The Fever Tree and Other Stories

by Ruth Rendell

  In the nineteen thirties, when May was in her twenties, it was still important to get one’s daughters well married, and though Mrs Thrace had no anxieties on that head for sunny June, she was less sanguine with regard to May. Her elder daughter was neither pretty nor graceful nor clever, and no man had ever looked at her twice. June, of course, had a string of admirers. Then May met a young lawyer at a thé dansant. His name was Walter Symonds, he was extremely good looking, his father was wealthy and made him a generous allowance, and there was no doubt he belonged in a higher social class than that of the Thraces. May fell passionately in love with him, but no one was more surprised than she when he asked her to marry him.

  The intensity of her passion frightened Mrs Thrace. It wasn’t quite nice. The expression on her face while she awaited the coming of her fiancé, her ardour when she greeted him, the hunger in her eyes – that sort of thing was all very well in the cinema, but unsuitable for a civil servant’s daughter in a genteel suburb.

  Briefly, she had become almost beautiful. ‘I’m going to marry him,’ she said when warned. ‘He wants me to love him, doesn’t he? He loves me. Why shouldn’t I show my love?’

  June, who was clever as well as pretty, was away at college training to be a schoolteacher. It had been considered wiser, long before Walter Symonds was thought of, to keep May at home. She had no particular aptitude for anything and she was useful to her mother about the house. Now, of course, it turned out that she had an aptitude for catching a rich, handsome and successful husband. Then, a month before the wedding, June came home for the summer holidays.

  It was all very unfortunate, Mrs Thrace said over and over again. If Walter Symonds had jilted May for some unknown girl, they would have been bitterly indignant, enraged even, and Mr Thrace would have felt old-fashioned longings to apply a horsewhip. But what could anyone say or do when he transferred his affections from the elder daughter to the younger?

  May screamed and sobbed and tried to attack June with a knife. ‘We’re all terribly sorry for you, my darling,’ said Mrs Thrace, ‘but what can anyone do? You wouldn’t marry a man who doesn’t love you, would you?’

  ‘He does love me, he does! It’s just because she’s pretty. She’s cast a spell on him. I wish she was dead and then he’d love me again.’

  ‘You mustn’t say that, May. It’s all very cruel, but you have to face the fact that he’s changed his mind. Isn’t it better to find out now than later?’

  ‘I would have had him,’ said May.

  Mrs Thrace blushed. She was shocked to the core.

  ‘I shall never marry now,’ said May. ‘She’s ruined my life and I shall never have anything ever again.’

  Walter and June were married, and Walter’s father bought them a big house in Surrey. May stayed at home, being useful to her mother. The war came. Walter went straight into the army, became a captain, a major, finally a colonel. May also went into the army, where she remained a private for five years, working in some catering department. After that, there was nothing for it but to go home to her parents once more.

  She never forgave her sister.

  ‘She stole my husband,’ she said to her mother.

  ‘He wasn’t your husband, May.’

  ‘As good as. You wouldn’t forgive a thief who came into your house and stole the most precious thing you had or were likely to have.’

  ‘We’re told to forgive those who trespass against us, as we hope to be forgiven.’

  ‘I’m not religious,’ said May, and on those occasions when the Symondses came to the Thrace home she took care to be out of it. But she knew all about them – all, that is, except one thing.

  Mr and Mrs Thrace were most careful never to speak of June in her presence, so May listened outside the door, and she secretly read all June’s letters to her mother. Whenever Walter’s name was spoken or mentioned in a letter, she winced and shivered with the pain of it. She knew that they had moved to a much larger house, that they were building up a collection of furniture and pictures. She knew where they went for their holidays and what friends they entertained. But what she was never able to discover was how Walter felt about June. Had he ever really loved her? Had he repented of his choice? May thought that perhaps, after the first flush of infatuation was over, he had come to long for his former love as much as she longed for him. Since she never saw them she could never know, for, however he might feel, Walter couldn’t leave June. When you have done what he had done you can’t change again. You have to stick it out till death.

  It comforted her, it was perhaps the only thing that kept her going, to convince herself that Walter regretted his bargain. If there had been children, what the Victorians called pledges of love . . .

  Sometimes, after a letter had come from June, May would see her mother looked particularly pleased and satisfied. And then, shaking with dread, she would read the letter, terrified to find that June was pregnant. But Mrs Thrace’s pleasure and satisfaction must have come from some other source, from some account of Walter’s latest coup in court or June’s latest party, for no children came and now June was past forty.

  Trained for nothing, May worked as canteen supervisor in a women’s hostel. She continued to live at home until her parents died. Their deaths took place within six months, Mrs Thrace dying in March and her widower in August. And that was how it happened that May saw Walter again.

  At the time of her mother’s cremation, May was ill with a virus infection and unable to attend. But she had no way of avoiding her father’s funeral. When she saw Walter come into the church a faintness seized her and she huddled against the pew rail, trembling. She covered her face with her hands to make it seem as if she were praying, and when at last she took them away he was beside her. He took her hand and looked into her face. May’s eyes met his which were as blue and compelling as ever, and she saw with anguish that he had lost none of his looks but that they had become only more distinguished. She would have liked to die then, holding his hand and gazing into his face.

  ‘Won’t you come and speak to your sister, May?’ said Walter in the rich deep voice which charmed juries, struck terror into the hearts of witnesses and won women. ‘Shall we let bygones be bygones on this very sad day?’

  May shivered. She withdrew her hand and marched to the back of the church. She placed herself as far away from June as she could get, but not too far to observe that it was June who took Walter’s arm as they left and not Walter June’s, June who looked up to Walter for comfort while his face remained grave and still, June who clung to him while he merely permitted the clinging. It couldn’t be that he was behaving like that because she, May, was there. He must hate and despise June as she, with all her heart, hated and despised her still.

  But it was at a funeral that they were reconciled. May learnt of Walter’s death through reading an announcement of it in a newspaper. And the pain of it was as great as that she had suffered when her mother had told her he wanted to marry June. She sent flowers, an enormous wreath of snow-white roses that cost her half a week’s wages. And of course she would go to the funeral, whether June wanted her there or not.

  Apparently June did want her. Perhaps she thought the roses were for the living bereaved and not for the dead. She came up to May and put her arms round her, laying her head against her sister’s shoulder in misery and despair. May broke their long silence.

  ‘Now you know what it’s like to lose him,’ she said.

  ‘Oh, May, May, don’t be cruel to me now! Don’t hold that against me now. Be kind to me now, I’ve nothing left.’

  So May sat beside June, and after the funeral she went back to the house where June had lived with Walter. In saying she had nothing left, June had presumably been referring to emotional rather than material goods. Apart from certain stately homes she had visited on tours, May had never seen anything like the interior of that house.

  ‘I’m going to retire next month,’ she said, ‘and then I’ll be living in what they call a fl
atlet – one room and a kitchen.’

  Two days later there came a letter from June.

  ‘Dearest May, Don’t be angry with me for calling you that. You have always been one of my dearest, in spite of what I did and in spite of your hatred of me. I can’t be sorry for what I did because so much happiness came of it for me, but I am truly, deeply, sorry that you were the one to suffer. And now, dear May, I want to try to make up to you for what I did, though I know I can never really do that, not now, not after so long. You said you were going to retire and wouldn’t be living very comfortably. Will you come and live with me? You can have as many rooms in this house as you want, you are welcome to share everything with me. You will know what I mean when I say I feel that would be just. Please make me happy by saying you forgive me and will come. Always your loving sister, June.’

  What did the trick was June saying it would be just. Yes, it would be justice if May could now have some of those good things which were hers by right and which June had stolen from her along with her man. She waited a week before replying and then she wrote: ‘Dear June, What you suggest seems a good idea. I have thought about it and I will make my home with you. I have very little personal property, so moving will not be a great headache. Let me know when you want me to come. It is raining again here and very cold. Yours, May.’ There was nothing, however, in the letter about forgiveness.

  And yet May, sharing June’s house, was almost prepared to forgive. For she was learning at last what June’s married life had been.

  ‘You can talk about him if you want to,’ she had said hungrily on their first evening together. ‘If it’s going to relieve your feelings, I don’t mind.’

  ‘What is there to say except that we were married for forty years and now he’s dead?’

  ‘You could show me some of the things he gave you.’ May picked up ornaments, gazed at pictures. ‘Did he give you that? What about this?’

  ‘They weren’t presents. I bought them or he did.’

  May couldn’t help getting excited. ‘I wonder you’re not afraid of burglars. This is a proper Aladdin’s Cave. Have you got lots of jewellery too?’

  ‘Not much,’ said June uncomfortably.

  May’s eyes were on June’s engagement ring, a poor thing of diamond chips in nine carat gold, far less expensive than the ring Walter had given his first love. Of course she had kept hers and Walter, though well off even then, hadn’t been rich enough to buy a second magnificent ring within six months of the first. But later, surely . . . ?

  ‘I should have thought you’d have an eternity ring.’

  ‘Marriage doesn’t last for eternity,’ said June. ‘Let’s not talk about it any more.’

  May could tell she didn’t like talking about it. Soon she shied at mentioning Walter’s name and she put away the photographs of him which had stood on the piano and the drawing room mantelpiece. May wondered if Walter had ever written any letters to his wife. They had seldom been parted, of course, but it would be strange if June had received no letter from him in forty years. The first time June went out alone, May tried to open her desk. It was locked. The drawers of June’s dressing table disclosed a couple of birthday cards with ‘Love from Walter’ scrawled hastily on them, and the only other written message from her husband June had considered worth keeping May found tucked into a cookery book in the kitchen. It was a note written on the back of a bill, and it read: ‘Baker called. I ordered large white for Saturday.’

  That night May reread the two letters she had received from Walter during their engagement. Each began, ‘Dearest May.’ She hadn’t looked at them for forty years – she hadn’t dared – but now she read them with calm satisfaction. ‘Dearest May, This is the first love letter I have ever written. If it isn’t much good you must put it down to lack of practice. I miss you a lot and rather wish I hadn’t told my parents I would come on this holiday with them . . .’ ‘Dearest May, Thanks for both your letters. Sorry I’ve taken so long to reply but I feel a bit nervous that my letters don’t match up to yours. Still, with luck, we soon shan’t have to write to each other because we shan’t be separated. I wish you were here with me . . .’ Poor Walter had been reticent and shy, unable to express his feelings on paper or by word of mouth. But at least he had written love letters to her and not notes about loaves of bread. May decided to start wearing her engagement ring again – on her little finger of course because she could no longer get it over the knuckle of her ring finger. If June noticed she didn’t remark on it.

  ‘Was it you or Walter who didn’t want children?’ May asked.

  ‘Children just didn’t come.’

  ‘Walter must have wanted them. When he was engaged to me we talked of having three.’

  June looked upset but May could have talked of Walter all day long.

  ‘He was only sixty-five,’ she said. ‘That’s young to die these days. You never told me what he died of.’

  ‘Cancer,’ said June. ‘They operated but he never regained consciousness.’

  ‘Just like mother,’ said May. Suppose June had had cancer and had died, what would have happened then? Remembering Walter’s tender look and strong handclasp at her father’s funeral, May thought he would have married her. She twisted the ring on her little finger. ‘You were almost like a second wife, weren’t you? It must be a difficult position.’

  ‘I’d much rather not talk about it,’ said June, and with her handkerchief to her eyes she left the room.

  May was happy. For the first time in forty years she was happy. She busied herself about the house, caring for June’s things, dusting and polishing, pausing to look at a picture and reflecting that Walter must often have looked at it. Sometimes she imagined him sitting in this chair or standing by that window, his heart full of regret for what he might have had. And she thought now, while he had been longing for her she, far away, had been crying for him. She never cried now, though June did.

  ‘I’m an old fool, I can’t help giving way. You’re strong, May, but I’m weak and I miss him so.’

  ‘Didn’t I miss him?’

  ‘He was always fond of you. It upset him a lot to think you were unhappy. He often talked about you.’ June looked at her piteously. ‘You have forgiven me, haven’t you, May?’

  ‘As a matter of fact, I have,’ said May. She was a little surprised at herself but, yes, she had forgiven June. ‘I think you’ve been punished for what you did.’ A loveless marriage, a husband who talked constantly of another woman . . .

  ‘I’ve been punished,’ said June and she put her arms round May’s neck.

  The strong and the weak. May remembered those words when a movement downstairs woke her in the night. She heard footsteps and the sound of a door being forced. It was the burglar she feared and had warned June about, but June would be cowering in her room now, incapable of taking any action.

  May put on her dressing gown and went stealthily along the passage to June’s room. The bed was empty. She looked out of the window, and the moonlight showed her a car parked on the gravel drive and led down to the lane. A yellower, stronger light streamed from the drawing room window. A shiver of fear went through her, but she knew she must be strong.

  Before she reached the head of the stairs she heard a violent crash as of something heavy yet brittle hurled against a wall. There was a cry from below, footsteps running. May got to the stairs in time to see a slight figure rush across the hall and slam the front door behind him. The car started up.

  In his wake he had left a thin trail of blood. May followed the blood trail into the drawing room. June stood by her desk which had been torn open and all its contents scattered on to the table. She was trembling, tearful and laughing with shaky hysteria, pointing to the shards of cut glass that lay everywhere.

  ‘I threw the decanter at him. I hit him and it cut his head and he ran.’

  May went up to her. ‘Are you all right?’

  ‘He didn’t touch me. He pointed that gun at me when I came in, but
I didn’t care. I couldn’t bear to see him searching my desk, getting at all my private things. Wasn’t I brave? He didn’t get away with anything but a few bits of silver. I hit him and he heard you coming and he panicked. Wasn’t I brave, May?’

  But May wasn’t listening. She was reading the letter which lay open and exposed on top of the paper the burglar had pulled out of the desk. Walter’s bold handwriting leapt at her, weakened though it was, enfeebled by his last illness. ‘My darling love, It is only a moment since you walked out of the ward, but nevertheless I must write to you. I can’t resist an impulse to write now and tell you how happy you have made me in all the years we have been together. If the worst comes to the worst, my darling, and I don’t survive the operation, I want you to know you are the only woman I have ever loved . . .’

  ‘I wouldn’t have thought I’d have had the courage,’ said June, ‘but perhaps the gun wasn’t loaded. He was only a boy. Would you call the police, please, May?’

  ‘Yes,’ said May. She picked up the gun.

  The police arrived within fifteen minutes. They brought a doctor with them, but June was already dead, shot through the heart at close range.

  ‘We’ll get him, Miss Thrace, don’t you worry,’ said the inspector.

  ‘It was a pity you touched the gun, though. Did it without thinking, I suppose?’

  ‘It was the shock,’ said May. ‘I’ve never had a shock like that, not since I was a girl.’

  A Needle for the Devil

  The devil finds work for idle hands to do, as Mrs Gibson used to say to her daughter, and Alice had found that in her case the devil (or her own mysterious inner compulsions) led her to violence. As a child she would strike people who annoyed her and when she was fourteen she attacked her sister with a knife, though no harm was done. But if her hands itched to injure, they were also gifted hands and as she was taught to occupy them with handicrafts, the impulse to violence grew less. Or was sublimated, as she learned to say when she began training to be a nurse.