Then suddenly I remembered the secret panel. I could easily slip along the passage and reach the picture gallery.
I knew that Garth was waiting in the hall for the first of his guests to arrive. Somehow or other I must find out exactly what Armanell intended to say to him. I had no compunction about eavesdropping as I pressed the sides of the panel and slipped into the secret passage. After all I had a right to defend myself. My whole future happiness lay in the balance.
When I emerged at the picture gallery, to my relief, it was deserted. The prim lady and her bulgy-eyed dogs seemed to regard me with glassy disapproval as I tiptoed to the head of the stairs and peeped down. The hall was flooded with brilliant light, but it appeared empty. Then as I inched forward I could see Garth standing in the doorway of the library talking to someone whom I couldn’t see.
Dressed in the eighteenth-century costume of Count Axel Fersen he looked remarkably handsome. I watched him eagerly from my vantage point, able to study him without dreading that my face would reveal all too plainly my feelings for him.
Then Armanell moved into view. She had evidently been pacing the hall agitatedly. I could see her hands waving as she emphasised a point.
‘... so it explains, of course, why she was never like other governesses. Why she had loads of money to spend on expensive dresses. She came here deliberately to spy in the house. She must have known of the Chalandon diamonds. I’m certain she’s working for a gang of international jewel thieves. That would explain too why she’s studying languages—she’d need them in her business.
You were too careless to accept her on her qualifications and not insist on proper references. You knew nothing about her, except that she’s pretty—in a kind of a way.’
‘Perhaps I know more about her than you imagine,’ he returned.
‘Then perhaps you’d use your knowledge to get her to hand up my necklace,’ Armanell said acidly.
‘What exactly do you propose I do?’ Garth asked coolly.
‘See that she’s flung out of Tregillis immediately. I imagine that the threat of arrest would make her produce the necklace. Not that you need go so far—after all, we don’ t want a scandal.’
‘No, we don’t, do we!’
I watched Garth, my heart beating furiously. It was impossible to tell from his impassive reception of Armanell’s news exactly what his reactions were. He would, after all, have no reason to doubt her story and if he should question me I should have to admit she had found the jewel-box in my wardrobe: to deny knowing it was there would sound pretty feeble.
I felt my heart sink as Garth crossed to a table, opened her jewel-box and almost absently ran his fingers through the shining hoard. ‘Your necklace was very valuable, of course.’
Armanell tossed her head. ‘Naturally! You don’t think I’d wear fake jewels, do you?’
‘No, of course not. It was stupid of me to ask. I should know your tastes by now, shouldn’t I?’
I got the impression that Armanell was faintly uneasy at the ambiguousness of his remark. ‘What you don’t seem to know is that Judith hates me. She’s envious, of course, and would do anything to put between us. You may not be aware of it, Garth, but you have changed towards me: things are different between us—
and it has something to do with that girl.’
She resumed her restless pacing. ‘What are you waiting for? I want to wear that necklace tonight. Make her tell you what she has done with it and then get rid of her.’
It was at this moment that Melinda suddenly erupted into the hall. ‘Don’t send Miss Westall away, Uncle Garth,’ she shrilled. ‘I heard what the Comtesse said and it isn’t true. It was she who put the jewel-box in Miss Westall’s wardrobe: I saw her!’
Armanell stiffened. ‘What a little liar the child is,’ she grated.
‘You surely don’t believe her. Why should I do such a thing? It would be utterly senseless. Anyway, there was no one about—’
She stopped, appalled, as she realized her slip, and I saw Garth regard her steadily as Melinda babbled on, unaware of Armanell’s revealing remark.
‘I was in the secret passage and I watched you take the box out of your drawer. Then you opened the door and looked about to see if anyone was around. After that I didn’t see you until I’d gone further along the passage, but I saw you carry it into Miss Westall’s room and put it in her wardrobe.’
‘That—that doesn’t explain what happened to my necklace!’
I could see that Armanell was making an effort to retrieve the situation in some way, but it was as though she was aware that her words lacked conviction and that her gambit had not come off.
‘I took your diamond necklace,’ Melinda owned up. ‘I wanted it for Miss Westall to wear at the ball—that’s because I’m her fairy godmother.’ As she spoke she brought her hand from behind her back, revealing a diamond necklace. She thrust it into Armanell’s hands. ‘Here you are—but it’s no use your wearing it! You won’t look half as nice as Miss Westall in it. Anyway, I don’t believe it’s diamonds at all—they’re much too big. I’ll bet they’re only bits of glass.’
There was a long silence when she had finished and I saw Melinda fidget nervously as though for once in her short life she realized the disastrous results of her meddling. She looked at the two grown-ups who were regarding each other so strangely and slunk from the hall.
‘You were quite right, you know, when you said I’d changed towards you,’ Garth said slowly. ‘What was between us was something that had lingered on from former years. But as time passes a man matures: he realizes the real values in life, and that first love doesn’t necessarily survive.’
‘You mean, it’s—it’s over?’ she asked tearfully.
‘Yes, my dear, I’m afraid it is.’
For a moment she stood uncertainly. She was not used to failure and it was plain that she was finding the experience a bitter one.
Then as she met the stony detachment of his expression, I saw her turn and gather up her shining skirts in one hand as she slowly climbed the stairs.
I slipped back into the picture gallery and shutting the panel behind me sped back to my room. I stood for a moment as happiness and doubt flooded over me. He had said he no longer loved Armanell, but this didn’t necessarily mean that he loved me and yet—and yet— There was the sound of cars surging up and doors banging, laughter and chatter. So the first of the guests had arrived. I put on the wig feeling heady with excitement, adjusted the circlet and the high feather, picked up my mask and ran downstairs.
As I approached a bend in the stairs I could see Melinda and Emile who had ensconced themselves in a nook and were watching the arrivals.
‘There are three Columbines and two Harlequins already,’
Melinda told me disapprovingly. ‘And probably there’ll be lots and lots more. That was a very stupid thing to do,’ she said severely.
‘Emile and I aren’t going to have any masked balls when we’re married. We’re just going to have Hallowe’en parties all the time with witches and ghost stories and ducking for apples. I shall supply the apples and Emile’s going to tell the ghost stories: he’s very good at telling ghost stories,’ she said patronisingly.
‘Is that so?’ I said, impressed. This was the first I had heard of this particular talent of Emile’s and I was glad that he had at last found a way of seizing on Melinda’s esteem. ‘I hadn’t heard you were to be married,’ I told her gravely.
‘Oh, we’ve just decided on it,’ she told me. ‘The Comtesse will probably go away now and take Emile with her, but I’ve promised to wait.’
‘You are silly,’ Emile said disgustedly. ‘You’re just making it all up. I don’t want to get married to you, ever—so there!’
‘Oh yes, you will,’ Melinda told him. ‘I’m older than you are and you’ll do as I say. Besides, we’re engaged now. I say so.’
‘Oh, look, Melinda, there’s another Columbine,’ said Emile, instantly diverted.
‘Th
at makes four,’ Melinda giggled. Emile joined in and in a moment the two children were giggling helplessly.
I edged past them and went down and the first thing that caught my eye was Verity’s head looking over the edge of the minstrels’
gallery. Beside her was a masked character in a matador costume which I instantly recognised to be Paul. I made my way up the stairs and turned in through the door of the minstrels’ gallery.
Verity was looking radiant in a dress of deep ruby silk. There was about her an air of self-confidence and suddenly I noticed the ruby on the third finger of her left hand. ‘Congratulate us, Judith, Paul and I are engaged. But only this minute—just before we left for the ball.’
She blushed happily when I congratulated them and admired her ring, then said, ‘Off you go and dance. I’m so happy that I shall be quite all right on my own. I don’t need anyone’s company tonight.’
‘What, not even mine?’ Paul protested, laughing. But eventually, at Verity’s insistence, we were dancing and Paul was saying a trifle sheepishly, ‘I suppose you think I’m a bit of a lightweight, proposing to Verity so soon after—’
‘After telling me that I was the only girl in the world,’ I laughed. ‘It’s a good thing I always knew that Verity was the right girl for you.’
‘You’re right, Judith,’ he said very solemnly. ‘Even when we were quarrelling she meant more to me than—’
‘Than any other girl you took up with, just to show her that you weren’t really hurt by her attitude.’
‘Perhaps that’s it,’ he said thoughtfully. ‘I only know that now we’re engaged at last I feel as if I’d been waiting for this for a long time—and I may say we owe it to you, Judith.’
‘And what had I to do with it?’ I asked.
‘Well, Verity has been quite different to me since she got these orders for her jewellery. It’s as if she’s forgiven me whatever she had against me—although, goodness knows, I don’t know what I’d done to make her so bitter towards me before. But anyway, suddenly it was as if everything was right between us. The way was clear for us to get engaged and—’
He spoke on and on about himself and Verity, but eventually he turned the conversation towards me. ‘I only wish you were as happy as Verity and I are. I wish you and Garth could see eye to eye—but of course there’s always Armanell.’
Paul, of course, could know nothing of that final row between them—or was it final?
He seemed to sense my sudden depression. ‘Oh well, there are other fish in the sea,’ he consoled. ‘After all, you’ll be leaving here soon. You’ll be meeting all sorts of fascinating men.’
‘I don’t think it will be that way for me,’ I said softly. ‘I have a very different nature from yours. I’m the stupid, one-man type of woman—’
It was at that moment Garth cut in. There could be no mistaking his tall, broad-shouldered figure or his deep voice, although now he wore a black velvet mask that covered his eyes and cheekbones.
As he turned away with a little half-ironic bow, I could see Paul’s mischievous smile.
For a while we danced in silence. I felt ecstatically happy. I was in Garth’s arms: the music was dreamy and romantic: his mouth smiled beneath the black velvet mask. If only this could go on for ever!
Then quite suddenly my little world of make-believe dissolved in splintered shards. ‘So I’m forgiven. We must never quarrel again, you and I. Remember there can only be one true love in Marie Antoinette’s life, and that is Axel Fersen.’
But of course he was wearing the costume suggested by Armanell. He was referring to the quarrel between them. So I had been right in thinking that nothing was really final between them!
I didn’t answer. I felt sick at heart and I was actually glad when the dance was over, and he moved away, still with that satisfied smile.
And I was glad I had not answered him. I had not Armanell’s faintly French intonation. It would only have been embarrassing for both of us when he discovered his mistake.
For the rest of the evening I danced with others and, in fact, danced with both Harlequins, who bitterly resented each other’s choice of costume. The evening sped by. I should have been happy, but a persistent little ache lay behind everything.
The evening sped along and in no time it was twelve o’clock and time for unmasking and I felt a suffocating disappointment as the seconds ticked nearer and nearer to that moment—for once again I was dancing with Garth. I could not bear to see the look of disappointment that must cross his face when we unmasked and he realized that, after all, I was not Armanell.
The music stopped: there was a roll on the drums and laughing and chatting excitedly people began to pull off their masks. There were bursts of laughter and surprise as people discovered whom they had been dancing with.
Quickly Garth snatched aside his mask and stood looking at me and as I gazed back through the slits of my mask I thought how different his expression was from the way he had looked at me on that first evening when he had caught me in the library with Diana’s letter in my hand. Now all sternness was washed away: his expression was one of tenderness.
‘Why don’t you take off your mask?’ he asked softly. ‘You’re cheating.’
Slowly I raised my hand and took off my mask. ‘Yes, I have been cheating. You see, I’m not Armanell. I’m Cinderella, and the witching hour has struck. My glittering coach has turned into a pumpkin again and I’m just Judith Westall, whose place is at the top of the house with the children.’
But instead of the look of grim disapproval I had expected, he flung back his head and laughed.
I stared at him in bewilderment.
‘What a little idiot you are, Judith! Did you think that by keeping silent you were deceiving me? Did I not tell you you would make a tall, stately queen?’
‘Oh yes, my height! I’d forgotten,’ I muttered confusedly.
What a fool he must think me! Naturally he would not mistake me for Armanell, who was so small-boned and petite! But if he hadn’t confused us—I felt my heart thud as the full implication dawned on me.
‘I never cared for fancy dress because happiness fades when the clock strikes twelve, but in real life love can live on for ever, as ours will.’ Then he was leading me through one of the long open windows, down through the moonlit garden so that the sounds of music and laughter were faint and muted.
‘I want you for my queen,’ he whispered. Then he took me in his arms and kissed me, and the fountain rippled gaily in the background as though it shared my ecstasy.
Garth of Tregillis Page 19
