A Stranger's Kiss

by Rosemary Smith

  ‘That’ll probably be Miss Violet, young scallywag that she is. She was here not an hour since, told me she fancied one of my pickled eggs,’ offered the red faced woman.

  ‘Very well then, but please keep an eye on her in future, I don’t want her taking keys on a whim. In fact I’d prefer she didn’t come in here at all,’ admonished Rosalind and I felt quite sorry for the nice Mrs Simkins.

  Rosalind and I made our way back across the hall and up the staircase. ‘Honestly, I don’t know what’s happened to Violet of late, she’s very disobedient,’ grumbled the beautiful Miss Tremaine. ‘In fact she’s not been the same since your friend, Amelia, arrived here last September. I can’t begin to imagine what is wrong with her.’

  We reached the door of Amelia’s room and Rosalind opened it, the key still in the lock. It was so dark neither of us could see anything let alone anyone. Without preamble Rosalind walked carefully to the window and swished back the heavy drapes, light flooded into the room and we could see a startled Violet by the wardrobe dressed in one of Amelia’s cream silk gowns.

  It really suited Violet with her dark hair as it had suited my friend, but Rosalind’s thoughts weren’t the same as mine. ‘Take that off this minute,’ she ordered her sister.

  ‘Won’t, won’t,’ Violet repeated, trying to dodge her elder sister and escape around the huge four-poster bed which I could see was draped with curtains to match the gold ones at the window.

  Rosalind wasn’t quick enough, just as she went to catch hold of the girl’s arm, Violet scrambled across the bed and made for the door. She was out and running along the corridor before Rosalind and I got to the door. We could see her, the cream silk trail of the dress and her black wavy hair trailing behind her in the distance.

  ‘I’m sorry about that,’ Rosalind said sighing with resignation, at the same time gathering Violet’s dress up and laying it across her arm.

  ‘No matter,’ I assured her, going over and placing my arm around her shoulder. ‘We can probably put it down to high spirits.’

  But as I spoke the words I silently wondered how many times Violet had been in this room and if it was her who had taken the royal blue cloak.

  ‘I don’t know what is to become of me, Sara,’ sighed Rosalind. ‘What sort of life is this for me? I shall never meet anyone stuck here day in and day out.’ It seemed I was to be a confidante for Rosalind as well as her father today.

  ‘When I go back home to Bath, which I must do soon, come with me,’ I said trying to cheer her. ‘We can go on outings and to balls together. It will be a change for you and take you out of yourself. Who knows who you may meet. Please say you’ll come with me,’ I urged her.

  ‘Yes, I will.’ The smile on Rosalind’s face as she spoke lit up her whole being and I felt that at last some goal had been achieved by me coming here. I now had to locate Amelia.

  Rosalind left me, her step quicker and her pink skirts swishing down the corridor as I watched her go. Would I feel like her also if I married and lived here? But I would have Michael, I thought, and would entertain and make friends which would benefit all who lived in this house, for it was gaiety which was lacking here.

  Walking back in the room and over to the window I could see that Amelia had a view over the beautiful garden, and thoughts of my love for Michael were brought to mind. I fervently prayed that he would ask me to marry him when all this mystery of Amelia was resolved, which brought to mind my reason for being here.

  I turned from the window, my eyes coming to rest on my friend’s music box. Swiftly I walked over to it and picked it up. Although small it was quite heavy probably because the casement was silver. I ran my hand across the enamelled lid which was beautifully decorated with rich colours in the theme of a landscape with flowers surrounding it.

  Lifting the lid I could see the red velvet interior held the small key, I picked it up and located the hole for it in the bottom. I turned the key and set it back on the dressing table, opening the lid.

  The haunting sound of Greensleeves filled the room and I danced around, singing to myself along with the notes. ‘Alas my love you did me wrong’ and a tear filled my eye as I thought of Abraham and his Sara. The music slowed and came to a halt and the room suddenly seemed very quiet and still.

  I picked the box up again to wind it with the key and I stopped in my tracks for I could see a name written in tiny scroll letters. I took the box to the light of the window to ascertain what I’d read and to my astonishment I was right.

  The word was Tamsin!

  9

  Clutching the small music box in my hand I left the gold room, turned the key and locked the door behind me, taking the key with me so I could return it to Rosalind. As I stepped into my room I could see Tilly was there, sorting out my clothes.

  ‘You startled me, Miss,’ she said, turning around as I shut the door. ‘What you got there, Miss Sara?’ she asked, spotting the music box in my hand.

  It’s Amelia’s,’ I told her, placing the little box on the top of the dressing table then searching through the drawer for a suitable reticule to put it in.

  ‘You surely ain’t stolen it!’ said Tilly, wide-eyed.

  ‘No, I haven’t, young lady, I’ve borrowed it for I wish to show it to someone,’ I told her sharply. ‘And tell no-one, do you understand me? No-one, not even Emily.’

  ‘I promise,’ said Tilly, hovering by the dressing table, trying to look more closely at the object in question.

  ‘Lift the lid,’ I instructed her. Doing as she was bid a few faint bars of Greensleeves rang out. Tilly clapped her hand to her mouth.

  ‘Well Miss, I ain’t never seen anything like it,’ she said with awe. ‘Quite beautiful it is.’

  ‘This will, I think, suffice,’ I said, more to myself than to my maid. I’d found a black reticule which I was sure the box would fit in. Picking it up I placed it inside the bag. It fitted snugly and I breathed a sigh of relief.

  My intention was to take it to Millie Sutton this afternoon for I had a very strong feeling that the nurse had the answers to my questions. She very obviously knew who Tamsin was, having shared tea with her, and did Michael know also?

  The only mystery Millie Sutton wouldn’t be able to solve was the whereabouts of Amelia, and thinking of Amelia I wondered for the second time in half-an-hour what link she could possibly have with Tamsin. That is, if the name of the music box and our travelling companion were one and the same.

  I could hardly wait to see Miss Sutton, but knew I needed to remain calm and not give anything away to Michael or indeed any of the Tremaine family. To change clothes during the day was not normally an appropriate course to take, but I wished to look my best so I decided to don another outfit.

  ‘I think the pale green with the white collar and cuffs which you wore the other day, Miss. It matches your eyes perfectly,’ Tilly advised me and I tended to agree with her.

  Taking my seat once more at the table in the small dining room which I knew was soon to be a library, I kept thinking of Sara Tremaine and how she would have sat here all those years ago, but Tobias, Rosalind and Michael would only have been children then. Abraham smiled at me and I thought of the tale he had recounted to me only this morning.

  As I looked at his offspring who sat quietly eating their lunch, I thought that one day they would need to know the truth. Little did I know at that moment in time that the truth would come out far sooner than I had expected. It was as if I, Sara, by coming to Ravensmount had set off a chain of events which would spiral out of control.

  ‘You aren’t eating much, Sarah,’ observed Michael.

  ‘In truth I don’t feel very hungry,’ I answered.

  As we left the dining room, Abraham caught hold of my arm. ‘I trust you will enjoy your meeting with Millie, I have every faith that she will like you,’ he said kindly.

  ‘Where’s Sara going?’ chanted Violet, obviously having overheard snippets of the master’s words.

  ‘It’s none of your b
usiness, young woman,’ Abraham told her firmly. ‘Come with me and we shall take a walk in the garden.’ As Abraham caught hold of Violet’s arm and steered her towards the front door, he turned back, giving me an encouraging smile. And as I watched the pair of them depart out of the front door it was hard to imagine they were not truly father and daughter, for Abraham treated Violet as one of his own.

  Swiftly I went up the staircase to my room. Tilly was still here, guarding the reticule containing the music box. I was surprised she had remained as on occasions she could be disobedient.

  ‘Where ever you are going with that trinket box, Miss, I hope all goes well,’ said Tilly unexpectedly as she handed me my white lace bonnet. I went over to the mirror of the dressing table to tidy my curls. Tying the ribbons under my chin I caught sight of my namesake still looking wistfully down from the portrait. Your secret is out in the open, Sara Tremaine, but what am I to find out now? I said to myself.

  As I stepped out the large front door and down the steps, my reticule clasped firmly in my hand, Michael was true to his word, for he was standing waiting by the pony trap, the brown pony waiting patiently to move onward.

  ‘You look beautiful and too good to be true,’ murmured Michael as he helped me into my seat.

  ‘Thank you kind, Sir,’ I replied sweetly sending him one of my most disarming smiles to which he responded with a similar smile. We were bowling along the lane before I spoke again.

  ‘What do you know of Tamsin?’ I asked him: a question which came quite out of the blue and escaped my lips before I had a chance to think about it.

  ‘Why do you ask?’ he said, looking at me with a stunned expression on his face and pulling the pony to a halt.

  ‘Because,’ I began, ‘she was our travelling companion in the coach from Exeter and I saw her in the tea shop at Moll’s Bay with you and Millie Sutton the other afternoon.’

  ‘My dear Sara, it was quite innocent I assure you. My nurse sent a message that morning for me to join her for tea. That is why I reluctantly cancelled our afternoon out, for Millie means a great deal to me,’ he explained, obviously quite disgruntled that I should infer otherwise.

  ‘No matter,’ I reassured him patting his arm. ‘It is plainly a mere coincidence.’ But as we set off again for Moll’s Bay I looked at Michael seriously wondering if he was telling me the truth.

  Arriving opposite the nurse’s cottage, Michael helped me down from pony trap, his hands lingering on my waist.

  ‘You surely don’t mistrust me?’ he asked with a wounded expression on his face.

  ‘Indeed not,’ I said, touching his lips with my gloved hand. ‘I love you remember.’ At these words he smiled and I took his arm as we walked across to the cottage.

  The door opened before we reached it to reveal Miss Sutton standing in the doorway ready to greet us. She reached up to Michael, her hands on his face and he bent forward to allow his nurse to kiss him on the brow.

  ‘And this Millie, is Sara Osborne,’ Michael introduced me, quite proudly I thought, drawing me forward to be kissed on the cheek by this sprightly old lady who had bright, inquisitive, piercing blue eyes. She was very upright for her age and I guessed her to be in her early seventies.

  ‘Come in, my children,’ she said kindly, with her almost white hair shining like a halo in the sunlight. We stepped into an abode that was as bright and clean as a new pin. A staircase ran upwards with a room on each side of the small hallway. The walls everywhere were white giving a feeling of light and spaciousness, although the room on the left which we stepped into was in reality quite small.

  ‘Please, be seated, Sara. May I call you that?’ she asked, her voice strong, totally belying her age.

  ‘Of course, Miss Sutton,’ I agreed, sitting on the low blue floral armchair she had indicated.

  ‘Well Sara,’ she said, sitting on a similar chair opposite me, ‘tell me all about yourself for all I know from Michael is that you are a beautiful young woman who he very much admires.’

  ‘There is not much to tell,’ I replied, blushing at Millie Sutton’s words and looking at Michael who gave me an encouraging smile. ‘I’ve lived in Bath all my life with my father and mother. I’m an only child and chanced to come to Cornwall because of my friend, Amelia.’

  At the mention of her name Millie Sutton’s face changed from a smiling one to one of concern.

  ‘Had you known Amelia long?’ she asked, expectation on her face awaiting my answer.

  ‘Just three years, but in that short space of time we became good friends. I believe she is younger than me although she appears older. In truth I don’t believe she even knew for sure when her birthday was, having been brought up by an uncle and aunt,’ I told the nurse.

  ‘And what of Amelia’s parents?’ I thought this a strange question from Michael.

  ‘I don’t quite know what you are trying to gain from these questions. In truth I know no more about my friend than I have just told you for she said little about herself, but we got on so well that was all that mattered to me,’ I told the two of them, feeling somewhat perplexed.

  ‘Do not worry we will question you no further,’ Michael’s nurse assured me.

  ‘But I would like to ask you a question,’ I said as bravely as I could.

  ‘You do just that, child,’ said Millie, reaching across and patting my hand.

  ‘Who is Tamsin and where does she fit in to the picture of Amelia and the Tremaine family at Ravensmount?’ I asked without preamble.

  At these words Michael and his nurse looked at one another. ‘You must tell her,’ said Michael, ‘for I know that Tamsin is here, beyond that I am as much in the dark as you dear heart.’

  ‘We’ll do better than tell her, my child. Fetch Tamsin down, she is upstairs.’

  At the nurse’s words my heart started pounding. So I was to come face to face with my travelling companion once more. The woman who had told me not to spend a night at Ravensmount. While Michael went to fetch the elusive Tamsin, Millie Sutton busied herself in what I assumed to be her scullery.

  I could hear water being tipped into a receptacle and china clinking. ‘I’m making some tea,’ she said returning to her front room, ‘for I think we are all going to need it.’

  Hearing a rustle of skirts in the doorway which led to the hall I turned my head to see Tamsin standing there. She looked no tidier or cleaner than when I had last seen her, in fact she wore the same royal blue serge dress she had worn that day we travelled together. I did concede that her hair looked cleaner and tidier, but it was very obviously dyed and was almost yellow in colour. I was sure the immaculate Millie did not entertain her by choice.

  ‘So we meet again, Miss Osborne.’ Tamsin spoke in the same cultured voice which so belied the way she dressed. I really did dislike the woman although in fairness to her I hardly knew her.

  She walked into the room and pulled a chair from under the table to sit upon as she continued. ‘So you didn’t heed my words and stay clear of Ravensmount,’ she said.

  ‘No, indeed not,’ I replied, trying hard to keep the tremor from my voice. ‘In truth I am glad I stayed and I shall not leave until I have found my friend, Amelia. Tell me, what do you know of her?’

  ‘Very little,’ replied Tamsin somewhat cagily.

  ‘I have reason to believe you don’t speak the truth,’ I challenged her, reaching for my black reticule which I had placed on the floor by my chair.

  ‘And what makes you say that?’ Tamsin asked nervously.

  ‘Because of this,’ I replied, taking the music box from my reticule and walking over to place it in front of Tamsin on the table. ‘Is this yours?’

  As I asked the question Tamsin gazed at the exquisite box as if mesmerised by it, then with one hand she touched the bright coloured enamel, tracing a finger over each beautiful colour.

  ‘I had thought I would never see this again,’ she said, taking her eyes at last from the box and looking at me. A pang of sympathy touched my heart for her.
‘Where did you get it?’ she said.

  ‘It was in Amelia’s room at Ravensmount,’ I said quietly, feeling all the while that nothing was real and that I was in a dream.

  ‘So we have the proof,’ said Tamsin quietly looking at Millie Sutton who had been watching the scene with interest.

  ‘Proof of what?’ Michael interposed and in that moment I knew that he had no idea, no more than I what Tamsin was talking about.

  ‘In which case,’ said Millie Sutton standing up and taking control of the situation, ‘we need to speak to the Master of Ravensmount.’

  ‘But why?’ Michael questioned. ‘What has this if anything got to do with my father?’

  ‘You will see, child,’ said his nurse, putting her arm around him and for a second I thought how handsome he looked in his innocence and so vulnerable. ‘I want you to go back to Ravensmount and fetch your father. Far better that he come here I think.’

  ‘No!’ said Michael. ‘I suggest we all go back to my home and sort this out, whatever it may be.’ His voice was authoritative and I so admired him for it.

  ‘If that’s what you wish, Master Michael, I have the governess’s cart which Tamsin and I can travel in. Just let me take the kettle off the range,’ said Millie, seeming unperturbed by this chain of events, but I suspect that underneath she was a cauldron of emotions, knowing that the time was near for all secrets to be revealed.

  We all set off, Tamsin insisting that she carry her music box, reluctantly agreeing I lend her my black reticule to put it in.

  As we made our way back to Ravensmount, I said to Michael, ‘I feel sorry that your father has no warning of our coming.’

  ‘But surely he has nothing to hide,’ was his reply. Unfortunately I knew that there was something Abraham had to hide and I felt that the time of reckoning was nigh, wondering at the same time what Tamsin had to reveal. I had no doubt the music box was hers, so what connection did she have to my friend, Amelia?

  These things were still burning through my mind when Michael pulled the pony up by the steps with a flourish. My darling man was obviously keen to bring whatever it was to a conclusion. As he helped me down to the ground the governess’s cart pulled sharply up behind us.