Why?”

  “He’d like to be in Rex’s shoes.”

  “Has he…told you so?”

  “I’m not in his confidence. But I sympathize with him, in a way. The two of them brought up together and one the legitimate son and the other not legitimate. It would gradually dawn on him. There you have it. Rex the heir to millions and our gallant Captain…
merely a captain with perhaps a small holding in the business.”

  “He doesn’t seem to be the least bit resentful.”

  “So…you know him well?”

  “N-no.”

  “Did you know him before you came on the ship? You must have. You can’t have seen much of him since we set out. He’ll be busy until after Port Said. So you did know him before the voyage started?”

  “Well, I had met him.”

  My voice had changed. I noticed it myself and could only hope that he did not.

  “I see. And the nurse is a great friend of yours?”

  “Oh yes, it was through her I came.”

  “For a moment,” he said with a laugh, “I thought that it was our Captain who had brought you here to look after his son.”

  “It was Nurse Loman,” I said quickly. “She nursed my aunt, and when this…post was vacant, she recommended me.”

  “And Her Majesty Lady C. accepted that recommendation.”

  “She did and here I am.”

  “Well, it’ll be an interesting voyage. Having the two of them on board makes it that.”

  “You have sailed with Captain Stretton before?”

  “Several times. I was with him on The Secret Woman.”

  “Oh!”

  “You sound surprised.”

  “No…only I had heard of The Secret Woman and…”

  “What did you hear of it?”

  “Just that it was a ship…and that Lady Crediton had launched it.”

  He laughed. “Yes. It should have been a Lady. Perhaps that was the trouble. It’s what you get for taking a woman to sea.”

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “She should have been a Lady. Perhaps that would have made all the difference. Sailors’ superstition again.”

  “Tell me what happened on The Secret Woman.”

  “That is a mystery which I could not begin to tell you. Perhaps if you were to ask the Captain…he might know more.”

  “A mystery?”

  “A great mystery. There are many who think that only Captain Stretton knows the answer to the riddle.”

  “And he won’t tell?”

  Dick Callum laughed. “He scarcely could.”

  “It all sounds very mysterious.”

  “It was…and some say very beneficially mysterious to the Captain. I always felt I understood him, though. He had to grow up and see his half brother proclaimed as the Crown Prince.”

  “Crown Prince…”

  “Well, the Crediton fortune with all its ramifications is an empire in itself. And Rex is to inherit it. Yes, I always felt a certain understanding for the Captain. After all, he is a Crediton. I doubt whether he might not think reputation well lost for a fortune.”

  “But what has this to do with the mystery of The Secret Woman?”

  “Everything, I should imagine.”

  “Now you have whetted my curiosity.”

  “Miss Brett, I am but an employee of the Company; moreover I owe allegiance to my Captain. I have been indiscreet. My only excuse is that the circumstances were extraordinary. A high wind in the treacherous Mediterranean which is not as benign as it is made out to be; a brave lady on deck; the warming comfort of brandy. Please forget what I have said and forgive me if I have spoken too freely. It must have been, my dear Miss Brett, because you were such a sympathetic companion. Now, I beg of you, forget my foolish observations. We are on The Serene Lady who very shortly will arrive at Naples. And when we leave Naples I’ll prophesy that we shall have left the gales behind us. We shall sail on into sunshine; and everything will be very merry on board under the influence of our very excellent Captain.”

  “What a speech!”

  “I have what my mother called the gift of the gab. A not very elegant phrase, but then she was not very elegant. However she was devoted to me and she gave me what she could, and as a result I received some education. Enough to insure that I was taken into the great Crediton Empire and allowed to serve my masters.”

  “You sound not altogether pleased about that.”

  “About my mother’s sacrifices?”

  “No, entering the Empire, as you call it.”

  “Oh but I am, I am the Empire’s grateful and humble servant.”

  “Now you talk like Uriah Heep.”

  “God forbid, and as you gather I am not particularly humble.”

  “I had observed it.”

  “You have great powers of observation, Miss Brett.”

  “It would be pleasant to think so.”

  “What did you think of Gibraltar?”

  He had successfully changed the subject and while I felt slightly relieved at this, I was a little disappointed.

  I talked of Gibraltar; and as I talked I thought of the ape with Chantel’s scarf and the sight of her arm in arm with Rex.

  The powerful Empire, I thought. And those who attempted to thwart it—what happened to them?

  We talked lightly for some time, and I felt I had a new friend. He was solicitous for my comfort and suggested that I might be getting cold. I thought it was time I returned to the cabin to see how Edward was, so I thanked him for the brandy and his company and made my way very cautiously, for we were still rocking, back to my cabin.

  ***

  Dick Callum was right. Although it was cold in Naples where our stay was very short, as soon as we sailed out we moved toward the warmth. I often saw Dick Callum, who made a point of looking after me. I realized that he was an important member of the crew, being in charge of a large proportion of the staff, whereas the Captain was concerned with the navigation and this of course meant rare appearances. I felt this to be good, and when I had imagined myself going on this voyage I had thought that it would be like living in the same house with him. How different it was.

  “The Captain comes down from the heights only rarely,” Dick Callum told me.

  Chantel came to my cabin and I often went to hers, and I mentioned to her that I had seen her on the occasion when she had lost her scarf; she did not show the slightest embarrassment.

  “Right at the last minute,” she said, “Rex Crediton asked me to accompany him, so I did. You’re looking shocked. You think I should have had a chaperon. My dear Anna, this is not England. We are allowed a little license surely in foreign parts? As a matter of fact poor Dr. Gregory had been bullied into taking Miss Rundle and that was something we could not endure. Escape was the only possible alternative. So…we lost them. Poor Dr. Gregory, he came back looking exhausted and…murderous.”

  “Not very kind of you,” I commented.

  “No, but wise.”

  “Was it?” I asked, hoping this would lead to confidences, but it didn’t.

  She turned the tables on me, which was a favorite trick of hers. “You seem to be getting on well with Mr. Callum.”

  “He has been most kind.”

  “So I’ve noticed.”

  “It’s natural that we should notice each other,” I told her.

  She laughed suddenly. “You are enjoying this, Anna. It’s different from the old Queen’s House, eh? Imagine being there now, and thinking of me here…and all that might have been.”

  “I admit that I am finding this very interesting. But…”

  “Oh stop it, Anna. You are not going into dismal prophecy, are you? You should always be gay. You never know what is round the corner. Every cloud has a silver lining, they say, and they wouldn’t have kept on saying it if it hadn’t been true.”

  “They also say that it never rains but it pours.”

  “You’re determined to be gloomy. Well, I intend to enjoy life.”

  “Chantel, what happens when we arrive in Sydney?”

  “I long to see it. I hear it’s quite fantastically beautiful. I shall ask if I may go up to the b
ridge when we come into the harbor so that I can see it perfectly.”

  “Lots of people will leave the ship then…including your Mr. Rex Crediton.”

  “But your Captain will remain.”

  “My Captain!”

  “My Mr. Rex Crediton!”

  “Oh Chantel, there are times when I am a little uneasy.”

  “My poor Anna. I must teach you to enjoy life. Did you know we are going to have a fancy dress dance? It’s customary you know. We have to think up some costumes.”

  “You can’t go as the Chatelaine this time.”

  “Well I’m not in a castle. Who ever heard of a chatelaine on a ship? I shall be a dancing girl, I think. Hair flowing…or perhaps a yashmak. That would be fun and appropriate, because there will be an Eastern atmosphere to the whole affair.”

  How excited she could become about dressing up. I found this almost childlike quality appealing. I was growing more and more fond of her, but the more I did, the more uneasy I felt as to her relationship with Rex. I wondered what would happen when he left us at Sydney and we went on. She would know that as we sailed into the Pacific he was staying behind to be feted and honored, and to work for the Company of course, while he paid attention to Helena Derringham and brought about that happy state of affairs so desired by Lady Crediton and Sir Henry Derringham: the amalgamation of the two companies.

  I feared greatly for her.

  ***

  One morning we woke to find that we were at the gateway of the East. The sun was streaming onto the decks and there was a great deal of noise and excitement everywhere.

  Before Edward was dressed and had had his breakfast with me in my cabin Mrs. Blakey brought Johnny along. Chantel joined us. She was dressed in a simple white dress and jacket and she looked lovely, her hair not completely hidden by the shady white hat she wore. It always startled me to see her out of her nurse’s uniform, lovely as she looked in that.

  “I suppose,” she said, “that you two will have to take out the children. You poor things! I’m glad that when we’re in port I have a very good chance of a few hours off duty.”